250 and Counting

While Benjamin Franklin departed for France on this day, actually having Franklin in France wouldn’t happen until early December. Remember, he was traveling by ship and it took a few weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean. What’s more, as Mike mentions, it would take him over a year to secure the support that we needed. In fact, I cheated a little on the artwork, which depicts Franklin presenting himself before Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at the Palace of Versailles. This didn’t happen until Marc

King George III offered up some naval incentives throughout 1776. Seamen who enlisted would get bonuses depending on their level of experience, but the Royal Navy wasn’t above impressing sailors into service, either. However, it’s also worth noting that King George also put some disincentives out there as well. For instance, in November of 1776 he forbade British mariners and seafaring men from working on foreign vessels, or working for a foreign government or prince without a special license.

White Plains today is the county seat of Westchester County, the county that directly abuts New York City to the north and connects it to the mainland. But back when the Dutch started settling in the area, starting at the south end of Manhattan, the region was being used for farming by the Weckquaeskeck tribe of the Wappingers, and was called “Quarropas” by those people. (And I knew Mike would chicken out on saying “Weckquaeskeck”.) Incidentally, in the first US Census, in 1790, the population

Holding the show to two minutes exactly (because we also have a few radio listeners) sometimes makes it tough to tell the whole story of the rules behind en taille, or entail. Because, you see, en taille doesn’t just refer to land in Virginia; it refers to all property. And that includes slaves. And Jefferson, who was absolutely a slave owner (he inherited a little over 50 slaves when he was 21, and inherited another 135 slaves when his father-in-law died—this made him the second-largest slave

Oddly enough, having an episode about the Battle of Mamaroneck is one of those times when it pays to have grown up in New York. I saw that note in our common research document, then I clocked the date and said to myself, “No way is Mike going to know how to pronounce that.” So I gave him a little coaching. We’ve done this before, with each of us having to coach the other on pronunciation of locations when we have to report on events on the opposite coast (I get a lot of the Spanish West stuff,

Calling George Izard a “Nepo Baby” might be laying it on a little bit thick, but it’s pretty clear he came from some privileged people. His mother was Alice DeLancey. She was the niece of New York Governor James DeLancey and a descendant of Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Gertrude Schuyler. And if you’re paying attention as you move around New York, you’ll realize that those are some prominent names he’s got in his pedigree. George’s father was Ralph Izard, who was a delegate to the Continental Co