Examine George Washington’s life and legacy in New Jersey, reading along in Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life with a State Park Service historian in a series of virtual monthly meetings.

Reading in advance is NOT required. Although offered as a series, each lecture stands on its own and assumes no prior knowledge. New participants are always welcome.

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 online at 7pm

Partisan President

Partisan politics take hold as the first President serves a second term. George Washington faces the legacy of the American Revolution in the new American republic including state laws permitting slavery in New Jersey but mandating emancipation in Pennsylvania, the transformation of French allies into French revolutionaries, and his own attempt at a second great farewell to the nation following his Farewell Orders from Rockingham at the end of the earlier war.

Suggested reading: Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life Part Five: The President, Chapter 55: A Tissue of Machinations – Chapter 63: Exiting the Stage

Wednesday, January 11, 2023 online at 7pm

“Vernons Soft Retreat”

George Washington’s longed-for retirement at Mount Vernon is short-lived as the France who once secured American independence now threatens the new republic and George Washington dies at home from an illness contracted riding on horseback. New Jersey and the United States remember and reconsider the Father of his Nation at the close of the eighteenth century and through the centuries that follow to the present day including in an address from the 16th U.S. President to the Legislature of New Jersey at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Suggested reading: Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life Part Six: The Legend