Washington Crossing Historic Park’s Evening with the Curator series concludes for the year with a free public lecture on some of the people who contributed to the Ten Crucial Days surrounding the crossing.

The lecture, rescheduled from December 1, will be held in the Visitor Center auditorium on two dates:

• Sunday, December 8 at 11 AM (during the First Crossing event, set for 10 AM to 4 PM)
• Friday, December 20 at 11 AM

Registration is required; please call the park Visitor Center at 215-493-4076 to register. 

Park curator Kimberly McCarty will discuss the soldiers and civilians who participated in the days surrounding the crossing that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War.

“My intent is to explore the lives, before and after the crossing, of some of the notable figures who participated, as well as others who don’t factor into most narratives of that night,” McCarty said.

People like Jacob Francis, a soldier of color from New Jersey. Francis was technically free, but he was indentured as a young man. As his indenture (or contract) was sold from one man to another, he moved from New Jersey to Massachusetts to the Caribbean, back to Massachusetts, where he joined the revolt.

Right after the crossing, Francis returned to his mother, in Hunterdon County. Later, he married a slave and bought her freedom.

“It’s important to appreciate how each contribution helped the crossing,” McCarty said. “But it’s also significant to understand that they were made by people, many of them anonymous to this day, who lived nuanced lives before and after that night.”