Tag: John Adams

Boston’s Favorite Fighting Frenchman (episode 163)

At just 19 years old, Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette joined our American Revolution.  Commissioned as a Major General in 1777, he served with distinction as an aggressive combat commander and trusted adviser to George Washington.  Nearly a half century later, the aging general would return to his beloved United States for a nationwide tour, and his first and urgent destination after arriving on this continent was Boston.  In the summer of 1824, he arrived in our city as the greatest celebrity it had yet seen. He was received by Governor William Eustis, former President John Adams, and Boston mayor Josiah Quincy before launching his national tour.  The next spring, he returned, presiding over the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument on the 50th anniversary of the battle.


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The Dread Pirate Rachel (episode 147)

History records that Rachel Wall was the last woman to be hanged in Massachusetts, and legend remembers her as the only woman pirate from Boston.  Her highly publicized trial took place as America implemented its new constitutional government. The state attorney general who prosecuted her had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  A few weeks after the trial, the presiding judge became one of the first US Supreme Court justices, and her defense attorney, who had helped ratify the constitution, soon became the first US Attorney for Massachusetts under the constitution.  Not only that, but her death warrant carried perhaps the most famous signature in US history, that of governor John Hancock. On this week’s episode, we uncover the fascinating true story of Rachel Wall’s life, trial, and death that’s hiding within the legend.  


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Love is Love: John Adams and Marriage Equality (episode 134)

15 years ago, the landmark case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health  granted marriage rights to same-sex couples in Massachusetts. The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S. state’s highest court to find that same-sex couples had the right to marry, and it was grounded in the language of equal justice that John Adams wrote into our state constitution. Despite numerous attempts to delay the ruling, and to reverse it, the first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004.


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Harvard’s Thanksgiving Day Riot (episode 107)

When it comes to Boston history, it seems like there’s a riot for every possible season.  It’s Thanksgiving season now, so this week we’re going to discuss a riot that took place at Harvard University… not during the tumultuous anti-war protests of the 1960s or 1970s, but on Thanksgiving day in 1787.  There’s tantalizingly little in the historical record about what happened or how it started, but we know that some very famous historical figures were right in the middle of the action.


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Episode 1: Remember Remember the Fifth of November

Update: We revisited this subject in Episode 75, with better audio, better research, and better storytelling.  You should listen to that one instead!

How did early Boston “celebrate” on November 5th each year?  By drinking, brawling, and burning effigies of the Pope, of course.  Listen to this week’s episode to find out more!

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