The Fugitive Brewer

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

African American History And Culture, Tony Cohn, Natural History, Air And Space, Society & Culture, Art19, Smithsonian, Science, Sidedoor, History Of The World, The Smithsonian, Pop Culture, Zoo, Dc, National Museum, Exhibit, History, National Zoo, American History, Exhibits, Postal Museum, Washington, Museum

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A skill for brewing beer and $100 reward for her capture. Those were the clues in an old newspaper ad that got Smithsonian brewing historian Theresa McCulla hooked on the story of Patsy Young, an enslaved African American woman who fled to freedom in 1808 and made a life for herself brewing beer. In this episode of Sidedoor, we follow McCulla as she scours historical documents to retrace Young's life and find out who she was...and what happened after her escape.

Guests:

Theresa McCulla, Curator with the Smithsonian’s American Brewing History Initiative at the National Museum of American History

Mary Elliott, Curator of American Slavery at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Frank Clark, Master of Historic Foodways at Colonial Williamsburg

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, sidedoor listeners. We are really excited to share this true story of an incredible woman.
0:06.0	But, wanted to give a quick warning, it does include some hard truths about American slavery,
0:11.0	including sexual assault and violence.
0:14.0	Alright, here's the show.
0:18.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX. I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:41.0	Like many of us, Theresa McCullough begins her day by reading the news.
0:45.0	But, it's not the kind of news you might be thinking of.
0:48.0	Dieted his plantation in Rutherford County, Dr. Joseph Hamilton, native of the county of Tyrone.
0:54.0	She is reading newspapers from the early 1800s.
0:57.0	For sale, in the village of Chapel Hill.
1:00.0	A teacher wanted in Farmwell Grove Academy, Halifax County.
1:03.0	Married on the 17th at the residence of W.M. Harrison in Franklin County.
1:08.0	Theresa is a beer brewing historian at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
1:13.0	Yes, that is a real job.
1:15.0	One day, she was having a cup of coffee, raiding through these old newspapers on her computer.
1:20.0	When suddenly, an advertisement jumped off the page at her.
1:24.0	It was this column of text under a big title, said $100 reward.
1:30.0	And, as I read it, I realized it was just this very extensive story of a young woman named Patsy Young,
1:38.0	who lived in North Carolina in the early 1800s.
1:44.0	Patsy Young was an enslaved African-American woman.
1:48.0	Her enslaver put an ad in the paper because she had run away.
1:52.0	This was the Raleigh Register in North Carolina.
	...

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