Revolution 250 Podcast
Revolution 250 is a consortium of organizations in New England planning commemorations of the American Revolution's 250th anniversary. https://revolution250.org/Through this podcast you will meet many of the people involved in these commemorations, and learn about the people who brought about the Revolution--which began here. To support Revolution 250, visit https://www.masshist.org/rev250Theme Music: "Road to Boston" fifes: Doug Quigley, Peter Emerick; Drums: Dave Emerick
Episodes
239 episodes
Loyalty and Patriotism in the American Revolution with Robert A. Gross
Loyalty and Patriotism in the American Revolution: Which side are you one? Are "loyalist" and "patriot" useful terms in deciphering the sides to the American Revolution? A conversation with Robert A. Gross, author of
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Season 5
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Episode 12
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44:01
Loyalist Merchant Networks, Robert Treat Paine, and Jefferson as President
Christina Carrick, an editor at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, formerly an editor at the Robert Treat Paine Papers, j...
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Season 5
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Episode 11
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41:05
Arlington 250 Stories; Menotomy on April 19
Some of the bloodiest fighting on April 19, 1775 happened in the village of Menotomy, the community lay along the main road from Cambridge to Concord. It had numerous mills, taverns and a meetinghouse and burial ground along this road, so...
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Season 5
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Episode 10
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41:15
Concord People & Stories of the American Revolution
There is a lot of focus on the events of April 19, 1775, events that set in motion America's call for Independence from Great Britain. Securing our independence took 8 long years of war. What is the impact of the war for American in...
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Season 5
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Episode 9
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35:20
Divided Families of Marblehead and Halifax with G. Patrick O'Brien
"Place is of very little consequence," Mary Sewall of Marblehead wrote to her sister in Nova Scotia in 1799," except as it brings you near to those whom by nature you are most nearly allied." The Sewall sisters had been separated by war, ...
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Season 5
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Episode 8
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41:07
Stories from Lynnfield with Alan Foulds
As word spread of the British march to Lexington and Concord, communities from all over Massachusetts and greater New England responded. Historian Alan Foulds tells us about the Lynn End (now Lynnfield) militia, who were warned by m...
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Season 5
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Episode 7
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35:55
Leslie's Retreat with Charlie Newhall & Jonathan Streff
Acting on intelligence that the Provincial militia had cannon in a Salem blacksmith shop, Beneral Thomas Gage sent Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie and the 64th Regiment of Foot to Marblehead and then to Salem to find the weapons. We talk with Char...
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Season 5
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Episode 6
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39:28
The Boston Town Watch with Nicole Breault
The Boston Town Watch kept order on the streets of Boston, particularly at night. When soldiers of the Crown arrived in 1768 their overlapping aut...
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Season 5
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Episode 5
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45:18
"Traitor's Homecoming: Benedict Arnold's Raid on New London" with Matthew Reardon
Few things shocked American patriots as the betrayal of General Benedict Arnold. After attempting to surrender West Point to the British, Arnold led a series of raids, first in Virginia, and then in his native state of Connecticut. ...
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Season 5
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Episode 4
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35:15
The Battle of Chelsea Creek with Jeff Pearlman
The first engagement against the Crown forces that involved soldiers from multiple provinces operating under a unified command. The first use of field artillery by the Provincial forces. The destruction of the HMS Diana, whose ma...
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Season 5
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Episode 3
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39:08
True Crime in 1778! The Bathsheba Spooner Murder Conspiracy
Few men were as highly esteemed and just a decade later despised beyond measure as Timothy Ruggles. Ruggles was a hero of the French & Indian War, a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress from Massachusetts, a land owner, legislator and&n...
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Season 5
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Episode 2
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36:55
Treasures of the American Revolution at the Clements Library
Founded in 1923 through the gift of William Lawrence Clements, the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan is a fount of historical manuscripts, maps and rare books, particularly...
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Season 5
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Episode 1
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45:09
Remembering the American Revolution at 250
We are now deep into the Semiquincentennial commemoration of the events that led to American Independence. 2025 represents a watershed year as we commemorate the Battles of Lexington & Concord, Chelsea Creek and Bunker Hill. Jus...
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Season 4
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Episode 52
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37:14
The Revolutionary World of Jacob Francis with Larry Kidder
After a stint in the Navy and forty years teaching history, Larry Kidder was curios about the lives of ordinary people in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He could not find a good book on the subj...
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Season 4
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Episode 51
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44:22
John Dickinson: Penman of the Revolution with Jane Calvert
John Dickinson burst onto the scene with his "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1767 and 1768. He wrote "The Liberty Song," sung all over America, including at the 1769 Sons of Lib...
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Season 4
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Episode 50
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43:18
The Military Career of Benjamin Lincoln: from Hingham to Yorktown
In the place of Professor Cornelia Dayton who could not join us today, Professor Robert Allison presents a lecture on the military career of Benjamin Lincoln, who, with General George Washington and General Nathanael Greene were to only General...
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Season 4
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Episode 49
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46:08
Revolution 250 Encore Presentation - The Battle of Chelsea Creek
Today, the Revolution 250 Podcast revisits an episode from 2021. Next May will be the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Chelsea Creek and plans are in preparation for the commemoration of this important event.The first time the pa...
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Season 4
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Episode 48
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39:08
Frederick Douglass and the Founding Ideals
Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” remains one of the defining rebukes to the work of the Founders. While Douglass admired the ideals of the Founders, their inability to extend their precepts of lib...
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Season 4
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Episode 47
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39:02
Inn at Hastings Park, Lexington, MA
Lexington, Massachusetts has long been a tourist destination. The Marquis de Lafayette famously made a visit during his tour of 1824 and the crowds have only grown since then.
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Season 4
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Episode 46
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34:13
Johnny Appleseed, Child of the American Revolution
He was born the year before the Revolution began. His mother died before his 7th birthday. His father ended up in debtor's prison and provided material aid to men involved in Shays's Rebellion. Yet his story is known to many and has...
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Season 4
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Episode 45
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41:28
The Memory of '76 with Michael Hattem
For the last 250 years Americans remain conflicted over the meaning and legacy of the Revolution—including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. All of the social and political movements of the last two centuries have been shape...
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Season 5
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Episode 45
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38:46
Declarations of Independence in the Susquehanna Valley with Christopher Pearl
On July 4, 1776, two hundred miles northwest of Philadelphia, on Indigenous land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a group of colonial squatters declared their independence. They were not alone in their efforts. This bold symbolic...
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Season 5
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Episode 44
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38:25
Religion of Revolution: Congregational Voices on Liberty
Congregationalists--clergy and congregations—were the driving force in New England's Revolution. Interpreting liberty through their own religious framework, which included principles of autonomy, fellowship, and consensus, Congregat...
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Season 5
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Episode 43
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41:30
The Great Salem fire of 1774
In between the abortive call from Governor Thomas Gage for the legislature to convene in Salem on the 5th of October 1774, and the formation by those same legislators of a Provincial Congress on the 7th October 1774, a terrible fire took place ...
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Season 5
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Episode 42
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41:20
Massachusetts vs. Virginia, with Bob Gross and Woody Holton
Was it the embattled farmers and Sons of Liberty, or the indebted planters shouting "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" that brought on the Revolution? Who held the first Provincial Convention or Congress? Who was first to resist the Crown's tr...
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Season 5
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Episode 41
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43:57