HADLEY- The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum presents Forty Acres & The American Revolution; Stories of Independence & Servitude, a panel talk with three leading scholars: Friederike Baer, a historian of 18th-century Hessian soldiers, Marge Bruchac, a scholar of local Indigenous histories, and Charmaine Nelson, director of the Slavery North project at the University of Massachusetts. Together, these scholars expand the narrative of the American Revolution and provide insight to the transnational landscape in Hadley during the Revolutionary Era where enslaved, indentured and free persons all navigated the rhetoric and realities of independence differently. The talk will be held in the Museum’s Corn Barn on Sunday, June 29th at 2 pm. The program is free and open to the public.

The accompanying exhibit, Forty Acres & The American Revolution; Stories of Independence & Servitude, commemorates the 250th anniversary of the American revolution by sharing new research on the lives and labor rooted in Hadley at Forty Acres, now the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, through the Revolutionary Era. This exhibit connects those that were enslaved or indentured at Forty Acres to Fort Ticonderoga, the Green Mountain Boys, the Scottish Highlands, Prussia and beyond, widening our view of the Revolutionary battlefield. The exhibit is free, and open to the public Saturday to Wednesday 1pm-4pm through October 2025. Funded, in part, by the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism and initially funded by the NEH and IMLS, with grants that have been terminated.

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive, Hadley, MA, on Route 47 just two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47 North in Hadley. (413) 584-4699 www.pphmuseum.org