Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I am Tracy V. Wilson and I and I think
Speaker 1: I may have been desensitized by living in today's world
Speaker 1: of free killings and mass murders because when I hear
Speaker 1: the word massacre, I think of something like the Red
Speaker 1: Wedding and Game of Thrones, right, or maybe one of
Speaker 1: its real world inspirations, which was the Massacre of Glencoe.
Speaker 1: And that's when soldiers under Archibald Campbell, who was the
Speaker 1: tenth Earl of Argyle, swatered thirty eight members of the
Speaker 1: McDonald clan. To think of something with high volume and
Speaker 1: pretty um aggressive wholesale killing of basically undefended people. Uh So,
Speaker 1: the word massacre, which is it brings up way bloody
Speaker 1: or images than what really went down in our second
Speaker 1: most requested massacre topic, the first one being the massacre Iglinco,
Speaker 1: which we just mentioned. That's the Boston massacre, which at
Speaker 1: the time was known as the bloody massacre in in
Speaker 1: King Street, and massacre kind of makes it sound as
Speaker 1: though it was the wholesale slaughter of a bunch of
Speaker 1: innocent Bostonians. Who were just standing around mining their own business,
Speaker 1: which is not true at all. It was not at
Speaker 1: all like that. But there is definitely a reason why
Speaker 1: we call it the Boston massacre and not the minor
Speaker 1: Boston kerfuffle with a few unfortunate casualties, and that reason
Speaker 1: is propaganda. Maybe we should start a Facebook page to
Speaker 1: try to change it to the Boston minor kerfuffle with
Speaker 1: a few unfortunate casualtiests. So yeah, that that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about today, what actually happened during the Boston
Speaker 1: massacre and why we call it a massacre today and
Speaker 1: not something else. So we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: propaganda aspect. But first we need to put a little
Speaker 1: context into the situation. Uh So, on June seventeen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: the British Parliament passed the Townsend Revenue Act with the
Speaker 1: purpose of raising forty thou pounds per year to quote
Speaker 1: defray the charge of the administration of Justice and the
Speaker 1: support of civil government. In other words, they needed to
Speaker 1: offset the British government's cost of running the colonies, and
Speaker 1: this put attacks on several really common items that were
Speaker 1: exported to the colonies from Britain. Here's the actual list.
Speaker 1: I find this list delightful. Uh for every hundredweight average
Speaker 1: deploise of crown plate, flint and white glass, four shillings
Speaker 1: and eightpence. For every hundredweight average poise of red lead,
Speaker 1: two shillings, for every hundredweight average poise of green glass,
Speaker 1: one shilling and twopence for every hundredweight average poise of
Speaker 1: white lead, two shillings for every hundredweight average boys of
Speaker 1: painters colors, two shillings for every pound weight average poise
Speaker 1: of t threepence, and for every ream of paper usually
Speaker 1: called or known by the name of atlas fine twelve
Speaker 1: shilling and average poise. Is basically the pounds and ounces
Speaker 1: weight system that many of us still used today. And
Speaker 1: if you are familiar in any way with the US
Speaker 1: on the subject of taxes, you can probably imagine how
Speaker 1: very popular this whole plan was. Yes, which is not
Speaker 1: at all right. And on top of that, taxation of
Speaker 1: goods was already an extremely sore subject in the colonies.
Speaker 1: In sixty five, Parliament had passed the Stamp Act, which
Speaker 1: was a tax on quote, every skin or piece of
Speaker 1: vellum or parchment or sheet or piece of paper, and
Speaker 1: paper and vellum for different uses were subject to different
Speaker 1: rates of tax. So the Stamp Act was supposed to
Speaker 1: fund the defense of the American frontier, and the colonies
Speaker 1: objected to the whole idea of using a tax to
Speaker 1: raise money rather than to regulate commerce. And the colonies
Speaker 1: were very concerned about the President that that that this
Speaker 1: set that you know, Britain could just say, who here
Speaker 1: have a tax now that we're going to use to
Speaker 1: raise lots of money. This uh led to the colonists
Speaker 1: responding to the Stamp Acts with protests and violence, and
Speaker 1: consequently Parliament repealed it in seventeen sixty six, although and
Speaker 1: basically the same breath, it also passed what was called
Speaker 1: the Declaratory Acts, and those more or less said, hey,
Speaker 1: Britain can pass laws for the colonies and the colonies
Speaker 1: have to follow them, and too bad if you don't
Speaker 1: like it. So just a couple of years behind the
Speaker 1: Stamp Act, which was so very wildly popular, of the
Speaker 1: towns in Act also went over poorly, So poorly in fact,
Speaker 1: that the British government had to send regiments of regulars
Speaker 1: to Boston just to keep the peace. Customs officials were
Speaker 1: being harassed and threatened as a result of these taxes,
Speaker 1: and the governor wanted military help just to help restore order.
Speaker 1: So the regulars, who became increasingly known as the Red Coats,
Speaker 1: started arriving on October one of seventeen sixty eight. So
Speaker 1: you may recall from our recent episode on the Hessians
Speaker 1: that deploying troops to the colonies for Britain was an
Speaker 1: extremely long and time consuming task. So that is why,
Speaker 1: even though it had been quite a while since the
Speaker 1: Act was passed, uh, many many months later did the
Speaker 1: military show up to try to calm things down. And uh,
Speaker 1: the people of Boston did not really like this one bit.
Speaker 1: On top of the principle of a military force just
Speaker 1: showing up to make them behave themselves, soldiers were also
Speaker 1: raising the competition for jobs because they would sometimes take
Speaker 1: on additional work in their off hours to supplement their income,
Speaker 1: and they were willing to take less money because they
Speaker 1: also had their pay as a soldier. So consequently, the
Speaker 1: citizens of Boston greeted the Red Coats with Thompson jeers
Speaker 1: and a lot of fighting and spitting, and all in all,
Speaker 1: relationships between the troops and the city went extremely poorly.
Speaker 1: For about eighteen months before the tensions really started to
Speaker 1: rise in March of seventeen seventy. By this point, people
Speaker 1: were trying to get shopkeepers to stop selling imported products
Speaker 1: from Britain entirely, and also vandalizing stores that did carry
Speaker 1: British products. So in the days after the massacre a
Speaker 1: packet of military depositions was sent back to England which
Speaker 1: described the environment uh this way from the British perspective.
Speaker 1: Whoever has conversed much with those who have been lately
Speaker 1: at Boston must know that the arrival of the King's
Speaker 1: troops at that town in seventeen sixty eight was exceedingly
Speaker 1: disgustful to all that part of the people who call
Speaker 1: themselves the sons of Liberty and deny the authority of
Speaker 1: the British Parliament to pass the Late Acts for imposing
Speaker 1: duties upon certain articles of trade imported into America, and
Speaker 1: who certainly form a great majority of the people in
Speaker 1: that town, though perhaps not of the persons of the
Speaker 1: best fortunes and most respectable characters in the place. Basically,
Speaker 1: the rabble are cranky. That was the British version, no
Speaker 1: story for sure. So on March five, seventy. That's when
Speaker 1: the Boston Master took place. Captain John Goldfinch was walking
Speaker 1: down King Street when the wig maker's apprentice, whose name
Speaker 1: was Edward Garrick hollerded him that he had not paid
Speaker 1: for his wig. Captain Goldfinch just ignored him, and so
Speaker 1: Edward then repeated this accusation to other passers by in
Speaker 1: a similarly hollering fashion. So Hugh White, who was the
Speaker 1: sentry on duty at the customs House, heard this commotion,
Speaker 1: and he told Edward that the Captain, being a gentleman,
Speaker 1: would of course pay for anything he had bought. Edward, however,
Speaker 1: disbelieved that there were any gentleman among the Red Coats,
Speaker 1: and he expressed that quite loudly. Uh, And that prompted
Speaker 1: White to leave his post and strike Edward with his musket,
Speaker 1: at which point the crowd, which had already started to
Speaker 1: gather in response to all of this yelling in the street,
Speaker 1: started heckling and taunting White, and he returned to his post,
Speaker 1: loaded his weapon, and called for the main guard. That
Speaker 1: roughly the same time, there were crowds having similar altercations
Speaker 1: with the British at other points nearby in Boston and
Speaker 1: there was a lot of hurling of insults and snowballs
Speaker 1: at the uniformed troops. Someone also rang a firebell, which
Speaker 1: prompted even more people to come out into the streets,
Speaker 1: and this whole giant crowd started to converge on the
Speaker 1: customs house. John Adams later called this crowd quote a
Speaker 1: motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and Mulatto's, Irish tigus
Speaker 1: and outlandish jacktars, this kind of unity. Take that as
Speaker 1: you will. And all this commotion, Captain Thomas Preston heard
Speaker 1: that people were planning to carry White off from his
Speaker 1: post and murder him, and perhaps while they were at it,
Speaker 1: they were also going to rob the customs house. So
Speaker 1: he decided to intervene, and he brought seven men from
Speaker 1: the twenty nine regiment to back him up. At that point,
Speaker 1: the crowd had started throwing snowballs, which sounds not so terrible,
Speaker 1: but then also sticks, rocks, oyster shells, ouch and whatever
Speaker 1: else was at hand. The soldiers arranged themselves in a
Speaker 1: kind of half circle, facing out to the crowd. So
Speaker 1: we're leaning on unreliable almost two d and fifty year
Speaker 1: old eyewitness testimony here so it's a little unclear exactly
Speaker 1: who did what to cause the first shot to be fired.
Speaker 1: We do know that a man named Crispus Addicts, who
Speaker 1: was carrying a club, approached the soldiers and grabbed one
Speaker 1: of their bayonets, and that soldier Hugh Montgomery was knocked down.
Speaker 1: When Montgomery got up, he fired his must get kind
Speaker 1: of at the general direction of the crowd, and he
Speaker 1: shouted for others to fire. They did, even as Captain
Speaker 1: Preston was yelling orders for them to hold their fire.
Speaker 1: And then uh, there was general chaos and shooting and
Speaker 1: sort of a big mess. Melee melee is a perfect
Speaker 1: were frey. And that went on with some confusion until
Speaker 1: the death settled. Three men died at the scene. These
Speaker 1: were Christmas Addicts, Samuel Gray, and James Caldwell. Christmas Addicts
Speaker 1: was the son of an African man and a Native
Speaker 1: American woman. He was the first of all after being
Speaker 1: shot twice in the chest. He has since become known
Speaker 1: as the Revolution's first hero, and we don't really know
Speaker 1: much about his life before the massacre, except that he
Speaker 1: had escaped from slavery and found work as a whaler
Speaker 1: and a ropemaker in addition to the fatalities, eight other
Speaker 1: people were injured, and Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr ended
Speaker 1: up dying of their injuries later. That brings the death
Speaker 1: toll of the Boston massacre to five. A warrant was
Speaker 1: issued for the arrest of Captain Preston a little after
Speaker 1: midnight that night. Pretty Much the only way they were
Speaker 1: able to get the crowd to go back about their
Speaker 1: business was to reassure them that yes, there would be
Speaker 1: an investigation and that these men would see justice done so.
Speaker 1: In response to the killings, the people of Boston demanded
Speaker 1: that the soldiers who had participated in the shooting along
Speaker 1: with their captain, be tried for murder. Captain Preston and
Speaker 1: his eight soldiers were indicted on March thirteenth, although the
Speaker 1: trial was put off for several months to allow the
Speaker 1: town's passions to cool down, and they all remained in
Speaker 1: jail and interim. In the interim, Preston wrote letters from
Speaker 1: his jail cell, and some of them were published in
Speaker 1: the Boston Papers, and those that have been published expressed
Speaker 1: empathy for the citizens and those who had fallen, while
Speaker 1: on the other hand, a letter that was published back
Speaker 1: in England was basically pretty scathing. Uh. And naturally word
Speaker 1: got back to the colonies about that one, uh, and
Speaker 1: that did not really help his case. He was kind
Speaker 1: of talking out of both sides of his mouth. The
Speaker 1: citizens of Boston also demanded that the British troops be removed, and, eventually,
Speaker 1: fearing further retaliation, Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson and Colonel Dalrynkele,
Speaker 1: who was in charge of the units, had the troops
Speaker 1: removed to Castle William, which is on an island three
Speaker 1: miles out in Boston Harbor. Captain Preston and the soldiers
Speaker 1: were arraigned on September seven, and they all pled not guilty.
Speaker 1: Captain Preston was tried for murder in October of seventeen seventies,
Speaker 1: separately from the other soldiers. The soldiers had requested that
Speaker 1: they all be tried together. Their defense was that they
Speaker 1: were just following orders, and Preston's defense was that he
Speaker 1: had not actually given an order to fire. So the
Speaker 1: soldiers were really understandably afraid that if Preston was tried
Speaker 1: first and then found guilty, that they would automatically be
Speaker 1: guilty with no possible way to prove their innocence. Their request, though,
Speaker 1: was denied with no explanation, and as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: they had a hard time finding legal representation in Boston. Uh.
Speaker 1: Most lawyers feared that they would never work again if
Speaker 1: they dared to defend these soldiers, and in the end
Speaker 1: leading the defense for both the captain and his men
Speaker 1: was John Adams. Robert Akmooty and Josiah Quincy Jr. Helped
Speaker 1: fend the captain and Quincy and Sampson Salter Blowers helped
Speaker 1: defend the soldiers. So there was a transcription presumably made
Speaker 1: of Captain Preston's trial, and that has not survived until today,
Speaker 1: but we know the basics. Eyewitnesses for the defense insisted
Speaker 1: that Captain Preston had not ordered for anyone to fire.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, eyewitnesses for the prosecution insisted that
Speaker 1: he had. Adam's defense relied on raising doubts about the
Speaker 1: testimony of the prosecution's witnesses, and the Captain's trial lasted
Speaker 1: from October to October, with the Sequester jury eventually finding
Speaker 1: him not guilty. This was shocked too many people. The
Speaker 1: eight British soldiers were tried as well in November and
Speaker 1: December of seventeen seventy, and the trial was officially known
Speaker 1: as Rex versus Weims at All. The transcript of this
Speaker 1: trial still exists today, and their defense hinged on the
Speaker 1: idea that the soldiers were firing in self defense. Six
Speaker 1: of the soldiers were acquitted on the grounds that they
Speaker 1: were defending themselves. In John Adams words quote, if an
Speaker 1: assault was made to endanger their lives, the law is
Speaker 1: clear they had a right to kill in their own
Speaker 1: defense if it was not so severe as to endanger
Speaker 1: their lives. Yet, if they were assaulted at all, struck
Speaker 1: and abused by blows of any sort, by snowballs, oyster shells, cinders, clubs,
Speaker 1: or sticks of any kind, this was a provocation for
Speaker 1: which the law reduces the offensive killing down to manslaughter
Speaker 1: in consideration of those passions in our nature which cannot
Speaker 1: be eradicated. So, while six of the soldiers were acquitted,
Speaker 1: two of them were indeed convicted of manslaughter. And if
Speaker 1: they're sentencing, they played the benefit of clergy. Laws at
Speaker 1: the time basically allowed for clergy to receive more lenient sentencing,
Speaker 1: especially when it came to the death pencil penalty, and
Speaker 1: this allowance had over many centuries come to apply to
Speaker 1: all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. So
Speaker 1: pleading the benefit of clergy reduced their sentence to having
Speaker 1: the letter M branded onto their thumbs, so they would
Speaker 1: be marked forever as manslaughters on their thumbs. Uh. John
Speaker 1: Adams says, you can imagine initially faced hostility for his
Speaker 1: role in the trials, but his defense of the soldiers
Speaker 1: was eventually viewed as something of an act of bravery.
Speaker 1: And then, of course he became George Washington's vice president
Speaker 1: and then the second President of the United States, so
Speaker 1: it did not really tain his reputation as much as
Speaker 1: people had expected in the end. Now and in the today,
Speaker 1: it's become an example in law schools sometimes of an
Speaker 1: example of when somebody has defended uh, you know, a
Speaker 1: clearly unpopular choice of someone to defend in the interest
Speaker 1: of making sure that person got actual justice. John Adams
Speaker 1: later wrote this in his diary. The part that I
Speaker 1: took in defense of Captain Preston and the soldiers procured
Speaker 1: me anxiety and obloquy enough. It was, however, one of
Speaker 1: the most gallant, interests, manly and disinterested actions of my
Speaker 1: whole life and one of the best pieces of service
Speaker 1: I ever rendered my country. Judgment of death against those
Speaker 1: soldiers would have been as foul a stain upon this
Speaker 1: country as the executions of the Quakers or witches anciently.
Speaker 1: But the bigger impact of this massacre was its influence
Speaker 1: on the American Revolution. The dead became martyrs, and the
Speaker 1: incident raised a rallying cry for independence. And one of
Speaker 1: the many people stirring the pot was John Hancock, who
Speaker 1: had become a vocal opponent of the British after his
Speaker 1: sloop the Liberty was seized after its cargo of wine
Speaker 1: was unloaded without Hancock paying the duties on it, so
Speaker 1: he had not paid his taxes no, and his ship
Speaker 1: was taken. He objected to that idea. Paul Revere created
Speaker 1: an engraving which shows a line of British soldiers in
Speaker 1: their red coats just firing indiscriminately at a huge kind
Speaker 1: of people. It ran under the name the Bloody Massacre
Speaker 1: per Pe traded in King Street, Boston. Samuel Adams also
Speaker 1: contributed to the Massacre Moniker, writing letters in the Boston Gazette,
Speaker 1: as well as helping to pen quote a short Narrative
Speaker 1: of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, perpetrated on the evening
Speaker 1: of the fifth day of March seventeen seventy by soldiers
Speaker 1: of the twenty ninth Regiment, with which the fourteenth Regiment
Speaker 1: were then quartered there with some observations on the state
Speaker 1: of things prior to that catastrophe, also known as a
Speaker 1: short horative Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, because
Speaker 1: that first title is a little worthy, extremely mom The
Speaker 1: British counterpart to this pamphlet was set was the set
Speaker 1: of depositions we read from earlier, and that was titled
Speaker 1: A Fair account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance of Boston
Speaker 1: in New England. Yes, perspective changes everything. They did not
Speaker 1: call this the Boston massacre in Britain. They called it
Speaker 1: like the incidents in Boston. It was not referred to
Speaker 1: as a massacre at all. And basically the reason why
Speaker 1: we in the United States all at a masker is
Speaker 1: because Paul Revere and Samuel Adams were basically acting like
Speaker 1: spin doctors. Yeah, they were propagandizing the events. Yes, if
Speaker 1: you were angry about spinning the news, it's not. It
Speaker 1: is absolutely not a new thing at all, and one
Speaker 1: of the things that was just the best. The best
Speaker 1: part of researching this episode is the fact that most
Speaker 1: of these pamphlets still exist and you can and you
Speaker 1: can see the blindingly different interpretations of what happened. For
Speaker 1: a number of years after March fifth was a day
Speaker 1: of remembrance in Massachusetts. The site of the massacre is
Speaker 1: a spot on the Freedom Trail that still exists. Uh,
Speaker 1: And a memorial to Christmas Addics was erected in Boston
Speaker 1: Commons in over the opposition of historical organizations that viewed
Speaker 1: him as a villain not a hero. Yeah, it's because
Speaker 1: you know that the records of that day are so
Speaker 1: glad and fuzzy. Uh. There are people who see Christmas
Speaker 1: add Addicts as like the first real patriot dying in
Speaker 1: the Revolution, Like he was the person that stood up
Speaker 1: the good up to the red coats. You could really
Speaker 1: look at the same accounts and more arrive at the
Speaker 1: idea that that he was basically that the guy that
Speaker 1: threw a first punch and in a bar fight, and
Speaker 1: in that bar fight throwing the first punch hit a
Speaker 1: cop like right, that you could really look at it
Speaker 1: either way. Um, But but he does wind up with
Speaker 1: with also a notable place as being one of the
Speaker 1: first African Americans to have played a big role in
Speaker 1: that way in the Revolution. So there're lots of players there,
Speaker 1: and luckily you can do plenty of looking around at
Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff. As Tracy mentioned just a
Speaker 1: moment ago, the Massachusetts Historical Society has a bunch of
Speaker 1: these documents all grouped together in one easy to find place,
Speaker 1: and they're kind of hilarious, not only because of the
Speaker 1: obvious lamp and spinning that's going on depending on who's writing,
Speaker 1: but also because of, as Tracy says, the long esses
Speaker 1: that looks like that look like f And we'll link
Speaker 1: you to that, uh in the show notes we will.
Speaker 1: There's also the Bostonian Society has made a game that
Speaker 1: is meant for elementary and middle school students that's all
Speaker 1: about investigating the Massacre, which is pretty fun. I did
Speaker 1: not play all the way through it, but it basically
Speaker 1: is like, Hey, you're an investigator. You gotta figure out
Speaker 1: what happened at this massacre. That's very fun. It's quite
Speaker 1: fun and a cool way to engage kids and adults
Speaker 1: frankly about learning about history. Yeah, what every historical event
Speaker 1: had one of those that would be I. I really
Speaker 1: I wanted to do the whole thing, but I really
Speaker 1: really really needed to finish my notes so that I
Speaker 1: can go home. So yes, the Boston massacre. I pulled
Speaker 1: some random people, uh as I as I got into
Speaker 1: this story, was like, hey, how many how many people
Speaker 1: do you think I killed at the Boston massacre? Hundreds? Well,
Speaker 1: nobody said hundreds, but most people came up with a
Speaker 1: number that was more than twenty. And when I said
Speaker 1: to five, we're like really, so I don't want them
Speaker 1: belittle the fact that five human beings lost their lives, Like,
Speaker 1: that's not the point. The point is more that massacre
Speaker 1: is a great, big, bloody word, and what happened was
Speaker 1: much more like a street brawl with casualties. It was
Speaker 1: an incident that went poorly, but it was not kind
Speaker 1: of the big, huge, I mean, it probably took moments, yes,
Speaker 1: and was not quite the event that the word massacre
Speaker 1: conjures in most people's mind. So with that, do you
Speaker 1: also have some listener mail? I do. I have two
Speaker 1: brief pieces of listener mail that are both about our
Speaker 1: two part episode on Audrey Lord. The first one is
Speaker 1: from Amy, and Amy says, hey, ladies, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to give you a shout out about the Audrey Lord podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm currently students studying and living in the city of Cuernavaca, Mexico,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to let you know that, yes,
Speaker 1: it is about an hour and a half to get
Speaker 1: to Mexico City, because although Google Maps says an hour,
Speaker 1: the entire route is through the mountains and has a
Speaker 1: lot of switchback highway curves, so you can't actually go
Speaker 1: to speed limit. Therefore, it would probably take about the
Speaker 1: same amount of time in the fifties if they still
Speaker 1: had the toll roads when you get on and off
Speaker 1: the highway. Many of the people who live in Cornavaca
Speaker 1: work in Mexico City because the climate in the community
Speaker 1: is better here than in the cold, bustling city of
Speaker 1: d f also known as Distrito that are out. There
Speaker 1: is still a large expatriate community here, although and although
Speaker 1: I have not actively been seeking out other Americans, I
Speaker 1: am told that there's a fairly substantial community in the city.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to let you know about the city
Speaker 1: I have grown to love more and more each day.
Speaker 1: Thanks ladies. Amy Cool thanks Amy Um. That will save
Speaker 1: us to drive down to test it. Let's do that
Speaker 1: the history road trip. Okay, let's to see how long
Speaker 1: it takes to go for Mexica. Loved do wacky history
Speaker 1: road trips for things exactly like that. Let's see how
Speaker 1: long this would taken. That reminds me of After our
Speaker 1: Johnny Apples Need podcast, we had somebody right in and
Speaker 1: talk about a trip they were taking on I think
Speaker 1: on foot to retrace the Apple scene. Yeah, which pretty cool,
Speaker 1: and whether or not it was actually viable for him
Speaker 1: to have done what people said he did. Yes. Our
Speaker 1: second note is from Dan and it came to us
Speaker 1: in our Facebook handbox and dances. I really loved the
Speaker 1: two part are on auttery Lord. I wanted to tip
Speaker 1: you guys off to part of Lord's intellectual legacy that
Speaker 1: I've been writing about a lot recently. I've defended my
Speaker 1: doctoral dissertation on the history of the of African American
Speaker 1: AIDS activism last week, and one of my chapters covered
Speaker 1: a movement of black gay men in the late nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties and early nineteen nineties called the Black Gay Renaissance.
Speaker 1: They were deeply influenced by Lord and women from the
Speaker 1: Kitchen Table Circle, including Barbara Smiths, Sharing Moraga and Gloria
Speaker 1: and I'll Do It. They applied the idea of intersectionality
Speaker 1: to HIV slash AIDS prevention, arguing that black gay men
Speaker 1: were subject to a unique set of social and psychological
Speaker 1: pressures because of their multiple marginalized identities, putting them at
Speaker 1: high risk for HIV. They also produced a lot of
Speaker 1: art aimed at raising the visibility of black gay men.
Speaker 1: Notable names include Joseph beame, X pemp hill, A Soota Saint,
Speaker 1: and filmmaker Marlon Rings. Maybe they could be the subject
Speaker 1: of a future episode. Thanks again for enlightening us about
Speaker 1: Audrey Lord. I loved this letter. Yeah, because there's so
Speaker 1: much focus on Audrey Lord's impact in the worlds of
Speaker 1: literature and uh like the women's movement and feminism and
Speaker 1: especially black feminism. Uh, there's so much focus on women
Speaker 1: and gay women that I had not actually heard about
Speaker 1: any influence that had instead to do within I had
Speaker 1: not either, so that was wonderful insight. It was so
Speaker 1: thank you so much, Dan, I think that sounds like
Speaker 1: a fascinating doctoral districation. Then, also, congrats on defending thesis
Speaker 1: indeed this So if you would like to write to
Speaker 1: us about this or anything else, you can. We are
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. We're also on
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Speaker 1: in History dot tumbler dot com, and we are pinning
Speaker 1: things away on contrast, if you would like to learn
Speaker 1: about another watershed moment in the history of the American Revolution,
Speaker 1: you can come to our website and put the words
Speaker 1: Boston Tea Party in our search part and you will
Speaker 1: find an article called how the Boston Tea Party Works.
Speaker 1: You can do all of that and a whole lot
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