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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Was it the embattled farmers and Sons of Liberty, or the indebted planters shouting "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" that brought on the Revolution? Who held the first Provincial Convention or Congress? Who was first to resist the Crown's troops? Join us for a debate between Robert A. Gross, author of The Minutemen and their World, and Woody Holton, author of Forced Founders, and hear what lead these two very different places to revolution. Moderated by the ever-impartial Robert Allison.

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