Forgotten Voices, Forgotten Patriots
An audio introduction to people of color at the Redding Encampment.
For centuries race-based slavery was practiced in New England. A myth endures that this was relatively “good slavery” compared to the plantation systems of the American South. But New England slavery was different, not better. Unlike indentured servitude, race-based slavery created a permanent underclass of forced laborers who were denied rights based on the color of their skin. Service in the Patriot Army during the American Revolution was a rare route to manumission for enslaved Americans.
CONTENT WARNING: Some historic documents included in this program contain offensive language. This language has not been censored. Listen at your discretion.
Voices in this program:
- Peter Moran
- Anna Fossi
- Dennis Culliton – Witness Stones Project
- Ellery Leary – Putnam Memorial State Park
- Dana Meyer
- Kerel Tiggett
If you’re interested in learning more, check out our sources at:
- History of Redding
- Connecticut’s Black Soldiers: 1775-1783 – David O. White
- Putnam’s Revolutionary War Winter Encampment: The History and Archaeology of Putnam Memorial State Park – Daniel Cruson
- Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier – Joseph Plum Martin
- Forgotten Patriots – Daughters of the American Revolution
- Revolutionary War Pension Records – Ancestry.com (Subscription Required)
- Historical Archaeology of the Revolutionary War Encampments of Washington’s Army – Sgarlata, Et al.
Learn more about related research in Connecticut: Coloring Our Past
Learn more about Indigenous Patriots in Connecticut: Connecticut Indians in the War for Independence – David J. Naumec (Subscription Required)
Contempt (Unfinished)
I started making podcasts in the Winter of 2018 from my studio apartment in the Milwaukee Hotel, in the heart of Seattle’s International District. I stopped making podcasts in the very same spot.
If you don’t know already, podcasts take a LOT of time, and a fair amount of money. And the Milwaukee charged a fair rent. So a paying job back on set interrupted my foray into the world podcasting.
But I remain proud of this still-unfinished examination of public education in Washington state.
Take a listen and let me know what you think:
