Hey everybody, Dylan here wishing you a happy 4th of July. Our team is taking some time off to enjoy the holidays this week.

I hope you are too, spending friends and family. Today we have two classic episodes

that we're running back to back

to share about America, about its hidden histories,

about interesting people who have partaken in the American dream in unconventional ways.

First, we're going to hear the story of a kind of revolutionary patriot,

this enslaved woman who sued her enslaver.

And the other, we're going to learn about a group of Native American veterans who developed

this unbreakable code during World War II, and the very unlikely location where their legacy is preserved.

First, we head to Sheffield, Massachusetts to visit the Ashley House.

Our producer, Baudelaire, has the story. Here's the episode.

In Sheffield Massachusetts, in 1773, Revolution was in the air, and Colonel John Ashley was at the center.

He was a local businessman, and he often hosted other businessmen in his home to discuss what revolution from the British

Empire could look like. These men were plotting out the ideals of a new nation.

There's a committee of 12 people who are meeting in this little study upstairs.

They're throwing their ideas around and they're writing it out.

That's Mark Wilson.

He's the associate curator and manager of the Ashley's home, which was turned into a museum.

The Sheffield Resolves is basically a statement of grievances against British occupation.

And they're writing things like, you know, we are slaves to the king.

These white individuals are writing we are slaves to the king but they are slave

holders themselves in fact while Colonel John Ashley was having these meetings in the attic, an enslaved woman he owned was attending to the men.

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