By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — “I support the troops, but I don’t like the war.”
Who hasn’t heard someone say that? And when we hear it, we naturally think of current events and the war in Iraq.
Actually, people from the Revolutionary War era in New Jersey, right here in Lambertville, said the same thing, according to local historian Kimberly Costa.
”The more things change, the more they stay the same,” she said.
People who said it in the 1780s faced the same kind of hostility people today might face for voicing objections to a war. Maybe worse.
”If you say that, some people get very upset,” said Ms. Costa, the executive director of the James Marshall House, the home of the Lambertville Historical Society.
Ms. Costa will portray a woman from 1781 who could have said the same thing and nearly lost everything because of it.
”Loyalty to Whom, Sir?” will be presented May 4 at 3:30 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room of the James Marshall House Museum at 60 Bridge St.
Ms. Costa will become Patsy Howe in the free first-person program, telling visitors about her life and what forces made her a Loyalist. Guests will be able to ask her questions about the times and her choices.
”I think they’ll be surprised to learn there were so many shades of gray, whether you were a Loyalist or a patriot,” said Ms. Costa, who has been performing in living history programs for 20 years.
Ms. Howe is a composite of people from the era, Ms. Costa said. Because she was a Loyalist, she lost her husband and her children and her farm.
”It almost destroyed her,” Ms. Costa said.
Most people grow up learning more about the patriots’ side of the Revolutionary War, Ms. Costa said, but there were reasons to be a Loyalist, too.
In the case of Ms. Howe, she and her husband disliked mob rule as it erupted in events such as the Boston Tea Party when private property was destroyed by the Revolutionaries.
Ms. Costa wrote the character after consulting court documents, diaries and letters of the period.
”I have to say living history is my passion, and the character of Patsy is fun to play as she is a very angry women with lots of great power behind her,” she said.
Because Ms. Howe and her husband refused to sign a document proclaiming their loyalty to the cause, they lost their New Jersey farm. He was sent to a prison camp. Her daughter was exiled to Nova Scotia because she married an Anglican minister. Her sons joined the British Army and traveled south.
No reservations are needed for the program. Refreshments will be served.
For information, call the society at 397-0770 or e-mail [email protected].