Evening’s Moderator: Emerson “Tad” Baker, award-winning author of A Storm of Witchcraft and The Devil of Great Island.

Shrouded in myth, mystery, and misinformation, the true story of New Hampshire’s founding family has never been fully told–until now. Why do we know so little about David and Amias Thompson of Plymouth, England? And why is what we think we know so often wrong? Barely three years after the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts, a wholly different plan for America was in play. Popular journalist J. Dennis Robinson exhumes the facts and connects the dots to reveal a forgotten journey that will challenge your perception of how New England was born.

“…The Granite State has never had a more important history book. Darn good writing and thorough research. Wow, just wow!”  —Fritz Wetherbee, NH storyteller

J. Dennis Robinson is the author of 16 entertaining books about American history and an exciting New England “history mystery,” Point of Graves. With illustrator Robert Squier, the author presents Portsmouth Time Machine, a graphic history of New Hampshire’s only seaport for kids of all ages. A popular and sometimes irreverent columnist and lecturer, his most recent illustrated hardcover is Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City, which was voted Best History Book of 2020 by the Independent Book Publishers Association. His previous book, Mystery on the Isles of Shoals, covers the widely misunderstood case of the infamous 1873 ax murders on Smuttynose Island. His other page-turning history books focus on privateering, outlaw Jesse James, Strawbery Banke Museum, Isles of Shoals archaeology, Wentworth by the Sea hotel, Lord Baltimore, child labor exploitation, and more.

About the Moderator: Emerson “Tad” Baker is a professor of History at Salem State University and has previously served as dean and vice provost. The York, Maine resident is the award-winning author of many books including A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience, and The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. He has served as an advisor and on-camera expert for numerous television shows, ranging from PBS-TV’s American Experience and Colonial House to TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are?