I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now.

Today on the show, we talk about the fantastic life of James Armistad Lafayette, a man who was

enslaved in Virginia, was given permission by his enslaver to join the revolutionary cause,

and became perhaps the most valuable spy in the lead-up to the American victory at Yorktown.

It's a great episode. Our guest is Stephen Seals, who has played James Armistad Lafayette at Colonial Williamsburg for more than a decade,

and it's just so fascinating to talk about his life and what we can't know,

there's so few documents that are left from his life, and then how we as historians and Stephen

as an interpreter get into trying to fill in the gaps in ways that make a meaningful story.

It's all there, and it's kind of the epitome of how hard it is when you're trying to get

lives lived in the past, when you can't actually speak to the living people. Before we go on,

I will address here, we've said nothing about the election on this podcast. Maybe that's

been a relief to some folks. This is all the circumstance of Bob and I being responsible

enough to get several episodes

recorded a few weeks ago, which as you know, sometimes we're pushing deadlines. But I don't

think we really thought about the fact that we had recorded several of them that would then

air after the election. So don't worry that's coming. Bob's actually working on a couple of episodes, getting them squared up.

We will address that issue.

We are not acting as if it didn't happen.

It obviously has consequences, and we are looking forward to finding ways to look at the past

to help us navigate the next many years of our lives, because the democracy will live on.

Finally, thank you to all the patrons who keep the show going.

I can't tell you how much we appreciate it.

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