Fieldstone Common Season 1

JL Bell, the author of the blog Boston 1775, and host, Marian Pierre-Louis, will discuss New England in the Revolution. In the first half hour we discuss the youth and "hooligans" of Boston in the 1760s who later became the Patriots fighting in the Revolutionary War of the 1770s. In the second half hour we discuss the Vassall family of Cambridge, Massachusetts and compare and contrast their lives to that of their slaves, also with the same name, Vassall. Join us for some truly fascinating stories from the Revolutionary War era.

This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Christopher C. Child and Scott C. Steward who wrote The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts. This book won three major awards: The 2012 Donald Lines Jacobus Award from the American Society of Genealogists The 2012 National Genealogical Society Award for Excellence: Genealogy and Family History Book. The grand prize in the 2012 Connecticut Society of Genealogists Literary Award Contest. This book demonstrates provides a perfect example of excellent and thorough published research. We will take the opportunity to learn from the author about the research skills and effort that goes into a work like this. The first full treatment of the Lowell family since Delmar R. Lowell’s 1899 genealogy, The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts traces John Lowell’s descendants to the present day, or for as many as another nine generations. Scott C. Steward is the Director of Publications for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Scott is a graduate of Harvard College and the Radcliffe Publishing Program. Christopher C. Child is the Genealogist of the Newbury Street Press at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Chris graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in history from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://www.FieldstoneCommon.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 11 April 2013 at 1:00pm EDT This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Donald R. Friary who wrote the forward for the new edition of  New England Captives Carried to Canada. Originally published in two volumes in 1925, New England Captives Carried to Canada represents decades of research conducted by Coleman and C. Alice Baker (author of True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada, 1897). This work names all the captives the two women discovered, provides biographical data for each, and paints a detailed picture of the Indian attacks on New England communities over the eighty-year period. Includes sources, a comprehensive index, and an appendix with greater explanation of terms, key people, and places mentioned in the text. For nearly a century, this has been the go-to resource and the most definitive work ever published on the subject. Donald R. Friary was Executive Director of Historic Deerfield in Deerfield, Massachusetts for 27 years. After his retirement in 2003 he became Historic Deerfield's Senior Research Fellow. A native of Boston, and a graduate of the Boston Latin School and Brown University, he holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. He served as the museum's first Director of Academic Programs from 1971 to 1973 and was named Assistant Director and then Executive Director in 1975. He has served on a number of Boards including the Bay State Historical League, the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the Winterthur Museum's Education Committee, and the Hill-Stead Museum. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://www.FieldstoneCommon.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 4 April 2013 at 1:00pm EDT This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Henry "Hank" Z. Jones, author of The Palatine Families of New York. We first knew Hank Jones as a regular on the show My Three Sons and as an actor in Disney Films. While he continued acting, he also discovered his love for family history. Once he realized he had German Palatine ancestors Hank Jones kept searching until he had discovered nearly everyone's Palatine ancestors. The result was the two-volume Palatine Families of New York. Hank became a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists in 1986. We will talk to Hank about his Palatine research as well as his books Psychic Roots and More Psychic Roots. Tune in for a great show with one of America's most beloved genealogists. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://www.FieldstoneCommon.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 28 March 2013 at 1:00pm EDT This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Prof. Ava Chamberlain, author of The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards. Who was Elizabeth Tuttle? In most histories, she is a footnote, a blip. At best, she is a minor villain in the story of Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest American theologian of the colonial era. Many historians consider Jonathan Edwards a theological genius, wildly ahead of his time, a Puritan hero. Elizabeth Tuttle was Edwards’s “crazy grandmother,” the one whose madness and adultery drove his despairing grandfather to divorce. In this compelling and meticulously researched work of micro-history, Ava Chamberlain unearths a fuller history of Elizabeth Tuttle. It is a violent and tragic story in which anxious patriarchs struggle to govern their households, unruly women disobey their husbands, mental illness tears families apart, and loved ones die sudden deaths. Through the lens of Elizabeth Tuttle, Chamberlain re-examines the common narrative of Jonathan Edwards’s ancestry, giving his long-ignored paternal grandmother a voice. The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle not only brings to light the tragic story of an ordinary woman living in early New England, it also explores the deeper tension between the ideal of Puritan family life and its messy reality, complicating the way America has thought about its Puritan past. Ava Chamberlain is Associate Professor of Religion at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She is the editor of The “Miscellanies,” Nos. 501-832, vol. 18 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://www.FieldstoneCommon.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 21 March 2013 at 1:00pm EST This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Peter F. Stevens, author of Hidden History of the Boston Irish. When it comes to Irish America, certain names spring to mind Kennedy, O'Neill and Curley testify to the proverbial footsteps of the Gael in Boston. However, few people know of Sister Mary Anthony O'Connell, whose medical prowess carried her from the convent to the Civil War battlefields, earning her the nickname the Boston Irish Florence Nightingale, or of Barney McGinniskin, Boston's first Irish cop, who proudly roared at every roll call, McGinniskin from the bogs of Ireland present! Along with acclaim or notoriety, many forgotten Irish Americans garnered numerous historical firsts. In Hidden History of the Boston Irish, Peter F. Stevens offers an entertaining and compelling portrait of the Irish immigrant saga and pays homage to the overlooked, yet significant, episodes of the Boston Irish experience. Peter F. Stevens, news and features editor of the Boston Irish Reporter, is a veteran journalist with a specialty in historical writing. His work is syndicated by the New York Times and has been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers. Stevens has published ten books, and is also a two-time winner of the International Regional Magazine Association's Gold Medal for Feature Writing. His awarding winning book, The Voyage of the Catalpa: A Perilous Journey and Six Irish Rebels' Escape to Freedom, was also the chief historical resource for the PBS documentary "Irish Escape." For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://www.FieldstoneCommon.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 14 March 2013 at 1:00pm EST We had a terrific show yesterday with two veteran genealogists, Barbara Mathews, CG and Melinde Lutz Byrne, FASG, CG. In the first half hour the discussion with Barbara Mathews centered around records access. The second half hour featured Melinde Lutz Byrne talking about researching in the 1600s. You will enjoy the topics! Yesterday's show was supposed to feature Bonnie Hurd Smith speaking about her book Mingling Souls Upon Paper. Due to illness she had to cancel at last moment. That show will be rescheduled for May 16, 2013.   For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 7 March 2013 at 1:00pm EST This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit. One Colonial Woman’s World reconstructs the life of Mehetabel Chandler Coit (1673–1758), the author of what may be the earliest surviving diary by an American woman. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, who later moved to Connecticut, Mehetabel began her diary at the age of fifteen and kept it intermittently until she was well into her seventies. A previously overlooked resource, the diary contains entries on a broad range of topics as well as poems, recipes, folk and herbal medical remedies, religious meditations, financial accounts, and even some humor. An extensive collection of letters by Mehetabel and her female relatives has also survived, shedding further light on her experiences. It is clear from the surviving writings that Mehetabel lived a rich and varied life, not only running a household and raising a family, but reading, writing, traveling, transacting business, and maintaining a widespread network of family, social, and commercial connections. While her experiences were circumscribed by gender norms of the day, she took a lively interest in the world around her and played an active role in her community. Mehetabel’s long life covered an eventful period in American history, and this book explores the numerous—and sometimes surprising—ways in which her personal experiences were linked to broader social and political developments. Michelle Marchetti Coughlin is an independent scholar and former editor who holds graduate degrees in history and English and American Literature. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 28 February 2013 at 1:00pm EST This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Ingrid Grenon, author of Down East Schooners and Shipmasters. Nothing is more iconic of Maine than the image of a majestic vessel—masts raised—gliding through the fog on the dark North Atlantic. From the early days of the search for a Northwest Passage to the quest for the mysterious and illusive Norumbega, the history of Mount Desert Island, Hancock, Bar Harbor and the rest of the Down East area has always traveled on schooners. Now, in the twenty-first century, these ships and their heritage are being preserved, and Mainers are sailing aboard them once again. In this collection, author Ingrid Grenon presents the most important and incredible stories from the decks of Down East’s schooners, revealing how these remarkable vessels and Down East Maine are tied together. Ingrid Grenon was born in Maine, where she grew up in proximity to many treasures of previous centuries. Ingrid currently resides in southeastern Massachusetts, where she owns a small horse farm and is employed by the State Department of Developmental Disabilities. She holds a degree in psychology, as well as a degree in equestrian science, and also has a riding master's degree. In addition, Ingrid has a diploma in horseshoeing science from Oklahoma Farrier's College. She is also a published poet. Ingrid is a member of the Boothbay Region Historical Society, the Somerset Historical Society, the Braintree Historical Society, the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, the Maine Maritime Museum, the Penobscot Marine Museum and the Maine Historical Society. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews James Clark, author of Connecticut's Fife & Drum Tradition. The state of Connecticut boasts an extensive and active community of fife and drum groups. This musical tradition has its origins in the small military bands maintained by standing armies in Britain and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the drum was especially important as it helped officers train soldiers how to march, and was also used to communicate with troops across battlefields. Today fifers and drummers gather at conventions called “musters,” which may include a parade and concerts featuring the various participating corps. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest muster ever was held in Deep River, Connecticut, in 1976. Musician and historian James Clark is the first to detail the colorful history of this unique music. This engaging book leads the reader through the history of the individual instruments and tells the story of this classic folk tradition through anecdotes, biographies, photographs, and musical examples. JAMES CLARK is a founding member of the Connecticut Valley Field Music, a fife and drum band based in Middletown, Connecticut. A true advocate of this music, Clark gives lectures and demonstrations to a wide array of audiences around the state, across the nation, and in Europe. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com  

LIVE: THURSDAY, 14 February 2013 at 1:00pm EST This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews CS Manegold, author of Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North. Ten Hills Farm tells the powerful saga of five generations of slave owners in colonial New England. Settled in 1630 by John Winthrop--who would later become governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony--Ten Hills Farm was a six-hundred-acre estate just north of Boston. Winthrop, famous for envisioning his 'city on the hill' and lauded as a paragon of justice, owned slaves on that ground and passed the first law in North America condoning slavery. In this mesmerizing narrative, C. S. Manegold exposes how the fates of the land and the families that lived on it were bound to America's most tragic and tainted legacy. Challenging received ideas about America and the Atlantic world, Ten Hills Farm digs deep to bring the story of slavery in the North full circle--from concealment to recovery. Manegold follows the compelling tale from the early seventeenth to the early twenty-first century, from New England, through the South, to the sprawling slave plantations of the Caribbean. C. S. Manegold is the author of In Glory's Shadow: The Citadel, Shannon Faulkner, and a Changing America (Knopf). As a reporter with the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, she received numerous national awards and was part of the New York Times team honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 7 February 2013 at 1:00pm EST This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Carla L. Peterson, author of Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City. Part detective tale, part social and cultural narrative, Black Gotham is Carla Peterson's riveting account of her quest to reconstruct the lives of her nineteenth-century ancestors. As she shares their stories and those of their friends, neighbors, and business associates, she illuminates the greater history of African-American elites in New York City. Black Gotham challenges many of the accepted "truths" about African-American history, including the assumption that the phrase "nineteenth-century black Americans" means enslaved people and that a black elite did not exist until the twentieth century. Peterson focuses on the pupils of the Mulberry Street School, the graduates of which went on to become eminent African-American leaders. She traces their political activities as well as their many achievements in trade, business, and the professions against the backdrop of the expansion of scientific racism, the trauma of the Civil War draft riots, and the rise of Jim Crow. Told in a vivid, fast-paced style, Black Gotham is an important account of the rarely acknowledged achievements of nineteenth-century African Americans and brings to the forefront a vital yet forgotten part of American history and culture. Carla L. Peterson is professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is the author of "Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North, 1830–1880. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

This week on Fieldstone Common, Marian Pierre-Louis interviews Stephen Puleo, author of The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War. One of the most shocking and provocative events in American history, the caning convinced the North and the South that the gulf between them was unbridgeable and that they could no longer discuss their vast differences of opinion regarding slavery on any reasonable level. The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War tells the incredible story of this transformative event. While Sumner eventually recovered after a lengthy convalescence, compromise had suffered a mortal blow. Moderate voices were drowned out completely; extremist views accelerated, became intractable, and locked both sides on a tragic collision course. The caning had an enormous impact on the events that followed over the next four years: the meteoric rise of the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln; the Dred Scott decision; the increasing militancy of abolitionists, notably John Brown’s actions; and the secession of the Southern states and the founding of the Confederacy. As a result of the caning, the country was pushed, inexorably and unstoppably, to war. Many factors conspired to cause the Civil War, but it was the caning that made conflict and disunion unavoidable five years later. STEPHEN PULEO is the author of five books, including the bestselling Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 and Due to Enemy Action: The True World War II Story of the USS Eagle 56. A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor to American History and other publications, he holds a master’s degree in history and teaches at Suffolk University in Boston. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

LIVE: THURSDAY, 24 January 2013 at 1:00pm EST This Thursday on Fieldstone Common we will speak with authors and brothers Thomas and William Gilson about their book Carved in Stone: The Artistry of Early New England Gravestones. Gravestones are colonial America’s earliest sculpture and they provide a unique physical link to the European people who settled here. Carved in Stone is an elegant collection of over 80 fine duotone photographs, each a personal meditation on an old stone carving, and on New England’s past, where these stones tell stories about death at sea, epidemics such as small pox, the loss of children, and a grim view of the afterlife. The essay is a graceful narrative that explores a long personal involvement with the stones and their placement in New England landscape, and attempts to trace the curious and imperfectly documented story of carvers. Brief quotes from early New England writers accompany the images, and captions provide basic information about each stone. These meditative portraits present an intimate view of figures from New England graveyards and will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in early Americana and fine art photography. Thomas E. Gilson is the author of The New England Farm, a highly praised book of photographs. He taught black and white photography in Vermont for 17 years ans was managing editor and photographer for the New England Farmer. His photographs havd been widely published and exhibited. William Gilson attended the University of Connecticut, and his writing has been published in journals and magazines including New England Review, Orion, and Poetry Salzburg Review. The Gilson brothers were born and raised in Connecticut. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com

This Thursday on Fieldstone Common we will speak author Juliet Haines Mofford about her book The Devil Made Me Do It! Crime and Punishment in Early New England. Whether it was Sabbath-breaking, blasphemy, or public drunkenness, colonial laws were strict and frequently broken, and those who broke them could expect swift punishment. Laws were designed to reflect Puritan ideas of ensuring God’s blessings upon the community, as well as to tightly maintain order in ways that would benefit the entire colony. Each neighbor had a role in preserving family values and keeping the community safe from “railing scolds,” vagabonds, malefactors, and malefic witches. Some of the ways that seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century New England communities dealt with murder and mayhem seem brutal to modern sensibilities. Today, Joan Andrews would not be forced to wear a T for theft upon her bodice for placing stones in the firkin of butter she sold a client. And Lydea Abbot would certainly not be made to suffer in the stocks for “uttering ten profain curses.” Drawing from early court dockets, diaries, sermons, gaolers’ records, and other primary sources, the chapters in this book investigate crimes like these and illuminate the social and political causes behind legal cases from a time when accused felons often pleaded in their own defense: “The Devil made me do it!” Juliet Haines Mofford is a historian and museum educator based in Maine. Two of her eleven books received national awards . Her feature articles have appeared in the Boston Globe and many other publications. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com