This article is based on a press release issued by the Middletown Historical Society.

Rhode Island’s Dorr Rebellion, an armed insurrection in 1841-1842 aimed at electoral reform, was the most significant political upheaval to occur in Jacksonian America. Russell DeSimone will discuss the causes of the rebellion, its main events, and outcome of the effort to extend suffrage in Rhode Island and replace its antiquated Royal Charter of 1663 with the People’s Constitution.

The lecture, hosted by the Middletown Historical Society, is scheduled for this Sunday, Feb., 12, 2-4 p.m., in the Community Room of the Middletown Public Library, 700 West Main Road. It is the second lecture in the Middletown Historical Society's 2012 Speaker Series.

Russell J. DeSimone is a bibliophile and independent scholar. He is the compiler of Broadsides of the Dorr Rebellion (1992), and author of The Dorr Rebellion Chronicled in Ballads and Poetry (1993), A Survey of Nineteenth Century Rhode Island Billheads (2002), Rhode Island Election Tickets: a Survey (2007), Rhode Island’s Rebellion (2009) and recently wrote the introduction to A History of Rhode Island Lotteries by John Russell Bartlett.

A native Rhode Islander, DeSimone has been a lifelong student of its history. He is past president of the John Russell Bartlett Society, as well as a past board member of both the RI Center for the Book and the Library Committee of the Rhode Island Historical Society. He is Secretary of the Nathanael Greene Homestead Association. 

A voluntary donation of $5.00 per person or $7.00 per family will help defray the costs of this lecture series and will further the activities of The Middletown Historical Society.

For more information, visit the website of the Middletown Historical Society, or contact Gary D. Paquette, Vice President, Middletown Historical Society, 619-3254; info@middletownhistory.org.