The Last Women Jailed for Suffrage (episode 173)
Feb 23, 2020
Show notes
On February 24, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson visited Boston on his way home from the peace conference that ended World War I, expecting to find adoring supporters. Instead, he was greeted by members of the National Women’s Party. After a long campaign that had the 19th amendment on the verge of passing, they now blamed Wilson for dragging his feet and shifting his attention from suffrage to the peace treaty and the League of Nations. The protesters marched to the Massachusetts State House, where they refused to disperse for the president’s arrival. 25 women were arrested and taken to the Charles Street Jail, where sixteen of them would become known as the last women to be jailed for suffrage.
A remarkable tale of the woman who drove the fight for women’s suffrage.
Former Boston Globe journalist Cassidy, now chief content officer for InkHouse, chronicles the life of Alice Paul, a Quaker from New Jersey who became one of the leaders in the struggle for women’s rights in the early 1900s—and beyond. She was the daughter of a wealthy banker and earned multiple graduate degrees. While she was studying social justice in Birmingham, England, she was profoundly moved by the “suffragettes” Christabel Pankhurst and her mother, Emmeline. Raised to expect equality for all, she stayed in London and joined the fight. She was arrested multiple times in six months, went on a hunger strike, and suffered permanent physical damage from force-feeding. Running parallel to Paul’s story, Cassidy gives us the background of the suffragist’s biggest stumbling block, Woodrow Wilson. Born in Virginia, his father, a minister, authored a booklet outlining his misguided argument for how the Bible condones slavery. Wilson’s outlook was firmly fixed along those lines, and he even said, “universal suffrage is at the foundation of every evil in this country.” He cast himself as a progressive, but that didn’t include women or blacks. Paul joined the fight for equality in America, a struggle that was not as confrontational as England’s but just as dedicated. While those in charge fought for states’ resolutions, she felt an amendment to the Constitution was absolutely necessary. To say Paul was the driving force is not an exaggeration. She was tireless, always sure of her tactics and willing to endure many setbacks, arrests, and Wilson’s continued obstinacy. Dedicated women like Inez Milholland, Alva Belmont, and Lucy Burns stood right beside her.
This book should be required reading until Alice Paul becomes a household name. She not only fought for voting rights and the 19th Amendment; she kept fighting for another 50 years.
Upcoming Event
Like this week’s podcast, the upcoming talk called Sartorial Suffrage at the Boston Athenaeum was also inspired by the centennial of suffrage in the US. It will be led by Dr. Kimberly Alexander of UNH, Sara Georgini of the Adams Papers at the MHS, and Theo Tyson, who is a fellow of American Art and Culture at the Athenaeum. Together, they’ll look at the cultural connections between women’s fashion and the political movements for and against women’s suffrage. Here’s how the Athenaeum describes it:
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2020, we will take the afternoon to discuss the implications and influences of fashion, clothing, and dress on the women’s suffrage movement. Theo Tyson – who curated the Athenaeum’s current installation “(Anti)SUFFRAGE” – will use the installation as a point of departure to delve into the dogma, designs, and demands of suffrage and anti-suffrage attire. She will be joined by fashion historians Sara Georgini, Series Editor for the Papers of John Adams, part of the Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society and author of Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family and Kimberly Alexander, PhD, Lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of New Hampshire and author of Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era. Guided tours of our current installation (Anti)SUFFRAGE will be held immediately following the conversation.
The event will begin at noon on Friday, March 6. It is free for Athenaeum members and $10 for nonmembers. Advanced registration is required.
The Red Scare in Park Square (episode 172)
Feb 16, 2020
Show notes
Draft riots are nothing new in Boston. A 1970 protest at Northeastern University over the draft and the Vietnam War devolved into a riot. In 1863, the North End was torn by a draft riot that ended with the militia firing a cannon at a crowd of mostly Irish-American men, women, and children. We even covered a violent 1747 riot in which Bostonians resisted forced impressment into the Royal Navy. What all those incidents have in common, though, is that the rioters were opposed to the draft. The riot on July 1, 1917 was different. In that case, rioters supported the draft and focused their violence on antiwar protesters.
14 Park Square in better days
As the building is being sacked
The uniformed mob telling concert-goers when to take off their hats
Enter the Bluejackets
The scene in Park Square
“The Modern Gray Champion,” written by a pacifist and former child prodigy, this short story resurrects Hawthorne’s mythical hero and has him inspire the Park Square socialists.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen denounces the “rowdyism” in Boston.
The director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is arrested and deported in 1917, after refusing to open every performance with the national anthem.
News/Wire Service Stories
July 2 San Diego Union and Daily Bee, details on banner slogans, demands of the marchers. “lt was a bad day for Socialism and Socialists in Boston today. Their parade and anti-conscription demonstration was broken up as a result of a number of riots centering on Boston Common.”
French sociologist Sylvie Tissot’s book Good Neighbors: Gentrifying Diversity in Boston’s South End ruffled a lot of feathers when it was published in 2015. She was accused of using her position at Harvard and French accent to ingratiate herself with the wealthy residents of the South End. They opened up to Tissot about their experiences in the neighborhood, then felt betrayed by her portrayal of their relationships with marginalized communities. Here’s how the publisher describes the book:
Does gentrification destroy diversity? Or does it thrive on it? Boston’s South End, a legendary working-class neighborhood with the largest Victorian brick row house district in the United States and a celebrated reputation for diversity, has become in recent years a flashpoint for the problems of gentrification. It has born witness to the kind of rapid transformation leading to pitched battles over the class and race politics throughout the country and indeed the contemporary world.
This subtle study of a storied urban neighborhood reveals the way that upper-middle-class newcomers have positioned themselves as champions of diversity, and how their mobilization around this key concept has reordered class divisions rather than abolished them.
Upcoming Event
As part of Black History Month at Boston Public Library, Dr. Kelley Carter Jackson of Wellesley College will be presenting on her recent book Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. Published in 2019, Jackson’s book explores the tension within the abolitionist movement between (often white) activists who were committed to nonviolence, and a rising tide of Black radicals who believed that it was time to take freedom rather than waiting for it to be given. Here’s how the BPL website describes the event:
In honor of Black history month, join us for a meaningful experience with Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson. Her new book, Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (University of Pennsylvania Press), examines the conditions that led some black abolitionists to believe slavery might only be abolished by violent force. In Force and Freedom, Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists. Go beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.
The talk begins at 6pm on February 25 at the Copley branch, admission is free, and registration is not required. Copies of the book will be offered for sale by Trident booksellers at the event, and Dr. Jackson will be on hand to sign them.
Dr. Rebecca Crumpler’s Headstone
Long-time listeners may recall episode 18, in which we discussed the incredible life of Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black female medical doctor trained in the United States, who graduated in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. Dr. Crumpler and her husband Arthur Crumpler are buried in an unmarked grave at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park. The Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society are currently raising $5,000 for a simple gravestone to honor these two remarkable individuals. Please consider donating to this worthy cause.
Little Women in Boston (episode 171)
Feb 09, 2020
Show notes
You don’t grow up to walk two steps behind your husband when you’ve met Jo March. The same could be said of Louisa May Alcott, in which case you may not take a husband at all, choosing instead to paddle your own canoe. It has been said that, with the penning of the semi-autobiographical novel Little Women, Alcott launched the notion of the of the All American Girl. With both Sewall and Quincy ancestry, a sharp mind coupled with a determination to succeed, and a life guided by progressive values, Alcott herself was certainly an All Boston Girl. Learn about Louisa May Alcott’s long journey to overnight success, and hear how Sirena Abalian portrays Jo in the Wheelock Family Theater’s production of Little Women, the Musical.
National Parks Service profile on the Wayside/Hillside. The Wayside is part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program, administered by the National Park Service. This program commemorates and preserves the historical significance of the Underground Railroad which sought to address the injustices of slavery and make freedom a reality in the United States and is a crucial element in the evolution of our national civil rights movement.
Hillside/Wayside
Orchard House
Orchard House
Louisa May Alcott’s grave
Boston Book Club
Stephanie Schorow’sInside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston’s Most Notorious Neighborhoods harkens back to an era before internet porn. Back then, anyone seeking adult entertainment had to not only leave their homes, they had to visit the seedy side of downtown Boston. Here’s how the author’s website describes the book:
Upscale restaurants, majestic theaters, and luxury condos line the streets of downtown Boston today. Students, office workers, doctors, and shoppers navigate the busy sidewalks along Washington and Boylston Streets, giving little thought to the historical significance of their surroundings. The bustle distracts passersby from what may be the city’s dirtiest little secret: these blocks were once home to Boston’s most notorious neighborhood. The Combat Zone, a five-plus-acre, city- sanctioned adult entertainment district, was as sordid and alluring as anything found in Amsterdam or Vegas. Indeed, Boston’s now tony neighborhood once resembled the set of HBO’s The Deuce, all with the blessing of city officials.
Schorow recounts the stories that made the Zone infamous. Meet the dancers who stripped to punk rock, the cops who tried to keep order on the streets, and the hookers who turned tricks and slipped wallets from gullible tourists. Go beyond the enticing marquees promoting all-nude revues to discover how the Zone—in an era dogged by miserable economics— remained one of Boston’s most profitable neighborhoods.
With Inside the Combat Zone, Schorow examines the constitutional and societal issues that led Boston to engineer an audacious social experiment, heralded across the nation as the solution to the pornography epidemic. She introduces the players who made it all possible and the antics and tragedies that unfolded as a result of their decisions. The streets come alive through interviews with former city planners, strippers, and porn merchants. Some nostalgically recall the Combat Zone as a seductive adult playground where men and women alike found the freedom to express themselves; others remember it as a dangerous, crime-ridden neighborhood. Schorow deftly captures a moment in Boston’s history that helped shape the city today—and that will likely never be seen again.
Upcoming Event
In honor of Presidents’ Day, our friends over at Boston By Foot have devised special walking tours that will allow you to see Boston through the eyes of our first two Presidents. Both tours begin at 1pm, both tours cost $15 for non-members, and both tours meet near the Old State House. George Washington is up first, with a tour on Saturday, February 16. Here’s how Boston By Foot describes it:
This walk follows the first President on his six-day visit to Boston as part of his post-inaugural tour of New England 230 years ago, in October 1789. In 1789, Boston was on the cusp of transformation, its economy rebounding from the war years, with its advances in industry, technology, and commerce on show for this most important of visitors. Boston in 1789 was still a town, not a city. Charles Bulfinch had yet to create his many churches and civic landmarks, and the hills of the Shawmut Peninsula were not yet plundered for their gravel and landfill. [Side note: you can get more context for Boston in 1789 from episode 147, where we trace the trial and execution of the so-called pirate Rachel Wall. Wall was the last woman to be executed in Massachusetts, and she was hanged on the Common just days before Washington’s presidential visit.] In part, we will walk the route of the civic parade organized for Washington’s arrival; stop by many of the sites where he visited, worshipped, and – yes – slept; and learn about Governor Hancock’s political miscalculation when President Washington came to town.
And because even now, almost 225 years later, John Adams still plays second fiddle to George Washington, the Adams family tour will be held on Monday, February 17. Their description begins with the words of 24 year old John Adams describing the bustling town of Boston in 1759:
“My Eyes are so diverted with Chimney Sweeps, Carriers of Wood, Merchants, Ladies, Priests, Carts, Horses, Oxen, Coaches, Market men and Women, Soldiers, Sailors, and my Ears with the Rattle Gabble of them all…”
Follow the words and history of four generations of Adamses, from their experiences at the Old State House, through Beacon Hill, and into Back Bay. John, Abigail, and their descendants were prolific writers. The trove of documents they left behind intimately describe their lives, public service, and Boston from the eve of the Revolution to the turn of the twentieth century.
Dr. Rebecca Crumpler’s Headstone
Long-time listeners may recall episode 18, in which we discussed the incredible life of Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black female medical doctor trained in the United States, who graduated in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. Dr. Crumpler and her husband Arthur Crumpler are buried in an unmarked grave at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park. The Friends of the Hyde Park Library and the Hyde Park Historical Society are currently raising $5,000 for a simple gravestone to honor these two remarkable individuals. Please consider donating to this worthy cause.
The Millen Gang Machine Gun Murders (episode 170)
Feb 02, 2020
Show notes
86 years ago today, on February 2, 1934, the first murders were committed in Massachusetts using a fully automatic weapon. Sadly, the victims were the first police officers to be killed in the line of duty in the sleepy Boston suburb of Needham. At the center of the case were a stolen Tommy gun, a pair of brothers, and a ragtag assortment of followers. Before it was all over, the Millen-Faber gang would be tied to at least five murders, a long string of robberies, and an attempted jailbreak. Three of the crew would be sentenced to death, and the shocking spectacle of military grade weapons being used on the streets of a quiet Boston suburb would stoke the already raging debate about gun control and the 1934 federal firearms act.
Britney Jasnoff, executive editor of Boston Magazine, joins us for a brief interview about a piece in the January/February 2020 issue called “Return to our Roots.” It discusses the recent trend of using DNA testing to uncover family history and genealogy, and it explores travel destinations that Bostonians can trace their genetic heritage back to. From Puerto Rico to Vietnam to Ireland, the package includes travel itineraries, personal narratives of Bostonians who have traveled to get in touch with their roots, and the 10 commandments of heritage travel. Read the piece online, or look for it on newsstands now.
Upcoming Event
As part of the Boston Public Library’s Black History Month seminar series, Katie Woods will be presenting about the Women’s Era Club at the Mattapan branch library at 3:30pm on February 12. The Women’s Era started out as the first newspaper published for African American women, founded in Boston by activist Josephine St Pierre Ruffin in 1890. A few years later, she started the club as an offshoot, where African American women could work together toward the lofty goal of making the world a better place. Here’s how the BPL website describes the talk:
In 1893, a group of Boston women founded the Women’s Era Club, one of the first woman’s clubs in the country led by African American women. With its journal, The Woman’s Era, this club’s mission of social activism reached national audiences. What causes were these women fighting for, and how were they treated by majority-white organizations? Join SCA Public History Intern Katie Woods as we explore the little-known yet influential club and publication, as well as the women behind these instruments of social change.
Trunk Tragedy in the City of Shoes (episode 169)
Jan 26, 2020
Show notes
In February 1879, Jennie Clarke’s body was found jammed into a leather trunk on the bank of the Saugus river on her 20th birthday. Every detail of the case reveals yet another tragedy in the life of Jennie Clarke, who died after attempting to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and it reveals the unexpectedly permissive approach of Massachusetts law to abortion in the mid-1800s.
This week’s Boston Book Club pick is a 43 minute long documentary film made in 1957 and narrated by longtime local news anchor Jack Chase. It introduces us to The MassPike, which was a brand new wonder of technology and transportation planning at the time. Big thanks to Max Finkel of Jalopnik for sharing the film earlier this month.
Upcoming Event
The Gibson House museum in the Back Bay has long been a fairly obscure museum, but it’s enjoying a moment in the sun after being featured in the recent Little Women movie. Longtime listeners will recognize it as our featured historic site of the week back in episode 58. The museum is a unique time capsule of Victorian Boston, as it was built in 1860, only very minimally updated since then, and left completely untouched since its last owner died in 1954.
That last owner was Charles Gibson, Junior, who grew up in the house, and then moved back in after his father’s death in 1916. He cultivated a persona as the ultimate Boston Brahmin, a throwback to an earlier era. A later profile in the Boston Herald described him as “a Proper Bostonian whose Victorian elegance puts modern manners to shame,” and “a small man…with a nimble, if sometimes cantankerous physique…He strolls around with a sort of swagger stick with a silver tip out of deference to the fact that gold would be too vulgar.” He affected an English accent and was always quick to mention his ties to the elites of Boston, London, and Paris.
Charles Junior maintained his eccentric ways right up until the end. Into the 1950s, he kept up a habit of walking to the Ritz Carlton Hotel every night, where he would take his dinner in a full tuxedo and tails, top hat, and a raccoon coat in cold weather. His neighbors would call him Mr. Boston.
At the time that we featured the house, we tiptoed around questions of Charles Junior’s sexuality. He was a lifelong bachelor, and he wrote a book of love sonnets that never mention a woman, but at the time, museum curators were happy to respect his privacy and deflect those types of inquiries. That attitude has changed, and the museum is embracing their founder’s personal history with a series of house tours on three upcoming Fridays. Called “Charlie Gibson’s Queer Boston,” here’s how the Gibson House website describes the tour:
Explore the Gibson House and early-twentieth-century Boston through Charlie Gibson’s eyes! The story of the museum’s founder is one of legacy and family history; of the fading grandeur of Victorian-era Boston; and of the role gay men, like Charlie, had in the historic preservation movement. This unique specialty house tour is not to be missed!
The tour will be held at 4pm on January 31, February 28, and March 27. Tickets are available at the door for $10, or $8 for students.
Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement, with Barbara Berenson (episode 168)
Jan 19, 2020
Show notes
Author Barbara F. Berenson joins us this week to discuss her book Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers. She’s also the author of Boston in the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution, and Walking Tours of Civil War Boston: Hub of Abolitionism. In the interview, she tells us about the critical roles that Massachusetts women played in the fight for women’s right to vote and step fully into the public sphere.
Barbara F. Berenson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School who retired from her position as Senior Attorney at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in June 2019. In addition to researching and writing, she serves on the Boards of Boston By Foot and the Royall House & Slave Quarters.
How have American women voted in the first 100 years since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment? How have popular understandings of women as voters both persisted and changed over time? In A Century of Votes for Women, Christina Wolbrecht and J. Kevin Corder offer an unprecedented account of women voters in American politics over the last ten decades. Bringing together new and existing data, the book provides unique insight into women’s (and men’s) voting behavior and traces how women’s turnout and vote choice evolved across a century of enormous transformation overall and for women in particular. Wolbrecht and Corder show that there is no such thing as ‘the woman voter’; instead they reveal considerable variation in how different groups of women voted in response to changing political, social, and economic realities. The book also demonstrates how assumptions about women as voters influenced politicians, the press, and scholars.
Christina Wolbrecht is professor of political science, director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy, and Mr. and Mrs. C. Robert Hanley Director of the Washington Program at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage (with J. Kevin Corder), Counting Women’s Ballots: Female Voters from Suffrage Through the New Deal (with Corder), and The Politics of Women’s Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change, as well as articles on women as political role models, the representation of women, and party positions on education policy.
The talk begins at 6:00pm, and advanced registration is required. It’s free for Athenaeum members and $15 for non-members.
The Hub of the Gay Universe, with Russ Lopez (episode 167)
Jan 12, 2020
Show notes
Dr. Russ Lopez joins us this week to discuss his recent book, The Hub of the Gay Universe: An LGBTQ History of Boston, Provincetown, and Beyond. Russ called in from a vacation in California to talk about Puritan attitudes toward sin and sodomy, the late 19th century golden age for LGBTQ Boston, the tragic toll of the AIDS crisis, and the long fight for marriage equality.
Dr. Russ Lopez has a background in urban planning, studying cities, neighborhoods, and the links between the urban environment and public health. He teaches at the Boston University School of Public Health, and he’s published three books related to that field. When he’s not busy studying, teaching, and writing about public health, he researches the history of Boston. The Hub of the Gay Universe is the third book he’s published in this area, following Boston’s South End: The Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood and Boston 1945-2015: The Decline and Rise of a Great World City. His new book traces the LGBTQ history of Boston and Provincetown from the moment the Pilgrims first encountered Provincetown in 1620 to the referendum that put trans rights on the ballot in 2018.
This week’s event Sarah’s Long Walk for Equality, a throwback to episode 162, where I discussed the 1849 Supreme Judicial Court case that formed the legal basis for school segregation. On February 1st, a Ranger from the National Park Service will be appearing at the Mattapan branch of the BPL to discuss that very case, Roberts v Boston. Here’s how the library website describes the event:
Since its founding, Boston has had a strong focus on public education, but not everyone had access to the same education. A young girl of color, named Sarah Roberts, forced Bostonians to acknowledge this inequality when she and her father sued the City of Boston because of the evident inequity in the Public Education System.
If you missed our show about Roberts v Boston, and you want to learn how a case meant to end segregation in Boston Public Schools backfired and created the legal framework for Jim Crow, you’ll want to check out this talk. It’s scheduled for 1pm on Saturday, February 1st, and it will be held at the Mattapan library on Blue Hill Ave.
John Brown’s Body (episode 166)
Jan 05, 2020
Show notes
The most popular song of the Union Army during the Civil War was inspired by the most hated man in America, it borrowed the tune from an old church hymn, and it was first sung right here in the Boston Harbor Islands. In this week’s episode, learn about the double meaning behind the title of the song, its holy and profane lyrics, and the tragic history of the “Hallelujah Regiment” who made it famous. The 12th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment marched out of Boston in 1861 with 1040 men and a song in their hearts, but when they returned three years later, they numbered just 85, and they had vowed never to sing their famous song again.
When it was published in 1994, David Hackett Fischer’s epic Paul Revere’s Ride was the first scholarly treatment of the events of April 19, 1775. Too many people were too familiar with the legend of Paul Revere’s ride, and serious historians more or less ignored the reality of the event. That changed with Fischer’s book. It uses primary sources to not only reconstruct the events of that fateful night in exacting detail, but also to reconstruct the world that Paul Revere lived in, both before and after his ride. We used Fischer’s book as a source for episode 76, about Paul Revere’s other rides around Massachusetts and New England.
Here’s how the publisher describes it:
In Paul Revere’s Ride, David Hackett Fischer fashions an exciting narrative that offers deep insight into the outbreak of revolution and the emergence of the American republic. Beginning in the years before the eruption of war, Fischer illuminates the figure of Paul Revere, a man far more complex than the simple artisan and messenger of tradition. Revere ranged widely through the complex world of Boston’s revolutionary movement–from organizing local mechanics to mingling with the likes of John Hancock and Samuel Adams. When the fateful night arrived, more than sixty men and women joined him on his task of alarm–an operation Revere himself helped to organize and set in motion. Fischer recreates Revere’s capture that night, showing how it had an important impact on the events that followed. He had an uncanny gift for being at the center of events, and the author follows him to Lexington Green–setting the stage for a fresh interpretation of the battle that began the war. Drawing on intensive new research, Fischer reveals a clash very different from both patriotic and iconoclastic myths. The local militia were elaborately organized and intelligently led, in a manner that had deep roots in New England. On the morning of April 19, they fought in fixed positions and close formation, twice breaking the British regulars. In the afternoon, the American officers switched tactics, forging a ring of fire around the retreating enemy which they maintained for several hours–an extraordinary feat of combat leadership. In the days that followed, Paul Revere led a new battle– for public opinion–which proved even more decisive than the fighting itself.
Upcoming Event
On January 14, the Lexington Historical Society will be hosting one of their periodic Book Group meetings, and the topic will be “Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement” by future podcast guest Barbara Berenson.
Here’s what the Lexington Historical Society says:
This month’s book will help you get up to speed on the history behind the 2020 centennial of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote! “Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement” removes the story of the suffrage from the singular mythology of Seneca Falls, deepening the movement to Worcester, greater New England, and the far reaches of the West. Her untold histories touch upon the complicated nature of the movement made even messier by aspects of politics, class, and race.
It’s a discussion group, so it would probably be helpful to read the book in advance. The event will be held at the Lexington Historical Society’s depot building at 13 Depot Square in downtown Lexington, and it will begin at 6pm on Tuesday, January 14. Bring your book, your notes, and an appetite. Admission is $35 for non-members, but that includes a catered dinner from Neillio’s in Lexington.
The 1689 Uprising in Boston, revisited (episode 165)
Dec 29, 2019
Show notes
Early one April morning, the people of Boston rose up in revolt against the royal government of Massachusetts. Militia marched in the streets, while an alarm brought more armed men from towns all over the area. Soon, the rebels controlled the mainland, while the royal navy still commanded the harbor. You might think I mean the “shot heard ‘round the world” that started the American Revolution in Lexington. Instead, we’re talking about the 1689 Boston revolt, when the people rose up and overthrew their royal governor, 86 years and one day before the battles at Lexington and Concord.
Our header image is the 1691 charter of Massachusetts issued by William and Mary, which you can see at the Commonwealth Museum.
Boston Book Club
A few months ago, the Journal of the American Revolution published an article by Alexander Cain called “Massachusetts Privateers During the Siege of Boston.” A frigate belonging to the Royal Navy plays a key part in this week’s story of the 1689 Boston uprising, but of course, the Navy would play an even more central role in the siege of Boston in 1775 and 1776. After patriot forces surrounded Boston, the occupying redcoats could no longer trade with the surrounding countryside for food, fuel, and other supplies. At first, they tried to buy or confiscate supplies from farms on the Boston Harbor Islands. Because the islands were small, and because the patriots began opposing these missions, this strategy didn’t last very long. By the late fall of 1775, the British Army and Navy, as well as the people of Boston would be heavily dependent on supplies brought in from the Caribbean, Canada, and the British Isles.
Success for the patriot cause depended on cutting these long supply lines and starving the British out. By the end of 1775, Congress had authorized the new Continental Navy, and Massachusetts was building its own naval force. However, neither of them had any significant capabilities before the siege ended. Instead, Massachusetts would rely on privateers to chase, engage, and hopefully capture the merchant vessels that were bringing supplies to Boston. Privateering is often described as legalized piracy, with privately owned and employed ships and crews authorized by a government to take on an enemy’s ships for profit. By the end of 1775, Massachusetts was cranking out dozens, perhaps hundreds, of the letters of marque that authorized a privateer. The article says, “these privateers traveled in groups that varied in size from a few ships to over twenty. One such squadron from Newburyport consisted of twenty-five vessels and over 2,800 men. A second from the same town boasted thirty vessels.”
The article uses sources from both sides of the war to outline how successful the privateer soon were. The patriots gloat about the sheer number of vessels their privateers were capturing, which not only denied supplies to the enemy, but also helped their army with stores of food, weapons, and vast stocks of ammunition. On the Redcoat side, hardship was the watchword, as fall turned to winter, and the situation in Boston became desperate. Private soldiers blamed their officers, and in many cases, the officers blamed British Admiral Samuel Graves, who they thought was being too cautious with his fleet, securing them in Boston Harbor instead of pursuing the privateer menace.
This talk looks at the ways women used non-republican methods of politicking on behalf of the United States while abroad in Europe, focusing on Abigail Adams’s time abroad in London and Paris. Situating Adams in an international and diplomatic context highlights the ways she influenced American foreign and domestic policy while abroad. Using five different themes— letters, politics and political intrigue, money and economic diplomacy, social networks, and republicanism and aristocracy abroad— this work analyzes her politicking in Europe.
The talk is free and open to the public with no reservations. Just bring a brown bag lunch to enjoy while Ms Lieberman speaks.
Classic Tales from Early Boston (episode 164)
Dec 22, 2019
Show notes
In lieu of a brand new story, this week we are sharing two classic tales from the earliest years of Puritan Boston. One of them might be considered comedy, while the other is high drama. First, we’ll visit the diaries of Boston founder John Winthrop and find two accounts of unexplained lights in the sky and other phenomena that might have been the first UFO sightings in Boston. After that, we’ll fast forward to the era of the English Civil Wars, when two men who had signed the death warrant for a king decided that Boston was the only safe refuge from his heir’s assassins.
For more on the 1689 uprising against Sir Edmund Andros in Boston, check out HUB History Episode 6.
Our header image is the death warrant for King Charles I. See the signatures of Whalley (far left) and Goffe (center) highlighted below.
Boston Book Club
Our pick for the Boston Book Club this week is a recent episode of the podcast In episode 267 of the podcast Ben Franklin’s World, host Liz Covart interviews Thomas Wickman, the author of a book called Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural History of Winter in the Early Northeast. Set mostly in the 17th and early 18th century, the book outlines what winter was like at that time, and how the residents of New England, both Native and English, experienced it. While it obviously covers a much wider geography than just Boston, Boston does play a part.
Wickman shares stories of violent winter storms where the tides rose so quickly around Boston’s wharves that the ice pack heaved and damaged the piers. There were stories of three Native Americans who died of hypothermia on Boston Neck after getting caught in an unexpected storm. And even the stories that range farther afield tell us more about early New England, and early Boston. Learn how Native Americans used specialized snowshoes to thrive in their winter hunting grounds, and how English settlers later adopted the same technology to send military patrols into those same hunting grounds, disrupting Native food sources.
Upcoming Event
Our friends at Boston By Foot have partnered with both Sam Adams and Democracy Brewing to create Tastings and Tales, a whole series of historically inspired beer tastings. They have one tasting planned with each brewery in the months of January, February, and March. If you’re as bad at math as I am, that’s a total of six tastings. The historical subjects for each event span a wide range. At Sam Adams, you will hear about the early history of beer in Boston in January; then fun historical tales in February, including Faneuil Hall’s golden grasshopper weather vane, the state’s sacred cod, and more; and then finally in March the topic will be the remarkable women of Jamaica Plain.
Over at Democracy Brewing, the first tasting will be structured around the stories that inspired the names of their beers, including James Michael Curley, pullman porters, and labor organizers; February will bring tales of community solidarity; and the topic in March will be radical women like Lucy Stone and Melnea Cass, not too different from what’s happening over at Sam Adams. All the events at Democracy will begin at 2pm on Sundays, while the Sam Adams tastings will be held at 6pm on Mondays. Each tasting will be $20, and they are, obviously, 21+.
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