James: The Identities of James Armistead Lafayette

Learn more about James, the spy who provided information to the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington during the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 that helped allow for victory by the American forces. Learn how James was born into slavery around 1760, lived most of his life on a plantation in Virginia, and was ultimately able to earn a pension for his services during the American Revolution. The exhibition highlights a specific testimonial by Lafayette that assisted James to win his freedom from the Virginia General Assembly. The display of Special Collections materials will inspire questions about how historiography of revolutionary period hid James's achievements despite the significance of his life and story, and allows viewers to better understand James's identity which the American author Ralph Ellison described as earned at the repeated risk of life and offered an unshakeable faith in the ideal of democracy.