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Our Jeffersonian Picnic Series invites you to explore some BIG IDEAS based on historic events or documents. BYO picnic and a few friends and enjoy an evening in the historic ambiance of Fort Mifflin. Explore the site, discuss the historic topic “on the menu” and enjoy musket and cannon demonstrations. Reserve a picnic table in our riverfront picnic area complete with table covering, water bottles and lantern for $10. Tables will be set up to accommodate social distancing between them and can comfortably seat a group of 4 to 8. Unreserved tables are first come, first served.The program portion of the evening (6:30 to 7:30) takes place in the Picnic Area and follows the format Thomas Jefferson established when hosting guests at his own dinner table. Our presenter will provide background on the BIG IDEA “on the menu” for the evening, raise some questions to get your started, then turn discussion over to you.
On the menu this evening: Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence declaring “all men are created equal” yet ran his farm with enslaved laborers. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France during Jefferson’s presidency set the stage for the United States to begin displacing vast Native populations. So who were all the men in Jefferson’s declaration that were created equal? Was the Declaration of Independence drafted as a vision for the new nation or merely convenient propaganda to gain support for separation from the British Empire?
Tonight’s program falls on the eve of Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, two months after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX and informed the enslaved African Americans of the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years prior and of the end of the Civil War.
Tickets $5 Students 6-18, $15 Seniors and Veterans, $20 General Admission
Reserve a picnic table (seats 4 to 8) set with table covering, lantern. water bottles $10
Bucket List Opportunity! Fire the Fort Mifflin Cannon $20
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Fort Mifflin, 6400 Hog Island Rd, Philadelphia, United States
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