What do gardening, warfare, bureaucracy, and survival have in common? They all converge in the history of the Seven Years’ War.

Our early Spring garden talk returns with a look at how British-American troops staved off the very real threat of starvation as war raged on New England’s British-French frontier in the 1750s. Environmental historian Camden Elliot reveals that soldier’s gardens were more than just a story of plucky can-do colonial spirit: corruption, bureaucratic incompetence and mother nature conspired continually to thwart deliveries of food and supplies to the British forts. What’s a soldier to do but put down his rifle and pick up a hoe?

This event is free for SEHA Members. Guests: $8.

About the speaker: Camden R. Elliott is a PhD candidate in environmental history at Harvard University. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. His work focuses on the intersection of histories of conflict and histories of the natural world and he is currently completing a dissertation on the French and Indian Wars. His work has been generously supported by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, and others.