Tag Archives: George Washington

Virtual Parlor: George Washington’s Legacy as a Military Commander, from the Morris-Jumel Mansion to the Present

Examine George Washington’s legacy as a military commander, taking off from his use of the Morris-Jumel Mansion as a military Headquarters.

George Washington was born in 1732, but his legacy has long outlived his mortal years. Among many things, Washington was a military man, beginning his career as a British militia officer, fighting alongside Roger Morris in the French and Indian War. Later, when he assumed his role as General of the Continental Army, he took over Morris’s summer estate in Harlem Heights as his headquarters in the Fall of 1776. Starting from this pivotal point in time, Dr. Sarah Purcell will join the Mansion for a Virtual Parlor Chat tracing the legacy of Washington as a military leader through the present day.

About the Speaker:

Sarah Purcell, L.F. Parker Professor of History, graduated from Grinnell with a B.A. in history in 1992. She went on to earn an A.M. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1997) from Brown University. She joined the faculty of Grinnell in 2000 after teaching at Central Michigan University. Ms. Purcell’s research interests include: the Early National, Antebellum, and Civil War periods; popular culture and political culture; gender history; and military history. She is author of Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, and Eyewitness History: The Early American Republic. She is co-author of The Encyclopedia of Battles in North America, 1517-1915 (which won a 2000 Best of Reference award from the New York Public Library) and Critical Lives: The Life and Work of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her latest book, Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era, was published in April 2022 by UNC Press.

MJM Virtual Parlor Chat: Food, Hunger, Scarcity and General Washington’s Continental Army

What did the soldiers of the Continental Army eat to fuel their fight for independence? What about the officers or General George Washington? Food insecurity was a monumental challenge faced by all those involved in the American Revolution. John Ota, a bestselling and award winning author of books such as “The Kitchen” (2021 Taste Canada Awards finalist and a 2021 Paris Gourmand Cookbook finalist) and the newly released book “The Dining Room” joins the Mansion to discuss what these rations would have looked like for throughout the ranks. Ota’s deep research into the foodways of the Revolution will offer a detailed and thoughful lecture on the true circumstances of the Military encampment and headquarters menus – including what would have been eaten by soldiers and Generals alike when stationed at the MORRIS-JUMEL MANSION.

From soldier’s rations to George Washington’s war time birthday celebrations, learn about the culinary history of the American Revolution.

This is a virtual event;link will be emailed upon registration.

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Morris-Jumel Mansion

During the decade before the Revolutionary War, the Georgian house, with its monumental portico and octagonal drawing room, was the setting for some of the colony’s most fashionable parties.

In the fall of 1776, the Mansion was seized by the Continental Army and served as headquarters for George Washington during the Battle of Harlem Heights. British and Hessian commanders occupied the house after Washington’s retreat from New York.

In the summer of 1790, Washington returned to the Mansion and dined with the members of his cabinet. Among those at the table were Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Knox.

In 1810, wealthy French wine merchant Stephen Jumel and his American wife, Eliza, purchased the Mansion, and spared no expense refurbishing it. In 1828, they returned from Paris with crates of furniture and paintings, much of which they claimed had belonged to Napoleon. A year after Stephen Jumel died in 1832, his widow married former vice president Aaron Burr. The marriage ended quickly and Eliza lived alone in the house until her death in 1865.

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