Life on a Mississippi Steamboat

American History Hit

History Hit

History, America

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's one of the most iconic symbols of early Americana; it conjures up images of bustling saloon bars and Mark Twain. But as glamorous as they may seem, there's a dark side the history of the Steamboats of the Mississippi River.

In this episode we welcome Professor of History at Colorado State University, Robert Gudmestad. His newest book is The Devil’s Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War.

Edited by Rich Power. Produced by Tom Delargy. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 1811.
0:10.8	The newly built steamboat, New Orleans, sits at the waterfront.
0:14.2	Its twin copper boilers, a cacophony of sound.
0:18.5	Pumps thumping, valves shrieking, steam, hissing. On shore, a crowd has
0:25.5	gathered to watch if this strange new vessel will actually work, if it can deliver on its
0:31.1	bold promise to master the turbulent waters of the mighty Ohio. Slowly at first, the New Orleans pulls away.
0:39.8	On board, the passengers, a select group involved in the vessel's construction and finance,
0:45.3	begins to sense the voyage, the slap slap of the huge paddle wheel striking the water,
0:51.1	the deck plates vibrating underfoot.
0:57.3	On the main deck below, firemen fuel the roaring furnace, building speed, moving the vessel past the familiar flotilla of flatboats,
1:04.0	barges, rafts, and keel boats. For men who've spent their working lives at the mercy of the
1:09.6	river's cross currents and fickle winds,
1:12.5	this mechanical behemoth is a wonder, a sight to behold.
1:17.6	Downriver, the Great Ohio will eventually merge with the Mississippi,
1:21.7	with every perilous obstacle along the way.
1:24.6	Snags, driftwood, treacherous sandbars, sudden shoals. But for now, today,
1:31.6	cutting a clean line through the wide brown water, it's all just progress being made,
1:37.4	faster and more forcefully than ever before, here at the dawn of a new age in the heartland of America.
1:57.9	It is very nice to be with you.
1:59.8	Welcome to this episode of American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman.
2:03.8	Back in the early 1800s, as America expanded West, a new technology forever altered how this nation would run.
2:11.4	Never mind the world. It was the steam engine, and advances in this technology allowed it to be applied to shipping.
	...

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