In particular, my favorite, the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1777, at the age of nineteen, the wealthy aristocrat offered his military services as an unpaid volunteer to the Continental Congress, and was given the rank of major-general. (Nineteen!) Clicking immediately with George Washington, he was instrumental in the Battle of Rhode Island and the defeat of the British at Yorktown. Lafayette returned a few times after the war, always to a hero’s welcome. This included a visit in 1784 to the Golden Ball Inn on Benefit Street, a four-story party hall next to the old state house, where the women of Providence made a very favorable impression on him. The Golden Ball Inn was torn down in 1941. Quel dommage.

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