Libsyn Directory

204. Raising Liberty Poles in the Early Republic with Dr. Shira Lurie

Release Date: 06/24/2021

Conversations at the Washington Library

Now Available on all platforms! In this new podcast from the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, we'll explore George Washington as both President and precedent. From the very origins of the US presidency at the Constitutional Convention to Washington’s final warnings in his Farewell Address, we will break down how one man shaped the Presidency—and the many times that it could have all fallen apart.

229. A Final Conversation with Dr. James Ambuske

Conversations at the Washington Library

In this final episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Drs. Anne Fertig and Alexandra Montgomery bid farewell to former Digital Historian and host, Dr. James Ambuske, through a retrospective of his time and work at the George Washington Podcast Network.

228. Editing the Adams Family Papers with Dr. Sara Georgini

Conversations at the Washington Library

The Adams Family is one of the more prominent families in American history. They were at the center of the American Revolution, they helped create a new republic, shaped the young nation’s foreign policy, and later were central to the development of the history profession.

227. Welcoming a Deserving Brother with Mark Tabbert

Conversations at the Washington Library

In 1752, George Washington joined the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was just twenty years old.

226. Cross-examining Washington's Heir with Prof. Gerard Magliocca

Conversations at the Washington Library

When George Washington wrote his final will in the months before he died in December 1799, he named Bushrod Washington as heir to his papers and to Mount Vernon. He took possession of his uncle’s Virginia plantation when Martha Washington passed away in 1802.

225. Doing Public History with Dr. Anne Fertig

Conversations at the Washington Library

Why is the way that we remember the past oftentimes different than historical reality? And how can we use public history to inform conversations in the present about events that took place centuries earlier?

224. Unpacking the Slave Empire with Dr. Padraic Scanlan

Conversations at the Washington Library

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the British Empire began dismantling the slave system that had helped to build it. Parliament banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, and in 1833 the government outlawed slavery itself, accomplishing through legislative action what the United States would later achieve in part by the horrors of civil war. Abolition has long been a cause célèbre in the British imagination, with men like William Wilberforce receiving credit for moving the empire to ri

223. Attending a Lecture on Female Genius with Dr. Mary Sarah Bilder

Conversations at the Washington Library

In May 1787, George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. One afternoon, as he waited for the other delegates to show up so the convention could begin, Washington accompanied some ladies to a public lecture at the University of Pennsylvania by a woman named Eliza Harriot Barons O’Conner. Eliza Harriot, as she signed her name, had led a transatlantic life steeped in revolutionary ideas. On that May afternoon she argued in favor of the radical notion of Female Genius

Introducing Intertwined Stories: Finding Hercules Posey

Conversations at the Washington Library

We're delighted to bring you one of the bonus episodes from our other podcast, Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

222. Winning a "Compleat Victory" at Saratoga with Dr. Kevin Weddle

Conversations at the Washington Library

The Battle of Saratoga in September and October of 1777 was a decisive turning point in the American War for Independence. The American victory over the British in northern New York put a stopper to London’s dreams of a swift end to the war, and convinced the French to openly declare their support for the colonial rebels. It was, in the words of one American participant, a "Compleat Victory."

More Episodes

If you’ve taken part in a part in a protest recently, perhaps you carried a sign, waved a flag, or worn a special hat.

But if you had grievances in the American Revolution or early Republic, you might have helped raise a Liberty Pole.

Now, you may ask yourself, what good is a large wooden pole gonna do about my high taxes?

And you may ask yourself, do I really want to lift this heavy thing?

Turns out, as the days went by in the late eighteenth century, many Americans thought Liberty Poles were the perfect way to signal their collective displeasure and rally their countrymen against some perceived wrong.

And what one group could put up, another could most assuredly pull down.

On today’s episode, we’ll hear from Dr. Shira Lurie, an expert on these strange objects and the meaning they held for Americans in the founding generation. Americans used Liberty Poles to argue over a citizen’s role in a republic. And what was a symbol of liberty to some, was an icon of tyranny to others.

Lurie is an Assistant Professor of History at St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia. She’s the author an article recently published in the Journal of the Early American Republic entitled, “Liberty Poles and the Fight for Popular Politics in the Early Republic.”

Besides Liberty Poles, Lurie tells us how she tries to reach many different audiences as a historian, and what it’s like to teach American history in both Canada and the United States.

About our Guest:

Shira Lurie, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of History at St. Mary's University. She is a political historian of the early United States with particular interests in popular politics, protest, and political violence. Her current book project explores liberty poles and debates over dissent in the early republic. She also thinks, teaches, and writes about historical memory in public space and popular culture.

TOPICS