Revolution 250 Podcast

Thomas Jefferson contained multitudes. Like the nation he helped to create, Jefferson was a fascinating man of contradictions: a party leader who did not believe in political parties, an apostle of liberty who owned others, and a "man of the people" who lived atop a mountain. His mountaintop home, Monticello, since 1923 has been maintained by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which presents all of Jefferson's legacy to visitors, scholars, students. We talk with historian Jane Kamensky, President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, about Monticello and its architect.

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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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Today, the Revolution 250 Podcast revisits an episode from 2021. Next May will be the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Chelsea Creek and plans are in preparation for the commemoration of this important event.

The first time the patriots use artillery, the first time they sink a British ship, and the first time officers and men from different colonies stage a joint operation--the battle of Chelsea Creek, in what today are the cities of Chelsea and Revere, and the East Boston neighborhood, along an industrial waterway that still retains much of its 18th-century contour. We hear from archaeologists Craig Brown, a PhD candidate at the University of Ediburgh, and Victor Mastone, President of the Massachusetts Archaeology Society on this important, but little known May 1775 battle, and their work to map the site.

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In the place of Professor Cornelia Dayton who could not join us today, Professor Robert Allison presents a lecture on the military career of Benjamin Lincoln, who, with General George Washington and General Nathanael Greene were to only General officers to serve from the Siege of Boston to Yorktown. Lincoln came from a distinguished family in Hingham, Massachusetts where the family held various town offices since the 17th century. While Lincoln never anticipated a military career, his quiet and steady capability soon recommended him to Washington for a number of posts. Wounded at Saratoga, Lincoln would also be forced to surrender Charleston, SC to the British, but also accepted (at Washington's urging) the surrender of the British at Yorktown.

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After a stint in the Navy and forty years teaching history, Larry Kidder was curios about the lives of ordinary people in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He could not find a good book on the subject, so he started writing , and how he has told stories of the Revolution from the vantage point of New Jersey's militia. On Christmas Eve he joins us to share the epic story of General Washington crossing the Delaware, and introduces us to the Revolutionary World of Jacob Francis, a Free Black man from New Jersey who, as a "Massachusetts" soldier, participated inn the crossing. Larry Kidder tells us of Jacob Francis and other stories from New Jersey in the Revolution's ten crucial days--from the Delaware crossing to the Battle of Princeton.

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