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Power, Politics, and Virtue in the Early Mid-Atlantic 10/10/25

PA Historical Association program on power, politics, and virtue in the early Mid-Atlantic at the Yorktowne Hotel in York.

Caption Text Below:    

00:00 - All right, everyone, it is 445.

00:02 - So we'll get this panel, underway.

00:05 - We've got four presenters. And,

00:09 - I'm going to introduce everyone upfront.

00:11 - You'll hear the presentations, and then we'll try to have

00:14 - about 15 minutes for discussion at the end.

00:16 - So I think it'll be pretty productive.

00:18 - Our four presenters are going to go in the following order.

00:22 - Taylor Fisher is the Americana Foundation curatorial fellow at the Colonial.

00:27 - Williamsburg Foundation, where she assists with the maps and print collections.

00:32 - She earned a BA in history from the College of William and Mary,

00:35 - and earned high honors for her thesis with a great title, thirst for the Blood

00:40 - of America Violence and Propaganda during the American Revolution.

00:46 - Taylor has previously held positions at William and Mary Library's Special.

00:49 - Collections Research Center, Jamestown Rediscovery, and Rare Book School.

00:55 - Griffin Godoy earned his undergraduate degree

00:58 - in secondary social studies education from Temple University

01:01 - and like me, is a fellow Golden Ram from West Chester.

01:05 - University, where he earned his master's degree.

01:08 - His research focused

01:09 - on piracy in the late 17th and 18th centuries.

01:12 - And Griffin is currently a social studies educator in Delaware.

01:16 - Daniel McGarrett.

01:18 - Yes. Yes. Thank you.

01:20 - As a fourth year PhD student at UC Riverside,

01:24 - broadly interested in early modern political thought and intellectual

01:28 - history, his dissertation examines the founding of colonial Pennsylvania

01:32 - through the lens of a wide range of internal as well as external negotiations.

01:38 - And last but not least, Valerie Long is the manager of school programs

01:41 - at the York County History Center and an adjunct professor in the Department

01:45 - of History, Politics and International Relations at Messiah University.

01:50 - She received her M.A.

01:51 - and PhD in classics from the University at Buffalo.

01:55 - Is that the State University at Buffalo, Buffalo state?

02:00 - The university?

02:01 - I'm making fun of the Suny system and all the arts and names and things,

02:06 - I don't know. So sorry. Sorry. Nothing.

02:09 - She also has a BA in Latin,

02:11 - Classical studies and Classical archeology from Hunter College, as well as a B.A.

02:16 - in history from Albright College since 2014.

02:19 - She has been part of the archeological team

02:20 - that's worked on the Italian island of Stromboli,

02:23 - where she currently serves as their glass specialist.

02:26 - So, thank you.

02:29 - For my bad joke during the introduction.

02:32 - And we'll go ahead with the presentations.

02:43 - Hi, everyone.

02:44 - Thank you all for still coming out at 445.

02:50 - Okay.

02:51 - See which clicker. Good.

02:54 - Okay.

02:56 - In 1747, these three maps were bound within the sheets

03:00 - of a bill in the Chancery of New Jersey at the suit of John, Earl of stare.

03:05 - A book containing the lengthy legal argument of the East Jersey proprietors.

03:11 - While the titles of map number one, number two,

03:13 - and number three don't exactly inspire fascination.

03:16 - These maps contain the story of an 80 year land dispute

03:19 - and were published entirely in the British North American colonies.

03:27 - In the early to mid 18th century.

03:29 - American geographers collected surveys, land deeds and other information,

03:34 - and sent this data to London for maps to be compiled, drawn and engraved.

03:38 - Map publishing was a highly specialized trade

03:41 - that required a combination of artisans and infrastructure

03:45 - that American cities lacked until the 1750s.

03:49 - At this early stage in American mapmaking,

03:52 - how did domestic production occur and why?

03:55 - What were the arguments and circumstances of the land dispute that warranted

03:59 - this early printing of American made maps?

04:05 - I argue that the creation of the Bill and Chancery maps

04:08 - was an inter colonial effort, with publishers relying on artists

04:12 - and networks and New Jersey's advantageous location

04:15 - between port cities.

04:18 - The proprietors argument localized the land dispute,

04:21 - making colony based production politically and economically practical.

04:27 - This presentation will investigate the production of these maps

04:30 - and the land dispute surrounding their creation.

04:34 - In the early

04:35 - 1740s and ambitious New York City lawyer decided

04:39 - to resolve a longstanding land dispute in Elizabethtown, new Jersey.

04:43 - James Alexander spearheaded the creation of a bill that promoted the land

04:47 - claims of the East Jersey proprietors over those of local farmers.

04:52 - The suit was brought by the Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division

04:56 - of New Jersey, a group of proprietary agents and purchasers

05:00 - of proprietary owned tracts based in the American colonies.

05:04 - For brevity, I'll refer to the board as the Easterners, the proprietors

05:07 - or just proprietors, as the original Scottish and Quaker proprietors

05:11 - were mostly uninvolved with the project.

05:14 - Upon the passage of the Elizabethtown Bill.

05:16 - These proprietors hoped to charge farmers, quit rents,

05:20 - and evict those who refused to pay.

05:23 - After the proprietors began

05:25 - evictions, land claimants rioted and accused them of greed.

05:29 - To defend against these accusations.

05:31 - Alexander proposed the bill's publication

05:35 - alongside text maps, would clarify convoluted

05:39 - land claims and impose a proprietary vision of land possession.

05:45 - In pursuit of his mapmaking endeavor.

05:47 - Alexander reached out to Benjamin Franklin,

05:50 - an intellectual friend with lots of knowledge about printing.

05:53 - After discussing the suitability of producing either manuscripts

05:57 - or printed maps, Alexander decided that

06:00 - the maps cannot be had in this country, done otherwise by hand.

06:05 - Due to the expense of engraving and the lack of capable engravers

06:09 - in the American colonies

06:12 - to complete the task of hand drawing 40

06:15 - maps, Alexander hired Louis Evans,

06:19 - a mutual friend of Franklin's and a Philadelphia based geographer.

06:23 - Soon, however, Evans's hand drawing would not be necessary.

06:28 - James Parker, a New York printer and Franklin

06:30 - partner, secured a deal to reduce the cost of paper.

06:34 - Now, 250 engraved maps instead of 40

06:38 - hand-drawn ones could be produced at a similar price points,

06:41 - and every copy of the bill in Chancery would include maps,

06:45 - with engraving now a monetary possibility.

06:48 - Alexander searched for a suitable engraver,

06:53 - as the only Tolerable engraver in Philadelphia would not undertake the job.

06:58 - Franklin suggested James Turner, a Boston

07:01 - silversmith and engraver.

07:04 - Turner engraved and printed the maps in Boston

07:07 - and shipped them to New York and Philadelphia.

07:10 - From there, book binders inserted the maps within the Bill

07:13 - and Chancery and delivered them to subscribers.

07:17 - Instead of outsourcing to London cartographers.

07:19 - The proprietors employed artisans from the port cities of Boston, New York,

07:23 - and Philadelphia.

07:25 - Easterseals

07:26 - situation as a pathway between these major cities

07:29 - facilitated the project's essential communication networks.

07:34 - This undertaking was not born from the desire

07:36 - to collect and portray new cartographic information.

07:39 - Rather, the Maps publishers aim to reaffirm proprietary land

07:43 - holdings in the Elizabethtown tract.

07:47 - In 1664, England

07:49 - gained control of Dutch New Netherland, and King Charles

07:52 - the Second granted his brother James, Duke of York,

07:55 - the Land of New Jersey.

07:58 - The Duke of York then deeded Jersey to Lord John Berkeley and Sir.

08:02 - George Carteret, who split the tract into East and West Jersey.

08:07 - After Cartwright's death, his executors

08:09 - sold the tract to the East Jersey proprietors.

08:13 - In the 1740s, new Jersey

08:15 - and New York based proprietary agents and purchasers intensified enforcement

08:20 - of their land claims.

08:24 - Local farmers,

08:25 - however, had a different understanding of events.

08:28 - After the Dutch surrender in 1664, Governor Richard Nichols granted.

08:33 - Puritan farmers in New York permission to purchase land from indigenous people.

08:38 - A group of colonists purchased the 500,000

08:42 - acre Elizabethtown Tract from Munsee Systems.

08:47 - Then generations

08:48 - of farmers labored on the land, resisting quit rents

08:52 - and arguing that their farming and tilling granted them possession.

08:57 - Formed in 1720, the Elizabethtown Associates, comprised of leading local men

09:03 - who represented the interests of Nonproprietary land claimants.

09:08 - When three Muncie systems

09:10 - sold the Elizabethtown tract, indigenous people in Muncie country

09:14 - were suffering from decades of war and European brought disease.

09:19 - By selling land, they sought to support trade and create

09:23 - a buffer zone between them and their Dutch allied indigenous enemies.

09:28 - By the 1740s, ravaged by disease and war,

09:32 - most Munsee people no longer lived in East Jersey.

09:35 - Many had migrated westward to the Ohio and Allegheny.

09:38 - Valleys, but retained their hunting and fishing rights.

09:41 - Frequently traveling back to their homeland.

09:45 - A central aim of the Bill in Chancery was to invalidate

09:49 - the land deeds farmers had purchased from Munsee leaders.

09:53 - Asserting Royall land claims, they argued that the land

09:56 - was discovered by agents of the Christian English monarchy,

10:01 - and the natives had no rights to deed land to English farmers.

10:05 - Citing lock,

10:06 - proprietary lawyers insisted that the laws of the community prohibited

10:10 - land purchases from natives, making the deeds criminal, penal and void.

10:16 - The proprietors alleged that indigenous

10:18 - people lacked conceptions of land ownership,

10:22 - as they had sold their homelands for some bottles of rum, unquote.

10:28 - The proprietors scrutinized the ability of a farm named Martineau

10:32 - to sell the tract, as he had

10:33 - previously sold the land to a Dutch subject ten years prior.

10:37 - Montana, the proprietors argued, could not sell the same tract of land twice.

10:42 - Therefore, the Elizabethtown associates Indian deeds were invalid

10:46 - and overruled by royal land claims.

10:50 - In response, the Elizabethtown Associates argued that indigenous

10:53 - land purchases were essential to English settlement in the Americas,

10:57 - as these purchases secured peace and prevented war with the natives.

11:03 - The associates acknowledged that King.

11:06 - Charles the Second possessed a right of preemption, with the ability

11:10 - to grant a colonial subject permission to purchase land from Native Americans.

11:15 - Still, the unjust deprivation of property was

11:20 - contrary to the laws of nations.

11:23 - The municipal laws of England and the spirit and temper of Christianity,

11:28 - unquote, in line with the standards of English law and Christianity.

11:33 - The proprietors needed to have conquered indigenous nations

11:36 - or purchased land from them.

11:40 - The Bill and Chancery maps

11:41 - support the proprietors version of land ownership.

11:45 - Map number one claims to depict the region in the mid-17th century,

11:49 - when Puritan farmers purchased the Elizabethtown Tract.

11:52 - The map depicts English, Dutch, and Swedish colonial outposts,

11:58 - erasing Munsee Lenape holding the Shawnee and other indigenous nations.

12:03 - The map's erasure of indigenous land ownership supported the proprietors

12:07 - arguments that European land claims superseded indigenous deeds.

12:14 - Map number

12:14 - two focuses on the Elizabethtown tract,

12:18 - seeking to further invalidate the farmer's Indian deeds.

12:22 - The mapmakers sectioned off the greatest part

12:26 - of the lands in question, unquote, with a yellow boundary.

12:31 - This area referred to land Matondo previously sold to a Dutch subject,

12:36 - contending that the earlier purchase invalidated

12:39 - the 1664 Elizabethtown in the indeed.

12:44 - Fully organizing the mess of Elizabethtown land claims.

12:49 - Map number three portrays orderly lines of surveyed property tracks

12:53 - disregarding any other land claims.

12:58 - Many lots are sectioned off

13:00 - and labeled with numbers, names, and acres.

13:03 - With this organized, proprietary vision of Elizabethtown, Town.

13:06 - Map Number three exerted control over the disputed lands.

13:12 - American map production was financially and politically logical,

13:16 - because the Board of Proprietors situated

13:18 - the land conflict as internal to the American colonies.

13:22 - Instead of proprietary interests based in the British Isles,

13:25 - board members resided in New York and New Jersey.

13:28 - While the rhetoric of royal authority was useful,

13:31 - the proprietors discouraged the involvement of King George the Second

13:35 - and brought the case to new Jersey courts, not London ones.

13:40 - This conception of the conflict

13:42 - as a local issue called for domestic production.

13:47 - Ultimately,

13:48 - the Elizabethtown bill was never adjudicated in court.

13:51 - While waiting upon a legal response from the Elizabethtown Associates.

13:56 - Many of the influential proprietors died,

13:58 - with the major agitators dead.

14:01 - The project of reestablishing proprietary claims

14:04 - was not revived by the next generation and fizzled out.

14:08 - Yet the creation of the bill in Chancery and its maps indicated

14:12 - the rising inter colonial connections that aided American mapmaking.

14:16 - The positioning of the land dispute as local caused domestic production.

14:20 - To save money and support the proprietary argument.

14:24 - The proprietors were motivated to undertake

14:26 - this complicated project due to the large profit potential

14:30 - if they succeeded in controlling their land claims,

14:34 - with land ownership as the primary method to acquire wealth

14:37 - and status in the New World.

14:39 - A complicated mapmaking project was an investment.

14:45 - Thank you.

15:22 - Hello.

15:25 - We go.

15:26 - Sorry.

15:30 - My research centered around the Pennsylvania colony

15:34 - and its tolerance of piracy during its golden age.

15:38 - I came about this through my studies at West Chester University.

15:42 - I was interested in piracy and its effects on Pennsylvania in particular.

15:47 - There has been previous scholarship established about piracy

15:51 - in northern colonies such as New York, Maine.

15:55 - And it's used to combat the British Empire

15:59 - gearing towards the, beginning of the American Revolution.

16:02 - So my interest obviously was about Pennsylvania

16:05 - and its interactions between,

16:08 - its colonists and the pirates that visited the colony.

16:13 - My guiding questions about it was,

16:15 - how did pirates interact with the northern colonies?

16:20 - What was the impact on the Pennsylvania colony?

16:23 - And was Pennsylvania complicit

16:25 - in this piracy?

16:29 - What I tried to establish with my thesis

16:31 - for this research was that not only were the pirates of the Golden Age,

16:37 - it included in

16:38 - this dynamic relationship with, pirates or, excuse me,

16:42 - with the Pennsylvania colonists, but it was a mutually beneficial relationship

16:47 - filled with economic, social, and political interactions

16:51 - that cause pirates to settle in the area and to feel comfortable

16:56 - enough to trade their ill gotten goods here in the colony.

17:00 - Mainly for this.

17:01 - We're talking about the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding areas,

17:04 - with its access to the Delaware River.

17:08 - Previous scholarship showed,

17:11 - some interesting facts about piracy.

17:15 - The first thing that I focused on was Kevin MacDonald's

17:18 - piece about piracy in the Atlantic Ocean.

17:22 - He claims that pirate settlements were established

17:25 - all throughout the Caribbean, and also on the coast of Africa.

17:30 - I further this talking about Pennsylvania,

17:33 - and I agree with his assessment that it helped,

17:37 - increase global commerce.

17:40 - Along with this,

17:42 - we have Mark Hanna's assertion that the development

17:46 - of piracy was essential in combating the British Empire

17:50 - and helped assist in the struggle

17:53 - in the American Revolution.

17:57 - Pirates become go from this set of privateers

18:00 - who are battling for the crown to a symbol of resistance and power.

18:05 - And the final historian that I really focus on is Douglas Briggs,

18:10 - who says that, the English power

18:13 - and maritime laws were directly tied to piracy

18:16 - and that these laws develop over time, restricting the colonies

18:20 - and eventually leading to the American Revolution as well.

18:25 - The primary source that I focus on for

18:26 - my research was the general history of pirates.

18:31 - This is a disputed source,

18:35 - among maritime historians, as they are not really sure who created it.

18:40 - What they know about is that it's established in the 1720s.

18:44 - There are two possible authors.

18:46 - The first is Daniel Defoe,

18:48 - which, if the name is familiar, he is the author of Robinson Crusoe.

18:52 - The actual author of this, again, is debated,

18:55 - but on the actual book itself is, I believe it's Captain Charles Johnson.

19:00 - So the author tries to frame themselves as a pirate.

19:04 - Historians debate whether it's Daniel Defoe or Nathaniel.

19:07 - Mist, who is a printer and a journalist at the time.

19:10 - I bring this up because it's important to note that everything that the public

19:15 - and historians base their research off of is this book.

19:21 - Popular media and culture inspires.

19:24 - Peter Pan is based off of the stories in this book.

19:27 - Treasure Island as well.

19:30 - And more contemporary times.

19:32 - Pirates of the Caribbean takes items from this source.

19:37 - And it really ingrain some ideas in popular culture

19:40 - that is going to influence and, you know, be a part of pirate culture,

19:44 - including the jolly Roger flag is introduced in here.

19:48 - Buried treasure.

19:49 - The fact of buried treasure introduced introducing this source as well.

19:52 - And the the idolization of pirates.

19:55 - This is published following Blackbeard's death in the 1720s

19:58 - and is really blows up and sells a lot of copies.

20:03 - You can still pick up copies today.

20:06 - In addition, with this,

20:07 - I also use the Pennsylvania Charter, to argue that it's

20:12 - the colonies established originally and its defense to,

20:17 - not in its main attempt,

20:18 - but one of the subsections to defend against piracy, which we're going to see.

20:22 - That is not the case.

20:24 - They actually allow it and encourage it.

20:26 - Royal proclamations are going to try to combat piracy as well.

20:32 - And as well as letters to the board of the Plantation Trade, which we will see.

20:37 - They're trying to stop piracy in this colony.

20:40 - We also talk about the Philadelphia Annapolis towards the end.

20:45 - I've sub

20:46 - sectioned off this research into six distinctive sections.

20:50 - The first is the golden age of piracy.

20:52 - What were pirates?

20:53 - There's three distinctive waves and eras here that we'll talk about in a moment.

20:58 - Also, the Pennsylvania charter we'll get into.

21:01 - I've sectioned off three specific case studies.

21:04 - The first is William Kidd.

21:05 - He is an very famous pirate.

21:07 - Captain Kidd's treasure is featured in Treasure Island.

21:11 - So we'll discuss him in a moment as well as Henry Avery, the king

21:14 - of pirates and, one of the most infamous pirates, Blackbeard,

21:18 - and his interactions with the City of Brotherly Love.

21:22 - So, to start off, the golden age of piracy is really this time.

21:26 - Following the, publication of the Navigation Acts in the 1650s.

21:32 - The British crown really wanted to cut down on trade

21:35 - and decided that they going to enforce a trading act,

21:39 - which in caused their colonies to only trade with themselves.

21:44 - They could only use British ships, they could only use British crews.

21:47 - And we're going to see an increase of piracy here.

21:50 - It's in this what historian Rebecca Simon refers to as the,

21:56 - buccaneering period.

21:58 - We see this distinct change in piracy where, buccaneers

22:03 - who are originally settlers and agents of the Crown are being used,

22:09 - and they start to phase out of that with the passing of the navigation Acts.

22:13 - So they have these privateering crews who are being hired

22:17 - by the Crown to attack vessels and ships,

22:21 - and they basically tell them you're out of a job.

22:25 - They don't take too kindly to that.

22:26 - They're not going to go back to their normal lives of being sailors.

22:30 - Instead, they turn to pirating and attacking British trade.

22:35 - They found it was the only way to move illicit goods

22:38 - from other colonies and other empires at the time.

22:41 - The second wave is the British piracy in the Indian Ocean.

22:45 - The few case studies that we're going to talk about,

22:47 - two of them are set during this era.

22:49 - You're going to see a lot of pirates

22:50 - go and try to interfere with the trade from India to the British Empire.

22:55 - They're going to attack these ships and vessels and make a run for it.

23:00 - And the final error is the war on piracy.

23:02 - When the Crown starts to really hone down and try

23:06 - to stop piracy at all costs.

23:10 - So with Pennsylvania,

23:12 - we can see in the initial charter that.

23:18 - Penn sets it up as a haven for all religious haven.

23:21 - Right?

23:22 - You can practice whatever religion this is going to apply

23:25 - to pirates as well, and we'll see that in a moment.

23:29 - It establishes the defense of the colonies against enemies,

23:32 - and specifically points out pirates and robbers may be feared.

23:37 - They're going to be in Pennsylvania, and it's their job to vanquish

23:42 - and to take them and put them to death.

23:46 - You know, get rid of them.

23:49 - Pennsylvania does not do this.

23:51 - There is some cases where pirates are arrested.

23:53 - There's some cases where they are thrown in jail and miraculously escaped.

23:58 - Which we'll look at a source in a few slides about

24:02 - the governor at the time,

24:04 - Governor Nicholson of Maryland

24:07 - really believes that the Pennsylvania colony was a smuggling hub.

24:11 - In letters to the Board of Trade of Plantations.

24:14 - He quotes that there.

24:16 - Pennsylvania was the grass to hide their snake.

24:20 - This colony was one that was supporting piracy.

24:25 - And he he was he was very upset.

24:28 - He wanted the Chesapeake River to be the hub of trade in the colonies.

24:31 - And he's noticing that this trade is now going

24:34 - through the Delaware River because it is illicit goods that people are buying.

24:38 - More people are going to start going up there.

24:40 - They can get supplies that they can't get in other colonies.

24:45 - We also

24:46 - see our first case study here with William Kidd.

24:49 - William Kidd is a privateer turned pirate.

24:53 - It's highly debated among maritime historians whether he was a pirate.

24:57 - He has a big court case in England where he.

25:00 - He's actually the center of attention.

25:02 - Most of the sources for Kidd we get from the transcripts

25:05 - from these court cases,

25:08 - and he is going to kind of be in that first era we discussed of,

25:14 - maritime laws or sorry, excuse me, of piracy in the buccaneering era.

25:19 - And he's one of those people that could not let go of raiding ships.

25:23 - So he is going to privateer for the colony of New York.

25:27 - He is going to, hunt pirates in the Indian Ocean.

25:31 - He's hired by the Crown.

25:33 - Eventually his crew gets very bored because they're not finding pirates.

25:37 - So they decide to take a ship,

25:39 - and this is going to mark him as an enemy of the English crowd.

25:42 - He he and his crew lead to,

25:45 - colonies, and he's spotted off the Delaware River.

25:48 - Multiple sources say that they saw his ship.

25:50 - His ship was called, believe it was the fancy.

25:54 - And they spot his ship, and they know he comes up the Delaware.

25:58 - It seems that the consensus is Kidd fleets to New York.

26:03 - The governor of New York at the time, he was close friends with.

26:05 - So he tries to escape there. He's in prison.

26:07 - And sent over to England for, his crimes against the Crown.

26:12 - The rest of his crew end up in the county.

26:14 - Pennsylvania.

26:15 - And we know this because there are arrest records

26:18 - as well as letters to the governor at the time.

26:22 - Governor William Markham.

26:24 - Eventually, four of these pirates are arrested in the colony in the city

26:27 - of Philadelphia.

26:30 - With that,

26:31 - we can see that Pennsylvania is a safe haven.

26:34 - They feel comfortable going there.

26:36 - It's one of the points that they know has already been previously established.

26:39 - Is a city that you can go and trade your illicit goods.

26:42 - Although they are arrested, it is noted

26:45 - in letters from, different investigators that the pirates are free

26:50 - to leave their prison cells any time they want.

26:53 - It was reported that they could be seen walking the streets,

26:55 - going to the markets, leaving a pretty normal life.

26:59 - Right?

26:59 - And Governor Markham explains it as it's just hot weather.

27:04 - It's okay.

27:05 - They're they're just taking a stroll.

27:07 - Getting it out of their system and returning to the jail cell.

27:12 - With that.

27:13 - We'll move on to our next case study, which is Henry Avery.

27:16 - Henry Avery is known as the Pirate King.

27:19 - He launches one of the first large manhunts in the in the globe.

27:24 - Many historians point to him as the pirate that

27:28 - starts causing issues where court cases are sent over

27:31 - to England and colonies to not get their trial in the colonies.

27:36 - He commits a daring heist in the Indian Ocean.

27:40 - He attacks a treasure ship of the new all empire, an ally of England at the time.

27:45 - And we can see that the robbery launches an international manhunt.

27:49 - They go from the Horn of Africa, where they took their prize

27:52 - ship over to Jamaica.

27:54 - They decide to disperse as a crew, and we're going

27:57 - to see a bunch of the crew end up meeting with Governor Markham as well.

28:01 - The King of England issued a proclamation at the time

28:04 - saying that, whoever shelters these subjects of interest

28:10 - or supply, his crew and accomplices will be punished.

28:15 - And we can see that they're marked as enemies of mankind.

28:19 - Now, like I said, they're dispersed across the globe.

28:23 - We see that, one report from a captain

28:26 - at the time claims that the crew members were living near Governor.

28:30 - Markham's, house, and one had even married his daughter.

28:35 - So the connection is very, very close.

28:39 - Since pirates were not only active in Philadelphia,

28:42 - it was also ingrained in the colonial administration at the time.

28:47 - Right?

28:48 - They were marrying members of the colonial administration.

28:53 - We also see another letter from custom agent Robert Sneed.

28:57 - He claims that, again, that Avery's men lived near.

29:00 - Markham and also said that they married his daughter.

29:04 - And that the pirates are eventually arrested.

29:07 - So they're arrested and they're imprisoned.

29:09 - Not far from Philadelphia, a little north.

29:12 - And the idea was, if they're not in the city,

29:14 - they can't be influenced by Markham.

29:17 - Now, what happens is.

29:20 - Sneed ends up going up

29:22 - to this place where they have these pirates in prison.

29:26 - He interviews them.

29:27 - He goes back to the city of Philadelphia and then he goes up the next day,

29:31 - and he finds out that these pirates have broken out.

29:35 - And their jailers said that they had slipped between

29:37 - these tiny wooden planks and escaped that way.

29:40 - Sneed specifically mentions in his letter that the pirates that were arrested

29:45 - were quite burly and large men,

29:48 - and the jailers are claiming that they fit through these tiny wooden slats.

29:53 - They only, they said, they ripped off one and were able to squeeze through.

29:57 - So Sneed eventually claims that Markham was the one that orchestrated this escape.

30:03 - He ends up,

30:04 - addressing Markham directly, and says that he knows

30:08 - there's a good understanding between Markham and Pirates.

30:12 - All right, and he's not so blind that you can't see it.

30:15 - Markham replies that yeah, I've been civil to them.

30:19 - And they've brought in money.

30:20 - That's an advantage to the country.

30:22 - So we can see it's an economic thing for Markham, as well as a close

30:25 - familial connection.

30:28 - Great.

30:30 - Our last case study that we'll talk about

30:32 - is Blackbeard and the City of Brotherly Love.

30:35 - Blackbeard.

30:36 - Towards the end of our, age of pirates here.

30:40 - He is known as the devil incarnate.

30:42 - Was the nickname given to him in the general histories of pirates.

30:45 - If you do not know about him, he used to set fuzes in his beard on fire.

30:49 - So it smoked. And he looked like a demon.

30:52 - And he was

30:53 - spotted in 1717 going up the Delaware River towards Philadelphia.

30:57 - And we know this from a letter from a merchant to the board

31:00 - who says that they have seen pirates,

31:04 - and they were actually boarded by those vessels,

31:08 - and they say that teach was there,

31:11 - which is his actual name and word teach.

31:14 - And that they had known him because they met him

31:16 - in the city two years before and traded with him.

31:19 - Right.

31:20 - So the Pirates, you know,

31:23 - were, actively

31:25 - taking ships on the Delaware River and then fleeing to the city and trading.

31:29 - And this merchant said that they knew ships were coming down to look for them.

31:33 - And the pirates were aware and actually took these ships.

31:36 - Hostages would wait for British fleets to come by,

31:39 - and then they would continue up to Philadelphia.

31:42 - We also see in the Annals of Philadelphia, published in the 1800s,

31:45 - that the traditional story is that Blackbeard and his crew

31:49 - would visit and revel in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.

31:53 - There's a historic site.

31:54 - They're known as the plank House that you can visit.

31:57 - It's believed that the woman who owned

31:58 - that house and operated it was actually Blackbeard's mistress.

32:02 - So we know that Blackbeard visited the city before he owned his own ship.

32:06 - We know that he visited Marcus Hook, which is a little south of Philadelphia,

32:10 - and boarded.

32:12 - Excuse me. And and stayed there.

32:14 - So, in conclusion, piracy has been ingrained

32:17 - in the tolerant community of Pennsylvania.

32:21 - We can see that they are attacking vessels.

32:23 - They're using Philadelphia as a place to lay low,

32:28 - but the colony is going to continue to protect them.

32:31 - They're encouraging pirates to visit.

32:33 - They get ill gotten goods.

32:34 - They get economic resources.

32:37 - One of the things that they end up finding is that Quakers really like the pirates,

32:41 - because they'll trade goods they can't get anywhere else.

32:44 - And in some cases, Quakers actually end up offering pirates, land to live in.

32:49 - So they end up domesticating the pirates in some cases.

32:53 - And we see that Markham's decision to welcome these pirates

32:57 - continues to allow economic growth in Pennsylvania.

33:02 - Although the Pennsylvania Charter remarks that pirates be feared.

33:06 - It's very clear that in the colony, this is not the case.

33:10 - It is a haven of piratical growth.

33:13 - Thank you.

33:26 - Okay.

33:29 - Oh, boy.

33:34 - I think we should ask.

33:36 - Why not? Let's find out. All right.

33:39 - Hi, guys.

33:40 - My name is Danny. It's not on there.

33:42 - First, I want to thank my co-panelists because so far, this has been awesome.

33:45 - Thank you for sharing your work.

33:47 - And thank you.

33:47 - I know this is a big time commitment, so thank you for putting this together.

33:50 - And, thank you to all of you guys out here,

33:53 - for taking the time to listen to us ramble on about some Pennsylvania history.

33:58 - This is a very small portion of what I hope is a dissertation chapter.

34:02 - So any, feedback you guys have, I'll be greatly appreciated.

34:06 - Okay. All right.

34:09 - That work? Hell, yeah.

34:10 - In September of 1688, an old captain of Oliver Cromwell's.

34:14 - New Model Army, John Blackwell,

34:16 - received a commission from William Penn, appointing him governor of Pennsylvania,

34:20 - leaving his home near Boston, traveling through New York and then new Jersey.

34:24 - Blackwell reached Philadelphia in December.

34:26 - If he was expecting the customary fanfare that went along with greeting

34:30 - new civil magistrates.

34:31 - He was surely disappointed.

34:33 - Upon his arrival, the capital city was seemingly deserted.

34:36 - Its streets empty.

34:37 - There was an ominous start to a brief tenure, colored by constant

34:40 - frustrations led by leading Quakers in the colonial government.

34:44 - It was impossible to govern a people who had not.

34:48 - The principles of government amongst them, the old Puritan bemoaned.

34:51 - After only six months in the Quaker colony,

34:54 - he was not simply writing in anger.

34:56 - Pennsylvanians had grinded government to a halt and to restore some semblance

35:00 - of order.

35:01 - Penn removed Blackwell just over a year after his unceremonious arrival.

35:06 - This is the typical story

35:07 - that historians of colonial Pennsylvania tell of Blackwell's, tenure.

35:11 - Gary Nash, Sally Schwartz, Mary Gartner, etc.

35:17 - Ied by Thomas Lloyd, the former president of the Providential Council,

35:21 - a faction of free men resisted Blackwell at every turn, cementing the party

35:25 - politics that would define Pennsylvania's founding years.

35:28 - So I don't want to deny the existence of party politics or limit its importance,

35:33 - to the history of colonial Pennsylvania's, political history.

35:37 - But I do want to sketch out a broader dimension of resistance

35:39 - against Blackwell that more insular reconstructions have missed.

35:43 - For at the same time, Blackwell was being rejected as governor.

35:46 - The English were revolting against their king.

35:49 - Did this revolution in England reverberate into Philadelphia

35:53 - and lend support to resistance against Blackwell?

35:55 - And if so, how did this so-called Glorious Revolution affect

35:58 - government and politics in Pennsylvania?

36:01 - We would be hard pressed to find answers

36:03 - to these questions in the literature about the Glorious Revolution in America.

36:07 - David Lovejoy has an excellent study.

36:09 - But that's mostly confined to New England and the dismantling

36:12 - of the Dominion of New England.

36:14 - Oh, and Stan Watts equally illuminating work shows how a rhetoric of

36:17 - anti-Catholicism spurred rebellions in Maryland and New York and other places.

36:22 - Pennsylvania was not a part of the Dominion, nor exhibited

36:25 - any of the anti popery that fueled resistance in the neighboring colonies.

36:29 - Nevertheless, I'm arguing the Glorious Revolution

36:31 - did impact politics and resistance in, Pennsylvania.

36:35 - It did not lead to open rebellion, but rather for a brief moment,

36:39 - paradoxically, that united Quakers and non Quakers in the provincial Council

36:43 - against Blackwell.

36:49 - On the 13th of April,

36:51 - 1689, Blackwell received a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury,

36:55 - who was serving

36:55 - as secretary of State in the post revolutionary government in England.

36:59 - This was no trivial letter introducing the new monarchs to the colonies.

37:03 - Instead, it gave notice that the king had, quote, directed all necessary

37:07 - preparations to be made for a speedy war with the French king since the French War,

37:12 - in apparent violation of the treaties between the two crowns.

37:16 - For Quakers being committed pacifists, any call to arms was problematic.

37:21 - But when the governor asked the members of the provincial council for advice

37:24 - on the matter, the first to speak, John to.

37:26 - Hayes made no appeal to Quaker conscience, but rather, quote,

37:30 - he would not act as a magistrate until he knows who is king.

37:34 - His fellow councilor, Griffith Jones explained

37:37 - the question had serious consequences if Pennsylvania

37:41 - proclaimed William of Orange King and acted on his behalf

37:44 - before having sufficient proof that he was indeed king.

37:47 - Jones argued then, quote, we may run ourselves into danger.

37:51 - It is our part and enough for us to obey the king's authority when we have it.

37:57 - This was a paramount issue for the colonies in the 1680s,

38:00 - as colonial charters had come under attack by imperial officials

38:03 - seeking to reduce the colonies under a greater dependance on the crown.

38:07 - Multiple colonies, especially in New England, faced writs

38:10 - of quo warranto, a legal proceeding that challenged the standing of a charter.

38:13 - Over the previous two decades.

38:15 - Blackwell knew these proceedings well.

38:17 - Massachusetts had its charter revoked by quo warranto in 1684,

38:21 - and then rolled into the Dominion two years later,

38:23 - all while Blackwell lived in the colony.

38:26 - The governor of the Dominion,

38:27 - Edmund Andros, even halted Blackwell's project for a colonial bank,

38:31 - which incidentally helped spur the captain to accept Penn's offer.

38:36 - This is a vital context for understanding Blackwell's heavy hand in governance.

38:40 - On the very first council meeting that Blackwell called,

38:42 - he questioned whether Pennsylvania had violated the Navigation Acts,

38:45 - a series of laws passed by Parliament to control colonial trade.

38:49 - The Pennsylvania Charter stipulated that the colony must abide by such laws.

38:53 - However, in 1689 the Navigation Act still permitted intra colonial trade.

38:59 - On those grounds, a councilor argued that the laws of England allowed,

39:02 - and it was common practice of all the plantations to trade with each other.

39:07 - Nevertheless, Blackwell continued to attack local Pennsylvania law,

39:10 - arguing as Penn instructed, to let the laws expire and that he should

39:14 - govern only from the fundamental laws of Pennsylvania's Constitution

39:18 - and English law, which was not a pen instruction.

39:22 - Unsurprisingly, many in the Council viewed such arguments

39:25 - as arbitrary rule from a religious and political outsider.

39:28 - However, at this point, Blackwell received some support from non Quaker councilors.

39:33 - Indeed, the same Griffith Jones as before backed Blackwell

39:37 - against his arch rival Thomas Lloyd, saying, quote, it is the King's authority

39:41 - that is opposed and looks to me as if we were raising a force to repel.

39:47 - When it came to the issue of proclaiming the King.

39:49 - However, Jones and most of Blackwell's other supporters flipped sides.

39:54 - Part of the issue for Jones to Hayes and other previous supporters of Blackwell

39:58 - was that Pennsylvania had received no official order to proclaim William.

40:02 - Blackwell.

40:03 - However, reminded the Council that they had proclaimed

40:06 - the previous monarch without any such order.

40:09 - In response, Councilor John Simcock argued, quote,

40:11 - King James was by an Act of Parliament voted the heir.

40:15 - Whoever comes in to put him out.

40:16 - Pray, let us consider how he comes in.

40:19 - We have an Act of Parliament for the one, but not for the other.

40:23 - Simcox argument is as strange as it is striking.

40:26 - Why did.

40:27 - Pennsylvania need an Act of Parliament to feel secure about declaring William?

40:31 - And why did this issue cause the likes of Jones and Hayes to distance

40:34 - themselves from Blackwell?

40:37 - Now, we

40:37 - could chalk the Council's rhetoric about an Act of Parliament

40:40 - up to just another attempt to frustrate Blackwell.

40:43 - This does not explain, however, why certain members

40:46 - would flip on the governor,

40:48 - suggesting something larger was at play than just party politics.

40:52 - And now this is where, hopefully I don't lose people.

40:55 - What I want to argue is that the answer to this question revolves

40:58 - around the complicated relationship between the colonies and the Crown.

41:02 - For context, when Secretary of the Virginia.

41:04 - Company, Edward Waterhouse, wrote in the early 1620s

41:07 - that King James the First authorized a group of his subjects to quote

41:11 - go on in the plantation of his lawful and rightful Kingdom of Virginia.

41:15 - He was stating the prevailing view that colonies were distinct kingdoms or states.

41:20 - Colonies within this understanding were under the sovereignty of the monarch.

41:24 - Yet its governance was separate from English institutions.

41:27 - The king, therefore, was the head of multiple body politics.

41:30 - The English Empire was multi territorial.

41:33 - This idea, however, came under increased scrutiny after the English.

41:36 - Civil Wars and Thomas Hobbes radical new theory of state sovereignty.

41:40 - In response to those calamities

41:43 - and one of his more colorful passages, Hobbes argued that, quote,

41:46 - the great number of corporations, which are, as it were, many lesser commonwealths

41:51 - in the bowels of a greater like worms in the entrails of a natural man.

41:55 - Such arguments would gain traction as Charles the Second and then his brother.

41:59 - James sought to consolidate the Atlantic colonies to fill the royal coffers.

42:04 - Nevertheless, the older view retained currency.

42:08 - An unequal league with the foreigner takes not off

42:10 - supreme power, wrote politician Philip Woolrich in 1678.

42:14 - And quoting Thucydides, he argued colonies were as free as mother cities.

42:19 - He continued, quote neither is feudal obligation,

42:22 - any deprivation of sovereignty, since that is but a personal obligation or service,

42:26 - but gives no right to his government who is bound to this observance.

42:31 - War, which was therefore defending the idea that colonies constituted

42:34 - distinct states under a shared sovereign power against the Hobbesian unitary state.

42:41 - This debate played out on the ground in Pennsylvania as councilors resisted.

42:44 - Blackwell.

42:45 - Thomas Lloyd felt so strongly about the threat Blackwell posed

42:48 - to Pennsylvania that he refused to surrender the colony's Great seal,

42:52 - a legitimating symbol

42:53 - to seal as necessary for laws and other official documents to be recognized.

42:57 - When Blackwell asked the council to force Lloyd to surrender

43:00 - the seal, one councilman lamented

43:03 - that forcing Lloyd to give up the seal was, quote,

43:05 - as if a man should borrow a sword to kill another man.

43:09 - For Lloyd and his party, therefore, the Great Seal was the symbol

43:12 - of Pennsylvania's autonomy.

43:13 - Surrendering it was to surrender the colony.

43:16 - Similarly, when Blackwell sought to let Pennsylvania law expire,

43:20 - Lloyd wrote a short pamphlet

43:21 - arguing that such a maneuver broke Pennsylvania's constitution.

43:25 - The bigger threat, Lloyd argued, was that, quote, should free men

43:29 - allow such a power to declaration or ordinance?

43:32 - So granted they do here with give up the power of making laws.

43:36 - Not only was Blackwell breaking Pennsylvania's tradition,

43:39 - he also threatened

43:40 - the colony's designated autonomy by pivoting strictly to English law.

43:44 - Pennsylvania would thus be governed by the English Parliament,

43:47 - turning the Quaker colony

43:48 - into a mere extension of England rather than a distinct polity.

43:52 - However, as we saw from Griffith Jones, such arguments

43:55 - and actions could be construed as resistance against the King.

43:58 - That was, after all, stipulated by Pennsylvania charter

44:01 - that all local laws must not be repugnant to English law, and conferred

44:05 - confirmed by the King's Privy Council within five years.

44:09 - Indeed, Pennsylvania's charter was by far the most

44:11 - restrictive colonial charter composed by imperial officials.

44:14 - In their quest to bring colonies under further dependance on the Crown,

44:19 - Blackwell and his supporters thus operated within this more

44:21 - provincial understanding.

44:24 - It was not the proprietor's power to subject

44:27 - or expose the King's province to the hazards of any invaders whatsoever.

44:31 - Blackwell reminded his councilors and continuing quote

44:34 - so as the said ordinances be consonant to reason, and not repugnant nor contrary,

44:40 - but so far as conveniently may be agreeable

44:43 - with the laws of our kingdom of England.

44:46 - This language of the King's providence and our kingdom of England

44:49 - was a far cry from a discourse of colonies of distinct states.

44:53 - It was from within this view of Pennsylvania as an extension of England,

44:56 - that Jones could paint Lloyd and his supporters as rebelling against the King.

45:02 - The revolution against James the Second in England, however,

45:04 - created uncertainty over who was the legitimate king of England.

45:09 - In this confusion, Blackwell supporters became worried that they might be

45:12 - accused of the same rebellious action they levied at Lloyd's party.

45:16 - Simcock, a Quaker and no supporter of Blackwell,

45:19 - was suggesting as much when he mentioned James the Second's

45:22 - essential to the throne was backed by an Act of Parliament.

45:26 - Understanding that Blackwell and his supporters believed Pennsylvania

45:29 - to be a mere province of England, Simcock flipped their arguments against them.

45:34 - Griffith Jones, who once questioned if some in the council

45:36 - were raising a force to rebel against the King of Kings authority,

45:39 - now cautioned that the same authority had not yet been received.

45:43 - When Blackwell forced the council to draw up a proclamation anyway,

45:47 - both Quakers and non Quakers now viewed it as arbitrary rule

45:50 - and a threat to their views of colonial politics.

45:54 - When Maryland, New York and New England

45:56 - overthrew their governments by force in 1689,

45:59 - they attempted to legitimate their actions

46:01 - by appealing to the regime change in England and Pennsylvania.

46:05 - However, the Glorious Revolution also legitimated resistance, but paradoxically,

46:09 - briefly united factious parties in the council against the governor.

46:13 - Seeing that he had no more friends in the government, Blackwell wrote to pen

46:16 - a few days after the debates over the proclamation of the King,

46:20 - asking the proprietor to accept his resignation.

46:23 - Blackwell had held support

46:25 - from those who viewed his actions as sanctioned by authority.

46:29 - When the revolution in England confused that authority,

46:31 - the old Puritans fate was sealed.

46:34 - That's it. Thanks.

46:59 - Is this right here?

47:01 - This one.

47:02 - Okay.

47:03 - All right. Well, he is getting that setup.

47:04 - I'll do my blanket. Thanks.

47:06 - Thank you, Jay, for organizing and for,

47:09 - ragging on my alma mater, my fellow panelists.

47:12 - Amazing job with with such an interesting and eclectic group of papers.

47:16 - And to all of you, thanks for sticking and out last paper

47:20 - and last session of a very long day. So,

47:24 - thank you.

47:24 - And thank you for people joining at,

47:27 - on the stream BCN.

47:33 - So I can do a little tap dance or something.

47:35 - Interlude here to keep us entertained.

47:41 - Get myself set up here, too.

47:42 - So don't talk to you guys forever.

47:44 - I always enjoy having a captive audience.

47:46 - All right.

47:48 - Sorry.

47:48 - It is no surprise that, given my background,

47:51 - I would be drawn to a topic concerning the classical world.

47:55 - Classical authors have permeated formal and informal education

47:59 - from when they were written to our current day.

48:01 - The influence the classical world has had on the Western world is incalculable.

48:06 - This is especially true in our own country.

48:09 - In the documents, written ideas believed,

48:11 - and even in the blueprints of our buildings.

48:14 - One of the most significant ancient authors was Lucius Mestas.

48:18 - Plutarch is known to us as Plutarch.

48:23 - Plutarch was a.

48:24 - Greek from the province of Boeotia living within the Roman Empire.

48:28 - He wrote his works sometime in the late first to early second century C.E.

48:33 - Plutarch was known for two works his Parallel Lives

48:37 - which were a series of comparative biographies of distinguished Greek

48:41 - and Roman men, and his Morality

48:44 - which were a collection of essays including topics on education,

48:47 - vice and virtue, virtue, sayings, animals, and so much more.

48:53 - The works of Plutarch have shaped

48:55 - so many great writers and thinkers like William Shakespeare,

48:59 - who essentially retold Plutarch's biographies in play form.

49:03 - His influence also spread to the founders of our country.

49:06 - In fact, of all the ancient authors, Plutarch

49:09 - was the most referenced of the founding era.

49:12 - We can see that.

49:13 - And, we can see the words of Plutarch in the various works of Benjamin Franklin,

49:18 - James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton,

49:21 - and perhaps even in John Adams letter

49:24 - to James Warren on December 17th, 1773, after the Boston Tea Party,

49:30 - with a letter opening, the die is cast, a reference to Julius Caesar's

49:34 - pivotal moment of no return when marching with his troops on the city of Rome.

49:40 - The purpose of this paper, however,

49:42 - is to not examine the words of the most some of the most

49:45 - famous men and women in history, although that would be quite interesting.

49:48 - This topic has already been studied in works such as A Companion to Plutarch,

49:53 - edited by Mark Beck, and Geoffrey Rosen's newest book, The Pursuit of Happiness.

49:59 - What I am concerned with in this paper was how the average American

50:03 - would encounter the classical world, and in particular Plutarch,

50:08 - as my research is just at its beginning stages.

50:11 - I have started with only local newspapers, examining

50:15 - the various ways one might come across this ancient author.

50:19 - As a further limiting factor, since I only have 15 minutes

50:22 - today, I've decided to just focus in on York County.

50:25 - This county.

50:28 - My results have left me with 241 Plutarch.

50:31 - References from the end of the 18th century

50:34 - through the entirety of the 19th century and just York County alone,

50:37 - to help make sense of all the data, I have sorted through

50:40 - the references and organize them into four broad categories one.

50:44 - Hey, do you know that Plutarch II to history, according to Plutarch?

50:48 - Three well, Plutarch said it, so it must be true.

50:51 - And for Plutarch's virtues, I'm still workshopping that last one.

50:55 - Open to suggestions for anything clever.

50:58 - For the remainder of my time, I want to share some of the examples

51:01 - I have found, and some interesting preliminary conclusions I can draw

51:04 - from this material.

51:08 - The first category I am considering.

51:09 - Hey, do you know that Plutarch II looked at references to Plutarch,

51:13 - the man himself, and not the content of his work?

51:17 - This by far would be the largest category of Plutarch references.

51:21 - If I were including the countless newspaper advertisements

51:24 - for the sale of his books during both the 19th or 18th and 19th century.

51:29 - This is especially true for the 18th century.

51:32 - If we omit those accounts, we are still left with many examples of name dropping.

51:36 - Plutarch.

51:38 - One of the earliest references found in a York newspaper comes from 1790.

51:43 - And it is certainly an allusion to Plutarch, without ever mentioning him

51:47 - directly.

51:48 - The article is entitled New Biography, and it is a sketch of a biography,

51:53 - even kind of following the way that Plutarch does some of his biographies.

51:57 - The dead giveaway that this author is invoking.

51:59 - Plutarch is by how he signs off as Peter Plutarch.

52:04 - We see this use of Plutarch's name as a pseudonym again

52:07 - 100 years later in the Glenrock Item, another newspaper,

52:12 - which had a semi-regular column called Maryland Line Items.

52:16 - This column records short 1 to 2 sentence blurbs about people's

52:19 - lives in New York and Glenrock, and the author author of this mystery.

52:23 - This work is a mysterious Plutarch.

52:26 - Both of these references require some knowledge of the ancient

52:29 - author to make the connections put forward by both of these newspapers,

52:33 - indicating that there would be at least some cursory knowledge of his works

52:36 - to get the reference a whole.

52:38 - If you know, you know idea.

52:41 - References to Plutarch.

52:42 - The man were also used when praising an individual,

52:45 - or in some instances, cutting an individual down.

52:48 - One example, a phrase, came from the first half of the 19th century.

52:51 - In a January 1831 issue of the York Republican

52:56 - an article was gushing about Washington, even ending with, quote, a future.

53:00 - Plutarch will write a great biography of him.

53:04 - Knowing Plutarch could also be a marker of one's

53:07 - own intelligence or lack of of intelligence.

53:11 - Following William Henry Harrison's inaugural address, the York Gazette

53:15 - presented printed a critique of his speech on March 16th, 1841.

53:20 - The speech was nearly two hours long.

53:23 - And was filled with endless references to the ancient Roman world.

53:27 - The article commented, the very wilds of severe and Scandinavia,

53:31 - Scandinavia agreeably relieved the inaugural and we shall for

53:34 - the future, just lay up our Plutarch and read the messages of General Harrison.

53:38 - Within the same vein,

53:39 - the Wrightsville Star shared Thomas Jefferson's assessment of Patrick Henry.

53:44 - In 1859. Jefferson wrote, quote.

53:46 - His biographer says that he read Plutarch every year.

53:49 - I doubt whether he ever read a volume of it in his life.

53:55 - Sometimes Plutarch was simply used as a source of history,

53:58 - and some of these historical references were used to help your readers understand

54:03 - current events happening around the country and in the world,

54:06 - and the like, sort of purely history.

54:08 - Category examples.

54:10 - There were several topics ranging throughout the 19th century.

54:13 - Plutarch was used to explain so many things, like the true

54:16 - origins of Thanksgiving Day as a religious festival

54:20 - about the history of Alexander the Great's horse, Bucephalus,

54:23 - the melodious sound of Cleopatra's voice, and the origin of the Sphinx.

54:28 - Sphinx and its riddle.

54:30 - Plutarch features as a primary source, and all of these small history articles.

54:34 - One of the honor history comes in the form of a small article entitled.

54:38 - The History of Butter printed in November of 1890, in the Gazette.

54:43 - The entire article seen here consisted of ancient uses of butter,

54:47 - predominantly as an ointment, and we learn from Plutarch that a woman

54:50 - covered her entire body in the substance.

54:53 - This story must have been a hit, as it was printed

54:56 - at least one more time in the Gazette in 1897,

55:01 - and another

55:01 - article published in several York County newspapers.

55:04 - Plutarch was used to add context to an event on the Greek island of chaos.

55:10 - The Ottomans slaughtered up to 100,000 people

55:13 - during the Greek War of Independence in 1822.

55:17 - The article gave background information on the island.

55:19 - Quote Plutarch tells us that for 700 years, not one instance of adultery

55:24 - had there been committed its modern state, how altered murder stocks abroad

55:29 - and the pollution of violating soldiers and the shrieks of their victims,

55:32 - are the sounds and scenes that not invade the soul and quote

55:38 - the added context, I think, increases the horror

55:40 - of this atrocious deed at such a good place.

55:44 - Some of these events occurred a little closer to home, in an 1825

55:48 - article in New York, is that a constitutional amendment

55:51 - was discussed and a passage added from Plutarch

55:54 - clearly showed that the author might have favored no amendments.

55:57 - Quoting from the life of the Spartan Lycurgus,

56:00 - who was responsible for establishing the constitution in Sparta, Plutarch

56:04 - revealed that, like her, guests received an oath from the Spartans

56:08 - that they would not change the constitution until he returned,

56:11 - and then he voluntary went voluntarily, went into exile to prevent any changes.

56:15 - I guess that's one way to prevent an amendment.

56:20 - One of the more interesting ways

56:22 - that Plutarch was used, was sort of as a way of advertising or justifying.

56:26 - And I'll put this in modern terms, pseudoscience.

56:29 - So on one hand, these references could go in the previous

56:32 - category of trying to understand current events, through Plutarch.

56:35 - But they're very specific examples.

56:37 - So I formed a new category for them.

56:40 - In a November 1839 issue of the York.

56:43 - Gazette, an article about exercise was published.

56:46 - Its main claim was that exercise was better than medicine.

56:50 - Some of the author's evidence was from Plutarch's.

56:52 - Lives, particularly that of Cicero and Julius Caesar.

56:56 - Both men were sickly and came to be much stronger

56:59 - and healthier through, through exercise.

57:02 - Admittedly, exercise is good for one's body and probably in the mid

57:06 - 19th century was better than at least some of the medicine.

57:10 - The advice found in and some of the other articles,

57:13 - though, were less scientific and the Glenrock item.

57:16 - In June of 1878, an article on longevity was written.

57:21 - The author lamented that in antiquity,

57:23 - people lived a lot longer than they do currently.

57:26 - He opened his article with a quote from Plutarch saying.

57:29 - Quote Plutarch tells us that the ancient Britons began to grow old at 120 years.

57:35 - The remainder of the article includes other ancient

57:37 - sources indicating people living to well past 100.

57:41 - My favorite lines from the article talked about domesticated animals

57:44 - only living to be a few years,

57:45 - but crows and their ilk lived to be a century, and eagles,

57:49 - according to the Roman historian Tacitus, lived to be 500 years, if only.

57:57 - There are several additional

57:58 - examples that make such bold claims, all while using Plutarch as evidence

58:02 - that since the cynic philosopher Diogenes asked Alexander to the Great

58:06 - to move out of his sunlight, that sun has healing properties,

58:10 - or that one could know about a person's character traits due to how they walk.

58:15 - To quote the articles opening quote, it is Plutarch who says that

58:19 - an action of small note, a short saying or jest, will distinguish

58:23 - a person's real character more than the greatest sages

58:26 - or the most important battles.

58:28 - I do agree with that statement, but I don't think it can be applied

58:31 - to how people walk.

58:35 - The stories and essays

58:37 - of virtuous figures and behaviors in both of Plutarch's text are by far

58:42 - the most highly regarded aspect of his work.

58:45 - So many examples of virtue have been included throughout

58:48 - your county's newspapers in both the 18th and 19th centuries.

58:52 - These ideas are presented very simply, in some cases

58:55 - as various sententious or snippets with no context as seen here.

59:00 - My favorite,

59:02 - are ones that come from the Wrightsville Star,

59:04 - which had a regular column entitled Wise and Otherwise.

59:08 - Some of these bite sized bits are repeated in a longer article.

59:12 - Never too old to learn.

59:14 - We learn, amongst many things, that Plutarch, a native Greek

59:18 - speaker, began to learn Latin between the ages of 70 and 80.

59:23 - This was reprinted at least five times in different York papers

59:27 - and at different times.

59:31 - One of the best examples of Plutarch as a virtue giver

59:34 - comes from an article in the May 24th, 1831 issue of the York County.

59:40 - Farmer entitled The Goodness of Plutarch.

59:43 - This article allows Plutarch's words to speak in a longer form,

59:47 - with very little editorializing from the articles author.

59:52 - In it, we see an excerpt from the biography of Cato the Elder.

59:56 - 897 Cato was a staunch Roman conservative living in the Roman Republic.

01:00 - 04.500 He mourned the loss of the traditional Roman culture

01:00 - 08.914 and advocated for returning to Rome's glory days, when men fought for Rome

01:00 - 11.674 and then went back and worked on their farms.

01:00 - 15.287 Oh no.

01:00 - 17.256 Skipped ahead there.

01:00 - 20.450 The passage chosen for this article does not mention any of this,

01:00 - 25.355 but instead focused on Cato's treatment or rather, mistreatment of enslaved people

01:00 - 30.126 and animals, sharing an opinion that comes directly from Plutarch himself,

01:00 - 34.230 and a rather rare critique of slavery and animals from the ancient world.

01:00 - 35.108 Quote.

01:00 - 38.210 For my own part, I would not sell even an old ox

01:00 - 41.981 that had labored for me, much less what I remove for the sake of a little money.

01:00 - 45.517 A man grown old in my service for his usual lodgings.

01:00 - 50.222 And Cato, however, did sell off old animals and old enslaved

01:00 - 52.958 people that had served him for their entire lives.

01:00 - 56.085 The article closed with a few comments from the author seen here.

01:00 - 57.097 Quote.

01:00 - 00.866 There are a few of us, but may call to mind instances of cruelty

01:01 - 05.904 to the old and worn out may not therefore so illustrious an example of kindness

01:01 - 09.298 and proper feeling for such the productive force of some good,

01:01 - 13.836 by being brought within the visual axis of so many, as look at the farmer.

01:01 - 19.485 Plutarch's works and passages appealed to a Christian audience, and

01:01 - 23.155 there are several references, including some printed sermons in your county.

01:01 - 27.083 Newspapers that use both the Bible and Plutarch as their source materials.

01:01 - 30.229 Plutarch's words were used in support of the notion

01:01 - 33.232 that a good Christian mother ought to remain at home

01:01 - 36.626 through a narration about the Athenian general Themistocles,

01:01 - 39.862 who claims that a woman ruled her husband in the home.

01:01 - 43.075 In 1891, the Reverend George Bowers

01:01 - 46.502 delivered an address at a conference held at a local church.

01:01 - 49.448 The main point of his address was to remind people

01:01 - 51.483 that they should worship and believe in God.

01:01 - 52.419 Besides the Bible.

01:01 - 56.913 He used a quote from Plutarch saying, it is easier to build a city without

01:01 - 01.150 ground for a foundation than establish a nation without a belief in God.

01:02 - 04.763 Reverend Doctor Talmage was another pastor

01:02 - 08.524 who used Plutarch regularly in his sermons published in newspapers.

01:02 - 12.361 His references to Plutarch's are strange to me,

01:02 - 16.975 In one about two brothers who moved to New York City, he shared

01:02 - 21.571 the story of Julius Caesar's assassination and compared it to Christ's crucifixion.

01:02 - 24.316 After Caesar's death, the crowd of his supporters

01:02 - 28.587 was whipped up into a frenzy, similar to how early Christians

01:02 - 32.682 were after Christ's crucifixion with fervor to spread the word.

01:02 - 35.718 That's. Talmage is not my assessment.

01:02 - 38.955 Additionally, in an article in The Strength of God,

01:02 - 41.366 he used another odd reference Plutarch.

01:02 - 44.703 Quote Plutarch says that wrestling is the most artistic and cunning

01:02 - 49.832 of athletic games, encouraging his readers to be cunning wrestlers against sin.

01:02 - 53.679 In a few concluding remarks, I want to offer

01:02 - 57.273 some observations and ideas for where I plan to take my future research.

01:02 - 00.986 It is clear that Plutarch remains an important and influential author.

01:03 - 02.921 Through the late 18th and

01:03 - 05.982 through the entirety of the 19th century throughout your county.

01:03 - 09.895 He was valued as a trusted historic source, and his work contained

01:03 - 11.697 many virtuous lessons.

01:03 - 14.433 I believe that early Yorkers would have been influenced

01:03 - 17.960 by many of these lessons, such as you're never too old to learn,

01:03 - 22.207 or treat people and animals with kindness, especially if they have been

01:03 - 25.768 in one service with many of these topics.

01:03 - 29.915 Well, many of these topics and articles were fun and interesting.

01:03 - 32.251 I find it especially intriguing how often Plutarch

01:03 - 35.278 was quoted in a Christian context, along with the Bible

01:03 - 38.781 at the end of the 19th century, something I plan to explore more

01:03 - 42.628 as I continue to research this topic and look beyond York County.

01:03 - 46.899 I'm eager to see how the articles compare with other counties in Pennsylvania

01:03 - 48.534 and with Philadelphia,

01:03 - 52.061 whether some of the same articles will be repeated and reprinted, like one of

01:03 - 54.072 the one of the Greek island of hills,

01:03 - 56.708 and which ones are unique to each of the counties.

01:03 - 00.179 What I expect to find is that people throughout Pennsylvania, in both the 18th

01:04 - 03.472 and 19th centuries, continued to read and be influenced by Plutarch.

01:04 - 04.673 Thank you.

01:04 - 13.859 Thank you, Doctor Long and the rest of the panel.

01:04 - 16.795 We have a few minutes before the reception, and,

01:04 - 21.023 I don't want to keep me from being there, but, we do have time for questions.

01:04 - 25.294 Does anyone have any questions for the panel?

01:04 - 35.080 Me I do, Taylor, I was thinking about your paper

01:04 - 38.107 and the idea of the, inter colonial effort,

01:04 - 42.445 from the 1720s 30s,

01:04 - 45.123 which is,

01:04 - 49.194 well before we're supposed to have really inter colonial efforts of people

01:04 - 52.989 kind of working together, between colonies for the same sort of purpose.

01:04 - 56.893 And it seems like creating a map, helps create an identity.

01:04 - 00.763 So I was wondering if you've looked at anything,

01:05 - 04.200 or read anything or what your research kind of reveals about,

01:05 - 08.838 what sort of identity is being created if it's an inter colonial effort, are they,

01:05 - 13.352 creating a sort of larger British colonial identity,

01:05 - 17.580 a sort of American colonial identity, or is it,

01:05 - 20.826 coming from,

01:05 - 24.887 a kind of unifying new Jersey thing that is the East-West split still,

01:05 - 28.691 a factor in new Jersey?

01:05 - 30.236 Yeah.

01:05 - 33.362 So that's that's really interesting because I have been like,

01:05 - 37.433 that is where it, leads and where a lot of that inter-communal

01:05 - 40.913 comes from.

01:05 - 45.408 To me, at this point, it seems to be like, very like economic,

01:05 - 49.745 drive to forge these connections.

01:05 - 55.051 So I do think that plays a role.

01:05 - 58.821 Benjamin Franklin plays a huge role.

01:06 - 02.601 Since he's creating print networks.

01:06 - 05.628 So a lot of them have Benjamin Franklin connections.

01:06 - 09.541 So I don't know if that is perhaps

01:06 - 12.969 a separate identity that he really early on trying to,

01:06 - 16.748 I don't know if he has an identity motive behind that.

01:06 - 22.211 It seems to be more of, an economic motive for him at this point.

01:06 - 26.124 So I haven't really read anything about that yet.

01:06 - 29.151 But it's certainly something that I.

01:06 - 37.259 I like what he thought.

01:06 - 39.871 If you can ask why these things

01:06 - 43.032 are quite often people out there and,

01:06 - 46.769 and also I don't, I think, I think,

01:06 - 49.848 these are people, that a lot

01:06 - 52.875 and I often who may compare these,

01:06 - 57.046 we don't need to work on searching with genius.

01:06 - 00.649 I think he's seeing all of nature.

01:07 - 07.556 And so I was wondering first, Brian, if that is equal to the more open

01:07 - 10.960 than other department offers and in particular,

01:07 - 14.606 you just go for more or less,

01:07 - 17.633 you might extend it.

01:07 - 19.778 So that's why that is why I picked Plutarch,

01:07 - 22.872 because Plutarch is, at least again in the founding

01:07 - 27.009 founding era, that he is the most cited ancient author.

01:07 - 30.288 So I figured that might be a good place to start.

01:07 - 33.315 This is certainly a starting point, obviously.

01:07 - 34.626 Getting into this topic a lot.

01:07 - 36.828 It's super fun.

01:07 - 39.097 And I,

01:07 - 43.659 I can't answer whether he's the most cited of the Republican.

01:07 - 45.303 Because he's not actually in the Republic.

01:07 - 47.305 He's are you mean Cato?

01:07 - 48.340 Yeah. Yes.

01:07 - 51.367 Yes. You might if Cato

01:07 - 53.678 that's the only reference

01:07 - 56.672 for a coffee maker.

01:07 - 59.284 Plutarch. Yes, yes.

01:07 - 00.352 I would say so.

01:08 - 05.281 I would say that he is he is, often put forward as, as that kind of model.

01:08 - 06.292 Cato.

01:08 - 09.161 That was like the only reference I actually had of Cato.

01:08 - 15.033 In, in he's not he's not that for not not often for Cato.

01:08 - 19.061 Now, it's actually a lot of, Lycurgus is

01:08 - 21.397 one of the big ones.

01:08 - 25.377 And I saw.

01:08 - 29.338 Camillus not in here, but, I can tell you after that if you're interested. But.

01:08 - 30.083 Yeah.

01:08 - 31.450 So he wasn't actually quoted that much.

01:08 - 34.386 Just the ones, you know

01:08 - 36.621 would encourage you, and it pops into your mind

01:08 - 38.256 after you leave and or at the reception.

01:08 - 41.193 Please talk to the panelist.

01:08 - 44.753 I have a question for does anybody else have a question first for

01:08 - 48.633 this,

01:08 - 51.660 question for the wall.

01:08 - 55.297 Do you know from.

01:08 - 59.335 Actually, especially with you.

01:08 - 02.872 And there were all.

01:09 - 06.885 Rumors that, we're

01:09 - 08.487 hearing

01:09 - 11.256 things and that

01:09 - 15.684 in the episode there was this line, you say,

01:09 - 19.564 and the rage.

01:09 - 21.266 Yeah.

01:09 - 24.293 So I guess I

01:09 - 27.429 and and so we're just,

01:09 - 31.233 so close to

01:09 - 33.445 of my

01:09 - 35.580 friends who you,

01:09 - 37.949 that you may very.

01:09 - 38.217 Yeah.

01:09 - 40.051 So, one of the things

01:09 - 44.389 I noticed about sources is that, there's a belief that in Delaware and Cape.

01:09 - 47.917 Henlopen is where he had buried his treasure on his way up the Delaware.

01:09 - 51.463 So there was a slight frenzy of people going to look for it.

01:09 - 53.889 But, it has never been located or found.

01:09 - 01.573 Dan, a question about the Glorious Revolution.

01:10 - 04.600 My very simplistic view of Pennsylvania.

01:10 - 08.938 And when I teach the course Revolution, this is kind of how I

01:10 - 10.248 talk about Pennsylvania.

01:10 - 12.851 I say New England hated, James the Second.

01:10 - 15.420 So they're, like, on board very quickly.

01:10 - 17.389 Maryland. There's,

01:10 - 19.391 internal rebellion against Lord Baltimore.

01:10 - 22.060 Right? Virginia. There's some upheaval in Pennsylvania.

01:10 - 25.897 Just puts their kind of head in the sand, and then it waits until it's very settled

01:10 - 27.966 and goes. We always supported William and Mary.

01:10 - 29.167 What are you guys talking about?

01:10 - 31.670 We always love you guys.

01:10 - 34.773 So do you see more of a kind of internal

01:10 - 38.476 or external motivation for Pennsylvania hesitance to kind of pick a side?

01:10 - 39.111 Do they see

01:10 - 42.881 the upheavals happening in other places because letters are being delivered

01:10 - 44.349 at different times in different colonies?

01:10 - 47.309 Reactions are happening in different times. Do you see,

01:10 - 49.454 more of an internal or

01:10 - 52.224 external motivation for Pennsylvania leadership to kind of

01:10 - 53.925 be like, well, let's let's wait here,

01:10 - 56.294 because if we pick the wrong side, that could be bad.

01:10 - 57.629 But is there any,

01:10 - 00.656 pushback of like, well, if we don't pick a side that could be bad?

01:11 - 01.834 Yeah.

01:11 - 04.836 I mean, I think it's probably both.

01:11 - 06.738 They do get letters,

01:11 - 10.666 talk and go back and forth about the upheavals of our neighbors

01:11 - 12.611 and what they want to try to avoid that.

01:11 - 16.071 So there's part of this debate, surrounds,

01:11 - 19.385 William's

01:11 - 22.411 declaration of war against the French. And,

01:11 - 27.225 the Quaker party is very much concerned with if we go to war,

01:11 - 30.886 then our alliances with the Lenape will be threatened.

01:11 - 34.390 So they want to avoid that kind of external,

01:11 - 38.994 potential threat to the colony.

01:11 - 42.231 And then, of course, there's that internal black role as a Puritan.

01:11 - 45.477 And that story is told by Nash and others.

01:11 - 47.345 But I think it's a combination of both.

01:11 - 50.372 If that answers your question.

01:11 - 54.886 I've got I've got one for Valerie, too.

01:11 - 59.114 I know you were focusing on, you work 19th century work more so than,

01:11 - 02.894 the American South, but I'm really interested in this idea of

01:12 - 05.063 especially because you mentioned Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

01:12 - 07.866 So I'll say you open the door to this question.

01:12 - 10.702 Plutarch and slavery, and him talking,

01:12 - 13.729 maybe not being such a big fan of slavery, perhaps

01:12 - 16.541 it's just sort of like one of the few.

01:12 - 17.542 It's not even that.

01:12 - 19.577 It's I mean, he's not anti-slavery.

01:12 - 21.146 Plutarch is not anti-slavery.

01:12 - 24.306 He's just sort of like, like grossed out by Cato's.

01:12 - 28.019 But Cato's treatment of enslaved people

01:12 - 31.990 and animals that that Cato like, uses

01:12 - 35.017 them sucks every single drop out of them and then sells them.

01:12 - 38.196 And so Plutarch's like like why I would never

01:12 - 41.333 even treat anything like we shouldn't be treating people like this.

01:12 - 43.868 But he's not saying, like, let's get rid of slavery.

01:12 - 47.563 Do you think that fact that you turn elastic view,

01:12 - 51.009 slaveholders have and slaves have of themselves

01:12 - 52.344 and what they're doing like so

01:12 - 55.337 that their project is actually beneficial to the people they're enslaving?

01:12 - 58.316 I don't think so.

01:12 - 01.343 I mean.

01:13 - 04.389 I don't see that in future.

01:13 - 06.291 Do you see it in, I don't know if you looked at this,

01:13 - 09.852 but 19th century American saying, see, Plutarch says, as long as we're not

01:13 - 11.496 cruel about it, it's fine.

01:13 - 13.031 Oh, I haven't I have not seen that.

01:13 - 16.058 But I wouldn't be surprised.

01:13 - 19.137 I'm just thinking about that because I make my students, debate

01:13 - 20.238 about slavery and they,

01:13 - 23.174 they read a lot of pro-slavery and anti-slavery writings

01:13 - 24.676 from the antebellum period.

01:13 - 27.278 And, if you want someone from a lot of the pro-slavery

01:13 - 30.439 stuff is is grounded in kind of Christianity as well.

01:13 - 31.150 Right.

01:13 - 34.143 And so I would be a more primary sources.

01:13 - 36.521 Thank you. Thank you so much.

01:13 - 40.182 Now, I was just about out of time, so I may have any other questions.

01:13 - 41.827 All right.

01:13 - 42.828 One more hint for our panelists.

01:13 - 50.852 Thank you so much. And.


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