The Archibald Bulloch Chapter for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution held its annual Georgia Day program Thursday where they learned about the Revolutionary War hero Lafayette’s visit to Savannah and heard an essay by a Bulloch County sixth grader about a Patriotic group of women from Edenton, North Carolina.

About 150 people gathered in the Perry Fellowship Hall of First Baptist Church Statesboro to enjoy the Georgia Day luncheon and hear from historian Dr. Lawrence Krumenaker about the Marquis de Lafayette’s trek through the South in 1825, which included three days in Savannah.

But before Dr. Krumenaker’s presentation, Max Greene, a sixth-grade student at Southeast Bulloch Middle School, read an essay he wrote about the Tea Ladies of Edenton, N.C., for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Essay Contest. The annual contest is open to fifth through eighth-grade students who may submit a 500 to 1,000-word essay depending on their grade level.

Greene wrote his essay using the voice of one of the 51 colonial women who formed the Edenton Ladies' Patriotic Guild following the Boston Tea Party. He was one of 127 sixth-grade students who participated in the contest in Bulloch County's local public and private schools. 

Greene’s was one of 40 across the state whose essay advanced to the district judges who are part of Georgia Southern University's Department of English. As a state winner, he will receive a special certificate and a $250 award that we will receive at the DAR Georgia Society conference March 20-23.

The Tea Ladies were a group of women who protested the Tea Act of 1773 by boycotting British tea and cloth. Greene wrote the essay as if he were one of the 51 colonial women who formed the Edenton Ladies' Patriotic Guild following the Boston Tea Party.

Dr. Krumenaker then took the stage to detail Lafayette’s visit to Georgia in March 1825 he wrote about in his book “From River to River,” which was published in June 2024. For his presentation Thursday, he focused especially on the three days he spent in Savannah upon first arriving.

All the places Lafayette visited during his stay are now part of a public tour given in Savannah.