Episode 3: Skipping About

07/21/20 • 32 min

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant: A Women's History

Cornelia Jefferson Randolph to Jane H. Nicholas Randolph, 18 January 1818. One of Thomas Jefferson's granddaughters writes to her sister-in-law about parties, shallow friendships, and an embarrassing incident on the dance floor. Kathryn is joined this week by Mary Wigge, a research editor of Martha Washington's papers. You can read the full transcribed text of this letter (along with the original handwritten document!) here: http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/754 For more information on Cornelia Jefferson Randolph visit here: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/cornelia-jefferson-randolph And for more information on Jane Hollins Nicholas Randolph visit here: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jane-hollins-nicholas-randolph

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Episode 2: A Presidential Blunder

In this week's letter George Washington forgets that he left all of his wife's correspondence in a desk that he sold to his close friend, Elizabeth Willing Powel. She immediately drags him for it, but is a good enough buddy to offer to hide his mistake from Martha. Many thanks to this week's guest expert Samantha Snyder, reference librarian at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon! Keep an eye out for her chapter in a forthcoming book about George Washington's female friends and family, set for publication in January 2021! The full text of Elizabeth Willing Powel to George Washington, 11-13 March 1797 can be found on Founders Online here: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-01-02-0020 For more on Elizabeth Wiling Powel: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/elizabeth-willing-powel/ For more on Tobias Lear: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/tobias-lear Or, check out my personal favorite book on Tobias Lear with a cool rhyming title: Brighton, Ray. The Checkered Career of Tobias Lear. Portsmouth, NH: Portsmouth Marine Society, 1985.

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Episode 4: Talk Some Little About You

Hannah Valentine to Eliza Valentine, November 1, 1837. In this week's letter, enslaved housekeeper Hannah Valentine writes to her daughter with family news and advice. I dig into a bit of the history of the unique situation of the Valentine family at Montcalm Plantation. Heads up, as this letter deals with the subject matter of slavery the podcast touches on some upsetting topics, including references to sexual violence, corporal punishment, and murder. It is also a story of perseverance and survival. Learn more about Hannah Valentine and the community at Abingdon Plantation in some of these sources: The Duke Library's Digitized Collection of Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson's Letters: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/campbell/ Norma Taylor Mitchell, "Making the Most of Life's Opportunities," in Beyond Image and Convention : Explorations in Southern Women's History, edited by Janet L. Coryell, et al., University of Missouri Press, 1998. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uva/detail.action?docID=3570732. Gregory S. Schneider, "The Forced Absence of Slavery: Rare letters to a Virginia governor give voice to the faceless and forgotten," The Washington Post, September 13, 2017.