so while we give lafayette a lot of credit for yorktown, we owe a lot of credit to as well. after the war armistead petitioned for his freedom. however, unlike other black veterans who were freed after the passage of the act of 1783 armistead services through espionage not enlisted combat, which meant he was not eligible for his freedom. in 1784, lafayette came to his aid and he penned a testimonial confirming armistead services to his country and to lafayette personally in a broadside copy of lafayette's testimonial is right behind me, but i will not make you read lafayette's handwriting, which can be quite difficult. so this is what it says. this is to certify that the y e name of james has done essential services to me while i had the to command histate. and he means virginia. his intelligence is from the enemy's camp werrisly collecfahfully delivered. he perfectly acquitted himself e portant commissions h and appears to me entitled to every reward. his situation can admit of lafayette's words helped push armistead story into public consciousness, and james won his emanci

this is a depiction of lafayette at the siege of yorktown. lafayette is pointing to yorktown and there is a man behind him. this man is believed to be james armistead. james armistead was an enslaved man who worked as a courier for lafayette during the revolution, was a double agent spy feeding false information to the british and relaying that information back to lafayette. it is because of his work that lafayette knew that the british were going to be coming in near yorktown, that lafayette sent the french navy to help secure that blockade. after the war, there was an act called the act of 1783, and that guaranteed that any enslaved man who served combat would be eligible for their freedom. unfortunately, james's work was through espionage irish, not through combat. it meant that he was ineligible. lafayette hears about this when he comes back in 1784. he goes to the state in virginia and he petitions for james's freedom. he writes this it's testimonial. it's copied right here saying that this man named james had essential services to me wh

lafayette led the attack on the battle of yorktown, where the british surrendered in 1781.in 1824, it was mentioned that indeed that 50 years of independence, president james monroe invited the marquis de lafayette to return to the united states for a triumphal tour of the country during the 13 month tour, along with his son, appropriately named georges washington. he visited all 24 states on december six, 1824, the opening day of the second session of the 18th congress. speaker of the house henry clay invited lafayette to address the house of representatives and to separate december the 10th. lafayette then addressed the house. quote, mr. speaker, i am declared to have, in every instance been faithful to those american principles of liberty, equality and true social order, the devotion to which, as it has been from my earliest years. so it shall continue to be the latest of my breath. end of quote. and even today, we appreciate our french heritage in the state of south carolina. we are very, very grateful. in my home community of lexington, south carolina, we have the larg

this time he marched southward to victory at yorktown. lower in delaware about what happened when he came on that visit 50 years later that we celebrate today. one i found particularly interesting. according to local legend a woman removed a bullet from his leg following the battle of brandywine and kept it as a keepsake for 50 years. when he returned to delaware he sought her out and thanked her and she returned the bullet to him. [laughter] and said, with this we return our heart to yours. you know what a nation values by where and who they are. if you walk out front of our white house, there's a square. it is named for lafayette. some mistakenly think because of the statue of jackson it is jackson square but it's not. it is lafayette square. around the four corners of that square stands a statue of european fighters for liberty, without whom our young hard fighting army would not have made it. the polish, the prussian, the frenchman. the united states would do well to remember that at the founding of our republic our struggle for liber

this of course is the surrender at yorktown. and this painting shows us that the revolution was an allied effort. we didn't do it all by ourselves. we needed the help of france, and we had it. the american officers are on the right. the american flag. the french officers are on the left with the white flag of the house of bourbon. we are about to celebrate the 80th anniversary of d-day, which, as you all know, was a miracle of logistics and coordination. but the yorktown campaign for the 18th century was also pretty miraculous. it involved taking a french army from rhode island, meeting up with an american army under washington from upstate new york. they both moved south to join a small american force under lafayette, who was harassing lord cornwallis. and two french fleets had come to the mouth of the chesapeake. a small one from rhode island. it was an effort, bringing three armies in two fleets together from new england to the caribbean. and it was a remarkable convergence. there is rochambeau . there is an american officer.

but the yorktown camp for the 18th century was also pretty miraculous. it involved taking a french army from rhode island meeting up with an american army under washington from upstate new york. they both moved south to, join a small american force under lafayette who was harassing ward cornwallis and two french fleets had to come the mouth of the chesapeake. a small from rhode island under admiral burrough, and then a large one from the west indies under de stang and sealed the chesapeake. so that the british could not relieve cornwallis. it was an effort bringing three armies and two fleets together from new england to the caribbean. and it was a remarkable convert agents rochambeau to stand and berra or on the right end of the mounted french officers on the left side of the on right side of the painting of the marquee de lafayette is the second man in from the left hand of. the mounted officers. and he's here as an american officer. he's a major general in the continental army. most of the french who with us are doing it for our politique. this is a w

yorktown is in october of 1781 and the peace negotiions take a long time. treaty of paris is finally signed in 1783. the british evacuate new york in november and then washington writesto congress and asks what do you want me to do? they said come to us, we are sitting in annapolis, maryland, and return your commission to us there. and so here he is doing it. and this is similar to the declaration painng that we saw earlier. it is also a session of congress, but half the figures here, many of em are military. you havethe civilians on the left and you have the military men in uniform on the right. and with very little tweaking painterly and historical this might be cromwell dismissing parliament or it could be napoleon on the 18th, 19th brumer ending the directory, but that's not what is happening here. here, the military man is taking the authority which was not his. it was given to him. it was given to him by congress and now he's giving it back. behind him there's a chair. chairs can be thrones and he's not going to sit in it. there's also a cloak on that

trump state park in yorktown heights, new york, which i think is just about 50 miles north of new york city. this was a different statue, but went up around the same time as the two leering statues about trump with the quote about sexual assault. this one in the trump park, however, this was a different message. it was a big, giant -- like a big pillar, and you see how there's a teeny, tiny thing up top. this huge pillar with a plaque on it and sitting on top of it is a tiny little mushroom. and this one, again, has an explanatory plaque. this one was titled "the very large donald j. trump monument." it says that in all caps on top. and then below that it says, quote, this giant pillar pays tribute to president trump. as you can see this is very large monument, definitely the largest. despite this towering statue's impressive size, the president's former mistress, stormy daniels knowingly slandered the president as, quote, having a smaller than average monument and claimed it is a, quote, unusual monument similar to a mushroom. she further went onto describe her interaction with his mo

also like to take a moment and thank our sponsors of our evening lecture series, specifically the yorktown, the york county arts commission, and the tom and anne hunnicutt fund. we would not be able to share our mission of connecting each other to our world's waters through programs like this without their support, a mission that you will see has very close themes that you'll see in the story that is shared with our speaker tonight. a speaker who when he is not enjoying the natural wonders of our oceans, is doing the next best thing, telling stories. a passion that has resulted in the creation of 16 books. now i can list them all off, but i'm not going to. i'm going to mention a few. like his book leviathan the history of whaling in america, which has been nominated for one of the best nonfiction books in 2007. now mr. erik j. dolan is no stranger here at the mariners museum and park. having spoken here many times before this evening, most recently about his book rebels at sea and privateering in the american revolution, which was also awarded award the 2023 france is tavern museum book aw