#1541 Ten Things About Dolley Madison

Listening to America

Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Clay Jenkinson and Lindsay Chervinsky discuss the first great First Lady in American history, Dolley Madison. Topics include her attitudes towards race and slavery, her sixteen years as the principal social arbiter and hostess in the new capital in Washington, DC, her relationship with Jefferson and her husband's amazing friendship and collaboration with Jefferson. Plus, of course, that great moment when she refused to leave the White House without the Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington.

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Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to this podcast edition of the Thomas Jefferson Hour about my
0:05.2	conversation with Lindsay Chervinsky and ten things about Dolly Madison.
0:10.3	We all know something about Dolly Madison, the peacock feathers on the turbans and the fact
0:15.4	that she was one million times more vivacious and extroverted than her famous but somewhat
0:22.7	doer, husband, James Madison, and of course we tend to know that she saved the Gilbert
0:28.3	Stuart painting.
0:29.3	I've always thought that was maybe unbellished in some way but it turns out that the story
0:33.3	is more interesting than the Kushe.
0:35.5	The war comes to America, the war of 1812.
0:38.2	Madison gets us through it, let's put it that way, but he doesn't handle it with great
0:42.3	heroic style.
0:43.3	There's nothing of the hero in James Madison, he's never going to be a man on horseback.
0:46.7	Even Jefferson is closer to a man on horseback than James Madison, but he gets us through
0:52.3	it and our navy really did wonderfully on the great lakes and Andrew Jackson sort of
0:57.1	mopped up after it was formally over in New Orleans and we wind up feeling pretty good
1:01.9	about ourselves as you would if you survived the juggernaut of the world's most powerful
1:06.0	army in navy but luckily on our home turf.
1:08.7	We know that during this conflict the British came into the upper Chesapeake to the Potomac
1:14.3	and they invaded Washington D.C. and Washington D.C. fled away as you might expect.
1:20.1	And Madison was off in Maryland meeting with his own army officers and trying to spur them
1:26.1	on to protect the District of Columbia.
1:29.6	It didn't happen so the British get off their boats and they come up onto the mall and
	...

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