Join us, Thursday, April 24, 2025 at 4pm for a Fellow’s Forum by Charlene M. Boyer Lewis, the Larry J. Bell Distinguished Professor in American History at Kalamazoo College.
Held in the Berkeley Conference Room of the Jefferson Library, this Fellow’s Forum is free and open to the public. The Presentation will begin promptly at 4pm and last for 60 minutes, including an opportunity for Q&A and discussion.
About the Presentation
While most of us know the story of Benedict Arnold’s treason, few of us know the story of his wife Margaret’s (or Peggy’s) treason and life. Much of what took place during those few days at West Point, in fact, much of the story of the Arnolds is shrouded in legend and outright fiction. We think we know Benedict’s motivations for turning over West Point, and possibly General George Washington. We think of Benedict as the most notorious traitor in American history, and historians have spent reams of paper chronicling every step of the treason and trying to explain Benedict’s motives. But, we still know comparatively little about his wife Peggy, the role she played, and her possible motivations. If we change our view of the Arnolds’ actions to include Margaret and not just Benedict, the narrative and significance of the treason and its context change. And, more importantly, a fuller picture of Revolutionary America is revealed. There is so much to tell about Margaret Shippen Arnold. This talk will look at the many myths and misunderstandings and purposeful retellings (especially by her family)—both big and small—that many historians and many Americans—believe about Peggy Shippen and her story still today. Much can be learned about her, women, and the Revolution in general by unpacking (or destroying) them.
About Charlene Boyer Lewis
Charlene M. Boyer Lewis is the Larry J. Bell Distinguished Professor in American History at Kalamazoo College. She is a co-editor of the Jeffersonian America Series for the University Press of Virginia. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and M.A. from American University. She specializes in women’s history, family history, and American cultural and social history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is the author of Ladies and Gentlemen on Display: Planter Society at the Virginia Springs, 1790-1860 and Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: An American Aristocrat in the Early Republic. Her article entitled “Modern Gratitude: Patriarchy, Romance, and Recrimination in the Early Republic” appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic in Spring, 2019. Most recently, she co-edited and had an essay in The Women in George Washington’s World, published in 2022 by the University Press of Virginia. Her next project is an examination of Margaret Shippen Arnold, the wife of Benedict Arnold, and American culture in the Revolutionary Era and will be published by Norton in early 2027.