History: Beyond the Textbook

Send us Fan Mail It was the last significant battle of the American Revolution, although this couldn’t have been predicted at the time.  The Americans, British, and the French felt that 1781 was a "now or never" year for the Revolution, and that something big had to happen.  Many forces coalesced to turn the Battle of Yorktown into the decisive battle of the Revolutionary War, and  we’ll...

Send us Fan Mail Much of the history of the American Revolution focuses on actions in what was called the “Northern” theater, and to a degree, this makes sense: given the outsized role Massachusetts played in the pre-war years and the early years of combat.  Yet while the Southern colonies were not exactly “inactive” during the early years of the war, many narratives don’t necessarily focus on thi...

Send us Fan Mail  Those present at the winter at Valley Forge in 1777-1778 included a veritable “who’s who” of future American political leadership, such as George Washington, Henry Knox, and Alexander Hamilton.  Prominent names are usually associated with this critical transition period, and rightfully so…but there were women who accompanied the army to this camp, and Indigenous allies also arriv...

Send us Fan Mail One man was all-in for independence dating back to the years before the first shots at Lexington and Concord, while the other held out hope for a moderate solution and was even accused of holding sympathies to the British cause.  One is Benjamin Franklin, and the other is Benedict Arnold, and both will play a role in the Battle of Saratoga in upstate New York, one as a soldier, th...

Send us Fan Mail He sided with the British in the American Revolution, and successfully convinced many of his countrymen to do so.  The education he received at the hands of Eleazar Wheelock allowed him to understand colonial culture, while his upbringing as a Mohawk immersed him in a way of life little understood by colonial Americans.  His unique background brought him into contact with prominen...

Send us Fan Mail He arrived in North American in December 1774 with a fever so devastating that he needed to be carried ashore.   This man also carried with him letters of introduction from none other than Dr. Benjamin Franklin, so there must have been something special about this individual.  The succeeding years would bear this out, for once Englishman Thomas Paine picked up his pen, flourishing...

Send us Fan Mail He was a lawyer who would devote his life to public service; she was an independent woman who would devote her life to her family and supporting her husband's political efforts, both in spirit and in practice.  Both of them would come to support the principles that were espoused in the Declaration of Independence , and the story of one is never told without understanding the...

Send us Fan Mail He was a local man who became a well-respected physician, treating all members of Boston society, Patriot and Loyalist alike.  However, his personal sympathies lay with the growing movement that would push towards full independence from Great Britain.  Dr. Joseph Warren would unfortunately not live to see this come to fruition, although he was a key player in orchestrating events...

Send us Fan Mail She arrived in Boston in the 1760's, was purchased by the wealthy Wheatly family, and went on to become a published, not to mention, accomplished , poet.  She enjoyed an up-close view of the key events leading up to the American Revolution, commemorated many of these events in memorable prose, and traveled to London to secure a publisher for her work.  Amidst it all, she deal...

Send us Fan Mail A name most likely associated with a beer company, what role did Samuel Adams really play in fermenting opposition to British policies prior to the American Revolution?  His role is usually relegated to the shadows, but he became such an infamous individual that others of his generation were compared to him , and he became Public Enemy Number One in the eyes of the British Crown d...

Send us Fan Mail Now known as the prototypical Loyalist, it wasn't always this way...Thomas Hutchinson was one of the most well-known men in Boston when the French and Indian War ended.  He had a successful career as a merchant and a public servant, with a keen eye towards further advancement in the political  climate in pre-Revolutionary North America.  Yet, Hutchinson wasn't necessaril...

Send us Fan Mail He led his forces against the mighty British military, captured their forts, forced them to surrender...and ultimately lost the war that bears his name.  Odawa Chief Pontiac, an Anishinaabeg of the western Great Lakes, fought a war against the British after the latter presumed that the North American theater of the Seven Years' War had drawn to a close.   The events, and resu...

Send us Fan Mail As a man given the nickname "First in the Hearts of his Countrymen," among many others, what could we possibly explore about the life of the famous George Washington that hasn't already been written?  He led America's Continental Army in the War for Independence against the British, agreed to attend the pivotal Philadelphia Convention in May 1787, and served tw...

Send us Fan Mail Slavery has existed for as long as humans have lived in settled society, but it was taken to another level in colonial America, and eventually, the United States.  Humans were legally classified as property and treated with intense brutality, while their stories mostly went unrecorded.  This episode seeks to shine a light on three individuals whose experiences were noted for vario...

Send us Fan Mail He lead a full-scale rebellion against Spanish rule in the American Southwest.  This rebellion was so successful that it expelled the Spaniards from the region and allowed the Pueblo  to return to their traditional ways...for a time.  Although the Spanish would return about one decade later, the Great Southwest Rebellion, as history has come to call this 1680 event, stands out for...

Send us Fan Mail Amidst the deadliest per capita conflict in the colonial era, Mary Rowlandson, wife of a prominent minister, was captured by enemy forces in what history has recorded as King Philip's War.  She was moved constantly during her 12-weeks as a prisoner, but her experiences, and strong faith, formed the basis of the book she wrote about her ordeal.  This book even formed the basis...

Send us Fan Mail Their homelands stood at a crucial chokepoint between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, placing them in a unique position to either negotiate for what they wanted...or take it by force.  These options of diplomacy or violence best describes the subject of this episode: Chief Canaqueese, a man of Mohawk and Dutch lineage who engaged in plenty of each during his lifetime.  His...

Send us Fan Mail Conflict between Indigenous tribes and European settlers is a consistent theme in America's colonial era.  Such conflicts often centered around the land: who lived there, who used it, and how it was used.  The Pequot War, centered in New England's Connecticut River Valley during the mid-1600's, was no exception.  However, like other conflicts, and often to the surpr...

Send us Fan Mail Free speech is a hallmark of American life enshrined in the Bill of Rights.  However, speaking one's mind wasn't always a viable option in the early Puritan communities that dotted New England in the first half of the 1600's.  This possibility diminished even further when a woman was the one doing the speaking, and in most instances, challenging the status quo.  Thi...

Send us Fan Mail The Mayflower left England in 1620 bound for North America with a passenger list that has been categorized as made up of "Saints" and "Strangers."  Some were completing this crossing in an effort to separate themselves from what was, in their minds, was a corrupt Church of England, while others made the journey for reasons that weren't explicitly religious...

Send us Fan Mail Jean Nicolet is generally not the first name that comes to mind as a key player with regard to the topic of French colonization of North America; that honor generally belongs to Samuel de Champlain.  However, Nicolet lived among numerous Indigenous nations, learned their languages and customs, and travelled with his Huron companions on the Great Lakes, landing west of Lake Michiga...

Send us Fan Mail The phrase "conquistador" is often associated with men like Cortes and Pizarro...men who conquered the great civilizations south of the Rio Grande.  But what about the conquistadors who made a name for themselves in what became the United States?  In the first episode of "History: Beyond the Textbook," we explore the man who is credited with founding St. August...

Send us Fan Mail John Smith, Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas...Opechancanough?  The second episode of "History: Beyond the Textbook" shifts the focus to England's colonial efforts in North America, and Jamestown is certainly familiar ground.  However, the experiences of Opechancanough, war chief of the Powhatan Confederacy upon English arrival in 1607, provide a glimpse into Indigenous p...