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L'Entre Triumphale de Troupes Royales a Nouvelle Yorck, Franz Xaver Habermann, c. 1776. Purchase, 1998, MVLA [Print-5234/RP-828]

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Ramin Ganeshram's research project, Summer Spies, Soldiers, and Servants: African Americans in Washington's Revolutionary New York

Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Ganeshram is researching how enslaved and free communities of color covertly and overtly influenced and affected Washington’s actions as commander of the Continental Army during the summer of 1776 while occupying Manhattan Island.

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About the Presenter

Ramin Ganeshram is a culinary historian and executive director of Westport Museum for History & Culture in Westport, CT. Ganeshram studies the foodways of African-descendant and mixed race communities in colonial and early Federal America as well as the English-speaking Caribbean.  

Ganeshram’s forthcoming books include Coal Pots & King Cane: Caribbean Foodways and the Making of America (UNC Press 2026) and Stirring Liberty: How George Washington’s Enslaved Chef Transformed American Cuisine and Secretly Cooked His Way to Freedom (Simon & Schuster/37Ink 2026). 

She is considered the foremost expert on Hercules Posey, the chef enslaved by George and Martha Washington.