In the place of Professor Cornelia Dayton who could not join us today, Professor Robert Allison presents a lecture on the military career of Benjamin Lincoln, who, with General George Washington and General Nathanael Greene were to only General officers to serve from the Siege of Boston to Yorktown. Lincoln came from a distinguished family in Hingham, Massachusetts where the family held various town offices since the 17th century. While Lincoln never anticipated a military career, his quiet and ...
Dec 10, 2024•46 min•Season 4Ep. 49
Today, the Revolution 250 Podcast revisits an episode from 2021. Next May will be the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Chelsea Creek and plans are in preparation for the commemoration of this important event. The first time the patriots use artillery, the first time they sink a British ship, and the first time officers and men from different colonies stage a joint operation--the battle of Chelsea Creek, in what today are the cities of Chelsea and Revere, and the East Boston neighborhood, along...
Dec 03, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 48
Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” remains one of the defining rebukes to the work of the Founders. While Douglass admired the ideals of the Founders, their inability to extend their precepts of liberty to people of color Douglass considered a breach of the promise of America. Frederick Douglass scholar and performer Nathan Richardson talks with us about Douglass’ use of the founding ideals to fight for the emancipation of people of color and the absolute ...
Nov 26, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 47
Lexington, Massachusetts has long been a tourist destination. The Marquis de Lafayette famously made a visit during his tour of 1824 and the crowds have only grown since then. The Inn at Hastings Park , established by Cordon Bleu-trained chef Tricia Perez Kennealy is where Revolutionary history and revolutionary hospitality have come together, just in time for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution. The Inn at Hastings Park is a 22-room luxury boutique hotel with a restaurant called "T...
Nov 20, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 46
He was born the year before the Revolution began. His mother died before his 7th birthday. His father ended up in debtor's prison and provided material aid to men involved in Shays's Rebellion. Yet his story is known to many and has been portrayed in song, story and animated movies across the world. This is the story of John Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed" who left his impoverished home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts to spendhis life wandering the Northwest Territory creating nurseries for apple t...
Nov 12, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 45
For the last 250 years Americans remain conflicted over the meaning and legacy of the Revolution—including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. All of the social and political movements of the last two centuries have been shaped by the work of the founders and they in turn shape the way the next generations view the founding of the nation. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Michael Hattem, author of "The Memory of '76" (Yale University Press) on how we have, and ...
Nov 05, 2024•39 min•Season 5Ep. 45
On July 4, 1776, two hundred miles northwest of Philadelphia, on Indigenous land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a group of colonial squatters declared their independence. They were not alone in their efforts. This bold symbolic gesture was just a small part of a much broader and longer struggle in the Northern Susquehanna River Valley, where diverse peoples, especially Indigenous nations, fought tenaciously to safeguard their lands, sovereignty, and survival. We talk with Christ...
Oct 31, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 44
Congregationalists--clergy and congregations—were the driving force in New England's Revolution. Interpreting liberty through their own religious framework, which included principles of autonomy, fellowship, and consensus, Congregationalists had much to say about liberty in church records, letters, and sermon literature. Kyle Roberts, Executive Director of the Congregational Library and Archives, and Tricia Peone, Project Director for New England Hiddien Histories , join us to talk about their n...
Oct 22, 2024•42 min•Season 5Ep. 43
In between the abortive call from Governor Thomas Gage for the legislature to convene in Salem on the 5th of October 1774, and the formation by those same legislators of a Provincial Congress on the 7th October 1774, a terrible fire took place in Salem. The fire destroyed more than a dozen buildings and numerous homes and caused more than £20,000 in damage. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with retired National Parks Ranger Curtis White as we examine the evidence of the fire and deb...
Oct 15, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 42
Was it the embattled farmers and Sons of Liberty, or the indebted planters shouting "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" that brought on the Revolution? Who held the first Provincial Convention or Congress? Who was first to resist the Crown's troops? Join us for a debate between Robert A. Gross , author of The Minutemen and their World , and Woody Holton , author of Forced Founders , and hear what lead these two very different places to revolution. Moderated by the ever-impartial Robert Allison. ...
Oct 08, 2024•44 min•Season 5Ep. 41
June 14, 2025 will be the 250th anniversary of the formation of the US Army by the 2nd Continental Congress. In preparation to celebrate the Army's birthday and to comemmorate the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir will debut a new exhibit on April 19, 2025. Bringing together more than 200 artifacts from around the nation, the Army Museum will commemorate the leaders and men who formed the first army. We talk with Chief Cur...
Oct 01, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 40
A conversation with award-winning author Ray Anthony Shepard , who is introducing young readers to stories from American history focused on race. He has written on the the vaunted 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry, as well as a book about Ona Judge , a seamstress who escaped from the Washington household, and is has just finished The Forgotten: Patriots of Color at Lexington & Concord ,, focusing on the 19th of April 1775 from the perspective of African-Americans who were there that da...
Sep 24, 2024•39 min•Season 5Ep. 39
The Sons of Liberty exulted over the Boston Tea Party, but they also would have been familiar with the proverb "he who dances must pay the piper." The "piper" in this case turned out to be General Thomas Gage who arrived in Boston in May of 1774 to replace Thomas Hutchinson as Royal Governor of Massachusetts. With Gage arrived several regiments of British soldiers and several punitive acts of Parliament. Join Professor Allison as he narrates the British imperial response to American defiance of ...
Sep 17, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 38
Few images of the Battle of Bunker Hill are as evocative as Colonell William Prescott striding up and down the walls of the redoubt, his sword drawn, his banyan fluttering in the breeze as the British regiments marched up the hill. The stalwart defense of Prescott and his troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill established the American army as a formidable foe for the British army. For all this, there is much about Prescott's life we don't know. Author Don Ryan is completing a biography of Prescott ...
Sep 10, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 37
Thomas Jefferson contained multitudes. Like the nation he helped to create, Jefferson was a fascinating man of contradictions: a party leader who did not believe in political parties, an apostle of liberty who owned others, and a "man of the people" who lived atop a mountain. His mountaintop home, Monticello , since 1923 has been maintained by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which presents all of Jefferson's legacy to visitors, scholars, students. We talk with historian Jane Kamensky, President...
Sep 03, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 36
The Mullica River in southern New Jersey was a haven for American privateers, who in the fall of 1778 had eighteen captured British vessels at anchor, their cargoes delivered to Washington's army. Sir Henry Clinton sent a raiding party from New York, which burned the ships and the town of Chestnut Neck. The town rebuilt quickly, but the wrecks lay undisturbed on the river bottom until archaeologists discovered them. We talk with Captain Steve Nagiewicz , mariner, faculty member at Stockton Unive...
Aug 27, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 35
Ruthanne Paulson and Deborah Potee have created a musical, "Oh, That Dreadful Tea," designed to allow kids to experience the thrill of performing and telling the story of the Boston Tea Party through song and drama. Their musical is designed to make this pivotal event more memorable and impactful for elementary and middle school students. Find out more in our conversation! Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Aug 21, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 34
2024 marks the bicentennial of the return of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States. In 1824, President James Monroe invited Lafayette, the last surviving Major General of the Revolution, to be the guest of the nation as a way to celebrate the nation’s 50th anniversary. Lafayette's arrival in New York inspired four days and nights of continuous celebration—a response replicated throughout the country, as what started out as a 3 month tour turned into a 13-month marathon as Lafayette visit...
Aug 13, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 33
Since 1889 the Sons of the American Revolution have been working to preserve the memories of those who fought and supported the American Revolution. While the national headquarters is in Louisville, Kentucky, there are over 550 chapters world-wide, dedicated to commemorating the service and sacrifice of the men and women who fought to establish an independent United States of America. Join Revolution 250 Executive Director in conversation with T. Brooks Lyles, current Registrar General and forme...
Aug 06, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 32
In the summer of 1787, 55 delegates assembled at Philadelphia to write a new Constitution for the new United States of America. The document that was finally agreed upon on September 15, 1787 was not without controversy. The completed document was filled with compromises, particularly around how representation would be calculated, and lacked a Bill of Rights. Join Professor Robert Allison & Revolution 250 Executive Director Jonathan Lane in conversation with Professor Carol Berkin, Baruch Pr...
Jul 30, 2024•43 min•Season 5Ep. 31
Agents, double-agents, spies, secret messages, codes, cyphers are the words that evoke the world of intelligence gathering, a necessary tool for the success of any army. George Washington knew better than anyone the value of knowing what your enemy's plans were and to prevent them, if at all possible, from learning your own plans. Amazingly there are still many sites associated with the Culper Spy Ring that you can visit . Bill Bleyer, journalist and historian, tells us about his book, George Wa...
Jul 23, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 30
"Listen my children, and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." With this one line, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ensured the legacy of 18th-century Boston silversmith, mechanic and entrepreneur, Paul Revere. The poem, published in January of 1861 in the Atlantic Monthly magazine was simply entitled "Paul Revere's Ride," and purports to detail the ride of Paul Revere to warn Middlesex county farmers and minute men about the approach of Regular Army soldiers to capture a cache of weap...
Jul 16, 2024•48 min•Season 5Ep. 29
The "Whiskey Rebellion," as Alexander Hamilton called it, was the first major test of the new government's power to control its territory. The Whiskey Tax of 1791 taxed smaller producers of whiskey, and required all stills to be registered. The response of farmers in the west--many of them veterans of the Revolution--was at times violent, and President Washington responded by leading an army of 13,000 men--mocked at the "watermelon army"-- to subdue the rebellion. We talk about this story with B...
Jul 09, 2024•39 min•Season 5Ep. 28
We see him as the artist who gave us the iconic imagery of our nation's founding. He saw himself as a historian. John Trumbull, soldier, spy, and artist was the son of a Connecticut Governor, a scion of the first-families of New England. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with award-winning author Richard Brookhiser on his book Glorious Lessons; John Trumbull, the Painter of the American Revolution . Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Jul 02, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 27
Mount Vernon's historical status was secured by George Washington's ownership, but its full history cannot be told without examining the other people who lived here. Sarah Johnson, first living enslaved at Mount Vernon and later emancipated, saw the change in Mount Vernon from family home to national treasure. We discuss this story with Scott E. Casper, author of Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine. And we also discuss Scott Casper's favorite place, the Amer...
Jun 25, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 26
Ben and William Frank became part of the Second Rhode Island Regiment in 1777. AFter figinting in the Battle of Rhode Island, Ben switched sides, joined with the British, and wound up in Nova Scotia after the war. His descendant Shirley Green, a Toledo police officer and now director of the Toledo Police Museum , wrote about the Frank Brothers in her terrific book, Revolutionary Blacks: Discovering the Frank Brothers, Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence . We talk with her about the F...
Jun 18, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 25
As we approach our 200th episode we talk with Gordon Wood on his first book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776 - 1787 which ranks among the most important books ever written about the American Revolutionary period and the formation of the American Republic. Join us as to hear about what the founders got right, what they got wrong, and how it continues to influence and evolve in America today. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Jun 11, 2024•39 min•Season 5Ep. 24
June 2024 marks the 250th Anniversary of General & Governor Thomas Gage's attempt to move the Massachusetts government to Salem. Join us as we learn how this important seaport town reacted to 2 regiments of Redcoats moving into town. Join us as we speak with Emily Murphy of the Salem Maritime National Historic Sit e on the impact of Gage's plan to run Massachusetts from Salem and how Salem Maritime is planning to mark the occasion on June 15 & 16, 2024 in Salem, Massachusetts. Tell us wh...
Jun 04, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 23
The Revolution 250 tag line is that these Revolutionary moments in America are "Moments that Changed the World." Within two generations of the end of the French and Indian wars, social and political hierarchies lay in ruins across the Americas and Europe and new republics rose up to take their place. Join us as we converse with award-winning author Nathan Perl-Rosentha l, Professor of History at the University of Southern California, about these new republics, the people they raised up and the n...
May 28, 2024•39 min•Season 5Ep. 22
How well do we know George Washington, the man—and why have we created so many myths about him? We talk with Edward G. Lengel, award-winning author and teacher, and long-time editor-in-chief of the Washington Papers Project, about this well-known but enigmatic character. Ed Lengel has written about Washington the General, General George Washington: A Military Lif e, and about Washington the First Entrepreneur: How George Washington Built his--and the Nation's--Prosperity , and about our continue...
May 21, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 21
