Novels of America's First Frontier & Beyond
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Speaking Events
Need a speaker about history or an historical event? Want some motivation to study history or write? Check out the list of suggested talks below, then contact Donna. She would love to come talk to your history group, writing or book group, or even a group of your friends!
Don't see a topic you are interested in? Peruse Donna's blog or suggest an idea for her. She may well offer to create a topic just for you and yours!
Making History Come To Life for Your Children and Grandchildren
An engaging power point presentation about the most important reasons why we should make history a part of our daily lives and how to do so in easy, step-by-step ways.
We live in an era when our connection with the past, which is so vital to our future, has been ruptured over and again. Young people and children see history as faded and boring, not flashy and exciting like video games and movies. Schools teach facts and avoid time-worn documents, diaries, and the words of the very people who lived before us.
This presentation is good for just about any group or club interested in history and how to interest our young people in the same.
The 1778 Big Siege of Fort Boonesborough and the Winning of the American West During the American Revolution
In early September 1778, 400 Shawnee warriors surrounded the fledgling settlement fort of Boonesborough in today's Kentucky. That day, Daniel Boone gave the settlers' a choice - surrender or face death.
A quick, concise historical account and power-point presentation of the 1778 Big Siege of Fort Boonesborough, its impact on the vastness and richness of the trans-Appalachian region, and the high stakes game that ultimately the siege won for young United States after the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Based on historical accounts, and Donna's book The Big Siege of Fort Boonesborough and the Winning of the American West, this is a perfect presentation for history clubs, genealogy clubs, and national societies such as The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
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Oceans of Darkness, Oceans of Light: The Legacy of George Fox and the Quakers
The Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they were often called, were not the same as the Puritans, the Amish, the Mennonites, or the Shakers. The Quakers had a distinct history of their own. Their belief in peace and quietness, simple words, and their refusal to participate in military service not only clashed with the aforementioned groups, but put them on the receiving end of persecutions and scorn by public officials, friends, neighbors, and acquaintance. Records are rife with imprisonments, fines, and the costs they paid for their beliefs.
An intriguing power-point presentation of the beginning of Quakerism in England, its early movement into America, and its early beliefs, practices, and lifestyle, especially in regard to the Virginia Quakers, a long-forgotten and often misunderstood smaller sect.
The presentation can be tailored to genealogy groups with references regarding resource and reserach material, or it can be about Quakers and their legacy in the colonies. The latter choice would be ideal for history, reading, and writing groups.