History with Geek Girl

Hello, History Friends!! Often, the year 1772 gets skipped in studies of what we at my house call the RevoWar, at least in type, haha! My family is so patient. Sometimes I worry that all I talk about is the stuff I'm learning. Luckily, most of them at least seem interested as well. But let's be honest, what's not to be interested in? I say whoever says history is boring has never actually studied it!    The year 1772 started out on a happy note, Jan 1 was the day that Thomas Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton. Now, ya'll know that Jefferson isn't my favorite founding father, but I just finished a book about him called Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham. Not to be crazy shallow or anything, but the fact that Edward Hermann (or Richard Gilmore for those of you who half believe Stars Hollow is a real place and part of your identity live there) narrated it, sure helped soften the ordeal. I still don't particularly care for Mr. Jefferson too much,...

 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...