History with Geek Girl

 Hello, history friends! We're going to talk about 1770. Now, if you're super good with remembering dates, you're  probably thinking about events in March. If you're not great with dates, you're probably just grateful that the number is closer to 1776 than any of the 1760's dates. Remember how a few episodes ago, we talked about the Liberty Pole? I explained how they were used to host broadsides and pretty much smack talk back and forth between the Sons of Liberty and the British soldiers. One of these was shaming business owners who hired the soldiers- those soldiers were allowed to take jobs on their off duty time and since they were already being paid nicely by the Crown, they were willing to work for cheaper than the New York citizens. That made the New Yorkers pretty mad. One of the broadsides by the British soldiers was a glorified "let me play my tiny violin" poem that tried to make the Sons of Liberty the bad guys.  I also hinted to the fact th...

 Hello History Friends! I accidentally lied to you. A few times. I  forgot to mention that the Sons of Liberty had branches in all 13 colonies. AND- I said that Andrew Oliver was from England. He was not. He was born in Boston, but was hired BY the Crown to be the stampman (until he resigned). Also, I've put way too much stress on myself about where to put mini episodes of people who are influential. I still want to DO some, but my brain might make me want to wait until later. Who knows? Not I, said the duck. Mostly, though, I told you that where we left off on the Liberty Pole episode was going to be discussed in this one. However, I forgot about a couple of important things that we need to discuss before jumping into the Liberty Pole story. Sorry!! We talked about how the Sons of Liberty responded to the Stamp Act and then later the Townshend Acts, but I really wanted to discuss a SPECIFIC response to these as well.  First I need to tell you about this guy, his name was...

 Hello history friends! First off, I have a couple clarifications to make after the last episode. 1. I pronounced Townshend wrong. I knew in my head that it was really pronounced Town-send, but I struggle when things are spelled differently than they sound. The struggle is real, especially living so close to Versailles and having to disregard the beautiful, flowy French pronunciation.  2. I answered my own question. I had wondered why it was called the 7 Years war when it lasted for 9 years. It's because the French and Indian War raged for two years on this continent before starting up on that side of the ocean. Now you know!  Alright, today we're going to talk about all the Liberty Titled things- We'll talk about the Sons of Liberty, Liberty Trees, and Liberty Poles (It will be a fantastic segue to the next episode!!) If you live here in the US, you have definitely heard the term Sons of Liberty. When I knew I was going to be researching these fellas, I was SO excited to...

 Hello history friends!! I must apologize. I lied when I said we were skipping a year because nothing happened in 1767. Something super important happened!! The Townshend Acts! *dun dun dun!!!* It seems that the British were quite confused for a few minutes why the colonies were mad about the Stamp Act. They didn't want to be embarrassed like that again, so they talked to Benjamin Franklin. Now, keep in mind that at this point, nobody was really thinking of independence. They just wanted representation. Franklin was in the same boat. He was well respected at Parliament, though, so they often discussed these issues  with him. He told them again, what the colonials had been saying "NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION," but did they listen? No. Instead, they listened to Charles Townshend. He was the treasurer and a big money and economics guy. He had this brilliant idea (at least, he thought it was brilliant). He was like, "Hey! Instead of directly shilling and pencing t...

 Hello history friends!! We're just going to jump right in to the Sugar Act, since we mentioned it last time. I keep saying we. It's just me. I'm one person. But I like to think of anyone listening as part of this, so now we're we. I will probably jump back and forth between the me and we, so there's that. Let's get back to 1764. Ok, remember how I mentioned that there was some smuggling going on? Well, part of this was because after the French and Indian war, it was pretty frowned upon for colonists to buy lots of French products because the English pretty much ruled over us, ya know? Well, the Sugar act actually lowered the price of the duties the Americans were supposed to pay, but also started cracking down hardcore on smuggling AND increased the AMOUNT of things we were supposed to pay taxes on. Instead of sugar and molasses like before, now there were taxes on indigo, coffee, wine, silks, bengals (no- these are not tiger hides- these are thin fabricy thing...

 Trying to decide this was probably the hardest decision to make. There are so many resources out there that discuss the events leading up to the RevoWar (yeah, I just said that, don't judge). I certainly don't need to repeat things that have been rehashed to you a million times over, but I did want to at least set the stage.  I also want to share my resources thus far with you. The first is a podcast called Revolutions by Mike Duncan. I found him when I was going through a French Revolution mini obsession brought on by A Girl in the Fireplace. For those who aren't geeks yet, that's an episode of Doctor Who- an AMAZING episode. Anyway, in trying to find more info about Louis the XIV, I stumbled upon his episode. There wasn't really much about the Louis I was looking for, or about Madame de Pompadour, who I was really interested in, but I sure learned a TON!! But Mike Duncan talks about a LOT of Revolutions, including the American one. He tells you much of what I...

Hey, history friends!!! I'm about to share something new and old with you.  First, I want to tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Robyn. I have a busy household. I have 6 kids, a husband, a dog, and two cats. I'm a serial entrepreneur with ADHD. I love food and my waistline shows it. But most importantly, I'm a lifelong learner, an optimist, and hopefully a disciple of Christ also. That's who I strive to be, but that's not specifically what this podcast is about.  This podcast is about connecting people through history. So, growing up I went to a high school in a kind of rural area and I did not learn history. Scratch that. I had one good history teacher who I remember teaching things, but he was only there for a year. He got dismissed for some stuff because of the world we live in. The next history teacher I had was the athletics director, so at the beginning of the semester, he gave us a packet of 10 papers and said, "You have half a semester to fin...