Levi Ames was a notorious thief who plagued the Boston area in the years just before the Revolutionary War began. He stole everything from shirts to silver plate, crisscrossing New England, until he finally got caught right here in Boston. Tune in to learn about his criminal background, his supposed jailhouse religious conversion, and the desperate race between some of the most prominent Bostonians to steal his body after his execution.
Marathon Man, with Bill Rodgers (episode 187)
HUB History loves the Boston Marathon almost as much as we love Boston history. Patriots Day is one of Nikki’s favorite days of the year, and Jake has run Boston for charity. Just days before the BAA announced that the 124th Boston Marathon would have to be held as a virtual event, we had an opportunity to chat with a Boston Marathon legend. Bill “Boston Billy” Rodgers is a four-time winner of the Boston marathon, so we were excited to talk to him about marathon history, the runners he looks up to, and his own historic runs. Listen now!
Continue reading Marathon Man, with Bill Rodgers (episode 187)
A Forgotten Battle on Boston Harbor (episode 186)
245 years ago this week, provincial militia and royal marines battled it out in what is now East Boston. The battle of Chelsea Creek was sandwiched between the battle of Lexington in April and Bunker Hill in June, and it’s often overshadowed by the larger battles in our memories. While the casualties and stakes were lower than those familiar battles, this skirmish over livestock was an important testing ground for the new American army. It proved that the militias of different colonies could plan and fight together, it confirmed the wisdom of maneuvering and firing from cover instead of facing the redcoats head-on, and it bolstered provincial morale with a decisive victory. The ragtag American army even managed to destroy a ship of the Royal Navy in the fighting!
Continue reading A Forgotten Battle on Boston Harbor (episode 186)
Whale Watching on Washington Street (episode 185)
In the 1860s, Bostonians could pay 20 cents and watch a captive whale swim in a custom built aquarium on Washington Street in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. Today, there’s no sea world near Boston, and our New England Aquarium doesn’t hold any whales or dolphins. Perhaps that’s for the best, as we now realize how intelligent these giants of the sea are. However, things were different 160 years ago, when an entrepreneurial inventor did the impossible, bringing a beluga whale alive from the arctic ocean to Boston and keeping it alive here for at least 18 months, before being betrayed by the greatest showman, PT Barnum himself.
Continue reading Whale Watching on Washington Street (episode 185)
Henry Knox’s Noble Train, with William Hazelgrove (episode 184)
Henry Knox commanded the Continental Army’s artillery, founded the academy that became West Point, and went on to become the first Secretary of War for the new United States. Before any of that, though, he was a young man in Boston. He was a Whig sympathizer who was in love with the daughter of a Tory, and he owned a bookstore frequented by both sides. Young Henry Knox was catapulted to prominence after one nearly unbelievable feat: bringing 60 tons of heavy artillery 300 miles through the New England wilderness in the dead of winter, from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Cambridge. William Hazelgrove joins us on the show this week to describe how Knox accomplished this nearly impossible task. He’ll also tell us about his new book Henry Knox’s Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller’s Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution, which comes out this week.
Continue reading Henry Knox’s Noble Train, with William Hazelgrove (episode 184)
Boston History Happy Hour
Co-host Nikki and I are hosting a virtual Boston history happy hour and trivia night. Nikki is writing up some trivia questions, so we can have virtual bar trivia at our virtual bar night. On Friday, May 15, we’re bringing the nerdiest bar in town to you, from 5:30 to 7pm. So warm up your webcam, crack open a cold one, and come hang out with us!
Just submit your email address below, and we’ll send out a link to our Zoom meeting.
Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, with Kerri Greenidge (episode183)
From his Harvard graduation in 1895 to his death in 1934, William Monroe Trotter was one of the most influential and uncompromising advocates for the rights of Black Americans. He was a leader who had the vision to co-found groups like the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, but he also had an ego that prevented him from working effectively within the movements he started. He was a critic of Booker T Washington, and an early ally of Marcus Garvey. Monroe Trotter was the publisher of the influential Black newspaper the Boston Guardian, and he is the subject of a new biography by Tufts Professor Kerri Greenidge called Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter.
Unequal Justice in Boston (episode 182)
This week we’re revisiting two classic episodes to highlight injustice in how the death penalty has been applied in our city’s history. First, we’re going to visit early Boston, in a time when execution by hanging was a shockingly common sentence for everything from murder and piracy to witchcraft and Quakerdom. During this period, hanging was the usual, and execution by fire was decidedly unusual. This punishment was reserved only for members of one race and one sex, and in Boston’s history, only two enslaved African American women were burned at the stake. After that, we’ll fast forward to the mid-19th century, when it seemed like the death penalty would soon be abolished. After 13 years without an execution in Boston, a black sailor was convicted of first degree murder. Despite the fact that white men convicted in similar circumstances were sentenced to life in prison, he was condemned to death. And despite tens of thousands of signatures on petitions for clemency, he was hanged at Leverett Street Jail in May of 1849.
The Bloody Flux of 1775, with Judy Cataldo (episode 181)
In the late summer of 1775, a terrible epidemic struck Boston, and much of New England. As the Revolutionary War heated up, and the siege of Boston reached its peak, both armies faced an invisible enemy. Judy Cataldo will join us on the show this week to explain the disease that was known at the time as the bloody flux. Today, we might know it better by the name dysentery or shigella. The bloody flux was a diarrheal disease that took a terrible toll on the region’s children, but now it’s barely remembered, as it’s overshadowed by a smallpox outbreak of the same year.
Continue reading The Bloody Flux of 1775, with Judy Cataldo (episode 181)
Ghosts and Shadows of Automobile Row, with Ken Liss (episode 180)
In the early 20th century, car dealerships, tire companies, parts distributors, and other related businesses lined a section of Commonwealth Avenue in Allston that was known as Automobile Row, a sort of urban forefather of the suburban Auto Mile today. Local historian Ken Liss joins the show to tell us what made these early dealerships special, who some of the personalities behind Automobile Row were, and where you can see traces of this history today.
Continue reading Ghosts and Shadows of Automobile Row, with Ken Liss (episode 180)