Admission is free. However, donations are welcome to benefit the sponsors, the Foundation for Historic Christ Church, and Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library Inc.

Dr. Tillson, author of Accommodating Revolutions: Virginia’s Northern Neck in an Era of Transformation 1760-1810, will speak about the 1779 abduction of the Atwell and its implications about Revolutionary society, according to Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library executive director Karen Hart.

A small group of Tory-supporting Westmoreland residents, British army deserters, and runaway slaves seized the Atwell with its crew, and fled down the Potomac River before being captured at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, said Hart.

The book examines the sources of conflict that characterized the society of Revolutionary Virginia and explains why in the end so little really changed by studying the interactions of planters, slaves, Scottish merchants, poor whites, and evangelicals on the Northern Neck, she said.

Reservations are requested to 462-7280 or history@mbwm.org.  A book-signing will follow and books may be purchased at the event or at the Mary Ball Washington Museum and Historic Christ Church gift shops for $47.25, including tax.