The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and The Age of Revolution

Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 7:30 PM
At The De Lamar Mansion – Residence of the Consulate General of Poland in NY
233 Madison Avenue at 37th Street

The event is free and open to the public but space is limited.
All attendees must RSVP by April 29th.

After George Washington, there are more statues in the United States of Thaddeus Kosciuszko than any other American historical figure. And every day, millions of TV and radio listeners hear about the traffic jams on the Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, as well as the gridlock on the Kosciuszko Bridge north of Albany.

Yet few people know that Kosciuszko gave his salary from the American Revolution to Thomas Jefferson and told him to use the money to buy slaves – and free them.
It was Kosciuszko’s plan for West Point that Benedict Arnold tried to sell to the British, and it was Kosciuszko’s plan to use the high ground at Bemis Heights that allowed the rebels to win the Battle of Saratoga – the turning point of the American Revolution.

In Poland, Kosciuszko started a revolt to try to free the serfs and obtain more rights for peasants, burghers and Jews. To this end, his friend Berek Joselewicz started a Jewish cavalry to fight with Kosciuszko against Russia’s army. It was the first wholly Jewish military unit since biblical times. Even a black man named Jean Lapierre traveled to Poland and joined the battle with Kosciuszko to try to free white serfs.

Kosciuszko also stood up for the American Indians, and was given a peace pipe and tomahawk by Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Indian tribe.

The Peasant Prince is a biography of Kosciuszko, who Jefferson called, “as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few or rich alone.”

In his quest for liberty, Kosciuszko worked with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and the French Revolutionaries while struggling against the tyranny of Russia’s Catherine the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Peasant Prince is the unknown story of Kosciuszko’s life, liberty and pursuit of tolerance during the age of revolution.

“As Pulitzer Prize – winning journalist Storozynski shows, Kosciuszko was far more than a skilled military professional. He was a passionate republican, a committed revolutionary, and a Polish  patriot… this is well-written tribute to an interesting and certainly admirable man.”

“Storozynski pulls military strategist and engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko back from the brink of obscurity by including almost every documented detail to create the first comprehensive look at a man who once famously symbolized rebellion … and consistently supported equality and education for peasants, Jews, Muslim Tatars and American slaves – which earned him the devotion of the masses and lectures by the upper classes. Readers of military and American history should take note: the minute details will enthrall devotes. Casual readers will benefit from Storozynski’s expert crafting of a readable and fact-filled story.”

“In the Peasant Prince, Alex Storozynski fills a gap in our picture of the American Revolution, and relates it to the worldwide struggle for freedom. Thaddeus Kosciuszko was a noble soul with few options, a friend of liberty in an age of aggression and tyranny. Storozynski shows how navigated a life of romance and realpolitik, keeping his principles intact.”

Alex Storozynski is president and executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation. Also a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, he was an editorial board member at the New York Daily News, the founding editor of amNew York, and a former city editor and contributing editor to the The New York Sun. He lives in West Orange, New Jersey.