From Slavery to Freedom in New England
A five-night Berkshires history retreat exploring slavery, abolition, the Civil War, Black military service, Reconstruction, and the long struggle for freedom in America.
Retreat Dates
Five-Night Retreat
April 25 – 30, 2027
This is not a week of dates, names, and lectures.
It is an exploration of one of the largest transformations in American history: how a society in which human bondage had
been accepted for centuries began to challenge slavery, fight over it, destroy it through civil war, and then struggle over
what freedom would actually mean.
Over five days, historian Robert K. Sutton takes us from New England's role in the Atlantic slave economy through abolitionism, the Civil War, the Massachusetts 54th, Reconstruction, and the life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois.
Along the way, we leave the classroom. Participants visit Herman Melville's Arrowhead after reading his extraordinary
slavery tale Benito Cereno; the Rev. Samuel Harrison House, opened specially for our group; and important W.E.B. Du
Bois sites in Great Barrington.
History where it happened, discussed with someone who has spent his professional life interpreting it.
YOUR HOST
Robert K. Sutton, Ph.D.
Former Chief Historian of the National Park Service
Resident Historian, Viking Ocean Cruises
Robert K. Sutton, Ph.D. has spent more than five decades studying, teaching, preserving, and interpreting American history — in universities, historic sites, national parks, books, and, since 2017, aboard Viking Ocean Cruises as a Resident Historian.
Bob retired in 2016 as Chief Historian of the National Park Service, the culmination of a 33-year career with the Park Service. He served as Chief Historian from 2007 to 2016 and, before that, spent twelve years as Superintendent of Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. During the Civil War Sesquicentennial, he was a national leader in the Park Service's effort to expand Civil War interpretation beyond troop movements and battlefield tactics to include slavery, emancipation, race, politics, economics, and the experiences of civilians.
Since leaving the National Park Service, Bob has served as a Resident Historian for Viking Ocean Cruises, bringing history directly to travelers as they visit the places where it unfolded. He has also taught for more than twenty years at universities and lifelong-learning programs, including Arizona State University, George Mason University, and the Johns Hopkins University Osher Lifelong Learning Program.
His career has taken him from the Oregon Historical Society and Oregon State Parks to Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the National Park Service's architectural-history program, Manassas, and finally the office of the Chief Historian in Washington. He has also chaired the Montgomery County, Maryland Historic Preservation Commission and consulted for the U.S. American Battle Monuments Commission.
Bob is the author or editor of numerous books on American history. His Stark Mad Abolitionists: Lawrence, Kansas and the Battle Over Slavery in the Civil War Era was named a Kansas Notable Book. His Nazis on the Potomac: The Top Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II was a finalist for the U.S. Army Heritage Book Award. His other work includes books on slavery, Reconstruction, the Civil War, African Americans in the Civil War, Robert Smalls, and Frederick Douglass.
He has received the Department of the Interior's Meritorious Service Award and multiple Department of the Interior awards for excellence, and he was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Washington State University, an M.A. in History from Portland State University, and a B.A. from Pasadena College.
What makes this retreat unusual is the combination: a former National Park Service Chief Historian, a veteran classroom teacher, a widely published historian, and a Viking Ocean Cruises Resident Historian leading a small group through five days of conversation and into the Berkshire places connected to the story.
The Sessions
DAY ONE
Slavery, New England & the Atlantic World
Slavery was not simply a Southern institution.
We begin by examining the enormous Atlantic economy built around enslaved labor and the role New England merchants played within it.
Rhode Island became deeply involved in the transatlantic slave trade, with Newport merchants participating in a commercial system connecting New England, West Africa, the Caribbean, and the wider Atlantic world.
We will look particularly at the Brown family and the institution that became Brown University — both the family's connections to slavery and the slave trade and the University's modern effort to confront that history.
The central question: How does an economic system become so embedded in everyday life that generations accept it as normal?
DAY TWO
Becoming Abolitionists
For centuries, slavery was widely treated as an accepted part of human society. Then something began to change.
We look at the intellectual and moral forces that drove abolitionism, focusing on three Massachusetts stories: William Lloyd Garrison, one of America's most uncompromising abolitionist voices.
Francis George Shaw, a wealthy supporter of abolition whose son, Robert Gould Shaw, would eventually command the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.
Amos Adams Lawrence, the conservative businessman who was transformed by the return of freedom seeker Anthony Burns to slavery and later described himself and others as having awakened as “stark mad abolitionists.”
What makes someone reject an institution that the society around them has long accepted? And why do some people change while others do not?
DAY THREE
The Civil War: Expectations, Turning Points & the Human Cost
Why do nations repeatedly enter wars believing they will be short?
Using several dramatically different moments in the Civil War, we look beyond who won and lost and ask what each event tells us about war itself.
First Manassas — Bull Run Americans on both sides expected a short war. The first major battle destroyed that illusion. Why do governments and populations so often underestimate the wars they begin?
Antietam A strategic Union victory that gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and profoundly changed the diplomatic and moral meaning of the war.
Griswoldville, Georgia Near the end of the war, hardened Union veterans faced a Confederate militia containing old men and young boys — a devastating illustration of what prolonged war does to a society running out of soldiers.
The St. Albans Raid In 1864, Confederate operatives crossed from Canada into Vermont, robbed banks, terrorized the town, and escaped back across the border. Was it a military operation? Terrorism? Robbery? And did it accomplish anything?
We visit Arrowhead, Herman Melville's Pittsfield home.
Before the retreat, participants will receive a copy of Melville's Benito Cereno, his unsettling story of a revolt aboard a Spanish slave ship.
At Arrowhead we visit the place where Melville wrote the story and consider how fiction can expose assumptions about race, power, freedom, perception, and who controls a story.
Lakehouse Inn provides the scheduled admission ticket and Bob's guidance for this field trip. Transportation is not provided. Participants must provide their own transportation to and from Arrowhead.
SPECIAL FIELD TRIP
Herman Melville's Arrowhead
Wednesday, April 28 at 2:00 PM
DAY FOUR
The Massachusetts 54th
By the later stages of the Civil War, Black soldiers and sailors had become indispensable to the Union war effort. More than 200,000 ultimately served.
The most famous Black regiment was the Massachusetts 54th, commanded by Robert Gould Shaw.
Dozens of its soldiers came from Western Massachusetts, and its chaplain, the Rev. Samuel Harrison of Pittsfield, played an important part in the fight for equal
pay for Black soldiers.
Why did Black Americans volunteer to fight for a nation that had denied them basic rights? What did their service change? And what did equality mean when
Black soldiers were initially asked to fight for less pay than white soldiers?
The Rev. Samuel Harrison House in Pittsfield will open specially for our retreat.
Harrison served as chaplain of the 54th Massachusetts and fought for Black soldiers to receive equal pay. The visit
brings the day's discussion directly into Berkshire history.
Lakehouse Inn provides the scheduled admission/donation and Bob's guidance for this field trip. Transportation is not provided. Participants must provide their own transportation to and from the Samuel Harrison House.
PRIVATE FIELD TRIP
The Rev. Samuel Harrison House
Thursday, April 29
DAY FIVE
Reconstruction, W.E.B. Du Bois & What Came After
Ending slavery did not answer the next enormous question: What would freedom actually mean? We examine Reconstruction — its extraordinary accomplishments, its failures, the resistance it provoked, and the battles over citizenship and civil rights that followed.
Massachusetts played an important role in this era, while the expanding industrial economy brought new prosperity and new tensions.
We finish with one of the most consequential American thinkers to emerge from the post-Civil War world: W.E.B. Du Bois, born and raised in Great Barrington.
Scholar, historian, writer, activist, and co-founder of the NAACP, Du Bois spent his life asking questions that grew directly from the unfinished work of emancipation and Reconstruction.
Our final day takes us to Great Barrington for a visit centered on Du Bois's life and legacy, including the W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite and the Du Bois Freedom Center
The Boyhood Homesite includes an interpretive trail and is free to visit. The retreat concludes following the Great Barrington visit.
Lakehouse Inn provides the scheduled admission ticket, where admission is charged, and Bob's guidance for these field trips. Transportation is not provided. Participants must provide their own transportation to, from, and between the Great Barrington sites.
FIELD TRIP
W.E.B. Du Bois in Great Barrington
Friday, April 30
The Details
The Daily Rhythm
Sunday, April 25: Arrive after 3pm. Casual welcome mixer and orientation.
Morning, April 26: Day One — Slavery, New England & the Atlantic World.
Tuesday, April 27: Day Two — Becoming Abolitionists.
Wednesday, April 28: Day Three — The Civil War, followed by the 2:00pm field trip to Herman Melville's Arrowhead.
Thursday, April 29: Day Four — The Massachusetts 54th, followed by the private field trip to the Rev. Samuel Harrison House. That evening, we will screen Glory at the Lakehouse Inn.
Thursday Evening
Film Screening:
Glory
After our day exploring the Massachusetts 54th and our visit to the Rev. Samuel Harrison House, we return to the Lakehouse Inn for an evening screening of Glory, the Academy Award-winning film about Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.
Friday: April 30: Breakfast and check-out, followed by Day Five and the W.E.B. Du Bois field trips in Great Barrington. The retreat concludes following the Great Barrington visit.
Always: Time between sessions to read, walk, talk, explore the Berkshires, or continue the conversation.
FIELD-TRIP TRANSPORTATION
Lakehouse Inn provides the scheduled tickets/admission and Bob's guidance for the field trips. Transportation is not provided. Participants must provide their own transportation to and from every off-site visit.
What Is Included
Five nights at the Lakehouse Inn
Breakfast each morning
Five days of guided history and discussion with Dr. Robert K. Sutton
Sunday welcome mixer
Scheduled admission/tickets for the retreat's field trips
Bob's historical guidance for the field trips
Herman Melville's Arrowhead visit
Private Rev. Samuel Harrison House visit
Thursday evening screening of Glory
W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite and Du Bois Freedom Center visits in Great Barrington
Snacks, fruit, and cheese during sessions
Wine with afternoon sessions
Advance reading of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno
A small group and plenty of opportunity for conversation with Bob
TRANSPORTATION IS NOT INCLUDED.
Participants must provide their own transportation to and from every off-site field trip. Lakehouse Inn provides the scheduled tickets/admission and Bob's guidance, but does not provide transportation.
Pricing
Per attendee, single occupancy. Includes lodging, breakfast, all sessions, refreshments, the Sunday welcome mixer, scheduled field-trip admission/tickets, and Bob’s field-trip guidance. Transportation to and from field trips is not included.
Per attendee, single occupancy. Includes lodging, breakfast, all sessions, refreshments, and the Sunday welcom mixer.
-
A second participating attendee sharing the same room: 50% off.
-
A non-participating partner sharing a room: $50 per night, breakfast only. Non-participating guests do not attend sessions, the welcome mixer, field trips, or other retreat events.
-
Retreat attendees staying as registered guests at the inn receive first priority. Local attendees are confirmed on a space available basis.
-
11.7% hotel tax will be added to all applicable rates and fees.
Policies & House Rules
Off-Season Services
Housekeeping: light touch-ups on request only.
Front desk: 1pm to 4pm daily.
Housekeeping: light touch-ups on
request only
Bar: open during front desk hours only.
Deposit & Cancellation
Retreat attendees staying as registered guests of the inn: $500 deposit at registration, with the balance due six weeks before the retreat.
The deposit is refundable until six weeks before the retreat.
If registration occurs within six weeks of the retreat, the full amount is due at registration.
Local attendees: full fee due at registration and non-refundable thereafter.
Minimum enrollment is required for the retreat to run.
If the Lakehouse Inn cancels the retreat, all amounts paid will be refunded.
House Rules
All guests and retreat attendees must be 21 or over.
No pets.
No smoking.
A lake waiver must be signed at check-in or, for local attendees, when they first arrive at the inn.
All Lakehouse Inn policies remain in effect.
Participants are responsible for providing their own transportation to and from every scheduled off-site field trip.