Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 21st, 1807, President Thomas Jefferson has publicly called his own former

Vice President Aaron Burr, a traitor ahead of a much anticipated treason trial.

Burr had been arrested and accused of trying to

round up forces to annex parts of Louisiana and Texas from Spain, perhaps in an

effort to establish his own new republic. So this trial would not only determine Burrs guilt or innocence

but in many ways reshape our democracy and ask some basic questions about what

our young country was so I'm joined as always by Nicole Hammer of Columbia.

Hello Nicky. Hey Jody. And Joanne Freeman of Yale and

backstory and many other things is with us again for this episode hello Joanne.

Hi guys.

This was called the Trial of the Century.

I don't know if anyone's ever counted up how many trials of the century there have been in our various centuries,

but Joanne was that a reasonable thing to call this? How big of a deal was it at the time?

Yeah, I'll say it. I'll stay away as a historian from trial of the century, but I will say, big deal.

It was a very big deal.

I mean, Aaron Burr was a well-known former vice president

and this trial was a big deal,

and the president made it a big deal.

So it was definitely a big deal. I think seven years in by the

way you're not allowed to call anything trial the century it's just way too early to

...