American History Tellers

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Encore: The Age of Jackson | The Little Magician | 5 Jul 06, 2022

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During the last years of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the American economy flourished. But when his successor, Martin Van Buren, took office, he inherited a financial crisis. Before he became president, Van Buren’s political skill had earned him the nickname “The Little Magician.” But he could not conjure away two major stains on his administration: the Panic of 1837, and the forced removal of Native Americans from the South that became known as the Trail of Tears.

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Encore: The Age of Jackson | Great White Father | 4 Jun 29, 2022

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During his military career, Andrew Jackson won several ruthless victories over indigenous people. After becoming president in 1829, he waged political war against them, too. Jackson championed “Indian removal” – the forced displacement of Native Americans to make way for white settlers. And none would feel the brunt of Jackson’s policies more than the groups known as the “Five Civilized Tribes” – the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole.

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Encore: The Age of Jackson | King Mob | 3 Jun 22, 2022

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On Andrew Jackson’s inauguration day, citizens mobbed the White House, breaking furniture and fine china. It was a sign of troubles to come. Elected as a populist president, Jackson was dogged by chaos and controversy from his first days in office. But a sex scandal known as “The Petticoat Affair” was minor compared to the challenges that lay ahead for America’s seventh president.

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Encore: The Age of Jackson | Good Feelings | 2 Jun 15, 2022

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In the summer of 1817, President James Monroe toured the country in an effort to unify the ever-growing United States. His optimistic presidency ushered in what became known as “The Era of Good Feelings.” But in reality, it was barely an era at all. The facade of political unity had already begun to crack by 1819, when Monroe faced his first serious political crisis: the Missouri Controversy, which brought the issue of slavery into the national spotlight.

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Encore: The Age of Jackson | Washington Burns | 1 Jun 08, 2022

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In 1814, British troops burned down the White House. That fire would be extinguished, and the Executive Mansion would be rebuilt. But another fire smoldered on – a fire that would eventually consume the United States. This is Antebellum America: the decades leading up to the Civil War.

This was America’s adolescence. The young nation was growing at tremendous speed, forcing its leaders to address fundamental questions about their country’s identity and values. Could the individual states put aside their differences to remain united? And could this new country live up to its lofty ideals, especially when it came to issues like slavery or the treatment of Native Americans?

One leader shaped this era more than any other: America’s reluctant seventh president, Andrew Jackson.

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The Great Mississippi Flood | Media Storm | 4 Jun 01, 2022

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In 1927, a slow-moving catastrophe like the Great Mississippi Flood was perfect material for a relatively new medium: radio. Over the airwaves, the flood became the first natural disaster that Americans could follow almost in real time, day by day, as the rising river waters swept away one town after another.

In this episode, Lindsay talks with Susan Scott Parrish, author of The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History, about the ways Americans far from the Mississippi River experienced the disaster in newspapers, on the radio, and in popular culture. They'll also discuss how entertainers of the time rallied the public to raise funds for recovery, while federal relief efforts only enforced existing socioeconomic and racial divides in the South.

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The Great Mississippi Flood | Master of Emergencies | 3 May 25, 2022

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Herbert Hoover’s management of the flood relief garnered widespread praise and put him in position to secure the Republican nomination for President. But the African-American press told a different story, one of rampant racial abuse in Red Cross camps throughout the flood zone.

In Greenville, Mississippi, the exploitation of Black workers was especially persistent. In the summer, tensions rose to new heights, and soon, a fatal shooting would tear the battered town apart.

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The Great Mississippi Flood | Dirty Water | 2 May 18, 2022

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Early in the morning on April 22nd, 1927, flood waters from a break in the Mound Landing levee entered the town of Greenville, Mississippi. Within hours, the town was submerged in 10 feet of water. Thousands of residents fought to reach higher ground, desperately clinging to tree tops and floating houses.

The flood inundated 27,000 square miles in seven states. Soon, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover to manage relief efforts for the Red Cross. But Hoover’s decision to decentralize relief would have unintended consequences – especially in towns like Greenville, where thousands of Black sharecroppers were virtual prisoners, detained in brutally policed refugee camps.

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The Great Mississippi Flood | When the Levee Breaks | 1 May 11, 2022

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In the winter and spring of 1927, record-setting rain fell across the central United States. The Mississippi River swelled to capacity, and by April, the water breached major levees. It was the start of the most catastrophic river flood in American history.

When the flood threatened the town of Greenville in the Mississippi Delta, white plantation owners pulled tens of thousands of Black workers from the cotton fields and sent them to the river. An army of hundreds of men worked day and night, piling sandbags to battle the raging waters. But soon, despite their efforts, the Great Mississippi Flood would unleash destruction on the Delta.

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Lewis and Clark | The Journey and the Journals | 4 May 04, 2022

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The Lewis and Clark expedition changed the course of American history. But after its bold, charismatic leader, Meriwether Lewis, ended his life in an apparent suicide, the expedition was largely forgotten. Not until the 20th century would the exploits of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery recapture the imaginations of historians and the general public.

In this episode, Lindsay speaks with Clay S. Jenkinson, an author, historian, and host of acclaimed public radio show and podcast The Thomas Jefferson Hour. They’ll discuss Jefferson’s motives for ordering the expedition, its impact on Native American societies, the mysterious circumstances surrounding Lewis’s death, and the legacy of Lewis and Clark today.

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