Before Boston: Early Englishmen on the Bay (episode 360)

Before John Winthrop’s Puritan Arbella fleet made landfall in 1630 and set the standard narrative of Massachusetts Bay, a rowdy and disparate cast of English traders, eccentric recluses, and ill-fated opportunists was already carving out a precarious presence around Boston Harbor. In the decade before the Puritans named the colony they laid claim to “Massachusetts Bay,” the shores of the Bay were shaped by European fishing fleets, catastrophic epidemics that devastated indigenous communities, and early, mostly-failed attempts at permanent English habitation. From the ill-fated commercial colony at Wessagussett to Thomas Morton’s egalitarian “consociates” at Merrymount, these early experiments tested the bounds of survival, trade, and diplomacy on the Shawmut peninsula.

In this episode, we step back before the founding date on the city seal to explore the forgotten decades of pre-Puritan English settlement. We will trace how early figures like Samuel Maverick at Winnisimmet and William Blaxton at Shawmut established their lonely outposts, navigate the tangled land claims created by competing charters, and examine the grim realities of early European impact on the region’s indigenous nations.


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Warning Out in early New England, with Jonathan Beecher Field (episode 359)

In this episode, Clemson professor Jonathan Beecher Field helps us explore the history of poor support in early New England and the surprising practice known as “warning out.” In the 17th- and 18th-century, Boston and other New England towns tied public relief strictly to legal inhabitancy, a status similar to the modern concept of birthright citizenship, but on a hyperlocal level. Those without established local ties or the financial capital to post a cash bond were routinely “warned out,” given two weeks to leave, and escorted beyond town borders to prevent them from becoming a financial burden on the town and its residents.

The conversation draws parallels between early colonial policies and modern approaches to poverty, examining how historical residency restrictions rhyme with contemporary anti-homeless architecture, municipal sweeps, and broader debates over who deserves social support. From the systemic exclusion of Black and Indigenous residents to the way early New Englanders decided who was deserving of poor support and who deserved to be warned out, Professor Field’s research reveals how early New England town structures and Calvinist mindsets mirrored and continue to shape our modern attitudes toward poverty, displacement, and public responsibility.


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Boston in 50 Maps, with Andy Woodruff (episode 358)

Andy Woodruff’s new book Boston in 50 Maps goes beyond familiar compilations of public-domain historic maps of Boston, Woodruff’s work offers an engaging, data-driven look at the Hub through 50 original, modern maps.  Andy’s maps reveal layers of Boston’s history, changing demographics, and hyper-local culture, from the myth of streets laid out by 17th century cows to the city’s long lost territories. In this conversation, we dive into fascinating corners of the area’s past and present, including what triple-deckers and houses of pizza tell us about historical immigration patterns, why residents can’t seem to agree on the boundaries of their neighborhoods, which areas had better transit access a century ago, and exactly how saturated we are in Dunkin Donuts franchises.  Together, we explore how data-driven cartography offers a whole new lens on local history, revealing the stories that both historic maps and traditional prose histories often miss. 

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Hamilton and Burr in Boston (episode 357)

For fans of the Hamilton musical, many members of the cast of characters have appeared on the podcast in the past. We talked about the years when Angelica Schuyler lived under an assumed name in Boston; Thomas Jefferson’s epic shopping spree in Boston; the Marquis de Lafayette’s many visits to Boston, culminating in his 1825 trip where he carried a keg of soil from Bunker Hill back to France to be buried under; and (because he commanded much of the siege of Boston) George Washington has been on the show a LOT in 2026. Even General “instead of me” Charles Lee made an appearance in our episode about the Marblehead schooner named after him.

Over all those episodes, the stars of the show, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, have not appeared in Boston. In this episode, we are rectifying that omission. We will be talking about Hamilton and Burr’s fateful final meeting in Boston, as well as each of their first visits to our fair city.


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Rebels at Sea Revisited, with Eric Jay Dolin (episode 356)

In this episode, we mark the return of the tall ships to Boston Harbor when Sail Boston kicks off on July 11.  We’re also continuing the Revolutionary War theme that we keep coming back to in this year of 250th anniversaries.  This time, however, I’m not talking about a specific anniversary date.  Instead, I am going to play my interview with author Eric Jay Dolin about his 2022 book Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution.  Back in November, we had an episode about the schooner Lee that was commanded by the mysterious captain Manley.  It was one of the very first ships of the Continental Navy, but especially early in the war, the American cause relied on private vessels and private crews.  Some of the tall ships we see this month will be recreating these vessels, which were known as privateers.  Privateers were civilian ships that were outfitted for war by optimistic investors, with volunteer crews who were willing to risk their lives fighting for a share of the profits.  From the mouth of Boston Harbor to the very shores of Britain, these private warships sailed in search of rich English merchant vessels, while risking the lives and freedom of their crews.  While their role is mostly forgotten today, Eric will explain how central privateer crews were to the Continental cause, with a special focus on the many privateers that were crewed by New Englanders. 


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Fifty Years Later: Where’s Boston? with Lauren Graves (episode 355)

In this episode, we’re turning the clocks back to 1976, when America and Boston were in the midst of a massive celebration marking the Bicentennial.  While other ideas were considered and discarded, Boston would mark the bicentennial with a series of thoughtful events around the city throughout 1976.  To highlight the living city, photographer Constantine Manos was charged with a mission “to photograph the people of the city, of all walks of life, for an exhibition and book to commemorate the 1976 bi-centenntial of American independence from England.”  The result of his effort was Where’s Boston, described as “a multi‐image, quadraphonic sound show and a graphic display of Boston today.”  Over the course of the summer of ’76, tens of thousands of Bostonians and visitors streamed into the exhibit hall at the Prudential Center to see themselves reflected in the photographer’s lens.  This summer, the Boston Athenaeum will revisit that optimistic vision of Boston in 1976 with the exhibition Where’s Boston? 50 Years Later.  In this episode, curator Lauren Graves chats with Nikki about the project.


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Revolutionary Nightlife in Boston 1776, with J.D. Dickey (episode 354)

In this week’s episode, Nikki sits down with J.D. Dickey to discuss his new book  Boston, 1776: A Rogue Tour of Revolution City. Written as a historical travel guide, Boston, 1776 positions the reader as a visitor to Boston in July 1776. You’ll navigate the turbulent streets, tub-thumping taverns, and radical strongholds of a town at war with an empire. From the harbor wharves and seedy brothels to renowned assembly halls like Old South Meetinghouse and Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1776 leads us on a vivid tour of the vital hub of the Revolutionary War. At every stop along the way, we encounter iconic names like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, but also the forgotten men and women who bled and brawled for freedom in every corner of Boston… and still needed to get out of the house at night. We’ll follow in their footsteps into the taverns and dram shops of revolutionary Boston to learn the day’s news, strategize for survival, and of course let off some steam.


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A Firestorm in Dorchester (episode 353)

On May 22, 1964, sixty-two years ago this week, a fire that broke out on a back porch in Dorchester.  The Bellflower Street fire grew so fast and burned so intensely that it created its own weather, creating a literal firestorm and leaving the fire department struggling to contain it.  Columns of smoke and flame licked the sky, while every available firefighter from Boston and over two dozen suburban towns raced to the scene to make a desperate stand.  When the smoke cleared, 35 buildings had burned and 300 people were homeless. 


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Boston’s 17th Century Interstate System (episode 352)

America’s first “interstate” highway was built to link Boston to New York City. The 17th century Boston Post Road is often overlooked in the city’s early history, but it marked the earliest and one of the most ambitious attempts to knit the fragmented English colonies of North America into a single, cohesive entity. From Boston’s first post office, which accepted only overseas letters, to the post riders who braved “mountainous passages” and roaring rivers, this primitive road network was the original interstate, forged not just for convenience, but for the survival of the British colonial project.

In this episode, we’ll explore how the Boston Post Road evolved from an indigenous trade route into the King’s best highway, a crucial artery for colonial and early federal correspondence. We’ll trace the routes of the upper Post Road through the wilderness of Central Massachusetts and Connecticut and the coastal lower Post Road that shaped the roads and transportation networks of modern New England. Along the way, we’ll uncover the stories of the people who marked the miles, from wealthy landowners like Paul Dudley, to determined travelers like Madam Sarah Kemble Knight, to George Washington, who arrived in Boston for his first official visit as President along the Post Road.


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Paul Revere NOT on the Road to Concord (episode 351)

For Patriots Day this year, let’s talk about Paul Revere. Instead of focusing on his famous ride 251 years ago, let’s go into the back catalog to uncover some lesser known aspects of Paul Revere’s involvement in the Patriot cause. First, we’ll look at Revere as a messenger. He’s known for his famous ride on April 18, 1775, but Paul Revere was chosen for that ride because he already had a reputation as a reliable express rider, carrying secret messages from the Boston Committee of Correspondence on horseback to patriots in New York, Philadelphia, New Hampshire, and beyond. Then, we’ll turn the clock forward and look at Revere’s support for the cause after his famous ride. In 1779, Paul Revere was the colonel in charge of the Massachusetts artillery regiment, and he was tapped as one of the commanders of an expedition to dislodge the British from the Penobscot Bay in today’s Maine. The resulting fiasco was the worst American naval defeat prior to Pearl Harbor, and it left Revere’s soldiers half-starved and wandering through the Maine wilderness. In this episode, we’ll learn how much blame Revere bore for the chaotic retreat.


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