We often associate the American Revolution with Boston, Philadelphia, or faraway London. Yet Berkshire County played a surprisingly significant role in making the revolution, founding the United States, and its messy aftermath. In this lecture, historian Justin Jackson reveals how this region helped forge the United States and shape a bold democratic republic. From the first open resistance to British authority, patriots’ daring capture of Fort Ticonderoga, and exposing the traitor Benedict Arnold to abolishing slavery, farmers’ protests, and insistence on popular constitution-making, the Berkshires proved a frontier of revolution – and built our nation’s foundations as a democratic republic, conceived in liberty. Free admission and refreshments offered. Sponsored by Mass Humanities.