Liberty Chronicles

Every family has Christmas traditions, some are more conventional than others. On Christmas Eve in 1826, the cadets at the West Point Military Academy decided they would create a little tradition of their own with some holiday spirits, in both senses of the word. Unfortunately, what started out as some Christmas cheer with a young Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, ended as a full on riot against the bureaucracy.

What is the history of Christmas? Who was Jonathan Pintard and what research did he do about Christmas?

Christmas in America: A History, written by Penne Lee Restad

How Christmas Became Merry, written by Andrew Burstein

1826: The great ‘Eggnog Riot’ at West Point when cadets revolted, written by Jonathan Croyle

The Christmas Conspiracy, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Part two of our discussion with Joseph Kelly is about how the whole first three years of Jamestown was basically the struggle of common laborers who discovered what the reality on the ground was and who tried to escape. Many of them did, by melting into the Native American population, others got caught, tortured, and made examples of for their fellows who didn’t make it out.

How did the Virginia Company interact with the Native Americans? Who was John Smith? Was he a pirate king? Was Jamestown a slave-labor camp? Do we view the founding of America as truly a pilgrimage story?

Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America’s Origin, written by Joseph Kelly

The Thanksgiving Story You’ve Probably Never Heard, written by Joseph Kelly

America was Founded by Runaways & Renegades, with Joseph Kelly, Part One: Liberty Chronicles Podcast

Soul Liberty, Toleration, and the Emergence of Religious Freedom in the Colonies, written by Micheal Rieger

The Horrifying Lives of Early Virginians: Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Professor Joseph Kelly joins us today to talk about his book Marooned and how much of our understanding about the beginning of the New World is simply names of people and approximately when they died. Stephen Hopkins, a passenger on the Sea Venture which shipwrecked in Bermuda in 1609, is an exception to that trend.

Who is America’s real founding father? What did the Virginia Company do in 1608-1609? Was Jamestown a utopia or a dystopia? Did the Virginia Company have any leadership to guide it? Did they have any real power? What was the difference between colonial Virginia and colonial Bermuda? What is a doctrine of mutual consent?

Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America’s Origin, written by Joseph Kelly

The Thanksgiving Story You’ve Probably Never Heard, written by Joseph Kelly

“Virginia is Horrible; Send Cheese”: An Indentured Servant Writes Home, written by Richard Frethorne

The Roots of Modern Libertarian Ideas, written by Brian Doherty

The Horrifying Lives of Early Virginians, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Southerners strived to protect slavery as thoroughly as possible. In order to do that, they embraced a pragmatic ideology tailored to fight their Northern opposition. To many Southerners, slavery represented comfort, but others embraced slavery as their Christian duty to save Africans from the drudgeries of freedom and supposedly meek lives of Northern industrial workers.

What is methodological individualism? Was there a monolithic south? What is enlightenment liberalism? Who was Nathaniel Beverly Tucker?

America Mobbing, 1828-1861, written by David Grimsted

The Life and Literature of Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, written by Robert Doares, Jr.

Jeffersonian Optimism vs. Country Pessimism, from Literature of Liberty Reviewer

Radical Individualism in America: Revolution to Civil War, written by Eric Foner

Compromising Compromisers, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Southerners did not support Jeffersonianism as a matter of principle, but as a strategy that would ensure the survival of slavery and institutionalized racism. This support of Jeffersonian liberalism was ill-founded and tainted the philosophical tradition for many years after.

What is the relationship between libertarians and the southerners who were proponents of limited government? How did slavery make the phrase “states’ rights” dirty? How did southerners use the Jeffersonian philosophy to their advantage? Why did southerners fear the health of the republic without slavery? Did southerners actually support a small and limited government or was that just a facade?

Ericson, David. The Debate Over Slavery: Antislavery and Proslavery Liberalism in Antebellum America. New York: New York University Press. 2000.

Finkelman, Paul. Proslavery Thought, Ideology, and Politics. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1989.

Finkelman, Paul. Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South, A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2003.

Freehling, William W. The Road to Disunion, Vol. I: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854. New York: Oxford University Press. 1990.

The Road to Disunion, Vol. II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007.

The Slaveholder’s Dilemma: Freedom and Progress in Southern Conservative Thought, 1820-1860. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. 1992.

Spooner & The Secret Six, with Phil Magness, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

Was Frederick Douglass a Libertarian?, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

Libertypublicans, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Phil Magness joins us this week to teach the radical nature of Lysander Spooner. Spooner’s legal career started in an apprenticeship under 2 lawyers and he was best known for his support for the Abolitionist movement. His philosophy of liberty heavily influenced his law practice as well as his activist lifestyle.

Who was Lysander Spooner? Is there a connection between his post office activism and his abolition activism? What radical politics did Spooner practice? What is the secret six? How does natural law relate to slavery?

Two Treatises on Competitive Currency and Banking, written by Lysander Spooner

John Brown and the Secret Six, Massachusetts Historical Society

Cannibals All!, with Phil Magness, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

An Essay on the Trial by Jury: Juries vs. Representative Democracy, written by Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner on Natural Law, written by George H. Smith

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The Democrats and Republicans in the House were doing everything they could think of to force the hands of their opponents into appointing the House Speaker. However, no one could secure the majority number of votes to take over the position. The crisis reached a breaking point when a congressman actually suggested that everyone from the House resign in order eliminate the issue entirely. With every passing day, party lines became clearer and our Loco-Focos were at the core of the anti-slavery Republican movement.

Why was there a speakership crisis? How did the House overcome the crisis? What happened to the Loco-Focos in the 1850’s? Did the speakership crisis just serve as a foreshadowing of the trouble to come for the U.S.?

Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 2005.

Bigelow, John. William Cullen Bryant. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1980. (Original printing: 1890).

Brooks, Corey M. Liberty Power: Antislavery Third Parties and the Transformation of American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2016.

Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. Perennial Classics Edition. 2002. Originally Published: 1988.

Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Knopf. 1996

Compromising Compromisers, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

1848 and Its Aftermath, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

Libertarian Anti-Capitalism, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Stephen Maizlish sifted through 1700-1800 different documents and speeches from the 19th century in order to recreate an accurate depiction of the discourse that was occurring in Congress prior to the Civil War. His book, A Strife of Tongues: The Compromise of 1850 and the Ideological Foundations of the American Civil War (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era), is the product of his outstanding work. He found that many speeches and documents of lesser-known congressman of the time were the most profound and the least read by historians today.

What exactly caused the Civil War? What is the importance of intellectual history? What are the power of words when reconstructing a reality? How different really were the Northern and Southern Congressmen during the Compromise of 1850? How was the division between the North and the South created? How prevalent were the concepts of masculinity in discourse during the time of the Compromise of 1850?

“How Calls for Civility Led to the Civil War,” by Oliver Bateman

Holt, Michael. The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Hill & Wang. 2004.

Ransom, Roger. Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1989.

A Strife of Tongues: The Compromise of 1850 and the Ideological Foundations of the American Civil War (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era), written by Stephen W. Maizlish

The Virtues of Compromise, written by Charles Jared Ingersoll

1848 and Its Aftermath, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

The Greatest of Nullifiers, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Prior to 1857, no one had ever heard of Hinton Helper. To be clear, Helper was not a libertarian, he was a vehement racist who made it quite clear that he did not believe that people of color belonged in North America at all. Helper had one great contribution to history and that was his book The Impending Crisis of the South. However, if you read his work closely, his racist remarks were class-oriented to appeal to poor whites. He urged them to revolutionize society. Helper detested the rich white planter elite which was the result of excessive slavery.

Who was Hinton Helper? Was his book, The Impending Crisis of the South, more influential than Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Was Helper an abolitionist? Did Helper see slavery as having any value? What was Helper’s version of manifest destiny?

Helper, The Impending Crisis of the South

George Frederickson, “Chapter 2: Antislavery Racist—Hinton Rowan Helper,” in The Arrogance of Race: Historical Perspective on Slavery, Racism, and Social Inequality, Wesleyan University Press. 1988.

Brooks, Corey M. Liberty Power: Antislavery Third Parties and the Transformation of American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2016.

Cannibals All!, with Phil Magness, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

There’s No Excuse for Slavery (Updated), Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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Phil Magness best describes George Fitzhugh as an “eccentric character” because that frames the intellectual direction of his life. Fitzhugh had an obsession with reading about the medieval world and throughout his life he had contempt for philosophers. He is famous for viewing free society as a failure and he also claimed that “all government is slavery”.

Who is George Fitzhugh? Was he ever a southern planter? What influence did Thomas Carlyle have on Fitzhugh? What were Fitzhugh’s religious views? How did Fitzhugh critique feminism? What did Fitzhugh find valuable about the feudal relationship?

George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society, Richmond, VA: A. Morris, 1854.

George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All! Or, Slaves Without Masters, Richmond, VA: A. Morris, 1857

Slavery as Socialism, written by George H. Smith

There is No Excuse for Slavery, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

What is Classical Liberal History?, Liberty Chronicles Podcast

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