The History of the Americans

It is 1614. John Smith of Jamestown fame is now looking for a new gig, and he sets his gimlet eye on the northeast coast of North America. He travels the coast in a small boat, and by 1616 has produced a tract called "A Description of New England" with an accompanying map. He gives New England its name, and makes the case for the English settlement of the region. He would not get his gig, but his writing and fund-raising campaign would change the course of history. Along the way we notice that Smith has something quite important to say about Francis Drake. And we enthusiastically recommend Jacob Mchangama's new book, Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode Walter W. Woodward, "Captain John Smith and the Campaign for New England: A Study in Early Modern Identity and Promotion," The New England Quarterly, March 2008. A Description Of New England Or The Observations And Discoveries Of Captain John Smith Melissa Darby, Thunder Go North: The Hunt for Sir Francis Drake’s Fair & Good Bay The Wizard of Oz (Melting)

On May 30, 1931, the Saturday after Memorial Day, the beleaguered President Herbert Hoover addressed a crowd of 20,000 people under sweltering heat at Valley Forge. This episode looks at that speech in the context of Hoover's life and times. Contemporary listeners will see much that is familiar in Hoover's speech -- politicians are in many ways similar across generations -- and also sentiments that we have not heard from our presidents in a long time. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode William E. Leuchtenburg, Herbert Hoover Herbert Hoover Memorial Day Address at Valley Forge, May 30, 1931 New York Times coverage Jessie De Priest tea at White House Men at Work - "Down Under" Theme song to "All In The Family" Herbert Hoover speech of November 4, 1932

We are on the road to Plymouth. There are several strands that weave together in 1620, when the Pilgrims on the Mayflower land at an abandoned Indian village known as Patuxet, at a site John Smith had named Plymouth. One of those strands is the rise of dissident Protestantism in England, and the idea that it might best be dealt with by transplanting early Separatists to the New World. The first such project, an attempt in 1597 to make a Separatist colony on islands at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, would fail spectacularly. But it would also be an important precursor of the settlement that many -- not all, but many -- Americans identify as the national origin story. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode David B. Quinn, "The First Pilgrims," The William and Mary Quarterly, July 1966. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Pilgrim)

Samuel de Champlain returns to New France in 1615, and leads an alliance of Huron and Algonquin tribes into western New York State to attack Onondaga, the heavily fortified heart of Iroquois territory on the site of today's Syracuse. Along the way Champlain goes fishing on Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, and we learn that he was not the first European to do. The battle itself is dramatic. The French and their allies build a huge siege tower that requires two hundred men to move in position. But not all ends well. Champlain is injured, and endures unbelievable pain in the retreat to Huronia. The outcome is a matter of some historical controversy. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream Étienne Brûlé (Wikipedia) Étienne Brûlé (Dictionary of Canadian Biography) Susquehannock (Wikipedia) Casablanca ("There are certain sections of New York...") The Fifth Column Podcast Map of Champlain's route through Huronia and into Iroquoia: Map of Champlain's route in 1615, from Champlain's Dream

We're back after our week off! In this episode we touch on our vacation driving the Natchez Trace, and then proceed briskly to the career of Samuel Argall - Pocahontas's kidnapper - in the service of the Virginia Company and himself. Most importantly, we look at the hilariously devious ruse that Argall deployed in 1613 to "displant" the French colony on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Seymour V. Connor, "Sir Samuel Argall: A Biographical Sketch," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April 1951. Casablanca (Your papers please) Pierre Biard Natchez Trace

This episode is a “Sidebar,” which is our term for an episode that is off the timeline of the History of the Americans. This episode centers on a concurring opinion delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch in a case handed down by the United States Supreme Court only a few days ago, on April 21, 2022. The case, United States vs. Vaello Madero, addresses a pretty unexciting question to most of us -- whether the Constitution requires Congress to extend Supplemental Security Income benefits to residents of Puerto Rico to the same extent it makes those benefits available to the residents of the States. That is not the interesting part. Justice Gorsuch's concurring opinion is, however, very interesting, an eloquent re-telling of the history of a series of cases -- the "Insular Cases" -- handed down in the years following the Spanish-American war, the moment in which the United States started dabbling in the European habit of true empire building. The Insular Cases are both an analytical mess and remain on the books as bad law today, as Justice Gorsuch compellingly argues. Enjoy! Selected references for this episode United States v. Vaello Madero Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Insular Cases (Wikipedia) Plessy v. Ferguson (Wikipedia) U.S. Citizen Vs U.S. National: Differences "Breaker Morant," epitaph scene

It is late winter, 1616.  When last we left our lovers, John and Rebecca Rolfe were in receipt of a request from the Virginia Company to come to London.  They had a young son, Thomas, barely a year old, so this must not have been an easy decision to make. This episode is about that trip to London in 1616 and 1617. The young family sailed in April 1616 on Samuel Argall’s frigate Treasurer, the same ship onto which Pocahontas had been lured and kidnapped three years before.  In addition to the Rolfes, Powhatan’s son-in-law, Uttamatomakin, came along at the paramount chief’s behest to learn what he could of the English. And the English would learn a lot about them. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation The Blue Brothers (Tunnel scene)

This episode is about the kidnapping and ransom of Pocahontas in 1613, the romancing of her by John Rolfe, her conversion to Christianity, and their marriage in 1614, which settled the First Anglo-Powhatan War.  We look at the two protagonists, their different personalities, their motives, and the extent of their emotional attachment. My primary source for this episode is a very interesting book written only in 2004 by Camilla Townsend, “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma.”  Professor Townsend reads all the various accounts of Pocahontas’ life critically, in the sense of thoughtfully, trying to imagine what she must have felt under the circumstances described by the various European men who encountered her and wrote down what they believed happened. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma Mawage John Philip Sousa, "Powhatan's Daughter March" Errata: I misspoke when I said that Thomas Rolfe would have many children - he had many grandchildren, all descended from his only daughter, Jane Rolfe, who would marry Robert Bolling. Their son John Bolling would have six children, all of whom would marry and have children of their own.

This episode is a close look at the First Anglo-Powhatan War, which began shortly after John Smith left Jamestown forever in October 1609, and ended as a formal matter with the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. The war was extremely bloody, if casualties are measured as a percentage of original population, and is noteworthy as the first true war between English settlers and the Indians of North America. Many more would come. But, before even getting to seventeenth century Virginia, we fix our gimlet eye on the historical significance of National Beer Day! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode J. Frederick Fausz, "An 'Abundance of Blood Shed on Both Sides': England's First Indian War, 1609-1614," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January 1990 James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America National Beer Day (Wikipedia) Message of FDR to Congress re the Volstead Act Elizabeth Warren gets her a beer

After the experience of 15 months, 66 substantive episodes, and more than 180,000 aggregate downloads/listens, I thought it would be useful to reintroduce the podcast. I labored over the original introduction and still stand by it, and yet it does not really reflect the tone of the podcast as it has turned out. This episode is therefore a new introduction for both new and longstanding subscribers. It includes a description of the podcast as it has actually evolved, and also my thoughts on the need for history to be fun and interesting, the avoidance of "presentism," and the importance of attempting to keep politics out of the teaching and telling of history. And there's an awesome clip from "Inherit the Wind."