The History of the Americans

The History of the Americans


Latest Episodes

The Founding of New Haven Colony
April 16, 2024

Of the organized Puritan settlements in New England in the first half of the 17th century Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut being foremost the New Haven Colony was in some respects the

Interview with James Horn
April 08, 2024

Dr. James Horn is President and Chief Officer of Jamestown Rediscovery (Preservation Virginia) at Historic Jamestowne. Previously, he has served as Vice President of Research and Historical Interpret

Oliver’s Army: What You Need to Know About the English Civil Wars
April 02, 2024

In order to understand the history of English North America during the 1640s to the 1660s, one really needs to know at least something about the English Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, and

The Witches of Springfield
March 11, 2024

It is the late 1640s. More than forty years before the famous witch hunt in Salem, William Pynchon's town of Springfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, was roiled by the strange doings of Hugh and Mary Pa

Three Lost Voices From Early Maryland
February 28, 2024

This episode tells the story of three "lost voices" from early Maryland, surprising people who remind us of the complexity of the 17th century Atlantic world. Mathias de Sousa was of African descent,

Interview with Joseph Kelly
February 15, 2024

Joe Kelly is professor of literature and the director of Irish and Irish American Studies at the College of Charleston, and the author of Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of Americas

Sidebar: Oscar Hartzell and the Sir Francis Drake Estate Scam
February 12, 2024

Welcome to the first "true crime" episode of the History of the Americans Podcast, the story of Oscar Hartzell and the Sir Francis Drake estate scam, perhaps the most audacious con of the 1920s, the g

The Life and Times of William Pynchon
January 31, 2024

William Pynchon, ancestor of the American novelist Thomas Pynchon, was the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, a successful fur trader, merchant, and magistrate, and at age 60 wrote the first of ma

New Sweden Part 3: The Fall
January 25, 2024

It is now 1648. In this episode, two tough guys, Johan "Big Belly" Printz of New Sweden and Peter "Peg Leg" Stuyvesant of New Netherland, escalate their competition to control the critical Delaware Ri

New Sweden Part 2: The Tough Guys Arrive
January 19, 2024

We are back in New Sweden. In 1638, shortly after establishing Fort Christina at the site of today's Wilmington, Delaware, Peter Minuit would die in a hurricane on the way back to Sweden. The settle