Muskets to Modern Times

Presented by Kathi Lynn Austin, Freedom Forge Foundation. During the American Revolutionary War, James Hunter was one of the largest producers of arms and supplies to the Continental Troops. Born into a well-established mercantile family near Glasgow, Scotland, James Hunter arrived in America in the mid-1740s where he began, over the course of the next three decades to, along the Rappahannock River near Falmouth, construct and refine what would soon be called "...the greatest Iron Works that is upon the Continent" as his business grew into arguably the largest manufacturing facility in Colonial America.

Kathi Lynn Austin is a collateral descendant of James Hunter and the current Director of the Freedom Forge Foundation. She is an internationally recognized expert on arms trafficking, peace and security, and human rights, having served with the United Nations Group of Experts on the DRC and Liberia, as well as Chief of the Joint Mission…