Lafayette at Yorktown, with James In 1781, French officer Lafayette met and borrowed James, slave of a Virginia owner. At the siege of Yorktown, James infiltrated the British command by pretending to be an escaped slave. James fed the British misinformation and brought crucial intelligence back to Lafayette. At the surrender, British leaders spotted James with Lafayette and realized they’d been had. Lafayette was instrumental in obtaining James’s freedom in 1786.

Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Gift of Helen Fahnstock Hubbard in memory of her husband, John Hubbard, Harvard (class of 1892).