Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant: A Women's History

In this bonus episode of Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant, Kathryn Gehred dives into the podcast's origin story. While working as an editor of the Papers of Martha Washington, Gehred became very familiar with how people wrote letters in the 18th and early 19th centuries. She noticed that people often abbreviated the closing of their letters which she found very relatable. This inspired the podcast and why Gehred presents women through an entire letter or another document, offering a deeper understanding of their personalities. 

Find the official transcript here. 

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. 

Dr. Maeve Kane joins Kathryn Gerhred to explore Konwatsi'tsiaienni Molly Brant’s life during the American Revolution. Brant was a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kane and Gerhred discuss Brant’s pivotal diplomatic efforts to maintain the Mohawk’s alliance with the British during the American War for Independence, and the turmoil Indigenous women like her faced during Sullivan’s Campaign in the late 1770s, as they read two letters from Brant to her step-son-in-law, Daniel Claus. 

Kane is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Albany. She is the author of Shirts, Powdered Red: Haudenosaunee Gender, Trade, and Exchange (Cornell University Press, 2023).  

Molly Brant to Daniel Claus, Carleton Island, 5 October 1779. Daniel Claus Papers, Library and  Archives Canada. MG19 F1 vol2:135-136 https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1478 

Sir Frederick Haldimand: Unpublished Papers and Correspondence. London: Microfilm Publications. 1977.  Reel H-1450, Series B-114. MS 21774:180-181. Original at the British Library https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_h1450 

Find the official transcript here. 

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. 

We are excited to announce that on October 29 Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant will be back with Season Four. This season, we're exploring revolutionary America through the words written by women. We'll follow along in letters as women questioned their loyalties, challenged authority, sought freedom, and aided and resisted revolutionary change. We're going to dive into the lives of Indigenous women, Scottish women, plantation owners, milliners, women who were enslaved, loyalists, patriots and so much more. We've interviewed leading scholars and have great stories to share with you. Join us on this Season of Revolution wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant has been nominated for the Women in Podcasting Awards! We would really appreciate it if you would vote for the podcast in the history category. Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is up against some GREAT podcasts, so your support would be really meaningful! Your vote would go a long way in helping the podcast gain visibility and get these letters out into the world. 

Here's how to vote: Step 1: Click on the link to vote by October 1, 2024 www.womenpodcasters.com/vote Step 2: Find the History category drop-down menu and select our show from the options. Note: There is no fee for voting, but there is a double opt-in to prevent fake traffic or votes. The person with the most votes will win the category. There is one vote per person per category.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios, part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. 

Catharine Maria Sedgwick to Eliza Cabot Follen, February 18, 1828. In which Sedgwick writes to her dear friend Cabot Follen about the need for a new minister, pieces she has recently read and written, and an exquisite Valentine. 

 Featuring Dr. Patricia Kalayjian and Dr. Lucinda Damon-Bach of The Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters project. Dr. Kalayjian is a Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies at California State University and the editor and project director of the Sedgwick Online Letters project. Dr. Damon-Bach is an editor of the project and a professor of English at Salem State University.

Find the official transcript here.

Woman's Political Future - An Address by Frances E. W. Harper to the Chicago World's Fair, 20 May 1893. In which Harper champions morality, civil rights, and civic duty in Jim Crow America. 

Featuring Chole Porche, Ph.D. candidate in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios, part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. 

Find the official transcript here. 

Martha Washington to Eleanor Parke Custis, c. February 1797. In which Washington warns her granddaughter that her dress may not arrive from Philadelphia in time for a Virginia ball. 

Featuring Dr. Alexandra Garrett, Assistant Professor of History, St. Michael's College.

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios, part of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. 

Find the official transcript here. 

Deposition of Phillis Tatton, 3rd November 1837 In which Phillis Hinkley Saunders Tatton appeared before the County of Probate in the state of Connecticut in an attempt to secure a pension for her late husband’s service during the American Revolutionary War.

Elizabeth Willing Powel to Elizabeth Parke Custis, February 28, 1816. In which Powel advises Martha Washington's pro-French granddaughter to avoid talking about politics with pro-British family members. 

Featuring Samantha Snyder, Research Librarian & Manager of Library Fellowships at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, and Dr. Cassandra Good, associate professor of History at Marymount University and author of First Family: George Washington's Heirs and the Making of America (2023). 

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. 

Phillis Wheatley to Obour Tanner, October 30, 1773 in which Wheatley discusses faith, her book, and a trip to England.