Tower Hill: Creating a Plantation During a Revolution
December 10 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Tower Hill: Creating a Plantation During a Revolution
American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
December 10 • 6 p.m.
Join Alan Shaw Taylor, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, for “Tower Hill: Creating a Plantation during a Revolution” at 6 p.m. Thursday, December 10. In conjunction with the “Give Me Liberty: Virginia & The Forging of a Nation” VA250 Signature Exhibition, guests can explore the exhibition in advance beginning at 5 p.m.
A savvy merchant and planter, Richard Blow exploited the social and economic turmoil of the American Revolution in Virginia to acquire and expand a plantation with enslaved people. His heirs crafted legends to give a patriotic spin to Blow’s clever ploys that bore some ironic consequences, including cameo appearances by the Battle of Yorktown and, later, the great jurist John Marshall.
Tickets are $5. Museum members enjoy a 20% discount. More Info & Tickets
Alan Shaw Taylor
Alan Shaw Taylor received his doctorate in American history from Brandeis University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Va., he taught at Boston University, the University of California at Davis, and the University of Virginia, where he held the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair. In 2016-2017 he served as the Harmsworth Professor at Queens College, Oxford University.
Taylor has published eleven books, including “The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for American history and the Merle Curti Prize for Social History (OAH) and “William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic,” which won the Bancroft, Beveridge, and Pulitzer Prizes.
For a dozen years, Taylor served as the faculty advisor for the California State Social Science and History Project, which provides curriculum support and professional development for K-12 teachers in history and social studies.
In 2016, he won membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His media consulting includes serving as an advisor and interviewee for the Ken Burns film, “The American Revolution,” first broadcast on PBS in the fall of 2025.
