A little more than three years ago, cohost emerita Nikki and I were on our way to see the Hamilton musical for the first time. In our excitement, we decided to record an episode about an 1806 political duel in Boston that had a lot of parallels with the Hamilton-Burr duel. We dug into the history of dueling in Boston, how dueling laws evolved in response to the duels that were fought here, and why a young Boston Democratic-Republican and a young Boston Federalist decided they had to fight each other to the death in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, we also peppered samples from the Hamilton soundtrack throughout the episode in our excitement, stomping all over Lin Manuel’s intellectual property. The unlicensed music even got the episode pulled from at least one podcast app. This week, I went back to our original recording and re-edited it to clean it up and remove all the Hamiltunes. So get ready to meet Charles Sumner’s dad and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s dad, sail on the USS Constitution, and Alexander Hamilton himself will even put in a brief appearance. Plus, we’ll learn why fighting a duel in Massachusetts could get you buried at a crossroads with a stake driven through your heart.

Please check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/216/

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They stockpiled guns and ammunition. They built homemade bombs. They had a hit list of a dozen members of Congress who were targeted for assassination. They believed themselves to be patriots, with soldiers and police officers among their ranks. They rallied under the motto of America First, but they planned to overthrow our Constitutional government and install a fascist dictatorship. Believe it or not, I’m not talking about the insurrection on January 6, 2021, but instead a plot that the FBI uncovered in January 1940. The subsequent investigation threw a spotlight on a group called the Christian Front that made its headquarters at Boston’s Copley Plaza hotel, promoting violent attacks on Jewish Bostonians while accepting covert funding and support from a Nazi spymaster who flew the swastika proudly from his home on Beacon Hill.

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/215/

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The first commercially viable telephone network was created by a Boston inventor and entrepreneur. Not Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with inventing the telephone, but Edwin Thomas Holmes. Starting in the 1850s, his father Edwin Holmes created the first burglar alarm company here in Boston, then Edwin Thomas Holmes adapted the alarm company’s network of telegraph wires in the 1870s to work with the telephone switchboard he invented. Working with Alexander Graham Bell, the Holmes company turned his invention into a business and helped him build the Bell Telephone Company.

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/214/

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In November 1718, a tragedy on Boston Harbor cut short the lives of six people, including the first keeper of Boston Light and four members of his household. To find out what happened that morning, we’re going to look at what Boston Harbor was like before the construction of Boston Light, why Boston Harbor needed a lighthouse, how it got built, and who was chosen as the first keeper. We’ll also look at the founding father who was moved to poetry by the tragedy, as well as the centuries long search for Ben Franklin’s lost verses and a 20th century hoax that got repeated as truth. Then we’ll close out the show with a quick look at the present and future of Boston Light on Little Brewster Island.

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/213/

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This week’s podcast is sponsored by Liberty & Co, who sell unique products inspired by the American Revolution. One of their latest offerings is a line of historically accurate coffee and tea by Oliver Pluff.

The Boston Tea Party was one of the first revolutionary acts, with disguised Bostonians dumping 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. Join the party with Liberty & Co’s Teas of the Boston Tea Party, a selection of four period-appropriate loose leaf teas presented in corked glass vials in a wooden display case. Or choose the East India Company bundle, with a beautiful stoneware mug decorated with the same company trademark that adorned the chests that Bostonians chopped open, alongside a canister of Oolong tea with a matching East India Company trademark.

If you prefer coffee, try the Green Dragon bundle. The Green Dragon Tavern was home to the St Andrews Freemason lodge, the Loyal Nine, the Sons of Liberty, and the Boston Committee of Correspondence. It was where the Tea Party was planned and where Paul Revere got his instructions to ride to Lexington and Concord. This bundle pairs a special Green Dragon Blend ground coffee in a beautiful canister with a stoneware mug decorated with the Green Dragon logo and a matching sticker.

Save 20% on any purchase with the discount code HUBHISTORY.

The Puritan dissenters who founded the town of Boston are remembered as a deeply religious society, so you might think that Christmas in Puritan Boston would be a big deal. You’d be wrong though. Celebrating Christmas was against the law for decades, and it was against cultural norms for a century or more. What were the Puritans’ theological misgivings about Christmas? What were the practices of misrule, mummery, and wassailing with which Christmas was celebrated in the 17th century? And why did the Puritans literally erase Christmas from their calendars?

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/212/

And support the show on Patreon.