After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, the siege of Boston reverted to a stalemate through the summer of 1775. While Benedict Arnold would lead some of the Continentals north from Cambridge into Canada and Henry Knox tried to wrestle Fort Ticonderoga’s cannons south from upstate New York to Cambridge, there was not a lot of action around Boston. Instead, as we’ll explore in this episode, the focus shifted to preparation, with riflemen from the far western frontier in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland joining the lines, with Continentals building new forts to consolidate their siege lines, and with the redcoats venting their frustrations on Boston’s Liberty Tree. We’ll also see how the new Continental commander in chief, George Washington, could barely be restrained from ordering a direct, frontal assault on the superior British force in Boston, even though there wasn’t enough ammunition in the Continental camp to go around.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/334/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

In this episode, we go in search of a Black Bostonian who was “well known” to his contemporaries, including Boston newspapers, but who was all but forgotten by history. If not for a one-paragraph news article and work by historians to reconstruct aspects of his life from notarial records, we may not know the name Caesar Marion. In this somewhat brief episode, we’re going to look at why Mr. Marion was thrown into Boston’s notorious jail 250 years ago this week, and then we’ll compare his treatment inside British-occupied Boston with the experience of Black volunteers in the Continental Army outside Boston, once Virginia enslaver George Washington took command.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/333/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

In July 1775, the siege of Boston was approaching its peak, with the New England militias that had been surrounding Boston itself since April coalescing into the brand new Continental Army and the British dug in within the city to protect the vital harbor. 250 years ago this week, Continental officers planned a daring raid on Boston Harbor, essentially taking them deep into hostile territory, since the mighty Royal Navy ruled the waters. The objective of this raid, or rather raids, because there were two of them, was Boston Light. Marking the entrance to Boston Harbor since 1716, this humble lighthouse became an important strategic target, during a phase of the war where Britain’s presence in Boston was only possible because of a boatlift connecting their supply lines from Long Wharf to Newcastle and Plymouth in old England. We’ll also see how the tide of battle could turn on the back of the simple New England whaleboat, which proved itself to be the 18th century equivalent of a stealth fighter in these engagements. (Parts of this episode originally aired in 2021 as episode 227.)

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/332/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

A while back, my niece Sophie convinced me to watch the Disney live action musical Newsies. The 1992 film features an 18 year old Christian Bale as a homeless New York City newsboy who organizes an unauthorized strike against the biggest newspapers in the city. The story is peppered through with real names, like Joseph Pulitzer and Teddy Roosevelt, so I was pretty sure it was at least loosely based on a real story, and it made me wonder if Boston’s newsboys had ever gone on an equally adorable strike. I uncovered the story of a real-life newsboy strike in Boston in 1894, but it didn’t have that much in common with the movie. In the course of researching the 1894 strike, I learned a lot about newsboys as an emblem of child labor in Boston during the Progressive Era, at a time when reformers thought it better to provide protections that would legitimize child labor rather than eliminating it.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/331/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

This week we celebrate another important anniversary in the lead up to America’s 250th birthday. On July 3, 1775, George Washington assumed command of the newly created Continental Army at their headquarters in Cambridge, and Mike Troy of the American Revolution podcast is going to tell us how it happened. Mike was our guest last week, but this week he’s allowing me to play clips from two of his classic shows. I’m going to play part of episode 64 of the American Revolution Podcast, which was titled “The Second Continental Congress Begins,” and all of episode 67, “Washington Takes Command.” Both these episodes originally aired on the American Revolution Podcast in the fall of 2018, and they will allow us to understand why the Continental Army was created, how George Washington was chosen as our first Commander in Chief, and the challenges Washington faced upon taking command in Cambridge 250 years ago this week.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/330/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

Mike Troy is the host of the American Revolution Podcast, which has been taking an incredibly broad view of the Revolutionary Era since 2017. It’s a chronological look at the struggle for independence that spans the entire era, from the start of the Seven Years War, through the ratification of the US Constitution, and he shows no sign of stopping. Along with a weekly episode, now that we’re firmly in the season of 250th anniversary celebrations, there are mini-episodes at least once a week to remind us of events in the American Revolution that took place 250 years ago today. Big thanks to Mike Troy this week for allowing us to air his material while I’m going to the beach and taking one of my closest friends on a Freedom Trail pub crawl for his first visit to Boston in decades.

June 17th, 2025 will mark the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was the largest Revolutionary War battle to take place in the Boston area and the bloodiest battle of the war (at least on the British side). Following the outbreak of war in April, the siege of Boston soon became a stalemate, but until Bunker Hill, British officers expected the American provincial army to evaporate the first time they came face to face with the fearsome power of the King’s army. Fought over a year before America declared independence, Bunker Hill proved this assumption wrong, with the redcoats suffering devastating casualties, even though they defeated the Americans in a pyrrhic victory. In just a few minutes, I’m going to be joined by Mike Troy, host of the American Revolution Podcast. Together, we’re going to uncover where the battle was fought and how you can find traces of the battlefield in today’s Charlestown. We’ll look at the officers and men on both sides of the battle, and what the experience of battle was like for the untested American militia soldiers, as well as the lessons that both sides learned from the carnage of June 17, 1775.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/329/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

Mike Troy is the host of the American Revolution Podcast, which has been taking an incredibly broad view of the Revolutionary Era since 2017. It’s a chronological look at the struggle for independence that spans the entire era, from the start of the Seven Years War, through the ratification of the US Constitution, and he shows no sign of stopping. Along with a weekly episode, now that we’re firmly in the season of 250th anniversary celebrations, there are mini-episodes at least once a week to remind us of events in the American Revolution that took place 250 years ago today.

Instead of the 250th anniversary of an event from the American Revolution in Boston, we’re rewinding the clock 392 years to the spring of 1633, when the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony was given the first fork in America. We’re going to explore why forks were unknown in Boston at that time, and indeed why they were unfamiliar in England until just a few years before. We’ll talk about why it took Boston over 100 years to fully embrace the idea of eating food with a fork, including changes to 17th century table manners and the belief that the fork was an inherently sinful utensil.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/328/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

Over the past few episodes, we’ve seen how Massachusetts troops drove the British back from Concord and Lexington to Boston, then created elaborate siege lines that kept the redcoats bottled up in the city, while the Americans controlled the surrounding countryside. 250 years ago this week, the focus of the war shifted from land to sea, with the British leveraging the immense tactical advantage that their navy gave them in projecting power on the ocean and along the coast. To try to offset the hardship of the American siege, the British used their naval power to find food in the Boston Harbor Islands, first on Grape Island, near today’s Weymouth and Hingham, then at Noddles and Hog Islands, which form most of today’s East Boston. At Grape Island, the Americans put up a spirited but largely ineffective defense, but the skirmish we remember as the battle of Chelsea Creek became an important turning point for the Americans. This was the first operation where soldiers from different colonies worked together in a coordinated effort; the first time the rebellious New Englanders used artillery in battle; and the first time Americans engaged and actually captured a British warship.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/327/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

Every Bostonian knows Fort Ticonderoga as the source of the cannons that Henry Knox brought to Boston, secretly hauled to the top of Dorchester Heights in the middle of the night, and used to drive the redcoats out of Boston forever. We’ll cover that story later in our 250th anniversary season, but this week I want to think about the other end of the chain. Before Henry Knox could bring his noble train of artillery to Boston, somebody had to take those cannons, and the fort they belonged to, from the redcoats. We usually give credit for the daring capture of Fort Ticonderoga to Ethan Allen, whose homestead you can visit outside Burlington, Vermont these days. The capture is actually at least as much a Boston story as it is a Vermont story, as the orders to capture the fort were issued by our local patriots. We forget about this part of the story because the officer who was chosen to lead the expedition to Fort Ti was one of the greatest heroes of the revolution, right up until the point when he became one of history’s greatest traitors. That’s right, Benedict Arnold.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/326/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/

From the moment the April 19, 1775 battle of Lexington and Concord ended until the British gave up and evacuated the city in March 1776, Boston was the epicenter of the American War for Independence. After eleven months of under siege, Boston was effectively independent after the British evacuation, never being under serious threat of re-invasion after March 17, 1776. Unfortunately, the Siege of Boston started and ended before independence was declared in Philadelphia, so it’s usually forgotten in our retelling of our national origin story. For this week’s show, let’s linger on the siege to see how it came together 250 years ago this week, how colonial Bostonians decided whether they should stay in their homes or flee to the countryside, and where the battle lines were drawn upon the map of modern Boston. Over the course of the coming year, we’ll return to the siege of Boston several times to talk about battles and skirmishes, heroes and traitors, and generals and everyday Bostonians, but for now I want to set the stage with an episode about the early days of the siege in April and May of 1775.

Full show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/325/

Support us: http://patreon.com/HUBhistory/