The History of the Americans

The English established a colony on the coast near today’s Phippsburg, Maine in 1607, only a couple of months after the founding of Jamestown. It would survive just over a year.  The Popham or Sagadahoc Colony was the culmination of several exploratory missions along the New England coast from approximately Cape Cod to Maine between 1602 and 1605.  In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, who would eventually die at Jamestown, led the first of those missions to the New England coast and gave several famous places names that we use today, including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.  His expedition would stay in the Elizabeth Islands, which shelter Buzzard's Bay in Massachusetts, for more than three weeks, and have extensive encounters with local indigenous peoples. The Gosnold narrative of those encounters has all sorts of interesting stuff! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode Henry Otis Thayer, The Sagadahoc Colony: Comprising the Relation of a Voyage Into New England Warner F. Gookin, "Who was Bartholomew Gosnold?", The William and Mary Quarterly, July 1949. A briefe and true relation of the discouerie of the north part of Virginia being a most pleasant, fruitfull and commodious soile: made this present yeere 1602, by Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold, Captaine Bartholowmew [sic] Gilbert, and diuers other gentlemen their associats, by the permission of the honourable knight, Sir Walter Ralegh, &c. Written by M. Iohn Brereton one of the voyage.

It is 1580. Virtually no Spaniards have returned to New Mexico or the American southwest since the return of the remnants of the Coronado and Soto expeditions in 1542.  Neither had found a third great indigenous civilization to conquer, or even more than scant evidence of precious metals.  By 1580 most of the survivors of those expeditions had died, and the narratives produced in their aftermath would have been known to very few people. The most durable legacy of those expeditions would have been the rumors of gold, which always persist long after the actual facts are gone from living memory.  So it was that circa 1580 various aspirational conquistadors set to scheming for a return to the region that some were now dreaming of as “New Mexico.”  These new Spanish probes into the American southwest were minor affairs and of relatively little consequence, except insofar as they stirred up the Indians living in the Pueblos of the region and generated a new round of propaganda that would lead to the colonization project of Juan de Oñate y Salazar in 1598.  That would be of surpassing significance, for Oñate would stay for twelve years, kill a lot of Indians, found Santa Fe just before he departed, and establish the foundation of Spanish society in the southwestern United States. Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, The Rediscovery of New Mexico, 1580-1594 (Coronado cuarto centennial publications, 1540-1940) Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate John L. Kessell, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico J. Lloyd Mecham, "Antonio de Espejo and His Journey to New Mexico", The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1926

In this episode we look at the tangled debate over the location of Drake's "fair and good bay." Was it in California? Or do we only believe that because of unbelievably unscrupulous behavior by famous California academics? We recount the story of Drake's "plate of brass," and discuss the connection between that fraud and the "Dare stone." Along the way we take a close look at academic conspiracy, California's "national myth," and the brilliant woman who revolutionized the history of Drake's circumnavigation only to be denounced by some of the leading lights in the profession of history. Finally, we consider the legacy of Sir Francis Drake, and the matter of changing the names of high schools. Oh, and the recording sounds a bit weird in places -- I recorded it in a hotel room in Boston, and had to edit out a rather noisy air handler in the background. There is nothing we won't do to bring you the podcast! Selected references for this episode Melissa Darby, Thunder Go North: The Hunt for Sir Francis Drake's Fair & Good Bay Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 Miranda Kaufmann, Black Tudors: The Untold Story Drake's Plate of Brass (Wikipedia) Dare Stones (Wikipedia)

This November, it has been 400 years since the traditional First Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony - Patuxet in 1621. But the history of that collaborative feast of the English and the Wampanoag Indians was lost for more than 200 years. For most of that time, Americans celebrated "thanksgiving" all over the country at different days in the autumn, decreed by local and state governments, without knowing its origin story. This episode explores the conversion of thanksgiving from a local custom to a revered national holiday. Along the way, we learn about Sarah Josepha Hale, the remarkable woman to whom Americans owe the greatest debt for the holiday they will celebrate today. There were political objections to Thanksgiving, too, rooted in exactly the debates we have today after the proper role of the federal government, and how precisely to separate church and state. Finally, we learn about the central role of football on Thanksgiving, dating from Thanksgiving of 1873, only four years after the first college football game. By 1893, Americans were playing thousands of games of football across the country on Thanksgiving Day. Oh, and we should all be grateful that President Franklin Roosevelt didn't screw it all up, which he very nearly did. Selected references for this episode Melanie Kirkpatrick, Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience Melanie Kirkpatrick, "Don't Let Ideologues Steal Thanksgiving" "How the Great Colchester Molasses Shortage Nearly Ruined Thanksgiving" All the Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations 1789-2018 (pdf) The West Wing, "I get to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving" The American Story Podcast: Sarah Josepha Hale EayJ2pIk9BVexKtZCSmd

This episode is off the timeline. We look at the various crimes against humanity to be found on "History Twitter," the idea of pursuing a "useable" history and the perils therein, whether we should reduce the Constitution to Twitter-friendly labels such as "pro-slavery" or "anti-slavery," and the disrespect many younger professors and graduate students show for the greatest historian of the American Revolution and the founding period, Brown University's Gordon Wood, who is still pumping out sharply written books in his late eighties and standing up for history as a discipline. I also talk about some other podcasts that I like. Oh, and it sounds slightly different because I have a new microphone in Austin and forgot to buy a foam cover for it. That will be fixed next time. Enjoy! References for this episode Gordon Wood, Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution Good Will Hunting (Bar Scene) The University of Austin Podcasts mentioned History of England Podcast Ben Franklin's World American Revolution Podcast The American Story [Abridged] Presidential Histories Civics and Coffee The History of North America Age of Jackson Podcast A New History of Old Texas Nudie Reads The Reason Roundtable The Fifth Column Podcast Making Sense by Sam Harris The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway Honestly with Bari Weiss

In this episode we wrap up loose ends before moving on down the timeline: What happened after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and what happened after John White left the Roanoke Colony in August 1587? We also see what happened to all those Elizabethan characters we've been talking about for the last three months, including Francis Drake, Elizabeth herself, John Hawkins, Martin Frobisher, Francis Walsingham, and Philip II. Finally, we explore the long-term consequences of both the Armada and the Roanoke Colony for the History of the Americans. Oh, and we read a poem in the spirit of the day. Selected references for this episode Garrett Mattingly, The Armada Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 Paul E. Hoffman, "New Light on Vicente Gonzalez's 1588 Voyage in Search of Raleigh's English Colonies" Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) (Wikipedia) In Flanders Fields (Wikipedia) Neal Casal, "Virginia Dare" (Youtube, song)

At some point in the second week of August, 1588, a merchant ship from one of the cities of the Hanseatic League, sailing through the North Sea off the east coast of England, found itself surrounded, in the middle of nowhere, by a herd of horses and mules, swimming, with no land in sight anywhere. This is, among other matters of greater historical significance, the story of how those poor creatures ended up paddling frantically, and unsuccessfully, for their lives. We look again at the geopolitics of 1588, considered a "year of dire portent" in Europe for at least a hundred years, the struggle of the Armada to sail free of Iberia in some of the strangest summer weather old sailors had ever seen, the famous game of bowls, and the long fight up the English Channel as the Duke Medina Sidonia sailed to protect the Duke of Parma's invasion force which was to cross the Channel on barges. Oh, and we learn where Tolkien got the idea for the Beacons of Gondor. Selected references for this episode Garrett Mattingly, The Armada Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History

On August 28, 1587, John White, the leader of the last Roanoke Colony, climbed on board Edward Spicer’s flyboat and returned to England. His mandate was to secure supplies and more settlers to reinforce the people he had left behind, who included his own daughter and granddaughter, Eleanor and Virginia Dare.  He would not in fact be able to return for almost three years, by which time the roughly 116 colonists back in North Carolina had vanished completely, leaving behind only scant clues. White would take three years to return because an undeclared but existential war had broken out between England and Spain, known to history as the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604. The war was existential not for England the country – had Philip II and Spain won the war, England would have continued to exist as a country, and in their daily lives most English people would have seen very little change. Philip II would have become King of England, as he had already been years before during his marriage to Mary Tudor, and the liturgy at church on Sunday would have changed in ways that we moderns would have regarded as hilariously trivial.  However, the war was existential for Elizabeth I and her Protestant elite who, among other things, sustained English naval power and supported North American colonization. It is very hard to imagine that an England ruled by Philip II and an entirely different batch of nobles, Catholic “recusants” emerged from the political shadows, would have settled North America.  Nor would there have been successful Protestant Dutch settlement, because the defeat of Elizabeth would also have meant the end of Dutch Protestantism as a political force. The city in that harbor discovered by Verrazzano more than sixty years before would more likely have been New Seville or New Lisbon than New Amsterdam or New York. Fortunately, the English had Sir Francis Drake, who in the spring of 1587 would raid the Spanish port of Cadiz and occupy Sagres roadstead off Cape St. Vincent, destroying more than 100 Spanish and Portuguese ships and boats and much of the supplies for the Spanish Armada. And then he would go on to grab a Portuguese treasure ship that would substantially bolster Elizabeth's finances just when she needed it most. Selected references for this episode Garrett Mattingly, The Armada Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake Andrew Shepherd, "The Spanish Armada in Lisbon: preparing to invade England"

This episode looks at the fate of the 15 settlers Sir Richard Grenville had left on Roanoke Island in 1586, and the expedition of 1587, which Sir Walter Ralegh, John White, and more or less everybody else intended to land at Chesapeake Bay. They never got there, and after August 26, 1587, no English person would ever see them again. Oh, and we meet Virginia Dare! Link to the Merch! (Scroll down) Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 Mary Queen of Scots (2018) execution scene

We are back in the summer of 1585, and careful listeners could hear the ever louder drums of war between Spain and England. In this episode we tell the story of Drake’s voyage to the West Indies in 1585-86, which fundamentally ended with the rescue at Roanoke Colony.  There are three reasons why we are devoting an episode to Drake's West Indies expedition. First, it was this mission more than any other affront to Philip that made direct war between Spain and England inevitable. Without that war, and without the defeat of the Spanish Armada in the course of that war, it is far from clear that English settlement in North America would have unfolded as it did, or that it ever would have happened.  Second, Drake burned down St. Augustine and affected the course of the Roanoke Colony, both of which are decisively within the mandate of the podcast. Finally, Drake’s West Indies voyage was a great moment in military history, an extraordinary example of amphibious warfare long before we used that term. Oh. And please listen to the end -- I tackle a historical mystery and wonder if some of the academic historians who have written about it have done so ... carefully. Selected references for this episode John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake Angus Konstam, The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main 1585–86 Mary Frear Keeler (Editor), Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage, 1585-86 (Hakluyt Society, Second Series) Michael Guasco, Slaves and Englishmen: Human Bondage in the Early Modern Atlantic World 3:10 to Yuma