Season 6

Nov. 28, 2022

228. Editing the Adams Family Papers with Dr. Sara Georgini

The Adams Family is one of the more prominent families in American history. They were at the center of the American Revolution, they helped create a new republic, shaped the young nation’s foreign policy, and later were cent…
Nov. 14, 2022

227: Welcoming a Deserving Brother with Mark Tabbert

In 1752, George Washington joined the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was just twenty years old. Despite his early interest in masonry, Washington was not as active in the organization as some might imagine, bu…
Oct. 31, 2022

226. Cross-examining Washington's Heir with Prof. Gerard Magliocca

When George Washington wrote his final will in the months before he died in December 1799, he named Bushrod Washington as heir to his papers and to Mount Vernon. He took possession of his uncle’s Virginia plantation when Mar…
June 24, 2022

224. Unpacking the Slave Empire with Dr. Padraic Scanlan

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the British Empire began dismantling the slave system that had helped to build it. Parliament banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, and in 1833 the government outlawed …
May 19, 2022

223. Attending a Lecture on Female Genius with Dr. Mary Sarah Bilder

In May 1787, George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. One afternoon, as he waited for the other delegates to show up so the convention could begin, Washington accompanied some ladies…
March 25, 2022

222. Winning a "Compleat Victory" at Saratoga with Dr. Kevin Weddle

The Battle of Saratoga in September and October of 1777 was a decisive turning point in the American War for Independence. The American victory over the British in northern New York put a stopper to London’s dreams of a swif…
March 9, 2022

221. Reading the Political Poetry of Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin with Dr. Kait Tonti

Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin was an American poet who rhymed about some of the most important issues facing the early United States in the eighteenth century, including the British occupation of New York City during the Ameri…
Guest: Kait Tonti
Feb. 18, 2022

220. Educating Early Americans with Drs. Mark Boonshoft and Andrew O'Shaughnessy

If you had been alive in eighteenth-century America, you would've had little opportunity for formal schooling or an advanced education. Unless you were among the elite or at least of some means, your chances of attending a l…
Feb. 2, 2022

219. Negotiating Federal-State Relations with Dr. Grace Mallon

For years after the ratification of the Constitution, Americans debated how the Federal Government and the several states should relate to each other, and work together, to form a more perfect union. The success, if not the …
Guest: Grace Mallon
Jan. 20, 2022

218. Finding Washington at the Plow with Dr. Bruce Ragsdale

In the 1760s, tobacco was one of Virginia’s chief exports. But George Washington turned away from the noxious plant and began dreaming of wheat and a more profitable future. Washington became enamored with new ideas powering…
Jan. 6, 2022

217. Exploring Star Territory with Dr. Gordon Fraser

In the 18th and 19th centuries, North Americans looked up at the sky in wonder at the cosmos and what lay beyond earth’s atmosphere. But astronomers like Benjamin Banneker, Georgia surveyors, Cherokee storytellers, and gover…
Guest: Gordon Fraser
Dec. 23, 2021

216. Digitally Deconstructing the Constitution with Dr. Nicholas Cole

When delegates assembled in Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787 to write a new Constitution, they spent months in secret writing a document they hoped would form a more perfect Union. When we talk about the convention, we oft…
Guest: Nicholas Cole
Dec. 2, 2021

215. Reading Thomas Paine's Rights of Man with Dr. Frances Chiu

For most Americans, Thomas Paine is the radical Englishman, and former tax collector, who published Common Sense in early 1776. His claim that hereditary monarchy was an absurdity and that the “cause of America was in great …
Nov. 17, 2021

Previewing Episode 1 of Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon

On this week's show, we bring you Episode 1 of Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Entitled "Passages," it features the life of Sambo Anderson, who was just a boy when he was captured in …
Nov. 4, 2021

214. Weaponizing Settlement in Nova Scotia with Dr. Alexandra Montgomery

Although you might not realize it, in the years before the American Revolution, Nova Scotia was all the rage. People concocted various schemes to settle it, and the British government saw it as one of the keys to its new vis…
Oct. 23, 2021

213. Sailing to Freedom with Dr. Timothy D. Walker

In May 1796, an enslaved woman named Ona Judge fled the presidential household in Philadelphia and escaped to freedom on a ship headed for New Hampshire. Judge’s successful flight was one of many such escapes by the sea in t…
Oct. 6, 2021

212. Recruiting the Hero of Two Worlds with Mike Duncan

To kick off Season 6, we bring you the story of America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchmen. In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette sailed from France with a commission as a major general in the Continental Army. Unlike many other Euro…
Guest: Mike Duncan