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Good morning, welcome to Today. From back to school to tackling your to-do list, the Today Show is your best start to the day. It's a new season and every morning. We're here to help you take it all off. as the forecast calls for football all across the country.
Blockbuster stars, live concerts, and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening. We're getting back to all of it, and the best way to start is together. Watch The Today Show, weekday mornings at 7 a.m. on NBC.
This is Danielle Fischel from Pod Meets World. Parents, quick question. When is the last time you won snack time? The other day, I handed my son a perfectly portioned Pinterest-level snack and He traded it for a Mott's applesauce pouch. I'm not mad, just impressed.
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or wherever you get your podcasts. Today we have the story of Esther Reed. a woman whom during the Revolutionary War went to great lengths to support the Continental Army. Professor Woody Holton of the University of South Carolina will be sharing with us her story. Here's Professor Holton.
One of my favorite discoveries researching a book on the revolution. was Esther Reed. the woman who stood up to George Washington and After she died, she was plagiarized by Thomas Jefferson, but in a good way. She was born in Britain in 1746, and when she was in her Uh early twenties. She met a young man who was in Britain.
for a legal education. His name was Joseph Reed. And he was from America. And they two fell in love. the two of them married and they moved back to America together.
In seventeen seventy And so one of the amazing things about Esther Reed is just four years after moving to America. We have the first Continental Congress meeting In Philadelphia, And a bunch of the delegates had dinner. with Esther and Joseph Reed. And one of them pronounced her a daughter of liberty. That is, she had already become a.
a solid enthusiastic patriot. for the American cause, even though she'd only lived in America. for four years. Her husband Joseph was also a great patriot. He became a secretary.
to George Washington and then Adjutant General. in the Continental Army. But that's also what got Joseph in trouble, because In seventeen seventy six, George Washington as Commander in Chief. made a mistake. We should have evacuated a fort called Fort.
Washington on the Hudson River. in what's now New York City. And Washington didn't, and the fort was captured with 6,000 men in it. Reed wrote a letter. criticizing his commander-in-chief, George Washington, and to his great chagrin, George Washington Accidentally on purpose opened this letter and saw that his protege Joseph Reed was Criticizing.
Yeah, and it really put a real paw in their relationship. They continued to work together, Washington and Joseph Reed. in seventeen seventy nine Joseph Reed became the president of Pennsylvania. That was the highest office. in this new state of Pennsylvania, during the American Revolution.
But I want to take you to the spring of seventeen eighty which was the real low point. of the Revolutionary War. Near where I live, down in Charleston, South Carolina, the British captured not only the town. of Charleston, but of 6,000 man. continental Army And There were problems internal to America too.
The soldiers hadn't been paid. And they weren't getting their The required amount of food or proper uniforms, and so. As George Washington put it, there was mutiny and dissension. throughout the army. I mean, one of the most amazing incidents of desertion was A bunch of Continental soldiers.
They are fighting for liberty, but they've just had enough. And so they mass deserted, and we're going to. Uh this was in upstate New York. and they were gonna go to a British fort up near Canada. and desert to the other side.
And their commanding officer had to resort to sending Oneida Indians, they're one of the six nations of the Iroquois, to go capture these Americans who had. Tried to desert to the British. and the Ornidas did catch up with them and killed. Uh thirteen of them.
Some escaped, some were brought back. uh to face justice. It was dark days, and in one sense, it was literally dark days because there was a A weird thing that happened in the heavens. of 1780. Uh the in the middle of the day The sky went dark.
And people knew from their almanacs when There was going to be an eclipse, and this was not an eclipse. It just suddenly went dark, and the whipper wheels.
Sounded and the cocks crowed, and all that. And many people believed, oh my god, we're having darkness in the middle of the day. This is the end of the world. And sort of made sense given that. how bad things were going.
For the patriot side. Um it eventually went away and historians think that what really had happened was um forest fires up in Maine. um had put so much smoke into the air that it blackened uh the sky. farther south. it really sort of symbolizes that these were dark days for the Americans.
And this is where Esther Reed becomes part of the story. He wanted to do something to improve the morale. of the soldiers that were Already enlisted. And so she came up with this idea of getting the women of Philadelphia. Door to door.
and raise money and then divide it up among the troops as a special gift. Among the soldiers. And it just is a way. of telling them that they Had not been forgotten. That was her great fear: was that, you know, and this happens a lot in our country as well as other countries.
people who are not having to go fight the war forget about. the troops and she really wanted them to know that they were remembered. But she had a problem in organizing this effort. And that was that women in those days, or at least ladies in those days, weren't supposed to go out knocking on strangers' doors. They really weren't supposed to be in the street.
Alone. And you've been listening to Woody Holton. of the University of South Carolina. Share with us the story of Esther Reed, and he's setting the table. And people who think we're facing hard times today just don't understand.
what hard times were. and how what our troops were going through.
Well We could have lost it. They could have just left. and efforts like this from S the Read. Change the game, change the calculus, the morale of the troops. Think about it.
They weren't paid. And indeed they were deserting en masse. When we come back. More of this remarkable story of Esther Reed, the story of the founding of our country and our first war. and our first Civil War here.
on our American stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America's rich past. Know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture, and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College. a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life. and all the things that are good in life.
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Call 1-800Lifelock and use promo code iHeart or go to lifelock.com/slash iHeart for 40% off. Terms apply. This is Bethany Frankl from Just Be with Bethany Frankl. You begged, they listened. After years of customers asking for it, Barkbox finally put together a collection of their most um questionable toys.
The Bark After Dark collection is for all the booty sniffers, tail chasers, and leg humpers. Very spicy, deeply suspect, and one that you definitely can't open at work.
So, however, your dog likes to play, there's no judgment here. Join Barkbox now to get the Bark After Dark collection delivered discreetly to your door and let the panting begin. Subscribe today at bark.co and get double the bark after dark goodies in your first box. You heard it before many times. Water is life.
But do you know that almost half of the homes on the Navajo Reservation do not have clean running water? With your support, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School is ready to give water to Navajo families.
So we invite you to help provide this precious gift of life to those in need. Contrary to many average Americans, Navajo families survive on just 10 gallons of water per day. You can help support St. Bonaventure's water delivery program by going to stbonaventuremission.org. Good morning, welcome to Today.
From back to school to tackling your to-do list, the Today Show is your best start to the day. It's a new season and every morning, we're here to help you take it all off. as the forecast calls for football all across the country. Blockbuster stars, live concerts, and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening.
We're getting back to all of it, and the best way to start is together. Watch The Today Show, weekday mornings at 7 a.m. on NBC. And we continue with our American stories. We've been listening to Professor Woody Holton.
of the University of South Carolina share with us the story of Esther Reed. That's it. British, but moved to America after marrying her patriot husband, Joseph Reed, who would, by the way, become the president. of Pennsylvania. The Patriots had experienced some devastating losses in the war, and Esther had begun to worry about the morale.
of our troops.
So she decided to raise money for them. and was encouraging other women to do the same back, Again, as women back when women did not knock on doors. Let's return to Woody. Um She had to sell them on the idea of doing this.
So she published this extraordinary thing. In the newspaper called Sentiments of an American. Lady. uh where she made the case that American women Just like American uh Then were born for liberty. And she also cited examples.
Of role models, you could say, of women in history who had Stepped out and made serious changes. And she mentioned, for instance, Elizabeth, who was one of the most powerful monarchs that England had ever had. the example of Catherine the Great. of Russia, another powerful woman. And she used an an interesting expression in her essay, Esther Reed did.
to describe what Catherine the Great. And what Elizabeth I had done, and that was, she said they had extended the empire of liberty. She asked to read was the first person ever to use that phrase. Empire of Liberty. Ah.
For an earthly matter. That is, people had used Empire of Liberty. as a euphemism, the expression for heaven.
So she wrote she published this essay. And got a lot of other women involved. They had a committee of 39, that is, three. uh representing each of the 13 states and they raised a ton of money. Everything's going pretty well with the fundraising.
Until Esther Reed wrote Commander-in-Chief George Washington saying, okay, we've raised all this money. Uh we need to figure out the practical matter. Reduction involved, Martha Washington. in distributing the money. to the troops.
And George Washington wrote back saying, hold on. I know my men. These are mostly guys in their 20s, some younger than that. And if you give them cash money, They're going to go out and blow it. on liquor.
And so, not only will they not have anything of value for that. But I'll have a drunken army to confront. The British with, and so I don't want direct gifts of cash to the soldiers. Here's what I want you to do instead. I want you to go out and buy a bunch of cloth.
Linen cloth, and you women use that cloth to sew shirts. for the soldiers. And Esther Reed wrote back saying, Well, we don't want to do it that way because We don't want to give the soldiers something they need. We want to give them something they want. That is The Army owes uniforms, including shirts.
To its soldiers. And so it's your job, George Washington, she was saying as tactfully. as she could. He was a very intimidating guy even then. It's your job to provide the clothing for the soldiers.
So we don't want to give them something that they're supposed to be getting anyway. We want to give them something nice.
Well, George Washington wrote back saying, Shirts. It should really be shirts.
So she did give in and said, Okay, we'll make the shirts. One of the things I discovered was: yes, she gave in on the shirts, but she didn't give in on another matter. And That involves knowing that Pennsylvania politics was very divided. It wasn't Republicans and Democrats then. It was Republicans.
And constitutionalists, and a very different Republican Party from the one we have today. Those were her. Husband's enemy. He was a member of the Constitutionalist Party. Anyway.
Washington had said Hey, I want you to buy cloth with this money, but I want you to put the money in this new bank, a private bank. Started by A bunch of these Republican politicians in Pennsylvania. And she wrote back basically saying, But you know, this thing was started by my husband's enemies. And if I put the money in there, they're going to give me banknotes and returns with IOUs. And that money will be worth less than the money that I.
Put in, and that's that's going to hurt my cause, and so. She stood up to George Washington. She said, No, that makes her a very rare person. You know, she was only 33 years old standing up to George Washington, and ladies were not supposed to do that. But they collect all this money, they spent it on cloth, and then did comply with what Washington Desired about the shirts, and the women ended up making two thousand.
Church to give to Continental soldiers. And one of the fun little flourishes is that. Each woman Sewed her name into the back of the shirt so the soldier would know that there was one particular woman who had done this for him. And Again, her whole point was to show that they were the men were. The saddest part of this story comes on September 18th, 1780, when they're right in the middle.
of selling these shirts and when she suddenly came down with attack of dysentery. Uh and died. uh on September 18th of 1780 uh at the age of only thirty-three. Uh campaign continued without her. One other thing to say about uh as to Reed's death is that Generally, when women died in those days, if they were famous, like her, she's the the wife of the highest official in the state.
They'll put an obituary, but they're always very general and really interchangeable. Oh, she was a wonderful wife, wonderful mother, but nothing specific about them. But when she died, They did do the generic obituary, but then they also specifically talked about this amazing effort that she had done on behalf of the soldiers. And in fact, The newspaper speculated that One reason Yeah. Imposing on herself.
too great. Apart. of the task. Like 7,000 soldiers who died of British bullets and Another 20,000 soldiers who died of disease during the war. In a sense, she had given her life.
for the cause. As I said, the effort continued and it's a good thing it did too because On January 1st, 1781, just a couple months after she died, There was a mutiny. among the Pennsylvania soldiers of the Continental Army, over all these issues like not getting their pay and not getting proper clothing and food. That had been promised to them. And they actually marched.
towards Philadelphia. or most interesting they did to appease the soldiers was The Davids of them are sure. And so many of these mutinying soldiers were was brought back to Being a loyal soldier again, By being given one of these shirts. It has to read. Uh and these other women.
So that's one thing that happened after her death. Another thing is that Thomas Jefferson wrote one of his most famous letters. He of course is most famous for Writing the Declaration of Independence, but Um He's also coined some of the best known phrases. that we use when we talk about the American Revolution today.
So And one of those was Empire of Liberty. He was the first person. To describe the United States as an empire of liberty. And it's an interesting expression because we don't always associate liberty with empire, but he was hoping. that the United States could become an empire of liberty.
But you might remember That when I was talking about the essay that Esther Reed wrote, in June of seventeen eighty, called Sentiments of an American Woman, In that essay, she became the f became the first person to use the phrase empire of liberty. for anything other than as a as a word for as a phrase for a heaven. And She sent that essay to Martha Jefferson, the wife of. of Thomas Jefferson, the governor of Virginia.
So I can't prove this, but I'm pretty sure. that Thomas Jefferson got That phrase, Empire of Liberty, not out of his amazingly creative brain. But he borrowed that idea. from the lake. Esther Read.
And a terrific job on the production. by Faith Buchanan. and a special thanks to Professor Woody Holton. professor at the University of South Carolina. And his book, Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution.
And by the way, the role women played. We talk a lot about that here on the show and will continue to do so. American women were born for liberty, Esther Reed said. Those words would make it. The Jefferson's pen.
and change the world. The story of Esther Reed, here. on our American stories. This Labor Day, say goodbye to spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with washablefas.com, featuring Anibay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing.
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Now through Labor Day, get up to 60% off-site-wide at washable.com. Every order comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Shop now at washable.com.
Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Hi, it's Danielle Fischel from Pod Meets World. You know that moment when you're getting dressed and it's just total chaos? Your kid can't find a shoe, the dog's barking at his reflection, and all you need is a go-to outfit you can trust. If you're tired of options that miss the mark, let me put you on to JCPenney.
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After years of customers asking for it, Barkbox finally put together a collection of their most um questionable toys. The Bark After Dark collection is for all the booty sniffers, tail chasers, and leg humpers. Very spicy, deeply suspect, and one that you definitely can't open at work.
So, however, your dog likes to play, there's no judgment here. Join Barkbox now to get the Bark After Dark collection delivered discreetly to your door and let the panting begin. Subscribe today at bark.co and get double the bark after dark goodies in your first box. Chances are you've been to the doctor recently and you probably handed over your insurance, your ID, and even your social security number. Your doctor is just one of many places that has your personal info.
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