The Well Known Caesar Marion (was committed to prison) (episode 333)

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Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the Hub of the Universe.

Introduction to Caesar Marion

Jake:
[0:14] This is episode 333. The well-known Caesar Marion was committed to prison. Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m talking about a black Bostonian who was well-known to his contemporaries, including Boston newspapers, but who was all but forgotten by history. If it wasn’t for a one-paragraph news article and work by historians to reconstruct aspects of his life from notarial records, we may not know the name Cesar Marion. In this somewhat brief episode, we’re going to look at why Mr. Marion was thrown into Boston’s notorious jail 250 years ago this week. And then we’ll compare his treatment inside British-occupied Boston with the experience of black volunteers in the Continental Army outside Boston. Especially once Virginia enslaver George Washington took command. Just a warning that this episode uses the racial language of our 18th century primary sources, some of which would be considered uncouth today. But before we talk about the well-known Caesar Marion, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to everyone who supports Hub History financially, like our latest Patreon sponsor, Faith, who joined at one of the highest levels.

Jake:
[1:31] I love that their support gives me the freedom to explore any topic that catches my eye, and I don’t have to worry about whether advertisers would be interested in it. This year, of course, I’m focusing on our 250th anniversaries, but even with that going on, over the past few months, the podcast has taken us to Fort Ticonderoga, TV commercials, Vancouver Island, T.S. Eliot, Sea Serpents, rodeos, and lighthouses. In the next few months, you’re going to hear about the first American flag, 60s anti-war protesters, and eventually the end of the British siege of Boston. Our listener supporters make it all possible, whether you use PayPal to make an occasional contribution, or Patreon to pledge $2, $5, or even $20 or more each month to keep the show going. To everyone who already supports the show, thank you. If you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory or visit hubhistory.com and click on the Support Us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

The Story of a Forgotten Bostonian

Jake:
[2:40] Now it’s time for this week’s main topic. In the summer of 1775, the New England Chronicle or Essex Gazette, which was actually a Salem newspaper, relocated to Cambridge to be closer to the action at the Patriot front lines. From its very first edition in 1768, which included strong support for the non-importation agreement promoting a boycott of British goods, the Chronicle had been a staunchly Patriot newspaper. The August 24th, 1775 edition included this brief story that stated, We are informed that the Negroes in Boston were lately summoned to meet at Faneuil Hall for the purpose of choosing out of their body a certain number to be employed in cleaning the streets, in which meeting Joshua Loring Esquire presided as moderator. The well-known Caesar Merian, which, as a side note, is spelled here Merium, opposed the measure, for which he was committed to prison and confined till the streets were all cleaned.

Jake:
[3:43] The same exact article appeared word for word in the August 28th edition of the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, another Patriot paper that was published by Benjamin Eades in Watertown. The other main stories in that edition were covering the reaction in the London press when news of the battles at Lexington and Concord arrived there in June, printing embarrassing letters that had been intercepted from Governor Thomas Hutchinson, a glowing report on the Continentals digging in on Plowed Hill near the British lines, and rumors from London about what units might be next to deploy to Boston.

Caesar Marion’s Background and Freedom

Jake:
[4:19] So, who was Caesar Marion and why was he well-known? And why was it okay to summon free black Bostonians to Faneuil Hall and to force them to work for free? Past podcast guest Jared Ross Hardesty’s 2019 book Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds tells the story of African slavery in New England. So the book ends as the gradual emancipation process ramps up in the years immediately after the Revolutionary War. In the epilogue, he relates what happened to people who’d been enslaved in Massachusetts after their individual manumissions or after the general abolition in the Commonwealth. Those who fared best under freedom had access to property. Paul Cuffee inherited a considerable amount of land and capital from his father. He became a prominent ship captain and merchant. Venture Smith slowly purchased land and eventually established himself on a sizable farm. Another freedman named Caesar Marion lived in Boston and received his freedom in 1770, following his master’s death. Among other occupations, Marion’s master owned a blacksmithing shop. So in addition to his freedom, Marion received all the working tools belonging to the blacksmith’s business and six pounds sterling in cash.

Jake:
[5:41] It should be no surprise that he went on to become a prominent and prosperous blacksmith. In a 2016 article about the crucial role white notary public Ezekiel Price played in the world of free black Bostonians, Jared Hardesty again describes how important it was to have an official copy of a manumission certificate lodged with an impartial and official repository like a notary public. If a black person’s freedom was ever challenged, or if some unscrupulous slaver tried to kidnap a free black Bostonian into slavery in the South or in the Caribbean, these official papers could be the price of freedom.

Jake:
[6:19] Hardesty’s article makes it clear that freedom, whether an individual manumission or the later general abolition in Massachusetts, was only a first step, and that safeguarding their personal property was also seen as a key step to full citizenship. Black Bostonians would also turn to Price for help in this arena, and in discussing one document he found in Price’s notarial records, Hardesty writes, The document belonged to a freedman named Caesar Marion, whose master, retired blacksmith Edward Marion, not only manumitted his slave in 1769, but also gave Caesar all of his tools and use of his shop. Caesar then used this property to go into business for himself, becoming one of the few black property owners in Boston listed in the 1771 Massachusetts Tax Assessment. That 1771 assessment shows Caesar Marion as owning no farmland, no dwelling houses or shops, no livestock or slaves, no wharves or mills or warehouses, but it does show him as owning a building that fell into the category tan houses, etc. Which makes some sense for a blacksmith. and it assesses the entire estate is worth four pounds sterling. This shows us that by 1775, Caesar Marion was not only free, but also independent.

Jake:
[7:43] Unlike most black Bostonians, he was not enslaved. And unlike so many other free black Bostonians, he was not bound to an individual or family as a servant, and he was not indentured nor apprenticed. He was a craftsman in his own right, a blacksmith who owned his tools and owned his shop, and could fully participate in Boston’s economy. This unique status came with only one condition, that Caesar continued to care for and support the wife of his former enslaver for the rest of her life. After Hardesty’s article was published, historian of the American Revolution J.L. Bell and genealogist Liz Loveland dug out and published Edward Marion’s Last Will and Testament, which had been witnessed by Ezekiel Price in 1769, when Marion was already 77 years old.

Jake:
[8:35] In consideration of the faithfulness and honesty wherewith my Negro servant Caesar has served me for diverse years past, and hoping he will still continue honestly, faithfully, and obediently to serve me and his mistress Mary, my wife, I do hereby order and declare that it is my will and pleasure that at and immediately after the decease of me and my said wife, that my said Negro Caesar shall be manumitted and freed from his servitude. And I do also hereby give an order unto my said Negro at the time of his freedom, all my working tools belonging to the blacksmith’s business now in my shop, and also the sum of six pounds lawful money. And I do hereby also order my executors or administrators, in case of his living to be aged or infirm and unable to support himself, that they be aiding and adjusting to him out of my estate to prevent his becoming a charge of the town. Provided always, and these presents are granted upon this condition, that my said Negro shall honestly and soberly, obediently and faithfully discharge himself towards me and my said wife during our and each of our lives.

Jake:
[9:48] Perhaps Caesar Marion is referred to as well-known because his manumission just a few years before had come with such an unusual inheritance. Or maybe it was just the fact that Marion was a craftsman with his own place of business, forcing white Bostonians to account for him separately from other black neighbors who they could treat anonymously and interchangeably. Or perhaps he was a leader in Boston’s black community. Certainly the article in the New England Chronicle contains the implication of something more than a spoken objection to being impressed into service fixing the roads and streets in Boston.

Jake:
[10:23] It’s easy to imagine a legally free and financially independent black man leading a protest, a walkout, a boycott among his peers of a measure that sought to take their labor without payment and put them into a state of servitude not unlike slavery. It was a measure that highlighted that free black Bostonians were not full citizens, and in fact were not even fully free. In a 2006 article on the subject, J.L. Bell notes, Massachusetts had a law requiring free black men to mend and clean roads or do other work as directed by the town’s selectmen as a substitute for serving in the militia. However, in Boston, the system had been in decline since at least the early 1760s, as town selectmen records show. Judging by the number of free and even enslaved black men identified as serving in rural militias, in George Quintal Jr.’s report, Patriots of Color, those laws may no longer have been enforced widely outside Boston.

Jake:
[11:31] From the earliest surviving militia laws that date to the 1600s, Massachusetts had officially barred what the statutes referred to as Negroes, Indians, and mulattoes from serving. So providing labor was seen as an alternate form of service for those whom white society found otherwise undesirable. Now Boston faced a labor shortage after many residents had fled to the countryside

Labor and Citizenship in Revolutionary Boston

Jake:
[11:55] at the beginning of the siege. And the remaining selectmen attempted to make up the difference by enforcing an archaic law to draft black men unwillingly into service.

Jake:
[12:07] From the line in the article stating that Caesar remained confined until the streets were all clean, it seems like they were successful, too. While Boston was enforcing an aspect of militia law that reinforced the second-class citizenship of black residents, something very different was happening in the Patriot lines around Boston that summer. In the Continental camps at Roxbury and Cambridge, officers were desperate to fill out the ranks as soon as possible. They debated whether to keep the old restrictions on non-white recruits in place. On July 10, 1775, just days before the impressment meeting at Faneuil Hall, General Horatio Gates issued orders to recruiters who were enlisting soldiers for the Massachusetts line, stating, You are not to enlist any deserter from the ministerial army, nor any stroller, negro, or vagabond, or person suspected of being an enemy to the liberty of America, nor any under 18 years of age.

Jake:
[13:09] Because General Gates was acting as Washington’s adjutant, the assumption was that these orders reflected the commander’s wishes. Gates was an old friend of George Washington. having served alongside him in the Braddock campaign against the French on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1755. He’d accompanied Washington from Virginia to Cambridge as one of the commander-in-chief’s top advisors, and their Virginia sensibilities were shocked by what they saw upon arriving here.

Jake:
[13:39] Despite a century of laws barring black and indigenous men from serving the Massachusetts militia, Gates and Washington were surprised to see black men armed with muskets among the Continental Lines. In fact, on the very first day of the war, Prince Estabrook was among the militiamen wounded in the first volley of shots on Lexington Green on April 19th, despite having been enslaved by a prominent local family. More black men marched to the fighting as the day went on, some enslaved and some free, some as formal members of their town’s militia units, and some under the provision of Massachusetts law that said that even adult men who were barred from training with the militia should be prepared to turn out with arms and ammunition in case of an emergency or general alarm. By the time the Redcoats and Patriots fought a pitched battle at Bunker Hill two months later, about 150 of the roughly 2,500 Americans defending the hill were black or indigenous.

Jake:
[14:40] One of them was Salem Poor, who’d been enslaved in Andover until he was able to purchase his freedom at the age of 22. Now 28 years old, Poor’s militia unit was ordered to cover the American retreat from the Redoubt on Breed’s Hill in the last moments of the battle, right as the British overran the exhausted defenders after their ammunition ran out. Poor was credited with standing fast, and in fact firing the shot that killed British Army Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie. Even his withering British fire killed five of his Andover comrades and wounded six more on either side of him. At least five more privates in Salem Poor’s company on June 17, 1775, were black men.

Jake:
[15:25] The province wasn’t really doing a great job of record-keeping in the early months of the war, so it’s not clear how many black men were serving in the summer of 1775. But Massachusetts would enlist at least 2,000 black soldiers before the end of the war. This reality stood at odds with the stated policy of the Massachusetts militia, which was outlined in a resolution of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety dated May 20, 1775. It is the opinion of this committee, as the contest now between Great Britain and the colonies respects the liberties and privileges of the latter, which the colonies are determined to maintain, that the admission of any persons as soldiers into the army now raising, but only such as their freemen, will be inconsistent with the principles that are to be supported and reflect dishonor on this colony, and that no slaves be admitted into the army upon any consideration whatever.

Jake:
[16:22] In a 2014 paper published by the National Park Service, John Hannigan writes that Massachusetts leaders seem to have been torn between an understanding of liberty as extending to all men and an aversion to upsetting the fragile alliance that bound the northern and southern colonies together. Although the state’s congressional delegates soundly defeated a motion by South Carolinian Edward Rutledge to discharge all men of color from the Continental Army, officials in the Massachusetts legislature proved reluctant to officially sanction the enlistment of enslaved men. This left the status of black soldiers in legislative limbo. In a 2001 essay titled, That Species of Property, Washington’s Role in the Controversy Over Slavery, Dorothy Tuig describes how the general’s experiences of Virginia’s slave society conditioned him to continue pushing black men out of the continental line over the next several months.

Jake:
[17:20] When he as soon commanded the army at Cambridge in July 1775, Washington, for the first time, faced the necessity of creating some kind of public policy regarding slaves, free blacks, and the recruiting policies of the Continental Army. Like most Southerners, he had strong objections to using blacks as soldiers. And again like most Southerners, he was too conscious of the possibility of slave revolts to look easily upon the distribution of guns into the hands of slaves. His initial reluctance was bolstered by a long colonial tradition of prohibiting slaves to bear arms. On November 12, 1775, he signed orders excluding blacks, together with underage boys and old men, as recruits for service, since they would be unfit to endure the fatigues of the campaign. That assessment stands in stark contrast to the experience of Massachusetts Brigadier General John Thomas, who wrote of the soldiers in the Roxbury camp in October 1775, The privates are equal to any that I served with last war. Very few old men, and in the ranks very few boys. We have some Negroes, but I look on them in general equally serviceable with the other men. For fatigue and inaction, many of them have proved themselves brave.

Jake:
[18:43] Thomas had been part of a council of war on October 5th that took up the question, whether it will be advisable to re-enlist any Negroes in the new army, or whether there be a distinction between such as are slaves and those who are free. The council unanimously agreed that enlisting enslaved black men in the cause of universal freedom was just too hypocritical to pursue. But Thomas and other generals argued for, and ultimately voted unsuccessfully, for the idea of enlisting freedmen. And then suddenly, at the very end of the year, the commander-in-chief changed his mind.

Changing Policies on Black Soldiers

Jake:
[19:21] Washington’s general orders for December 30th, 1775, state, As the general is informed that numbers of freed Negroes are desirous of enlisting, He gives leave to the recruiting officers to entertain them and promises to lay the matter before the Congress, who he doubts not will approve of it.

Jake:
[19:41] The very next day, Washington sent a letter to John Hancock in his capacity as president of the Continental Congress. In it, he almost dares Congress to stop the enlistments of black soldiers that he had already started, writing, It has been represented to me that the free Negroes who have served in this army are very much dissatisfied at being discarded. As it is to be apprehended that they may seek employ in the ministerial army, I have presumed to depart from the resolution respecting them and have given license for their being enlisted. If this is disapproved of by Congress, I will put a stop to it. Why did a Virginian enslaver who was shocked upon his arrival at the number of boys, deserters, and Negroes which have enlisted in this province and immediately ordered an end to black recruiting change his mind? With the original enlistments that have been signed in April and May set to end as the year came to a close, General Washington was afraid that the Continental Army that he’d been given command of would simply cease to exist at midnight on New Year’s Eve unless he, the Continental Congress, and the officers from each colony could convince new recruits to sign up and veterans to re-enlist.

Jake:
[21:01] By the time the Continentals came face-to-face with the grim realities of a winter encampment, they could no longer afford to coddle Southern sensibilities. Black soldiers, any soldiers who were willing to hold the line in spite of shortages of blankets, firewood, gunpowder, and food, were too precious to turn away. At the same time, Washington had been in the Cambridge camp for basically a half a year at that point, personally witnessing the service of black soldiers who had enlisted before or in spite of his order against it. And he had considered, and eventually denied, a request to formally honor Salem poor for his steadfast courage at Bunker Hill. J.L. Bell has also identified Virginia Governor Dunmore’s proclamation offering black Virginians emancipation in exchange for their service in the British Army as a factor behind Washington’s change of heart. Black Continental soldiers who were enslaved at the time of their enlistment were almost universally free by the time they were discharged. Unlike on the British side, however, the Americans never extended a guarantee of emancipation to potential recruits. That 2014 paper on patriots of color by John Hannigan explains how this left every enslaved recruit to chart their own course to freedom.

Jake:
[22:24] At no time during the American Revolution did the Continental Congress or the Massachusetts government offer freedom to slaves in exchange for their enlistment in the army. This means that any negotiations on this subject took place between individuals, be it slaves and their owners, recruiting officers and men of color, or drafted men and black substitutes. Military service thus offered both enslaved and free men of color a small degree of latitude within which they could determine their own future.

Jake:
[22:56] In a 2023 article for the Journal of the American Revolution, in which he estimates that between 1 in 10 and 1 in 4 continental soldiers was black, Robert Scott Davis writes, As the war progressed and enthusiasm for the revolution waned, men previously marginalized, such as immigrants, filled the ranks. It serves as no coincidence. Historian Patrick F. Moriarty wrote, that as reverence toward the American soldier diminished, the tendency to accept blacks into the armed service increased. African Americans served in the most racially integrated American army until the 20th century. All the rebelling colonies except Georgia and South Carolina allowed enslaved people to enlist. In most states, enslaved men could serve in place of white masters to gain emancipation.

The Role of Black Soldiers in the Revolution

Jake:
[23:48] After reversing the restrictive recruiting guidelines that were initially put in place when black faces in New England companies shocked George Washington, the Continental Army would end up recruiting black soldiers throughout the ranks until the end of the war, contributing to the success of American independence. And the germ of that commitment can be seen on both sides of the siege of Boston in the summer of 1775.

Resistance and Debate: Inside and Outside Boston

Jake:
[24:12] With the well-known Caesar Merrion’s resistance inside Boston, and the debate over black soldiers outside.

Jake:
[24:21] To learn more about the well-known Caesar Marion and Black Continentals, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 333.

Jake:
[24:31] I’ll have links to the brief news story about Caesar’s protest in the Boston Gazette and Country Journal and the New England Chronicle, so you can see how easy it would have been to lose track of it in the context of the day’s news. I’ll also link to J.L. Bell’s Boston 1775 blog, where he has four posts about Cesar Marion from 2006 to 2020. Plus, I’ll include an affiliate link to Jared Ross Hardesty’s book Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds, in which Cesar Marion makes a brief appearance in the epilogue, as well as a link to his 2016 article exploring the importance of white notary public Ezekiel Price and the lives of black Bostonians who are trying to secure their freedom and property. For the other half of our story, I’ll link to George Washington’s July 10th, 1775 orders barring Massachusetts recruiters from enlisting black soldiers, and to his orders from December 30th reversing that policy, as well as the earlier Massachusetts Committee of Safety Resolution against enlisting anybody who was enslaved. There will be links to articles discussing the 1775 debate over black enlistment from the Journal of the American Revolution, the National Park Service, the editors of George Washington’s papers, and historian J.L. Bell.

Listener Feedback and Future Topics

Jake:
[25:53] Now, before I let you go, I have some listener feedback to share. Doug wrote in a few months ago with a suggestion for a potential future episode. Hi, I’m a regular listener of your podcast, Hub History, where Boston is hub of the universe. I wanted to let you know that I enjoy it very much. With the recent passing of George Wendt, Norm from Cheers, I was wondering if you ever have or would do a podcast episode on the Bull and Finch pub, also known as Cheers. I don’t know what you could say about it. I’ll leave that up to you. But 15 years ago, both my friend and I ate there and had a good time. Personally, I think the establishment is a good part of Boston’s history. Also, I never really watched Cheers when it was on, but now, with the recent passing of Norm, I decided to start watching it again. Down here in the Quaker State, a.k.a. the Keystone State, it’s on the Hallmark Channel on Verizon Fios. I continue to wish you well in your podcast success with the history of Boston, and with America’s 250th anniversary. I look forward to hearing more about Boston’s history and its part in the American Revolution. Thanks. Sincerely, Doug G. P.S. I’m also a fan of the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Philadelphia Phillies, my three all-time favorite baseball teams.

Jake:
[27:21] Not long after Doug reached out to me, I actually went to the Bull and Finch for the first time. I have a soft spot for Cheers, because that and MASH were on in our house non-stop a few years ago when we were taking care of an ailing relative. I never watched it when it was on in its original run on TV, but between reruns and Hulu, I’ve seen a lot of it now. When a good friend of mine who hadn’t been to Boston in 15 years came to visit in June, we spent a Saturday on an all-day Freedom Trail pub crawl, and we decided to wind up the tour at Cheers.

Jake:
[27:56] The bar was packed, the service was terrible, but the upstairs bar does look pretty much like the one on the show, and the beer was cold. So that’s a win in my book.

Jake:
[28:08] A Dutch researcher named Robert got in touch with me after listening to one of our episodes about the American Nazis of the Christian Front, who made their headquarters in Copley Square, either episode 215 or 258. Robert is deep down the rabbit hole of researching American Nazi sympathizers, and he sent me several tips over the course of a few emails, writing, If you’re interested, I’m familiar with sources about a couple of key figures with a Nazi Boston angle and can pass things on. Number one would be Ernst Putzi-Hunfstegel, a Harvard grad and Hitler’s foreign press secretary until 1937. His return to Harvard for an alumni event in 1934 was nationally all over the news. Putzi’s mother came from a prominent Boston family. Second, are you familiar with the aspiring American Hitler, Philip Johnson, and his time in Boston? His FBI report regarding this is fascinating, including his time in Boston. I’m trying to figure out the level of contact between Johnson and Schultz. And Schultz here is Herbert Schultz, the SS colonel and spymaster who ran the German consulate on Beacon Hill. Schultz’s father-in-law was convicted of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg and the IG Farben trial, related to the gas and slave labor. His name was Georg von Schnitzler.

Jake:
[29:33] Johnson’s FBI file is for the most part online. He’s alleged to have wanted to become the American Hitler. Later in the file, reports from Boston are truly remarkable. A ton of people at Harvard and around that are talking to the FBI about him. This was 1940-42 mainly. Harvard took his name off a graduate study center a couple of years ago. Johnson also went to a Hitler Youth rally in Germany in 1932 with a Wellesley grad, via Harvard’s Putsi, who seems in the 1930s at times to also be pro-Nazi, during a complicated and sometimes unclear historical time. Johnson also designed an addition to the BPL. You heard that right, the Johnson wing of the Copley Square Library is named after and designed by an enthusiastic Nazi who wanted to become the American Hitler. Stay tuned, as there’s a very good chance they’ll have Robert on the show to discuss Philip Johnson and his extensive FBI file at some point in the future. Just a few weeks ago, I got an email from Susan L., a longtime correspondent with a lot of knowledge about the British love for theater and how it rubbed conservative Bostonians the wrong way when redcoats started putting on plays that were considered sinful here in Boston.

Jake:
[30:55] Hi, Jake. I’m enjoying your series on Revolutionary Boston. I went to the recent Battle of Bunker Hill reenactment in Gloucester. It was a great location, and I hope they do it again in the future. If you do an episode on the British garrison on Bunker Hill after the battle, I hope you include a couple of interesting items I’ve come across. There’s a notice in a contemporary newspaper that they were planning to put on a play in early March. I believe it was called the Scotsman. It amazes me that a small group of men on a desolate hill surrounded by a recent graveyard in the smoldering ruins of Charlestown were thinking about theater. I’ve not been able to find out if they actually put on their performance before the evacuation. There’s also a piece of propaganda from the colonists in the form of a notice encouraging the British soldiers to desert and join them. I don’t know how they got the note to them. Maybe tied it around a rock and threw it at the redoubt? Let me know if you want me to send more information. All my best, Susan.

Jake:
[32:01] Now, I’m really hoping to include an episode in January that touches on the theater, because there was an American raid on British-occupied Charlestown in January 1776, and it happened to start when a lot of the Redcoats in Boston were attending a play at Faneuil Hall called The Blockade of Boston. When officers burst in to announce that the Yankees were raiding Charlestown, a lot of the audience thought that it was all part of the show. I don’t really know all that much about theater, especially theater history. So if you know anybody who’d make a great guest to talk to about that, let me know. Maybe when we get to that episode, we’ll be able to lean on Susan’s expertise to help me come up with smart questions to ask an interviewee.

Jake:
[32:49] Just a couple of weeks ago, Mike sent me a DM on Blue Sky and said, I host Bar Trivia, and while the company I work for provides most of the questions, I add a few bonus questions. I like to use this day in history style questions, so thanks for inspiring tonight’s question with your post. I’m sure you know the answer immediately. 250 years ago, on July 2nd, 1775, George Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the newly created Continental Army. The Georgian house on Brattle Street that served as his headquarters would later serve as the Cambridge home of what poet with his own Revolutionary War connection? It’s now a historic site. So, I’m hoping all of you know the answer to that question, but I won’t give it away here. But it’s pretty sweet that I’ve now been both a footnote in a book and the inspiration for a bar trivia question.

Jake:
[33:47] I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a listener named Gary, and he was not happy about how I characterized President Trump’s military parade in June as, quote, worthy of Saddam Hussein or Kim Jong-un, celebrating the birthday of one small man with a giant fragile ego, while on the other side of the country on the very same day, that same military was being deployed to, quote, liberate an American state from its democratically elected government. Gary wrote in and said, I was very disappointed at the cheap and childish swipe you took at President Trump during episode 330, the history of George Washington’s taking charge of the army in Cambridge. You mentioned the 250th birthday of the army and took cheap shots at the parade in D.C. I come to the Hub History podcast for an accurate telling of history and your unceasing vocal inflection of every third word. No need to be taking sides.

Jake:
[34:47] My response to Gary was very emotional in the moment and probably pretty over the top, but I’m going to read most of it here just so everybody knows where I’m coming from with this. I’m a podcaster. I’m not a journalist. I’m not bound to the both sides of every issue are equally valid, total view from nowhere, moral vacuum of the American press. I’m not a professional historian. This podcast takes sides. We’re firmly on the side of American democracy, and we are against fascism. Here’s what I sent back to poor Gary. Hi, Gary. I’m deeply sorry that you got the impression that this podcast somehow doesn’t take sides while recounting American history. I will always stand on the side of American democracy and constitutional government, and against the rising tide of fascism in the United States and around the world. My dad always said that the worst beating that he ever took in his life was when my grandpop caught him and his older brother playing dress-up with some Nazi uniforms that they’d found in the woods. This is when they were living in Germany during the post-war occupation. My grandpop was an old-school guy. He was the son of tenant farmers, and he came up through the Mississippi ROTC and the National Guard, so I don’t think he was exactly woke by 2025 standards.

Jake:
[36:14] On June 6, 1944, he was a captain in the 4th Infantry Division, and he was one of the first Americans to set foot on Utah Beach.

Jake:
[36:23] He got ripped up by shrapnel, triaged as a lost cause, and he almost bled out in the sand until he held his .45 when the Navy chaplain came to read him his last rites and demanded to be taken to an aid station. He eventually recovered, and he stayed in the Army long enough to serve in Korea and stateside during Vietnam, but his right leg would always be about two inches shorter than his left, and that chunk of missing bone has been a constant reminder to my family that real Americans will always stand up to fascism, whether it’s here or abroad.

Jake:
[36:58] President Trump’s idiotic birthday parade for himself was wasteful. It was disrespectful to everybody who serves in the U.S. military, but worse, it had all the trappings of despotism. While he was throwing himself a parade that had all the theatricality of a Nuremberg rally, but less polish, because our soldiers trained to win battles, not to goose step. His Secretary of Homeland Security went on television and claimed that the U.S. Marines and California National Guard, who were deployed to Los Angeles against the wishes of the L.A. Mayor and the California governor, were sent there to, quote, liberate the citizens of that state from their democratically elected government. That is a fascistic act, as is every dollar of federal funding that he impounds without congressional approval, as are his ICE agents denying congressionally mandated access to detention facilities, and their arrests of U.S. Citizens and lawmakers, proving that they are, except for the patches they wear on their shoulders, indistinguishable from the Nazis who almost killed my grandpop while he was fighting to make the world safe for democracy.

Jake:
[38:08] My role in this podcast isn’t to recite a dry list of facts and dates. I’m trying to bring history to life. I’m trying to connect the past to the present to allow us to learn from the victories and defeats of our ancestors. History shows us how we became what we are today as a nation and a people. And if we pay attention, it can help us correct the mistakes of our current era and help us fight for a better future. As an American patriot, I believe that America is an exceptional nation, that exceptionalism is only earned as long as you keep striving to live up to and exceed the promise of our founding. By learning from the mistakes of the past, we can keep striving to be that exceptional nation that I know we can be. As such, I don’t plan to sit silent in the face of a fascist president who’s trying to seize dictatorial powers. If you’re offended by that, I urge you to reflect on why that might be.

Jake:
[39:08] So, with some apologies to Gary, that might be a little bit extra. But I don’t want to leave anybody with the impression that I don’t take sides in the fight for the future of our country. I also responded pretty childishly to Gary’s comment about my voice and cadence. So, it might not be a coincidence that the day after I replied to Gary, I got my first review on Apple Podcasts in over six months. From an anonymous account that also focused on my voice and delivery, which, of course, is the one thing I can’t really control about the show. It said, Voice is unlistenable. The content looks high-quality and fascinating, but I cannot listen to the host’s delivery. The excessive emphasis and ornamentation makes it sound like he doesn’t know what he’s saying, prevents me from understanding, and is irritating. Would love to listen to a toned-down version. Sounds like a salesman admiring himself in the mirror. I listen to many, many podcasts and audiobooks, and this style is unusual and unusually off-putting.

Jake:
[40:15] So, maybe that’s Gary’s passive-aggressive revenge, or maybe it’s just a coincidence. But if anybody wants to go in and leave a good review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or this anonymous one-star complaint isn’t the first thing people see, I’d appreciate it. I mostly love getting listener feedback. Whether you have additional detail about America’s covert Nazis of the 1940s or our overt Nazis of today, or just a sincere love of cheers.

Jake:
[40:43] We’re happy to hear your episodes. I’m happy to take your episode suggestions, factual corrections, and alternate sources that I missed out on. But if your suggestion is to be nicer to the Trump administration, I’m probably not going to take you up on it. If you’d like to leave some feedback on this episode or any other, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. You can find me as Hub History on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, at hubhistory at better.boston on Mastodon, and hubhistory.com on Blue Sky. Or just go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link, and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please consider writing us a, you know, positive review. If you do, drop me a line, and I’ll send you a Hub History sticker as a token of appreciation. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.