The History of the Americans

The History of the Americans


Latest Episodes

The Life and Times of Samuel Argall and Some Other Stuff
May 11, 2022

We're back after our week off! In this episode we touch on our vacation driving the Natchez Trace, and then proceed briskly to the career of Samuel Argall - Pocahontas's kidnapper - in the service of

Sidebar: Justice Gorsuch and the “Insular Cases”
April 27, 2022

This episode is a Sidebar, which is our term for an episode that is off the timeline of the History of the Americans. This episode centers on a concurring opinion delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch

Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 11: London Town
April 22, 2022

It is late winter, 1616. When last we left our lovers, John and Rebecca Rolfe were in receipt of a request from the Virginia Company to come to London. They had a young son, Thomas, barely a year ol

Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 10: True Love
April 14, 2022

This episode is about the kidnapping and ransom of Pocahontas in 1613, the romancing of her by John Rolfe, her conversion to Christianity, and their marriage in 1614, which settled the First Anglo-Pow

Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 9: War!
April 07, 2022

This episode is a close look at the First Anglo-Powhatan War, which began shortly after John Smith left Jamestown forever in October 1609, and ended as a formal matter with the marriage of Pocahontas

Revised Introduction for New and Longstanding Listeners
April 04, 2022

After the experience of 15 months, 66 substantive episodes, and more than 180,000 aggregate downloads/listens, I thought it would be useful to reintroduce the podcast. I labored over the original int

Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 8: The Emissaries
March 29, 2022

Again we digress into the question of privateering and letters of marque, and then take on the stories of the two "sons" whom Christopher Newport and the paramount chief Powhatan exchanged as hostages

Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 7: The Starving Time
March 22, 2022

In this episode we look at the gruesome "starving time" in Jamestown and the resurgent Powhatan war during the seven months after John Smith's departure in October 1609. The mortality rate at the col

Jamestown and the Powhatans Part 6: Timeline 1609-1622
March 17, 2022

John Rolfe and Pocahontas

Hudson on the Hudson
March 09, 2022

Here come the Dutch! In the busy summer of 1609, English captain Henry Hudson, sailing the Half Moon for the Dutch East India Company, explores the Hudson River from New York Bay to the north of Alba