The Exploress

Season 1, Episode 10. Harriet Tubman and Elizabeth Keckley took different paths to freedom, and navigating their new world. One because a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, spending a decade liberating family and strangers alike. The other became a successful dressmaker in the nation's capitol, dressing the leading political ladies of the day. Both showed an incredible work ethic, a hunger for success, and a deep commitment to themselves and to helping others. Let's hear the rest of their incredible stories!

Season 1, Episode 9. Elizabeth Keckley and Harriet Tubman spent decades in bondage, suffering everything the "peculiar institution" promised before finding very different paths to freedom. What they did with that freedom is nothing short of extraordinary. In weaving together the lives of these two incredible women, a picture emerges: a window into what it might have been like to be an enslaved woman in 19th-century America. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, we'll dive into the world they were born into and their childhood struggles, exploring the trials of their lives in chains...and how they ultimately escaped them.

I'm bringing one of my bonus episodes out of the Patreon vault and sharing it with everyone! Back by popular demand, this bonus gives a more in-depth glimpse into sex in 19th-century: specifically the fascinating lives and times of two very prominent madames. One was Washington's most renowned brothel owner, who opened up a gilded bawdy house just a stone's throw from the Capitol building. The other made quite a scandalous splash as the East Coast's most infamous lady doctor/abortionist. Let's talk about sex, scandal, contraception and abortion - about the lives of women of the evening, and the lengths 19th century women went to in order to find a little help in the realm of family planning.

If you like this episode, go to www.patreon.com/theexploresspodcast, become a patron, and dive right into 2+ hours of bonus content (and counting). I'd love to see you there!

Season 1, Episode 8. Victorian America was a very haunted place, and by mid-century the Spiritualist movement was sweeping through it. People went in droves to see mediums - who were mostly women - to try and reach the spirits of their loved ones just beyond the veil. They made tables levitate, answered philosophical questions in front of huge crowds, and found a kind of fame and attention that suffragists would have killed for.

Season 1, Episode 7. 19th-century women weren't supposed to be devious - and that's what made them such effective spies. Hundreds of women tied gun parts to their crinolines, baked quinine into bread loaves, hid generals in their attics, and made daring midnight rides for their cause. In this episode, we follow four of them: Union ladies Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser and Confederate dames Rose O'Neal Greenhow and Bell Boyd. They flirted, tricked, and cajoled the men around them, using their prejudice about a woman's place to achieve outrageous feats of courage and ingenuity. You won't believe what they did, and what they risked, to do their part for the conflict raging all around them.

Season 1, Episode 6. Franklin Thompson did it all as a Civil War soldier: spied, rode, nursed, and fought. And during his service, almost no one knew his secret: that he was really Sarah Emma Edmonds in disguise. Emma left home in Canada at 17 to escape a life she didn't want, living as a man so she could make her own way in the world. When the American Civil War came, she felt called to join up and fight for the Union. She had many adventures as a soldier and spy, then went on to write a best-selling book about it all. Twenty years later, she fought another kind of battle: one for a soldier's pension, becoming one of the first women to be granted one. Let's explore the life and adventurous times of this fascinating unsung hero.

Season 1, Episode 5. When we think of a Civil War soldier, it's a man we see. But there were women out there on the battlefield, too - hundreds of them - fighting and dying for their cause. Let's travel back into the life of a secret lady soldier to find out why they joined, how they hid their identities, what they faced out in the field, how they were caught and what happened when they were. We'll explore their legacy and impact in their era and how they were almost completely written out of our history books.

Season 1, Episode 4. Look for the word 'prostitute' in 19th-century America and you'll find it everywhere. But it went far beyond a job description: It was a line in the sand, a punishment for women who dared to step across and act out of line in the public sphere. Let's step behind the velvet curtain of sex in the Victorian era and look at how 19th-century ladies related to it, their bodies, and themselves as sexual beings. We'll explore the lives of prostitutes as well as your everyday lady, from how to find mail-order contraception to steamy pieces of correspondence, and what happens to women's sex lives - for better and worse - during the war. Let's go traveling.

Season 1, Episode 3. She was many things: A celebrated teacher, a pioneering civil servant, a battlefield nurse, a public speaker, and a leader of many initiatives, including the American Red Cross. In a time when single, middle-class women didn't have all that many career options, Clara Barton went ahead and had, oh, let's call it five different careers. This dynamo was a woman of many contradictions: she was incredibly shy, but also brazen in her pursuit of her goals; she was anxious and insecure, but also sure and steady. This "Angel of the Battlefield" was a whole lot more dynamic, and more complicated, than you think. Let's reexamine the life of this fascinating character.

Season 1, Episode 2. The soldiers called them angels, but they were warriors: They battled bullets, disease, terrible medical knowledge, and the belief that they didn't belong out in the public sphere. Join us as we explore the life, trials, and triumphs of Civil War nurses like Elizabeth Blackwell, Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and more.