RPS Presentation, October 14, 2026– Christine L. Ridarsky – Rochester’s Revolutionary Roots
Christine L. Ridarsky is Rochester and Monroe County Historian and co-editor of Rochester History. She has a master’s degree in American History from the State University College at Brockport and a passion for local history and women’s history.
This presentation will cover local connections to the war, including the route that British and Native American loyalists took down the Genesee River on their way to the Battle of Wyoming and to counter the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign; Revolutionary War veterans who made their home and were later buried in the county (including African American and Native American soldiers); and the ways in which revolutionary ideas influenced the development of the area in the 250 years since the revolution, looking at abolition, women’s rights, etc. and the ways in which reformers modeled their own rhetorical arguments on Revolutionary War language, especially the Declaration of Independence.
More information on Christine Ridarsky.