The History of the Americans

By: Jack Henneman
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  • Summary

  • The history of the people who live in the United States, from the beginning.
    Copyright 2021 Jack Henneman
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Episodes
  • King Philip’s War 4: “Wheeler’s Surprise” and the Problem of Counterinsurgency

    King Philip’s War 4: “Wheeler’s Surprise” and the Problem of Counterinsurgency
    Apr 27 2025
    Maps of New England during King Philip’s War At the end of July 1675 two important things were happening at once. King Philip, known as Metacom to his people, and the sunksqua Weetamoo, were in flight along with at least 250 of their people. Reports coming into the colonial militias in the Fall River area suggested that Philip and Weetamoo intended to cross the Providence River and head for Nipmuc country. Farther north, at almost exactly the same time, Massachusetts Bay Colony had heard rumors that the Nipmucs had joined, or were soon to join, King Philip’s Wampanoags. The Nipmucs occupied the strategically important territory between the settled towns of Massachusetts Bay near Boston and places like Springfield on the Connecticut River. From the Bay’s point of view, it was important to determine whether the Nipmucs were in the war or would remain neutral. Since Edward Hutchinson had succeeded in extracting a purported treaty from the Narragansetts, Massachusetts dispatched him into Nipmuc country with Thomas Wheeler and twenty horsemen to do the same. Sadly for all the people of New England, Hutchinson and Wheeler would set in motion a chain of events that would cause this awful war to spread everywhere in the region east of the Connecticut River. The New English would find themselves waging a brutal counterinsurgency, with all the tactical problems of irregular war in our own time. X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Lisa Brooks, Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War Matthew J. Tuininga, The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America’s First People Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War
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    39 mins
  • Sidebar: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere 2: The Ride

    Sidebar: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere 2: The Ride
    Apr 17 2025
    This is the second of two "Sidebar" episodes in honor of the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride, which we will celebrate on the night of April 18 by putting two lights in a window of our house. Last time we explored the prelude to the ride in the months before the final crisis that triggered the march of the British "Regulars" on Lexington and Concord. This episode is the story of Paul Revere's "midnight" ride on the night of April 18-19, 1775, including the famous lanterns of Old North Church, the fraught trip across the Charles River under the guns of HMS Somerset, his spectacular horse Brown Beauty (one of the great equine heroes of American history), the "waking up the institutions of New England" that night in raising the alarm not just on the road to Lexington and Concord but throughout eastern New England, and his astonishing capture and release. And, sure, William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott. Maps of Paul Revere's Ride X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride John Hancock's Trunk o' Papers
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    51 mins
  • Sidebar: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere 1: The Prelude

    Sidebar: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere 1: The Prelude
    Apr 14 2025
    April 18, 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride" to alarm the towns around Boston that the "Regulars" were marching out to capture artillery and ammunition at Concord, or perhaps to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock. This was but the last of a series of crises that rocked New England in the months before the midnight ride and the battles of Lexington and Concord the next day. This episode explores those crises, known as the "Powder Alarms," and Paul Revere's central role in the resistance movement among Boston Whigs - including the famous Sons of Liberty - during those fraught years before the shooting began. [Errata: I implied that Dr. Benjamin Church's betrayal of the Patriot cause wouldn't be understood "for years," but in fact it was uncovered during the summer of 1775, after the shooting had begun, when one of his letters to the British was intercepted. He was permitted to leave the country in lieu of imprisonment, and sailed for the West Indies. His ship disappeared at sea and Church was never seen again.] X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride Portrait of Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Paul Revere's Ride" Intolerable Acts Thomas Gage
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    49 mins
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Profile Image for L. Carl Johnson

Amazing Resource!

These podcasts frequently go into greater detail about obscure topics than anything easily available in print.

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Profile Image for DruUtopia

forgotten history?

there are so many people, places and events that I have never heard about all told in a well documented and entertaining fashion. my favorite podcast.

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