Her Half of History

Many slaves who ran away ended up sneaking through the woods at night. They were cold, wet, and hungry, heart thumping, ears ever strained for the sound of men or dogs in pursuit. But Ellen Craft managed her escape differently. For her it was first class trains and steamers and hotels all the way. Listen to hear how she disguised herself as a white, slave-owning man and ran over a thousand miles t...

Harriet Hemings was the daughter of Sally Hemings and her owner, Thomas Jefferson. Legally, she was a slave. But when she "ran away" at age 21, it seems that she did so with Jefferson's permission. An enormous amount has been written about Sally, but Harriet remains elusive. This is her story as far as it can be pieced together from the scanty bits of evidence that survive.   Visit the ⁠website⁠ (...

Elizabeth Freeman (also known as Mumbet) was a slave in Massachusetts when she heard that all men are created free and equal. If that's so, she thought, why am I a slave? She sued, and she won. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-...

Rosa was born in West Africa around 1720, but brought to Brazil in a slave ship when she was six years old. She lived as a slave and prostitute until her dedication to God and visions brought her to the attention of a local priest. Her freedom was purchased and she went on to write the first book ever written by a black Brazilian woman and found a refuge for women very much like herself. Visit the...

Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠Buy⁠ ⁠Me a Coffee⁠. Join ⁠Into History⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content. Visit ⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠ to listen to more great shows. Follow me on ⁠...

If there ever was a real life Cinderella, Roxelana might have been it. She was torn from her home in childhood and sold into slavery, but she ended up as queen of an empire. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠Bu...

Details on ancient Greek women are scarce, but one of the few we do know about was Neaira, who grew up as a slave in a brothel in Corinth. In her twenties, she was able to purchase her freedom with a little help from some friends. Sadly, we know her story only from the court records against her, when she was accused of having the temerity to live with an Athenian citizen as husband and wife, which...

Our brand new series is "A Slave, But Now I'm Free." Most of the series will be biographical spotlights on women who escaped slavery, but I find that many people have a mental image of slavery that is entirely based on the American antebellum south. Slavery is much older than that, and hasn't always looked like that, so this episode is an overview of the institution itself: when it began, how peop...

Maggie Lena Walker was the first African-American woman to run a bank (and almost the first American woman of any color to run a bank). She led it successfully through a world war, a pandemic, and the Great Depression, and after her death it went on to survive as a continuously black-owned bank for almost a century. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures....

Women have often had a hard time breaking into the world of high finance, but Hetty Green, the Queen of Wall Street, didn't let that stand in her way. She started with a fortune and ended with a much, much bigger fortune through her own efforts in the 19th century. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus epi...

Elizabeth Cady Stanton once gave a fiery speech urging all women to refuse to pay taxes until they got the vote. But that didn't really happen. Listen to hear why "No Taxation Without Representation" really wasn't the main argument for American suffragettes and why even after the 19th amendment, some American women couldn't vote because of a tax. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sour...

Hortensia of Rome successfully argued for no taxation without representation 1800 years before the Founding Fathers of the USA. Listen to hear how she did it! Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠Buy⁠ ⁠Me a Coffee...

Listen to learn why in many cultures a groom must pay a brideprice to the bride's family, why in many others the bride's family must pay a dowry to the groom, why in many modern societies we don't do either, and why in some modern cultures dowry prices just keep going up. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bo...

In this episode, I discuss how women used (and didn't use) credit in Mesopotamia, Rome, medieval Europe, 20th century USA, and finally into the microfinance world of southeast Asia and South America. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. Or make...

GDP is a mysterious number on which politicians soar or sink, businesses thrive or tumble, and folks like you and me pay our bills or go bankrupt. Despite being considerably more important than the rules of football or the relationship status of your favorite celebrity, most of us know very little about its history. This episode explains how it came to be, how a whole lot of women's work got left...

 Unless you live in the British Commonwealth, the bills and coins in your wallet are far more likely to be looking at men than you are at women. But it hasn't always been like this. This episode is a brief history of women featured on the currency. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my ⁠Patreon page⁠ for bonus episodes, polls, and...

 Like it or loathe it, we live in a world dominated by money. In the coming weeks I'll take a look at how women have fared under that system. I will talk about women and credit, women and the GDP, women and marital property, women and taxation without representation, and women in high finance. But this episode covers how we got to this state in the first place, starting with ancient Sumeria, the s...

This episode is a retrospective look at Cleopatra, Wu Zetian, Elizabeth I of Russia, Catherine the Great, and Ranavalona. I discuss a three-step strategy that all of them used to get to power. Along the way, we hear about Musa of Parthia who also seized control, and Jeanne II of Navarre, who didn't. This wraps up the series Women Who Seized Power. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sou...

Life: 1787 to 1861 Reign: 1828 to 1861 Extremely Brief Summary: Ranavalona was born an insignificant member of a low-status tribe. She married into the royal family and as a widow ousted her husband’s successor. She ruled Madagascar for 33 years with bloody, brutal efficiency. She successfully kept her country independent during a time of rampant European imperialism. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfo...

Catherine got to power by overthrowing her husband. She ruled Russia as an Enlightened despot. She held many high principles but had mixed results on putting them into practice. Her main legacy to Russia was that she transformed it from a relative backwater to a major player on the European stage. Life: 1729 to 1796 Reign: 1762 to 1796 One of many quotes: “What I despair of overthrowing, I undermi...

Life: 1709 to 1761  Reign: 1741 to 1761 Memorable Moment: As empress, Elizabeth held a ball every Tuesday night. The catch was the men had to dress like women and the women had to dress like the men. Oh, for a time machine and a camera! Extremely Brief Summary: Elizabeth seized power in a bloodless coup that she seems to have done only reluctantly. She loved parties, dresses, and horses, and her m...

Empress Wu shattered the glass ceiling in her rise from low level wife to de facto ruler to Divine Ruler in her own right. Sources on Wu give vastly different accounts of her, ranging from proud, capable feminist to seriously evil dictator. Either way she dominated for more than fifty years and became the only female emperor in 4,000 years of Chinese history. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory....

Cleopatra inherited a joint throne, but pushed first one and then a second brother out of it to rule alone. In a world where rising Roman dominance was a fact of life, she managed to maintain control of her country by negotiating (in every possible way) with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Though she lost in the end, she still managed to close out 3000 years of Egyptian history on her own term...

Most of this miniseries will be biographical sketches of a few of the more daring power-grabbers in history. But this initial episode is on why there are so few women in power anyway. I'll take a look at the evidence for more powerful women in pre-history, followed by the impact of the Agricultural Revolution and the rise of city-states. Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, tran...

In this episode I take listener questions on women's fashion: When did athleisure become mainstream? What about the kimono? Why is pink for girls and blue for boys? How did women express themselves in times of heavy fashion constraints? When did designer brands emerge and what impact did that have? Visit the ⁠website⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show...