❦ PROSE SELECTED ❦

from ten manuscripts

Page 1 Our Classical Heritage: The Art, Architecture, and History of Washington, DC Page 6 American Art for Americans: A Definition of the American Aesthetic Page 10 The Beautiful Home: (in seven books) A Practical Guide to American Domestic Architecture Page 20 Discoveries in American Art: Volume I (of ten) William Girard, Mythic Modern Page 22 Liberty Patriots: The Untold Story of American Independence

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a guide to the history, art and architecture of washington dc

Contents

Tour I: Washington, the Classical City Tour II: A Republic of Virtue Tour III: Symbols of Empire Tour IV: Celebrations of Liberty Tour V: Decline of Purpose Tour VI: Ancient Roots of Classical Order Tour VII: National, Political, and Personal Liberty Tour VIII: Capitol Hill Environs

Michael Curtis 6002 Grove Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22307

studioclio@aol.com, 571-218-2990, www.linkedin.com/in/michael-curtis-9b0a6224

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CONTENTS 3. Our Classical Heritage Preface 4. I. Washington, the Classical City The National Mall The Washington Monument The Jefferson Memorial 9. II. A Republic of Virtue The White House Lafayette Square United States Treasury 13. III. Symbols of Empire The National Gallery of Art, West Building The National Archives Herbert C. Hoover Department of Commerce Bldg 17. IV. Celebrations of Liberty and Unity The Lincoln Memorial Vietnam Veterans Memorial Korean War Memorial 21. V. Decline of Purpose Pei Plaza [L’Enfant Plaza] Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education Bldg Hubert H. Humphrey Department of HHS Bldg 24. VI. Ancient Roots of Classical Order United States Capitol United States Supreme Court Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 28. VII. National, Political, and Personal Liberty Lafayette Park, Lafayette Statue, et alia Alexander Hamilton Statue The National Liberty Memorial 34. VIII: Capitol Hill Environs, Self Guided 36. Bibliography 38. Glossary (incomplete as of 14-09-22)

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OUR CLASSICAL HERITAGE Preface: These tours are fashioned for those who wish a greater understanding of why and how the District of Columbia came to be a classically designed city. Whether you are visitor to the District or a native you will appreciate your nation’s capitol in new ways. You will learn of the ancient antecedents of our political philosophies; of the stylistic precedents of our architectural forms; and of the Founders’ classical vision. Along the way you will see well-considered plans realized, you will see how accidents of history amend ideas, and you will see how progressive modernism eagerly destroys tradition. Mostly you will enjoy the grandeur and the beauty of Washington, The District of Columbia. Objectives: The purpose of these tours is to teach the principles of art and of political philosophy as these principles were understood by the nation’s founders. By teaching the principles we might extend the life of our nation by preparing the future for new challenges to liberty. Each tour has an object of concentration. Washington, the Classical City: The ancient cause of liberty; the immediate reason for independence; the classical principle of our convictions; the aesthetic model of a civil society. Founding a Republic of Virtue: Republics need virtuous citizens; forms of government, thought, art, and actions that cause virtue. Symbols of Empire: Welcoming international responsibility; assuming the heritage of civilization; celebrating national character; extending liberty. Celebration of Freedom: A demonstration in architecture of freedom, unity, and rule of law; how our texts through inscriptions are embodied in civic art. Decline of Purpose: Hubris and progressive misdirection; gradual abdication of citizen responsibility for morals and art; policy, an instrument to undermine traditional culture. Ancient Roots of Classical Order: American classicism; our Greco-Roman heritage of thought, language, government, and art. National, Political, and Personal Liberty: The various aspects of liberty considered in exemplary statues. The tours are likely to meander in-and-out of subjects as this-or-that question occurs. So be prepared for challenges and delights. Preparation: Because tours are limited in scope, supplementary reading is recommended to answer inevitable questions and to increase knowledge. A brief reading in preparation of each tour will prepare tourists to learn by seeing. An extensive bibliography is provided to those who would like a deeper understanding of ideas, events, and places. Because the Founders’ vision of our republic is prerequisite to understanding this city, a working knowledge of the Constitution (including the original Bill of Rights) is recommended. You will find it helpful to carry the Declaration of Independence for occasional reference to the purpose, plan, art and architecture of the capitol city.

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TOUR I: WASHINGTON: THE CLASSICAL CITY Foreword: Looking over the expanse of our National Mall we see 250 years of 4,000 years of human habitation. We cannot know which tribes populated Potomac’s shores when Achilles fought Hector on the plains of Troy, but we do know that the Potomac lowlands were occupied by the Piscataway Indians when in 1608 Captain John Smith explored the territory in preparation for English settlement. After the area was made secure for settlement, George Washington surveyed Alexandria, Virginia (once a part of Washington, The District of Columbia) and he helped to form the streets on a regular, right-angled, ten acre plan—the typical area unit of Roman planning, which happens to be the area that a Roman citizen could plow in a day. The local Algonquian speakers had anglicized or migrated when George Washington received an education in English civil society. Although of the middling rank, Washington inherited Western Civilization in much the same manner that the typical Roman boy received an education in public life and the family trade. Alike the Roman Cincinnatus, Washington was born into a family of planters who managed slaves, who were engaged in community leadership and in military defense. In addition to learning the arts of the farm, George studied history, sermons, surveying, building, Homer (in Latin) and other authors through tutors in the manner of young Cincinnatus. Likewise, others of the nation’s founders received an excellent classical education: Thomas Jefferson was entered in English school at five years, Latin school at nine years, he was taught some Greek by a correct classical scholar, and he then studied for seven years at the College of William and Mary. In his maturity, Thomas Jefferson was among the most educated of living men. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, et alia guided the nation intellectually, shaped the nation politically, and formed the nation physically. The Founders were also students of political history and of political economy; they well understood the vicissitudes of government; the necessity of separating the Federal City from state interference (see Hamilton and see Madison in Federalist No. 43); and they understood that virtue was necessary in a republic. In his first annual address to Congress, 8 January 1790, George Washington detailed the importance of knowledge to a republic. "Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. To the security of a free Constitution it contributes in various ways…to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; to distinguish between burdens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of Society; to discriminate the spirit of Liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last” et cetera. In a Name: Alike Alexander the Great who chose the sites of his many ancient Alexandrias, President Washington chose the site of his federal city, Washington, The District of Columbia: The area bounded by the Potomac and the Anacostia Rivers, segmented by Tiber Creek. It is notable that the Potomac (Patawomeck) and the Anacostia are Algonquian place names and that the Tiber is a Latin place name. Pierre Charles L’Enfant (Geo. Washington’s city planner) intended to locate the sculptural embodiment of the nation’s genius where the source of Tiber Creek meets the base of Capitol Hill, “Liberty Hailing Nature out of Its Slumber.”

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Tour Sites: The National Mall, from the Washington Monument The Washington Monument The Jefferson Memorial Preface: Today we visit the National Mall, sacred to the memory of the American people and to lovers of liberty everywhere. Here are the monuments of our founding, the memorials to our heroes, the treasures of the nation, and the seat of our republican government. All that you will see is formed in the classical tradition of our Greek and Roman inheritance through the Christian church into our Enlightened Age. Those few recent “Brutalist” buildings peculiar to the whims of individual designers attempt to destroy the tradition, the forms, the history, even the language by which we pass virtue generation to generation. These brutal buildings are purposefully ugly in reaction to the refined classical tradition, as is the hammer struck on something beautiful a reaction, angry and violent. Founders’ Memorials: We find in the words we speak the architecture of Greek, of Latin, and of other ancient languages. These words have adapted themselves in use gaining nuances of reference through place through time. Likewise, classical building forms have deepened in meaning as they have adapted in use. Each generation over four thousand years has enriched the meaning of the form, the detail, and the context of civic architecture: The Washington Monument, architect Clark Mills, inspired by the Egyptian obelisk (note that the Doric stoa at the base has remained unrealized); The Lincoln Memorial, architect Henry Bacon, inspired by the Greek Doric temple form (note the unusual side entrance); The Jefferson Memorial, architect John Russell Pope, inspired by The Roman Pantheon; The National Mall, architect Pierre L'Enfant, inspired by Versailles and the civic sciences. Later, when exploring the statuary, gardens, and museums of the National Mall we will discover many threads of the fabric of our history. Each object will have a subject or reference, that subject or reference will be of a style unique to a time in our tradition. The beliefs and hopes and concerns of the artisan, sculptor or architect will be told in the treatment of the form. For instance, Yixin’s M.L. King Memorial will tell of that Chinese sculptor’s training in Maoist art schools, Fraser’s Erickson Memorial will tell of heroic themes in our Western tradition, these statues will also tell of each sculptor’s skill: See and compare the modeling, sculptural and linear volumes in “King” and “Erickson” (notice the different treatment of sculptural form in the carving of static and breathing stone.) Also, we might compare Yixin’s “King” to D.C. French’s “Lincoln” to contrast an adequate to a superior workmanship and to balance notions of the simple and the grand conception. Since most Americans understand classical art and architecture through, well, the air around us—like fish we live in water of which we are mostly unaware—traditional works need only the introduction of the eye, I shall, therefore, leave you to see; then, since the old-fashioned, modernistic style is a peculiar thing to each designer and since you were not into modernism initiated, I offer these brief notes as assistance: The backyard kidney-pond of Constitution Gardens; the diorama pastiche of the FDR Memorial; the 1970’s freshman-art-project of the Korean War Memorial; the “C-“ interpretation of the great architect Lutyens in the WWII Memorial; the scar in the ground of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (appropriate if misunderstanding soldiers and misinterpreting history); the rock-pile of the National Museum of the American Indian; the fraud of the African-American Museum’s upside-down Yoruba hat in half-veiled-insult to the Washington Monument (the people—slaves—on top, the great-man at the bottom), and no-wonder that Congress has declared the National Mall “A finished work of art.”

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Contents

3. Preface 5. Notes Toward a Definition of the American Aesthetic: Introduction 6. Founding Aesthetic Principles 7. Artists of the Founding Generation 8. American Aesthetic, Continuing Tradition 9. American Paideia 10. District of Columbia 11. American Genius 12. Fictional America 13. American Mythos 14. Greek Style 15. Men of Stone 16. Second Philosophy 17. Sentimental Goths and Transcendentals 18. American Anthology 19. Beautiful American Language 20. Prosaic Proposition 22. Novel Paideia 24. Civic Art 26. City Beautiful 28. Formed of Beauty 30. Men of Gold 32. Picturing Aesthetes 34. American Academy 36. Academic Modernism 38. Institutional Progressivism 40. Modern Academy 42. New York School 43. Lost Generations 45. March on Europe 48. Progressive Empire 52. Administrative State 54. Popular Art 57. America Illustrated 59. Western, Western Art 62. I Hear America Rhyming 64. Civic Renewal 69. Civic Art & Civil Virtue 70. The American Aesthetic 74. Looking into Aesthetics 74. Afterword (from page 77 Dedication and incomplete Notes, Illustrations and Transcriptions)

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Notes Toward a Definition of the American Aesthetic: Introduction To study antiquity is to study the past, to study classicism is to study the present; the beautiful, the good, the true are always present, are always classical. There has never been a new classicism, except perhaps in the realization by the ancient Greeks that in fact the beautiful, the true, the good exist. The various labels, neo-classical, modern, brutal are merely names pinned upon ideas to serve the purpose of this or that writer. Writers of art-history have seldom been more in error than now they are. Why? Because progressive art-historians do not comprehend history: Progressive historians invent a past calculated to politically influence a future, as though a deceitful jot of ink or light might make true opinion. We are human. We choose beauty. We make things. Artists make beautiful things. Great artists make objects of surpassing beauty through ideas because great artists participate in the Great Conversation. With whom do these great artists converse? With Homer, yes, and with all who have created thoughts, objects, and actions that abide in excellence. Responding to generations past, artists through the conversation speak into the future with confidence that humans distant in time and place will read, will see, will witness, will respond—as here you respond to me. I know as conversationalists know, as politically motivated propagandists do not know, that goodness, truth, and beauty abide in humanity. Temporal enthusiasms seldom survive the verdict of history: Time has demonstrated that most sentences run-out-of-breath with the speaker. It seems that only things beautiful, good and true survive the generation in which they were made. We witness around us the failure of the Modern and no one, no one outside the community of tenured progressives cares. Why? Because modernism did not participate in the Great Conversation. Modernists presumed unprecedented discovers in the cavities of modernist minds. Modernists playacted dialogue in pestering paroxysms. Ex nihilo, the old modernists assumed eternal youth ignorant that each spoken word is a fossil older than writing. We classicists refer to these modernist conceits as hubris. I know as you know: The ends of hubris are ridicule, shame, and dust, a voice echoing to silence in the shadow of time. In these essays we shall consider American aesthetics within the continuing conversation, along the way we shall bring to light much of what progressives have attempted to keep in darkness; we shall resurrect much of what was violently destroyed in the progressive iconoclasm; we will find the threads lost in the progressive histories; and we shall follow the themes unique to our republic, liberty, enlightenment, and the Paradise of Beauty, that great hope of Americans to create the City Beautiful, a harmonious social order which will bring peace to the world by the example of magnificence in these united states. Our study begins in the founding generations, those generations of great men born in the British Colonies of North America between 1700 and 1776 Anno Domini (A.D. (In the year of the Lord)). Employing dates…here…I must pause to comment on that absurd idea invented by progressivist historians from laziness in error: The century, the decade, the grouping of occurrences by arbitrary number. Most likely, Jesus of Nazareth was born sometime between 6 and 2 Before Christ (B.C.) in the Christian reckoning.1. In the Jewish reckoning, Jesus was born between the years 3756 and 3760. In the Roman reckoning, Jesus was born circa 750 Anno Urbis Conditae (A.C.U., “from the founding of the City [Rome]") of the XII Consulship, Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus. In which reckoning did the XIX Century A.D. exist? In which the 20th Century? Is there a Twenty-first C.E. division of reckoning which is anything but the arbitrary fancy of academic coercion? The foolish, progressive century mongering is so absurd a construction that one can only ignore it. So, arbitrary notions of necessarily progressing decades and centuries will not be employed in these accurate definitions and personal observations: We shall leave forever the commonly laughable Zeitgeist in the past to be in not being. Then, let us consider the Founders.

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Founding Aesthetic Principles On Friday, April 6, 1453, the Roman emperor Constantine XI, Palaiologos died on the ramparts defending Constantinople (ancient Byzántion) from the Islamic military leader, Sultan Mehmed II. Thirty-nine years later, on October 12, 1492, Columbus discovered for the Christian world the Americas. On July 4, 1776 members of the Continental Congress signed “The Declaration of Independence” severing the British, American Colonies from Great Britain. These three events, the Fall of Rome, the Discovery of America, and our Declaration of Independence determined the outlines of civilization in which we find ourselves. We should here note that the misleading term “Byzantine Empire” was popularized in 1857, that before this time we Americans understood Constantinople to be Roman. America’s founding generation knew Islam’s long conquest of Rome to have begun in 634 when Mohamed’s armies captured the Roman town of Eilat (Gaza, currently Israel’s southern-most city), that Islam’s conquest continued across Roman Africa into Roman Spain, and that Islam’s conquest of Rome concluded in the capture of Constantinople (currently Istanbul). We today look back to our founding from a distance similar in time to that from which the Founders looked back on the fall of Rome. Looking back, what do we see? Men in tights and wigs. And what else? We see Mt. Vernon (Geo. Washington’s home), we see Montpelier (Jas. Madison’s home), we see Monticello (Thos. Jefferson’s home), we see Roman building forms interpreted through Georgian Palladianism. Who was Palladio? Andrea Palladio (1508 – 1580) was an architect of the Republic of Venice who built Roman styled villas for the retiring aristocrats of the fading Venetian Republic, fading because in the defeat of Rome, Islam had closed-off the seas from which Venetian wealth was created. Rome was to the founders contemporary; Rome was the model of civilization through many forms of many kingdoms and principalities—we should here remember that the nation-state was at this time a new thing upon the earth, the United States being the first. “…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” Thus began a new order upon the earth: A people constituted as a nation, endowed by their Creator with human rights preceding rulers (here read, King John), formed by reason in the manner of a Socratic syllogism. An understanding of this significance is difficult for many because there exists a mostly successful effort by progressives to deteriorate unalienable rights in unbalanced relativism. Yet, it can be understood that this nation was formed in the progress of Roman civilization through the enduring Athenian philosophy; further, this Creator is the God of Nature, the idea of the Christian God formed in Platonism and thus in long-windedness we read in the Declaration of Independence the endurance of our classical world from Roman Europe, through Jerusalem, into Athens. “Happiness” is the word in the Declaration most often misinterpreted. What is intended by this “Happiness”? Arete: A species of fulfillment through civic rectitude; an excellence of kind resulting from virtue. The primary meaning taken from the Declaration is that governments are formed to encourage the pursuit of excellence, the fulfillment of life in liberty. Our Founders intended a pursuit of excellence in all forms of human endeavor. How is excellence determined? Through comparison. The Founders would have judged aesthetic merit by that which is apparently superior, as Jefferson said of art in the Capitol, “…the models of antiquity, which have had the approbation of thousands of years.” There was then, as there is now, no other model of judgment, no other reasonable assessment of quality. We shall find through aesthetic comparison in the course of these notes that Americans have lately failed in excellence; yet, we may take encouragement in knowing that by our aesthetic Americans have exceeded the accomplishment of antiquity in many a particular.

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THE BEAUTIFUL HOME The Beautiful Home is a series of coffee-table reference guides for homebuyers, builders, and the general public. These books will offer advice on building styles and techniques, patterns of design, construction hints and guidelines. Too, each book will be an architectural primer that includes photographs, diagrams, and line illustrations of historical details that can be hand crafted or purchased from the local building supply. The books will be modest in size at 9” x 12”; brief, 96 pages; well organized in neat chapters; descriptively illustrated with drawings by classical architects; and, occasionally, highlighted with photographic color plates of already-built Beautiful Homes. Each home will be its own small chapter and each chapter will fully describe the architecture, construction, design features, and aesthetic principals. Several themes will recur through the books: stylistic details, decorative treatments, furnished appointments, historical precedents, new inventions, et cetera, and these themes will be highlighted by color fields, headings, or variable typefaces.

Book I: The Beautiful American Home The story of the American Dream is seen in the history of the American Home, and each house tells a story. The first book of The Beautiful Home series, The Beautiful American Home illustrates the history of American building types updated for modern living. The 45 home styles in The Beautiful American Home are ordered chronologically from 17th Century Colonial Homes to 21st Century Contemporary Classical Homes. Each home is described in a two page spread that includes a meticulously drawn plan and elevation; a history of the building type in historical context; the identifying characteristics of the home style; an appreciation of the featured home; and, didactic information about the particulars of the home.

Book II: The Beautiful Small Home A small house need not be plain and poor. Small homes, if well designed, can be comfortable, convenient, and beautiful. The Beautiful Small Home is a collection of vacation and second homes, starter and small family homes. Many books have been written on small and tiny houses and houses that are not so big, and each book has offered sound advice. The Beautiful Small Home incorporates these old ideas of storage, savings, and conservation into principles of beautiful design and graceful living. The twenty homes of The Beautiful Small Home offer a range in price, in complexity, in location, and each home is designed in a style that contemporary homeowners have traditionally favored. The features of these homes, although modern, are based upon 3,000 years of the house in western civilization; the historical precedents, whether Greek, Italian, English, French, or Egyptian will be credited, and sometimes, elaborated.

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Good design pays, in the short run and over time. The Beautiful Small Home will suggest adaptations of building styles that could stimulate sales by satisfying families. Given the choice, people choose beauty over plainness and ease over awkwardness. The Beautiful Small Home will offer easy, lovely homes that are suitable for mass production and manufacture.

Book III: The Beautiful Interior There is a proportion to rooms that determines scale, ornament, and the patterns and the rhythms of good design. When understood, these patterns can be employed to create comfort, formal restraint, ease, and sometimes, an almost exquisite beauty. The rules of proportion are easily understood, and when understood, scale, ornament, and decoration naturally follow. The Beautiful Interior will walk readers through a series of lovely rooms in easy chapters; each chapter introducing the next and augmenting the last, until, at the end of the tour, the reader will have passed through a course in good design. A brief history of the Interior Home and a review of Architectural Design introduce the chapters on Structure, Elements, Tradition, Furnishings, and Application. Every aspect of interior design is succinctly considered. Too, each chapter will be replete with the requisite photographs, plates, and diagrams.

Book IV: The Beautiful Family Home The Beautiful Family Home offers designs for every family type and each way of life: city and country, suburb and townhouse; simple homes and elegant homes, classical homes and craftsman homes; homes for the desert, the lake, and the farm. These many homes for many families have one thing in common: good design. Each home considers its place, its purpose, and the family that lives within it. The families might include a mom and a dad and two children; a family of five children with grandparents; a husband and wife just married and building a life; or, an older couple or a single person retired to that dream of life at the ocean. There is no single family type, nor is there a single, universal house plan; instead, there is the common desire for comfort, ease, affordability, and beauty. The Beautiful Family Home fulfills the family that lives within it.

Book V: The Beautiful Garden A garden is a place of earthly delights composed to satisfy the humane desire for proportion, pleasure, and fantasy. Gardens can be practical arrangements of flowers or vegetables, and gardens can be impractical follies or theatres of fun. The Beautiful Garden explores the union of nature and man in all its varied magnificence. The Beautiful Garden begins with an appreciation of gardens through history and then passes on through a series of chapters on design, features, and application, concluding with advice on regional

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characteristics, et cetera. Photographs, drawings, and diagrams will illustrate the text, and particular attention will be paid to various garden types.

Book VI: The Beautiful Estate The estate is not merely a home, it is architecture; sometimes, great architecture. These beautiful estates are great architecture and the paradigm of their type. The finest examples from the best periods were used to create these exemplary 21st Century Classical estates. The Beautiful Estate indulges everyman’s fantasy, and satisfies the necessities of the few. In this book, traditional architectural virtues are modernized with technological wonders to create the ideal American home. These estates will be illustrated with fine architectural washes, precise engraved lines, and fine photographs. Inventions of design will be detailed for copy by carpenters and builders; so too will typical details, when necessary. Descriptions of features and technical innovations will help advance the new American estate.

Book VII: Beautiful Living The culmination of The Beautiful Home series is The Beautiful Life, a book of homes, life, and living. The Beautiful Life explores and celebrates the relationship between a home and a family. And, The Beautiful Life will offer advice on how to live fully, gracefully, and well. The history of civilization is the history of the house, of how we live in houses, and what houses make of us. The house may change in material, shape, and size, but the house does not change in its purpose to provide shelter and to serve life’s necessities. Our necessities have grown from hut to farm, from farm to town to city in different paces through quickly changing times, and our houses have adapted to our needs. The Beautiful Life begins with a brief history of houses and the people who live in them, and then the history develops through the building arts, where we build, in what we build, and to what purpose we build. I assume that we build homes for what is likely to be the most marvelous creature in the universe: human beings in all their great potential. The Beautiful Life reminds builders of whom they are building for, and The Beautiful Life reminds people of who they are. Practically, The Beautiful Life offers tips on how to use rooms, on how to employ technologies, on how to adapt to situations, family, and friends, and how to get the most out of life in the home. The Beautiful Life employs photographs to illustrate the narrative history, and where no photographs exist, drawings will be used as illustration. This book completes The Beautiful Home series in what is, in effect, an architectural treatise for the 21st Century.

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“Aegean” The Chios (#69, Book 2.20) NEO GREC XXI Century Classicism 1980 – Present Greek Revival 1980 – Present Introduction Greek temples, the American XIX Century Greek Revival, archeological excavations, and Greek XIX Century architecture are some of the many Greek Revival presidents. This current revival seems to be less iconic and rather more fundamental than earlier revivals, and more inventive than expected. You might see the Ionic capital from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae instead of the typical Parthenon Doric, or you might see a capital true in its proportions but a new thing upon the earth. The forms tend to be well-drawn, clean and crisp, more formal than playful. But play is here too, the play of light and shadow, the play of geometry, and the play of color—the pure-white of the early Greek Revival has given way to archeological facsimilitude, or just plain fun. It seems that the rebirth of classical Greece may again enrich our American soil. Characteristics Low-pitched roofs, clean forms, restrained detail, and fidelity to order identify the style whether the president is a Greek temple, stoa, or residence either ancient or modern. Even fewer classical details than were present in earlier revivals, except for the high-style buildings from which many ancient Greeks could have taken a lesson. Rather more Palladian than were ancient Greek homes, more townhouse or villa than farmhouse or temple. Features Both variations of this home are tripartite in section, plan, and elevation. In plan, two bedrooms and a bath are on one side, the master suite on the other, and the public rooms are comfortably snuggled between: The central temple-front variation divides the dining room from the living room by a two-sided fireplace, and it pushes out the columns in antis portico into a columned porch with pediment and simple entablature. If the ceiling of the temple front variation is vaulted this small home will seem grand. Grand or not, there is plenty of privacy in the bedrooms when the family retires from study, dining, and entertainment. Notes This house is in the style of the XIX Century Greek island, Chios, and it remembers the Chiosts who rebuilt their ancestral home after the massacre of some 20,000 Greek islanders by their Islamic-Ottoman overlords.

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— Page Three— The Doric column is stout and firm, it lends to buildings a quiet strength, a sturdiness that suggests permanence of family and of family life. This Doric column is in the style of the most ideal of Grecian temples, the Parthenon. Built in Athens (454—438 B.C.) during Pericles supremacy, the Parthenon engenders Greek democracy and it recalls to Americans from the founding until now the origins of the modern world, America’s republic of virtue. In scale, the Parthenon Doric column is five and one-half diameters high with 20 flutes surrounding the drum; it stands upon a tripartite stylobate—here the front-porch steps; together the four columns support a typically proportioned entablature. The pitch of the pediment cornice is rather more Roman than Greek, and rather more American than Roman to accommodate attic storage. The Latin Cross Window of this home represents Christian humility and the wonders of the prince of glory, Jesus Christ. Here the Latin Cross is framed by Doric pilasters to reincorporate the cross with Christianity’s classical heritage. The garage is itself a little temple, but here a temple to the automobile. Appropriately, the scale is smaller than the home to which it is subordinate. The windows are aligned with the home and the doorway of the garage leads into the mud room of the kitchen along a short path beneath a charming pergola or porch. Plan # 2.20 “A” 15’-9” Height 51’-0” Width 38’-9” Depth 1,976 Square Feet 13’-0” Main Ceiling 9’-0” Typical Ceiling 3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms Features Energy Efficient Design open floor plan economical to build main floor bed & bath main floor laundry covered front porch wheelchair adaptable Room Dimensions First Floor Living Room 16’-0” x 21’-9”

Dining Room 18’-3” x 12’-0” Kitchen 13’-9” x 12’-0” Mud Room 3’-0” x 9’-8” Master Bedroom 16’-0” x 15’-0” Master Bath 5’-9” x 9’-3” Walk-in Closet 5’-9” x 9’-3” Bedroom 2 14’-0” x 12’-0” Bedroom 3 16’-0” x 12’-0” Bathroom 9’-6” x 6’-3” Exterior Porch 17’-10” x 6’-9” Garage 12’-6” x 22’-0” Plan # 2.20 “B” 15’-9” Height 51’-0” Width 38’-9” Depth 1,836 Square Feet 9’-0” Ceiling Height 3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms

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Room Dimensions First Floor Living Room 16’-0” x 16’-6” Dining Room 18’-3” x 12’-0” Kitchen 13’-9” x 12’-0” Mud Room 3’-0” x 9’-8” Master Bedroom 16’-0” x 15’-0” Master Bath 5’-9” x 9’-3” Walk-in Closet 5’-9” x 9’-3” Bedroom 2 14’-0” x 12’-0”

Bedroom 3 16’-0” x 12’-0” Bathroom 9’-6” x 6’-3” Exterior Porch 16’-0” x 6’-7” Garage 12’-6” x 22’-0” Supplementary Materials Garage

The “Chios” is of the Aegean Style developed for AEGEA (Attractions and Entertainment in a Global

Exhibition of Architecture), the new 58 square mile city in southern Florida.

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ADAM (detail), 1967 oil on panel, 49 x 39 ½”

frame, hand painted and decorated God may have had a plan for “Adam”; Girard did not. Girard began, as was his custom, by allowing his fingers to minuet with his imagination. In fact, Allen Abramson(Girard’s patron) commented upon the unusual alchemy of the picture’s creation: “When painting ‘Adam’, Bill’s hands seemed to have a life separated from his body.” Girard too recalled something unusual: “…the paint was especially plastic and forgiving. The white ground was frightening. The painting came when the oils first touched the panel—I did not know where I was going, but the paint whispered then spoke, presenting himself as Adam. Adam needed room to grow, so I added panels. In one panel, Eve appeared reddish and dark, as if Mother Nature. Later, when the painting was first shown, it was noted that the area where the belly-buttons should have been were covered—was I suggesting that Adam and Eve were not born?” As noted, the upper “portrait” was first painted, the body was then added, as one-by-one were the other episodes of the picture added—as can be seen where the panels meet. Each panel is surrounded by a decorative frame that enriches and illuminates the picture’s meaning. Few frames, since the Renaissance, have been so integral to the picture; none perhaps have been so meaningful. Visible at the frame’s base is a small round bullet hole shot by an impassioned Rick Rubin.

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It has been noted by Girard and his circle that subjects of his various pictures would often materialize after the picture was painted, as when, a month after painting “Adam”, Bill met the very image of his painting in a Mr. John Spivac. Spivac, alike Adam, was red-haired. What are the chances? Is this the first instance of a red-haired Adam in the History of Art?

THE VENUS OF CHELM, 1972 oil on canvas, 32 ¾ x 40 ¼”

Girard would often attend Allen Abramson’s lavish dinners for musicians, writers, and raconteurs. At one such party, in 1969, the lively conversation turned to “The Wise Men of Chelm” by Yiddish playwrights Shoelm Alechim and Isaac Bashevis Singer. In brief, the tales of Chelm open with the silly angel of God who encircles the world to distribute souls. This angel carries two bags; the first bag holds the wise souls and the second bag holds the foolish souls. While flying over the village of Chelm, the bag of foolish souls catches upon a tree’s top branch, tearing the bag and spilling the foolish souls over the village bellow. Here the fun begins! American’s will be familiar with Chelm from Fiddler on the Roof, Yentel (starring Barbara Streisand), and Al Caps’ transfiguration of the village of Chlem into the town, Dogpatch. Girard’s Venus of Chelm is not drawn from Alechim or Capp, or classical mythology, but is an original invention, something of Fanny Brice, decidedly Jewish, touched and loveable. Here, Girard’s Venus of Chlem floats above an unlikely sea whose graceful swans and flitting fish seem to notice that the world is curiously amiss.

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LIBERTY PATRIOTS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

Narrative: Many intellectual currents encouraged the enslaved population to seek liberty: Christianity, Enlightened Liberalism, The Declaration of Independence, and the aspiration toward universal education. Before the War for Independence, Anthony Benezet established in Philadelphia a Negro School; the Christian home-schooled poets Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley won international renown; members of General Washington’s military family, Laurens, Hamilton, and Lafayette pressured Washington to free slaves and to create a black regiment; then, as James Madison proposed, "would it not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks themselves…it would certainly be more consonant with the principles of liberty, which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for liberty." Although the freed slave regiment was not formed, freed men and slaves served with distinction in all the military practices requisite to the conduct of war and the achievement of national liberty. A few colonies boasted all-black units, yet most blacks served in integrated units, "Three-quarters of the Rhode Island regiment consists of negroes, and that regiment is the most neatly dressed, the best under arms, and the most precise in its maneuver." A few remarkable men are remembered as heroes: Salem Poor’s gallantry at Bunker Hill cited in petition to the Court of Massachusetts, “In justice to the Character of so Brave a man…under Our Own observation, we declare that A Negro Man Called Salem Poor…behaved like an Experienced Officer, as Well as an Excellent Soldier, to Set forth Particulars of his Conduct would be Tedious, We Would Only beg leave to say in the Person of this Negro Centers a Brave & gallant Soldier”. Each major battle featured the participation, the heroism of freed men and slaves, as was said by a Caucasian veteran, "…brave, hardy troops. They helped to gain our liberty and independence." In desire for liberty, many slaves escaped to join the army, many bargained with masters to win manumission in exchange for military service, risking wounds, capture, starvation, disease and death in the hope of freedom. Many promises were broken when cruel masters reneged on the promise of freedom. In this predicament, Jack Arabas escaped and was set free by a Connecticut court after his military service. Most regrettably, Mr. James Robinson, at Yorktown decorated for military valor by General Lafayette was, after the war, returned to slavery in the deep, deep South. Yet such was Robinson’s valor that he again served his country in the War of 1812, waiting until after America’s Civil War to finally win his freedom. The redoubtable Mr. Robinson enjoyed his hard-won freedom by living to 115 years.

Persons of the Biographies:

1. Phillis Wheatley (1753 –1784) 2. Prince Hall (1735—1807) 3. James Forten (1766 – 1842) 4. Agrippa Hull (1759–1848) 5. Colonel John Laurens (1754 – 1782) 6. Prince Whipple (1750 – 1796) 7. William "Billy" Lee (1750 – 1828)

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8. Peter Jennings (date unknown – 1842) 9. James Robinson (1753 – 1868) 10. London Hazard (dates unknown) 11. Oliver Cromwell (1752 – 1853) 12. “Captain” Mark Starlins (dates unknown) 13. Edward "Ned" Hector (born c. 1744 – 1834) 14. Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833)

Chapter Synopses: (summary biographies)

Chapter 1: “The Most Famous African on Earth”, Phillis Wheatley (1753 –1784), admired by Voltaire, Paine, John Paul Jones, and General Washington was a poet and emancipated slave. Before achieving artistic excellence, Miss Wheatley, a Muslim African, was enslaved to Africans then sold to British traders for transport to Britain’s American colony. She was purchased by the Wheatley family who educated her in the Bible, Greek and Latin, Alexander Pope, John Milton, Homer, Horace, Virgil, et alia. Her progress was extraordinary. By the age of 20 Wheatley had published her first book, achieved a deserved international fame, read before royalty and, when a emancipated at 23 Wheatley was entertained by General George Washington for whom she had composed an encomium, an encomium of which the General thought himself unworthy and undeserving. At the age of 31 Wheatley perished of deprivation, a victim of the economic collapse following the War for Independence. If she had lived, what might she have achieved? Her interests were broad, her subjects diverse, her style refined. These few heroic couplets serve as example: “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land / Taught my benighted soul to understand / That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: / Once I redemption neither sought nor knew… / Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, / May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.” Phillis Wheatley is proof—if proof is necessary—that we are formed by culture, or its lack. Chapter 2: “Good Citizen Hall”, Prince Hall (1735—1807): Nothing is certain of Prince Hall’s early life. Speculation has him born in Barbados, or Boston; the son of an English merchant, maybe; a French mother, perhaps; slave or free, none are certain; yet, we do know that in 1770 Prince Hall was literate, in Boston, and free: It is remarkable that Prince Hall is mute upon his past; he was energetic in the present, always building toward tomorrow, the owner of a small home, the proprietor of a workshop, a respectable man who paid his taxes and voted in local elections. In these biographical particulars Prince Hall might appear to be any man, yet he was by excellence distinguished. His public life began in the denial of admission to the Masonic fraternity, a surprising denial as freemasonry extolled ideals of liberty, equality and peace; Hall persisted, winning in 1775 entry to the British American Lodge 441. Soon, the Mason, Hall, proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety the enlistment of enslaved and free blacks in the Continental Army, believing that if blacks participated in the founding of a nation, that nation would grant liberty and citizenship to all of its black sons. Eventually, the war for national independence was won, yet personal independence was denied to many blacks, thus Hall and others passionately pled before the Massachusetts Senate the case for financial support in an ill-conceived Return-to-Africa scheme; money was scarce, the petition failed. Hall then concentrated his considerable energy upon the education of black children in classics and the Liberal Arts; the school, begun in Hall’s home, soon expanded into a

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church hall where students were instructed by Harvard scholars. These and other public spirited activities distinguished Prince Hall in his lifetime; today Hall is remembered as the founder and Grand Master of the afrocentric African Lodge No. 1, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. Chapter 3: “Philadelphia’s Fortunate Son”, James Forten (1766 – 1842) had the naive fortune to be born free, to be educated by Quakers, to escape slavery when captured by the British, to learn a serviceable trade, to find a mentor in business, to assume that business and then to create a personal fortune which would establish a remarkable family, fund the abolitionist newspaper, and to encourage both education and temperance in civil society. In the previous sentence we witness many James Fortens; Here we will dilate on but one, Forten the literary man, the author of “Letters from a Man of Colour”. We recognize that Forten, alike his fellow Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, was well read; we hear echoes of Addison; we recognize in Forten’s penname “Cato” the Roman who chose death over loss of liberty, “Cato” friend to the Numidian “Juba”, heir to Cato’s intellect and moral fortitude. We know that James Forten would often be seen at theatre during performances of the admired Shakespeare, we know that Forten was friend to the poet Whittier, and we know that Forten financed Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, “The Liberator”, that newspaper which brought fame to Frederick Douglass and persuaded American’s to battle, to sympathy with liberty in the abolition of slavery. We might remember Forten for the ends of Forten’s accomplishments, yet we must acknowledge Forten’s beginnings, alike the beginnings of his fellow patriots of the revolutionary generation, to be borne through a classical education of the enlightened man: James Forten might have been anyone, instead, in education, through temperance and virtue, James Forten became a man worthy to be counted among the giants of the Founding Generation. Chapter 4: “Soldier and Landholder”, Agrippa Hull (1759–1848) was a freeman who enlisted to serve his country in Her War of Independence from the British Empire. Hull served in the war for six years, five of which were as aide to General Thadeus Kościuszko, nobleman, military officer, engineer. By Hull’s influence, Kościuszko became a champion of abolition whose will dictated that his American estate be sold to purchase the freedom of slaves, including the slaves of Kościuszko’s friend, Thomas Jefferson. By indifference, lassitude and opposition, Kościuszko’s plan was not executed; the unfortunate slaves continued in their servitude, the general’s money was transferred to his Polish heirs and acquaintance. In his unassuming way, with a modest military pension, hard work and industry, Hull became a major landowner in his native Stockbridge, and won for his bride, Jane Darby, her freedom. It should be mentioned that Agrippa Hull, alike his namesake, possessed a towering personality: Hull was once discovered by Kosciuszko to be hosting a party for friends while dressed in the general’s uniform; once, following a speech by a mulatto preacher, his employer probed him with, "Well, how do you like nigger preaching?" to which Hull retorted, "Sir, he was half black and half white. I like my half, how did you like yours?"; and Agrippa Hull always treasured his military papers signed personally by General Washington, claiming that he had rather forego his pension than lose his record of service. Chapter 5: “We Americans”, Colonel John Laurens (1754 – 1782); aide-de-camp to General Washington, friend to Alexander Hamilton, war hero, lawyer who won approval from the Continental Congress to recruit a brigade of 3,000 slaves who would be freed in recognition of

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service to their country. Laurens maintained that "We Americans at least in the Southern Colonies, cannot contend with a good Grace, for Liberty, until we shall have enfranchised our Slaves” and further, “We have sunk the Africans & their descendants below the Standard of Humanity, and almost render'd them incapable of that Blessing which equal Heaven bestow'd upon us all." Laurens proposed to his father that the 40 slaves of his inheritance be part of that brigade, a proposition to which his father, Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress, concurred. Following this plan, Colonel Laurens was directed to recruit the regiment, which after winning election to South Carolina’s House of Representatives seemed a fact accomplished, but the slave brigade plan was overwhelming rejected. Aggravated by resistance and inaction, the Colonel return to combat and was killed in a reckless charge during the Battle of the Combahee River, mere weeks before the war’s ending. Upon the death of his son, Henry Laurens freed not only the 40 slaves of John’s inheritance, but the family’s 220 slaves. John Laurens understood that all men share one nature, that all can assume liberty under republican government. Chapter 6: “Accident of History”, Prince Whipple (1750-1796) was born in Ghana to well-to-do parents who had sent their eldest son to be educated in America; when the eldest son returned, the satisfied parents, eager to educate the second son, sent him to America; this second son learned not from books, but of villainy: A treacherous sea-captain sold the Ghanaian boy into slavery at the docks of Baltimore’s harbor. Eventually, the boy would become the property of General William Whipple, be named Prince, serve bravely in the War for Independence, and be freed by his master, General Whipple, on Prince’s wedding day. It is said that Prince Whipple was beloved by all who knew him, and that he died leaving behind him his widow and two, freeborn children. A curious story claims that Prince Whipple was the man shown fending off ice in Leutze’s painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware”. Chapter 7: “George Washington’s Valet”, William "Billy" Lee (1750 – 1828) was acquired in 1761 by George Washington for sixty-one pounds and fifteen shillings; a high price because the mulatto Billy was trained in household service, yet Mr. Lee was to become General Washington’s trusted valet, riding alongside the general in all engagements, ready with horse, sword, pistols, anything of which the general might be at need. William Lee saw eight years of war, from that first terrible winter at Valley Forge through the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. It should be noted that Lee was a fearless horseman, indifferent to hedgerows, bullets and steel. Also, while in wartime service, William Lee married Margaret Thomas Lee of Philadelphia, a free African-American who served in Washington's wartime headquarters; as slave marriages were not recognized in Virginia, General Washington personally invited Margret to live with her husband at Mt. Vernon; it is not known if Margaret Lee accepted the general’s invitation. Ironically, having survived uncounted harrowing, perilous incidents of war, the rambling hunt, and surveying Virginia’s rugged wilderness, Lee tripped and hurt his knee on a street-corner in Alexandria while on a simple errand for the President-elect. This troublesome injury worsened, preventing Lee from continued service to the President and Lee fell into his cups, cobbling, and depression. Upon the President’s death in 1799, William Lee was alone among the 124 slaves in the grant of freedom, which was received for "his faithful services during the Revolutionary War".

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Chapter 8: “Witness to History”, Peter Jennings (date unknown – 1842) was by his own account born free in Pequannock, Connecticut. This recollection is all that we have of Mr. Jennings before he entered into the service of his country at Providence, Rhode Island in 1776 as a private in Colonel Edward Olney's 5th Regiment. Jennings fought for the country of his birth in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and he suffered the long, harsh winter at Valley Forge. While in battle at Princeton, Jennings fought alongside General Washington giving this account:

"A part of our troops were driven back by the British and were thrown into much confusion... [however, General] Washington perceiving it, seized a standard and rushed in front of our troops, and dashed several paces ahead towards the enemy, exclaiming 'come on boys' or some such expression. His example had the desired effect of rallying our troops, and we followed the commander with renewed ardour.”

What Private Jennings achieved in battle we do not know, as it is common for soldiers to extol the heroism of others while of personal deeds remaining mute. Following the war, the life of Mr. Jennings is again lost in mist until 1822 when Jennings moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Here Private Jennings renewed old wartime friendships, lived in a house on the corner of Vine and Church Streets, awoke early to work at his bakery, instructed boys in the martial arts, and served as supervisor of the Rose Waterworks project. In 1842 Peter Jennings died quietly of natural causes. Chapter 9: “The Redoubtable Mr. Robinson”, James Robinson (1753 – 1868) seems to have been born in Maryland on the plantation of Joseph Dashiell, later Colonel Dashiell of the Maryland Militia with whom Mr. Robinson functioned as body servant, armor barer, and soldier. Robinson fought in many battles, including Brandywine and Yorktown where Mr. Robinson witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to General Washington. Following the war, with the death of his master Colonel Dashiell, Robinson expected freedom as was specified in Dashiell’s will; instead Robinson was by the sons of Dashiell conveyed to Louisiana where he was sold into slavery. When, in 1812 General Andrew Jackson called the brave colored man of Louisiana to arms, Robinson answered the call to service, a second time defending his country from British aggression and again he expected freedom, but was again returned to slavery and the picking of cotton under the cruel lash of his overseer. It should be mentioned that the scars of slavery were intermixed on Mr. Robinson’s flesh with his wounds from many battles of both wars. Mr. Robinson’s exploits were not unnoticed by the mighty: He was personally decorated by the Marquis de Lafayette, and when Lafayette returned to the United States in 1825 for the celebrated Grand Tour, Mr. Robinson was honored by an interview with Lafayette, the champion of Liberty. Years passed with Robinson unnoticed by the wide world until 1843 when with the assistance of Caucasian abolitionists, at the age of 90, Mr. Robison escaped slavery and found a home in Detroit. At this time, Robinson entered service for a third time, enlisting in the army of Christ, becoming a Wesleyan Methodist minister who traveled widely teaching the gospel and fighting to save the souls of men. Robinson continued in this profession until becoming ill in 1865 at the conclusion of America’s Civil War, that war which determined that in fact “all men are created equal”. Mr. Robinson lays at rest in Detroit’s Elmwood Cemetery, neighbor to civic leaders, judges, congressmen, senators, and governors.

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Chapter 10: “The Substitute”, London Hazard (c. 1727 – ) was born on the island of Conanicut, in Narragansett Bay to enslaved parents (the father a negro, the mother an Indian) and was sold as a boy to Godfrey Hazard of South Kingston, Rhode Island and was there named “London” by his master. The Hazards were a large an influential Rhode Island family much in sympathy with the patriot cause, and it happened that London Hazard enlisted on the patriot side with master Godfrey in the fall of 1777, a substitute for Samuel Hazard, cousin to Godfrey. Throughout the war, London served as substitute for several Hazards who chose not to fight and London was freed following the war for service rendered to the Hazard family. It should here be noted that the Hazard family became enthusiastic abolitionists, freeing slaves, producing cloth and clothing for the relief of slaves (clothing suitable to the southern environment), establishing a school for blacks, The Albany Bible and Mechanical Institute which became Albany State College the traditional black university where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. initiated the Albany Campaign for Civil Rights. London Hazard applied for and received his war pension in 1832; it is unknown where or when Mr. Hazard died and was buried. Chapter 11: “Extraordinary Fidelity”, Oliver Cromwell (1752 – 1853) was a freeborn farmer and honored soldier in our War for Independence. Private Cromwell served in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment and fought at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Monmouth, and Yorktown. The war won, Cromwell retired, his discharge papers being personally signed by the Commander-in-Chief, George Washington who added that he (Cromwell) was entitled “to wear the badges of honor by reason of his honorable services.” This badge, in the form of a purple heart, designed by the general himself, was intended for those soldiers who exhibited, "not only instances of unusual gallantry in battle, but also extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way." Remarkably, this simple, stitched award was the first in modern times to be granted to a common soldier, quite unlike the bejeweled medals bestowed upon Europe’s high-ranking officers; for, as Washington said, the "road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is…open to all." Today, this once stitched medal is known as the Purple Heart. Many telling reminiscences of the 100 year old Cromwell were recorded by newspaper columnists, including: Cromwell recalled crossing the Delaware “with his beloved commander…on the memorable Christmas night 1776.”; and, “though feeble, his lips trembling at every word, when he spoke of Washington his eyes sparkled with enthusiasm.” Truly, America’s Oliver Cromwell was among “the men who purchased with their blood the liberty we now enjoy” [Geo. Washington]. Cromwell’s grave is located at the Broad Street Methodist Church, Burlington, New Jersey. Chapter 12: : “Devoted Patriot”, “Captain” Mark Starlins (dates uncertain) is known to us through the singular reminiscence of Commodore James Barron who in his old age furnished a glimpse into the life of the black Virginia pilot, Mark Starlins, who called himself “Captain”. The Commodore remembered “a very singular and meritorious character in the person of an African, who had been brought over to this country when he was young, and soon evinced a remarkable attachment to it; he was brought up as a pilot, and proved a skillful one, and a devoted patriot,” who sometimes “allowed his patriotism to get the better of his judgment.” The “noble African,” wrote Barron, “lived and died a slave soon after the peace, and just before the law was passed that gave freedom to all those devoted men of colour who had so zealously volunteered their service to the patriotic cause.” Starlins was held in high estimation “by all worthy citizens, and, more

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particularly, by all the navy officers of the state. (Partially reproduced from “The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution”.) Chapter 13: “Unsung Hero”, Edward "Ned" Hector (1744 – 1834) was a teamster in Colonel Proctor's 3rd Pennsylvania Artillery Regiment. When at the Battle of Brandywine, positioned near Chad's Ford, late in the afternoon as the British and Hessians overran we Americans, the order was given to abandon the guns, wagons, and horses and "save yourself": Not so Edward Hector who is reported to have said, "The enemy shall not have my team; I shall save my horses and myself." Grapping-up a stack of armaments, he threw them into his wagon, fended off his British pursuers and escaped with the wagon, all that was salvaged of his company. Many years later, the Pennsylvania Legislature granted Edward Hector $40 for his heroism. Little else is known of Hector, one among many unsung heroes. Chapter 14: “Of One Blood”, Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833) was born in West Hartford, Connecticut to Alice Finch, servant girl to John Haynes the father, a man “of some form of African extraction”. At the age of five weeks, Lemuel was bound over in indentured servitude to Deacon Rose where he was to labor as an agricultural worker in exchange for an education. Over time, Lemuel grew to love books, especially the Bible, Latin and Greek, then, in 1774, his indenture expired, Lemuel joined the Minutemen—soon after the Battles of Concord and Lexington. Among his writings is found this verse composed in defiance of British aggression, “The Battle of Lexington” which concludes with,

Thrice happy they who thus resign Into the peacefull Grave

Much better there, in Death Confin’d Than a Surviving Slave

This Motto may adorn their Tombs,

(Let tyrants come and view) “We rather seek these silent Rooms

Than live as Slaves to You”

Following service to his country, Lemuel Haynes prepared for the Calvinist ministry and began his long criticism of slavery and the slave trade. In time, Minister Hayes was to be the first mulatto to achieve an advanced degree (Middlebury College) and the first to preach before a fully Caucasian congregation (Hemlock Church (now 1st Congregational Church) of Torrington, Connecticut). Scripture, republicanism, and abolitionism informed his scholarship: Minister Haynes maintained that slavery denied people natural rights to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness"; that, "Liberty is equally as precious to a black man as it is to a white one, and bondage is equally as intolerable to the one as to the other"; and Haynes quoted Acts 17:26, “[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men” (KJV) to prove the principle of universal liberty. Always mindful of his military service, Haynes became a member of the Washington Benevolent Society, and would each year deliver an encomium on the event of George Washington's birthday. In conclusion, Minister Haynes was known to be a powerful and effectual preacher who passionately asserted that God’s providential plan would ultimately end segregation and would finally bring harmony and liberty to all His children upon the earth.