RPTM Podcast Episode Thirty: Pirates, Temperance, Trail of Tears, and Nat Turner

Pseudohistory makes EXTRAORDINARY/EXAGGERATED CLAIMS with insufficient evidence. A great example of this is the claim of Irish slavery. The claim that colonists enslaved Irish people in the British American Colonies stems from a misrepresentation of the idea of "indentured servitude." Indentured servants were people required to complete unpaid labor for a contracted period. Why do so many people doubt historical findings? There are many reasons. One reason has received too little attention: historians, and historical journalists, too often exaggerate results. Contemporary notions of the historical method are informed by statistical thinking, which, if applied consistently, would significantly increase the effectiveness and stature of the historical enterprise.

American history is filled with some fantastic stories. The thing is, some of them aren't exactly true. Like any country's history, the United States has plenty of historical records that are just great exaggerations. Many of these exaggerations have been repeated so often that we no longer recognize them as myths. We assume that they are a genuine and bona fide part of our history. Still, it's good to know the truth behind some of these myths, as well as what's been made up, changed, or exaggerated.

HIGHLIGHTS

• River piracy continued on the lower Mississippi River from the early 1800s to the mid-1830s, declining due to direct military action and local law enforcement and regulator-vigilante groups that uprooted and swept out pockets of outlaw resistance.
• By the 1830s, most temperance organizations became convinced that the only way to prevent alcohol abuse was to avoid alcohol consumption; that is, to impose prohibition. 
• By 1840, tens of thousands of Native Americans had been driven off of their land in the southeastern states and forced to move across the Mississippi to Indian Territory. The Trail of Tears is the most sorrowful legacy of the Jacksonian Era.
• April 6, 1830 - Joseph Smith organizes the Mormon Church, known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in Fayette, New York. He had published the Book of Mormon on March 26, 1830.
• Nat Turner's Rebellion was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. The rebels killed between 55 and 65 people, at least 51 of whom were white. ​

​CHAPTERS
0:37 Intro
2:11 Piracy Part 3
9:29 Temperance Movement Begins
15:21 The Trail of Tears
21:06 The Book of Mormon
23:38 Nat Turner
39:15 Outro
​
RESOURCES
Pirates in the Caribbean
Piracy
Samuel Mason 
Temperance movement
Temperance Movement Calls for Abstinence
Lesson 15: The Trail of Tears — The Indian Removal
Trail of Tears
Religious founder Joseph Smith killed by mob
Turner’s Revolt, Nat (1831)
NAT TURNER SLAVE REVOLT