Jim Capers, a free African American who courageously served as a Drum Major during the American Revolution, survived brutal battles and close-quarters combat, including being severely wounded at Eutaw Springs. Capers spent his final years in Alabama, where his extraordinary contributions to the fight for independence went largely uncelebrated before his death at the age of 111 in 1853.
Thomas Carney was an African American soldier who fought in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
James Carter, a native of Virginia, fought bravely in pivotal battles like Camden and Yorktown during the American Revolution, earning a land bounty and a pension for his service, and was recognized as a "free person of color" at age eighty-five in the 1840 census.
Dr. Benjamin Church, the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army, was a secret British spy whose treason was exposed in 1775, leading to his exile and mysterious disappearance at sea.
Uncovering History
We invite you to visit the preserved locations along the Liberty Trail and to immerse
yourself in the extraordinary events that determined the fate of a nation.
A precursor movement to the Battle of Monmouth, this Quaker meeting house was surrounded by the encampment of British troops under Alexander Leslie in mid-June of 1778.
Also known as the Battle of Fort Mercer, Hessian forces under Colonel Von Donop unsuccessfully stormed this fort on the 22 of October, 1777. Halted by combined arms of infantry and ships on the Delaware River, the Hessians suffered significant losses.
This building was the home of the captain of the Lincoln Minutemen, William Smith, who led his men at the Lexington Green on April 19, 1775.
A strategic location for the defense of New York's harbor, the Continentals failed to reinforce this peninsula, leading to the city's capture in August of 1776. A lighthouse dating to 1764 still operates there today, once serving as a Loyalist fortification.
This last major battle of the war in the South succeeded in driving the British out of rural South Carolina.
This historic house museum was the home of Thomas Heyward, Jr., one of four South Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Boone Hall was influential in the history of South Carolina. Explore the house and grounds of this Colonial Plantation, as well as a live presentation of the Gullah Culture adapted by African slaves.
At dawn on April 19, 1775, an unknown shot shattered the silence in Lexington. British Redcoats and colonial militia clashed, leaving blood on the field. In Concord, the patriots struck back, and as the British retreated, gunfire hounded them to Boston, thus sparking the American Revolution
Site of the Second Viriginia Convention and Patrick Henry's famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Now a quiet park in the center of urban Morristown, this green once served as the training and parade grounds of the Continental Army during its 1777 winter encampment.
The sound of liberty rang from this bell in the early morning of April 19, 1775, to call forth the Lexington militia. Today, a reconstructed belfry stands as a reminder of the militia's bravery and determination at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
One of the bloodiest sites during the Battle of Lexington and Concord, this house saw extensive combat and still bears the scars left behind by the engagement.