Revolution 250 Podcast

Join Bradley Jay, Bob Allison & Jonathan Lane as they discuss the events surrounding the Boston Massacre Trials, Pope's Day, and Crime & Punishment in 1770 Boston.

Birthplace of American Independence--Ipswich, Massachusetts?  In 1687, when King James II tried to take away the power of people in Massachusetts towns to govern themselves, Reverend John Wise of Ipswich lead the town into resistance--leading to his arrest, and the arrest of town leaders.  But they stood together--and in an unrelated development, Parliament sent King James packing off to France.  When Parliament in the 1760s again tried to assert control, Ipswich stood together, and reminded other Massachusetts patriots of the writings of John Wise.  We talk with Gordon Harris, town historian and organizer of the Historic Ipswich website, about the town of Ipswich, the Ipswich Resolves of 1774, and why this small town had such a big impact on the Revolution. 

Congress has bestowed on National Mall Liberty Fund DC the honor of establishing a memorial in Washington’s Monumental Core to tens of thousands of African American solders, sailors, marines, patriots and liberty seekers of the Revolutionary War.  In preparation for the design and construction of such a memorial, the National Mall Liberty Fund has been working to document the histories and stories of these valiant soldiers.  We talk with  Maurice Barboza, the Executive Director of the National Mall Liberty Fund.

November 5, 1774, at Fort Gower on the Ohio River, Virginia militiamen vowed that their" Love of Liberty, and Attachment to the real Interests and just Rights of America outweigh every other Consideration," and resolved to use  "every Power within us for the Defence of American Liberty, and for the Support of her just Rights and Privileges; not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultous Manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous Voice of our Countrymen."  We talk with Chris Matheny, Historic Site Manager at Ohio's Statehouse, about this important event and its impact on the future of Ohio and of the American people. 

South Carolina's impact on the outcome of the war as well as the founding of the new nation cannot be overstated.  We turn to Walter Edgar, retired George Washington Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina,  host of the popular podcast, “South Carolina from A to Z.” and author of the must-read volume Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Campaign that Turned the Tide of the American Revolution  to untangle the complicated story of the Revolution at its most violent and fascinating.  

Did you know that the generation that declared independence from Great Britain were closer to the Mayflower generation than we are to the Independence generation?  150 years after the landing of the Mayflower with 102 passengers on the tip of Cape Cod, their descendants were leading 13 Colonies in a spirited and armed defense of the rights and liberties of mankind. Now, 250 years later we talk with Mark Schmidt, Executive Director of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, on the lasting impact of that first generation of Colonists, how their descendants saw themselves connected to the empire and how tens of thousands of modern Americans help preserve, promote and commemorate the lives and legacies of their ancestors, passengers of the Mayflower.https://themayflowersociety.org/

George Rogers Clark conquered the Northwest. Or did he? We talk with Larry Nelson, historian of Ohio, co-author (with David Curtis Skaggs) of The Sixty Years War for the Great Lakes 1754-1814, about the Northwest Territory in the Revolution, and a book about Alexander McKee. This area, larger than the existing 13 colonies, was contested by the Native People who lived in it, the British, Spanish, French, and Americans. Clark could invade it, could win it, but could not keep it. The Revolutionary period was one episode in a long series of wars over this contested middle ground.

She was a wife, mother, confidant, and a social and political advisor during one of the most tumultuous periods of American history. Despite never being elected to an office, in recognition of her power of influence and sagacity her portrait now hangs permanently in the Senate Chamber of the Massachusetts General Court. Few women in the period of the American Revolution and early Republic left behind such a voluminous correspondence as Abigail Adams. As her husband John got further involved in the cause of American independence and sovereignty, Abigail's circle of friends and admirers grew in like proportion, eventually leading her from Weymouth, Massachusetts to the great courts of Europe.   We talk with  John L. Smith, Jr., , author of The Unexpected Abigail  Adams:  A Woman not Apt to be Intimidated. 

Richard Brookhiser has been writing about American politics for half a century, though he has refreshed himself by writing a dozen books about the founding period, beginning with Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington,  with additional books on Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, the Adamses, Alexander Hamilton, and Abraham Lincoln, "the Founders' Son." We talk with him about the political ideas of the founding generation, and how they were viewed in their day-- his next book is on the artist Jonathan Trumbull—and ours.

Henry Knox, Boston book-seller and emerging patriot, in 1774 married Lucy Flucker, daughter of the Provincial Secretary and leading loyalist.  Lucy's family would leave with the loyalist evacuation in March 1776, forced out by the cannon Henry brought from Ticonderoga.  Lucy would never see them again.  She and Henry would exchange more than 500 letters over the course of their married life, letters which Philip Hamilton has used for this window into the Revolutionary world.  The Revolutionary War Lives and  Letters of Lucy and Henry Knox are from the war--Henry would be with the army from the siege of Boston through Yorktown, and he and Lucy, young, bright, and in love, shared it all.  

Phillis Wheatley's poetry continues to inspire and to challenge us.  Poets Artress Bethany White and Danielle Legros Georges brought together twenty contemporary Black women poets to reinterpret, or reimagine, Phillis Wheatley Peters' poems.  Today, in addition to Artress and Danielle,  we are joined by two of the poets, Florence Ladd and Yalie Saweda Kamara.  Their collection Wheatley at 250:  :  Black Women Poets Re-Imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters,  a poetic conversation among past, present, and future,  features both the poems of Phillis Wheatley and their  contemporary re-imagining.Get your copy of Wheatley at 250 here: https://www.pangyrus.com/product/wheatley-at-250/

Liberty Poles were central to the Revolution, as Patriots raised them to symbolize their resistance, and British soldiers tore them down.  Americans in the 1790s revived the custom of Liberty Poles, in opposition to the policies of the Washington and Adams administrations.  We talk with Shira Lurie, author of .The American Liberty Pole:  Popular Politics and the Struggle for Democracy in the Early Republic, about these symbols of liberty and the contentious politics in the Revolution era.

The American Revolution began along the waterfront.  We talk with Christopher Magra,  author of two books on different aspects of the maritime war:  The Fisherman's Cause  delves into the role of Massachusetts' cod fishery in the years before the war. and the transformation of fishing vessels into warships; and Poseidon's Curse e shows how Britain's impressment of sailors into the Royal Navy brought on resistance from American sailors and fishermen.

The history of the American Revolution is peppered with the stories of women who perform acts of heroism in service to the cause of Liberty. Women such as Mary Ludwig Hays, Margaret Corbin & Deborah Sampson are among the many heralded for their service. Many more women served as information gatherers for General Washington, and today, Aly Riley, auther of "She Spies; Women of the Revolution" will join us to discuss the role of women in the spy rings of General Washington.

Why are there so few—if any—good movies about the Revolution?  Maybe because the right people with the right passion have not made them.  Mark O'Rourke is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and an attorney, and has now launched a new mission—producing a film about :1777:  Saratoga, the Turning Point of the War..  We talk with Mark O'Rourke about the battle of Saratoga, and the film he hopes to have made in time for the battle's 250th anniversary in October 2027, and how you can help get this story to the screen.

Franklin and Washington loom large for civic virtue and disinterested patriotism, and Madison warned that good and wise statesmen would not always be at the helm, because many of their contemporaries were self-interested schemers and outright liars.  We hear from Timothy Hemmis and David Head editors of A Republic of Scoundrels, which introduces us to the schemers, intriguers, and adventurers—such as Aaron Burr, Mathew Lyon, Benedict Arnold, James Wilkinson—who also helped create the new nation.

The rebellion nearly ended in December 1776, with Washington's army beaten in New York and chased across New Jersey, which the enemy then garrisoned with Hessian troops in Trenton to keep an eye on Washington's dwindling forces across the Delaware.  Washington now had fewer than 3000 men, and their enlistments would expire at the end of the year.  In this moment of crisis, Washington devised a plan.  "There is a natural firmness in some minds," Thomas Paine wrote, "which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude."  We discuss what was in that cabinet of fortitude unlocked in December 1776.

Benedict Arnold remains one of the most controversial actors in the history of the American Revolution.  His being an undeniable hero of the early years of the conflict made his later betrayal of the American cause all the more shocking. We talk with Jack Kelly  about his new book, God Save Benedict Arnold:  The True Story of America's Most Hated Man.

With only 4 days to go until the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, we talk with Evan O'Brien, Creative Manager of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum on the weekend of events, the culmination of two years of commemorations and the beginning of the Revolution's 250th.  A lot going on between the Tea Party Ships & Museum and  Revolutionary Spaces.  If you cannot join us in person on December 16, you can livestream the Tea Party on December 16 here, at https://www.december16.org!

Two unlikely tourists traveled through the Hudson Valley and New England in the early summer of 1791, wanting to study the region's flora and fauna as well as the Native American languages.  Or were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison on a political mission?  We talk with Louis P. Masur,  cultural historian, who has written books about Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, photography,  baseball, and rock and roll, and is now writing a book about Jefferson and Madison's exploration of this distant country, where they are looking for the Hessian Fly, become enraptured with sugar maples, meet with Native Americans, and meet Prince Taylor, a free African-American farming near Fort George.  Masur, the Board of Governors Professor and Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History at Rutgers University, unpacks the world from a grain of sand, and this encounter with Jefferson and Madison in the summer of 1791 tells us much about the remarkable friendship of these two men and the country they helped to bring into being.