Aaron Burr: Revolutionary War hero, talented lawyer, Vice President, and Intriguer of treason? Between 1805 and 1807, Aaron Burr supposedly intended to commit treason by dividing the American union. How did Americans learn about and respond to this treasonous intrigue? James Lewis Jr., a Professor of History at Kalamazoo College and author of The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis, guides us through what we … [Read more...]
Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic
It’s February 2018 and doctors have declared this year’s seasonal flu epidemic as one of the worst to hit the United States in over a decade. Yet this flu epidemic is nothing compared to the yellow fever epidemics that struck the early American republic during the 1790s and early 1800s. So what happened when epidemic diseases took hold in early America? How did early Americans deal with disease and illness? Thomas Apel, author of Feverish … [Read more...]
Episode 173: Marisa Fuentes, Colonial Port Cities and Slavery
The histories of early North America and the Caribbean are intimately intertwined. The same European empires we encounter in our study of early America also appear in the Caribbean and the colonies in these respective empires often traded goods, people, and ideas between each other. Marisa Fuentes, an associate professor of history and women and gender studies at Rutgers University and author of Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, … [Read more...]
Episode 172: Kenneth Daigler, Patriots, Spies, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War
Intelligence gathering plays an important role in the foreign policies of many modern-day nation states, including the United States. Which raises the questions: How and when did the United States establish its foreign intelligence service? To answer those questions we’ll need to journey back to the American Revolution. Our guide Kenneth Daigler, an intelligence professional with 33 years experience managing human sources and collection and … [Read more...]
Episode 171: Jessica Stern, Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America
History books like to tell us that Native Americans did not fully understand British methods and ideas of trade. Is this really true? Did Native Americans only understand trade as a form of simplistic, gift exchange? Jessica Stern, a Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton and the author of The Lives in Objects: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Cultures of Labor and Exchange in the Southeast, takes us on a … [Read more...]
Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England
New England was a place with no cash crops. It was also a place that became known for its strong anti-slavery sentiment during the 19th century. So how did New England also become a place that practiced slavery? Wendy Warren, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist book New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America, joins us to explore why New Englanders practiced … [Read more...]
Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
We remember Benjamin Franklin as an accomplished printer, scientist, and statesman. Someone who came from humble beginnings and made his own way in the world. Rarely do we remember Franklin as a man of faith. Benjamin Franklin spent more time grappling with questions of religion, faith, virtue, and morality in his writing than about any other topic. Thomas S. Kidd, a Professor of History at Baylor University and author of Benjamin Franklin: … [Read more...]
Episode 168: Andrea Smalley, Wild By Nature: Colonists and Animals in North America
When we study the history of colonial North America, we tend to focus on European colonists and their rivalries with each other and with Native Americans. But humans weren’t the only living beings occupying North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Rivalries existed between humans and animals too. And these human-animal rivalries impacted and shaped how European colonists used and settled North American lands. Andrea Smalley, … [Read more...]
Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
The French established New Orleans and the greater colony of Louisiana in 1717. By 1840, New Orleans had become the 3rd largest city in the United States. How did that happen? How did New Orleans transform from a sleepy, minor French outpost into a large and important early American city with a thriving, bustling port? Eberhard “Lo” Faber, an assistant professor of history at Loyola University, New Orleans and the author of Building the … [Read more...]
Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
The Declaration of Independence described “all men” as “created equal” when its authors knew they were not. So was the revolutionary idea of freedom dependent on slavery? In this last episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we return to the place our series began: the world of Paul Revere. We speak with Christopher Cameron, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss how Phillis … [Read more...]
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