Remember Liss Programs

Bring Remember Liss programs to your classroom, library, book club, or historical society. 

Programs are presented by Claire Bellerjeau, the historian who discovered Liss through over 20 years of original research.

Contact Claire to schedule a program by using the form below or email claire.bellerjeau@rememberliss.org.

Choose from 3 Programs:

1. “Remember Liss: A New American Founding Figure”

Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau as she shares the discovery of a new founding figure named Elizabeth, or Liss. Liss was enslaved by the Townsend family of Oyster Bay, New York, whose most famous member was Robert Townsend aka “Culper, Jr.”, George Washington's lead spy in Manhattan during the Revolutionary War. As Robert and Liss’s story unfolds, prominent figures cross their path, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Benedict Arnold, John Graves Simcoe, John André and John Adams; as well as the Culper Spy Ring, the Boston Massacre, the Battle of Long Island, and the Benedict Arnold treason plot. Liss’s escape with the British, re-enslavement in Manhattan and later Charleston, and her complex struggle for freedom gives new insight into the country's founding era, through the eyes of an enslaved Black woman seeking liberty in a country fighting for its own.

2. “Cato in the Revolution: Spies, Slavery, Church, and Chocolate”

Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau as she shares her exciting new discoveries about Cato, an enslaved Black man who aided the Patriot spy and tailor Hercules Mulligan during the Revolutionary War. Cato’s story, once mere legend, comes to life with details of an assassination plot against Washington, enslavement in the powerful Schuyler family, Cato’s religious life at St. Paul’s Chapel, and the intersection of colonial chocolate making and slavery. Showing great bravery, agency, skill, and faith, Cato represents other unknown and often “invisible” people of color who helped shape the course of the Revolution—and the history of the United States.

3. The Discovery of David Maltbie: A Successful Spy in the Revolution

Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau as she shares her exciting new research about David Maltbie, a Patriot spy from Connecticut who gathered intelligence in New York during the Revolutionary War. His journey began very much like the famous spy Nathan Hale, with one important difference; Maltbie survived. Discover how the young spy was captured early in the war by the British on Long Island, then took part in daring whaleboat raids against Loyalist mid-war, only to be arrested again in Manhattan at the end of the war, evading death a second time. Once forgotten, except in the recollections of a young girl, David Maltbie’s daring tale of espionage reminds us that more founding figures are waiting to be uncovered and remembered.