Without fighting the Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton duel all over again, we know there were some root differences in the core values between certain founders of our nation and some members of the Burr family. While Alexander Hamilton believed strongly that only the more elite of society should govern the country, certain historic members of the Burr family seemed to embrace an ideology that supported individuals based on their values rather than on class, gender, race, or other limiting measurements of suitability. This family value is important as a cultural factor that influenced much of our family history.
We know that after Peter Burr died some of his descendants later owned a small number of slaves in the 1800s, but there is no indication that Peter Burr every owned any slaves who might otherwise have been a great help to him as he ran his 406 acre farm. In addition to finding no records of slave purchases, Peter Burr's estate inventory did not list any slaves or any other possessions that hinted at him ever having owned slaves. We know that his cousin Aaron Burr, while NY State Senator proposed legislation to ban slavery in the 1790s. Likewise, we know that family values supported the education of females more than 100 years before Women's Rights became a political issue in America. We could write a full chapter on evidence and why we believe the Burr family generally supported the basic rights of human beings as individuals, but we'll save that for another day.
The point is that the Founder of Reliving History, Inc. strongly values people not by superficial measurements such as wealth, education, gender, race, etc, but by what's in the person's heart. To be in the inner circle of Reliving History, Inc. one only needs a heart full of passion:
- For the preservation of the Peter Burr House,
- For the on-going discovery of documented family history, and
- For building programming that sheds further light on and weaves in the values and culture of a typical yeoman farmer who in the mid to late 1700s built a house and helped found two churches all of which have survived and continue to exist fully in tact today.
In organizing our corporation, we have attempted to provide a way for those who live a distance from the Peter Burr House to also serve on the governing board of Reliving History, Inc. While the provisions are in place, we are still working out the logistics of how to have distance participation in Board Meetings. In time video conferencing will probably be utilized. Until then, email participation and the telephone are our best options.
Blogging for Updated Information
For now, it is possible that the use of this blog site can be a vehicle for communicating information to those who would like to know more about what is going on. As various people sign on as followers, more time will be designated for using this vehicle for regular, possibly weekly (or in time daily) updates as to what is going on. This will probably do as much as anything else to allow anyone who desires to be in the inner core, to be in the very center of it all.
Those who are local and who can share hands-on assistance are of huge value. But never under estimate the value of those who from distances away share ideas or provide encouragement.
If you want to be in the Inner Circle, sign on as a follower of this blog and I will work harder at updating the information periodically. It takes a lot of time to work up mass emails to advise everyone of what is going on. I can blog more frequently and simply let those interested read what they want as they want to know more.
Let's support and promote this method of getting information out. If you want to know what is going on at the Peter Burr House and with Reliving History, Inc. then sign up as a follower of this blog and let me know that you are interested.
Joyce Cole, Founder
Reliving History, Inc.
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