Colonial Louisiana and Spain’s Contributions to the American Revolution

Speakers

John L.” Jay” Dardenne – “Why Louisiana Wasn’t Boston, Philadelphia, or Williamsburg.” 53rd Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.

Thomas E. Chåvez, PhD – “Spain’s Grand Strategy in the American Revolutionary War.” Author of Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift; The Diplomacy of Independence: Benjamin Franklin Documents in the Archives of Spain, and, most recently, Revolutionary Diplomacy: Spanish Connections and the Birth of the United States, and former Director of the Palace of the Governors of the Museum of New Mexico.

Stephen L. Kling, Jr., Esq. – is an independent researcher focusing on the western theater of the American Revolutionary War. His books include The Battle of St. Louis, the Attack on Cahokia, and the American Revolutionary War in the West (2017), Cavalry in the Wilderness: Cavalry in the Western Theater of the American Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War (2021), James Colbert and His Chickasaw Legacy (2022) and The American Revolutionary War in the West (2022). Kling was the primary historical consultant for the award-winning House of Thunder documentary on the Battle of St. Louis and guest curator of the American Revolutionary War in the West Museum Exhibit in St. Charles, Missouri. Kling, in collaboration with Kristine Sjostrom from Seville, Spain, has recently published An Underappreciated Victory: Bernardo de Gálvez’s Mississippi River Campaign Against the British in 1779, and is the guest curator for a museum exhibit based on that book at the Louisiana State Cabildo Museum in New Orleans.

Frances Kolb Turnbell, PhD – is an historian of Early America with a specialization in the eighteenth-century Lower Mississippi Valley. She earned her BA in history at Texas A&M University and her MA and PhD at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Spanish Louisiana: Contest for Borderlands, 1763-1803 (LSU Press, 2024). She is the editor of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly. She is published in the Journal of Louisiana History and is a contributor to Atlantic Environments and the American South, as well as The American Revolutionary War in the West (2022). She teaches at the University of North Alabama.

Kristine L. Sjostrom – is an independent researcher from Seville, Spain. In 2022, she published Fernando de Leyba (1734-1780): A Life of Service and Sacrifice in Spanish Louisiana. Kristine has participated, collaborating with her research and articles, in several publications, conferences and expositions about the American Revolutionary War in the Mississippi River Valley, including The Battle of St. Louis, the Attack on Cahokia and the American Revolutionary War in the West (2017); Unveiling Memories (2019); The Militiamen of St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve (2020); Cavalry in the Wilderness: Cavalry in the Western Theater of the American Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War (2021); Blancos, Pardos y Morenos: Cinco siglos de americanos de España en el Ejército (2024) and the American Revolutionary War in the West conferences held in St. Charles, MO, in 2023 and 2024. Her latest collaboration with Stephen L. Kling, Jr., is An Underappreciated Victory: Gálvez’s Mississippi River Campaign of 1779 (2026).

Tim Seiter – is an assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at Tyler, specializing in colonial Texas with an emphasis on Spanish and Native histories. He recently put the finishing touches on his first book, Wrangling Pelicans (University of Texas Press), which explores daily life in eighteenth-century Tejas. Dr. Seiter has also written extensively about the Karankawa Indians of the Gulf Coast; his work on these peoples has appeared in Texas Monthly, the Texas Tribune, and Texas Highways.

Michael Nolden Henderson – “Got Proof! The Intersection of Slavery and Freedom in Spanish Colonial Louisiana During the American Revolution.” Michael Nolden Henderson, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy retired, is a family history researcher, lecturer, and author. He has documented his Native American, French, French Canadian, African, and German-Swedish ancestry as far back as 1657, using Spanish and French records from numerous research depositories in Louisiana. Michael is the author of Got Proof! My Genealogical Journey Through the Use of Documentation, which explores the complex social structure of French and Spanish Louisiana, and uncovers the forbidden relationships that evolved into the unique Louisiana Creole culture. Most recently, Michael was a featured presenter at the “HispanoAmerica: A Shared Future” conference in Madrid, Spain, where he contributed vital information about the significance of Spain’s involvement in the American Revolution and the pivotal impact made on his family by the intervention of General Bernardo de Galvez in the liberation of his fourth-generation great-grandmother Agnes. He is a past-president of the Button Gwinnett Chapter, Georgia Society, Sons of the American Revolution.

Bradford Waters, MD – “Born for Greatness: The Gálvez Family of Macharaviaya, Spain.” Dr. Waters retired as a Captain from the U.S. Navy and was a Professor of Medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He became fascinated with the Spanish role in the American Revolution while serving at the Naval Hospital Pensacola in the 1990s and the Puerto Castilla, Honduras base in 2004. His research has taken him to battlefields in Honduras, Nicaragua, Spain, Gibraltar, the Bahamas, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Michigan.

Stephen Estopinal – “Using Historical Fiction to Tell the Story of the Canary Islanders and Spanish Colonial Louisiana.” Author of a series of historical fiction novels set in Colonial Louisiana, including Escape to New Orleans and Pensacola Burning.

Ray Berthelot – “Remnants of Spain’s Colonial Heritage in Louisiana.” Chief of Interpretive Services and Historic Sites District Manager at the State of Louisiana, Office of State Parks, and adjunct instructor at Baton Rouge Community College.