Culpeper Lafayette Bicentennial Visit
The Museum of Culpeper History’s exhibit celebrating the Lafayette Bicentennial closes on Oct. 1, 2025. The museum is one of the national sites commemorating the 200-year anniversary of General de Lafayette’s tour of the 24 states of United States as Guest of the Nation (Aug. 15, 1824-Sept. 7, 1825).
Culpeper Lafayette Bicentennial Visit
The museum exhibit focuses on two periods. First, the American Revolutionary War and Lafayette’s decisive role in Virginia Campaign of June 1781 where he commanded 3000 Continental soldiers and militia. He joined with other American forces as well as with French naval Commander Admiral de Grasse to defeat British General Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown in the early fall of 1781. Next, 40 years later Lafayette returned a Guest of the Nation.
What has interested me is the passion determination shown by Lafayette as a young man to defend the rights of man and work toward abolition of slavery.
On a tour of Montpelier, seated at the dining room table are James Madison, his wife Dolley, Lafayette and others, portrayed as life size cutout posters.
The docent pointed out that Lafayette questioned Madison on a contradiction—his role as one of the Founding Fathers of the Constitution yet as someone who had approximately 300 enslaved people working on his farm.
Restored slave quarters at Montpelier
Already, during the American Revolution, Lafayette’s ideals were apparent. Madison described him as a man of “considerable talents” with goals such as ensuring the emancipation of slaves, which “does him real honor as it is a proof of his humanity.” (Hicks). Lafayette went beyond conversation of these ideas to implementation—the help in freeing the enslaved James Armistead, who had a vital role as a spy in the war and soon after to liberate slaves in a French colony and ensure training and education to better their lives. He went on to co-author the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in France at the outset of the French Revolution.
At this dinner in November 1824, Lafayette’s secretary, Auguste Levasseur, wrote that although the Frenchman understood the “disagreeable situation of American slaveholder. . . .[and] motives which prevent them from more rapidly advancing in the definite emancipation of the blacks, never missed an opportunity to defend the right which all men without exception to have liberty.’” (Account). To this day, Lafayette remains someone with an exceptional legacy—humanitarian values and a willingness to make sacrifices in the name of these ideals.
Important dates
American Revolutionary War – April 19, 1775 – Sept. 3, 1783
French Revolution – May 5, 1789-Nov. 9, 1799
Lafayette’s return to the United States – August 1824 – September 1825.
Works Cited
“Account of Lafayette’s Visit to Montpelier, [15–19 November 1824],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-03-02-0426. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Retirement Series, vol. 3, 1 March 1823 – 24 February 1826, ed. David B. Mattern, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, and Katherine E. Harbury. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, pp. 430–433.]
Hicks, Hilarie. “Lafayette’s Farewell Tour: ‘The Guest of the Nation’ Visits Montpelier.’” 1 December 2021. James Madison’s Montpelier. https://www.montpelier.org/lafayettes-farewell-tour-the-guest-of-the-nation-visits-montpelier/. Accessed 19 September 2025.
The Life and Legacy of The Marquis de Lafayette: A Traveling Exhibit. Museum of Culpeper History. Culpeper, Va. 21 August 2025 – 1 October 2025.
Related Works
Culpeper Hosts a Hero: General Lafayette’s Visit, August 1825. Culpeper Lafayette Bicentennial Souvenir Program, 1825-2025. Culpeper Lafayette Bicentennial Committee, Museum of Culpeper History, Culpeper, Va. 2025.
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