The city of Selma will celebrate the 200th anniversary of a visit by a hero of the Revolutionary War in April.
Old Cahawba Archeological Park will celebrate the life and legacy of the Marquis de Lafayette on April 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. They plan to reenact a visit he made to Alabama 200 years ago as part of a tour of America exactly 200 years ago.
The reenactment will go all the way from the park in Orrville to Selma’s Public Library, which is also part of a three-day event.
The city of Selma will unveil a historical marker commemorating Lafayette’s visit to the Queen City 200 years ago.
Lafayette was born in France in 1757 and gained the position of captain in his father-in-law’s Noailles Dragoons when he was 18. This position eventually garnered him the merit of becoming a revolutionary for American independence.
According to a display at the Selma Public Library, “Lafayette, realizing that the ideals of the ‘American Cause’ reflected his own, was determined to volunteer in the Continental Army. His father-in-law refused his approval. Eventually, King Louis XVI prohibited all French officers from serving in America. Undeterred, Lafayette met with Silas Deane, an American agent, hired by Congress, to recruit foreign officers.”
In December of 1776, Deane offered Lafayette a commission as major general in the Continental Army. Lafayette bought his own boat to make the trip to America.
Linda Derry, who is organizing the event at Old Cahawba, said that many people don’t realize how important Lafayette was to the creation of the nation.
“He truly believed in liberty and equality for all,” Derry said. “Our Declaration of Independence was based upon those principles, but the United States remains a place where achieving these goals requires continued effort. Perhaps the greatest of those efforts occurred right here in Alabama’s Black Belt.”
“With the Voting Rights March in 1965, and before that, Alabama had an avid suffragette movement, so what better place and time to celebrate the promise of America, Lafayette, and the Spirit of 1776,” Derry said.
Everyone is encouraged to join the Old Cahawba Archeological Park on April 5 to celebrate a young revolutionary and an advocate for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights.
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