Pass through the checkered Flemish bond brickwork at Old Dutch Parsonage into the historic home of the founder and first president of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Continue through the historic kitchen for Hope Farm and enter the largest home built during the Revolutionary War in New Jersey. Learn about the women and men in slavery and freedom who comprised the "military family" at George Washington's winter headquarters and the challenges and accomplishments of the Commander-in-Chief during the Continental Army's Middlebrook Cantonment from December 1778 to June 1779.

250 years ago in the spring of 1773 Phillis Wheatley traveled from America to England to publish Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, making her the first published African-American poet and the first African-American female published writer. This historic houses tour of Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage introduces the works of three early Black American women in words, considering Phillis Wheatley’s poetic perspective on the American Revolution, Hetty Saunders’ solace and stewardship of nature in New Jersey in the early American republic, and Sojourner Truth’s African Dutch social and spiritual heritage as background to her activism through the nation’s Civil War.

This spring as the sun sets join an “out-of-doors” reading room as we read and discuss selected passages from an historic author and connect these works to Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage and New Jersey history. No advanced reading or preparation is required. Dress to sit outdoors. 250 years ago in the spring of 1773 Phillis Wheatley traveled from America to England to publish Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, making her the first published African-American poet and the first African-American female published writer. This season’s reading room features the works of three early American Black women in words. • Thursday, March 16: Phillis Wheatley • Thursday, April 20: Esther “Hetty” Saunders • Thursday, May 18: Sojourner Truth