Community Corner
Was Benedict Arnold a Terrorist?
Author will speak at the Hempsted Houses Sunday on the burning of New London.
On Sept. 6, 1781, Norwich native Benedict Arnold and a force of 1,600 British soldiers and loyalists took Fort Griswold and burned New London to the ground.
Eric Lehman, author of the just-published “Homegrown Terror: Benedict Arnold and the Burning of New London,” will be at the Hempsted Houses Sunday, July 19 at 2 p.m. to discuss how this defining incident forever marked Arnold as a symbol of evil.
It turned an antiheroic story about weakness of character and missed opportunity into one about the nature of treachery itself.
Rethinking Benedict Arnold through the lens of this terrible episode, Lehman’s new book sheds light on the ethics of the dawning nation, and the way colonial America responded to betrayal and terror.
The Hempsted Houses are at 11 Hempstead St. in New London. Admission is $5; free for Connecticut Landmarks members. Copies of Lehman’s book will be available for sale.
