Revolution 250 Podcast

Captain John Parker is famously supposed to have said on Lexington Green, "If they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Even if the attribution is true, did the British or the Provincials mean to have a war in April of 1775?  Join Professor Robert Allison (Suffolk University) as he explores the aftermath of the events of April 19, 1775 through the end of the year.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Jane McCrea's death in 1777 became a powerful tool of Revolutionary propaganda, fueling anti-British sentiment across the colonies. Her murder by British-allied Native warriors was portrayed as savage and unjust, rallying support for the Patriot cause and highlighting the perceived brutality of British alliances. We talk with Blake Grindon about her book on the life, death, and legacy of Jane McCrea.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

2027 will be the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga and the surrender of General John Burgoyne's forces to those of General Horatio Gates.  Often called the "Turning Point of the Revolution" the victory over Burgoyne was instrumental in earning America its first European ally, France. Long a subject of legend and story, Burgoyne's expedition is now the subject of a new series of novels by Avellina Balestri titled All Ye That Pass By.Join Revolution 250 guest host Jonathan Lane as he discusses Book 1 of the series, titled Gone for a Soldier with the author.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The monuments of Washington D.C. are among the most visited sites in our nation's capital. The legacies of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt are carried through the generations by their stone memorials in D.C.  Today, there is a national commission to investigate and plan for a new addition to those memorials, one dedicated to John Adams and the many notable members of his family, including Abigail, John Quincy, Louisa Catherine, Charles Francis and Henry Adams. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Jackie Cushman, Chair of the Adams National Memorial Commission.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

What is a "turning point"?  We talk with John Mass, whose new book From Trenton to Yorktown:  Turning Points in the Revolutionary War looks at five episodes that changed the course of the war and lead toward the American victory.  Which were the decisive moments?  Listen to find out! Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Don Troiani's magnificently detailed battle paintings and meticulously-researched uniforms bring to life early-American military history.  He has collaborated with historian John Rees on a visual and artistic look at Black soldiers from the Seven Years War to the Civil War, in this richly-illustrated   Don Troiani's Black Soldiers in America's Wars 1754-1865.   Historian John Rees, whose previous book, They Were Good Soldiers, told the story of African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, tells us about the world of Black soldiers which his and Troiani's book brings documents. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

After World War II, book publishers and film makers worked to identify American heroes that they could promote to the world.  Frequently these heroes were self-made men who used specialized knowledge or skills to defeat an overwhelming enemy.  One such character was Francis Marion, a South Carolina plantation owner who utlized his knowledge of the countryside to prey upon British garrisons and foraging parties. We talk with John Oller, author of The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

 As we get close to Patriots Day, let us remember that the fighting along "Battle Road" and the entire siege of Boston involved thousands of men from hundreds of communities.  On April 19, 1775 as the "Lexington Alarm" spread throughout the region, towns mustered their militia and they marched towards the fight.  Needham sent 185 men to fight the Redcoats that day, losing five men in the process.  Join Gloria Greis of the Needham History Center & Museum in conversation with Professor Robert Allison on the history of Needham's role in the revolution and their plans to commemorate these "Moments that Changed the World." Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

On the afternoon of April 19, as the people of Plymouth and Barnstable counties heard of the battles at Lexington and Concord, they mustered their militia and sent them. .. to Marshfield.  We talk with Patrick Browne of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society about the "almost battle of Marshfield," the only town outside of Boston that had a detachment of Redcoats.  We hear about why the British were in Marshfield, and what the militia did to force them, and Marshfield's many loyalists out.  We also hear about other events on the South Shore, and about how Plymouth is commemorating its local heroine, Mercy Otis Warren.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

For 50 years the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington has been telling the story of America and the Masonic traditions that are interwoven with that narrative. The museum has a collection of more than 17,000 objects and manages another 11,000 objects belonging to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Objects from that collection and pieces from their world-class library are being used to launch a new exhibit on April 13, 2025 entitled Protest & Promise: The American Revolution in Lexington. Join Professor Allison in conversation with Assistant Curator Stacey Fraser on this iconic museum, its connection to the Bicentennial and the special exhibits and projects they have planned for the 250th.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

 Loyalty and Patriotism in the American Revolution:  Which side are you one?   Are "loyalist" and "patriot" useful terms in deciphering the sides to the American Revolution?  A conversation with Robert A. Gross, author of The Minutemen and their World, about the changing meanings of loyalty and patriotism in the era of the American Revolution. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Christina Carrick, an editor at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, formerly an editor at the Robert Treat Paine Papers, joins us to talk about Jefferson and Paine.  She also talks about the loyalist family networks she has studied--New England merchants sent into exile who maintained connections with home.  She also discusses editorial projects, and how to become part of these important projects through organizations like the Association for Documentary Editing. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Some of the bloodiest fighting on April 19, 1775 happened in the village of Menotomy, the community lay along the main road from Cambridge to Concord.  It had numerous mills, taverns and a meetinghouse and burial ground along this road, some of which still show scars from that day.  We talk with Matthew Beres, Executive Director of the Arlington Historical Society, based in the Jason Russell House, about the fighting there and in the rest of Arlington, and the town's commemorations of those events'Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

There is a lot of focus on the events of April 19, 1775, events that set in motion America's call for Independence from Great Britain.  Securing our independence took 8 long years of war.  What is the impact of the war for American independence on a community?   Beth van Duzer of the Concord 250 Subcommittee on History and Education tell us about the community of Concord's project  to gather up  Revolutionary war stories of the people who lived and died in that town.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

"Place is of very little consequence," Mary Sewall of Marblehead wrote to her sister in Nova Scotia in 1799," except as it brings you near to those whom by nature you are most nearly allied."  The Sewall sisters had been separated by war, yet family ties endured and complicated their relationships in the post-Revolutionary world.   Patrick O'Brien of the University of Tampa, writing about the divided families of Marblehead, joins us to talk about the ties sundered by the Revolution and those that remained.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

As word spread of the British march to Lexington and Concord,  communities from all over Massachusetts and greater New England responded.  Historian Alan Foulds tells us about the Lynn End (now Lynnfield) militia, who were warned by medical student Martin Herrick, and their march to Menotomy, where they fought the British at the Jason Russell House.  The Lynnfield Historical Society has told these stories in a series of videos, and will re-enact these events, and will put on a play, "Shadows of 1775," in which the men and women in the town of 1775 will tell their stories to their townsfolk and visitors today.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Acting on intelligence that the Provincial militia had cannon in a Salem blacksmith shop, Beneral Thomas Gage sent Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie and the 64th Regiment of Foot to Marblehead and then to Salem to find the weapons. We talk with Charlie Newhall and Jonathan Streff about this expedition, known as "Leslie's Retreat," which is re-enacted in Salem every February.  Leslie did not get the cannon, but he and the people of Salem avoided war.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The Boston Town Watch kept order on the streets of Boston, particularly at night. When soldiers of the Crown arrived in 1768 their overlapping authorities came into conflict, which deepened as Crown and colony careened towards war.  We talk with Nicole Breault of the University of Texas, El Paso, who is writing a book on the Boston Town Watch.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Few things shocked American patriots as the betrayal of General Benedict Arnold.  After attempting to surrender West Point to the British, Arnold led a series of raids, first in Virginia, and then in his native state of Connecticut.  Matthew E. Reardon has written a new account of Arnold's raid on New London and attack on Fort Griswold,  The Traitor's Homecoming; Benedict Arnold's Raid on New London September 4-13,  1781.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The first engagement against the Crown forces that involved soldiers from multiple provinces operating under a unified command.  The first use of field artillery by the Provincial forces. The destruction of the HMS Diana, whose mainmast was to be used to hoist the "Grand Union Flag" atop Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776.  Few engagements can boast so much, and yet the engagement that has become known locally as "The Battle of Chelsea Creek" has all of those stories and so much more.  We talk with local author, journalist and historian Jeff Pearlman about the engagement on Noddle's and Hog Islands and the loss of the HMS Diana on the 27th of May 1775.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Few men were as highly esteemed and just a decade later despised beyond measure as Timothy Ruggles.  Ruggles was a hero of the French & Indian War, a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress from Massachusetts, a land owner, legislator and  community leader who had a large and prosperous family.  His daughter Bathsheba married a Boston man, Joshua Spooner, and their marriage was once described as "inharmonious." Imagine then the country gossip when Joshua was found in March 1778 beaten and murdered and stuffed into his own well, and that two British prisoners of war and a young man from Topsfield were found in possession of his personal property.  Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Andrew Noone, author of ‘Bathsheba Spooner, A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy.'Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Founded in 1923 through the gift of  William Lawrence Clements, the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan is a fount of historical manuscripts, maps and rare books, particularly on the American Revolution.  Their collections include the papers of General Thomas Gage, and General Henry Clinton, two of the leading British military leaders during the American Revolution, as well as Lord George Germain, a cabinet minister and Hessian General von Jungkenn.  The Clements library is currently engaged digitizing the Gage and Clinton papers, making these resources available to scholars world-wide, and an exhibit on April 19, 1775, which will open on April 18, 2025.  We talk with Paul J. Erickson, the Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library, and Cheney Schopieray, Curator of Manuscripts, about the treasures the Clements hold, how scholars and students can access them, and what are their favorite things (today) in this tremendous archive. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

We are now deep into the Semiquincentennial commemoration of the events that led to American Independence.  2025 represents a watershed year as we commemorate the Battles of Lexington & Concord, Chelsea Creek and Bunker Hill.  Just in time to help us remember  these events, and why we are commemorating the 250th,  Professor Abby Chandler of UMass Lowell, has launched a new journal, Remembering the American Revolution at 250.  In Chandler joins us to talk about this new project, along with Professor Marianne Holdzkom, author of its first article, "Based on a True Story; Remembering the Revolution through Film." Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

After a stint in the Navy and forty years teaching history, Larry Kidder was curios about the lives of ordinary people in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.  He could not find a good book on the subject, so he started writing , and how he has told stories of the Revolution from the vantage point of New Jersey's militia. On Christmas Eve he joins us to share the epic story of General Washington crossing the Delaware, and  introduces us to the Revolutionary World of Jacob Francis, a Free Black man from New Jersey who, as a "Massachusetts" soldier, participated inn the crossing.  Larry Kidder tells us of Jacob Francis and other stories from New Jersey in the Revolution's ten crucial days--from the Delaware crossing to the Battle of Princeton. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

John Dickinson burst onto the scene with his "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1767 and 1768.  He wrote "The Liberty Song,"  sung all over America, including at the 1769  Sons of Liberty dinner in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and the Continental Congress's Olive Branch Petition and with Jefferson  the "Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms."  While he opposed the Declaration of Independence, he drafted the Articles of Confederation, and in 1787 was a member of the Constitutional Convention.  We talk about Dickinson with Dr. Jane Calvert, author of the new biography, Penman of the Founding:  A Biography of John Dickinson , and the Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 steady capability soon recommended him to Washington for a number of posts.  Wounded at Saratoga, Lincoln would also be forced to surrender Charleston, SC to the British, but also accepted (at Washington's urging) the surrender of the British at Yorktown.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 an industrial waterway that still retains much of its 18th-century contour.  We hear from archaeologists Craig Brown, a PhD candidate at the University of Ediburgh,  and Victor Mastone, President of the Massachusetts Archaeology Society on this important, but little known May 1775 battle, and their work to map the site.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 abolition of slavery.Nathan Richardson is a published author, performance poet, and Frederick Douglass Historian.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 "Town Meeting Bistro." Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with the owner and operator of the Inn at Hastings Park Tricia Perez Kennealy on how the Inn is preparing for the 250th Anniversary in Lexington.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 trees as far away Ohio and Indiana.   Melissa M. Cybulski, Vice President of the Longmeadow Historical Society and author of Appleseeds:  A Boy Named Johnny Chapman  she shares with us the role of the Chapman family, Longmeadow & Western Massachusetts in the age of the American Revolution.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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. We talk with  Michael Hattem, author of The Memory of '76  on how we remember the American Revolution.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 Christopher Pearl about his new book, Declarations of Independence:  Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution, which examines this intense struggle among Indigenous Americans, rebellious colonial squatters, opportunistic land speculators, and imperial government agents which shaped the American Revolution.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 new on-line exhibit Religion of Liberty, and what we can learn from the Congregational Library about the beginnings of the American Revolution.https://www.congregationallibrary.org/https://www.congregationallibrary.org/events/open-house-2024Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 debate the causes of the fire.  Was it carelessness or a deliberate attempt to prevent the formation of the Provincial Congress.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 Curator of the National Museum of the United States Army, Paul Morando.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 day fighting or observing---alarm-rider Abel Benson, soldiers Prince Estabrook and Peter Salem, Hartwell Tavern keeper Violet Thayer.  We talk about the challenges of engaging younger readers and the importance of understanding the American story in all its complexity. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 parliament.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 wherein he will bring to life Colonel Prescott and all of his services to the people of Massachusetts in their effort to secure independence.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, about Monticello and its architect.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 University, diver, and underwater archaeologist about the search for these vessels (he has enlisted his Stockton University students in the search) and what we can learn about the maritime Revolution from the wrecks beneath the surface.  Captain Nagiewicz is also the author of the Hidden History of Maritime New Jersey, which tells the story of other New Jersey shipwrecks.   Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

 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!

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 visited each of the 24 United States. We discuss the tour with Elizabeth Reese, a public historian and author of Marquis de Lafayette Returns: A Tour of America's National Capital Region.  Elizabeth Reese is also deeply involved with plans for the bicentennial of Lafayette's visit being planned by the American Friends of Lafayette--see if he is coming to your town!Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 Lyle, current Registrar General and former Historian General of the SAR on the work of the Sons of the American Revolution and their plans for a new museum and educational center at the national headquarters.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 Presidential Professor emerita at the City University of New York on her book A Brilliant Solution; Inventing the American Constitution.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 interested persons can visit.  Join Professor Bob Allison in conversation with Bill Blyer on his 2021 book, "George Washington's Long Island Spy Ring: a History and Tour Guide."Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

"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 weapons and supplies hidden in Concord, Massachusetts.  However, that dramatic ride was just one of dozens of rides that Paul Revere was hired to do on behalf of the people of Massachusetts.  Join Professor Bob Allison in conversation with Tegan Kehoe, the Research and Adult Programs Director of the historic Paul Revere House on the many rides of Paul Revere.https://www.paulreverehouse.org/Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 Brady Crytzer, author of The Whiskey Rebellion; A Distilled History of an American Crisis.Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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!

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 American Antiquarian Society and its amazing collections and programs.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

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 Frank brothers and their story. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!