Lafayette 200! The Edict of Toleration and Lafayette

Name: Lafayette 200! The Edict of Toleration and Lafayette
Start: 2025-03-14T11:30:00-04:00
Location: French Protestant Huguenot Church

Schedule

Fri, 14 Mar, 2025 at 11:30 am

UTC-04:00

Location

French Protestant Huguenot Church | Charleston, SC

On Friday, March 14, 2025, at 11:30am, the Huguenot Society of South Carolina (HSSC) will be joined by The American Friends of Lafayette (AFL) to provide a talk entitled “The Edict of Toleration and Lafayette: a story of allied French descendants in the fight for liberty and toleration” to be held at the French Protestant (Huguenot) Church at the corner of Queen and Church Streets.
The South Carolina House and Senate issued a proclamation in January 2025 to declare the month of March 2025 as “The Celebration of the Bicentennial of the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit during his farewell tour of the nation in 1825” in South Carolina. (Session 126, S-195).
The celebrations in the state will begin in Cheraw and continue onward in the footsteps of Lafayette to Beaufort.
An Edict of Toleration, or the Edict of Versailles, was signed by King Louis XVI on 7 November 1787, and registered in the Parlement of Paris on 29 January 1788. The course of actions leading up to this significant date in French Protestant (Huguenot) history and the remarkable association with the key players in the American Revolution is riveting story that includes Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, George Washington and Lafayette.
This talk will provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between the fire of liberty burning in the American Revolution and the Huguenot descendants engaged in that fight and their role in the toleration granted in France.
Joining the event will be Michael Halbert, Historic Interpreter, as the Marquis de Lafayette.
The event is free of charge and open to the public. Seating is on a first come basis.