Broad History

Republican motherhood is a fundamental concept of the early American republic. Women's political power, it argues, is exercised not at the ballot box but in their own separate sphere, where they raise good little patriots. Carol Berkin concludes our series with a look at the long impact of the American revolution for women and connects the dots with the United States' current political landscape, 250 years on.

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• (00:00) - Carole Berkin part 2 (new)

Mercy Otis Warren was what the Revolution called a "female politician" – a woman who cared about and discussed politics, a wholly new archetype for American society then. Her poems, plays and pamphlets – and ultimately her 3-volume history of the revolution – established her as a key political thinker of the movement for independence. But she walked a fine line: she never meant to "transgress the boundaries of (her) sex" and always thought of herself as a wife and mother first. To discuss her life and women's part in the political philosophy of the revolution, I'm joined by Mercy's biographer, Rosemarie Zagarri.

Read the books
🇺🇸 Buy Rosemarie Zagarri's books in the US
A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9781118775011
Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9780812220735

🇬🇧 Buy Rosemarie Zagarri's books in the UK
A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781118775011
Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781666133929
(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)

• (00:00) - Intro

Phillis Wheatley Peters was transported to America as an enslaved 7-year-old. She quickly became a literary prodigy and an international celebrity – the unofficial first poet laureate of a new nation, says her biographer Vincent Carretta. Together we explore her life, her legacy and recent findings that transform our understanding of the final years of her too-short life.

🇺🇸 Get the books: 
(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)

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When Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman overheard the opening of the new Massachussetts constitution in 1780 – "all men are born free and equal" – she knew the words had to apply to her, too. Elizabeth was the first enslaved woman to sue for and win her freedom in a US court. To talk about arguably the most impactful woman in this series and the true meaning of freedom and the American promise, I'm joined by Errin Haines, co-founder and editor-at-large of The 19th*.

Get Donna Tesiero's biography of Elizabeth Freeman, "A Revolutionary Woman"
🇺🇸 in the US
🇬🇧 in the UK
(Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)

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• (00:00) - Intro

What really happened between Angelica and Hamilton? Did she really ask her sister to "lend him to me for a little while"? Why did Eliza sign her name to the Federalist papers? Did Angelica get a little too close to Jefferson? What about all the Schuyler siblings who didn't make the musical? Join me in conversation with the Schuyler sisters' Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Amanda Vaill for a look at the real stories inside America's most famous love triangle.

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Abigail Adams made a killing in war bonds (and possibly a bit of insider trading). She used John Adams' diplomatic posting to import luxury goods from France and resell them at an insane markup. She's the reason her civil servant husband, unlike many of the founding fathers, did not die in massive debt. But as a married woman, she could not own anything in her own name or keep the proceeds of her clever investments. Her famous "Remember the ladies" was not, her biographer Woody Holton argues, a call for women's right to vote. Rather it was a plea to free women from the tyranny of bad husbands and from having their fate decided by the lottery of marriage. Meet Abigail Adams, loving partner, flawed mother, financial capitalist and women's advocate.

Browse the Adams family archives

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• (00:00) - AUDIO S2Ep2 Woody Holton

The most radical thing about the American Revolution? The sudden politicisation of colonial women, argues Dr Carol Berkin, author of "Revolutionary Mothers" and one of the preeminent historians of women in the early United States. Women were the main organisers of the boycotts of British goods, which fanned the flames of revolution. They were involved in every aspect of the war – except in high politics, from which they were barred.

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• (00:00) - S2 Ep01 Carol Berkin

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In part 2 of our exploration of the American frontier, Megan Kate Nelson introduces two women who belie the homesteader image conservative "trad wives" like to harken back to. Polly Bemis was a Chinese immigrant who built a life and a community in Idaho, despite intense prejudice and stringent anti-Chinese immigration policies. Ella Watson was a self-made homesteader and small rancher, a so-called cattle queen who got on the wrong side of cattle barons in Wyoming and paid the price.

Read more: How Chinese women were barred from the American dream 

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• (00:00) - Megan Kate Nelson part 2 (updated 29/7)

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The Western frontier is a foundational myth of the United States. Historian Megan Kate Nelson is here to complicate it with the stories of women who do not at all fit the image of the American pioneer you probably imagine. In part 1 of this two-parter conversation, she (re)introduces us to Sacajawea, the Native American woman who led the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific, and Gertrudis Barceló, an infamous gambling entrepreneur who became one of the richest people in the New Mexico territory.

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• (00:00) - Part 1

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The ancient Greeks believed a woman's womb wandered through her body and made her ill. Medieval Europeans believed a woman's orgasm was necessary for conception. And the Victorians believed masturbation would drive you to madness. Sex historian Dr. Kate Lister — host of Betwixt the Sheets and author of Flick: A History of Sexual Pleasure — joins me for a tour through the wildly strange, often infuriating history of women's sexuality. For most of that history, women were believed to be the more sex-crazed gender. What can we say, girls will be girls...

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• (00:00) - AUDIO 07 Kate Lister

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