The History of the Americans

This Sidebar episode starts with my notes from my trip to Cuba "in support of the Cuban people," one of the exceptions to the general ban on Americans traveling there. Those notes lead to a story from American - Cuban relations: Three "filibustering" invasions of Cuba launched from the United States in the 1840s, the strange American origin of the flag of Cuba, the election of Franklin Pierce on the platform of acquiring Cuba for the United States, and the curious swearing in of his Vice President, William Rufus King, on a sugar plantation in Cuba. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Ada Ferrer, Cuba: An American History Fulgencio Batista (Wikipedia) Franklin Pierce (Wikipedia) William Rufus King (Wikipedia) "As Cuba turns page on Castro era, economic reform gains urgency" "Economic Reforms In Cuba Over the Past Decade" "The rise of Vegas, thanks to the fall of Cuba"

This episode is about a happy-go-lucky Englishman named Thomas Morton, whom William Bradford dubbed the “Lord of Misrule,” and who would be a thorn in the side of Puritans in New England for more than fifteen years. Here’s how Bradford described Thomas Morton in Of Plymouth Plantation: …Morton became Lord of Misrule, and maintained (as it were) a School of Atheism. And after they had got some goods into their hands, and got much by trading with the Indians, they spent it as vainly in quaffing and drinking, both wine and strong waters in excess (and, as some reported) £10 worth in a morning. They also set up a maypole, drinking and dancing about it many days together, inviting the Indian women for their consorts, dancing and frisking together like so many fairies, or furies, rather; and worse practices. Frisking! And worse... But Thomas Morton was much more than that. In many ways, he was the first new American of a very particular sort, and his story reminds us that American traditions have always been in a struggle with each other. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty William Carlos Williams, In the American Grain Peter C. Mancall, The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England William Heath, "Thomas Morton: From Merry Old England to New England," Journal of American Studies, April 2007 Michael Zuckerman, "Pilgrims in the Wilderness: Community, Modernity, and the Maypole at Merry Mount," The New England Quarterly, June 1977 John Endecott (Wikipedia)

New Netherland gets off to a rocky start, with uncommonly poor leadership. Fortunately, a very capable leader, Peter Minuit, steps forward after a catastrophic attack on the Dutch at Fort Orange by the Mohawk. Minuit would consolidate most of the settlers at New Amsterdam, and buy Manhattan from the Leni Lenape Indians on the island. Notwithstanding its representation in American lore, we fearlessly consider whether that deal was, in fact, a great bargain for the Dutch, or actually at fair market value! See Jack's interview on The RSnake Show on Youtube. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America Eric Yanis, The Other States of America History Podcast New Amsterdam (Wikipedia) "Honoring a Very Early New Yorker" (NYT)

This is the beginning of the story of New Netherland, the Dutch colonization of today's New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic. New Netherland was a long-ignored period in American history, but has come into its own in recent years. The Dutch and New Netherland are now seen to have had a significant impact on the early United States, with important downstream consequences. Such as the word "cookie," which is why we Americans don't call them "biscuits," as the English do. In this episode we discuss the geopolitical and economic considerations that led to the chartering of the New Netherland Company in 1614 and the much larger Dutch West India Company in 1621, both motivated in part by the fantastic success of the Dutch East India Company. We end the episode just before the first batch of Dutch settlers are to arrive in New York harbor. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Jeff's pictures of the Wessagussett site Selected references for this episode Eric Yanis, The Other States of America History Podcast Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America Mark Meuwese, "The Dutch Connection: New Netherland, the Pequots, and the Puritans in Southern New England, 1620-1638," Early American Studies, Spring 2011. Dutch East India Company (Wikipedia)

This is an encore presentation of our special Columbus Day episode, which originally dropped on October 12, 2021. It remains one of the most popular episodes of the History of the Americans. Last year I released it on the actual day, rather than on the Monday holiday, but this year I'll go with the flow. One of the reasons is that all the popular and social media discourse on Columbus happens on the government holiday, rather than the anniversary itself. This episode is not actually about the culture war over Columbus Day, except in passing. Instead, we consider the larger consequences of Columbus’s “Great Enterprise,” and various counterfactuals — “what if” moments that might have made it all go quite differently, and the possible long-term consequences. Along the way we say some challenging things that will irritate almost everybody, but we know you are only listening because of your resolutely open minds! Follow me on Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Or on Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, 30th Anniversary Edition Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650 Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas”

We are back in Virginia. Opechancanough's attack of March 22, 1622, the day the sky fell, has knocked the English back on their heels, but not out of Virginia. In this episode, the English react, both with domestic controversy and military force. The Virginia Company invents corporate "damage control." King James I gives the Company all the obsolete weapons in his armory. Within a year after sky fall, more than 900 English will have died from fighting or starvation. Indian deaths may well have been more. Opechancanough asks for a cease fire, and the English agree. Or do they? Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown

This episode snips off some loose ends. We examine Squanto's ambiguous and controversial legacy, and look at a few interesting Pilgrim stories through the summer of 1623 that did not fit well into the timeline narrative of the last few episodes, including Indian gambling, a miracle of prayer during extreme weather, and the decision by the leaders of the colony to end collective farming and authorize private plots so each family would be better motivated to boost food production. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Shawn's Pictures of the Popham Colony Site Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War Nick Bunker, Making Haste From Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History Edward Winslow, Good News From New England William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation "Gambling," The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology

By fall 1622, the new settlers sent by Thomas Weston – except those who were sick and remained in the care of the Pilgrims -- left to settle in Wessagussett, twenty-two miles to the north of Plymouth at the site of today’s Weymouth.  It was in fact a great location for a settlement with one important qualification:  It was decidedly in the territory of the Massachusetts tribe, and by no means unoccupied or abandoned as Patuxet had been.  This would turn out to be a catastrophic decision, and yet it would paradoxically lead to a more durable peace for the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the tribes following Massasoit at Pokanoket.  But only after the Pilgrims made gutsy decisions and acted boldly. Along the way Squanto would die under mysterious circumstances, and a miracle of healing would change everything. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty Edward Winslow, Good News From New England William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation Trading Places ("I can see!")

After some English killed one of Opechancanough's most celebrated warriors, Nemattanew, in the belief that he had killed an English trader, the great chief Opechancanough reassured Sir George Yeardley, the governor of the English in Virginia, that “the Sky should sooner fall than Peace be broken.” This was part of Opechancanough's extraordinarily disciplined eight year campaign to lull the overconfident English into complacency, and then ambush them. The sky would indeed fall on March 22, 1622, and the Powhatan Confederacy would kill 347 English, other Europeans, and Africans in an all-out push to eject the English from their lands. It almost succeeded. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown Jamestowne Society

Opechancanough, successor to paramount chief Powhatan, deserves to be remembered as one of the great indigenous leaders in American history, on the same rank as Massasoit, King Philip, Pontiac, Logan the Orator, Joseph Brant, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo. His biography, the important prerequisite to his war on the English in 1622, is nothing less than astonishing. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America Carl Bridenbaugh, Early Americans Anna Brickhouse, The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945 Charlotte M. Gradie, “Spanish Jesuits in Virginia: The Mission That Failed” William R. Gerard, "The Tapehanek Dialect of Virginia," American Anthropologist, April - June 1904.