2010-2011 Friends of Valley Forge Speaker Series November 2, 2010

“In the Absence of Public Authority: Beginning the American Revolution, April-June 1775”
Presented by: Cheryl Collins, This year's Bruce Baky Fellow

About the presentation: As the American Revolution began with the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, no leadership existed for a united effort until Washington took command in late June. The Continental Congress’s role, and its future, were far from certain; virtually no functioning colonial governments remained; and new state governments had not yet formed. The resulting confusion surrounding the build-up of American military forces around Boston had enormous consequences for the evolution of both the new Continental Army and the Continental Congress as they began building from nothing.

About the speaker: Cheryl R. Collins is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Virginia, and this year’s Bruce Baky Valley Forge Fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation examines the effort to create a stable system of newly-independent American states during the Revolution and the difficulties that wartime logistics presented in that process. She has a Master’s Degree in history from the University of Utah, where she focused on American interstate relations during the 1780s.

Sponsored by the Color Guard of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution