Two hundred fifty years ago, in May 1775, delegates from thirteen British North American colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. Why was Philadelphia chosen as the seat of Congress? What made the city a critical hub...
How did the people of early America experience and feel about winter? Thomas Wickman, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural...
2019 marks the 400th anniversary of two important events in American history: The creation of the first representative assembly in English North America and the arrival of the first African people in English North America. Why were these Virginia...
Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, Patrick Carr, and Crispus Attucks. These are the five men who died as a result of the shootings on Boston’s King Street on the night of March 5, 1770. Of these five victims, evidence points to Crispus...
Within days of the Boston Massacre, Bostonians politicized the event. They circulated a pamphlet about “the Horrid Massacre” and published images portraying soldiers firing into a well-assembled and peaceful crowd. But why did the Boston Massacre...
How did the smallest colony and smallest state in the union became the largest American participant in the slave trade? Christy Clark-Pujara, an Assistant Professor in the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison...
Did you know that John Hancock was a smuggler? Smuggling presented a large problem for the imperial governments of Great Britain and France during the colonial period. Dr. Eugene Tesdahl, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of...
Did you know that Russian activities in North America caused the Spanish to colonize California? When we think of North America in 1776, our minds take us to the Atlantic seaboard where inhabitants in thirteen colonies fought Great Britain for...
Episode 009: Peter G. Rose, Delicious December: How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats
“’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;/ The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,/ In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.” Undoubtedly, you have heard, or read...
The Middle Passage forced millions of African men, women, and children to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean, but did you know that there existed an even more deadly voyage for slaves? For many Africans the journey into slavery did not end with their...