A new interview episode is now available!
Dec. 11, 2022

4.14 - Freedom or Death

4.14 - Freedom or Death

Year(s) Discussed: 1809-1811

As news of Macon's Bill No. 2 reached Europe, US Minister John Armstrong worked to take advantage of the increasingly precarious situation for the French in order to secure a deal with the government of Emperor Napoleon that would restore open trade with that nation. Back in the US, President Madison struggled to address the worsening relations with Great Britain while administration officials in the Orleans Territory dealt with an uprising of enslaved individuals seeking their freedom. Sources used for this episode can be found at https://www.presidenciespodcast.com.

Special thanks to Sean of the Advent of Computing podcast and Alex for providing the intro quotes for this episode! Thanks also to Christian of Your Podcast Pal for his audio editing work for this episode!

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

  • David, Saul. Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999 [1998].
  • Davis, William C. The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc, 2005.
  • Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. Charlottesville, VA and London: University Press of Virginia, 1994 [1971].
  • Leonard, Dick. A History of British Prime Ministers: Walpole to Cameron, Omnibus Edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 [2014].
  • Lovett, Gabriel H. Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain, Volume II: The Struggle, Without and Within. New York: New York University Press, 1965.
  • Madison, James. “Presidential Proclamation, [2 November] 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-02-02-0769. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 2, 1 October 1809–2 November 1810, ed. J. C. A. Stagg, Jeanne Kerr Cross, and Susan Holbrook Perdue. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992, pp. 612–613.] [Last Accessed: 24 Oct 2022]
  • Masterson, William H. Tories and Democrats: British Diplomats in Pre-Jacksonian America. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1985.
  • Rasmussen, Daniel Rapalye. Violent Visions: Slaves, Sugar, and the 1811 German Coast Uprising. 2009. Harvard College, BA with Honors dissertation.
  • Rutland, Robert Allen. The Presidency of James Madison. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1990.
  • Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1998 [1997].
  • Skeen, C Edward. John Armstrong, Jr. 1758-1843: A Biography. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1981.

Featured Image: "1811 German Coast Uprising" [c. 19th century], courtesy of Wikipedia

Intro and Outro Music: Selections from “Jefferson and Liberty” as performed by The Itinerant Band