Madison's Militia

The Hidden History of the Second Amendment

By: Carl T. Bogus

Narrated by: Alan Peterson

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

In Madison’s Militia, Carl T. Bogus illuminates why James Madison and the First Congress included the right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights. Linking together dramatic accounts of slave uprisings and electric debates over whether the Constitution should be ratified, Bogus shows that—contrary to conventional wisdom—the fitting symbol of the Second Amendment is not the musket in the hands of the minuteman on Lexington Green but the musket wielded by a slave patrol member in the South.

Bogus begins with a dramatic rendering of the showdown in Virginia between James Madison and his Federalist allies, who were arguing for ratification of the new Constitution, and Patrick Henry and the Antifederalists, who opposed it. Henry accused Madison of supporting a constitution that empowered Congress to disarm the militia, on which the South relied for slave control. The narrative then proceeds to the First Congress, where Madison had to make good on a congressional campaign promise to write a Bill of Rights—and seizing that opportunity to solve the problem Henry had raised.

Three other collections of stories—on slave insurrections, Revolutionary War battles, and the English Declaration of Rights—are skillfully woven into the narrative and show how arming ragtag militias was never the primary goal of the amendment. And as the puzzle pieces come together, even initially skeptical listeners will be surprised by the completed picture: one that forcefully demonstrates that the Second Amendment was intended in the first instance to protect slaveholders from the people they owned.

©2023 Carl T. Bogus (P)2023 Recorded Books

Amicus Curiae Brief for Overturning DC vs. Heller

This is an incredibly detailed and comprehensive analysis of the history of militia, and militia clauses starting with their use in 17th Century England and through the ratification of the Bill of Rights. If Roe v. Wade can be overturned, Heller should be easy the next time we have a balanced court. Thank you Carl Bogus!

Brilliant analysis of the history behind 2A

The book delves deep into the constitutional convention debates, the major players behind it, their motives (Patrick Henry being the biggest slave holder in VA, A.K.A. the "give me liberty" guy, with VA being the largest state and being the ninth state to barely ratify the Constitution), slave revolts in the Caribbean and the South (and how much that terrified the slave owners) as well as history prior to and after the convention. ---


It is apparent that slave states were more concerned with preventing and suppressing slave insurrections (which happened more frequently than reported because the South insisted on continuibg to propagate the "happy slave" myth) than affording an individual right to bear arms or even defending the country against foreign invasions. ---


Hence the amendment is comprised of a single sentence which mentions "security" (which is a passive word) of a "free state" - not the defense of the country as a whole; and "a well regulated militia", which was organized into slave patrols to seek runaway slaves. ---

Indeed, during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the British repeatedly overcome militia which frequently fled the battle (except for Lexington, Concord and possibly Bunker Hill). ---

There's no mention of an individual right to bear arms. Also, during the Revolutionary war, very few people owned guns. And before the Civil War, guns were made with iron and not steel, which made them useless after a dozen or so shots, unlike the guns today. ---

It simply makes no sense for a newly formed government, which barely held itself together by a handful of states that did not always get along, to enable its own populace to easily topple it. ---

In fact, today 48/50 states outlaws the forming of private militias without the supervision of the state. ---

All the militia was originally "good" for was maintaining the peculiar institution. That's what the second amendment was all about.