240th Reenactment of Second Continental Congress
By Michael Marconi
There is an historical reenactment in Staten Island, NY that most people don’t know much about.
On September 11, 1776, three members of the Second Continental Congress from Philadelphia–Ben Franklin (Pennsylvania), John Adams (Massachusetts) and Edward Rutledge (South Carolina) went by boat to Staten Island to negotiate with the British attempting to avoid the Revolutionary War.
Painting by Robert Edge Pine, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The peace talks failed since “the British General did not see eye to eye with the congressmen,” and they left in hostility.
Every year near Sept. 11, The Conference House, where the 1776 meetings occurred, hosts a reenactment of the event on Staten Island.
This year, the 2016 Conference House held the reenactment on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are many fun activities for the entire family such as musket shooting demonstrations, event tables, and characters dressed in period garb. Dinner is cooked and served as it was in 1776—a sort of chicken broth stirred over a fire in a cauldron-type pot. A remembrance ceremony is held for those lost on Sept.11, 2001 with a bagpipe performance in memoriam.
For more information and historical enjoyment, visit www.theconferencehouse.org.