MA250 Event Plymouth in the Revolution Lecture Series 2025 (Plymouth)

Lecture Series 2025 – 5 presentations-Wednesdays April 2, 9, 30 and May 7 & 14  at 7pm – Held at The Plymouth Public Library

Two hundred years ago, on 19 April 1775, American history changed. Colonial forces faced the British army at Lexington & Concord … and won. Word spread rapidly, and two regiments of Plymouth “Minute Men,” led by Colonel Theophilus Cotton, rallied to the Patriot cause. For the next six years, Plymoutheans participated in America’s battle for independence.

Although not the site of any great battles, nor the home of any triumphant generals, Plymouth is filled with the stories of the lawmakers and lawyers whose rhetoric inspired the Patriot cause, of the men who risked their lives and livelihood in military service, and of the civilians who kept the home fires burning, as well as of the Americans who, valuing loyalty above all, continued to support the King. They illuminate the complex and fascinating history of Massachusetts’ earliest town, as it embraced the movement for American independence, and the lasting impact it made on the Town’s historical landscape.

 May 7: Mark Schmidt – Choosing Sides: Loyalists in the American Revolution
In many ways, the American Revolution was our first Civil War. The story of Edward Winslow, a prominent Plymouthean who, unlike most of his fellow citizens, did not waver in his loyalty to King George III, illuminates what that choice meant for colonists who did not desire independence from the Crown—and what became of them when their side did not prevail.
Mark Schmidt is Executive Director of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. He has also served as the Executive Director of the Museum of World War II in Natick, of the historic 1699 Winslow House in Marshfield, and of the Falmouth Historical Society and Museums on the Green in Falmouth.

Upcoming Lectures:
May 14: Donna Curtin – Dr. James Thacher & Plymouth’s Revolutionary Generation