Lafayette 200: New Orleans Bicentennial Symposium

Symposium Title:  From Galvez to Lafayette: Louisiana’s Journey Through the American Revolution, to Statehood and Lafayette’s Visit

This very special event is available only to AFL members (and invited guests of the AFL) who have their lanyard-ticket badge and those folks from the Cabildo/Louisiana State Museum who have acquired a ticket (or wristband) to the the “Lafayette Lounge” (the Cabildo’s French Quarter Fest Hospitality Suite) and are wearing the wristbands given to them.  The venue is a near 200 year old beautiful French Quarter home located at 620 St. Peter Street (between the Le Petit Theatre and The Gumbo Shop) and serves as a perfect setting for historical lectures.  Security will be provided at the gated entrance to the home.  Seating to the Symposium is on a first-come, first-served basis.  There will be no reserved seating.

1:00 PM:  “Lafayette’s American Tour of 1824-25 and the Emergence of Democratic Nationalism” by Lloyd Kramer 

This presentation coincides with the 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s visit to New Orleans in 1825, so the talk will examine Lafayette’s role in the emergence of American national identity and suggest links between Lafayette’s tour and ongoing debates about the meaning of democracy today–exactly 200 years after his famous nineteenth-century return to the United States.

Lloyd Kramer is a Professor Emeritus of History and former Director of Carolina Public Humanities (CPH) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  He received his PhD at Cornell University and served for eight years as Chair of the UNC-CH History Department. His research and teaching have focused on European history, with particular attention to modern France and the Atlantic world.  His most recent book, Traveling to Unknown Places: Nineteenth-Century Journeys Toward French and American Selfhood, was published in September 2024 by the University of North Carolina Press. Kramer’s earlier historical publications include Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions; and Nationalism in Europe and America: Politics, Cultures, and Identities Since 1775

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1:45 PM:  “The Legacy of Governor Bernardo de Gálvez” by Robert “Bob” Freeland 

This discussion will cover the importance of the role that Gálvez and Spanish governed Louisiana played in supporting the American Revolution, as well as Spain’s influence in shaping the future of Louisiana through the time of the Louisiana Purchase and up to its statehood in 1812.

  Bob Freeland, well-known to many historians in southeast Louisiana, is a long-time member of the Friends of the Cabildo, the volunteer organization of the Louisiana State Museum (LSM), and currently serving as its Vice-President.  He manages the LSM’s Spanish Heritage Field Trip Program, begun in 2018 with the Cabildo exhibit “Recovered Memories – The Support of Spain and New Orleans for the American Revolution.”  He is past Governor of the La Luisiana Chapter of the “Granaderos y Damas de Galvez.”  He holds their seat on the Louisiana America 250 Commission.

2:30 PM:  “The Battle of New Orleans and its impact on the United States” by Ronald “Ron” Drez

Louisiana was a new state in the Union and the future of the United States still remain uncertain with British forces trying to retake the continent.  Ron Drez will discuss how the victory at New Orleans brought an end to the War of 1812, and the United States once and for all secured its independence.  Some surprising and unknown aspects of its conclusion concerning the Treaty of Ghent will be discussed, and how the victory shaped the future of Louisiana and its impact on Lafayette’s visit.

  Ron Drez is considered to be one of the foremost  historians on the Battle of New Orleans.  He was Assistant Director and Research Associate to the late historian Dr. Stephen E. Ambrose (Band of Brothers) at the Eisenhower Center, and to Dr. Douglas Brinkley at the University of New Orleans.  A graduate of Tulane University, Ron is the author of eleven books, many on World War II.  He was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal from Freedom’s Foundation at Valley Forge for his book Voices of D-Day.  His book The War of 1812: Conflict and Deception and its long and climactic description of the Battle of New Orleans is considered by many War of 1812 historians as the best account of the battle ever rendered.

3:15 PM:  “Lafayette and Louisiana’s Quest for Liberty, 1768 – 1815” by William “Bill” de Marigny Hyland

Louisiana was founded and governed by France and then by Spain before being returned back to France just prior to the transaction of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  Through it all French families who settled in Louisiana sought liberty and Mr. Hyland will discuss the challenges they faced embracing their new Americanism and how Lafayette encouraged them during his 1825 visit to Louisiana.

  Bill Hyland has been a well-known local historian for more than 40 years.  He has been the Historian of St. Bernard Parish (County) since 1985 and was Assistant Historian before that.  He has been the Director of Los Isleños Museum Complex in St. Bernard parish since 1997 and is a past Program Director of the Louisiana Historical Society.  He also served on the Battle of New Orleans Bicentennial Commission in 2015.  Bill has authored monographs about the history of St. Bernard Parish in addition to numerous newspaper articles.  In addition to being regularly interviewed by local, regional, national and international journalists about the Isleños of St. Bernard, more recently Bill assisted the curators of the Louisiana State Museum (Cabildo) in their historical research in the creation of the Lafayette Exhibit premiering April 9^that the Cabildo.