Bergen County Launches Revolutionary War Lecture Series for America’s 250th Anniversary

Bergen County will host a year-long Revolutionary War lecture series starting Jan. 14 to celebrate America's 250th birthday. The first event kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Bergen County Administration Building's Learning Center on the fourth floor at 1 Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack.

Bergen250, the Bergen County Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs, and the County of Bergen are organizing the 2026 American Revolutionary War Roundtable Series. The program will focus on the region before, during, and after the Revolutionary period.

Tim Adriance will give the opening lecture titled "Roots of Resistance: Why Some Jersey Dutch Joined the Patriot Cause in the Revolution." Adriance is a local historian and lifelong Bergen County resident with ancestral roots in the area that go back generations. His talk will examine factors that took shape more than a century before 1776 and the beliefs that sparked the quest for independence by the Jersey Dutch.

During the Revolution, Bergen County's population consisted mainly of a group known as the Jersey Dutch. Most residents supported the British, but a minority backed the Patriot movement.

Can't make it in person? Watch a recording on the County of Bergen's YouTube channel after the event.

Four more lectures will follow throughout the year. Kevin Tremble will speak Feb. 11 about "Defense of the Hudson: Preserving the Hudson River Battlefield." Char Weigel presents "A Revolutionary Revelation: The Complex Story of Peggy Shippen Arnold" on March 11.

Jack Kelly will discuss "Thomas Paine in the American Revolution" on April 8. The series concludes May 13 with Todd Braisted presenting "The Mud Rounds: The British Invasion and the Great Retreat Across the Jerseys."

All sessions take place at the same venue at 7 p.m.