Lost Stories: How the NYC Fire of 1776 Illuminates Unfamiliar Lives of the American Revolution

On September 21, 1776, five days after the British occupied New York City, a devastating fire burned down about one-fifth of the City. This mystery brings together a startling cast of characters from around the Atlantic World: soldiers and officers, but also Loyalists, women, and people of African and Indigenous descent. The Great Fire of 1776 offers opportunities to think about the lives and actions of people who have been marginalized or forgotten, and it requires historical context as well as genealogical research to fully unravel its mysteries.

Please join the NYG&B as we welcome author Benjamin L. Carp to explore these themes in the context of his new book, The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution. Dr. Carp holds the Daniel M. Lyons Chair in American History at Brooklyn College and is affiliated Faculty in the History Program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He specializes in the history of the American Revolution and the eighteenth century, particularly in the seaport cities of eastern North America.

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