A Shared Fight for Liberty | Arleen Fields |
Archives and Special Collections
Luncheon Lecture
February 12, 2026 11:00 AM
“My Dear Heart…”: Adrienne de Lafayette and the Marquis de Lafayette—A Shared Fight for Liberty
Arleen Fields is the Assistant Director of Library Services and serves as Archives and Special Collections Librarian at Davis Memorial Library, Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. A graduate of the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill, she has worked at Methodist University since 1999. Methodist University is home to the largest collection of materials related to the Marquis de Lafayette south of Philadelphia.
Arleen has long been active with the Lafayette Society of Fayetteville and the American Friends of Lafayette. Outside of her professional work, she participates in backyard bird counts, helps organize Sandhills Beer & Hymns, and keeps a watchful eye on the Fayetteville City Council. She shares a home with her mother, her 21-year-old son, and Angel, a small chihuahua–terrier with a big personality.
THE PRESENTATION: Adrienne de Noailles Lafayette and her husband, Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, were partners—personally and philosophically—in one of the great transatlantic struggles for liberty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While history often centers on Lafayette’s battlefield exploits, Adrienne’s courage, sacrifice, and steadfast belief in freedom were equally remarkable.
Born in 1757 into French nobility, Gilbert du Motier inherited wealth, title, and prestige—but chose a far more dangerous path. Inspired by Enlightenment ideals and the American colonies’ struggle against tyranny, he secretly sailed to America in 1777 at just 19 years old.
Lafayette believed deeply that liberty was a universal right, not confined to one nation. After the American Revolution, he returned to France determined to apply those same principles at home.
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