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Secondary sourceBook1856

The Life of General Lafayette

P. C. Headley · 1856

An 1856 popular biography of Lafayette, written for general and young readers long after his death.

A later popular biography written to tell young and general readers the story of Lafayette's life.

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The Life of General LafayettePDF · 394 pages
P. C. Headley, The Life of General Lafayette, 1856. Scanned book, Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This is a biography of Lafayette written by P. C. Headley and published in 1856, decades after Lafayette's death in 1834. It is a scanned book held by the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

By the mid-1800s, Lafayette had become a popular hero in both France and the United States, and writers like Headley produced biographies meant to inspire ordinary readers and young people with his story. Because it was written long after the events, it reflects how later generations remembered and shaped Lafayette's image, not just the facts of his life.

Look closer

  • Why might a writer in 1856 want to retell Lafayette's story for the public?
  • How might a biography written decades after someone's death differ from a letter or document from their own time?
  • What parts of Lafayette's life do you think a popular biography would focus on, and why?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Marquis de Lafayette on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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