Tag: John Adams

Thirty Days Hath September… Except When It Doesn’t (episode 309)

We all know the old mnemonic device, right?  Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November, but what if September suddenly had only nineteen days?  That’s exactly what Boston experienced in 1752, when the town went to bed on September 2nd and woke up on the 14th.  It sounds like something that would have a supernatural explanation, like a mass alien abduction, or maybe something contaminated the water supply to make the entire town go into a brief coma, but the explanation is more pedestrian.  Almost two centuries after most of Europe had switched to a new calendar system, the British Empire was following suit, including its overseas colonies like Massachusetts.  How did Bostonians adapt to the change?  Were they as confused as I would be if my calendar suddenly changed?  Did Bostonians riot, demanding their 11 days back?  How did the generation that lived through the change remember key dates like their birthdays after the switch?  Listen now!


Continue reading Thirty Days Hath September… Except When It Doesn’t (episode 309)

The Adamses Declare Independence (episode 278)

Between the John Adams miniseries on HBO and the musical 1776, everyone knows that John Adams was one of the leading voices for independence in the Continental Congress.  And along with negotiating the treaty of Paris and keeping the US out of the Quasi War, Adams always considered the Declaration one of his chief accomplishments.  50 years after Congress adopted it, John Adams remembered it on the morning of July 4, 1826, remarking “it is a great day. It is a good day.”  That evening, he died, with many sources reporting that his last words were “Jefferson still lives.”  He was wrong, though.  Earlier that day, Jefferson had woken briefly, asked “is it the fourth” and then declined further medical treatment before slipping into a coma and himself dying.  For someone who was so closely associated with America’s founding document, why did John Adams believe we should celebrate it on July 2nd?  And how did his closest and most trusted advisor, his wife Abigail, urge him on toward independence in a letter that history remembers for other reasons?  Let’s find out!


Continue reading The Adamses Declare Independence (episode 278)

Thomas Jefferson in Boston (episode 277)

Thomas Jefferson visited Boston in 1784, arriving in town on June 18th.  That also happened to be the same day when Abigail Adams left her home in Quincy to start making her way to France to join John at his diplomatic posting, though her ship didn’t actually leave Boston until the next day.  In this episode, we’ll explore how the friendship that was kindled during their single day together in Boston carried on through their shared months in France, their decades of correspondence, and even through the years when Jefferson and John Adams were feuding.  We’ll also examine Thomas Jefferson as an early New England tourist, who explored not only Boston, but also New Haven, Portsmouth, and other key regional population centers, as well as taking a fun look at his epic Boston shopping spree just days before he too boarded a boat to Europe.


Continue reading Thomas Jefferson in Boston (episode 277)

The Persuasive Powers of John Adams (episode 272)

John Adams later described the prosecution of William Corbet as a case “of an extraordinary Character, in which I was engaged and which cost me no small Portion of Anxiety.”  In 1769, four common sailors were brought into Boston to stand trial for murder.  The victim was an officer in the royal navy, and the crime had taken place just off Cape Ann, almost within sight of home.  As Boston suffered under military occupation, could a military victim receive justice in a radicalized Boston?  And what really happened on that ship near Marblehead?  Had the dead officer really just been searching for cargo that the captain hadn’t declared and paid customs on?  Or were they up to something darker, like illegally kidnapping Massachusetts sailors and forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy?


Continue reading The Persuasive Powers of John Adams (episode 272)

Mutiny at Prospect Hill (episode 256)

During the summer of 1775, when the siege of Boston was at its peak, about 1500 Pennsylvania Riflemen answered a call for volunteers.  By the time they reached the American lines in Cambridge, expectations for these troops were through the roof.  Thanks in no small part to a publicity campaign engineered by John Adams, the New England officers commanding the troops around Boston believed that these fresh troops were capable of nearly everything.  Their reputation was based in part upon the riflemen’s origins on the frontier, and in part on the advanced weaponry they carried.  While they’re the status quo today, rifles were new to both armies that were facing off in Boston and nearly unheard of here in New England.  However, fame went to these soldiers’ heads, and after only a couple of months on the front line, they were nearly ungovernable.  They refused to take part in the regular duties of an American soldier, they staged jailbreaks when their comrades were locked up for infractions against military discipline, and on September 10th, they staged the first mutiny in the new Continental Army.  


Continue reading Mutiny at Prospect Hill (episode 256)

Hostibus Primo Fugatis: The Washington Before Boston Medal (episode 253)

Back in 2015, I was at the Boston Public Library for a special exhibition called “We Are One,” which showcased items from their collection dating from the French and Indian War to the Constitutional Convention, showing how thirteen fractious colonies forged a single national identity.  Libraries have a lot more than just books, of course.  The BPL has everything from streaming movies and music to historic maps to medieval manuscripts to Leslie Jones’ photos to one remarkable gold medal.  Some of the items on display were breathtaking, like a map hand drawn by George Washington, Paul Revere’s hand drawn diagram showing where the bodies fell during the Boston Massacre, and a gorgeous 360 degree panorama showing the view from the top of Beacon Hill during the siege of Boston.  What stopped me in my tracks, though, was a solid gold medal.  It was about three inches in diameter, but it was hard to tell through the thick and probably bulletproof glass protecting it. 

On the side facing me, I could see a bust of George Washington and some words, but they were too small to read.  A special bracket held the medal in front of a mirror, and on the back I could make out more lettering, as well as a cannon and a group of men on horses.  Later, I learned that this was the Washington Before Boston Medal, commemorating the British evacuation of Boston.  It was the first Congressional gold medal, and the first medal of any kind commissioned by the Continental Congress during our Revolutionary War.  This illustrious medal’s journey to the stacks of the Boston Public Library will take us from Henry Knox’s cannons at Dorchester Heights to John Adams at the Second Continental congress in Philly to Ben Franklin in Paris to a Confederate’s dank basement in West Virginia during the Civil War.  


Continue reading Hostibus Primo Fugatis: The Washington Before Boston Medal (episode 253)

The Liberty Riot (episode 224)

On June 10, 1768 a riot swept through Boston that forced Royal officials to flee for their lives, saw a boat bodily carried onto the Common and burned, and in the end helped bring on the Boston Massacre less than two years later.  John Hancock, later a prominent patriot and owner of America’s most famous signature, was at the center of the controversy.  Known then as a leading merchant and possibly the richest man in the British colonies, Hancock would find himself on trial as a smuggler before a court that was originally set up to deal with pirates and defended by none other than future President John Adams.


Continue reading The Liberty Riot (episode 224)

Launching the USS Constitution (episode 207)

The USS Constitution is the most famous ship in Boston history, and perhaps in the history of the US Navy.  When the Navy was reborn in 1794, the Constitution was among the first fleet of frigates that made up its backbone.  A decade later, the USS Constitution would earn a brilliant, nearly flawless record of naval combat against the British in the war of 1812, and today it stands as the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world and the last American ship to sink an enemy in a ship-to-ship duel.  However, the Constitution’s origins were far from flawless.  It was part of a procurement program that was nearly cancelled, and the famous frigate was almost scrapped before it was even completed.  After it was rescued and completed, the USS Constitution took not one, not two, but three attempts to successfully launch.


Continue reading Launching the USS Constitution (episode 207)

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)

The Deleterious Effects of Marsh Miasmata (episode 177)

Instead of profiling a historic Bostonian or bringing you a dramatic story, let’s read a letter together. This brief letter gives an account of a strange, frightening, and funny occurrence on Boston’s Long Wharf in the summer of 1797. Along with one delightfully funny incident, the letter includes details about Boston’s infrastructure and commercial port at the turn of the 19th century. Don’t worry, we’ll flesh out the letter with context from other sources, as well.


Continue reading The Deleterious Effects of Marsh Miasmata (episode 177)