National spy museum. The first two weeks centered on fairly wellknown personalities. Ben franklin is of course ben franklin. Next week well take a look at the most infamous spy in u. S. History, Benedict Arnold. The relative obscurity of the man well hear about today is what will make this morning so interesting. He is someone we should know more about. His impact on World History is well known for historians, but historians are just now beginning to piece his life together, to find out new information, to understand his impact on the revolution, and to figure out how he fits among the great heroes and villains of american intelligence history. So kate gruber will help us understand who this enigmatic man is. Shes been the curator at jamestownyorktown museum since 2015. Between 2009 and 2013, she worked at the Colonial Williamsburg foundation where she assisted with the research of the foundations electronic field trip series. Although shes a public historian and museum professional interested in early American Consumer economy and material culture and how these aspects of Colonial Life translated during the American Revolution, she considers herself an interdisciplinary historian in quantitative and digital history. Without further ado, kate gruber. [ applause ] good morning. Can everyone hear me okay . Great. If you need me to speak up a little bit, just somebody wave their hand in the air. How about now . Any better . Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. Lets get started. Who has been watching a lot of this lately . I guess its pretty popular. I have to admit ive never seen it. Im about ten years behind on my own Popular Culture, so im still watching a lot of this. I figure ill get to turn about 2023 or so. That depends on if we get this new Museum Opened up. How about either one of these . Surely you know these guys, although id argue one of them does not belong in the same picture. Or perhaps this is more your speed and what about her . Well, if Popular Culture is any indication, tales of spies and espionage have always captured our imagination. Theres just something about the romance and danger of covert operations, secret identities, quirky gadgets, ancient numbers, invisible ink, and fancy cars and martinis shaken but not stirred, which i guess its a little too early for, but maybe later. Thanks to our cultures fascination with the world of espionage, both past and present, these elements are part of our collective consciousness of what it means to be a spy. Thanks to hollywood, i think we all think we have a pretty good grasp of what spies look like and the jobs they have to do and they have to be a little extra careful when selecting a stick of gum because when is a stick of gum ever just a stick of gum in those movies, right . Its important to remember that there are real historical figures behind all of this fiction. Men and women who risked their lives in the line of duty. These are real people with real lives and real stories, and im here today to tell you as entertaining as all of this fiction is, the real truth, the real American History, is even more fascinating than the fiction. And thats a big part of our mission with the jamestownyorktown foundation and the galleries of Educational Programming at the new American Revolution museum at yorktown, which is a 22,000 square foot permanent exhibition, which will open on october 15th in americas historic triangle. Obviously, thats just one of my many shameless plugs youll hear from me this morning, and we tell the real, real stories of the ordinary people who lived in the extraordinary time before, during, and after the American Revolution. Personal stories unfold the relife drama of the 18th century much better than anything on tv. Real people like you and me lived in that extraordinary time and made life or death decisions without the benefit of the hindsight that we enjoy today. Their actions had consequences for better or for worse, and because of the extraordinary actions of a very ordinary man, were here this morning. Well, my lecture is titled James Lafayette, double agent. After being contacted by the spy museum, i thought this title would be reflective of exactly the content that i thought i would be delivering to you today. As a curator at the new museum, ive had the pleasure of helping to expand our museums scope to include a variety of real life personal stories. James lafayette, as ill explain later, is an incredible part of our story at yorktown, and we made the decision to feature him at our museums inaugural exhibition, a 5,000square foot Exhibit Opening june 2017. Thank you. Thank you very much. Youre a lovely audience. The special exhibit, which will open next summer, will tell some surprising stories about the veterans of the siege of yorktown who walked off the battlefield to create a new world. We knew James Lafayette was an important part of the story, so we knew we needed to do a little digging to get it exactly right. Six months ago when i was contacted by the staff here at the spy museum, we had in our hands the traditional narrative of james. Plucked out of his servitude by the marquis de lafayette to spy on cornwallis in 1781 and being so impressed with james ability, general cornwallis sent him on a mission where he became a double agent. James was the perfect spy, an effective double agent only caught during the days after the british surrender when cornwallis saw james among the marquis entourage. You rogue. You have been playing me all this time. Again, thats the research that i expected to present to you today. And this is why the title of this lecture is James Lafayette, double agent, but i must admit to you the research of these past six months, once we dug deeper, very little came to light to illuminate our understanding of his espionage for cornwallis. This aspect of his life still remains shrouded in history, but i think thats what any good double agent would want, dont you . What ill present to you this morning is every bit of corroborated research on his life and times, including the time in which james was acting as a spy for the marquis de lafayette. Heres your mission, should you choose to accept it. I invite you to join me this morning as we explore the life and times of James Lafayette, invisible spy. Backing up a little bit, i want to tell you more about this research project. We quickly came to realize that almost immediately after the revolution james was mentioned in countless tomes chronicling the activities of enslaved africanamericans during the revolutionary wars and his exploits as a spy for the patriots have been recollected time and time again more often than not with little to no documentary evidence or basis in historical fact. Like a 200yearold game of telephone, the real factual details of james life became muddled, misinterpreted, or just plain lost in the archives or in the fires that ravaged many of virginias colonial archives. Thanks to generous funding and the truly awesome and Inspiring Research chops of some of our noted historians at the foundation, including martha mccartney, the jamestownyorktown foundation is pleased to own the primary research ever undertaken about this enslaved spy. Excuse me. There we go. I was hoping to save this incredible graphic of james own signature for a big reveal later in this presentation, but i think its important to address something here before we go any further, so please act surprised and incredibly impressed the next time you see this come up on the screen. No primary sources consulted for this Research Revealed that james ever referred to himself or was known as James Armstead or James Armstead lafayette. Its our belief that the armstead in james name was added later by a biographer who assumed that he took the last name of his owner when he was enslaved. Because the name armstead does not appear in any primary source connected with james, weve made the decision as a foundation to refer to him as he referred to himself, simply as james or James Lafayette, and thats how ill refer to him for the duration of this presentation. So according to his own recollection, james was born around the year 1748 enslaved and owned by the armstead family. By then well established in New Kent County. In 1664, it became the 14th county created by the house of burgesss. The armstead family, who may have originated in what is now hampton, quickly became leaders in the community and held offices such as wardens, were elected to the house of burgesss, and ran mercantile establishments around williamsburg. The member of the armstead family most closely associated with james is William Armstead jr. , born january 25th, 1754, the sunday of colonel John Armstead ii and his first wife agnes. Colonel john led an active public life. The virginians reported his death after a short and painful illness. But it praised john for public service, adding that he embodied every public and private virtue which could render his life useful to his country. John left behind a considerable estate of which his son, 25yearold william, was named executor. Like his father john, William Armstead also led an active public life, contributing much to virginias efforts during the American Revolution. For all of our research, we cant say when james came to be owned by william. James was six years older than william jr. James may have been originally been owned by his father, the late john ii or another relative. The armstead family was prolific in mercantile operations and maintained their position in new kents upper middle class. Enslaved africanamericans such as james could do much to serve a family the likes of the armsteads. We have already seen through my big reveal that james could read and write. Its not outside the realm of possibility that colonel john william jr. Or other members of the armstead clan that owned taverns or other businesses in the area would have taught james how to read and write. Literate, james could assist in one of the various businesses own by the armstead family. If youre surprised to learn that armsteads afforded james the education to learn and write, this was not an uncommon occurrence in virginia and the commonwealth did not pass legislation prohibiting the literacy of slaves until 1819. They were both uniquely positioned and incredibly well situated to meet the needs of virginia during the American Revolution. You see, not long after the shot heard around the world, in the now sanctioned war for independence. The shots were closer and closer to home. By the fall of 1775, virginias royal governor, lord dunmore held them to the patriotic cause. He made it necessary that an additional number of forces be raced before protection and defense. There was one small problem. In 1775, colonial virginia did not have an army. They met in williamsburg to establish the means for funding a regular army in the colony. Organizing up to six regimens for virginia. The convention made allowanced to clothe, feed and otherwise supply soldiers during their years of service. The convention insisted that each common soldier, not sufficiently provided in the opinion of Commanding Officer should be provided clothing at the expense of the public to be deducted out of pay and a hunting shirt, a pair of leggings, binding for the hat and required each soldier be furnished with a good musket and bayonet among other items. To accomplish this and oversee the goods, the convention ordered the committee of safety to appoint one or more contractors or common sars to use the dispatch for provisions as needed for the army. Thus was born the williamsburg public store. They voted to have William Armistead jr. To act as one of his assistants. See how this is coming together . Armistead who had considerable may have been there as early as 1775. As the New Kent County militia at the capital. Nevertheless, he assisted him until he moved on to run the Southern Department in late 1777. At the ripe old age of 23, William Armistead was given a promotion. William received a salary of 300 pounds a year, plus expenses and expenses for a servant. We believe that servant was james. Realizing that james was the assistant for William Armistead in the public store, which operated out of williamsburg in 1880, helped us understand how he may have come to meet marquis de lafayette. As he coordinated the move from the public store from the late spring to summer of 1780. They note that most, if not all of William Armisteads family was living in richmond and had his slaves with him. The slaves were over the age of 16 and one of them may have been james. 32 in 1780. After armistead with the assistance of slaves and others moved the records to richmond. The Eastern Shore and peace and plenty. The business of the public store continued in richmond, virginias new capital. The General Assembly presumed them vulnerable for the attack. The british army began flirtinging with the idea of invating virginia. In may, they landed troops in Hampton Roads and sent parties to ports mouth and suffolk destroying warehouses and infrastructure to shut off commerce. Governor Thomas Jefferson felt it was too close to williamsburg and moved up the river to richmond. The british followed. On january 4, 1781, Benedict Arnold landed at Westover Plantation with 1600 troops, including queens rangers to attack richmond. Ill give this a minute to pass. Though jefferson called on patriot forces to repel the attack, they broke at the sight of arnolds defense. One witness wrote 200 virginia militiamen assembled on st. John east church and the lieutenant was ordered to dislodge them. Without firing a shot, they fled in confusion when he reached summit of the hill. They described their role in it. To the right lay a steep hill, overgrown with brushwood, which they thought was occupied by riflemen. They said thats a task made for you. I deployed it once, farmed two ranks, well dispursed and climbed up a hill. The enemy left after a valley. In charlottesville, they refused the bribe to keep them safe. Arnold set rich mond ablaze. It was a heavy blow to the already crippling economy. July 18, 1781, William Armistead was accused of neglecting duties and nelson was quick to point outlet not least of the sufferers was Marquise De Lafayette. The governor ordered the agent of trade to procure for the marquise a hog head of spirits. Note to self, complain about a barrel of whiskey and expect Something Better in return. Burring the situation developing in virginia, general washington orders the marquise day lafayette in 1781 after arnold and the loyalists ransacked and burnt richmond. If you are unfamiliar with the marquise day lafayette, allow me to introduce him now. He was born to a wealthy family in 1777 and desired to follow in the footsteps of his family. His father died at the hands of a british cannon ball in 1759. Some postulated that the lafayettes near obsession drove him to support the american cause, eagerness to serve washington, even without pay may have included a desire to return a cannon ball back to the british. The desire to aid american patriots was met with resistance in france. Lafayette and washington immediately formed a deep bond. Lafayette saw the battle in brandywine in 1777 and was shot in the leg. After he recuperated he joined the camp in valley forge. In march, france signed treaties with the United States. Formally throwing support and soldiers behind the patriot cause. Later, Congress Granted permission to return to france where he was given a heros welcome. After being placed under house arrest for disobeying king louie, this gave him time to father a son, whom he named George Washington lafayette. Alls well that ends well. Lafayette was hoping to convince king louie. This idea failed to manifest. Lafayette turned his attention to securing soldiers and the general to fight in america. In march of 1780, lafayette boarded a ship and im sure none of you have heard of it before. He arrived back in america on april 27, 1780. Lafayette languished in new jersey and new york with little to no attention so washington ordered lafayette to round up troops in the early months of 1781 with the clear directive to trap the treacherous Benedict Arnold and deliver a fate worse than death. Actually, just death. After lafayettes arrival in virginia, an already bad situation got worse. By may, general Charles Cornwallis arrived in petersburg, 24 miles south of the capitol to join forces. As a result of the capture at the battle of saratoga in 1777. Not 100 sure of Benedict Arnolds end game. They were sent to rendezvous in virginia. However, phillips became violently ill, but not before launching a campaign on the river and participating in the attack on petersburg. Washington sent forces under the command of marquee de la fayette. Not before turning all command of forces to the still alive Benedic