The History of the Americans

The Winthrop Fleet has arrived, but Salem is not what they had expected. John Winthrop leads an expedition to explore Massachusetts Bay, meets Samuel Maverick - whose descendants would be consequential in the world of sports - and William Blackstone (Blaxton), and decides to move the new immigrants to Charlestown, Boston, and other future towns in the region. The winter is brutal, but it makes the Puritan settlers resilient, and their hunger is relieved when the Lyon arrives on February 5, 1631, with new supplies and a minister named Roger Williams. All that and the origin of the Boston Common and a botanical puzzle concerning "snakeweed"! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode John M. Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founding Father George Bancroft, History Of The United States Of America Volume 1 Thomas Hutchinson, The History of Massachusetts, from the First Settlement Thereof in 1628, Until the Year 1750 Edmund S. Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop David Hackett Fischer, African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals Gutierrezia sarothrae William Blaxton (Blackstone) Map of Boston in 1630, superimposed on today's Boston

This episode is a backgrounder, an overview of the Puritan society, culture, and economy in New England during the seventeenth century. The objective is to set all y'all listeners up for more traditional and detailed "timeline" episodes over the coming weeks. Sort of a mega-prerequisite. We therefore discuss Puritan religious "conformity" within the context of the early 1600s, families, religion, property rights, the structure of the New England economy, and its relationship with the outside world. Oh. And the importance of beer and cake when Puritan mothers gave birth to cute little Puritan babies. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Primary reference for this episode Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America

We have arrived at the Great Migration of the Puritans to Massachusetts, which effectively began in 1628 and would continue until 1640 or so, and then abruptly end. The result would be that for almost two hundred years the non-indigenous population of New England would consist almost entirely of the descendants of a group of religious refugees shaped by a particularly tumultuous moment in English political and religious life. The "Winthrop Fleet" of 1630 led by - no surprises here - John Winthrop, would define the geography of Puritan Massachusetts. Winthrop's leadership, which will unfold over two decades, began with one of history's most famous sermons, "A Modell of Christian Charity," which would in turn define the aspirations for the Puritan settlement of Massachusetts Bay. It would also be the first great expression of one aspect of "American exceptionalism," the idea that Americans - meaning specifically Puritan English settlers in New England - would serve as an example for all the world. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode John M. Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father George Bancroft, History Of The United States Of America Volume 1 Thomas Hutchinson, The History of Massachusetts, from the First Settlement Thereof in 1628, Until the Year 1750 John Endecott (Wikipedia) John Winthrop, A Modell of Christian Charity David Crowther, The History of England Podcast

This episode looks at the collapse of trust between Charles I and anti-Puritan royalists and clerics, on the one hand, and Parliament, Puritans, anti-Catholic Anglicans, and lawyers and others concerned with resisting the expansion of royal power on the other, in the second half of the 1620s. The collision would end in a final and very dramatic session of the House of Commons, and would ultimately persuade tens of thousands of Puritans that they had no choice but to leave England. It would be the catalyst for the Puritan Great Migration to New England. Before we get to any of that, however, we briefly address the Twitter kerfuffle I unwittingly set off with a tweet about a BBC story on Sir Francis Drake, and the circumstances under which I do, and do not, support the renaming of things named after people who have fallen out of favor. The Twitter thread regarding Sir Francis Drake's famous change of heart Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode John M. Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham Michael B. Young, "Charles I and the Erosion of Trust, 1625-1628," Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Summer 1990.

Between 1628 and 1640 perhaps 20,000 Puritans would leave England and settle in Boston and environs. Then English immigration to Massachusetts would stop as abruptly as it started. The Puritans of Massachusetts would thrive with only trivial incremental immigration for the next 200 years, creating a uniquely American society in New England, a homogeneous world with its own culture and polity that would eventually become the beating heart of the American Revolution. In this episode and the next, we talk about the theological and political forces that set the stage for the Puritan Great Migration, and the new articulation of English political liberty during the crucial second and third decades of the 17th century that arose from conflict over the scope of royal power between Sir Edward Coke and King James I. Errata: A listener pointed out that Luther posted 95 theses, rather than the 99 I somehow said and sadly missed in post-production. Must have been thinking of red balloons. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode John M. Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America English Reformation (Wikipedia)

This is our one hundredth episode, at least by some counts, and also our first interview. Eric Yanis, the creator and host of The Other States of America History Podcast, agreed to be our first interviewee. We chatted about a wide range of subjects, including: How the pandemic motivated both of us to start our podcasts; Eric on teaching middle schoolers in New York during the pandmic; The different ways in which we put together our episodes; The rapidly declining interest in history among college undergraduates and some of its causes, including the de-emphasis of history in primary and middle schools; Middle schoolers today have almost no exposure to history before the sixth grade -- "kids today" have not even heard of "teepees"; How interest in history rises as we age - "People become more interested in history the more history they have"; Should history podcasters be intimated by academic historians, and should academics be more supportive of popular history, even if it offends their professional sensibilities? "The zone where lives can live"; A digression on the historiography of the Popham/Sagadahoc Colony and the reasons for its failure; Our fantasy pub crawl with figures from sixteenth and seventeenth century America, assuming a universal translator; Things we hear from listeners; The competing claims for the inspiration of Shakespeare's "The Tempest"; Eric discusses the legacy of New Netherland in our language, our celebration of Christmas, and in our national self-image as a "melting pot"; So maybe I should publish the podcast on YouTube. This was fun, and I hope you all enjoyed it. For those of you listening along in real time, may the season be filled with happiness, and may you give and receive excellent history books! Jack on Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Eric on Twitter: @OtherStatesPod The Other States of America Podcast (Apple podcast link)

This episode is about the trading between the Dutch of New Netherland, the English first of Plymouth and then of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes in the region during the 1620s and 1630s.  These relationships were important, both to the profitability of settlement for the Dutch and the English, and because they so destabilized the balance of power among the tribes and the Europeans that they would eventually lead to the very ugly Pequot War of 1636-38. The indigenous ceremonial currency, wampum, sat at the center of this trade, and we take a first look at its monetization by the Dutch and then the English. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Mark Meuwese, "The Dutch Connection: New Netherland, the Pequots, and the Puritans in Southern New England, 1620—1638," Early American Studies, Spring 2011. Paul Otto, "Henry Hudson, the Munsees, and the Wampum Revolution," published in The Worlds of the Seventeenth-Century Hudson Valley, ed. Jaap Jacobs and Lou Roper. Albany: SUNY Press, 2014 D. I. Bushnell, Jr., "The Origin of Wampum," The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Jan - Jun 1906. Wampum (Wikipedia)

In this episode, we return to New Mexico and look at the ambitious mission-building program of the Franciscans in the Pueblos of New Mexico during the long seventy years between the founding of Santa Fe in 1610 and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Among other moments, we recount the revolt at the Jemez Pueblo in 1623. The Franciscan project, in the end, involved a huge network of missions, much of it built quite voluntarily by Indian converts. It was, in some respects, a European-Indian society quite different from that evolving in Virginia, Massachusetts, and even Florida. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode John L. Kessell, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico Herbert E. Bolton, The Spanish Borderlands: A Chronicle of Old Florida and the Southwest Andrew L. Knaut, The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 Matthew J. Barbour, "The Jemez Revolt of 1623" Matthew Liebmann, "At the Mouth of the Wolf: The Archeology of Seventeenth-Century Franciscans in the Jemez Valley of New Mexico"

In this episode we roll back the timeline a bit to 1602, and recount the exploration and mapping of the coast of California by Sabastian Vizcaino. He would name many of the famous places along that coast, and return a hero, only to be deprived of his just reward by perfidious Spanish politics. Had that not happened, American history in the west might have unfolded quite differently. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Iris H. W. Engstrand, "Seekers of the 'Northern Mystery': European Exploration of California and the Pacific," California History, Fall 1997. Charles E. Chapman, "SEBASTIAN VIZCAINO: EXPLORATION OF CALIFORNIA," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, April 1920.

This is an encore presentation of one of most popular episodes, "Notes on Thanksgiving," which dropped on Thanksgiving Day, 2021. This is a great pre-listen for your Thanksgiving celebration, insofar as you will be able to roll out all sorts of impressive Thanksgiving history factoids and impress those all-important in-laws! The original show notes are reproduced below. If you prefer to listen on a podcast app, here is the link for Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sidebar-notes-on-thanksgiving-encore-presentation/id1547078697?i=1000586884396 And for Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5D8jobBZe1LRKHyQp8zaiw?si=C8T_phZoR3uB6TVuQILpsw For "More Notes on Thanksgiving," a darker version, listen here or find it on a podcast app. 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. 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