Episodes

  • Privateering, Boycotts, and Slavery in the Declaration of Independence

    Privateering, Boycotts, and Slavery in the Declaration of Independence
    Feb 5 2026
    "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." In this episode, we explore Grievance #24 in the Declaration of Independence, which condemns the British practice of privateering amongst other things. Topics include the following: -the destruction of Norfolk and Falmouth--the towns alluded to in Grievance #24 -the legal differences between official action by navies and semi-official actions by privateers -the massacre of enslaved people on the Zong (aka the Zorg) -the diversity of seafarers in the 18th century -the Continental Association of 1774, signed by all of the original 13 Colonies except for Georgia, which boycotted goods from Britain and British colonies that did not join -the politics and practicalities of boycotts on products and shipping, including the repackaging of goods to falsify their origins -the origins of the first American privateers and the Continental Navy as well as the individual State navies -privateering, slavery, and the slave trade
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    58 mins
  • Impressment and the Declaration of Independence

    Impressment and the Declaration of Independence
    Jan 22 2026
    "He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands." Today we explore Grievance #26 in the Declaration of Independence, which protested against the Royal Navy practice of impressment, the forced conscription of sailors into naval service. Topics include the following: -a description of the life of seafarers in the 18th century -a detailed overview of the British practice of impressment -strategies for avoiding impressment both on land and at sea -reasons men chose to be sailors in the first place -the intermingling of formal naval service, piracy, privateering, and impressment -desertion rates and reasons for desertion -the strange legal status of captured American sailors who were liable to be impressed because they were still regarded as rebellious subjects rather than enemy prisoners of war, who could not be impressed -the use of impressment by the Continental Navy as well as individual State navies -impressment in the context of African American history -the generosity and empathy that sailors of all sides treated other members of the brotherhood of the sea -the British decision in 1782 to change the legal status of American sailors in 1782, treating them as foreign prisoners of war rather than British subjects who could be impressed -the ramifications of independence for American ships, merchants, and seafarers
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    58 mins
  • Why Did Colonial Americans Oppose Standing Armies in Their Cities?

    Why Did Colonial Americans Oppose Standing Armies in Their Cities?
    Jan 8 2026
    "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures." In today's episode, we explore Grievance #11 in the Declaration of Independence, which condemns the deployment of British regular troops in American towns and cities during peacetime. Topics include: -the long British tradition disapproving of standing armies on British soil -the long British tradition of allowing for political protest and dissent without fear of punishment by a standing army -the cooperation between the British Army and Colonial militias during the 7 Years' War -the reasons why King George deemed it necessary to station 10,000 British troops in the North American colonies after the end of the 7 Years' War, namely to manage the conflicts between eager colonists who wanted to expand westward and native peoples who wanted to hold the line -the1768 riots in Boston after the seizure of John Hancock's ship, The Liberty, an event which then prompted the deployment of British troops -the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and the British response to it: the declaration of martial law in 1774 followed by the Coercive Acts aka the Intolerable Acts -an explanation of the phrase "without the consent of our legislatures," which highlights both the role of colonial militias for self-defence and also the importance of the norma of legislative approval for any deployment of troops in the Colonies Prof. Johnson's book can be found here: [Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution](https://www.pennpress.org/9780812252545/occupied-america/) The cover image is a portrait of Gen. Thomas Gage, commander of British troops in North America until 1775.
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    57 mins
  • "Enemies in War, in Peace Friends": Declaring the First American Civil War

    "Enemies in War, in Peace Friends": Declaring the First American Civil War
    Dec 19 2025
    "Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren...They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, ENEMIES IN WAR, IN PEACE FRIENDS." In this episode we explore Loyalist vs. Patriot Civil War during the Revolutionary War. Topics include: -the outbreak of violence in Lexington and Concord in 1775 and the mustering of local militias, which forced Colonial men to decide whether they supported the revolution or the King -the Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence, which urged fellow colonists both to support independence and also to engage in acts of protest against the British Empire -an exploration of Loyalists and Loyalism -British misjudgements about the extent to which Colonists--even mostly loyal Colonists--were in fact loyal to the King and satisfied with British military occupation -the use and effectiveness of loyalty oaths, which were administered an the population by both sides in the conflict -intrafamily division like that between Benjamin Franklin and his son, William, who was Governor of New Jersey and a fervent Loyalist, and that between the Patriot Officer Henry Knox and his wife's family, who were also fervent Loyalists -the post-war reconciliation, reintegration, and intentional forgetting of Loyalists
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    49 mins
  • "We Pledge Our Fortunes": Money and the Declaration of Independence

    "We Pledge Our Fortunes": Money and the Declaration of Independence
    Dec 4 2025
    "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, OUR FORTUNES, and our sacred Honor." Why did the signers of the Declaration of Independence have to pledge their fortunes (their money) to the revolutionary cause? How did unorthodox American ideas about money help win the Revolutionary War? And were the Founding Fathers, in fact, the first crypto bros? We explore these ideas in this episode about money, bills of credit, taxes and coinage in the 13 Colonies and the British Empire with economic historian Dr. Andrew Edwards. Topics include: -an explanation of money as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value -a survey of the different forms of money that existed int he 1700s -the use of the novel payment system of BILLS OF CREDIT to pay for military expeditions due to the shortage of gold and silver in the Colonies -its use in the first invasion of French Canada in 1690 by Massachusetts -early British thinkers about money in the 1600s, including Cromwell's Treasurer of the Army, John Blackwell -the use of bills of credit and taxes to pay for Colonial infrastructure and other collective projects -the creation of the Continental Dollar -the fragility of the new American financial system, given that the British Army both captured entire regions, eliminating all the tax revenue there, and also printed counterfeit Continentals to undermine faith in the system -the collapse of the Continental Dollar and the US financial system while the war was still raging -the creation in 1781-82 of the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, which mimicked the Bank of England -the eventual triumph of the English banking model despite the triumph of the Colonies in the War of Independence
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Wales, Welsh Identity, Richard Price, and the Declaration of Independence

    Wales, Welsh Identity, Richard Price, and the Declaration of Independence
    Nov 27 2025
    In this episode, we explore the influence of Wales and Welsh immigrants on the Declaration of Independence with two expert guests from the University of Cardiff, Dr. Marion Loeffler and Dr. Huw Williams. Topics include: -the importance of preserving and expanding Welsh language and identity in the present -an exploration of Welsh identity in the 1700s -the tradition of Welsh religious dissenters which meshed with political non-conformity -economic and political similarities and differences between Wales and Ireland in the 1700s -confusions and conflations between English and Welsh identity -an introduction to the Welsh philosopher Richard Price and his influence on Patriot political theory -his pamphlet, Observations on Civil Liberty, which was published in Philadelphia the same week as the Declaration of Independence -implications of both the French Revolution and the American Revolution for Wales -differences between Price and the radical Welsh dissenter Morgan John Rhys, who founded the utopian Welsh colony of Cambria in Pennsylvania in 1794
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Ireland and the Declaration of Independence

    Ireland and the Declaration of Independence
    Nov 13 2025
    "Irish men and Irish women, in the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland through us summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. She now seizes that moment and supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. Six times during the past 300 years, they have asserted it in arms. We hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a sovereign, independent state." -1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic In this episode, we discuss the long and deep connections between Ireland and the United States. Topics include: -similarities and differences between the Irish Proclamation and the American Declaration of Independence -the economic and political situation in Ireland in the 1700s -the different concepts of independence in the Colonies and Ireland, from legislative independence under the British Crown to absolute independence -the complicated story of Theobald Wolfe Tone, founder of the United Irishmen and leader of the Irish rebellion in 1798 -the gradual dissemination in Ireland of three radical ideas from the American Revolution: 1) that revolutions against the British Empire could, in fact, succeed, 2) that the republican model of national sovereignty--as opposed to a constitutional monarchy--was viable, and 3) that religious freedom was an attainable goal
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    51 mins
  • Creating "THE PEOPLE": Whig Legal Concepts plus Lessons from Ireland and Spanish America

    Creating "THE PEOPLE": Whig Legal Concepts plus Lessons from Ireland and Spanish America
    Oct 30 2025
    "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for ONE PEOPLE to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another..." "Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of THE PEOPLE to alter or to abolish it..." In this episode, we explore the creation of the legal concept of THE PEOPLE with the right to overthrow their government. Topics include : -the tension in the British Empire between Whigs, who valued popular parliamentary power, and the Tories, who valued centralized royal power -the organic development of the colonial legal system from a semi-formal, ad-hoc lay profession to a sophisticated, complex formal profession -the evolution of legal arguments from those that justified dissent and resistance (1764-1774) to those that justified revolution and rebellion (1775-1776) -legal lessons that American colonists learned from the harshness of British rule over Ireland -legal lessons that American colonists learned from the corporatist model in Spanish America -the Whig legal strategy to be broad in its definition of THE PEOPLE in order to include different social classes, different geographical regions, and different understandings of the law (from common, everyday concepts of rights and justice to highly technical concepts derived from constitutional law and legal scholarship)
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    1 hr and 6 mins