The Revolutionary World of a Free NJ Black Man: Jacob Francis

Next date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | 12:30 PM to 01:30 PM

IMPORTANT LOCATION NOTE: This program is presented in partnership with the County College of Morris. You may attend this lecture in-person at the County College of Morris, Learning Resource Center Room 121, 214 Center Grove Rd., Randolph, NJ 07869. (This program is not at Morris County Library.) You may also attend via Zoom.

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Historial researcher, author, and speaker, Larry Kidder, will share the story of Jacob Francis of Amwell township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Indentured by his mother at the age of 21, he regained his freedom and enlisted in a Massachusetts Continental regiment in October 1775. After serving through the siege of Boston, the New York campaign, and the Battle of Trenton he then turned out for active militia duty in his home town in NJ for the rest of the war. There will be time for questions.

This is a hybrid program. You may attend in-person at the County College of Morris, Learning Resource Center Room 121, 214 Center Grove Rd., Randolph, NJ 07869 (no registration required) or via Zoom (registration required to receive the Zoom link).

Click here to register for the Zoom link

About Larry Kidder: William L. (Larry) Kidder received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and is a retired high school history teacher who taught forty years in both public and private schools. He served four years of active duty in the US Navy and was assigned to the US Navy Research and Development Unit, Vietnam and then the destroyer USS Brownson (DD868) home ported in Newport, Rhode Island.

For more than thirty-five years, Larry has been a volunteer at the Howell Living History Farm, part of the Mercer County Park System, in Hopewell, New Jersey where he has served as an historian, interpreter, and draft horse teamster. It was investigating the Revolutionary War activities of the residents of that 18^th century farm and its immediate area that drew Larry into his research and writing on the Revolution.

Active in historical societies in Ewing (past president) and Hopewell (also a past president), Larry has given many talks to a variety of groups in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He continues to be a consultant to various historic sites in central New Jersey including The William Trent House, the Old Barracks, Washington Crossing Historic Park (PA), and Washington Crossing State Park (NJ). He is also a consultant and battlefield tour guide for the Princeton Battlefield Society. As a founding member of the non-profit TenCrucialDays.org he helps narrate full-day bus tours of Ten Crucial Days sites.

Larry is the author of six books focusing on the American Revolution in the central New Jersey region that includes Trenton and Princeton. His most recent book Defending Fort Stanwix was released by Cornell University Press in November 2024. He has a special family connection to the story of the 1777 siege and parts of the Mohawk River Valley. His current book on the almost daily crossings of the Delaware River by elements of George Washington’s army throughout the month of December 1776 is due for publication in 2027.