Talking History Lecture Series

Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown are proud to host the Talking History Lecture Series, which offers free public lectures that link storylines found in the museums’ exhibition galleries and share how these vast moments in America’s past influenced its progression to the present.

John Ragosta: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle- Historian John Ragosta discusses Patrick Henry’s final political campaign in 1799 and how his untimely death was a critical step in Thomas Jefferson’s being elected president. Ragosta’s book “For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle,” tells the story of the hyper-partisanship of the 1790s that almost destroyed the nation prior to the “Revolution of 1800.” Hear how Henry, the man who had led antifederalist opposition to the U.S. Constitution, came out of retirement to defend the constitution that he had opposed and in the process helped to define the role of a “loyal opposition.”

Admission is limited and advance registration for each individual is required to reserve your seat. A book signing will follow the lecture.