American History Tellers

After the War of Independence, the new American government created the Supreme Court to be the final word on disputes that the states couldn’t settle. But at first, the Court was anything but Supreme. For nearly a decade, Congress and the President held the real power. In practice the Supreme Court was weak, ineffectual and disorganized – a post so unappealing that many men turned down nominations...

After Federal troops withdrew from the South in 1877, Reconstruction officially came to an end, and the battle to control the narrative began. For the next century, white Southerners espoused the Lost Cause mythology, shifting the blame for the failure of Reconstruction onto Northern interlopers and Black citizens supposedly “unready” for freedom. Today, Lindsay is joined by University of Colorado...

In 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden vied for the presidency. But when Election Day was over, no clear winner emerged. Amid reports of voter fraud, intimidation and violence, both parties claimed victory in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, the only three Southern states where Republicans still held the reins of local government. It was the most bitterly dispute...

On Easter Sunday, 1873, an armed white mob battled a Black militia over control of a courthouse in a rural Louisiana parish. In the end, as many as 150 Black citizens were massacred. It was one the deadliest incidents of racial violence during the Reconstruction era. As anti-Black violence ravaged the South, President Ulysses S. Grant entered his second term. Soon, the North’s commitment to defend...

In 1870, the ratification of the 15th Amendment enshrined Black men’s right to vote in the Constitution. Senator Hiram Revels became the first Black man to serve in Congress. Across the South, Black men were elected to office in unprecedented numbers. But soon, the Ku Klux Klan moved to undermine Black political rights with a violent campaign of fear and intimidation. Black militias formed, and to...

In the spring of 1867, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, putting the U.S. Army in control of the South and giving Black Southerners expanded political rights. For the first time they organized and attended political rallies, registered to vote, and even helped draft new state constitutions across the South. Back in Washington,...

In December 1865, the first postwar Congress convened in Washington, D.C. With Black Southerners still facing rampant violence and discrimination, the Republican majority blocked the former Confederate states from rejoining the Union. Determined to protect Black rights and curb the power of ex-Confederates, Radical Republican leaders Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner vowed to seize control of Re...

In the spring of 1865, the United States celebrated the end of four years of Civil War. As American soldiers laid down their weapons, four million formerly enslaved Black people in the South grappled with the daunting task of building new lives as free citizens in a nation still deeply divided over race. With the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the challenges of healing the nation unexpectedly f...

By the early 1970s the United Farm Workers had won a series of successes in California and were attempting to extend their reach into other states. But soon, conservative politicians began to push back and the losses started mounting. Cesar Chavez began criticizing and alienating friends and fellow union leaders as he struggled to maintain control of the movement he had worked so hard to build. So...

In 1964, the United States finally ended the controversial Bracero Program, which had flooded American farms with millions of low-paid guest workers from Mexico who competed for jobs with resident laborers. Soon after, the two largest farm worker unions in California united and launched a daring strike against the state’s wealthiest grape growers. Under the charismatic leadership of Cesar Chavez,...

In the 1940s and ‘50s, farm laborers in California, many of them Mexican and Filipino, faced low wages and brutal working conditions. Their demands for change were often met with harsh tactics from the powerful growers. Soon, a plainspoken but magnetic labor organizer named Cesar Chavez stepped forward to rally workers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Chavez and his allies joined forces to call...

The 1919 Molasses Flood was a terrifying and telling moment in the history of Boston’s North End. It was also a snapshot of a developing city in the wake of the first World War. Jake Sconyers explored the events for HUB History, a podcast that revisits stories from Boston’s past. Today, he joins Lindsay to discuss the working class Italian immigrant neighborhood where the disaster happened, how th...

On January 15, 1919 a giant storage tank holding more than two million gallons of molasses collapsed, sending a deadly wave crashing into the streets of Boston’s busy North End. The flood was over in minutes, but it left death and destruction in its wake. Victims and their families demanded justice, initiating a long, and contentious court case that raised questions about a possible anarchist bomb...

After she was deposed by powerful American business interests, Hawai’i’s Queen Liliʻuokalani lived out the rest of her days advocating for her people. Julia Flynn Siler, author of Lost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure, joins Lindsay to discuss the rise and fall of Hawaii’s only queen, and her legacy. Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ f...

On December 7, 1941, Hawai’i was hit by one of the most unexpected military assaults in modern warfare. More than 300 Japanese fighter planes and dive bombers attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, killing 2,400 people and plunging the United States into World War II. After the assault, many of Hawai’i’s nearly 160,000 residents of Japanese descent were viewed with suspicion and fear. But e...

After Hawai’i became a U.S. Territory in 1900, tourism to the islands exploded. Luxury steamships brought tourists eager to buy fashionable Hawaiian shirts, try their hand at surfing, and stay at fancy hotels that began to dot the beach at Waikiki. The U.S. military expanded its presence, too – bringing thousands of sailors and soldiers to the islands. But as tourism transformed the economy, Nativ...

In the early 1900s, an enterprising young American named James Dole introduced pineapples to a windy plateau in Central Oahu. He’d been warned that the crop was perishable and unprofitable and that his venture was sure to fail. But within a decade, his plantation – and the immigrant workers brought in to farm it – reshaped the landscape and economy of the Hawaiian Islands. Dole’s savvy marketing h...

In 1893 the independent island kingdom of Hawaiʻi flourished under the leadership of its monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani. But as the leaders of Hawaiʻi’s lucrative sugar industry gained power, the Queen struggled to maintain control. Soon, the so-called sugar barons, with the backing of American politicians, began plotting to overthrow the Queen. The contested and controversial removal of Hawaiʻi’s l...

Was Aaron Burr raising an army to invade Mexico? Plotting to break apart the Union? Overthrow the government? Or was his trial for treason – the greatest legal spectacle in our young nation’s history – all much ado about nothing? Kalamazoo College History Professor James E. Lewis, Jr., wrote The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis. He joins host Lindsay Graham to disc...

In the summer of 1807, Richmond, Virginia hosted the most sensational trial in the young nation’s history. At stake was the life of Aaron Burr, who stood accused of plotting an armed insurrection against the United States. The battle over Burr’s guilt or innocence pitted President Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to see his former vice president convicted of treason, against Supreme Court Chief Justic...

In August 1806, Aaron Burr began the final preparations for his mysterious expedition to the western frontier. As he traveled, rumors that he was plotting a dangerous conspiracy followed in his wake. Newspapers reported that Burr was planning to invade Mexico and start a secessionist rebellion in New Orleans. As evidence mounted, a dogged federal prosecutor resolved to bring Burr into court. But t...

In the summer of 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr was wanted for the murder of Alexander Hamilton. The fatal duel made him a political pariah and the target of widespread public outcry. But as Burr’s Vice Presidency came to an end, he refused to slink into the shadows. Vowing to rise again, he decided to seek his fortunes in the West. Soon, he would journey to the newly acquired Louisiana Territory...

In July 1804, Aaron Burr faced political rival Alexander Hamilton on the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey, in a legendary duel that would change Burr’s life forever. As a young man, Burr had distinguished himself as a patriot, lawyer and politician. But as his political star rose, he made many enemies. He challenged Thomas Jefferson, in the tumultuous Election of 1800, but his greatest rival was Je...

News of the 1848 discovery of gold in California spread quickly, and thousands of Chinese migrants flocked to California to seek a better life in the place they called "Gold Mountain." But the reality awaiting them was a far cry from streets paved with gold. Despite facing racism and incredible hardship, many ultimately found opportunities to prosper in the Golden State. On today’s show, author an...

In the early 1850s, as people continued to flood West, California’s booming cities experienced rapid growth, but also turmoil. Fires regularly swept through hastily erected towns, and battles broke out between lawless miners and new, civic-minded residents who wanted to clean up the burgeoning cities. Meanwhile, women arriving in male-dominated gold country found rare opportunities to thrive in bu...