With a special section regarding NEW RESEARCH on the priceless letter authored by Thomas Nichols, a formerly enslaved black soldier serving in the 1st RI Regiment of 1778 that is part of the Varnum Armory Museum collection.

Robert A. Geake‘s talk will focus on the most fatal of those American Revolutionary War battles, that against life-threatening injury, illness, and starvation. He will recount the history of those personal battles through written accounts and documents from those who struggled to save those soldiers as best they could, given a colonial surgeons limitations. The talk will also focus on the important discovery of a letter dictated by a soldier of color enlisted in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, which was made by Curator and President Patrick Donovan; revealing new research on where the letter was written, and how Nichols came to languish for weeks in the house of a local militia leader, and a hypothesis of the journey that brought him there to the sickbed from which he dictated the letter.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Robert A. Geake is a public historian and the author of fifteen books on Rhode Island and New England history, including “From Slaves to Soldiers: The First Rhode Island Regiment in the American Revolution”. Other books include “A History of the Narragansett Tribe: Keepers of the Bay, Native and New Americans, New England’s Citizen Soldiers: Mariners and Minutemen”, “Fired A Gun at the Rising of the Sun: The Journal of Noah Robinson of Attleboro in the Revolutionary War”, and a work in progress to be titled “The Battle Off The Field in the American Revolution”.

Mr. Geake currently serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees as the President of The Cocumscussoc Association that maintains Smith’s Castle historic house museum in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. He also serves on the advisory board of the Rhode Island Slave History Medallion project. Mr. Geake is a contributor to the blogs smallstatebighistory.com and most recently “The Cocumscussoc Review”. His essay on Rhode Island and The American Revolution is among those contributed to EnCompass, online tutorials for the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Rhode Island Department of Education.

RSVP required and MUST be received by NOON, Friday, Dec. 8.

Varnum Members Only: CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

When: Monday, December 11, 5:30 pm (social hour & museum); 6:30 (dinner followed by program).
Where: Varnum Armory, 6 Main Street, East Greenwich, RI
Menu: It will be a surprise!
Fee: $25