Rutgers Alumna and Historian Are Shaping New Jersey’s Commemoration of America’s 250th

Trustee Linda Caldwell Epps and Professor Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan are playing lead roles in the state's commemoration of the nation's 250th anniversary

New Jersey's official commemoration of the nation's 250^th anniversary is being led by two people with ties to Rutgers University, which is older than the nation itself.

Linda Caldwell Epps, an alumna and member of the university's Board of Trustees, and Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan, assistant professor of history, are co-chairs of the RevolutionNJ advisory council, a group of New Jersey scholars and public history practitioners assisting the New Jersey Historical Commission in planning the state's commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

The pair has forged a common goal in their role as advisors: Ensuring historical accuracy, inclusion, and accountability are synonymous.

"We've really emphasized that we view this as a commemoration and not necessarily a celebration because we have a responsibility to demonstrate the complexity and nuance of the history,'' explained O'Brassill-Kulfan, a faculty member in the History Department, who also is the director of public history and public humanities programs. "We hope that by creating opportunities for the public to think critically about the events at the time of the Revolutionary War and the founding, we're also helping to equip them to consider how these themes have played out in the events of the intervening 250 years.''

Caldwell Epps concurred, saying a key objective for the 250^th anniversary's commemorations in New Jersey is to highlight the ideals of democracy and liberty by including "a more inclusive history'' of the American Revolution.

"It is all for naught unless people are able to make the connection between what happened in 1776, and even before that, and where we are today,'' said Caldwell Epps, who graduated from Douglass College at Rutgers. "And how those principals guided, either in a positive or negative way, the United States of America in 2026."

Linda Caldwell Epps, a Douglass College Alumna and member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, is also president and CEO of 1804 Consultants, which supports the interests of educational and cultural organizations.

Caldwell Epps, O'Brassill-Kulfan, and the rest of the advisory council have provided more than six years of guidance on the themes and programs to commemorate New Jersey's roles in the struggles for American Independence for RevolutionNJ-a partnership between the New Jersey Historical Commission, a state entity, and the nonprofit Crossroads of the American Revolution Association.

They developed a series of questions that became the interpretative plan for commemoration activities: "Who did the American Revolution include and exclude? How is the story of the American Revolution told? How should future generations understand the past?''

For New Jersey, these questions ultimately involve a reckoning with the state's own history of injustices involving Native Americans, the enslavement of African-Americans, and the exploitation of textile and mill workers. The narrative also encompasses later issues in New Jersey of immigration, ethnic discrimination, race relations, and the poor treatment of migrant workers against the backdrop of the founding fathers' ideals of equality and justice.

RevolutionNJ's website outlines an array of commemorative events including: Tavern Talks, offering casual interactive history with reenactors in partnership with craft breweries; Revolutionary Acts, featuring artistic projects depicting the era's stories; History Pinned, where visitors to historic sites can collect a series of buttons designed by local artists; Revolutionary Lives, detailing the stories of the era's ordinary people; and the Liberty Trail New Jersey App, highlighting pivotal battlefields and other noteworthy places during the war.

"We've tried to really shape the key historical questions and themes that should be influencing us as we make decisions about how to commemorate this moment,'' O'Brassill-Kulfan said.

The professor said she endorses the example of an exhibit at the Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton, titled "Five Independent Souls,'' which explores the lives of the five New Jerseyans -- Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, and John Witherspoon -- who signed the Declaration of Independence, alongside the people who they enslaved.

Morven's website explains the presentation's complexity: "This exhibit also confronts one of the most confounding actualities around the signers of the Declaration of Independence: these five men, who put their lives on the line for liberty, freedom, and equality, simultaneously denied these very same rights to the people they enslaved. Visitors can learn about the lives of these subjugated men, women, and children who would have witnessed conversations on freedom and equality while being held in bondage in the homes of these patriots."

Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan is an assistant professor in the History Department in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick.

RevolutionNJ's website and the promoted events help offer the public a source of content and context alike on the era's major New Jersey events, like General George Washington's Christmas 1776 crossing of the Delaware enroute to stunning victories at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, to lesser-known stories, like that of Cudjo Banquante, an enslaved Newark man in his 60s who fought in the War for Independence in place of his owner.

Marking the anniversary provides the public an increased "appreciation for history and for New Jersey culture,'' said Caldwell Epps, who also is president and CEO of 1804 Consultants, which supports the interests of educational and cultural organizations. "And how does New Jersey fit into this experiment called the United States of America?''

Caldwell Epps worked on uncovering Banquante's story of hardship and suffering that began when he was enslaved in Ghana at about 15. Banquante, in servitude to a Newark family, served as a soldier under Washington and fought at the Battle of Monmouth, as well as being part of the Continental Army that forced the 1781 British surrender at Yorktown, according to Caldwell Epps. In 1784 when Banquante was about 70, she said his war service earned him his freedom and an acre of land, which led to his late-life triumphs as Newark's first documented businessman of African descent.

"The more we uncover, the more we understand and realize just how complicated our history has been and how ugly it can sometimes be,'' Caldwell Epps said.

Building support and interest in the humanities also is a key goal for the historians.

"The world is more than science and math. It's people. It's understanding our culture and our history and being able to take that understanding and incorporating it into our daily lives,'' said Caldwell Epps. "The humanities have come under severe attack, and hopefully this is an opportunity for people to see what it is that we do and why the work that we do is important.''

Yet, despite all of RevolutionNJ's efforts, the work remains ongoing as the 250^th anniversary year unfolds.

"There's so much research still to be done,'' O'Brassill-Kulfan said. "There are still things that we're learning, and history is not something that is kind of said and done. It's an ongoing living, breathing interpretation.''