Finally, a history podcast for folks on the go & in the know. Who can spare an hour these days? Give us 20 minutes, and we'll inform and entertain you! From Stratford Hall Historic Preserve in Westmoreland County, Virginia, join Director of Research Dr. Gordon Blaine Steffey as he reads over the shoulder of letter-writers of yesteryear. What to expect? Once a month we feature an historical letter from a onetime resident, associate, ally, or friend of Stratford Hall. Whether the topic is wine ...
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Before Beatlemania, there was Marquismania! 200 years ago this August, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to these shores after an absence of 40 years. In his 13-month 'farewell tour' of the 24 United States, the nation he helped to found, the Marquis was cheered and celebrated by grateful crowds in the hundreds and thousands. As the 50th anniversar…
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Sociologist Émile Durkheim taught us that the study of human mourning raises a window on human values and lifeways. Returning after a brief hiatus, Stratford Mail ponders elite deathways in the Northern Neck, with close attention to the opinions of Robert Carter III, as recorded by Philip Vickers Fithian, the tutor at Carter's Nomini Hall. And we c…
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Hannah Lee Corbin was undeniably a force to be reckoned with. She attracts interest from scholars and history-lovers alike, whether for her unusual private life, her defection from the established Anglican faith of her family, or her general independence of spirit. Hannah is sometimes celebrated as an 18th century proponent of women’s right to vote…
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Resistance & Resilience
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In commemoration of Black History month, Stratford Mail considers a trio of portraits of Black women and men, two of whom were enslaved at Stratford Hall under Colonel Philip Ludwell Lee. The stories of Sawney, Henrietta Steptoe, and Louisa Thomas, however partial and fragmentary, offer valuable lessons of resistance and resilience in the face of t…
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1778, British-occupied Philadelphia. The American alliance with France and defeat at Saratoga have depressed the British outlook on the war. General William Howe pays the cost, resigning his command of British land forces. Only days from the order to withdraw from Philadelphia, Howe's officers organize a fabled farewell blowout called the Meschianz…
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Join Dr. Steffey for a special edition of Stratford Mail. In this final episode of Season 1, Hallowtide is upon us, and as the veil between the worlds grows thin, our minds turn to the 'hereafter,' and perhaps to the departed who haunt our here and now. What's the connection between historic sites like Stratford and ghosts? Which member of the Lee …
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As conflict with England escalated, delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress foresaw the need for diplomatic and intelligence services. On 29 November 1775 the Committee for Correspondence was born, soon becoming the Committee for Secret Correspondence, and ultimately the Committee for Foreign Affairs on 17 April 1777. In the beginning, with war o…
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Burning Peggy Stewart
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On October 19, 1774 a tyrant minority in Annapolis compelled traders James Dick & Anthony Stewart to burn the merchant brigantine Peggy Stewart. The so-called Annapolis Tea Party differed from its Boston precedent in that there were no disguises, no concealing cover of night. The disposition of the Peggy Stewart and its cargo were topics of open de…
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In 1787 Thomas Lee Shippen, an American student at Inner Temple, London, shipped a hat to his sister Anne Home Livingston in Philadelphia. Nancy, as she was called by kith and kin, was living at Shippen House with her parents after her marriage to a scoundrel with a taste for scandal and no taste for divorce fell through. Tommy Shippen was a bon vi…
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If you’ve visited Stratford Hall since 2016, you likely noticed the looming full-length portrait of British statesman WIlliam Pitt the elder in our parlor. Standing at 8 feet by 5 feet, it’s difficult to miss! That painting reproduces the original now hanging in the Westmoreland County Museum. From the hand of Maryland painter Charles Willson Peale…
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Virginia wine has made a comeback from its bleak beginnings. Cultivation failed to make native grapes competitive with European vintages, and European vines struggled to adapt to the challenges of foreign climates, soils, and pests. Interest in producing good quality wine from native grapes persisted across centuries, and was a preoccupation of Vir…
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1773. A letter and gift from prominent British abolitionist Granville Sharp prompt a thank you from Arthur Lee, whose antislavery writings circulated among abolitionists at home and abroad. Sharp may have encountered Lee in London, or possibly become acquainted through his abolitionist correspondent in Philadelphia, Anthony Benezet, who reprinted b…
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A letter full of life and light from 12-year-old Alice Lee (1749-1789) of Blenheim plantation in Charles County, Maryland, to her second cousin William Lee of Stratford, a commercial agent for Virginia tobacco living in Tower Hill, London. Alice speaks her mind on 'tying the knot,' her eccentric Virginia relation known as 'the Squire,' and the purs…
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This month Elizabeth Jackson gives a piece of her mind to Martha Corbin (Turberville) of Portobago on the Rappahannock River and reports on a special event at Stratford. Working with letters from yesteryear we realize emphatically that the 'Devil is in the details,' and often those details lie just beyond our grasp. In consequence we float the know…
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Controlling the narrative is at the center of this month's microcast. As tensions escalate between Britain and the colonies, Americans residing and working in London experienced a unique set of difficulties, especially Americans involved in the production and dissemination of political intelligence. In a letter dated 6 March 1785, Arthur Lee underl…
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