Feb. 16, 7 pm: “The Great New York Fire of 1776,” Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, Centerport, NY

The Great New York Fire of 1776

Benjamin Carp explores a lost story of the American Revolution

On Thursday, February 16th, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum will host Benjamin L. Carp, noted historian of the American Revolution, for an evening lecture on one of the great mysteries of our early nation.

Carp’s presentation will draw heavily from his years of research and from his forthcoming book The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution (Yale UP). In The Great New York Fire, Carp reconstructs the political climate of eighteenth-century North America and highlights the significance of New York City as a strategic center in the American War of Independence. He returns to the summer of 1776, when the rebel army under George Washington repeatedly threatened to burn New York City to the ground rather than see it fall under British control. Under these circumstances and days into the British occupation of the city, a tremendous fire swept across Manhattan, destroying a fifth of its buildings and creating the conditions for riot and plunder. Was this devastating fire the result of an accident at a tavern? Or was it started under direct orders from the revolutionary commander? Carp’s important retelling of this seminal but largely forgotten event features some of the American Revolution’s most important figures, including Nathan Hale, an early patriot with special importance for Long Island, and another lesser-known spy who deserves equal adulation.