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Long Island’s Historic Presidents & Poets
Long Island played a pivotal role in the lives of two of America’s best-known presidents, George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt. Explore the Culper Spy Ring on the North Shore to see how General George Washington along with some Long Island residents helped take down the occupying British forces. Then, travel the trail Washington took as he thanked the local patriot spies for helping him win the Revolutionary War.
Literary greatness has found inspiration on Long Island. Walt Whitman, one of America’s more prolific poets, was born in West Hills. His former home is now a museum that celebrates the poet’s legacy and houses original manuscripts.
Jupiter Hammon, one of the earliest published African American authors was born on Long Island in 1711. Hammon survived three generations of enslavement at Joseph Lloyd Manor, and it is where Hammon authored his most significant works about the moral conflicts of slavery and freedom in the early United States. The site was designated a National Literary Landmark and sits upon a spectacular 2.5-acre setting overlooking Lloyd Harbor.
