Did you know that George Washington authorized five invasions of British East Florida and wrote over 80 letters to Congress and his general staff citing St. Augustine as both a military target and a military concern? Friends' signature Brown Bag Lunch Program welcomes Dr. Roger Smith, who will discuss Florida’s significant Revolutionary War history, as well as share interesting stories from his first two works in a series of history textbook supplements, The 14th Colony: George Washington’s Planned Invasions of East Florida, and Hope of Freedom: Southern Blacks and the American Revolution.

Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in Early American History and Atlantic World Studies, with a certificate of scholarship in Museum Studies, from the University of Florida. His work on the American Revolution in the South has received the Aschoff Fellowship Dissertation Award and the Jack and Celia Proctor Award in Southern History. He is an independent research historian with Colonial Research Associates, and speaks from New England to Florida on his Revolutionary War research.

In addition to consulting for the AMC television series Turn, Dr. Smith contributed to a documentary on the 450 year history of St. Augustine, America: The Prequel. He has worked on projects with the Florida Humanities Council, the University of West Florida, the University of Florida, the City of St. Augustine, the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, and the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, and has been published recently in the Florida Historical Quarterly. His Brown Bag Lunch presentation and supplemental texts (currently being used in five Florida county school systems) are drawn from 5 ½ years of Ph.D. research at UF and promise to leave Friends patrons wondering “What else don’t I know about the American Revolution?”

Friends sponsors the Wednesday Brown Bag Lunch Program once a month as a community event. Patrons are welcome to bring their lunch and light refreshments will be provided. For additional information, please call the Main Library at the number listed or contact Friends President Toni Siriani, toni825@hotmail.com.