#158 The Free County of Albemarle
The History of the Americans
Jack Henneman
4.9 • 632 Ratings
🗓️ 30 July 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the early 1660s, a motley crew of free-thinkers, republican veterans of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army, and Quakers would build the freest place in all the English world, the County of Albemarle in northeastern North Carolina. Protected from the north, and incursions by Virginia royalists, by the Great Dismal Swamp, from the east by the treacherous waters of the Outer Banks, and from Indians by the skilled diplomacy of fur trader Nathaniel Batts, the settlers would prosper as small farmers and free tradesmen. Their leaders would include John Jenkins, veteran of Fendall’s Rebellion in Maryland, and a dissident Virginian planter and sheriff named William Drummond. Together they would resist attempts by the proprietors to exert control over their land and lives, and would extend the franchise to all free Englishmen in the colony. This is their story.
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Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website)
Noeleen McIlvenna, Early American Rebels: Pursuing Democracy from Maryland to Carolina, 1640-1700
Lindley S. Butler, A History of North Carolina in the Proprietary Era 1629-1729
Albemarle County, North Carolina
Map of Albemarle County in context
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast episode 158. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and I'm recording this episode on July 30th, 2024, in a secure, undisclosed location outside Tupper Lake, New York. |
| 0:22.7 | Also in a first for the podcast, I'm recording outside. |
| 0:27.5 | It's early in the morning, and I thought I'd try and record out here by the side of a lake |
| 0:32.2 | with birdies tweeting in the background and all the rest of the morning noise, |
| 0:36.8 | partly because it's quieter than it would be in the house once people start getting up. |
| 0:42.3 | It's an old lug, Adirondack camp and the sound passes through the walls like nobody's business. |
| 0:50.3 | Anyway, we're telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning without intentional presentism. |
| 0:58.0 | Before we jump in, a couple of friendly reminders. |
| 1:01.0 | The first is that I will be here in the Adirondacks in upstate New York for my usual summer stint, |
| 1:09.0 | starting, well, now, because I'm here, to August 8th or so. |
| 1:13.7 | If you are in the area roughly described by the triangle formed by Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, and Long Lake, |
| 1:19.8 | and want to get a beer, send me an email or a DM on Twitter, and we'll see if we can't make it happen. |
| 1:26.6 | Second, you could buy all the books I mentioned or anything else you want to buy on Amazon |
| 1:31.4 | through the links and the show notes on the website, not the podcast apps, and I'll get a little |
| 1:37.2 | tip that helps to fray some of my expenses which run several thousand bucks a year. |
| 1:42.5 | I have no plans to monetize this podcast. |
| 1:46.0 | I don't want this to turn into a job. |
| 1:48.0 | But that's a great way for fans to help a little without any additional expense to you |
| 1:53.0 | if you're going to buy stuff on Amazon anyway. |
| 1:56.0 | There have been a lot of dissidents and cranks in our history, founded as we were by revolution. |
| 2:04.0 | We take a certain pride in it. |
... |
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