The Georgia Archives is proud to present the 2026 April History Symposium, "Tracing Footsteps: Beyond the Founding Story in Revolutionary Georgia," a two-day event examining underrepresented voices of the Revolutionary era in the South as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of independence. Through perspectives often left out of traditional anniversary narratives, this year’s symposium invites attendees to reconsider how the era was experienced, remembered, and recorded.

This year’s symposium will highlight stories that complicate the familiar “founding” narrative of America’s Revolution, including the life of Austin Dabney, the legacy of Nancy Hart, and Loyalist voices that reveal the divisions within communities. Together, these sessions show how race, gender, class, and allegiance shaped the choices people made and the consequences they lived with long after the fighting ended. Understanding these perspectives is essential not only for historical accuracy but for recognizing how public memory gets built and whose experiences are elevated or erased.