John Dickinson burst onto the scene with his "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1767 and 1768.  He wrote "The Liberty Song,"  sung all over America, including at the 1769  Sons of Liberty dinner in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and the Continental Congress's Olive Branch Petition and with Jefferson  the "Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms."  While he opposed the Declaration of Independence, he drafted the Articles of Confederation, and in 1787 was a member of the Constitutional Convention.  We talk about Dickinson with Dr. Jane Calvert, author of the new biography, Penman of the Founding:  A Biography of John Dickinson , and the Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project.

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In the place of Professor Cornelia Dayton who could not join us today, Professor Robert Allison presents a lecture on the military career of Benjamin Lincoln, who, with General George Washington and General Nathanael Greene were to only General officers to serve from the Siege of Boston to Yorktown.  Lincoln came from a distinguished family in Hingham, Massachusetts where the family held various town offices since the 17th century.  While Lincoln never anticipated a military career, his quiet and steady capability soon recommended him to Washington for a number of posts.  Wounded at Saratoga, Lincoln would also be forced to surrender Charleston, SC to the British, but also accepted (at Washington's urging) the surrender of the British at Yorktown.

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Today, the Revolution 250 Podcast revisits an episode from 2021.  Next May will be the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Chelsea Creek and plans are in preparation for the commemoration of this important event.

The first time the patriots use artillery, the first time they sink a British ship, and the first time officers and men from different colonies stage a joint operation--the battle of Chelsea Creek, in what today are the cities of Chelsea and Revere, and the East Boston neighborhood, along an industrial waterway that still retains much of its 18th-century contour.  We hear from archaeologists Craig Brown, a PhD candidate at the University of Ediburgh,  and Victor Mastone, President of the Massachusetts Archaeology Society on this important, but little known May 1775 battle, and their work to map the site.

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Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” remains one of the defining rebukes to the work of the Founders.  While Douglass admired the ideals of the Founders, their inability to extend their precepts of liberty to people of color Douglass considered a breach of the promise of America.  Frederick Douglass scholar and performer Nathan Richardson talks with us about Douglass’ use of the founding ideals to fight for the emancipation of people of color and the absolute abolition of slavery.

Nathan Richardson is a published author, performance poet, and Frederick Douglass Historian.

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Lexington, Massachusetts has long been a tourist destination.  The Marquis de Lafayette famously made a visit during his tour of 1824 and the crowds have only grown since then.  The Inn at Hastings Park, established by Cordon Bleu-trained chef Tricia Perez Kennealy is where Revolutionary history and revolutionary hospitality have come together, just in time for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution. The Inn at Hastings Park is a 22-room luxury boutique hotel with a restaurant called "Town Meeting Bistro." Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with the owner and operator of the Inn at Hastings Park Tricia Perez Kennealy on how the Inn is preparing for the 250th Anniversary in Lexington.

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He was born the year before the Revolution began.  His mother died before his 7th birthday.  His father ended up in debtor's prison and provided material aid to men involved in Shays's Rebellion. Yet his story is known to many and has been portrayed in song, story and animated movies across the world.  This is the story of John Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed" who left his impoverished home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts to spendhis life wandering the Northwest Territory creating nurseries for apple trees as far away Ohio and Indiana.   Melissa M. Cybulski, Vice President of the Longmeadow Historical Society and author of Appleseeds:  A Boy Named Johnny Chapman  she shares with us the role of the Chapman family, Longmeadow & Western Massachusetts in the age of the American Revolution.

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For the last 250 years Americans remain conflicted over the meaning and legacy of the Revolution—including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. All of the social and political movements of the last two centuries have been shaped by the work of the founders and they in turn shape the way the next generations view the founding of the nation. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Michael Hattem, author of "The Memory of '76" (Yale University Press) on how we have, and do, remember the American Revolution.

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On July 4, 1776, two hundred miles northwest of Philadelphia, on Indigenous land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a group of colonial squatters declared their independence. They were not alone in their efforts. This bold symbolic gesture was just a small part of a much broader and longer struggle in the Northern Susquehanna River Valley, where diverse peoples, especially Indigenous nations, fought tenaciously to safeguard their lands, sovereignty, and survival.  We talk with Christopher Pearl about his new book, Declarations of Independence:  Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution, which examines this intense struggle among Indigenous Americans, rebellious colonial squatters, opportunistic land speculators, and imperial government agents which shaped the American Revolution.

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Congregationalists--clergy and congregations—were the driving force in New England's Revolution.  Interpreting liberty  through their own religious framework, which included principles of autonomy, fellowship, and consensus, Congregationalists had much to say about  liberty in church records, letters, and sermon literature.  Kyle Roberts, Executive Director of the Congregational Library and Archives, and Tricia Peone, Project Director for New England Hiddien Histories, join us to talk about their new on-line exhibit Religion of Liberty, and what we can learn from the Congregational Library about the beginnings of the American Revolution.

https://www.congregationallibrary.org/

https://www.congregationallibrary.org/events/open-house-2024

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In between the abortive call from Governor Thomas Gage for the legislature to convene in Salem on the 5th of October 1774, and the formation by those same legislators of a Provincial Congress on the 7th October 1774, a terrible fire took place in Salem.  The fire destroyed more than a dozen buildings and numerous homes and caused more than £20,000 in damage.  Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with retired National Parks Ranger Curtis White as we examine the evidence of the fire and debate the causes of the fire.  Was it carelessness or a deliberate attempt to prevent the formation of the Provincial Congress.

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