Episódios

  • Jolliet and Marquette: Loose Ends and Notes on Early Chicago

    Jolliet and Marquette: Loose Ends and Notes on Early Chicago
    Feb 17 2025
    This episode ties up the loose ends that remained at the end of the expedition of Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673. Among other things, we explore the ultimate fate of Jolliet's optimistic vision that a canal could bridge the continental divide in Illinois, allowing sailing ships to travel from Lake Erie all the way to the Gulf. Along the way we learn all sorts of factoids, including the fate of the Carolina Parakeet, snippits from the earliest history of Chicago, including the origin of the name of that city, and the resolution of Marquette's pervasive gastrointestinal issues. [Errata: About five minutes along I saw that Jolliet arrived at Quebec about July 29, 1673. Should have been1674. Oops.] X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Mark Walczynski, Jolliet and Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition John William Nelson, Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent Francis Borgia Steck, The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673 (pdf) Jean Baptiste Point du Sable
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    32 minutos
  • Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette Explore the “Mesippi”

    Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette Explore the “Mesippi”
    Feb 3 2025
    In the summer of 1673, two now famous Frenchmen and five others who are all but nameless traveled by canoe from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at the Straits of Mackinac to central Arkansas on the western bank of the Mississippi River, and then back again. Louis Jolliet was a new sort of Frenchman, a natural born North American, having come into this world in Quebec in 1645, now a fur trader and voyageur. Jacques Marquette was the more usual sort, having been born in France in 1637. By the time of the expedition Marquette was a Jesuit priest, long known to the nations of North America as a “Black Robe.” The episode begins with an overview of New France in the years between Samuel de Champlain's death in 1635 and 1661, when it languished because the Five Nations of the Iroquois had it entirely bottled up. The expedition was a marker of New France's rapid expansion after King Louis XIV began to rule in his own right that year. Along the way, our heroes become the first Europeans to visit Iowa (Go Hawks!), see some extraordinary painted monsters, learn the importance of the calumet, and find a short portage in the eastern continental divide at a place soon to be called Chicago. Map of the route (visible in the shownotes for the episode on the website), credit Illinois State Museum X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Mark Walczynski, Jolliet and Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition Francis Borgia Steck, The Jolliet-Marquette Expedition, 1673 (pdf) Piasa "monsters" (Wikipedia) Carignan-Salières Regiment (Wikipedia) Beaver Wars (Wikipedia)
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    42 minutos
  • Raid on America 3: “All Theyr Cry was for New Yorke!”

    Raid on America 3: “All Theyr Cry was for New Yorke!”
    Jan 20 2025
    This is the last of a three-episode series on the Dutch "raid on America" in 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Commander Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest of the Admiralty of the Dutch province of Zeeland - "Kees the Devil" - and a privateer named Jacob Benckes had pillaged English possessions in the Indies. By late June 1673 their fleet of at least 12 ships was sailing to the Chesapeake Bay, where the year's crop of tobacco from Virginia and Maryland had been loaded on merchant ships to sail by convoy to England. Arriving there on July 10, Evertsen and Benckes fought two English warships in the second Battle of the James River, and captured or destroyed thousands of hogsheads of tobacco. As they left with their haul, they grabbed a ketch with, among other people, a couple of the New Jersey rebels on board. They gave Evertsen important intelligence about the shoddy defenses of New York. By the end of July, only three weeks after arriving at the Chesapeake, Kees the Devil would reconquer New Netherland. But not before a brave English soldier got decapitated by a cannon ball. X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Donald G. Shomette and Robert D. Haslach, Raid on America: The Dutch Naval Campaign of 1672-1674 John E. Pomfret, Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702: The Rebellious Proprietary Robert C. Ritchie, The Duke's Province: A Study of New York Politics and Society, 1664-1691 Battle of the James River (1667) (Wikipedia)
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    44 minutos
  • Raid on America 2: Kees the Devil Sails

    Raid on America 2: Kees the Devil Sails
    Jan 13 2025
    This is the second of three episodes about a daring Dutch raid on the West Indies and the English colonies of North America during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The extended raid, led by Commander Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest of the Admiralty of the Dutch province of Zeeland and a privateer named Jacob Benckes, was a sideshow in that war, yet its consequences were far-reaching. Among other accomplishments, Evertsen, known to his fans as Kees the Devil, and Benckes, “subdued three English colonies, depopulated a fourth, captured or destroyed nearly 200 enemy vessels, inflicted a serious injury upon the Virginia tobacco trade, wiped out the English Newfoundland fisheries, and caused unending panic in the New England colonies.” This episode covers the first phase of the "raid on America," in which Evertsen's squadron sails from Zeeland for the South Atlantic, aiming to capture the English East India fleet at St. Helena. Failing that, the squadron sailed for South America and the Indies, eventually meeting up with Benckes at Martinique. After capturing prizes and burning down St. Eustatius, the episode ends with Evertsen and Benckes headed toward the rich tobacco fleet then gathering in the Chesapeake. X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Donald G. Shomette and Robert D. Haslach, Raid on America: The Dutch Naval Campaign of 1672-1674 Map of the land campaign against the United Provinces in the Third Anglo Dutch War: Third Anglo-Dutch War (Wikipedia) Cornelis Evertsen The Youngest (Wikipedia) The Fifth Column Podcast
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    39 minutos
  • Raid on America 1: Overview of the Anglo-Dutch Wars

    Raid on America 1: Overview of the Anglo-Dutch Wars
    Dec 31 2024
    This is the first of three episodes about a daring Dutch raid on the West Indies and the English colonies of North America during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The extended raid, led by Commander Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest of the Admiralty of the Dutch province of Zeeland and a privateer named Jacob Benckes, was a sideshow in that war, yet its consequences were far-reaching. Among other accomplishments, Evertsen, known to his fans as Kees the Devil, and Benckes, "subdued three English colonies, depopulated a fourth, captured or destroyed nearly 200 enemy vessels, inflicted a serious injury upon the Virginia tobacco trade, wiped out the English Newfoundland fisheries, and caused unending panic in the New England colonies.” They recovered New York for the Dutch to the great if fleeting joy of much of its citizenry, and so demoralized the English that Parliament turned against the war and forced Charles II to sue for peace. The story is best understood in the context of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, which have been in the background of many of our episodes. This episode, therefore, is a primer on the first two Anglo-Dutch wars, and the run-up to the third, which will feature in the next episode. Map of the Low Countries at the relevant time (note the corrider denoted the "Bishopbric of Leige" connecting the Dutch Republic to France): X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Useful background episode: https://thehistoryoftheamericans.com/the-fall-of-new-amsterdam-and-the-founding-of-new-york/ Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Donald G. Shomette and Robert D. Haslach, Raid on America: The Dutch Naval Campaign of 1672-1674 C. R. Boxer, "Some Second Thoughts on the Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672-1674," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1969. Third Anglo-Dutch War (Wikipedia) Four Days Battle (Wikipedia) Raid on the Medway (Wikipedia)
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    41 minutos
  • New Jersey Is Revolting!

    New Jersey Is Revolting!
    Dec 18 2024
    In 1672, the settlers of the New Jersey proprietary colony arose in a bloodless rebellion against Philip Carteret, appointed by the proprietors as governor. The wannabe rebels formed an illegal legislature, and installed Captain James Carteret as "president," putting them in conflict with Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, James's father. The conflict had to do with taxes, quitrents, and title to land. John Ogden, ancestor of your podcaster, emerged as a key player in the "popular party." By the summer of 1673, the proprietors, with the help of the Duke of York and King Charles II, had put down the rebellion. James, now virtually disowned by his father, fled to Carolina, but along the way would be captured by the Dutch captain Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest, known to his many fans as "Kees the Devil." James, or one of his resentful allies, would describe the defenses of New York to Evertsen, setting up the Dutch reconquest of New York. X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Useful background: https://thehistoryoftheamericans.com/ohhhh-whaddabout-new-jersey/ Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) John E. Pomfret, Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702: The Rebellious Proprietary James Carteret: The Black Sheep (Interesting blog post on James Carteret)
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    33 minutos
  • The First English Settlement of South Carolina

    The First English Settlement of South Carolina
    Nov 30 2024
    The first English settlers in today's South Carolina departed England in August, 1669, but would not actually get to the coast of Carolina until April and May the next year. Along the way they would lose ships to hurricanes and incompetence, and get into a firefight with Spaniards and their Indian allies on an island off the coast of Georgia. An unknown number would die on an island in the Bahamas. And, yet, once on the banks of the Ashley River, the first English South Carolinians would lose only 12% of their population in their first 18 months, a record of survival in the first "seasoning" year matched only by Maryland in the 17th century. X/Twitter - @TheHistoryOfTh2 - https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook - The History of the Americans Podcast - https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website - https://thehistoryoftheamericans.com/the-first-english-settlement-of-south-carolina/) Edward McCrady, The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government 1670-1719 L. H. Roper, Conceiving Carolina: Proprietors, Planters, and Plots 1662-1729 George Bancroft, History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the Continent Alexander S. Salley, Jr., Narratives of Early Carolina 1650-1708 (Includes narrative of Maurice Mathews) Letter from Henry Woodward to Sir John Yeamans, September 10, 1670 J. Leitch Wright, Jr., "Spanish Reaction to Carolina," The North Carolina Historical Review, October 1964.
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    41 minutos
  • Lord Ashley, John Locke, and the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

    Lord Ashley, John Locke, and the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
    Nov 14 2024
    Notwithstanding the promising expeditions of William Hilton and Robert Sandford, by the end of 1666, with the Carolina proprietors waging war with the Netherlands and contending with plague and fire in London, the Carolina project was on the brink of failure. Then the youngest proprietor stepped forward; the venture received new vigor under the leadership of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley. With his friend and confidant John Locke, Lord Ashley would develop a fantastically – some would say hilariously - detailed plan of government for Carolina that would never be put into effect, but which would inspire and confound historians and even be cited by courts into our own time, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. This episode is about Ashley, Locke, and those strange Fundamental Constitutions. X/Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website) George Bancroft, History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the Continent Edward McCrady, The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government 1670-1719 L. H. Roper, Conceiving Carolina: Proprietors, Planters, and Plots 1662-1729 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, March 1, 1669 Jennifer Welchman, "Locke on Slavery and Inalienable Rights," Canadian Journal of Philosophy, March 1995. John Locke
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    43 minutos