History with Geek Girl

 Hello, History Friends!! As we welcome you to 1773 (the Year We Finally Talk About the Tea), I wanted to let you know of a couple things that happened in the beginning of the year that maybe ya'll didn't know about before. At least, I didn't. First up, on  Jan 6, enslaved people of Massachusetts petition legislature for freedom. Side note, I had been wondering how to honestly word some of the rough stuff that happened in this time period where humans had the audacity to own other humans, and I noticed in the book I'm reading (The one about being descended from Jefferson), she always uses the term enslaved people. She only mentioned it as the word slaves once and that was in quotation marks, as in, that's what their owners called them. I appreciated her doing that because it helps me learn how to be more respectful about a part of our past that I am genuinely sad happened. Like so many things in this time period- this event simply got the ball rolling. It didn't...

  Hello, history friends!! Last time, we talked about the tragedy of the Boston Massacre and got to know a few of the victims a little bit. Today we are jumping back in, but we're going to look at what happens next. So many times, this is just an event on a timeline, but we don't dive into the real impact it had. In most history books, this happened and then boom, tea is dumped and we're in Lexington and Concord. But that's not how it really went. Remember that this is the first quarter of 1770 and the Boston Tea Party doesn't happen until the very END of 1773. That's like talking about a baby being born and then in the next sentence discussing their preschool enrollment. (I have 6 kids, so kid events are how I tell time). Let's back up a second and see what the events of 1770 did for the colonists AND for the British. Could you imagine having to wait 8 weeks to 6 months just to hear news of stuff? That would drive me bonkers. I guess instant messaging optio...

 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...