EDENTON — Local history is coming alive again this fall as the Friends of the Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library and Historic Edenton State Historic Sites present the 18th Annual Armchair Traveler Series, “Freedom Rings in the Albemarle 2026.” The free program runs every Monday at 5:30 p.m. beginning September 14 at the historic 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, 117 E. King St.
I like the Armchair Travel Series — this welcome news was sent by one of our dedicated readers — thanks.
File with the times, dates, etc., appears at the end of this story.
And the file photo of Tangier Island, Virginia, with this story is random — not related to the series but better than an AI-generated graphic.
This year’s series digs into stories from the Revolutionary era that shaped the Albemarle region — some well known, many long overlooked — featuring authors, historians, re-enactors and descendants of the very families whose stories they tell.
The series opens September 14 with a conversation on the Jacobs family of Edenton, an enslaved family whose members became formidable freedom fighters. Michelle Lanier, director of the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and head of the Harriet Jacobs Project, will speak with author Jonathan D. S. Schroeder about his scholarship on Harriet and John Jacobs.
The following Monday, September 21, regional historian Barbara Snowden recounts the story of teenager Betsy Dowdy, who in 1775 rode through the night to Hertford to warn troops of an approaching British attack. Snowden, a retired educator, sits on the North Carolina Historical Commission and the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee.
On September 28, U.S. Army veteran and Citadel history graduate Lynn Bull — an award-winning teacher and re-enactor whose uniforms and historic gear have appeared in Hollywood films and television productions — will walk the audience through the details of Revolutionary War military dress.
October 5 brings authors Christine and Bill Barber, who will discuss their new book, “Forgotten Patriots of the Albemarle,” chronicling hundreds of lesser-known citizens who advanced early American freedoms. The Virginia-educated couple has spent years researching historic figures and battle sites throughout the region.
The library will be closed October 12, pausing the series for one week.
The programming resumes October 19 with retired attorney and local resident Dick Mayer, author of “Joseph Hewes: A Forgotten Patriot,” examining why Edenton honors patriots Joseph Hewes and Dr. Hugh Williamson — two men whose work touched both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
On October 26, Laura Rogers and Amanda Irvin of Historic Edenton State Historic Sites, part of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, tell the story of the 1777 Gourd Patch Conspiracy — a failed uprising plotted by farmers from Martin, Tyrrell, Pitt and Bertie counties who met secretly in a pumpkin patch to plan against North Carolina’s Patriot government.
The series closes November 2 with the remarkable story of Jonathan Overton, a free Black man and three-time Revolutionary War soldier from Edenton. A seaman by trade and a Revolutionary War pension recipient, Overton appeared in the first U.S. Federal Census in 1790 and lived past the age of 100. His story will be presented by local researchers and Overton descendants Jeffrey D. Whitehead, executive director of the LINEAGE Act, and attorney Aysia Mayo-Gray, herself a descendant of three prominent Edenton families.
Now in its 18th year, the Armchair Traveler Series has become a fixture of Edenton’s cultural calendar, drawing residents and visitors alike into the courthouse that has anchored the town since 1767. All programs are free and open to the public, offering a rare chance to hear directly from historians, authors and descendants whose research is reshaping how the Albemarle region’s Revolutionary history is understood and told.
The series runs Mondays at 5:30 p.m. through November 2 (excluding October 12) at the Chowan County Courthouse, 117 E. King St., Edenton.
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