An audio-only version of my presentation at the 2022 Intelligent Speech Conference. For video, click here! In this presentation, I took a step back to explore the process of settling a new colony, a big-picture discussion of the colonies we've discussed through the lens of 20th Century research on settlement requirements and dynamics. It should sur…

The story of Carolina's second settlement attempt was the type of failure we've frequently discussed, but it was also a failure for a new era. English proprietors got distracted, severe supply shortages emerged, and conflict with indigenous tribes ultimately caused the colony to collapse. But, colonists knew what to do, they forcefully made their f…

Carolina was a colony for a new era. The Jacobean settlements of Virginia, Bermuda and Plymouth had been tiny, struggling outposts in a very New World. The colonies formed under Charles I (the rest of New England, Barbados, Maryland and others) had been defined by the political and religious turbulence of his reign. Now, a revolution had come and g…

Henry Morgan's privateering exploits had turned to full on piracy by the time he attacked Maracaibo and, especially, Panama City. Still, he enjoyed the support of the island's population and leadership, and the money he brought to the colony facilitated its transformation into one of England's wealthiest colonies. Website (transcripts) Patreon Buy …

After the Willoughby brothers, the king imposed governors in Barbados who he expected to be loyal to him instead of the colony. The first two backfired in dramatically different ways, one siding with the colonists, and the other descending into embarrasing levels of tyranny and corruption. Website (transcripts)…

Neither the king nor Barbados was willing to budge over the financial issues surrounding the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and what ensued was the biggest showdown between king and colony in American history. Website (transcripts, sources, etc) Patreon or BMAC Intelligent Speech is coming!By Sarah Tanksalvala

Henry Morgan's piratical exploits during the Second Anglo-Dutch War took him into combat not with England's allies, but rather against the Spanish of Cuba and Panama. Website (transcripts) Intelligent Speech Conference information!By Sarah Tanksalvala

Barbados would never really recover from the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Compared to islands like St. Kitts, it had gotten through the conflict without too much damage, but it had still funded and fought a full theater of war almost alone, and when the war was over, the demands and impositions (not least, the Navigation Acts finally being fully enforce…

Information about this year's Intelligent Speech Conference! 35 presentations in four virtual rooms bringing together the independent educational podcast community. This year's theme: Crossings Date: June 25, 2022 Place: Your home, via Zoom Tickets: $20 before June 1. 10% off with promo code RnR. Standard price $30. Learn more: https://intelligents…

The First Anglo-Dutch War hit Barbados hard. After a 10 hour battle expended all their ammunition, colonists and king bickered over who should be responsible for buying more. Ultimately, the compromise was to put off the issue by loaning the king the money, and for two years, Barbados defended England's Caribbean holdings, spending 100,000 pounds, …

If you enjoy this show, would you please rate/review on whatever podcast app you use? Thank you! As Jamaica limped along after the Western Design, escaped slaves maintained their own colony in the island's central mountains, and pirates controlled Port Royal. From 1661-64, Jamaica had a series of governors, one of whom lasted only 10 weeks in the r…

When the Restoration happened, Barbados requested to be made a crown colony, thinking its rights would be better protected. In return for giving up his proprietary rights, Willoughby was made Barbados's first royal governor. Suddenly, Barbadians were faced with the first real imposition to their self-government in well over a decade, and the confli…

Charles II kept a stronger Parliament within England than his father could have imagined, and he expanded the Navigation Acts, kept the policy of transportation, and pushed the slave trade. When news of the new king's planned policies reached Virginia, Berkeley rushed to ask that they be revoked or modified to avoid crushing his colony. Website & t…

A political fight in Maryland highlights the colony's new state of affairs - Lord Baltimore may own the colony, but he has virtually no power there. Find transcripts and more on the website Support this podcast on Patreon Buy me a Coffee for one-time donationsBy Sarah Tanksalvala

After the Restoration prompted a bloody revolt by Thomas Venner's Fifth Monarchist group in London, Charles II cast a wary eye on New England. Meanwhile, regicides Whalley and Goffe had escaped punishment in England to make their home in Massachusetts. The fallout would lead to the end of New Haven as a colony. Website & Transcripts: Americanhistor…

A quick recap of everything that's changed in America during the period of the English Civil Wars and Interregnum/Commonwealth, as well as problems colonists are facing going into the reign of King Charles II. By the way, I've got a patreon (for ongoing support) and Buy Me a Coffee (easier for one-time donations) now, so if you're interested in hel…

In the final episode of our English Civil War series, we discuss the Restoration. After Cromwell died, there was chaos that could have erupted in yet another round of war. Instead, though, the return of Charles II to the throne of England occurred without bloodshed, which only intensified the excitement over his return. With the exception of most N…

While New England's comfort generally increased in the Cromwell years, Rhode Island suffered from a lagging economy, political divisions and even issues with religious dissidents who worked to destabilize the already unstable colony. Plymouth's prosperity also waned as trade came to dominate the New England economy. And in the United Colonies, the …

Cromwell decides in favor of Baltimore's proprietorship in Maryland, Virginia works to subvert English puritan leadership and reinstall a royalist government, Bermuda has its first slave revolt, and Barbados foreshadows Revolutionary War sentiments by opposing taxation without representation.By Sarah Tanksalvala

The Western Design was supposed to be England's plan to conquer Spanish America, starting with Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Cartagena (Colombia). Instead, after a disastrous expedition, England had ended up with Jamaica. For a while, owning Jamaica was disastrous in and of itself. Tens of thousands of people died, a huge percent of them Irish …

Former Anne Hutchinson disciple Mary Dyer was the third of four Quakers to be executed in New England. Persecution of Quakers was rampant across the English speaking world, ranging from imprisonment in Suriname to whipping in the Chesapeake to executions in New England. In England, itself, by 1655, they were dubbed the greatest threat left to Engla…

America's history of witch executions started 40 years before the Salem Witch Trials. Its first victim was Connecticut's Alse Young in 1647. Soon, Massachusetts had joined in the practice, as had Bermuda. Devastated Bermuda and legally-dubious Connecticut saw the largest numbers of witch trials in these years, and we examine how that came to be. Fe…

A brief history of the Province of Maine, culminating in its takeover by Massachusetts Bay in 1652/3.By Sarah Tanksalvala

England's participation in the Western African trade started very slowly, and the slave trade was explicitly rejected by early English traders to Africa. Still, within 40 years, English participation in the slave trade became common, and England's most valuable colony (Barbados) had shifted to slavery as a labor source. This episode looks at the hi…

Bennett and Claiborne had control of Virginia, and two weeks later they went to Maryland to demand it renounce its loyalty to Lord Baltimore. When Marylanders refused, they took over the colony's government. Baltimore ordered his governor to fight to maintain the colony's government (and therefore, its stance of toleration toward Catholics), and th…