Missing Pages

This is a special bonus episode in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing (at least by some) of the Declaration of Independence. Every American knows these words and the unalienable rights written out in the Declaration of Independence. We are taught from our earliest school years about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Looking back into history, the Declaration marks the b...

I try my best to resist Romanticism and hagiography when discussing American history. It is vital to discuss history honestly, with warts and all. But, this season is really putting me to the test, especially this episode. The idea of these amateur militias standing up to the greatest army in the world, surviving trials and setbacks along the way, added together with the brutal stoicism of Washing...

There are many moments, and historians often disagree on these, that make war inevitable. It’s like stones rolling down a hill. At some point, gravity just takes over. This is the story of that long slide to rebellion. Between 1766 and 1775, there are a dozen or more moments that could be pointed to as the true start of the American Revolution. Over time minor differences are amplified until the c...

Welcome to the third era of Missing Pages: the Revolution. In this 250th anniversary I will be exploring the events, people, and ideas—both well-known and more hidden—to provide a comprehensive picture of America’s founding. This first episode deals with the frontier wars and the acts that started the slide towards war. While the war with France in North America was over by 1760, war in the west b...

Just like last season—and from here on out—this episode acts as a recap and reflection of this era. I provide a brief summary of the episodes released this season, explore some of the themes that stuck out to me, discuss some of my previously held misconceptions, and explore how well the AP notes hold up to scrutiny. Finally, I provide a short preview into the next era: the American Revolution. As...

After the first two wars for empire dominated the attention of the colonies throughout North America, both the English and French were able to focus on growth. For the English colonists, this respite allowed their financial position to rival, and even surpass, Great Britain. In New France, the fort and trading post network continued to expand, allowing them to encircle the British. However, the di...

There are many events in history that remain controversial far after there happening. But most revolves around the causes and effects. In this case, though, the controversy is over its existence at all. The Great Awakening was a period of religious revival that swept throughout the colonies between 1730 and 1750. It was ignited during a period of spiritual malaise in the aftermath of imperial wars...

While this is not an episode strictly following a historical event, it is still vital to the story of the American colonies, and America itself. I only scratch the surface in this episode, and focus mostly on the aspects that carried over to the Americans, but this era was filled with growth in the sciences, political theory, and economics, but also the arts, interpersonal relationships, education...

As we continue on through the late colonial period, it has become glaringly obvious that this era is largely overlooked. Between Bacon’s Rebellion, and the French and Indian War, is nearly 100 hundred years of colonial progress, and colonial struggle. The latter is where the lack shows up most clearly. The American story is largely a British story. To deny that would require substantial evidence t...

This is Part Two of this short series on piracy in the American colonies. If you would like to learn more about the origins of piracy and the average life of a pirate, please check out Episode 18. Piracy arose quickly in the American colonies as a menace to polite society. From plantation raids, to ships taken at sea, and even a blockade of a whole colony, the pirates had their way. This rise came...

This is part one of a two-part series on the rise and fall of piracy. This episode covers the rise. It’s not often that the myths and stories we tell ourselves about history are accurate (more or less). This is one of those times. The collective imagination surrounding piracy, though far more brutal and dangerous than how it is portrayed in movies, especially in the Pirates of the Caribbean series...

As we saw last month, the slavery story was not static. Nor were the victims passive. They pressed every advantage they could. However, this was not enough. The miniscule freedoms granted did not offer much of an escape from the drudgery they faced. This was especially true of many of the new arrivals, who saw the horrors of slavery in the English colonies and were quick to protest. This episode,...

The image of slavery that is pervasive in media—the black man in raggedy clothes, with a scarred back, hunched over low-lying plants in a field—is a correct version of the life of a slave. But it’s only a version. There is also the rope maker that works alongside a white servant and master artisan. Or the woman tending to her chickens then sewing linen clothes for her husband. Or even the man in a...

Puritan scholar Perry Miller called what occurred in Salem in 1692 a non-event which had “no effect on the ecclesiastical or political situation, [and] does not figure in the institutional development.” The causes of this event are far more important to us now than the effects. However, it has had an effect in our understanding of human psychology. There was no single thinker that revolutionized o...

This episode is a bit unorthodox, I will be jumping around a bit through time and space to explore the various facets of the changing American life in the later colonial period. This includes the creation of new social classes and the rise of a distinct culture in the British colonies. These changes are brought about via rapid population expansion, and rapid growth in the economy and trade. This m...

Welcome to Era 2! To kick off this season, I will be completing the list of the thirteen British colonies that will rebel in 1775. This includes showing the aftermath of the events of 1676, the merging and unmerging of various colonies, as well as the creation of completely new colonies. This is just the first episode, so this acts as more of a bird’s-eye view. But don’t worry, each of these colon...

This episode will be a little bit different than all of the previous episodes this season. This is a recap and reflection episode. I will provide a brief summary of all of the previous episodes, explore some of the themes that I found, correct some of the misconceptions that I had, and explore how well the AP notes hold up to scrutiny. At the end I also provide a preview for what to expect for the...

In this episode we reach the end of the era. In 1675 and 1676, two major wars overtook nearly all of the English colonies. In Virginia, Nathaniel Bacon created chaos in order to attack nearby Native tribes. What started out as a personal grievance became a full blown rebellion that outlived the origianal leader. In New England, Metacom, also known as Philip, started forging alliances with the surr...

This episode rounds out the series of overview style episodes with an exploration of the violence that permeated this era, especially the 17th century. Religious turmoil led to changing laws, even for the most devout colonies. Wars were perpetrated by and affected everyone the world over. The level of violence is higher than anyone living in America has seen on their shores for over 80 years. The...

This episode covers the most difficult topic to date: slavery. This is a topic that still rouses lots of debate to this day, so I was extra careful to ensure that the facts were straight. I draw the thread of slavery from before Columbus’s journey to slightly after this era charting the transition from servant labor to slave labor. Along the way I discuss how the views of these two types of labor...

On this episode of Missing Pages, I fill out some of the colonies that have been neglected thus far. These are colonies that fall outside the narrative structure of the colonial American story, but are important to that story regardless. These colonies include Maryland, South Carolina, and the entirety of New France. These colonies are mentioned in my high school notes, but the details are incredi...

This episode covers the important, though overlooked, Dutch colony in the New World: New Amsterdam. This colony was squished between Massachusetts and Virginia and was instrumental in forwarding many of the ideals that would be used to justify the American Revolution. The initial ragtag group of settlers would slowly expand gaining more recognition from the Dutch government and the rest of the col...

This episode covers the story of the two most famous rebels in the early American colonies: Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. But they weren’t the only ones. Several, far less known, people were continuously challenging the existing power structure. There is a thread that is beginning to materialize that will only grow as we move forward through history. Along with that, this episode covers the...

This episode continues to travel over well-trodden ground as we explore the founding and settling of the Massachusetts Bay colony. We cover the colonies before the Massachusetts, the impetus for the massive migration, the regional characteristics of the new arrivals, and the tumultuous first couple decades. There is plenty of intrigue in the courts, religious jockeying, and a bloody and disastrous...

This episode details the origins of the Pilgrims, their voyage, and their interactions with the Natives in the first successful New England colony. Along the way I describe the importance of a document signed onboard the ship and how it was a defining moment in American history. Those onboard were not aware of that, though. I also discuss the interactions with the natives, both the ugly and the in...