Founding Fathers | The Original Brexit | 3

About this episode

The episode explores the complexities and contradictions of the Founding Fathers during the American Revolution.

Who was the boring lawyer who quietly built the machine that made America work? Was John Adams so relentlessly right that even his allies couldn't stand him? And, how did the man who wrote the most beautiful words on human equality spend decades owning the woman who bore his children? Peter and Afua tear into the contradictions of 1776 — the forgotten architect, the honest man nobody liked, and the wordsmith whose legacy history has never quite known what to do with. 0:00 The original Brexit: what 1776 really was 6:00 John Jay — the unsung hero who built the legal framework of a nation 11:00 The Federalist Papers and the Roman Republic obsession 14:00 Jay's reluctant revolution: the man who wanted reconciliation 16:00 Enter Thomas Jefferson: plantation privilege and the Declaration of Independence 18:30 Jefferson at his desk — and the enslaved people outside the window 21:00 Martha, Sally Hemings, and the relationship history tried to bury 25:00 John Adams: the honest man too competent for his own good 31:00 Rome's collapse, checks and balances, and why they feared what they were building 36:00 Jefferson gave the revolution its language, Jay its structure, Adams its urgency Join…

People in this episode

Hosts: Peter, Afua

Topics covered

• Founding Fathers
• American Revolution
• Historical contradictions
• Legal framework
• Slavery and equality
• Political philosophy

Keywords

• Founding Fathers
• John Adams
• Thomas Jefferson
• John Jay
• American history
• slavery
• political philosophy
• The Federalist Papers
• 1776

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Federalist Papers

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