Gloucester’s colonial courthouse was packed with history buffs on Sunday as actor/interpreter Stephen Seals slipped casually into the persona of James Armistead Lafayette, an enslaved African American who spied for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and told Lafayette’s story with wit and charm.
The free program was sponsored by the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation and the Cook Foundation.
Dressed in a Federal-era tailcoat and trousers and decked out with a cravat and a round hat, Seals fully engaged his audience as he shared the story of Lafayette’s life, from his birth into slavery to his career as a war spy to his later years as a free man of color.
James Armistead Lafayette was enslaved by the Armistead family of New Kent County. His master, William Armistead, was the commissary for Virginia’s troops, thus James was tasked with delivering munitions to various units in the Continental Army.
It was while delivering musket flints that he met the Marquis de Lafayet...