Writing History: David S. Reynolds talks with Ryan J. Woods about "Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America"

Writing History: David S. Reynolds talks with Ryan J. Woods about "Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America"
Hybrid Event
Zoom; American Ancestors headquarters, 97 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116
5:00 – 6:15 p.m. (Eastern Time)  

Join us for this revelatory evening viewing our country’s history through the prism of two ships that brought people and new ideas to the North and South. With prize-winning historian David Reynolds and Ryan J. Woods of American Ancestors explore the colonial settlements of Plymouth and Jamestown and their war of ideas, also the craft of researching and writing history.

In the polarized decades leading up to the American Civil War, many traced our strife to the arrival of two ships:  The White Lion, which brought the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown in 1619; and the Mayflower, which brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock in 1620. Invoked by such thought-leaders as Frederick Douglass, the two ships stood for two distinct realities: the Puritans and the Cavaliers, names and ideologies born in the bloodshed of the English Civil War. One was steeped in the ideas of divine right and patriarchal hierarchies. The other carried dissenters to the king and his church, the seeds of a more egalitarian political vision.  Join the prize-winning historian David S. Reynolds and moderator Ryan J. Woods to explore these ships’ dueling images and their legacies, also this acclaimed author’s processes for research and writing about America’s history.

“By telling the story of the White Lion and of the Mayflower, David S. Reynolds has found a new and compelling way to explore the infinite complexities of the American story—complexities that shape us still.” —Jon Meacham

“Provocative . . . essential reading for today’s polarized times.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr."

Click below to join the live Zoom session, beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, October 22. A recording will be sent following the live broadcast. 

American Ancestors
97 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.; event begins at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

For more information about parking, directions, and more, please visit: https://www.americanancestors.org/about/visit 

Virtual attendees who purchase the $50 bundled ticket will be mailed a signed (book plated) copy of Two Ships (hardcover, $37 value), in addition to gaining access to the virtual program. Book(s) will be shipped Priority Mail throughout the U.S., except in Massachusetts (Media Mail). In-person attendees will pick up their signed books at the evening program.  

David S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography, winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Ambassador Book Award. His other books include Beneath the American Renaissance, winner of the Christian Gauss Award; John Brown, Abolitionist; Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson; Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America; and Lincoln’s Selected Writings. His most recent book is Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, the basis of the documentary Lincoln’s Dilemma and winner of the Gilder Lehrman Abraham Lincoln Prize.

Ryan J. Woods is President and CEO of American Ancestors. An educator and historian, he has spent more than two decades advancing family history, heritage, and culture through scholarship, teaching, and public engagement. Ryan serves in leadership roles with several nonprofit organizations, including as an appointed commissioner of the Special Commission for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as a member of the advisory board for the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. During his tenure at American Ancestors, he has overseen the expansion of AmericanAncestors.org to more than one billion searchable records and led transformative initiatives, including the launch of 10 Million Names, the new national headquarters, and the Family Heritage Experience.