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The Adventure begins when you reach into your pocket. Each U.S. Mint Commemorative Quarter design tells a unique story. Each quarter is filled with pride, from hometown heroes to iconic landmarks; wildlife and nature to music and culture. Reach into your pocket and let Quarter Miles Travel take it from there, we’ll turn that quarter into an adventure.
Destination:Story of Alexander Hamiltonand NevisEver wonder how travel expert Anita Thomas chooses her next destination? Well, this year she’s just flipping a coin. For eight years, Anita has been hosting her award-winning podcast, Quarter Miles Travel. And this year on Travel with Anita, she is sharing those experiences with you. This season, Anita will take you to the states commemorated on the back of a quarter, revealing hidden hotspots and don’t-miss destinations that you might not have heard about, possibly in your hometown state. The adventure begins as he reaches into her pocket. Here’s Anita Thomas.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome aboard Travel with Anita and Friends. Now, as you know, we are the spot where we don’t just show you a destination, we take you into its history, its heroes, and the stories that make it so unforgettable. And today, we’re heading to the twin island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, a place of quiet beaches, volcanic peaks, and one truly extraordinary claim to fame. Are you ready for this? It is the birthplace of one of America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton. Now, did you know that? Well, if not, that’s what today’s show is all about. Because now you know Hamilton from the $10 bill, of course we know that. And you may know him from the history books as the main man who shaped America’s financial system as its very first Secretary of the Treasury. Or you may also know him, if you’re one of the millions who have seen it, you may know him from the stage where a hip hop and R&B musical turned his story into one of the most celebrated works of theatrical performances in a generation. So let’s get to the information, though, about Hamilton. Because if you didn’t know about him being born on Nevis, this is gonna be a great show for you to find out a lot of great American history, but also Caribbean history. Born on the island of Nevis around 1757, Hamilton’s beginnings, well, they were anything but easy. Because we may think of one of the Founding Fathers as having an easy life from birth until the end. Well, he was raised in poverty, orphaned as a teenager, and yet through sheer intellect and ambition, he rose to become one of the most influential figures in early American history. He was a key author of The Federalist Papers. Yep, that was Hamilton. He was an aide to General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. That was Hamilton. And he was the architect of the young American nation of their banking and financial system. That was definitely Hamilton. So it’s a remarkable journey, a remarkable story. And it all starts on a small Caribbean island to the center of American power. And it’s a story that in recent years found a whole new audience. Because in 2015, the musical Hamilton, well, it reimagined his life on Broadway, turning a Founding Father into a cultural phenomenon, and sending curious travelers looking for the real place where his story began. And that place is Nevis. And today we’re going to take you there. But now it won’t just be me. Joining me is someone who knows this island very, very well, and of course knows Hamilton’s connection to it better than, certainly better than I do, and almost anyone. And that would be Greg Phillip of Nevis Sun Tours. So I’d like to welcome Greg to the show for him to help us tell the story of Alexander Hamilton and Nevis Island. So Greg, thanks for joining me today. Alexander Hamilton is celebrated as one of America’s Founding Fathers. But before America knew him, he was a young boy growing up in Nevis. So tell us-
Yes… a little bit of, about what life was like on Nevis during his childhood, and how did the island, well, how do you feel the island shaped the man that he became?
So Anita, thank you very much for having me. I’m, I’m really happy to be here with you this morning, um, to talk first of all about, um, yes, Alexander Hamilton and his role, um, living here on Nevis. But in addition to that, I’m very much happy to be here to talk about Nevis in general, and also my company, Nevis Sun Tours. Um, Nevis Sun Tours, um, really we’re both a destination management company and a luxury travel enablement platform, which basically means that where it might be difficult for people to obviously find luxury when they’re traveling, we work with, um, them and, um, their travel agencies, et cetera, to ensure that they can enjoy luxury vacations here on Nevis. Now, in relation to Alexander Hamilton, um, I, I probably spend more time with Hamilton than is normal. [laughs]
And, and, and the reason, the reason I can say that is because, you know, um, for us at Nevis Sun Tours, we’ve really, um, embraced Alexander Hamilton and, and fully incorporated him into the stories that we tell about this island of Nevis. And it’s important that we do so because, you know, many people do not realize that Alexander Hamilton was born here on the island of Nevis. Mm.
Just the fact that he’s born here on the island of Nevis really says that, um, a small island in the Caribbean have had so much to do with the, number one, the existence of America, and number two, with the way America is with its financial systems, its defense systems, et cetera. Because Alexander Hamilton is the man that had so much to do with the origins of all those things. So your question I should, I should get to that about- [laughs]
Alex- [laughs] about how, how this island would have, um, shaped him. Absolutely. Um, that w- without a doubt. And, and I can say this confidently, with as much confidence as it’s possible for anyone to say anything. Alexander Hamilton, the man we know for all the things he has done, could not have ever become the man he became without the island of Nevis in his background. And, and, and that’s, that’s as, that’s as sure as we can be. And, and the reason for that is because, um, so many things happened here on this island that really shaped Alexander Hamilton. This island shaped the man Alexander Hamilton became.
Well, what was life like during his childhood on Nevis at that time? Ah. Well, [laughs] I’ll say, I’ll say this, it wasn’t easy.
00:07:03,352 –> 00:07:03,792 [speaker_1] Mm. 00:07:03,992 –> 00:07:13,892 [speaker_2] Um, and um, it, it, it begins with this, and, and y- probably for many of your listeners a little-known fact. Alexander Hamilton was born out of wedlock.
Really? His mother and father were not married. And because his mother and father were not married, I mean, back then any child that was born out of wedlock had a very difficult road ahead.
Mm-hmm. Um, a, number one, Alexander Hamilton would have been in a situation where he could not go to school with, with other children, um, at the school here, that he should have gone to in Nevis. And, and the schools back then, education was taken care of by the Anglican Church back then, and there was absolutely no way the church was gonna have a child from a sinful union-.. go to school with other good Christian children. So if you could imagine- Yeah. here is Alexander Hamilton starting life without a clear opportunity to be educated. That’s Hamilton’s life here on Nevis when starting. But surrounding him here on Nevis are so many other things. It’s, um, the, the vibrant, um, trade and commerce that really positioned Nevis as a, as a world economic power for Great Britain, in terms of what was contributed. And, and, um, all the trade and commerce I’m speaking of related to Nevis and Hamilton’s time here would have been, um, surrounding both sugar and slavery. And um, I, I’ll tell you this though, Anita, um, when, when we talk about Caribbean travel and people coming to enjoy the Caribbean, um, the slavery issue is not something that we can ever shy away from because it is so much a part of our history. What we’ve done though, um, and in the work that we do, is to make sure that when we tell those stories, that they’re told truthfully, but they’re not told, they’re not told in a way that’s going to alienate anyone.
Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Um, they’re told in a way that is, that is honest, truthful, and of course, um, w- keeping the fact in mind that this is our history, and it’s a, it’s a history that must be told in a certain way, um, so that it is honored and it is honorable. And keeping in mind that no one today was involved in what was happening back then.
Hamilton’s early childhood on Nevis is very important to the development of the man who would then become such an important part of American history. I’ll stop here, but when we come back, I will continue my conversation with Greg in talking about Hamilton and the island of Nevis on Travel with Anita and Friends. Back in a minute. Kind of a wonder how travel expert Anita Campbell keeps her travel destinations fresh. Well, this year she’s still flipping a coin. For eight years, Anita has hosted her award-winning podcast, Quarterhouse Travel. And this year on Travel with Annita, she is sharing those experiences with you. This season, Annita will take you to the states commemorated on the back of a quarter, revealing-
[Instrumental music] We know one of our Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, as the person who helped us get a treasury system set up in the United States. But what do we know about his early childhood and the conditions under which he grew up living on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean? Welcome back to Travel with Anita and Friends. I asked Greg Phillip of Nevis Sun Tours to tell us more about the conditions and times when Hamilton lived on the island, what was going on, those conditions, and how they go about presenting that history as part of their tours.
We, we definitely, with our stories, keep history in its true context. Never mind that we may have feelings, but whatever we feel today, um, are things that we have to embrace because, especially when we’re talking about Alexander Hamilton. If we do not embrace the feelings that we may have about certain things from that period of time, we essentially begin to cheat ourselves out of the true effect that history should have on us.
And that, and that, it, it’s, it’s part of our responsibility when we tell the stories, and it’s part of our responsibility as travelers when we consume, um, stories of history in various parts of the world, that we, number one, keep them in their true context, and number two, that we also, um, embrace how we feel about those stories in today’s modern times. But it’s what we have to do when we think about Alexander Hamilton and his time here on Nevis, and how this island shaped the man he became.
Well, Greg, you said that so well, because I, I agree so much with you about, you know, telling the history. Because you can’t tell, like, one part of history and say that that was history. You have to tell all of it.
Right. Um- All, all of it was history. You know, I mean, we can’t- Certainly… um, you know, we can’t be time travelers and go back and, and see if we can kind of change things. We have to accept the history that, you know, that s- sort of that we were given, uh, and that is- Yeah … you know, part, part of our, our legacy. Uh, so-
Indeed … it’s very, very well said. Very well said. Well, I wanted to ask you something though, because I didn’t realize that he was born- Mm-hmm … out of wedlock. So was his- Yes … was his mother or father a, a resident- Oh … of the island? Or do, do you have a little information on- Well … on that? [laughs] Okay. Well, so, so you’re, you’re, you’re gonna, you’re gonna make me get into the story a little bit. No problem. And this is, this is it. I- Well, just a little bit of it … um, the, the more appropriate way to put it, and, and you, and you’ll see why it would’ve been such a controversial thing, especially for the church. The more appropriate way to put it is the fact that Alexander Hamilton’s mother was married, but his father wasn’t. [laughs] So, so you, you, you can see why now. That, that that in itself, um, would’ve, would’ve been such a taboo thing and, and such a difficult thing for the church to accept, number one. But definitely because of that, because of those circumstances, um, such a difficult early life situation for Alexander Hamilton himself to navigate.
Well- Mm-hmm … talk about a lit- little unknown things probably, ’cause I, I don’t know how much, you know, Americans, uh, how much we know about that. So, but anyway, that’s, that’s good. That’s great to, to share that, ’cause that does give sort of a broader picture of his-
Yes … childhood and probably the struggles that he had to, you know, to go through. Uh, not only being, you know, a child born out of wedlock, but also other situations that probably came through with the families, you know?
Yes. And everything. So I can just, I can only imagine.
Now, many Americans know, uh, Hamilton through history books or the Broadway musical. Mm-hmm. I don’t know- … if you’ve seen that or not. But few realize that they can actually visit his birthplace. So what can we see as travelers, and what can we experience today at the-… Alexander Hamilton Museum? And why is it important that we stop? Okay. Well, well, first of all, um, the Alexander Hamilton Museum is one of the most, if not the most popular site visited on Nevis today by travelers, and the main reason for that is because of the musical.
Now, um, so m- my little history with the musical. I saw, I saw the musical about two months after it opened on Broadway with the original cast.
And… Yeah. [laughs] And that was amazing. And then I saw it again, um, when it opened in England, in London.
Nice. Oh.
That was another, that was another amazing experience. So, um, that being said, I could see why people would leave the theater and after understanding and finding out that Alexander Hamilton would’ve come from Nevis, that they would either come here or while they’re here want to delve a bit more into his history and actually see where he came from. Um, so yes, now many people visit the museum. And, um, our most hands down most popular tour, most, um, written about tour, and the tour that we have that get the most award, it, um, is our Alexander Hamilton Island Tour.
Um, that, that’s a tour that we’re, we’re extremely proud of. Um, last year we won, um, an award. Our most international award was from Azamara Cruises.
And we won a… based on, um, feedback from their passengers to them, which we had no clue about. [laughs] But, um, we were, we were awarded the best new tour worldwide for Azamara Cruises. What it is now is as a result of why I’m spending so much time with Alexander Hamilton.
[laughs] I got you now. Okay. … but earlier this year we, we had, um, the producer of, of that play in England, um, come out and did the tour, and also loved it.
So it is through this tour, um, that we take people to the museum, the Alexander Hamilton Museum. Um, you actually get a guided tour of the museum. And guided because, um, it’s a live documentary, a story, an original story about Alexander Hamilton that is actually factual that you’re in, that, that’s gonna teach you so much about Hamilton, his life here, um, his impact, um, worldwide. But in addition to that, it’s also gonna g- give you so much information and a good, um, understanding of Nevis and what Nevis was during his time and what Nevis is today, um, because of influences from things that Alexander Hamilton have done. But when you go to the museum, um, it’s, it’s about being at his birthplace. And, and I, I make a point to say that because people who know the musical would [laughs] would realize that the musical spoke about where Alexander Hamilton was from, but they never mentioned Nevis. They said that Hamilton is from a forgotten spot in the Caribbean.
[laughs]
That’s not good. [laughs]
[laughs] Yeah. So where… Nevis is a forgotten spot in the Caribbean. So I… Listen, I just, I just laugh at that because, um, if I don’t laugh I’ll cry. [laughs] But, um, we do a very immersive tour in there and it really starts from beginning to end. We delve into, um, the very important aspects of his life and some things that, um, some people wouldn’t have known about him, um, because they’re specifically related to Nevis.
Sure. Hmm.
Um, but then there’s, there’s a few other things that, um, we delve into with, uh, I’ll say a particular twist on it that really connects- Um, his time to our time today. And, and if you don’t mind, I can give you a quick example of that.
Um, you know, w- here we are, here we are today now, um, in a world where so many people are talking about trade and tariffs. [laughs] You’ve heard that word tariffs,]Yeah
… perhaps in the past couple of years?
Right.
Yeah. Um, and immigration. And if you, if you understand the history of Alexander Hamilton and, and you’ve really gone deep into it, you would recognize that Alexander Hamilton has dealt with or had to deal with all those things, and he had, he had different philosophies on them. And interestingly, his philosophies on things like immigration and, um, and tariffs, et cetera, and trade, do not necessarily match up completely now with the take that America itself has on it. But it’s just interesting to connect those things and show people where it all started.
Alexander Hamilton, you cannot deny his importance in creating a currency, a US currency, and we’ll hear more about that. But I’ll stop here and take a break, and when I come back, I’ll speak again with Greg about Nevis and Alexander Hamilton. You’re on Travel with Anita and Friends. Back in a minute. [upbeat music] Our Founding Fathers did more than just sign the Declaration of Independence. They were very instrumental in creating many things that are today just simply parts of the US that we take for granted. Welcome back to Travel with Anita and Friends. And today, I’m taking you to Nevis down in the Caribbean, because that is the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, one of our Founding Fathers. And his story is very interesting on not only his life there as a child, but also the influence that he gained there that he brought to America to make us the country that we are today. I asked Greg Phillip, the owner and founder of Nevis Sun Tours, to tell us the story of Alexander Hamilton. So I continue my conversation with Greg. I asked him to share how Alexander Hamilton is connected with the US Coast Guard.
This is, this is what… This is, this is how, um, the Coast Guard came about. Hamilton is a financial guy. Um, he, he’s setting up, um, the financial system, um, that America currently stands on, that the world operates on. Um, and for example, quickly, the, the fact that America has a single currency, that was Alexander Hamilton who decided that that, that is what we’re gonna have. And the reason he had to do that is because it was the world. Um, the world back then is that every colony that became a state, they all had their own currencies. [laughs]
And Alexander resolved the co- the, the chaos of that by having one currency. But while all that is going on, there’s something else happening with America. Back then, America was not a great manufacturing nation, and America was struggling. England, America’s enemy at the time, who they just defeated, England was the great manufacturer in the world. Most of the things that are being imported into America are coming from England. Hamilton created the Coast Guard simply so that he can actually have a force to guard the coast so that they can intercept all the things, the goods that are being, um, transported into America, and actually tax them. So the first… The… That’s why the first ships that the Coast Guard, um, commissioned, you know what they were called?
Tax cutters.
Oh, tax. Yeah. Tax cutters.
So what lessons do you think that Hamilton learned from living in a colonial society that later influenced his views on the American Revolution?
Now, England wasn’t out there saving the world. I mean, England had colonies because of the fact that those colonies served England well.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, back then, sugar was king.
And so m- so, so much of the trade and commerce was about, um, the sugar and enslavement. And Hamilton growing up on Nevis in the Caribbean is in the mix of all those things. Um, the stance that Hamilton have had throughout his life really, um, shows that Hamilton is by and large presented as an abolitionist, and he’s presented that way because of all that he’s dealing with, um, here in the Caribbean living on Nevis, the things he’s seeing. He would have witnessed slavery here on this island in its rawest sense because he saw when the slave ships came and when our people set foot for the first time on solid ground after leaving Africa right here on this island. Hamilton would have been there as a little boy to witness that. He saw the treatment-
… of the, of, of the enslaved.
He saw, he saw the conditions of the newly enslaved. He saw who’s coming off these ships dead, who’s chained to someone, who’s dead, who’s, who’s in very bad condition.
He hear- he, he heard the cries- Yeah
… of, of, um, of newly enslaved people who are frightened, and those things shaped him. Um, that’s why I think that he would have been an abolitionist. But then there’s another aspect of Hamilton’s life that people do not, do not recognize and do not know much about. But, um, back then- There’s a, a vibrant Jewish community here on Nevis. In fact, in the town where Hamilton is growing up in, in Nevis, there’s, um, a quarter, full quarter of the population were Jewish. And as part of our tour, we visit the, the Jewish cemetery here on Nevis. We go there because if you ever wondered, here’s a young, a young child who couldn’t go to the normal school. Well, where was he educated? Where did he get, where did he get anything resembling formal education? It would’ve been in the Jewish community.
So at, at this point, things should be co- begin to come together for you. Why does Hamilton know so much about economics and business?
Where is that coming from?
And this is, and this is not, this is not, this is not being stereotypical. This is not stereotype. These are facts-
… that Hamilton, Hamilton got a solid base because of the influence of the Jewish community right here on this island.
Um, yeah, so he experienced both wealth and those harsh realities of slavery. Um, so do you think that, that sort of been, he took that then over to America, uh, when he, when he came over with a lot of his views and his position on things?
He came to America with a lot of experience, and, and this experience that he came with would’ve been first-hand experience that he got from right here in the Caribbean, and most of it from the island of Nevis. And he was here during his formative years, so he has a base that is, um, 100% Nevisian in that sense.
And, and, and coming, coming to America now, um, he’s, he’s bringing that. And, and those are the things that are informing his, his philosophies and the way he’s actually acting and pursuing life in America and, and pursuing nation-building in America.
Well, well, tell me a little bit about his teenage years, because, uh, he left in, when he was a teenager, right? I mean, what, what led-
[laughs]
… what events led to his departure and…
Alexander Hamilton left Nevis, we’ll have to call him a preteen. He wasn’t quite a teenager yet. Um, when he, when he migrated away from Nevis with his, with his mother and father, they went to St. Croix. So, um, when he got to St. Croix, of course, St. Croix has a similar economy that is based on, um, trade and commerce, lots of, um, slavery related things going on throughout the entire Caribbean. So, um, all those, all those influences, they carried over even though he would’ve, he would’ve migrated away from Nevis. And, and back then, I mean, you’re leaving really for opportunity.
Mm-hmm.
For opportunity and what, what opportunities are available and where is the opportunity located. And, um, a, a few things back then, I mean, you, you have to realize at that time you don’t need a visa [laughs]
Yeah
… to go somewhere. You don’t need a green card to show up and, and live, [laughs] you know, as a legal resident. Um, so, you know, people, people moved. The, the, the, the effort to move was, um, very much a big, big effort because you’re on a boat.
And a boat without a boat without engine. Um, so Yeah
…you, you see. That, but that, that was the timing, and all those things are what’s, um, really shaping Hamilton throughout his childhood in the Caribbean.
So this is another question kind of going back to, to his parents.
So you said he left with his mother and father.
Yes.
So now is he still, is he still with his, his parents, or did something happen throughout his life that separated him from his mother considering, you know, the-
Oh
… conditions that he was born under?
Well, um, so Alexander Hamilton, um, his … After they got to St. Croix, after a while, um, his father abandoned the family. His fa- his father actually died in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. By that time, Hamilton was in, in America. And Hamilton, even though, yeah, his father did that, he still supported his father, um, sending remittances to St. Croix for him. At one point he did want his father to migrate to America to live with him so that he, he can have an easier life. But, um, his mother died, um, while he was a teenager in St. Croix. As a matter of fact, they were both stricken with a fever at the same time, both of them sick on the same bed, and his mother died and he survived. So that’s why, um, they would’ve called him an orphan at that time, because really his father wasn’t there- Yeah … and his mother was dead. Yeah. After, after that, I mean, you know, he’s there, he’s working, he’s, um, he’s, he’s young still, but he eventually, um, made it to America by that time.
I’ll stop here, but I’ll be back in a few minutes with more on Alexander Hamilton and his amazing story here on Travel with Anita and Friends. [upbeat music] The life story of Alexander Hamilton doesn’t begin in the United States. It begins in Nevis. Welcome back to Travel with Anita and Friends, and today we’re heading over to Nevis to talk with Greg Phillip, the owner and founder of Nevis Sun Tours, where he shares the story of Alexander Hamilton and how it all began in the Caribbean island of Nevis.
Alexander Hamilton was born in 1757 … the, the Declaration of Independence is 1776.
So when that happened, um, yeah, he’s, he’s in the Revolutionary War, et cetera. Um, he’s with Washington at a very, very young age. When he started out, he’s still a teenager.
Well, te- tell me this. What, what’s one of the myths about Hamilton that, that you’d like to correct? Are there any myths out there?
[laughs] Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, there’s … I, I said there are questions about, um, whether or not Hamilton was Black. His life is going a certain way, and yes, one of the myths is that you hear them talk about, um, Hamilton being Black. But I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you this, that was something being done by his political rivals. Um, they, they, they tried to shame Hamilton, um, about his, his birth in the Caribbean. They called, they called him the West Indian interloper.
They even called him, they even called him the Creole bastard. Um, it is said that some of them wo- some people still wonder was he Jewish? And, I mean, perhaps people would have had reason, um, to ask about his Jewish heritage because they might have realized that Hamilton knew a lot about, um, Jewish life and culture.
Mm-hmm.
Knew a lot, um, probably knew Hebrew. Um, but why? Because of his upbringing on Nevis. So, so, so you see, but those are just some, some of the myths. We don’t have anything that said that Hamilton was anything but, um, a Caucasian individual, a white man.
] Did he ever come back to Nevis?
When Alexander Hamilton left Nevis, he was in the same country. You have to say he was in the same country as America. Because when he’s born here on Nevis in 1757, you do recognize that Hamilton is subject to the same king as everyone in the 13 North American colonies. Yeah.
Now, if you, if you’re born in a place with … and you have the same leader as people halfway around the world from you, you’re from the same country, which is what one of the, one of the things that we delve into in the museum to resolve actually, um, this issue of Hamilton being considered an immigrant. Why is Alexander Hamilton considered an immigrant when he’s born as part of a British colony, part of the British Empire just like everyone else? So, um, but we’re talking about him not coming back to Nevis. Um, there’s no sense of patriotism. Um, Hamilton never forgot Nevis. Um, while Hamilton didn’t come back, Hamilton is there, and Hamilton is thinking about Nevis. A- and when I say thinking about Nevis, in the sense that there’s … If you read his biography, um, this book by Ron Chernow, yes, Hamilton actually spoke about, um, the United States as his adopted country. So i- it’s, it’s not that he forgot where he was from as to why he didn’t come back.
He was in a place where he is considered an immigrant, likely not by choice, but he’s considered an immigrant, and he’s doing important work. I mean, all the things that Alexander Hamilton did, you’ll, you’ll be surprised, and you, you’ll be surprised to recognize that he’s doing those things, um, and he’s not even an elected official.
Yeah.
And that law in America where they say you have to be born there in order to become, uh, have a chance to become president, um, it’s often said that that was created politically to prevent Alexander Hamilton from having a chance at the presidency. So you, you put all those things together and you, you see, yeah, Hamilton is, um, in fact, from Nevis. He never forgot Nevis, and he went b- um, to America doing some very important things to build the America that we all know today.
Um, he was married. Did he have children?
Yes.
Tell us a little bit about his, that part of his life.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Alexander, Alexander Hamilton, um, left, left the Caribbean, and w- when he got to America, eventually he, he got married to, um, Elizabeth Sky- Schuyler, one of the Schuyler sisters. And, and this, um, and this is one of the reasons why people think that, some people think that Hamilton would’ve been involved in slavery is the fact that Alexander Hamilton, uh, married into the Schuyler family, who everyone knows, um, actually had enslaved people, owned enslaved people. And that being, that being said, um, Alexander Hamilton, um, he got married. He’s, he’s with, um, Elizabeth Schuyler. They had eight children. Oh. Eight children..
Yeah. That’s a lot, that’s a lot of children, but that’s how many children they had. Now, interestingly, um, here on Nevis, H- Hamilton’s maternal grandparents were living here on Nevis, and they would have had seven children. But back then, you know, infant mortality rates back then during his grandparents’ time here on this island were very high.
So it seems, it seems that, um, it’s his mother was the surviving child out of that seven. He had eight children with his wife.
And, uh, did they all survive? A- and are there any descendants of, uh, of, uh, of Alexander Hamilton-
… that we can point to today?
Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s … Yeah, his family, his family still lives somewhere in, in America.
Um, so, so yeah, I mean, he had, he had children. I mean, one of his, one of his sons, Philip, um, we know that he died in a duel, um, before, um, before Alexander Hamilton actually died in a duel himself.
So and so Alexander Hamilton died in a duel? So tell us a little bit about that.
00:36:27,396 –> 00:37:11,706 [speaker_2] [laughs] Yeah. It was a duel against, um, Aaron Burr. He, he and, he and Burr, they started out as good friends, and, a- and, you know, the … all that is played out in the musical. They started out as good friends. Him and Burr were lawyers together. Some people say that Burr was actually a better lawyer than him because Hamilton would show up and talk for three hours to make one point, and Burr would [laughs] use a couple of sentences and his case is closed. But, um- They got to, it got to the point where, um, Hamilton just thought that Burr was very unethical, and he wouldn’t support him, um, in presidential bid. And in fact, um, at one point Hamilton had the deciding vote about , whether or not would become president.
And so they, they, they were enemies. And, you know, back then, I, I’ll tell you this, Alexander Hamilton was not well-loved during [laughs] by, by everyone during his lifetime, you know?
A lot of people… And, and so yeah, some of it is politics, but many people didn’t, didn’t love him. And, um, yes, today many people love him because they look at history in a different way, and they love him because they love the musical, et cetera. But Hamilton wasn’t l- well-loved back then. He had lots of enemies, lots of political rivals. And it, it is in fact said that Hamilton was involved in seven different affairs of honor. These are the types of disputes that would lead to duels. Seven of them.
So I mean… But the… Dueling was so interesting that, um, dueling is, [laughs] is often described as, um, polite, well-regulated, and barbaric. [laughs] Um, sometimes it was enough just to show up, um, and sh- fire the shot in the air to say, “Well, that’s it.” Um, Hamilton showed up, and Hamilton did that. Burr didn’t do that. Burr shot at him, and Hamilton died. Best place to go for, for Nevis Sun Tours is go over to nevissuntours.com. That’s our website, nevissuntours.com. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. Email address is greg@nevissuntours.com, greg@nevissuntours.com. Most of what we do are gonna be things that are quite custom and definitely, um, personalized. I mean that. We, we help people, um, to create luxury experiences, um, in a very authentic way. We check four boxes with everything we do. It must be authentic, must be immersive. They also must be intimate, meaning that we don’t do very large groups with these activities. And number four, they are going to be memorable.
So a big thanks to Greg Phillip at Nevis Sun Tours. And go over to the website nevissuntours.com because Greg has created, written and created a play called The Trial of Hamilton and Nelson, where you get a chance to hear all the details about the two actual people, Hamilton and Nelson, and the audience gets to determine the verdict of the trial. Exciting and fun, right? Sounds fun to me. Well, I’m ready to book a tour, that’s for sure, and go over to Nevis, and also St. Kitts, the twin island of Nevis. And check out my website travelwithannita.com. And thanks for joining me today. I’ll be back in two weeks with another great destination and another wonderful story here on Travel with Anita and Friends. Bye-bye.
You’ve been listening to Travel with Anita. For more, log on to her website travelwithanita, with two N’s, .com, and listen to her award-winning podcast, Quarter Miles Travel, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Anita will be back in two weeks with another exciting adventure for you and your travel buddies. So keep those passports updated, and remember to always travel safe and travel smart. Right, Jack? [upbeat music]
Destination:Four Georgians Who Shaped AmericaHello, hello, hello, and welcome aboard Travel with Anita and Friends. Now, Georgia has always produced more than its share of remarkable people, men and women whose ideas, courage, and craftsmanship reach far beyond our state lines and help shape the story of our entire country. We’re going to meet four of them: an industrialist who built a town from the ground up, a woman who started a movement that still shapes girls’ lives today, and a master bridge builder who connected two states with his own hands, and a woman who broke barriers as a teacher, a nurse, and author decades ahead of her time.
Now, I’m talking about some really pretty fantastic people, some that you may know very well and others that may be new to you. Henry Ford, of course, we know him from Ford Motor Company. Juliette Gordon Low of the Girl Scouts. Horace King, who built a bridge, and Susie King Taylor, the educator who worked through the Civil War to educate people in reading and writing. Now, four Georgians, four extraordinary stories that we’ll share today. So I’m ready to really get into it now, and I’d like to start with the man that I like to say is the man who built a hill. I’m talking about Henry Ford’s Georgia legacy along the Coastal Bryan Heritage Trail. Some of us may have actually driven through Richmond Hill. It’s just a little south of Savannah in a town that is so charming you’d swear it was designed that way on purpose. And, well, it kinda was. We’re talking about Richmond Hill, Georgia, that is a place that is right off of Highway 17 or Interstate 95.
And you may not realize that you just passed through a town that is one of the most famous men in America, in American history, he- that he basically built with his own two hands. Now, Henry Ford, and that is of course the Henry Ford, the Model T Henry Ford of the Ford Company. Well, that assembly line, the man who put America on wheels, and for over 20 years, this stretch of Georgia coast was where he came to slow down. So let’s back up a little because to understand why Henry Ford ended up here, you have to understand who he really was before he even set foot in Georgia. Now, back in 1914, Ford did something that shocked the entire country. He doubled his factory workers’ pay practically overnight to $5 a day. [laughs] That doesn’t seem like much now, but at that time, that was really big money, and newspapers all over the world ran the story.
Nobody had ever seen an industrialist share that kind of money with the people actually building his products. Well, now, let’s be honest, though, because it wasn’t quite as simple as it sounds. It came with strings attached. Ford had inspectors checking up on workers and home lives, expecting them to save money, stay sober, keep things tidy. [laughs] Wow, that’s quite an involvement there, and people didn’t love that part. You can understand why. But at the heart of it, Ford believed something a lot of wealthy men of his era didn’t, that if you take care of the people around you, everybody does better. The company does better. The community does better. The individual people do better. So keep that in mind because that same instinct, that’s, that’s exactly what he brought with him to Georgia. And by the early 1920s, Henry and his wife, Clara, were spending their winters down in Fort Myers, Florida. But Florida was growing. It was growing fast, and the Fords started feeling really a little crowded. So what did Henry do? Well, what Henry always did. He asked someone he trusted.
His good friend, the naturalist John Burroughs, told him about a quiet stretch of the Georgia coast, a little place called Way Station. And Henry and Clara came to take a look, and from what history books tell us, it was Clara who really fell the hardest for that particular area. She loved the Spanish moss hanging off of those big live oak trees and the birds everywhere you looked, and that slow, easy, kind of low country charm that you get in that area. Of course, Henry saw something a little different. He saw opportunity, and before they even left Savannah, he told his secretary he… to start negotiating right away. And that was it.
By March of 1925, Henry Ford owned his first 100 acres in Way Station. Over the next several years, Ford just kept buying. Old rice plantations, overgrown farmlands, even the abandoned grounds of historic Fort McAllister. And by the time he was done, Henry Ford owned somewhere around 85,000 acres. Yep, you heard me right, 85,000. Now, that’s 120 square miles. That’s a lot of land, and for those of you who are keeping track at home, that’s actually larger than some countries. That’s pretty big. Henry Ford didn’t buy all of that land just to sit on it and enjoy the view. Way Station at that time was one of the poorest communities on the whole Georgia coast, and Ford, true to that same instinct that gave us the $5-a-day pay, decided he was going to change that. So he started a working farm, timber operations, a sawmill, and that sawmill alone put hundreds of local people to work who really had had really not that much opportunity in the past. But he ran into a problem.
Folks couldn’t get to the jobs that he was creating. The roads were just not built for it, so Ford solved that, too. He had his own sawmill start producing materials for tenant housing, designed so that the homes could go up quickly and also efficiently as, as well. Now, all told, they built over 200 houses, and Ford didn’t, he didn’t price poor families out, either. Some of the most struggling families in that area paid him just a dollar a month in rent. A dollar a month. And to keep going, a community center, a kindergarten, a medical clinic, a real medical care for people who rarely had had access to it before, churches, a bakery, a post office, and my favorite part, an honest-to-goodness industrial arts and trade school with science labs and auditorium, giving kids, um, an education that frankly a lot of the wealthier towns didn’t even have back then. He was really putting things on the map. And this wasn’t Henry’s writing checks from Detroit and calling it a day. By all accounts, he was out there walking the streets, talking to his neighbors, checking in on the schools and the sawmills himself. And Clara too. She was the one who brought in music programs and supported local artists, adding a little beauty and culture to go along with all of the Ford practicality.
So by 1936, the Fords decided to build themselves a proper home right on the banks of the Ogeechee River on the old site of the historic Richmond Plantation. And when I say a home, I mean a home. About 70,000 square feet, Greek Revival style, built out of that beautiful Savannah gray brick, sitting on 55 acres of manicured lawns and gardens, and they called it Richmond Hill. So you see? That’s why I said it’s a man who built a hill. Now here’s a sweet little twist, though, a little twist to the story. In 1941, the federal government needed land in the middle of Bryan County to build an Army training base, and what we now know as Fort Stewart. And that meant several small communities in the county had to be relocated, and a lot of those displaced families ended up resettling right here in the town that Henry Ford had spent 15 years building up. And later that same year, the town made its official way station’s name become Richmond Hill in honor of Henry and Clara Ford. Now, Henry Ford passed away in 1947, and a few years later in 1951, the Richmond family’s holdings were sold to the Union Camp Paper Company, and by the summer of 1952, Ford’s operations here officially came to a close. But the city remained the same name, Richmond Hill, as we know it today.
That grand Richmond Hill mansion was added to the National Registry of Historic Places back in 1978, and these days it’s part of a private community called the Ford Field and River Club. So it’s not open to just walk right in, but the Richmond Hill Historical Society does offer special tours throughout the year, so keep an eye out for those, ’cause you’ll definitely wanna go and check out that amazing Georgia history and American history. Now, I’ll stop here, but when I come back, I have another extraordinary Georgian here on Travel with Anita and Friends.
Now our next Georgian up here today on Travel with Anita and Friends, where we’re highlighting extraordinary Georgians who’ve made a difference in not only Georgia history, but American history. Well, this woman, she built something you can’t always see: confidence, independence, and purpose in generations of young girls who came after her. Juliette Gordon Low. She was deaf in one ear, restless in the drawing rooms of Savannah society, and absolutely determined to give girls a place to lead and not just follow. She started a movement in her own backyard that reached the entire world. Her name, again, Juliette Gordon Low.
Do you know that name? Well, you may not know her name, but you certainly know the Girl Scouts, the Girl Scouts of America. And I’m sure if you’re like me, you’ve bought some of those Girl Scout cookies, or you may know some young girls who’ve gone through the Girl Scout program. Here’s her story that I wanna share with you. Here’s Juliette Gordon Low. To understand Juliette Gordon Low, well, we need to step back to the early 1900s, because in those days, opportunities for women and girls w- were very limited. Women could not vote. Social expectations were very strict. Girls were often taught to be quiet, be polite, and be prepared for the traditional roles of life, and you know those traditional roles generally meant things that you did in your home. But Juliette Gordon Low believed girls deserved something, something very different, something more.
She believed that they should be curious, they should be adventurous, independent, and most of all, they should be confident. And she believed they should learn skills that would help them make a difference in the world. Well, in 1911, while traveling in England, Juliette met a man named Robert Baden-Powell. He had founded the Boy Scouts, a movement designed to teach boys outdoor skills, leadership, and service, and this idea sparked something in Juliette immediately. She saw how powerful this type of program could be, but she believed the girls deserved the same opportunities as well So she returned home to Savannah with a very, very bold plan. And on March 12th, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low gathered 18 girls in Savannah, and those girls, they became the very first troop of what would become the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.
Now let’s think about that for a minute, though, because at this time, the organization was first called Girl Guides, modeled after a similar group in Britain, but the name soon changed to Girl Scouts. Those first meetings, though, focused on things that were unusual for girls at the time, things like hiking, camping, first aid, leadership, community service, and perhaps most importantly, learning the skills or learning how to become very confident. And Juliette Gordon Low, well, she encouraged these girls to believe that they could do anything, because what started with just 18 girls in Savannah, well, it quickly began to grow. Girls across the country were drawn to this idea of adventure and service. They learned to build campfires, to navigate outdoors, to work together in teams, and to serve their communities. Now keep in mind this part about communities, ’cause that will come up again and again. Now these were skills that prepared girls not just for childhood, but for their lives. The movement quickly spread. In the 1920s, Girl Scout troops began appearing beyond the United States. There were troops formed in places like China, Syria, Mexico, and one of the earliest Native American girl troops formed on the Onondaga Nation Reservation in New York in 1921. And Mexican American girls formed a troop in Houston in 1922. So by 1925, a troop was even registered in Shanghai, showing just how quickly the movement had grown and how it had taken on a life of its own, a very good life of its own.
But now what Juliette Gordon Low started in Savannah had really become international by any stretch of the imagination. And when the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, Girl Scout troops stepped forward to help. The Girl Scout troops, they collected food, clothing, supplies for all of the families in need. They also worked to welcome immigrants into their communities, because they learned all about the importance of community service. And the Girl Scouts even printed information about their organization in several languages, including Yiddish, Italian, Polish. Now this became very helpful for the new immigrant families, because not only did this just help them understand what was being said, understand what they needed so that they could be successful now in America, and also to help them join the movement. Now inclusiveness actually became one of the organization’s core values.
And during World War II, the Girl Scouts once again stepped forward to serve. Troops across the country participated in national war efforts. The Girl Scout troops collected scrap metal, cooking fats, clothing, and they also planted victory gardens to help support food supplies. Wow. Now some of the Girl Scout troops even operated bicycle courier services, delivering important messages and supplies. Wow, just so fascinating. And the Girl Scouts, they also organized defense institutes where women learned emergency skills and ways to help children remain calm during the air raids. Even Japanese American girls held in wartime internment camps in Utah and California, they formed Girl Scout troops, demonstrating really the power of community even during difficult times for the country as well as for themselves. Now this spirit of service continued after the war. It didn’t just stop there. During the Korean War, Girl Scouts assembled Kits for Korea. Now these packages were filled with supplies for Korean citizens and Korean civilians. The organization also continued pushing for equality and inclusion.
By the early 1950s, progress toward racial integration was already happening within the Girl Scouts, even in the segregated South. And in the 1960s, Girl Scouts became increasingly active in conversations about equality and social change. The organization held Speak Out conferences across the country where girls could discuss issues of race and justice. A national program called Action 70 encouraged girls to work toward overcoming prejudice and building stronger relationships among communities. Girl Scouts were also invited guests of NASA to witness the launch activities surrounding the Apollo 12 moon mission. So you can see here, the message was very clear. Girls can dream big, and they can reach for the stars. Wow. The legacy of Juliette Gordon Low, well, it’s a really powerful one. Although she passed away in 1927, her legacy continued to grow. And today, when you think of the Girl Scouts and the organization, well, it includes millions of girls worldwide. And they continue learning those very same values that Juliette believed in and that she set as the foundation of the Girl Scouts: leadership, courage, friendship, self-reliance, and community service. And it all began with a simple gathering of 18 girls in Savannah. So the next time you find yourself in Savannah, walk through its historic streets and imagine that small gathering in 1912 with just 18 girls and one determined woman. And while you’re doing that while you’re in Savannah, make sure and go by and visit the Juliette Gordon Low home. You can visit her birthplace. It is located at 10 East Oglethorpe Avenue in the heart of the historic district of Savannah, Georgia. And it is Savannah’s first registered national historic landmark. Knowing this history should make those Girl Scout cookies taste even better.
I’ll stop here. I’ll be back in a minute here on Travel with Anita and Friends.
When you think of things that are left behind after we have made this journey here on Earth, you don’t always think of bridges being left behind. But here is the story of a man that that’s exactly what he left behind: bridges. Here’s the story of Horace King, the master bridge builder. Welcome back to Travel with Anita and Friends. Now, today I want to take you on a stretch of the Chattahoochee River, that long, winding waterway that splits Georgia and through Alabama as well. And if you’ve ever driven across it without giving it a second thought, well, I understand because [laughs] I drive across it quite often and don’t really think about that I’m driving over it, because most of us just do that.
But there was a time, not that long ago really, when getting a wagon, a family, or an entire town’s commerce across that river wasn’t something that you just took for granted. It took an engineer. It took vision. It took a whole lot more than just taking it for granted. And in this part of the South, for most of the 19th century, it took one particular man. His name, Horace King. Now, let’s back up a little bit and let’s talk a little bit more about Horace King before he was that bridge builder, because Horace King was born enslaved on September 8th, 1807, in Chesterfield District, South Carolina. He carried African, European, and Catawba ancestry.
So he was quite mixed there with some of his ancestry, but he did have that desire to do something more. He had a heritage as layered and complex as the structures that he would go on to build. And in the 1820s, a contractor named John Godwin purchased Horace and brought him to Columbus, Georgia, to that area. He had land and a contract to build the very first public bridge connecting Georgia and Alabama across the Chattahoochee. And it didn’t take that long for Godwin to realize something remarkable. This wasn’t just a laborer. This was a person with a great mind. Horace mastered a design called the Town Lattice Trestle, a system of wooden planks crossed and interlocked like a woven basket pinned together with wooden pegs. But it was that way. It was very simple with the woven pattern and those wooden pegs that were pinning it together, but the math behind it isn’t simple at all. It let a bridge carry enormous weight while still being light, elegant, and really almost graceful looking. We’ve seen those covered bridges, and we’re intrigued by those.
And by the time Horace reached adulthood, he wasn’t just building bridges. He was managing entire crews of workers, solving structural problems that stumped men who’d gone to school for exactly that purpose. Now, just imagine that. Well, Godwin did. He took notice. And to his credit, he gave Horace something unusual for the time: real independence. He let Horace travel and oversee projects largely on his own. And through the early 1840s, Horace served as superintendent and architect on major bridges in Alabama and Columbus, m- and even Mississippi, without Godwin standing over him, over his shoulder at all. And in 1846, with Godwin’s backing, the Alabama legislature approved Horace’s freedom. He walked out of slavery not as a man starting from nothing, but as one of the most respected builders in the entire region, already known, already trusted, already changing the landscape of two states.
Now, I want you to pause here and be honest with yourself about something, because the full story does matter. Even after Horace gained his freedom, his relationship with Godwin stayed complicated. When he died, when Godwin died in 1859, Horace actually built a monument over his grave describing the love and the gratitude he felt for a man… History remembers as being his former enslaver. Oh, it can be very complex. Now, historians, they’ve wrestled with that for years. Some have pointed to it as proof that Harris’ story softens how he understands slavery, but I would gently push back on that a little bit, because what’s really going on, I think, is far more human, more human nature, and far more complicated. A man building a life and a reputation inside a system designed to deny him both? Okay. But his genius was real, and the fact that someone recognized it, not only recognized it, valued it, and put forth for him to be freed because of it. Now, the system that held him was still real, too, so both of these things are true all at once. But once free, Harris’s career did go on. It grew, and over the next four decades, he designed and built bridges, mills, warehouses, and public buildings across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. His work even touched portions of the Alabama State Capitol, including some of those graceful spiral staircases that visitors will stop and admire and get those selfies on. [laughs]
Yep, those. And he built massive lattice truss bridges over nearly every major river between Oconee in Georgia and onto Mississippi as well, and across the Chattahoochee itself at almost every port between Carroll County and Fort Gaines. In the mid-1850s, he built a bridge over the Chattahoochee between Newnan and Carrollton, this time accepting stock in the company as payment instead of a straightforward fee, a sign of just how much trust and standing he had earned as a free businessman. And his wife, Frances, and their five children, well, they eventually made a home right there at the bridge site, farming the land until the Union cavalry burned the span during the Civil War in 1864.
Now, the war years, well, they were complicated for Harris, as they were for so many, so not just only Harris. Columbus, well, it boomed economically supplying the Confederacy, and Harris, like other contractors in the area, he found himself pulled into that work, supplying, supplying timber, erecting buildings for the Confederate Navy, and the Alabama governor even pressed him into service against his will to place defense obstructions in the Alabama River. And yet, Harris later claimed Unionist sympathies, saying that the federal government owed him for property that the Union troops had taken. It’s a reminder that Black southerners navigating that war rarely had a luxury of simple, clean alliances. After the war and during Reconstruction, Harris even served two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives as a Republican. Though most accounts, he found politics far less interesting than his true calling. He was too busy still rebuilding wooden bridges, railroad bridges, mills, warehouses, and public buildings across a region still recovering from the war. Well, in 1872, Harris and his family settled in LaGrange, Georgia, where he continued designing and building until his death on May 28th in 1885. Newspapers in Atlanta, LaGrange, and Columbus all ran his obituary, praising his skills and marking him as someone who was very widely respected.
Now, here’s the part of the story that I really want you to sit with, because Harris’ legacy didn’t end with him. It kept building, quite literally, through his children. Harris and Frances had five children, Washington, Marshall, John Thomas, Ann Elizabeth, and George. After Harris passed, his sons carried the family trade forward under the name King Brothers Bridge Company, continuing to build bridges and structures across LaGrange, Atlanta, and East Alabama. So what’s left for us to see today? Well, honestly, less than you hope. Harris King built somewhere around 100 bridges in his lifetime. War, floods, and simple modern progress have claimed almost all of them, but not quite all, because if you make your way to Meriwether County, you can still drive across, or better yet, park and walk through the Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge, the only bridge still standing and still in use that is directly connected to Harris King himself. Standing inside it, looking up at that interlocking lattice of wooden planks, you’re looking at the very same engineering genius that once connected two states and helped bring a man to freedom. Head over to my website, travelwithanita.com, where you’ll find some photos of the Mulberry Street Cemetery project that was built in honor of Harris King. You’ll also find photos of my visit to the cemetery, as well as how you can visit LaGrange, Georgia. I’ll stop here, but I’ll be back in a minute here on Travel with Anita and Friends. Sometimes there’s a legacy that gets buried deep in the books, so much so that all of the greatness you don’t know about at all.
Welcome back to Travel with Anita and Friends, but here on today’s show, we are highlighting four Georgians that have done extraordinary things with their lives and made not only Georgia history, but American history. We’ve talked about Juliette Gordon Low with the American Girl Scouts. We’ve also talked about Henry Ford, who actually built a city, Richmond Hill, Georgia, and Horace King, who was a bridge builder, not only in Georgia, but across several states. Next up is Susie King Taylor. Her life was extraordinary, and her legacy still lives on. Here to help me tell the story is Hermina Glass Hill, the executive director of the Susie King Taylor Institute. Like myself, I was not familiar with, with Sus- with Susie King Taylor, so I’m thinking that there are probably some listeners who may not know her story as well, and why her life is so important to share.
She is Georgia’s Harriet Tubman.
Her life, having been enslaved, having been a freedom seeker
… having been, um, educated during the antebellum period, um, and then she goes on to become one of the first Black nurses, and m- and even more importantly, she, her life has this divine, um, providence that’s at work because not only does she self-liberate and flee and winds up in a contraband camp in this, on St. Simon’s Island, she becomes embedded in the very first army regiment in the history of our nation, which is the first South Carolina volunteers-
… which eventually becomes the 33rd United States Colored Troops. Now, they are the very first, during the American Civil War, they are the very first Black, colored, African-descended regiment. When the 1st, uh, when the 54th Massachusetts come down and, uh, they’re involved in, you know, Fort Wagner, they are the first Black regiment from the North.
Yes. But Hollywood has told the t- the, the, the TV version of it that they are the first Black regiment.
But actually, it was these formerly enslaved men, women, who fled from their plantations, who-
Right
… it just makes sense that they are the first to create-
… um, to become involved in what was called Hunter’s regiment. Hunter was a, a Northern abolitionist turned soldier. Uh, and, and, and she becomes embedded in that, bringing with her all sorts of cultural aspects, religion, songs, uh, food ways, of what we know today as Geechee culture.
She was, she was a part of that because her en- her entire life, we know it again today as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, but she lived within that geographic space.
And so her life is just a, uh, just a fascinating saga, if you will. Um, every aspect of, of her life is, is actually very, very important and, and history-making.
It, I mean, it, it definitely is history-making, and it’s just so, it’s actually s- very inspiring even today.
You know, to hear of someone who against all odds was able to do all the things she was able to do. And, uh, I understand as well, she, didn’t she teach some of the soldiers to read and write?
Yes, she did, and-
See, that’s phenomenal right there, that she knew how to read and write.
And then she could teach it.
Right. Absolutely. So when she escapes and the Union Navy and Army are protecting the South Atlantic coast, which is called the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, she is rescued by one of those huge ships. And they, uh, the, the people, the freedom seekers who are picked up on these barrier islands, they are taken to St. Simon’s Island, where there is a Navy/Army base, but also there is a contraband camp in which, um, this term developed from, um, General Benjamin Butler, um, who, uh, who stated that, you know, the Emancipation Proclamation had not been issued yet. So they have escaped, but their legal status is not as free. Uh, but they are not slaves, ’cause they have left the plantation. So he termed, coined this contraband. Uh, they were contraband of war-
… until the Emancipation Proclamation. But on St. Simon’s Island-
That’s good… there is a contraband camp. These are people who have been following the Union Army. Um, they have set up camp where the Union Army is. And so in this dynamic period, um, schools are being established because the United States government has a responsibility to these people who are now following them.
And so she, a 13, 14-year-old girl, who has had six, seven years of secret education in Savannah, she’s asked, any, everybody is asked, “Is there anybody among us who can teach?” And of course, Susie King Taylor, who has had this incredible life getting an education when it was against the law to get an education, here she is a 14-year-old girl, 14-year-old girl, who’s had geography and literature and mathematics because she’s- That’s amazing.
Yes, it’s amazing. She’s teaching these people who have never touched a pencil before.
Who have never had a slate or chalk or, you know, been able to, um, uh, access the written … heard, and she begins teaching them. So that’s her first, um, uh, point of historical significance. She becomes one of the… She actually becomes Georgia’s first federally funded teacher during the war, because the, the War Department is furnishing all of the supplies that she needs to t- teach these, uh, um, freedom seekers who were in the contraband camp on St. Simons Island. So it’s just incredible. Susie King Taylor and her grandmother were enslaved here in Liberty County.
Um, on the east end of the county, uh, on a small place called Isle of Wight. It’s a small island within the, um, eastern mainland of, uh, Liberty County. Um, heavily populated because there are numerous plantations, and she and her grandmother, um, they, along with her parents and her siblings, as well as other, uh, people in their quarters or living community, were enslaved, but they were just that. They were a community, and she actually was from a relatively intact family. She had her parents, her immediate family. She had her grandmother, which is very typical in our Black community, that our grandmother-
… was a part of our household.
Um, and, and they were extremely close. So Liberty County on the Isle of Wight, which is here in Midway, um, is where, um, she was from. And recently, um, the Liberty County Board of Commissioners, the Liberty County government, has, um, invested, uh, a significant amount of, um, funds into a park and renamed the park Susie King Taylor Freedom Park-
… on the island in which she was born. And so, uh, we are just really excited about, um, this park that is named for freedom, named for someone who was born in, uh, uh, born enslaved on that island, lived on that island, and then when the war actually takes place, her big mama, her grandmama Dolly, sends her right back to Liberty County on the Isle of Wight, um, to wait out the war. Uh, but, uh, she doesn’t wait out the war. She takes the risks, and it is from this place on the Isle of Wight that she actually escapes. And so with this new park, the Susie King Taylor Freedom Park, as it relates to America 250, we are celebrating freedom in a completely, from a completely different perspective, um, from, you know, the, the, the second American revolution, uh, revolutionary war, which was the Civil War, where-
Right… life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is something that is achievable and does happen- … because we know that the Emancipation Proclamation is issued, and then eventually, um, the end of slavery in 1865. And so she is the, um, the epitome, a perfect example of, um, this iconic figure, um, who seizes liberty at her own terms. She takes the risk, and we’re just so happy that Liberty County has named this park in her honor-
Absolutely
… um, uh, and in honor of freedom.
Mm-hmm. And there, there’s a place now where people can go and actually stand-
Mm-hmm
… and, and, and read about her and know about her, uh, today. So it is definitely spreading her, her story, uh, wide and far.
Yes.
Head over to my website, travelwithanita.com, where you can hear the full interview that I had with Hermina. We talked about a lot of things, more than I could fit in one segment. Also, head over to the website susiekingtaylorinstitute.org where you can learn more about visiting the museum. Uh, thanks for joining me today. I’ll be back in two weeks with another great destination and story here on Travel with Anita and Friends. Bye bye.
Version 1.0.0
Episode 54Horace King – The Prince of Bridge Builders“The Man Who Built the South’s Bridges”The Story of Horace King[SOUND: River current, low ambient water sound. A single hammer strike on wood, echoing. Then silence.]
ANNITA (V.O.)
Somewhere along the Chattahoochee River, there’s a bridge that isn’t there anymore. Most of them aren’t. Floods took some. War took others. Time took the rest.
But the man who built them? History almost took him too.
[SOUND: River fades under.]
This is Quarter Miles Travel. I’m Annita. And today, we’re going looking for Horace King.
[SOUND: Soft acoustic guitar bed, low, under narration]
ANNITA (V.O.):
Before we get to the man, I want you to understand the river.
The Chattahoochee cuts a long, winding line between Georgia and Alabama, nearly 450 miles of water that, in the early 1800s, was less a landmark than an obstacle. If you wanted to move goods, families, or an entire town’s commerce from one side to the other, you needed a way across. And building something strong enough to survive that river, its floods, its currents, its width, required real engineering skill.
In the growing antebellum South, that skill was in short supply. The man who had it in greater measure than almost anyone else in the region was, by law, someone’s property.
[SOUND: Guitar]
ANNITA (V.O.):
Horace King was born enslaved on September 8th, 1807, in Chesterfield District, South Carolina. His ancestry was African, European, and Catawba, a heritage as layered as the structures he’d spend his life constructing.
In the 1820s, contractor John Godwin purchased Horace and brought him to Alabama, to help build bridges across the Chattahoochee. Together, in 1832, they completed the first bridge to span the river and connect Georgia and Alabama at what’s now Columbus and Phenix City.
Even in bondage, Horace’s intellect was unmistakable. He mastered the Town lattice truss, a design patented just a few years earlier, using interlocking wooden planks pegged together in a diagonal pattern, strong enough to carry enormous weight with real structural grace. It was a relatively new technique even among trained engineers. Horace didn’t just learn it, he mastered it well enough to teach it, adapt it, and improve on it.
By adulthood, he wasn’t just following instructions on a job site. He was managing entire work crews. He was solving structural problems that stumped men with formal engineering educations he never had access to.
Godwin recognized what he had. He allowed Horace to travel and build alone across the region, an almost unheard-of freedom of movement for an enslaved man in the Deep South.
[SOUND: Guitar fades]
ANNITA (V.O.):
In 1846, with Godwin’s support, the Alabama legislature passed a special act approving Horace King’s manumission.
Sit with that for a moment. A state legislature, in a state built on the institution of slavery, passed a law to free one specific man, because his talent had become too significant, too visible, too undeniable to leave unrecognized.
He didn’t step into freedom uncertain of his path. He stepped into it already renowned, a craftsman actively shaping the built environment of two states, about to expand into a third.
Over the next four decades, King designed and built bridges, mills, and public buildings across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. He constructed massive Town lattice truss bridges across nearly every major river between west Georgia and northeastern Mississippi, including almost every crossing of the Chattahoochee between Carroll County and Fort Gaines. In the mid-1850s, he built Moore’s Creek Bridge over the Chattahoochee, between Newnan and Carrollton. He worked on portions of the Alabama State Capitol, including intricate spiral staircases that still draw visitors’ awe today.
By some counts, across his lifetime, he built more than 100 bridges.
A story worth sitting with: for years, many of King’s structures were credited only to the contractors or firms that employed him — a common erasure for Black craftsmen of the era, one that often continued well after emancipation. Part of why we tell this story today is to put his name back where it belonged all along.
[SOUND: Music softens, holds low]
ANNITA (V.O.):
Here’s the hard truth about building things out of wood, along a river prone to flooding, in a region that would soon be torn apart by war: most of it doesn’t survive.
Most of what Horace King built is gone now. Lost to war. Lost to flood. Lost to the simple passage of modern development, as newer bridges replaced the old ones he’d built by hand.
Of the roughly hundred covered bridges he constructed, only one remains standing and still in use today, the Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge, in Meriwether County, Georgia.
Horace King died in LaGrange, Georgia, in 1885. His five children carried his work forward after him, including his son, George King, who continued building in his father’s tradition. In 2004, the Horace King Overlook was dedicated at Riverfront Park in Albany, Georgia, a permanent marker for a man whose actual bridges mostly didn’t survive to mark themselves.
[SOUND: soft music]
ANNITA (V.O.):
If you want to stand where Horace King stood, you still can.
Start in LaGrange, Georgia, at Mulberry Street Cemetery, recently restored, with accessible pathways and interpretive markers throughout the grounds. King’s family gravesite is there, marked with a dignified granite monument. And just steps away stands something remarkable: a section of an actual covered bridge, rebuilt by his son George and now permanently installed at the cemetery, after decades on display at Callaway Gardens.
It is, quite literally, a piece of what he built, still here, still standing, still telling his story to anyone who takes the time to look.
Seasonal walking tours in LaGrange often weave King’s story into a broader exploration of the town’s history, a chance to turn a quiet Georgia visit into something that connects directly back to the man himself.
[SOUND: Music swells slightly, then settles]
ANNITA (V.O.):
Horace King built the crossings that let a divided landscape become passable — river by river, county by county, state by state. He did it while enslaved. He did it after freedom. And most of what he built didn’t survive him.
But he did. His name did. And today, we made sure you heard it too.
We say his name, and we tell his story.
To visit the Mulberry Street Cemetery visit the website www.VisitLaGrange.com
Photos
Episode 53: Susie King Taylor – From Slavery to Civil War to Her Own SchoolThe Story She Wrote HerselfQuarter Miles Travel shares a powerful story – Susie King Taylor – From Slavery to Civil War to her own school. Born into slavery in Liberty County, Georgia, in 1848, Susie King Taylor taught herself to read in secret, at a time when it was illegal for an enslaved child to do so.
After escaping to freedom in 1862, she became the first Black woman to teach openly in a school for African American children in Georgia — and then served through the Civil War as a nurse and laundress with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, tending wounded soldiers in the field.
In 1902, she published her memoir, making her the first African American woman to write and publish an account of her own experience during the Civil War.
Her story is finally getting the recognition it deserves — right here in her home state, in Hinesville, Georgia.
And to help us tell it properly, I’m joined by the woman who has spent years bringing that story home: the founder and executive director of the Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center, and curator of the Susie King Taylor Museum in Hinesville — Hermina Glass-Hill.
Hermina, welcome to the show.
Interview with Hermina
She wrote it all down. Her own memoir — one of the only firsthand accounts by a Black woman who lived the Civil War from inside a military camp, not from a distance.
And still — most people have never heard her name.
This is Quarter Miles Travel. Today, we’re tracing the coastline she once called home — the islands, the schools, the quiet places where a girl with a stolen education became a woman history almost forgot.
If you want to walk where she walked, start in Liberty County. Waterways, historic landmarks, and the Georgia coast she knew are still waiting to be explored. Plan your trip at libertycounty — that’s L-I-B-E-R-T-Y-C-O-U-N-T-Y dot org.
Go to my website, Travel With Annita dot com, for photos of the museum.
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the podcast, and share it with other history buffs — and anyone who loves finding the little-known stories.
We say her name, and we tell her story.
Quarter Miles Travel and the U.S. Mint’s Georgia National Historic Site quarter highlight the beautiful Georgia coast. The marine life, shore birds, natural habitat and the space where many Blacks have called the area home for generations. Among the sweet grasses, dunes and Atlantic Ocean shores men and women like Susie King Taylor have built their lives and left a legacy.
Photos from the Susie King Taylor Museum in Hinesville, GA
Susie King Taylor’s Autobiography which you can purchase on Amazon.
Susie King Taylor’s autobiography
33rd US Colored Troops
*Affiliate link to Amazon.
Joe and The Alamo – Little Known StoriesThe Last Man Standing Joethe Battle of The Alamo, and the testimony that became historyThere were many stories on the wagon trail. To understand what Joe did, you first have to understand what he wasn’t supposed to do at all. He wasn’t a soldier. Nobody swore him in. Nobody handed him a rank.
He was, in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of the man who owned him, property, a twenty-year-old enslaved man named Joe, body servant to a twenty-six-year-old lieutenant colonel named William Barret Travis.
Joe pressed his master’s clothes. Saddled his horse. Drove his carriage into town. That was the job. That was supposed to be the whole of his story.Here on Quarter Miles Travel – Well say his name and we tell his story.
In December of 1835, Travis was ordered to the Texas frontier, to a small town built around a crumbling Spanish mission, San Antonio de Béxar. He brought Joe with him. Not as a companion. As equipment – as property. They arrived on February 5th, 1836.
Within three weeks, everything about that place would become permanent carved into American memory for two hundred years.
The mission was called the Alamo.
On February 23rd, Mexican forces under General Antonio López de Santa Anna poured into San Antonio far faster than the Texans expected. Santa Anna raised a blood-red flag over the bell tower of San Fernando Church, a message with only one meaning: no mercy, no quarter, no surrender terms.
Travis answered with a single cannon shot. For the next thirteen days, roughly two hundred men, Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, and the volunteers who’d gathered behind the Alamo’s crumbling walls, held out against a force that outnumbered them many times over.
And for thirteen days, Joe was there too.He didn’t get a say in whether to stay and fight or to run. He shared every hour of it anyway, the cold, the hunger, the exhaustion, the slow realization that the reinforcements everyone hoped for weren’t coming.
Historians will tell you plainly: an enslaved man’s presence during a siege like this wasn’t unusual for the era. What’s unusual, what’s remarkable is that we know what Joe experienced at all. Because almost nobody in that position ever got to speak afterward. Joe did.
Before dawn on March 6th, 1836, the assault came. By Joe’s own later account, he was asleep in the same room as Travis when the alarm went up. Travis grabbed his rifle and his sword. He shouted for Joe to follow him. They ran together to the north wall.
Travis called out to his men, one last order to stand and fight. He fired his weapon. Almost in the same instant, he was shot and fell inside the compound.
Joe watched his master go down. And then he did the only thing that gave him any chance at all, he pulled back into one of the interior buildings and kept firing from cover as the walls came apart around him.
The battle by this point wasn’t a battle in any organized sense anymore. It was hand to hand. Rifle butts, knives, bayonets. Men fighting for their own lives with whatever was in their hands. When Mexican soldiers finally broke all the way through, they moved building to building. And they called out, demanding that any Black men inside reveal themselves.
Joe stepped out. Even so, in the chaos, a soldier struck him with a pistol and drove a bayonet toward him before a Mexican officer intervened and stopped it.
He was one of only a small handful of people left alive inside those walls.The only adult male defender to survive.
Joe was taken into Béxar as a captive. He watched a formal review of the Mexican army, a display, really, meant to communicate total victory. And then he was brought before Santa Anna himself. Joe apparently spoke some Spanish. So Santa Anna questioned him directly, about the size of the Texan forces, about Sam Houston’s army, about what was left to stand between the Mexican military and the rest of Texas.
He was also asked to help identify the bodies of Travis and Bowie among the Alamo’s dead. Then, for reasons historians still debate, he was released.
Think about the position he was in. A prisoner. Interrogated by the general who’d just ordered the deaths of everyone he’d spent thirteen days beside. No protection. No guarantee that walking out of that room meant walking out alive.
And somehow, it was Joe, not a Texan officer, not a diplomat, who became one of the only living sources of truth about what had actually happened inside the Alamo.
Joe made his way to Gonzales, traveling alongside Susanna Dickinson wife of a fallen Alamo defender, and her infant daughter. Together they delivered the news to Sam Houston and the gathering Texan forces there: the Alamo had fallen. Everyone inside was dead.
It was the first confirmation Texas had. Houston, realizing Santa Anna’s army was still advancing, ordered Gonzales burned and its people evacuated east, the beginning of what Texans still call the Runaway Scrape.
Joe kept moving. He arrived at Washington-on-the-Brazos around March 20th, the exact place where, just days earlier, delegates had signed Texas’s declaration of independence. Now those same men crowded around a twenty-year-old enslaved man to hear, in his own words, how their friends had died.
A Texas official named William Fairfax Gray was in that room. He wrote in his diary that evening, describing Joe as composed, careful, and his word, modest in how he told it.
Gray’s diary entry became one of the very first written records of the battle. And it was built almost entirely on what Joe said. This is the part worth sitting with. ,,,,,,The version of the Alamo that got passed down, the one in the textbooks, the movies, the folklore, that version exists because a young enslaved man walked into a room full of powerful white men four days after his master’s death and told them the truth, carefully and clearly, while still legally considered someone’s property. Joe didn’t just witness history. Joe authored it.
Here’s where the story turns. Despite everything, despite being celebrated for weeks as the last man standing, despite giving Texas its founding legend in his own voice, Joe received no freedom. No pension. No formal thanks from the government he’d just helped bring into existence.
He was returned to the Travis estate. Just property again, now under a new name on a new ledger, the estate’s executor, a man named John Rice Jones.
He waited exactly one year. On April 21st, 1837, the anniversary of the battle that finally won Texas its independence, Joe escaped. Two stolen horses, an unnamed companion, and whatever nerve it takes to run twice: once from a battlefield, once from the country he’d helped build.
A reward notice ran in the newspaper for three months. Then it just…stopped. Most historians read that the way it sounds: Joe made it.
What happened after is contested, a little heartbreaking in how little of it survives. Some records suggest he reached Alabama and told the rest of the Travis family how William died. Some say he was seen in Austin, or San Antonio, decades later, an old man with an extraordinary story nobody thought to fully write down while he could still tell it.
And then, without ceremony, without a marked grave anyone has ever confirmed, Joe disappears from the record completely.
So why build an entire episode, an entire stretch of road, around one man’s testimony? Because the Alamo isn’t just a battle. It’s one of the most repeated, most mythologized stories in American history. And for generations, the person most responsible for how we know that story got reduced to a single line in the footnotes: *”Travis’s slave, Joe, also survived.” That’s not an account of a man. That’s an erasure wearing the shape of one sentence.
Understanding Joe’s role means understanding two things at once, and holding them together without letting either one cancel out the other. First, his testimony has real, lasting historical weight. Diaries, government records, and the earliest published accounts of the Alamo’s fall all trace back through what Joe told officials in those first days.
Without him, we would know dramatically less about how Travis died, how the final assault unfolded, and what those last hours inside the walls actually looked like. Second, none of that mattered enough, in 1836, to grant him his freedom. Both of those things are true. Texas history was built, in part, on the memory and the voice of a man history refused to fully credit or free.
That’s the whole of what we’re chasing out here, mile after mile. Not the version of the story that fits neatly on a monument. The whole version. The one that makes you stop the car, get out, and stand quietly on ground that’s still asking to be understood correctly.
Next time you hear someone say “Remember the Alamo” ……remember that the reason we can remember it accurately at all …..is because one young man survived long enough, and was brave enough, to say what he saw out loud.
His name was Joe.
This has been Quarter Miles Travel.
”We say his name, and we tell his story.”
Sketch of how the Alamo would have looked after battle
Sketch of Joe’s impression
The Alamo today
American Cowboys: The Real StorySEGMENT ONE: THE AMERICAN COWBOYHello, hello and welcome aboard Travel with Annita.
I am so glad you’re riding with me today — because today we are going somewhere I have wanted to take you for a long time. We are going West. Not just geographically west, but historically west. We are going to the heart of one of the most powerful, most misunderstood, and most genuinely American stories ever told.
We are talking about the American cowboy.
Now, when I say “cowboy,” I want you to set aside for a moment everything Hollywood ever showed you. Set aside John Wayne. Set aside the rhinestone shirts and the singing cowboy. Set aside the lone white man on a white horse riding into the sunset. Because the real story — the actual, documented, fascinating history of the American cowboy — is so much bigger, so much richer, and so much more diverse than any movie ever captured. And today, we are going to tell it right.
Let’s start at the very beginning — and I mean the very beginning.
Before there was ever an American cowboy, there was a vaquero. Say that word with me — vaquero. It comes from the Spanish word vaca, meaning cow, and it described a skilled horseman who managed cattle across the open range. The vaqueros were Mexican. They were indigenous. They were mestizo — a mix of Spanish and Native ancestry — and they were doing this work in Texas, in California, in what would become the American Southwest, a full century before the famous cattle drives that most of us associate with cowboy history even began.
Think about that for a moment. A century before. When the Spanish established missions in Texas in the early 1700s, they weren’t just building churches — they were building ranching operations. By 1721, there were nearly 5,000 head of cattle in the San Antonio River Valley alone, tended by vaqueros who had developed their craft into something extraordinary. By the early 1800s, California missions were operating herds that averaged 40,000 cattle each. This was an enormous, sophisticated cattle industry — and it was entirely run by people whose names Hollywood never put on a movie poster.
And here is something important: every single tool we associate with the American cowboy came directly from the vaquero. The saddle with the raised horn for roping — Mexican. The lasso — that’s the vaquero’s reata. The chaps protecting a rider’s legs — from the Spanish chaparajos. The corral, the rodeo, the bronco, the rancho — all Spanish words, adopted wholesale by Anglo settlers who learned this craft by watching, by working alongside, and eventually by hiring the people who had been doing it for generations. By the 1870s, those tools and those techniques had become so common across Texas that everyone called them simply “American” — and the vaqueros who invented them got quietly written out of the story.
Now. The moment that changed everything — that turned the cowboy from a regional ranch worker into a genuine American icon — was the Civil War. And specifically, what happened right after it.
When Confederate Texas men left to fight, the people left behind tended those ranching operations. They were largely enslaved African Americans and vaqueros from Mexico. They kept those ranches going. And when the war ended, when emancipation came, those ranches sat in the middle of an astonishing situation: millions of longhorn cattle had roamed wild across Texas during the war years, largely unbranded and unclaimed. At the same time, the expanding railroad network was pushing north into Kansas and Missouri, and the cities of the North and East were desperately hungry for beef.
So you had cattle. You had markets. And you had a distance of five hundred miles or more between them. And the solution — the human solution — was the cowboy.
Between 1865 and roughly 1895, an estimated ten million Texas longhorns were driven north along famous routes like the Chisholm Trail, the Goodnight-Loving Trail, and the Western Trail. These cattle drives became the defining image of the American West. A trail crew typically included a trail boss, eight to twelve cowboys, a cook — who was arguably the most important person on the entire drive — and a wrangler managing the extra horses. They covered ten to fifteen miles a day. They crossed rivers with thousands of panicking cattle. They rode through lightning storms with no shelter. They worked in dust so thick you couldn’t see the rider in front of you. It was hard, physical, unglamorous work — and it built the cattle industry that fed a nation.
But here is the most important thing to understand about that era: those trail crews were not the all-white crews Hollywood showed you. They were Mexican vaqueros. They were Native American riders, particularly through Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma — men who knew that land better than any trail boss on earth. They were formerly enslaved Black men who had learned to ride and rope and read cattle under the cruelest conditions imaginable, and who carried those skills into freedom and onto the trails. The American cowboy was, from the very beginning, a diverse workforce. A mixed crew. A collection of people from different backgrounds who shared one thing: they could do the work.
That era ended as quickly as it began. By the mid-1890s, three things had killed the long cattle drive. Railroads pushed deeper into Texas, eliminating the need to drive cattle hundreds of miles north. Barbed wire — invented in 1874 — allowed farmers to fence off the open range that cattle drives depended on. And a disease called Texas Fever, spread by longhorn cattle, caused surrounding states to close their borders to Texas herds. Within a generation, the working cowboy’s golden age was over.
But here is the remarkable thing. The cowboy didn’t disappear when the work ended. He became something even more powerful. He became a symbol.
Dime novels romanticized him. Wild West shows turned his work into spectacle. Buffalo Bill Cody took a theatrical version of cowboy life all the way to Europe — before the King and Queen of England — and made the American cowboy a global icon. And then Hollywood took over, and for the next century, the American cowboy became the single most powerful image of American identity in the world.
That image stood for something. It stood for self-reliance — the idea that one person, on horseback, in open country, could make their own way in the world. It stood for moral clarity — the hero who knew right from wrong and acted on it, no matter the cost. It stood for a relationship with the land that urban, industrial America was rapidly losing but desperately wanted to hold onto. The cowboy became the way America told itself the story of who it was: tough, independent, honest, free.
The power of that symbol has never faded. In our own time, the television series Yellowstone sent a shockwave through American popular culture by telling a contemporary cowboy story — a ranching family fighting to hold their land, their traditions, their way of life — and audiences couldn’t get enough. Western wear has surged in popularity to levels not seen since the 1980s. Searches for cowboy boots and Stetson hats increased by 67% in a single year. The cowboy is having a moment in 2026 that would have surprised no one who understood how deep this symbol runs in the American soul.
Because here is the truth: the cowboy is not just a historical figure. He is not just a fashion trend. He is the way America has always processed its own story — the frontier, the open land, the individual against the wilderness, the crew working together across difference to get the cattle to market. It is a story about work. About endurance. About people who came from vastly different places and built something together on the open range.
And we have only begun to tell it.
Because when we come back after the break, we are going to go deeper into that story — and we are going to meet the men whose names were left off the movie poster, whose faces were left out of the films, but whose hands built one quarter of the entire cattle industry that made the American West. We are going to talk about the Black cowboys. And I have a special treat for you — after a brief introduction, you are going to hear directly from historian and professor Ronald Davis, who has spent years documenting this history and giving it the recognition it has always deserved.
Stay with me. We’ll be right back.
SEGMENT TWO: THE BLACK COWBOYS
Welcome back to Travel with Annita.
Before the break, I told you that the American cowboy was always more diverse than Hollywood showed us. I told you the cattle drives were built by vaqueros, by Native American riders, and by Black cowboys who made up a full quarter of the workforce on those famous trails. Now I want to spend a few minutes with you on that last part — because the story of the Black cowboy is not a footnote to American cowboy history.
It is where American cowboy history begins.
Before the Civil War. Before emancipation. Before the Chisholm Trail was ever blazed. There were Black men on horseback in Texas, riding herd on thousands of cattle. They were enslaved. Their labor was stolen. Their expertise was not their own to claim. But the knowledge they built — the horsemanship, the roping, the cattle reading, the understanding of the open range — that belonged to them. No one could enslave a man’s skill. And those skills would shape the entire cattle economy of the American West.
In the early 1850s, with one third of Texas’s population comprising enslaved people, African Americans were the majority of cowboys in Texas. Not a notable minority. The majority. They worked alongside vaqueros from Mexico in the Gulf Coast brush country, catching and tending wild cattle, breaking horses as young as ten or eleven years old, developing expertise that Anglo ranchers depended on entirely. The plantation economy of the South needed cotton. The ranch economy of Texas needed Black cowboys. And it got them — by force, by bondage, by theft of their labor and their freedom.
And then emancipation came. And those men — skilled, experienced, knowledgeable — had a choice that most freed Black Americans in the South did not have. They could ride. They could rope. They could go West. And many of them did. They joined the cattle drives. They became indispensable. They became legendary — though history would spend the next century pretending otherwise.
Their story is the American story. Their story is the Western story. It is a story of expertise earned under the worst conditions imaginable, carried into freedom, and used to build one of the most iconic industries in American history.
And I am honored — I am genuinely honored — to bring you a conversation with the man who can tell that story better than anyone I know. Professor Ronald Davis, historian, scholar, and a passionate defender of the truth about who built the American West.
Dr. Ronald W. Davis, II — welcome to Travel with Annita. The floor is yours.
Interested in reading Nat Love’s book? The Life and Adventures of Nat Love
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American Revolution Patriots In The ShadowsPhoto courtesy of U.S. Mint
July 10th, 1777. Middle of the night. A small rowboat slips through British-controlled waters off the coast of Rhode Island. Forty men are packed into a handful of boats, oars wrapped in cloth to muffle the sound. Their target: a British general, asleep in a farmhouse a mile inland from his own troops.
They land. They creep to the door. And when it doesn’t open fast enough, a man named Jack Sisson puts his own head down and rams it through. No shots fired. No alarm raised. British General Richard Prescott is dragged out of bed in his nightshirt and rowed back across enemy lines as a prisoner of war.
Jack Sisson was an enslaved man from Rhode Island. And if you’ve never heard his name before; you’re not alone. Because for two hundred and fifty years, stories like his have been sitting in pension files and church records and old muster rolls, waiting for someone to go looking.
I’m Annita Thomas, and this is Patriots in the Shadows, the story of the thousands of Black soldiers, sailors, spies, and guerrilla fighters who fought in the American Revolution. On both sides. In every colony. And in almost every major battle you learned about in school, even if nobody mentioned they were there.
Let’s get into it.
Before we even get to the war itself, we have to go back five years earlier to March 5th, 1770. Boston.
A crowd is gathered outside the Custom House, taunting a group of British soldiers. Tensions have been simmering for months. And then, someone gives the order or maybe no one does, historians still argue about it, and the soldiers open fire into the crowd.
The first man to die is Crispus Attucks. A dockworker, part African, part Native American, and by most accounts, right at the front of that crowd. He becomes the first casualty of what history will call the Boston Massacre, five years before a single shot of the actual war is fired.
Fast forward to April 19th, 1775. Lexington Green. The war has officially begun. Among the colonial militia standing on that field is a man named Prince Estabrook, enslaved but permitted to serve. When the British volley hits the line, Estabrook goes down wounded. One of the very first men, of any race, hurt in the Revolutionary War.
There were other Black militiamen at Concord that same day. We don’t have most of their names. That’s going to be a theme in this episode, and it’s worth sitting with for a second. The men who are remembered are often remembered by accident: a wound, a pension claim, an officer who happened to write something down. For every Crispus Attucks, there were probably a dozen men whose entire service is just… gone.
Two months after Lexington, you get Bunker Hill, one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war. And this is where the historical record actually gets a little better, because so many officers on both sides wrote detailed accounts afterward.
At least three dozen Black soldiers fought at Bunker Hill. Three dozen. Let that sink in for a second, next time someone shows you a painting of that battle with an all-white cast.
Peter Salem, a man who’d been freed by his enslaver specifically so he could enlist, is credited with firing the shot that killed British Major John Pitcairn. This is the same officer who, weeks earlier at Lexington, had given the order to fire on the militia. Salem didn’t stop there either. he went on to fight at Saratoga and Monmouth.
Then there’s Salem Poor. Also formerly enslaved. Poor fought so effectively at Bunker Hill, he’s credited with killing a British lieutenant colonel. that fourteen American officers, after the battle, signed a joint petition to the Massachusetts legislature. Fourteen officers, vouching for one soldier. They called him, and I’m going to read this because it’s worth hearing exactly as written: “a brave and gallant soldier” who “behaved like an experienced officer.” That document still exists. It’s one of the only formal, individual battlefield commendations we have for a Black soldier in the entire war.
And there’s Barzillai Lew, six-foot-tall free Black cooper from Massachusetts, who served as a fifer and drummer. Story goes, during the actual fighting, Lew kept morale up by playing “Yankee Doodle” on his fife while the battle raged around him. He’d go on to serve at Fort Ticonderoga and was present at Saratoga when British General Burgoyne surrendered. His powder horn is still sitting in a museum in Chicago today. And here’s a fun fact, in 1943, Duke Ellington wrote a piece of music in his honor, after learning his story from his own high school teacher.
Cuff Whittemore fought so bravely that day, he was allowed to keep a sword he’d captured off a British officer. Titus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Blaney Grusha, Cato Howe, Seymour Burr, all there too. All in the fight. Most of them known to us today only because somebody, somewhere, wrote their name down on a piece of paper that survived two hundred and fifty years.
Now let’s go back to Jack Sisson – the guy who broke down a door with his own skull. Sisson served in what became known as the First Rhode Island Regiment, nicknamed, at the time, the “Black Regiment.” It was formed in 1778, when Rhode Island, desperate for troops, started allowing enslaved men to enlist in exchange for their freedom.
This regiment fought at the Battle of Rhode Island later that year, and, this is the part that gets me every time, they were part of the actual assault that took British redoubts nine and ten at Yorktown in 1781. That’s the battle that ended the war.
There’s an account from a French officer who observed them and said they were some of the most sharply dressed, precisely drilled troops he’d ever seen. And there’s a moment, May 1781, when their commander, Colonel Christopher Greene, is caught in a surprise attack. And according to one early historian, the British swords only reached him after cutting through the bodies of the Black soldiers who had surrounded him to protect him. Every single one of them died defending their commander.
That’s the unit Jack Sisson came out of. And his own operation — the Prescott capture — happened a full year before the regiment was even officially formed. He was already doing the work.
Let’s talk about espionage for a second, because this is where some of the highest-stakes stories in the whole war come from.
James Armistead, later known as James Armistead Lafayette, was enslaved in Virginia. With his enslaver’s permission, he volunteered to go behind British lines, posing as a runaway. He gained the trust of British officers, including, briefly, Benedict Arnold himself, and started feeding them false information, while secretly reporting real troop movements back to the Marquis de Lafayette.
His intelligence was critical in trapping Cornwallis at Yorktown. Lafayette personally wrote testimony afterward praising Armistead’s service, and Armistead used that document decades later to petition for his own freedom. Which tells you something pretty stark about what “freedom” actually meant after the war. Even the men who helped win it had to go argue their case with paperwork.
Saul Matthews, another enslaved Virginian, also served as a spy for the Continental Army, and he’s one of the rare cases where freedom came fast and direct. The Virginia legislature freed him by formal legislative act, specifically citing his wartime service.
Okay. Here’s where the story gets more complicated. Because not every Black soldier fought for American independence. And honestly? A lot of them had a pretty compelling reason not to.
In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, the British royal governor of Virginia, made an offer: any enslaved man owned by a Patriot who was willing to fight for the Crown would be freed. Later, in 1779, the British expanded that offer even further. And tens of thousands of enslaved people took them up on it. Historians estimate around 20,000 African Americans sided with the British over the course of the war roughly double the number who fought for the Patriots.
The most famous of them might be Colonel Tye. Born Titus Cornelius, enslaved in New Jersey, he escaped to British lines after Dunmore’s proclamation and became – by pretty much every account – the most feared Black military commander of the entire war, on either side. He led a mixed-race guerrilla unit called the Black Brigade, raiding Patriot militias across New Jersey and New York, and at his peak, he commanded around 800 men. He died in 1780 from an infected wound. But for a few years there, Colonel Tye was one of the most effective military leaders in the entire conflict, and almost nobody talks about him.
Harry Washington, and yes, that’s the same last name for a reason, was enslaved by George Washington himself, at Mount Vernon. He escaped in 1776, joined Dunmore’s forces, and served as a Black Loyalist for the rest of the war, including at the siege of Yorktown. Which means Harry Washington was standing on a battlefield, fighting against the army led by the man who used to own him.
Boston King, another Black Loyalist, actually left us something rare: a written first-hand account of his own experience. After the war, along with thousands of other Black Loyalists, he was evacuated to Nova Scotia, and later resettled in the new British colony of Sierra Leone.
The Southern colonies tell their own version of this story — and it’s shaped heavily by the fact that states like Georgia initially banned enslaved men from militia service completely.
Austin Dabney became Georgia’s most celebrated Black Patriot soldier almost by accident. He was sent to fight as a substitute for his enslaver, which, ironically, was the only legal way for an enslaved man to serve in Georgia at the time. He fought as an artilleryman and was badly wounded at the Battle of Kettle Creek in 1779. His service was so distinguished that afterward, he was formally freed, given a federal pension, and became the only Black Patriot in Georgia known to receive a state land grant.
But here’s the darker footnote: because Georgia pushed the burden of service onto enslaved substitutes, we know there were more men like Dabney, sent to fight in place of their enslavers whose names were simply never recorded. We’ll never fully know how many.
Virginia’s records are a little richer, thanks to surviving pension files. Reuben Bird enlisted at sixteen years old in the Virginia Regiment of Dragoons, but because he was free and Black, his own regiment wouldn’t let him fight directly, so he served in support roles instead. James Carter enlisted twice, once as a garrison guard, and then again as an artillery private, fighting at the Battle of Camden and the siege of Yorktown. And one Virginia brigade, under General Peter Muhlenberg, ended up nearly 8 percent Black, one of the most racially integrated units in the entire Continental Army.
William Flora was hailed as a hero at the Battle of Great Bridge in December 1775, one of the first major Patriot victories of the whole war. Fifteen documented Black Patriots fought at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781. And Spencer Bolton fought under Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox” in the South Carolina swamps.
I want to close out the individual stories with one that always gets me: James Forten.
Forten was just fourteen years old when he joined the crew of a Philadelphia privateer. He was captured by the British and spent months as a prisoner aboard the HMS Jersey, a notorious prison ship where thousands of American captives died from disease and starvation. Fourteen years old. On a death ship.
He survived. He came home to Philadelphia. And he went on to build one of the city’s most successful sailmaking businesses, becoming a major abolitionist and philanthropist for the rest of his life. Of everyone we’ve talked about today, Forten might be the closest thing we have to a story where the postwar chapter actually matches the promise of the war itself.
Most veterans didn’t get that chapter. And, yes, these soldiers are veterans.
So here’s the hard part. Here’s the part where the story doesn’t wrap up neatly.
For all of this: Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Saratoga, the spies, the raids, the prison ships, most of these men did not get what they were promised.
Loyalist veterans, like Harry Washington and Boston King, did get their freedom. But it came with exile – Nova Scotia, and for a lot of them, eventually Sierra Leone. Patriot veterans had it worse in some ways. A few, like Austin Dabney, got land and pensions. Most came home to find their promised freedom delayed, denied, or tangled up in decades of legal petitioning.
And then in 1792, just nine years after the war ended, Congress passed a law formally banning African Americans from military service. A policy that stuck around for generations.
When pension programs finally opened up in 1818, and again in 1832, a lot of these men were already dead. Their widows spent years fighting to prove their husbands’ service even happened.
Here’s a number that I think says it all. Black soldiers made up roughly 4 percent of Patriot manpower. But on average, they served four and a half years each, that’s eight times longer than the average white soldier’s term. Which means, in terms of actual time spent fighting and supporting this war, their contribution was closer to a quarter of the entire Patriot war effort.
Four percent of the people. A quarter of the effort. And, for most of them, a fraction of the reward.
So…..Crispus Attucks, falling in a Boston street five years before the war even started. James Forten, surviving a prison ship as a teenager. Peter Salem, firing the shot that killed the officer from Lexington. Colonel Tye, leading raids against the very army Salem was fighting for. Jack Sisson, breaking down a general’s door with his own head.
Two sides. One war. And a version of American history that’s been sitting in the footnotes for two hundred and fifty years, waiting for someone to read it out loud.
That’s the story. Or….most of it, anyway. There are dozens more names in the show notes for this episode if you want to go deeper, soldiers we didn’t have time to get into today, but whose service is just as real, just as documented, and just as worth remembering.
Thanks for listening … until next time!
The story of Black soldiers in the American Revolution is not a single story at all. It is Crispus Attucks falling in a Boston street five years before the war began, and James Forten surviving a British prison ship as a teenager. It is Peter Salem firing the shot that killed a British officer at Bunker Hill, and Colonel Tye leading raids against the very army Salem fought for. It is Jack Sisson breaking down a general’s door with his own skull, and Reuben Bird, barred from combat because of his race, serving anyway. Their war was fought on both sides of a line that history has often flattened into a single narrative, and their reward, more often than not, was a freedom that arrived late, incomplete, or not at all.
What remains consistent across every name recovered from the margins of muster rolls and pension files is this: the American Revolution was never fought by white colonists alone, and its full history cannot be told without them.
Below in this appendix are names of many brave soldiers who stepped forward to fight for freedom. These veterans deserve recognition and honor for their service.
Appendix:Quick-ReferenceSummary
Listed alphabeticallyforeasyreference.
AlexanderAmes— Fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, one of roughly three dozen Black soldiers present at the battle.
AustinDabney— Enslaved artilleryman who fought as a substitute for his enslaver in the Georgia militia; severely wounded at the Battle of Kettle Creek (1779) and later emancipated, pensioned, and granted state land, the only Black Patriot in Georgia known to receive one.
BarzillaiLew— Free Black fifer and drummer who fought at Bunker Hill and later at Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga; a French and Indian War veteran and skilled musician whose powder horn survives in a Chicago museum.
BazabeelNorman— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
BlaneyGrusha— Fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 alongside fellow Black soldiers.
BostonKing— Formerly enslaved Black Loyalist who escaped to British lines, later wrote a firsthand narrative of his wartime experience, and resettled in Nova Scotia and then Sierra Leone.
CaesarRobbins— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
CaesarTarrant— Served as a naval pilot for the Virginia State Navy, guiding ships through dangerous coastal waters during the war.
CatoHowe— Fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
CatoMead— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
Col.LouisCook(JosephLouisCook)— Son of a Black father and Native American mother; served as a colonel in the Continental Army and fought at both Quebec and Saratoga, one of the highest-ranking Black or Indigenous officers of the war.
ColonelTye(TitusCornelius)— Formerly enslaved New Jerseyan who escaped to British lines and became the most feared Black guerrilla commander of the war, leading raids across New Jersey and New York with his mixed-race Black Brigade until his death in 1780.
CrispusAttucks— Killed during the 1770 Boston Massacre, five years before the war formally began; remembered as an early martyr and the conflict’s first casualty.
CuffWhittemore— Cited for bravery at Bunker Hill and permitted to keep a sword he captured from a British officer.
Cyfax Brown — Enslaved man who fought in the Prince Edward County, Virginia militia alongside fellow Black soldiers Isaac Brown and George Kendall.
DickPointer— Helped defend Fort Donnally (in present-day West Virginia) against a Native American and Loyalist attack in 1778.
Edom London — 33-year-old enslaved Massachusetts man who fought under Col. Thomas Marshall’s Continental Regiment and was present at Saratoga.
Edward“Ned”Hector— Free Black teamster and bombardier in Proctor’s Third Pennsylvania Artillery, responsible for keeping Continental artillery supplied through key campaigns.
Fleet (Fleetus) Hull — Served in Colonel William Shepard’s 4th Massachusetts Regiment and is officially documented among the Black soldiers present at Saratoga.
FortuneConant— Enlisted soldier who witnessed both the British surrender at Saratoga and the later surrender at Yorktown.
FortuneFreeman— Enlisted alongside Fortune Conant and witnessed both Saratoga and Yorktown.
GeorgeKendall— Fought in the Prince Edward County, Virginia militia alongside Cyfax Brown and Isaac Brown.
GeorgeMiddleton— Served in a Massachusetts regiment and became a prominent leader of Boston’s free Black community after the war.
HarryWashington— Enslaved by George Washington at Mount Vernon before escaping to join Lord Dunmore’s forces; served as a Black Loyalist through the siege of Yorktown.
IsaacBrown— Fought in the Prince Edward County, Virginia militia alongside Cyfax Brown and George Kendall.
JackSisson— Enslaved Rhode Islander who served as boat pilot for the 1777 raid that captured British General Richard Prescott, reportedly breaking down the general’s door himself; later served in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment.
JamesArmisteadLafayette— Enslaved Virginian who posed as a runaway to infiltrate British General Cornwallis’s camp as a double agent, feeding false information to the British while relaying critical intelligence that helped trap Cornwallis at Yorktown.
JamesCarter— Enlisted twice, serving as a garrison guard and later as an artillery private in the 2nd Virginia Regiment; fought at the Battle of Camden and the siege of Yorktown.
JamesForten— Teenage privateer captured and held aboard the British prison ship HMS Jersey; survived to become a successful Philadelphia sailmaker and a leading postwar abolitionist and philanthropist.
JamesRobinson— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
JehuGrant— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War pension records.
JimCapers— Free Black South Carolinian who served as Drum Major in the 4th South Carolina Regiment.
JudeHall— Formerly enslaved New Hampshire man who secured his freedom through service at Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, and Saratoga.
LambertLatham— Died a hero’s death defending Fort Griswold, Connecticut, in 1781.
LemuelHaynes— Served briefly as a Massachusetts minuteman before becoming one of the first Black ministers ordained in the United States.
NeroHawley— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
OliverCromwell— Free Black soldier in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment who took part in the crossing of the Delaware, several major campaigns, and the siege of Yorktown.
PelegNott— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
Peter Salem — Formerly enslaved militiaman credited with firing the shot that killed British Major John Pitcairn at Bunker Hill; also served at Saratoga and Monmouth.
PrinceEstabrook— Enslaved militiaman wounded at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, among the first men of any race wounded in the Revolutionary War.
Prince Whipple — Enslaved man who crossed the Delaware alongside George Washington and was present at Yorktown, later advocating for his own freedom.
PrimusHall— Served in a Massachusetts regiment and became a prominent figure in Boston’s postwar free Black community.
ReubenBird— Enlisted at sixteen in the Virginia Regiment of Dragoons; barred from direct combat due to his status as a free Black man, he served in support roles throughout the war.
SalemPoor— Formerly enslaved soldier whose heroism at Bunker Hill — including killing British Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie — earned a rare formal commendation signed by fourteen American officers; also fought at Saratoga.
SaulMatthews— Enslaved Virginian who served as a spy for the Continental Army and was freed by direct act of the Virginia legislature in recognition of his service.
SeymourBurr— Fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
ShadrachBattles— Fought under George Washington’s command, alongside his brother William Noel Battles; son of Thomas Cottrell.
SilasRoyal— Documented Black Patriot soldier known primarily through Revolutionary War muster and pension records.
SpencerBolton— Fought under Patriot guerrilla commander Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” in South Carolina.
ThomasCottrell— Father of soldiers William Noel Battles and Shadrach Battles, who both fought under Washington.
TitusCoburn— Fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
TobyGilmore— One of the longest-serving Black veterans of the Revolutionary War period.
WentworthCheswell— New Hampshire schoolmaster who rode to warn colonial militias of British troop movements, in a ride historians have compared to Paul Revere’s; later became New Hampshire’s first archaeologist.
WilliamFlora— Free Black soldier in the 2nd Virginia Regiment hailed as a hero of the Battle of Great Bridge in December 1775, one of the first major Patriot victories in Virginia.
WilliamNoelBattles— Fought under George Washington’s command alongside his brother Shadrach Battles; son of Thomas Cottrell.
The1stRhodeIslandRegiment(“BlackRegiment”)— A Continental Army regiment composed primarily of formerly enslaved and free Black soldiers; fought at the Battle of Rhode Island (1778) and in the decisive assault on British redoubts at Yorktown (1781).
TheBlackPioneers— An organized British Loyalist unit of Black soldiers who served as scouts, laborers, and combat troops throughout the Southern colonies.
VirginiaStateNavysailors— Up to 150 Black men served as sailors aboard Virginia state naval vessels and privateer ships during the war.
Destination: America 250 What are we celebratingAmerica’s 250th: Three Events, One Story
Three Dates, One Nation, and Why the Difference Matters
Welcome to Travel with Annita. I’m so glad you’re here with me today, because we’re starting something a little different, a deep look at America’s 250th anniversary, what we’re actually celebrating, and why getting the story right matters more than you might think.
Here’s where this segment came from. Over the past while, I’ve had listeners ask me, more than once, and I mean that with real warmth and no judgment at all, whether the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were the same event. One listener asked if the Declaration of Independence was signed to end slavery. Another asked if George Washington fought against the Confederacy.
I want to be really clear about something before we go any further: there is absolutely nothing embarrassing about these questions. American history, especially when you didn’t grow up steeped in it or it’s been a while since school, can blur together. We’ve got founding fathers and generals and documents and wars all crowded into the same few centuries, and honestly, our own history hasn’t always done a great job of teaching it in a way that sticks. So today, we’re untangling it together, gently, clearly, and with the respect this story deserves.
So let’s lay out the three big events we’re going to be living with throughout this show.
First: the Declaration of Independence. Adopted July 4, 1776. This is the moment the American colonies formally declared they were no longer subjects of the British Crown, a political and philosophical announcement, made in writing, asserting that they intended to become a free and independent nation.
Second: the Revolutionary War. Now here’s the first surprise for a lot of folks, the war actually started before the Declaration, back in April 1775, at Lexington and Concord. The fighting had already been going on for over a year by the time Congress formally declared independence. The war then continued for eight more years, finally ending with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Third: the Civil War, and this one happened a full 78 years after the Declaration, and 80 years after the Revolution began. It started in 1861 and ended in 1865. This was Americans fighting Americans, over whether the union would survive and whether slavery would continue to exist in this country.
Now, why does the order and the spacing here matter so much? Because each of these events answers a completely different question. The Declaration answers the question: can a people declare themselves free, and define what they believe a government owes its citizens? The Revolutionary War answers the question: will that declared freedom actually be won and defended? And the Civil War answers a question the founding generation left unresolved, does “all men are created equal” actually mean what it says, for everyone, or just for some?
That’s the heart of it. The Declaration made a promise. The Revolution fought to secure the right to make good on that promise. And the Civil War, eight decades later, was the price the nation paid for not having kept that promise the first time around.
Why July 4, 1776 and Why That Date Is More Layered Than It Looks
This year, 2026, is the Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary, and it’s anchored specifically to the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. Not the start of the war. Not the end of the war. The moment America declared, in writing, what it intended to become.
But here’s something worth knowing, because it surprises almost everyone the first time they hear it: July 4th isn’t actually the date the colonies voted for independence, and it isn’t the date most signers actually signed the document either. Congress voted to approve independence on July 2, 1776. Two days later, on July 4th, Congress formally adopted the final edited text of the Declaration, that’s the date that’s printed on the document, and that’s the date we celebrate. But the actual signing of the parchment copy by most delegates didn’t happen until August 2, 1776, nearly a full month later, and a few signatures weren’t added until early the following year.
So when we say America turns 250 on July 4, 2026, we’re really celebrating the day Congress agreed on the wording of a promise, not the vote, and not the signing. It’s a small distinction, but I think it’s a beautiful one, because it means we’re celebrating the moment the idea itself became official, independent of the political vote that came before it, and independent of the individual men who later put their names to it one by one over the following months.
And here’s one more date worth knowing: John Adams himself believed history would remember July 2nd, the day of the actual vote, as America’s true day of independence, not July 4th. He even refused for years to attend July 4th celebrations on principle. There’s a strange and rather wonderful postscript to that stubbornness: Adams died on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration’s adoption, and so, in a twist of fate, did Thomas Jefferson, on the very same day. Two of the document’s most important architects, gone on the fiftieth anniversary of the day their words became official.
I think that’s exactly the kind of detail that makes history feel alive rather than just memorized, and it’s exactly why this anniversary is worth more than a passing mention on the calendar.
Why This Matters for All of Us? Here’s why I think this anniversary matters, for every single person who calls America home, regardless of your background, your politics, or how your own family’s story intersects with this history. America has never been a finished project. It was declared into being as an unfinished sentence, “all men are created equal”, and every generation since has had the job of trying to close the gap between those words and the lived reality of this country. Sometimes we’ve made extraordinary progress. Sometimes we’ve failed each other badly. The road to freedom in this country has been filled with real struggle, real heartbreak, and real disappointment, and it’s also, genuinely, one of the most remarkable experiments in human self-governance the world has ever seen.
Both of those things are true at the same time. And I think honoring this anniversary means holding both of them, the pride and the honest reckoning, together, without flinching from either one.
So over these next three segments, we’re going to dig into the Declaration itself, why it was needed, who wrote it, and some details you may never have heard. We’re going to look closely at the 56 men who signed it, including some real complexity around slavery that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. And we’re going to walk through the Revolutionary War itself, the protests, the battles, and how it actually ended.
Stay with me. This is going to be a good one.
The Declaration of Independence: Why It Was Needed, and How It Came to Be
Welcome back to Travel with Annita. Let’s dig into the document itself, the Declaration of Independence. Where it came from, why the colonists felt they needed it, and some details about the people and the room where it happened that I think you’ll find genuinely fascinating.
Why Independence Felt Necessary – To understand why colonists wanted independence, you have to understand what it actually felt like to live as an American colonist in the years leading up to 1776, because this wasn’t abstract politics for ordinary people. It touched daily life directly.
After Britain’s expensive victory in the French and Indian War, Parliament looked to the colonies to help pay down the war debt. Starting with the Stamp Act of 1765, Britain began directly taxing colonists for the first time, and I mean directly touching everyday transactions. Newspapers needed a stamp. Legal documents needed a stamp. Even playing cards needed a stamp. Imagine every receipt, every deed, every contract suddenly costing more because of a tax imposed by a government three thousand miles away, in which colonists had no elected representation whatsoever. That’s where “no taxation without representation” comes from, and it wasn’t an abstract slogan, it was colonists experiencing, in their pocketbooks, day after day, a government making decisions about their lives without their consent.
Then came the Townshend Acts, taxing glass, paper, paint, and tea. British troops were sent to enforce order in cities like Boston, and having armed soldiers stationed in your town, watching your streets, created constant friction. That friction exploded into violence in March 1770, when British soldiers killed five colonists in what became known as the Boston Massacre, including a man named Crispus Attucks, who was of African and Native American descent, and who became the first person to die for the cause of American independence.
Then in December 1773, colonists boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water, the Boston Tea Party, protesting a tea monopoly that was undercutting local merchants. Britain’s response was the turning point: rather than treating this as an isolated incident, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, closing Boston Harbor entirely and stripping Massachusetts of its self-governance. And here’s the key thing, this terrified colonists everywhere, not just in Massachusetts, because it proved that Parliament could punish an entire colony’s self-government over a single act of protest. If it could happen to Massachusetts, it could happen to anyone. That fear is what finally pulled the colonies together.
Drafting the Document – By 1776, the Second Continental Congress had been meeting in Philadelphia for over a year, managing a war that had already begun at Lexington and Concord. In June 1776, Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a formal declaration of independence: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York.
Here’s a detail a lot of people don’t know, Jefferson was actually the junior member of that committee in terms of reputation at the time. Adams and Franklin were both far more famous. But the committee asked Jefferson to write the first draft, partly because of his elegant writing style, and partly, by Adams’s own later account, because Adams thought Jefferson should get the credit, and because, frankly, Adams knew he himself was disliked by enough people in Congress that his authorship might hurt the document’s reception.
Jefferson wrote the draft largely alone, in a rented room in Philadelphia, over about seventeen days in June 1776. Franklin and Adams reviewed and made small edits before it went to the full Congress.
The Editing Process and a Detail Most People Never Hear – Once Jefferson’s draft reached the full Congress on June 28, they spent several days editing it extensively, cutting roughly a quarter of his original text. Jefferson, by his own account, found this process genuinely painful, he sat through it mostly in silence while his words were debated and cut.
The most significant deletion, and this is something I think deserves much wider attention, was a long passage where Jefferson condemned King George III for perpetuating the slave trade. It was removed specifically at the insistence of delegates from Georgia and South Carolina, whose economies depended on slavery, along with some Northern delegates whose merchants profited from the slave trade as well. So even in the drafting of America’s founding document of liberty, the question of slavery was already present, already contested, and already being set aside rather than confronted.
The Building and the City – The Declaration was debated and adopted in the Pennsylvania State House, the building we now call Independence Hall, in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies at the time, with around 30,000 to 40,000 people, and its central location and established institutions made it the natural meeting place for delegates traveling from as far as New Hampshire and Georgia.
A little-known detail: the famous chair John Hancock sat in while presiding over Congress is still in that room today, carved with a sun on its crest rail. Benjamin Franklin reportedly remarked, after the Constitutional Convention met in that same room eleven years later, that he’d spent the whole summer wondering whether that carved sun was rising or setting, and had finally decided it was rising.
When It Was Finalized, and When It Was Actually Signed – This is where the calendar gets interesting, and where most people’s assumptions are slightly off.
July 2, 1776 — Congress actually voted to approve independence.
July 4, 1776 — Congress formally adopted the final, edited text of the Declaration.
This is the date on the document, and it’s the date we celebrate — but it marks the adoption of the text, not a dramatic mass signing ceremony with everybody in the room at once.
August 2, 1776 — Most delegates actually signed the formal parchment copy, nearly a full month later.
A few signed even later than that, as new delegates arrived in Philadelphia. The very last signature is believed to have been added in early 1777.
So that single date, July 4th, that we treat as the day everything happened — it’s really the date Congress agreed on the wording. The actual signing was a much longer, messier process spread out over almost a year.
Other Important Dates to Know
July 8, 1776 — the Declaration was read publicly outside Independence Hall for the first time.
July 9, 1776 — Washington had it read aloud to his troops in New York City, and that same evening, crowds pulled down a statue of King George III, reportedly melting the lead down into musket balls for the army.
And one fun, related myth to clear up: the famous Liberty Bell did not ring out to announce the Declaration’s signing on July 4th, despite the popular story. There’s no contemporary evidence for that. The bell hung in that very building’s tower and was likely used to call people together generally, but the dramatic image of it tolling at that specific moment is a later embellishment. The bell’s strong association with liberty actually came later, championed by abolitionists who pointed to its inscription — “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof” — as a pointed reminder of America’s unfinished promise.
Next segment, we’re going to meet the 56 men who put their names — and their lives — on the line by signing this document. Stay with us.
The Signers: Who They Were, and the Uncomfortable Truth Behind Their Names
Welcome back to Travel with Annita. We’ve talked about why independence was declared, and we’ve talked about the document itself. Now let’s talk about the 56 men who actually signed it — because I think when most of us picture “the signers,” we picture a single, unified group of patriots standing together. The reality is more complicated, and honestly, more important to understand.
A Quick Word Before We Begin. I want to say this clearly: looking honestly at the signers’ relationship to slavery isn’t about tearing down history or judging people centuries removed from us by today’s standards alone. It’s about telling the whole truth of this moment — because the most quoted line in the entire Declaration is “all men are created equal,” and a remarkable number of the men who signed those words held other human beings in bondage while they did it. That contradiction isn’t a footnote to the story. It is part of the story, and it’s part of why, eighty-some years later, this country tore itself apart in a civil war to finally begin reckoning with it.
The Numbers – Of the 56 signers, the historical record shows that the overwhelming majority — somewhere in the range of 40 or more — owned enslaved people at some point in their lives, either at the time of signing or before. A handful are documented as never having been slaveholders. And for several, especially among lesser-known signers, the record is simply uncertain — historians haven’t been able to confirm one way or the other.
But the real story isn’t just the raw number. It’s the pattern, and that pattern breaks down very clearly along regional lines.
New England — The Most Likely Region to Have No Slaveholders
Massachusetts gives us our clearest cluster of non-slaveholders: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, and Robert Treat Paine all signed without ever owning another human being. But even Massachusetts isn’t perfectly clean, John Hancock, the most famous signer of all, the man whose giant signature gave us the phrase “John Hancock”, he himself was a documented slaveholder.
New Hampshire shows the same complexity in miniature. William Whipple, a merchant and ship captain from Portsmouth, enslaved a man named Prince Whipple — the same Prince Whipple believed to be the Black figure in that famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. William Whipple did eventually free him. But Prince crossed that icy river, by every reasonable account, as an enslaved man serving the master who would one day sign a document proclaiming all men created equal.
Connecticut leans non-slaveholding too — Samuel Huntington and Roger Sherman, who helped draft the Declaration itself alongside Jefferson, are both listed as not slaveholders.
The Middle Colonies — A Mixed and Surprising Picture
This is where it gets genuinely interesting, because people often assume the North was simply “anti-slavery” and the South was simply “pro-slavery.” New York tells a different story entirely. Every single one of New York’s four signers — William Floyd, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston, and Lewis Morris — was a slaveholder. New York City and the surrounding region had a significant enslaved population well into the founding era, a fact that often surprises people.
New Jersey is similarly mixed, including John Witherspoon , a clergyman and college president, the man who led what’s now Princeton University, who was a slaveholder.
And Pennsylvania, home to the strongest Quaker abolitionist tradition in the colonies, still produced slaveholding signers: Robert Morris, the financier who personally helped fund the Continental Army, owned enslaved people. So did Benjamin Rush, a physician, though Rush’s story has a redemptive turn, because he later freed the man he enslaved and became one of the era’s most prominent abolitionists. And Benjamin Franklin himself enslaved people earlier in his life before becoming, in his later years, a genuine abolitionist voice. These are stories of people whose views actually changed over time, which matters, because it shows the moral question wasn’t settled or static even within individual lives.
The South, Near-Universal, and at an Entirely Different Scale
When we move into Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, the picture shifts from “mixed” to “nearly universal”, and the scale of slaveholding becomes dramatically larger.
Virginia’s delegation is almost entirely slaveholders: Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, and of course, Thomas Jefferson himself, the man who wrote “all men are created equal,” who enslaved roughly 600 people over the course of his life and freed fewer than a dozen. I think that number is worth letting sit in the air for a moment. Six hundred people. Fewer than a dozen freed. The author of the line that has inspired liberation movements across the entire world.
Maryland gives us Charles Carroll, one of the wealthiest men in all of America, who enslaved hundreds of people on his estates. South Carolina’s entire four-man delegation, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., and Arthur Middleton, were all slaveholders, all wealthy planters from the Charleston area.
Georgia’s Signers — Since We’re Broadcasting Right Here at Home
Let’s bring this close to home, because Georgia’s three signers tell a particularly Georgia story.
Button Gwinnett was a merchant and planter on St. Catherines Island, and he enslaved people on his plantation there. He’s also got one of the more dramatic personal stories of any signer — he died in a duel just a year after signing, in 1777, following a wartime political dispute, making him one of the first signers to die after putting his name on the document.
Lyman Hall was a physician and planter from Sunbury, Georgia, also a documented slaveholder — and interestingly, Hall wasn’t originally from Georgia at all. He’d relocated from Connecticut, which tells you something about how fluid and new Georgia’s colonial population still was at the time of the Revolution.
George Walton was a Savannah lawyer, and his record is listed as uncertain — historians haven’t been able to confirm definitively whether he held enslaved people, which is actually true for a fair number of the lesser-documented signers across all the colonies.
So two of Georgia’s three signers were confirmed slaveholders, fitting the broader Southern pattern we’ve just walked through — and Georgia’s economy at the time, like the rest of the Deep South, was already deeply structured around enslaved labor, particularly in the rice and indigo plantations along the coast, near where Gwinnett and Hall both lived.
Why the North-South Divide Looked the Way It Did
Here’s the thing I want to leave you with on this topic, because I think it explains so much of what came afterward, including the Civil War we’ll get into in a future episode. The Northern colonies’ economies were increasingly built around trade, shipping, and small-scale manufacturing, slavery existed there, as we’ve just heard, but it wasn’t the engine of the regional economy the way it was in the South. The Southern colonies’ entire economic and social structure, their wealth, their political power, their whole way of life, was built directly on enslaved labor producing tobacco, rice, indigo, and eventually cotton.
That difference in economic dependence is exactly why, when the Declaration was being edited in Congress, it was specifically the delegates from Georgia and South Carolina who insisted on removing Jefferson’s passage condemning the slave trade. They weren’t being subtle about it. They understood precisely what was at stake for their own economic system, and they made sure the final document protected it.
So when this document declared “all men are created equal” and was signed by 56 men, more than 40 of whom enslaved other human beings — that wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t really even a contradiction the founders failed to notice. Many of them noticed it explicitly, debated it explicitly, and chose, for reasons of money, power, and political survival, to leave it unresolved. That unresolved question is the one this country would spend the next 89 years not addressing, until the Civil War finally forced the reckoning.
That’s the story of the signers, heroic in some ways, deeply human and deeply flawed in others. Next segment, we move into the war itself: the protests, the battles, and how independence was actually won. Stay with me.
The Road to Revolution: Protest, the Liberty Tree, and How the War Was Won
Welcome back to Travel with Annita. Let’s finish out our 250th anniversary special with the story of how ordinary colonists organized themselves into a movement, and how that movement became a war, and ultimately, a victory.
Everyday Protest and the Liberty Tree
Long before any shots were fired, colonists were already building a culture of resistance, and one of the most fascinating parts of that story is something called the Liberty Tree.
In August 1765, Boston colonists protesting the Stamp Act gathered beneath a large old elm tree and hung an effigy of a hated tax official from its branches. That tree quickly became known as the Liberty Tree, and it turned into the central meeting place for the Sons of Liberty, colonists organizing resistance to British policy. Notices were nailed to its trunk. Crowds gathered beneath it for speeches. And here’s what’s so remarkable, nearly every colony eventually designated its own Liberty Tree, or where no suitable tree existed, a Liberty Pole. This created an entirely decentralized communication network, operating completely outside official government, that let news and organizing strategy travel between colonies through letters, newspapers, and word of mouth at a time when news moved by horse and ship.
That network is directly tied to the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, when colonists, protesting a British tea monopoly, dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Britain’s punishing response, the Coercive Acts, is what finally pushed the colonies to convene the First Continental Congress in 1774. You can draw a straight line: Tea Party, to Coercive Acts, to First Continental Congress, to the actual outbreak of war.
Where the War Actually Began
The first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration was even written. British troops marched to seize colonial weapons and were met by militia at Lexington; no one knows for certain who fired first, but by the time the British retreated back to Boston, 73 of their soldiers were dead. The war was on.
Two months later came the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, technically a British victory, but at such a staggering cost that it proved colonial forces could stand against professional British soldiers. That changed everything about how seriously this conflict was taken on both sides.
Key Battles and the Path to Victory
The Continental Army, under George Washington, struggled mightily through 1776, nearly destroyed at the Battle of Long Island, retreating across New Jersey with the cause looking close to lost. Then came Washington’s legendary Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River in 1776, surprising and capturing the Hessian garrison at Trenton, followed quickly by another win at Princeton. Those twin victories saved the Revolution at its lowest point.
The real turning point came at Saratoga, New York, in 1777, where American forces forced an entire British army of nearly 6,000 men to surrender. That victory convinced France to formally enter the war as America’s ally, and without French money, French soldiers, and especially the French Navy, the war very likely would have ended differently.
After a brutal winter at Valley Forge, where the army was reshaped into a true professional fighting force, the war’s focus shifted south, to brutal, often guerrilla-style fighting in the Carolinas, with figures like Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” harassing British forces from the swamps.
How the War Actually Ended —Yorktown
The decisive moment came at the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in the fall of 1781. Washington, the French general Rochambeau, and the Marquis de Lafayette converged on a British army of about 8,000 men under General Cornwallis. The French navy, under Admiral de Grasse, defeated the British fleet just offshore, cutting off any escape or resupply by sea. With nowhere to go, Cornwallis surrendered his entire army on October 19, 1781.
That was, for all practical purposes, the end of major fighting. But the war didn’t officially end until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, nearly two full years after Yorktown. And the very last British troops didn’t actually leave American soil until November 25, 1783, when they finally evacuated New York City, their last major stronghold in America, which they had held for more than seven years, the longest British occupation of any American city during the entire war.
New Yorkers still celebrated that day, Evacuation Day, for generations afterward. And in one of my favorite small details from this whole era, Washington and his troops marched into the city that day down an ancient path that Indigenous Lenape people had used for centuries, called the Wickquasgeck (we quaz guess) Trail. The Dutch later called it the Heere Straat, the English eventually called it Broadway, yes, that Broadway, in Manhattan, still one of the most famous streets in the world. Also the Lenape named the area Manhatta.
Georgia’s Role in the Revolution
Now, since we’re broadcasting to folks right here in Georgia, let’s bring this home. Georgia was actually the most vulnerable of all thirteen colonies, the southernmost, the most exposed. Savannah fell to the British in December 1778 and remained under British control until July 1782, one of the very last cities the British gave up before the war’s end. There was a major joint French and American attempt to retake Savannah in October 1779 that ultimately failed, with heavy losses, including the death of the Polish cavalry commander Casimir Pulaski.
Despite Georgia spending most of the war under British occupation, Georgian patriots Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall signed the Declaration of Independence, and Georgia militia fought throughout the brutal Southern campaign that eventually turned the tide of the entire war.
So next time you’re standing in Savannah, or anywhere across this state, remember, Georgia carries some of the deepest, hardest-won Revolutionary history of any of the original thirteen colonies.
That’s our show for today. Join me next time as we continue this journey through America’s 250th, because understanding where we’ve been is how we appreciate where we are. I’m Annita, and this has been Travel with Annita.
U.S. Mint Coins related to the show
Research and information from the following.
1. The National Archives — “America’s Founding Documents”
The National Archives holds the original Declaration of Independence and provides the authoritative record of the actual timeline: the July 2 vote on Richard Henry Lee’s resolution, the July 4 adoption of the final text, and the August 2 signing of the engrossed parchment by most delegates. This is the primary source for the date distinctions used throughout Segments One and Two. (archives.gov)
2. The Massachusetts Historical Society / Adams Papers
The Adams Papers project, drawing on John Adams’s own letters, is the source for his famous July 3, 1776 letter to Abigail Adams predicting July 2nd — not July 4th — would be remembered as America’s day of independence, and for his lifelong refusal to celebrate July 4th instead. This collection is also the source confirming Adams’s death on July 4, 1826, the same day as Jefferson’s. (masshist.org)
3. Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (1997)
This is one of the standard academic histories of the Declaration’s drafting and editing process — it details the Committee of Five, Jefferson’s seventeen-day drafting period, and Congress’s extensive editing session beginning June 28, including the removal of Jefferson’s passage condemning the slave trade at the insistence of Georgia and South Carolina delegates.
4. The National Park Service — Independence National Historical Park
The NPS manages Independence Hall itself and provides the historical and architectural detail used in the script — including the “Rising Sun” chair, the building’s role as the Pennsylvania State House, and Franklin’s remark about the carved sun, which comes from James Madison’s notes on the 1787 Constitutional Convention. The NPS site is also a standard source correcting the popular myth that the Liberty Bell rang on July 4, 1776.
For the signers’ slaveholding data specifically (Segment Three), the most commonly cited modern source is the Monticello/Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s research on Jefferson’s enslaved community combined with biographical entries compiled by the National Archives’ “Signers of the Declaration of Independence” series and individual state historical societies — these are the sources behind figures like Jefferson’s roughly 600 enslaved people over his lifetime, and Charles Carroll’s documented wealth and slaveholding in Maryland.
Photo courtesy – U.S. Mint
Episode 48: Juliette Gordon Low – The Girl ScoutsJuliette Gordon Low & the Girl ScoutsFrom 18 Girls in Savannah to a Global MovementHello, hello, hello—and welcome to another journey through history.
Today we’re traveling to Savannah, a beautiful Southern city known for its moss-draped oak trees, historic squares, and charming architecture.
But Savannah is also the birthplace of a movement that changed the lives of millions of girls around the world. The story begins with a determined woman named Juliette Gordon Low—known affectionately to friends and family as “Daisy.”
And now, more than a century later, her legacy is being honored on the Juliette Gordon Low Quarter, part of the American Women Quarters Program issued by the United States Mint.
She was a Woman Ahead of Her TimeTo understand Juliette Gordon Low, we need to step back to the early 1900s. In those days, opportunities for women and girls were limited. Women could not vote yet. Social expectations were strict. Girls were often taught to be quiet, polite, and prepared for traditional roles.
But Juliette Gordon Low believed girls deserved something very different. She believed they should be curious, adventurous, independent, and confident.
And she believed they should learn skills that would help them make a difference in the world.
In 1911, while traveling in England, Juliette Gordon Low met a man named Robert Baden-Powell. He had founded the Boy Scouts, a movement designed to teach boys outdoor skills, leadership, and service.
The idea sparked something in Juliette Gordon Low immediately.She saw how powerful this type of program could be—but she believed girls deserved the same opportunities. So she returned home to Savannah with a bold plan.
On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low gathered 18 girls in Savannah. Those girls became the very first troop of what would become the Girl Scouts of the USA.
At the time, the organization was first called Girl Guides, modeled after a similar group in Britain. But the name soon changed to Girl Scouts.
Those first meetings focused on things that were unusual for girls at the time:
- hiking
- camping
- first aid
- leadership
- community service
And perhaps most importantly—confidence. Juliette Gordon Low encouraged girls to believe they could do anything.
What started with just 18 girls in Savannah quickly began to grow. Girls across the country were drawn to the idea of adventure and service.
They learned to:
- build campfires
- navigate outdoors
- work together in teams
- serve their communities
These were skills that prepared girls not just for childhood—but for life.
The movement spread quickly. In the 1920s, Girl Scout troops began appearing beyond the United States.
Troops formed in places like:
- China
- Syria
- Mexico
One of the earliest Native American Girl Scout troops formed on the **Onondaga Nation Reservation in New York in 1921.
Mexican American girls formed a troop in Houston in 1922.
By 1925, a troop was registered in Shanghai, showing just how quickly the movement had grown. What Juliette Gordon Low started in Savannah had become international.
When the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, Girl Scouts stepped forward to help.
Troops collected:
- food
- clothing
- supplies for families in need
They also worked to welcome immigrants into their communities. The Girl Scouts even printed information about their organization in several languages, including:
- Yiddish
- Italian
- Polish
This helped new immigrant families understand and join the movement.
Inclusiveness became one of the organization’s core values.
During World War II, Girl Scouts once again stepped forward to serve.
Troops across the country participated in national war efforts.
Girls collected:
- scrap metal
- cooking fats
- clothing
They also planted Victory Gardens to help support food supplies.
Some troops even operated bicycle courier services, delivering important messages and supplies.
Girl Scouts also organized Defense Institutes, where women learned emergency skills and ways to help children remain calm during air raids.
Even Japanese American girls held in wartime internment camps in Utah and California formed Girl Scout troops—demonstrating the power of community even during difficult times.
The spirit of service continued after the war.
During the Korean War, Girl Scouts assembled “Kits for Korea,” packages filled with supplies for Korean civilians.
The organization also continued pushing for equality and inclusion.
By the early 1950s, progress toward racial integration was already happening within Girl Scouts—even in the segregated South.
In the 1960s, Girl Scouts became increasingly active in conversations about equality and social change.
The organization held Speak Out conferences across the country where girls could discuss issues of race and justice.
A national program called ACTION 70 encouraged girls to work toward overcoming prejudice and building stronger relationships among communities.
Girl Scouts were also invited guests of NASA to witness the launch activities surrounding the Apollo 12 Moon Mission.
The message was clear:
Girls could dream big—even reaching for the stars.
Juliette Gordon Low passed away in 1927, but her legacy continued to grow.
Today the Girl Scouts organization includes millions of girls worldwide.
They continue learning the same values she believed in:
- leadership
- courage
- community service
- friendship
- self-reliance
And it all began with a simple gathering of 18 girls in Savannah.
The progress continued into the 1970s. In 1970, Girl Scouts elected its first African American national board president, Gloria D. Scott.
The organization also began addressing environmental issues through a national program called Eco-Action, encouraging girls to understand and protect the natural world.
And during that same decade, Girl Scouts helped Vietnamese refugee children adapt to their new lives in the United States, demonstrating the organization’s commitment to compassion and global citizenship.
By the 1980s, interest in Girl Scouting was growing rapidly.
The organization introduced the Daisy level, designed specifically for kindergarten-aged girls.
The highest award that older Girl Scouts could earn was renamed the Gold Award, recognizing exceptional leadership and service.
Girl Scouts also began distributing a program called The Contemporary Issues series, which helped teenage girls address real-world challenges including:
- drug use
- child abuse
- teen pregnancy
It was a sign that the organization was evolving alongside the challenges young people faced.
As technology began reshaping society in the 1990s, Girl Scouts responded once again.
They introduced a Technology badge to help girls learn about computers and digital skills—long before technology education became widespread.
At the same time, the organization launched the Right to Read service project, tackling literacy challenges across the country.
Nearly four million Girl Scouts and leaders participated, helping children and families gain access to reading and education.
In the early 2000s, Girl Scouts continued focusing on the healthy development of girls.
The organization established the Girl Scout Research Institute, which studies the needs and experiences of girls and shares insights to help them succeed.
Girl Scouts also strengthened its commitment to inclusiveness.
A national conference focused on Latinas in Girl Scouting, and in 2005, Patricia Diaz Dennis became the first Hispanic woman to chair the Girl Scouts National Board.
The movement Juliette Gordon Low started was continuing to grow, adapt, and inspire.
Today, millions of girls participate in Girl Scouts around the world.
They still learn the same core values Juliette Gordon Low believed in more than a century ago:
- courage
- confidence
- leadership
- friendship
- service
And it all began with a simple gathering of 18 girls in Savannah.
A Quarter That Tells a Story
Now her story is being told in a new way.
The Juliette Gordon Low quarter, released in 2025 by the United States Mint, celebrates the founder of Girl Scouts as part of the American Women Quarters Program.
Each coin in the series honors women who shaped American history.
For Juliette Gordon Low, the quarter represents more than just a person.
It represents a movement.
A movement that has helped generations of girls discover their strengths, explore the outdoors, build friendships, and serve their communities.
So the next time you find yourself in Savannah, Georgia, walk through its historic streets and imagine that small gathering in 1912.
Just 18 girls. One determined woman. And an idea that girls could change the world.
More than a century later, that idea continues to inspire millions.
And now, it’s captured on a small piece of American history—one quarter at a time.
If the story of Juliette Gordon Low inspires you, there’s one place where her legacy truly comes to life—and that’s Savannah.
Savannah is one of the most charming historic cities in America, famous for its tree-lined squares, Spanish moss draping over centuries-old oak trees, and cobblestone streets that seem to whisper stories from the past.
And right in the heart of this beautiful Southern city stands one of the most meaningful stops for Girl Scouts and history lovers alike.
This elegant 19th-century home is where Daisy was born in 1860, and today it’s a beautifully restored museum that welcomes visitors from around the world.
Inside, you’ll step back into Juliette’s world—seeing the rooms where she grew up, learning about her adventurous spirit, and discovering the early experiences that shaped the woman who would one day start a global movement for girls.
Many Girl Scouts say visiting the birthplace feels almost like a pilgrimage.
But Savannah offers much more to explore.
From that small meeting in Savannah grew an organization that has helped millions of girls around the world discover courage, confidence, and leadership.
And that’s the beauty of Savannah.
It’s not just a historic city.
It’s the place where a simple idea helped change the future for girls everywhere.
Our commitment to storytelling –
Our goal is to journey through history in search of the untold and little-known stories — the ones overshadowed by larger narratives, pushed to the margins, or too often silenced and forgotten. We believe history is richest when all voices, experiences, and perspectives are explored with honesty and care.
We strive for accuracy, fairness, and thoughtful storytelling in every piece we create. Our work is grounded in research, historical records, oral histories, and cultural context. But we also recognize that history is not always fully preserved in written documents or official accounts. Sometimes it must also be understood through interpretation, lived experience, and the voices that history nearly lost.
Our commitment is to share these stories with integrity, insight, curiosity, and respect — bringing the past to life in ways that are meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking.
And because history is always evolving through continued discovery and scholarship, we welcome thoughtful feedback. If you see something that may need correction, additional context, or if you have information that could deepen the story, we invite you to contact us at quartermilestravelshow@gmail.com
We value continued learning and will regularly review and update our content to ensure it remains as complete, accurate, and compelling as possible.
**Quarter Miles Travel is not associated with or in collaboration with the U.S. Mint**. Our stories are inspired by the designs on our U.S. currency and does not reflect the opinions or views of the U.S. Mint.
The Liberty Tree Yesterday and TodayLong before America became a nation… before there was a Declaration of Independence… before there were fireworks, parades, or even the United States itself… there was a tree.
There was The Liberty Tree. Its branches stretched over the streets of Boston like open arms gathering together ordinary people with extraordinary courage. Beneath that tree, colonists whispered dangerous ideas. They gathered in fear, in frustration, and eventually in hope. Hope that freedom could belong not only to kings and wealthy men, but to common people willing to stand together and demand it.
The Liberty Tree was more than wood and leaves rooted in the soil of colonial America. To the colonists, it became a living symbol of resistance, unity, and the belief that their voices mattered. Under its shade, the Sons of Liberty organized protests against British rule. Effigies were hung from its branches. Speeches stirred the hearts of the people. Plans were made that would help ignite a revolution.
But emotionally, the Liberty Tree represented something even deeper.
It reminded people they were not alone. For dock workers, craftsmen, merchants, laborers, free Black colonists, and even the enslaved who heard whispers of liberty carried through Boston’s streets, the tree became a symbol of possibility. A place where courage grew. A place where the idea of freedom took root long before the nation itself did.
And even after British soldiers cut the tree down in 1775, they could not destroy what it had already inspired. Because the Liberty Tree had become more than a place. It had become an idea.
Today, nearly 250 years later, that same spirit still speaks to us. The belief that communities matter. That ordinary voices can shape history. That liberty requires courage, sacrifice, and people willing to stand together beneath the weight of uncertain times.
On this episode of Quarter Miles Travel, we travel back to the roots of the American Revolution to uncover the story of the Liberty Tree… the tree that helped grow a nation.
The Liberty Tree came to represent the values that would eventually shape the soul of a nation: freedom, unity, courage, civic responsibility, resistance to injustice, and the belief that ordinary people have the power to shape their own future.
Beneath its branches, colonists discovered that liberty was not simply an idea spoken by politicians or written in documents—it was something living, something worth protecting and fighting for together. The tree became a gathering place where voices joined in common purpose, where communities stood against oppression, and where hope grew stronger than fear.
Its symbolism inspired a nation to believe that freedom belonged not to a king, but to the people. That government should answer to its citizens. That protest could become patriotism. And that even in uncertain times, unity and courage could grow deep enough to change the course of history.
Though the original tree was cut down, the values it represented continued to spread across the colonies like roots beneath the soil—eventually giving rise to the birth of the United States itself.
Yes — there were tensions, contradictions, and sometimes open conflict between Black and white colonists during the years leading up to the American Revolution, especially in slaveholding colonies. The revolutionary era was filled with a painful irony:
White colonists were demanding liberty from Britain while many continued denying liberty to enslaved Africans. African Americans recognized that contradiction immediately.
Some Black people supported the patriot movement and hoped the Revolution would eventually lead to freedom and equality. Others deeply distrusted white revolutionaries and believed British promises of emancipation offered a more realistic path to liberty.
So the Revolutionary period was not one unified movement. It was complicated, layered, and often divided along racial and economic lines.
Planting a Liberty Tree in Maryland Photo Courtesy of Champ Zumbrun.
The Liberty Tree in Maryland Photo courtesy of Champ Zumbrun
Photo courtesy of – The Liberty Tree exhibit at American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, VA
Photo courtesy of – The Liberty Tree exhibit at American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, VA
Our commitment to storytelling –
Our goal is to journey through history in search of the untold and little-known stories — the ones overshadowed by larger narratives, pushed to the margins, or too often silenced and forgotten. We believe history is richest when all voices, experiences, and perspectives are explored with honesty and care.
We strive for accuracy, fairness, and thoughtful storytelling in every piece we create. Our work is grounded in research, historical records, oral histories, and cultural context. But we also recognize that history is not always fully preserved in written documents or official accounts. Sometimes it must also be understood through interpretation, lived experience, and the voices that history nearly lost.
Our commitment is to share these stories with integrity, insight, curiosity, and respect — bringing the past to life in ways that are meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking.
And because history is always evolving through continued discovery and scholarship, we welcome thoughtful feedback. If you see something that may need correction, additional context, or if you have information that could deepen the story, we invite you to contact us at quartermilestravelshow@gmail.com
We value continued learning and will regularly review and update our content to ensure it remains as complete, accurate, and compelling as possible.
**Quarter Miles Travel is not associated with or in collaboration with the U.S. Mint**. Our stories are inspired by the designs on our U.S. currency and does not reflect the opinions or views of the U.S. Mint.
African Americans and The First Memorial Day CelebrationMemorial Day, the USCT, and the Black Americans Who Remembered First
Do you know the story of African Americans and The First Memorial Day Celebration. There are some graves America remembers with marble, flags, and ceremony.And then there are others. Graves that began as trenches. Bodies placed quickly into the earth.
Names unspoken. Families never notified. No proper prayer.
No final honor. No mother, wife, child, or loved one standing close enough to say goodbye.
For many Black soldiers who served in the Civil War, death did not always bring dignity. Even after fighting for the Union, even after risking their lives for a country still deciding whether it would recognize their humanity, many were buried without ceremony, without markers, and without the honor they had earned.
But history has a way of waiting. It waits beneath the soil. It waits in old newspaper clippings. It waits in family stories passed down when official records fall silent.
And in Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring of 1865, newly freed African Americans did something extraordinary. They remembered. They took a place of suffering, a former racetrack turned Confederate prison camp, and transformed it into sacred ground.
Today on Quarter Miles Travel, we uncover the overlooked Black history of Memorial Day, the United States Colored Troops, and the freed men, women, and children who insisted that the soldiers who died for Union and liberty would not be forgotten.
The Civil War was America’s deadliest conflict. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died, and about two-thirds of those deaths came not from bullets, but from disease.
The country was broken. Families were shattered. Towns were emptied of sons. And across the South, the war did more than destroy buildings and battle lines, it shook the foundation of slavery itself.
For enslaved people, the Civil War was not simply a war between North and South. It was a war that opened a door. A dangerous door, yes but one that led toward freedom.
As Union forces moved through Southern states, enslaved men, women, and children made life-changing decisions. Some fled plantations. Some followed Union troops. Some entered contraband camps. Some joined the army. Some searched for relatives who had been sold away. And some simply tried to survive long enough to see what freedom might become.
And then came the United States Colored Troops – the USCT.
Black men enlisted to fight for the Union at a time when the country still refused to treat them as equals. They wore the uniform. They carried the flag. They faced Confederate bullets, disease, discrimination, and the knowledge that if captured, they could be treated far worse than white soldiers.
They were fighting for the Union. But they were also fighting for something deeper.
They were fighting for freedom with their bodies, their courage, and their names.
In Charleston, South Carolina, during the final year of the war, Confederate forces turned the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club into a makeshift prison camp for captured Union soldiers. It had once been a place of leisure and wealth — a racetrack connected to the world of planters and privilege. But during the war, it became a place of suffering.
At least 257 Union prisoners died there, many from disease and exposure. Their bodies were buried quickly in unmarked graves near the racetrack. No proper ceremony. No lasting dignity. Just a mass grave behind the grandstands.
Then Charleston fell. The Confederate army evacuated the city. And the people who remained included thousands of newly freed African Americans — men, women, and children who understood exactly what those Union soldiers represented.
To them, these were not nameless bodies. These were men who had died in a war that helped destroy slavery. So the freed people of Charleston acted.
In the days leading up to May 1, 1865, roughly two dozen African American Charlestonians went to the site. They reinterred the bodies. They placed the graves in proper rows. They built a ten-foot-high white fence around the burial ground.
Over the entrance, they placed words that still carry power: “Martyrs of the Race Course.”
That phrase said everything. Created by a group called Friends of the Martyrs – A group of two dozen recently freed slaves who spent two weeks exhuming and reburying the bodies. And along with a group called the Patriotic Association of Colored Men
They knew these soldiers had not simply died. They had died for something. Both groups helped exhume these brave soldiers and form a committee to honor their service and their lives with ceremony.
On May 1, 1865, about 10,000 people gathered at the old racetrack in Charleston. Most were Black residents, newly freed people, joined by some white missionaries and teachers. The ceremony began in the morning.
Around 3,000 Black schoolchildren marched around the racetrack carrying flowers. Imagine that picture: children, many of them born into slavery, now walking freely, holding roses, singing “John Brown’s Body.”
Behind them came adults representing aid societies for freed Black men and women. Black pastors delivered prayers. Spirituals were sung. Sermons were preached.
Speeches were given by Union officers, missionaries, and Black ministers.
They sang patriotic songs, including “America,” “We’ll Rally Around the Flag,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Later that afternoon, Black and white Union regiments marched around the graves and performed drills. Among them were members of the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry, along with the 35th and 104th United States Colored Troops.
A celebration of honor – the first Decoration Day, which would later become Memorial Day.
The New York Tribune described the tribute as “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.” The graves were covered in flowers. The air carried their fragrance. And people wept — not only in grief, but in joy.
Because this was more than a funeral. It was a declaration. Freed Black Americans were saying: These men mattered. Their sacrifice mattered. Freedom mattered. Memory mattered.
Historian David Blight later wrote that this tribute “gave birth to an American tradition.” In his words, Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration.
Now, here is where the story turns. Because this extraordinary ceremony — one of the earliest known Memorial Day observances in American history — was nearly erased.
For generations, the commonly accepted origin story of Memorial Day centered on General John A. Logan. In 1868, Logan, who led a Union veterans organization, called for Americans to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers on May 30. That national observance at Arlington National Cemetery became known as Decoration Day.
That story is important. But it was not the whole story. The Charleston ceremony happened three years earlier. So why didn’t most Americans learn it?
Because after Reconstruction ended, white Southerners reclaimed political power and reshaped public memory of the Civil War. The story many wanted to tell focused on reconciliation between white Americans — North and South — while leaving Black Americans and emancipation pushed aside.
The role of African Americans in founding an early Memorial Day did not fit that narrative.
And so, the memory faded. The racetrack became Hampton Park. The Union soldiers’ remains were later moved to Beaufort National Cemetery. The story of the freed people’s tribute slipped into archives, family memory, and old newspapers.
It was not until the late 1990s that historian David Blight found a file labeled “First Decoration Day” while researching at Harvard. Inside were references to newspaper accounts describing the May 1, 1865 ceremony.
There it was…. waiting. Proof that Black Americans had helped create one of the nation’s most sacred traditions.
To understand why this ceremony matters, we have to understand the USCT.
The United States Colored Troops were not side characters in the Civil War.
They were central to the Union victory.
Nearly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, and thousands more served in the Navy. Many were formerly enslaved. Others were free Black men from the North. They fought knowing the risks were enormous.
If captured by Confederate forces, Black soldiers could be executed, enslaved, or treated as criminals rather than prisoners of war.
And yet they served. They served at Fort Wagner. They served at Port Hudson.
They served at Petersburg. They served across the South and beyond.
Their families often followed the war in their own way — fleeing plantations, seeking refuge behind Union lines, building schools, churches, and aid communities wherever freedom began to take root.
For Black families, military service was not abstract. It was personal. A son joining the USCT might mean the first military uniform ever worn by a man in that family.
A husband fighting for the Union might mean a chance at freedom for his wife and children. A father carrying a rifle might mean his children could one day learn to read.
That is why burial mattered. That is why flowers mattered. That is why the freed people of Charleston stopped and honored those Union dead.
Because they understood the price of freedom better than anyone.
Today, travelers can still follow this story. Charleston is not only a city of beautiful architecture and coastal charm. It is also a city where the Civil War began, where slavery shaped wealth, and where newly freed people helped redefine the meaning of American memory.
Hampton Park now stands where the Washington Race Course once operated. Beaufort National Cemetery, where the soldiers were later reinterred, remains a place to reflect on sacrifice, service, and the complicated memory of war.
And across the country, Civil War sites tied to the USCT invite deeper exploration — not just of battle strategy, but of courage, family, freedom, and recognition.
This is what Quarter Miles Travel is about. Going beyond the surface.
Finding the stories that have been left out. Understanding that travel is not only about where we go, but what we are willing to remember when we get there.
Memorial Day is often marked with flags, parades, and long weekends. But beneath the tradition is a deeper story.
A story of soldiers buried without ceremony.
A story of freed people who refused to let them remain forgotten.
A story of Black children carrying flowers around a racetrack that had become a cemetery.
A story of prayer, song, dignity, and truth.
The freed people of Charleston understood something powerful:
Freedom requires memory. And memory requires action.
So when we honor Memorial Day, let us remember not only the soldiers who died, but also the people who first gathered to honor them — African Americans newly out of bondage, claiming their place as citizens, mourners, patriots, and keepers of history.
They brought flowers to the graves. And in doing so, they planted something much larger. A tradition. A truth.
And a reminder that the stories we recover can still change how we see America. They are all America’s stories.
Photos –
District of Columbia Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln Photo Courtesy – Library of Congress
Group of contraband men, women and children at Foller’s house, 1862. Photo courtesy – Library of Congress
A note to understand the impact and importance of contraband camps –
During the Civil War in 1861, three enslaved men, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Sheppard Mallory, escaped from Confederate-held Virginia and sought refuge at Union-held Fort Monroe. Refusing to return them to Confederate slaveholders, Union General Benjamin Butler declared them “contraband of war,” arguing that Virginia had seceded from the Union and the men could therefore be confiscated like enemy property. Butler’s decision helped create a new federal policy that allowed thousands of enslaved people to seek protection behind Union lines. The “contraband” decision became an important early step toward emancipation and eventually led to the Emancipation Proclamation and the abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment in 1865.
Picket station of US Colored Troops near Dutch Gap, Virginia- Nov, 1864 Photo courtesy – Library of Congress
Brave African American sailor in Union uniform Photo courtesy – Library of Congress
The Charleston racetrack clubhouse, location where the 1865 Decoration Day (Memorial Day) events took place.
The gallant charge of the 54th Massachusetts – USCT regiment at Fort Wagner – July 18th 1863 – Photo courtesy – Library of Congress
Our commitment to storytelling –
Our goal is to journey through history in search of the untold and little-known stories — the ones overshadowed by larger narratives, pushed to the margins, or too often silenced and forgotten. We believe history is richest when all voices, experiences, and perspectives are explored with honesty and care.
We strive for accuracy, fairness, and thoughtful storytelling in every piece we create. Our work is grounded in research, historical records, oral histories, and cultural context. But we also recognize that history is not always fully preserved in written documents or official accounts. Sometimes it must also be understood through interpretation, lived experience, and the voices that history nearly lost.
Our commitment is to share these stories with integrity, insight, curiosity, and respect — bringing the past to life in ways that are meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking.
And because history is always evolving through continued discovery and scholarship, we welcome thoughtful feedback. If you see something that may need correction, additional context, or if you have information that could deepen the story, we invite you to contact us at quartermilestravelshow@gmail.com
We value continued learning and will regularly review and update our content to ensure it remains as complete, accurate, and compelling as possible.
**Quarter Miles Travel is not associated with or in collaboration with the U.S. Mint**. Our stories are inspired by the designs on our U.S. currency and does not reflect the opinions or views of the U.S. Mint.
Episode 44: Yellowstone National Park Bison and Wolves2010 America The Beautiful Quarters Coin Yellowstone Wyoming Uncirculated Reverse
“Reach into your pocket… pull out a quarter… and let it take you somewhere unexpected.” Today… that quarter takes us to a place where the earth still breathes. Where steam rises from the ground…as if the land itself is telling a story.
Where rivers carve through valleys unchanged by time…and where wildlife moves not for us…but as it always has.
This is Yellowstone. A place that doesn’t ask to be understood—
only respected.
A place where you don’t just visit…You feel.
Stand still for a moment in Yellowstone…
and you begin to notice things differently.
The quiet isn’t empty. It’s full.
The ground beneath you isn’t still. It’s alive.
And the distance between you and the horizon…
feels just a little bit wider than anywhere else.
And somehow… all of that is captured on something small enough to hold in your hand.
The Yellowstone National Park Quarter.
A single moment—
Old Faithful rising into the sky…
and a bison standing steady in the foreground.
Geothermal wonder…
and iconic wildlife…
Existing side by side in one image.
But Yellowstone is more than a beautiful place. It’s an idea.
In 1872, under President Ulysses S. Grant,
Yellowstone became the first national park in the United States—
And the first in the world. At a time when land was something to be claimed, used, and developed…this was something entirely different.
A decision to protect. To preserve.
To say that this land—
with all of its power, beauty, and life—
Would belong to everyone.
And more importantly…
would be protected for those who had not yet seen it.
And that decision…
is why we can still stand here today.
Still watch the geysers rise.
Still see the bison move across the land.
Still experience a place where nature leads.
In this episode of Quarter Miles Travel,
we’re going deeper into Yellowstone—
Exploring the land…
the wildlife…
and the stories that continue to shape one of America’s most enduring places.
Episode 43: Florida State QuarterThree Woman Change Space ExplorationPhoto courtesy U.S. Mint – Florida State Quarters Coin
Florida State Quarter US Mint release in 2004 features stories and history. Let’s start with- “Space… the last frontier.”
A place that has always called to us—quietly, persistently—asking us to look up and wonder what lies beyond.
It is the great unknown… vast, silent, and infinite.
And yet, it feels deeply personal. Because space isn’t just about distance or discovery— it’s about possibility. It’s about curiosity. It’s about the human desire to go further than we’ve ever gone before… and to understand our place in something far greater than ourselves.”
Three women have reach beyond the bound of earth and traveled among the stars and today we say their names and we share their stories. Today… a quarter helps us tell that story – a quarter takes us to Florida. To the Space Coast. To Kennedy Space Center. To a place where history doesn’t sit still—it launches.
But this isn’t just a story about rockets. It’s about people. It’s about possibility.
And it’s about three women who helped redefine who gets to go to space.
We’ll start with the coin. The Florida State Quarter, released in 2004, tells its own story. On the reverse side, you’ll find:
- A space shuttle launching into the sky
- A Spanish galleon, representing early exploration
- And the words: “Gateway to Discovery”
And that phrase, Gateway to Discovery, isn’t just poetic. It’s literal. Because right here… in Cape Canaveral… Florida became the launch point for America’s journey into space.
That shuttle on the coin? It represents decades of innovation, ambition, and risk.
But what the coin doesn’t show— is who was onboard. To understand the full story, you have to stand on the ground where it happened. Kennedy Space Center is where America’s boldest dreams took flight.
It began in 1958, when NASA was created. On the 29th of July 1958 President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill that established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On the 1st of October 1958 NASA began operations to perform civilian research related to space flight and aeronautics. On the 25th May 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced his ambitious goal of sending an American to the moon before the end of the decade.
Just three years later, after NASA was created President Kenney made a promise that would define a generation: To land a man on the moon, and bring him home safely, before the decade was out. To make that promise real, NASA needed a launch site that could support something never done before.
So they built it. More than 80,000 acres. Massive launch pads.
The towering Vehicle Assembly Building—still one of the largest structures in the world. From here:
- Apollo 8 became the first mission to leave Earth’s orbit
- Apollo 11 launched toward the moon
- And the space shuttle era redefined space travel
This place is more than history—it’s momentum.
But for a long time…the people who made that history all looked the same. Well…. That is …Until they didn’t. Enter Sally Ride. Born in California in 1951, she wasn’t just brilliant, she was driven. A physicist. A scholar. A top-ranked tennis player.
And in 1977, she saw something that changed her life—a small newspaper ad from NASA. They were recruiting astronauts. She applied that day. Out of more than 8,000 applicants, she was selected. June 18, 1983. Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Challenger lifts off.
And with it, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. At just 32 years old. She wasn’t a passenger. She was a mission specialist. She:
- Operated the shuttle’s robotic arm
- Deployed satellites
- Conducted scientific experiments
But the media? They asked about makeup. About emotions. About motherhood. And Sally handled it with quiet strength. She once said:
“Everybody wanted to know about what kind of makeup I was taking up,” Ride said. “They didn’t care about how well-prepared I was to operate the arm or deploy communications satellites.”
Sally Ride didn’t just go to space, she made it possible for others to follow. She flew again. She investigated the Challenger disaster. She became a professor. She created programs encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers.
In 1984, Ride went to space again for NASA mission STS-41G. This time, another female astronaut, Kathryn Sullivan, was on board the shuttle with her. This was the first time two women were in space together, and Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk. We say Kathryn’s name too.
Sally was there making history again. You may have heard this before – sounding bold and proud – Americans saying – Ride, Sally, ride and that she did. ……She changed the narrative.
Fast forward nearly four decades. In 2022, another barrier falls.
Nicole Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, becomes the first Native American woman in space. She launches aboard a SpaceX Crew mission, a sign of a new era in space travel. But her journey started long before that. She was:
- A U.S. Marine Corps colonel
- A combat pilot
- An engineer
She flew over 2,500 hours in an aircraft before ever going to space.
And when she finally did,,,,,she carried more than her own achievement.
She carried representation. She once said her mission was about showing Native children that they belong in every space, even one beyond Earth.
And before Nicole Mann…there was Dr. Mae Jemison.
In 1992, she became the first Black woman in space aboard the shuttle Endeavour. Mae Jemison wasn’t just an astronaut. She was:
- A medical doctor
- An engineer
- A Peace Corps physician
- A trained dancer
She refused to be defined by one path. Jemison didn’t just break barriers—
she expanded what was possible. She brought culture, creativity, and intellect into a space that had often been rigid.
She famously said: “Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination.”
And she lived that truth. When you visit Kennedy Space Center today…You’ll see rockets. You’ll see spacecraft. You’ll see history. But if you look deeper—
you’ll see something else. You’ll see change.
You’ll see how access expanded. How voices grew louder. How representation shifted. So the next time you hold that Florida quarter… and you see that shuttle lifting into the sky…Remember—It carried more than astronauts. It carried history.
It carried change. It carried possibility.
So when we say or hear – Space—the last frontier. What we are really saying is …. It’s where curiosity meets courage…where questions become journeys…
and where the limits of Earth give way to the possibilities of the universe.
For as long as we’ve been here, we’ve looked up—wondering what lies beyond.
And in that moment of wonder… we begin to understand something powerful:
that exploration isn’t just about reaching space… it’s about expanding who we are.”**
From the founding of a nation to the launching of a spacecraft, the American story has always been one of exploration. And as we celebrate America’s history and accomplishments, we begin to see that the journey forward isn’t just measured in miles or missions…
It’s measured in inclusion. In opportunity. And in the courage to make space—for everyone. As we reflect on these journeys—Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Nicole Mann—we begin to see something larger taking shape. Not just individual accomplishments…but a broader story of progress.
And as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the space program stands as one of the clearest reflections of who we are as a nation, and who we are becoming.
From the earliest days of independence, America has defined itself by exploration—first across land, then across oceans, and eventually beyond the boundaries of Earth itself. The space program is a natural continuation of that spirit. It represents innovation, courage, and the willingness to pursue what has never been done before.
But like the nation itself, the space program has evolved.
In its early years, not everyone had a seat at the table. Over time, that changed—and that change made the program stronger.
Women have been central to that transformation.
From Sally Ride breaking barriers as the first American woman in space…
to Mae Jemison expanding what representation looks like…
to Nicole Mann carrying her heritage into orbit—
Women have helped reshape not just who goes to space…
but what space exploration means.
And as we look toward America’s 250th anniversary, the space program offers more than a history lesson—it offers a roadmap.
A reminder that progress requires inclusion.
That innovation thrives on diversity.
And that the future is built when more voices are part of the journey.
Because in many ways…
the next frontier isn’t just space—
It’s who we invite to explore it. And when you stand at Kennedy Space Center today…looking out across those launch pads…
You begin to understand—this story….. our story…..is still being written.
Sally Ride, Nicole Mann, Mae Jemison – we say their names and we tell their stories.
Astronaut Sally Ride passed away on July 23rd 2012 – Following her death, it was revealed she was the first known LGBTQ astronaut. Her legacy lives on. She will always be remembered for her advocacy of STEM education ……inspiring young women to study and seek careers in Science.
Today Astronauts Mae Jemison and Nicole Mann continue their work to inspire and engage in who has a place in space – both on earth and beyond.
Mae Jemicson, she founded the Jemison Group, after her space flight. …..focusing on developing technologies for the developing world.. truly a way for inclusion… Jemison also appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation and founded a science camp for students.
She has taught at Dartmouth and Cornell.
Nicole Mann continues her career in space travel – actively training for future lunar missions…… well here’s my personal wish…….that she will be among the first women to land on the Moon. She continues supporting space operations following her 2023 return from commanding the six-month SpaceX Crew-5 mission.
Sally Ride, Mae Jemison and Nicole Mann. ….. we say their names and we share their stories.
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Photo: U.S. Mint
Episode 42: Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American HistoryCumberland Island, located about 15 miles southeast of Kingsland, is the largest public barrier island off the coast of Georgia. And, Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History is where located throughout the island. Accessible only by ferry, the Cumberland Island National Seashore (the name given to the area after being acquired by the National Parks Service in 1972). Many groups have occupied the island over its 4000-year history, from the Timucoan tribe that first inhabited the island to the Spanish who built missions there and the British occupied it Spanish Florida
By 1860, over 500 enslaved people lived on the island, outnumbering white inhabitants by a ratio of seven to one. At its peak, the largest plantation, Stafford Plantation held 348 subjugated Africans and African Americans working over 4,200 acres of land, spanning one-third of the island. The island had fifteen plantations and small farms involved in its chattel slavery system.
Many enslaved Africans were imported from present-day Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, including people from the Fula, Igbo, Gola, Malinke, Bambara, and Serer tribes who resided on the continent’s Western Coast. They were not randomly chosen as the demand for enslaved African labor with rice-growing expertise increased, over 13,000 Africans arrived from the “Rice Coast” and “Grain Coast” regions, bringing their sophisticated knowledge of rice and grain harvesting in both lowland and upland regions.
This matters enormously: these were not people stripped entirely of knowledge and culture. They arrived as experts and the marshes of Cumberland Island looked, ecologically, very much like home.
Cumberland Island’s enslaved people worked largely on a task system, which meant that they were responsible to complete a certain task rather than work certain hours. This is crucial to understanding daily life on the island’s marshes and fields.
When the assigned task was complete typically around 2 o’clock in the afternoon the enslaved populations had what their enslavers called “free time” to manage their private vegetable and herb gardens behind their cabins, hunt, trap and fish, tend to the sick or infirm, practice private forms of worship, or assist extended family members.
The salt marshes were central to this survival economy. The enslaved Africans typically ate corn and sometimes pork rations provided by the plantation owner but often supplemented their meals with fish, wild animals, oysters, and clams for survival. The marsh was not just a workplace, it was a pantry, a pharmacy (marsh plants had medicinal uses rooted in West African herbal knowledge), and a space of relative autonomy.
These difficult working conditions sometimes resulted in spinal injuries from rice cultivation, pulmonary illness, rheumatism, foot rot caused by standing in high water levels, and even death.
An archaeological dig near the Dungeness slave quarters has yielded a glimpse into daily life. Along with pieces of iron skillets, glass, clay pipe segments and pottery, bones from small mammals, birds, turtles, frogs and fish were uncovered. This tells us that people were fishing, hunting, and cooking their own supplemental food, building a domestic life in the margins the system allowed them.
The enslaved Africans on Stafford Plantation lived in eighteen cabin sites, with several chimney ruins still intact today. They routinely used tabby, a durable construction material made from sand, lime, and oyster shells common to the Lowcountry, to construct their chimneys and fireplaces. Even their building materials came from the marsh.
The isolation of Cumberland Island, the very thing that made it so brutally efficient as a plantation system, paradoxically preserved something extraordinary. The Gullah-Geechee culture that resulted in enslaved communities on Georgia’s coast was a result of the retention of many aspects of African culture and language. The isolated nature of Georgia’s barrier islands also resulted in distinctive slave management practices.
Many traditions of the Gullah and Geechee culture were passed from one generation to the next through language, agriculture, and spirituality. The sweetgrass baskets, the ring shout spiritual songs, the creole Gullah language itself, all of it survived because the islands were isolated enough that the people could hold onto it. Since speaking in their native African tongue was typically forbidden, Gullah Geechee allowed enslaved people at least one small act of freedom, communicating with each other, in words and song, in a way which was accepted yet not understood by their masters.
One of the most powerful stories connected to Cumberland Island happened during the War of 1812. In 1815, British troops took over Cumberland Island and all its plantations, offering freedom to the enslaved by joining British forces or boarding British ships as free persons headed for British colonies. Over 1,500 formerly enslaved people who made it to Cumberland Island from across the coastal region sought freedom by boarding British ships to Bermuda, Trinidad, and Halifax in Nova Scotia.
In the 1890s, “The Settlement” was established at the north end of the island as a residential area for Black workers as Georgia passed laws requiring racial segregation of housing and public facilities. The First African Baptist Church, established in The Settlement in 1893, is one of the few remaining structures of this community, and is famously the church where John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette married in 1996. Settlement residents made a living in a variety of capacities: as employees for Hotel Cumberland, servants for wealthy island residents, and working for various timber operations.
What happened in those marshes was not just labor, it was the creation of an entire civilization under conditions of profound cruelty. The enslaved people of Cumberland Island built the island’s wealth, fed themselves from its waters, preserved their language and spiritual traditions in the spaces the task system accidentally created, and ultimately chose freedom the moment it was offered. Their descendants built a church that still stands. Their culture, Gullah-Geechee is one of the most distinctive and living African American cultural traditions in the United States.
The marshes of Cumberland Island are not empty. They are full of that history, for anyone who knows how to listen.
Cumberland is nearly uninhabited, with the exception of around 40 islanders, generational landowners with a small number of private residences on the island. These are primarily Carnegie family descendants who retained lifetime estate rights when the island became a National Seashore in 1972. The most visible permanent resident community is centered around Greyfield Inn, the only hotel on the island, still owned and operated by Carnegie descendants, where a small staff also lives year-round.
Their Gullah-speaking descendants lie buried in a small cemetery at Cumberland’s North End, and a Baptist church built by descendants still stands. So the spiritual presence of the formerly enslaved community endures on the island, even if their living community no longer does.
The National Park Service also maintains a small year-round staff on the island, and the NPS restricts access to 300 people on the island at a time, and campers are allowed to stay no more than seven nights.
This is one of the most haunting and historically significant things on the entire island and most visitors never find it. Today all that remains of the Stafford Plantation is a complex of 26 hearth-and-chimney ruins, which are the most visible remnants of the slave quarters. The chimneys are constructed of tabby and fired red clay bricks, with conditions ranging from complete ruin and rubble to fair, standing structures that are deteriorating and unstable.
All that remains of Stafford’s house is a ruin known as “The Chimneys” a series of 24 hearth-and-chimney structures representing Stafford’s enslaved people’s housing, about one kilometer east of the main house.
The structures, arranged in two parallel rows in the “Slave Quarter,” were where the enslaved cooked, lived, slept, and ate. The wood of the actual cabin walls is long gone, rotted or burned, but the tabby and brick chimneys the enslaved people built with their own hands from oyster shells and sand still stand in three parallel rows in the forest, like a row of silent witnesses.
There is also a striking detail in the NPS historical records: two chimneys with their fireplaces facing each other indicate the probable location of the hospital, a common structure found among slave quarters. Even the medical care of enslaved people is readable in the landscape.
The near-destruction of The Chimneys is its own story. At one point, the lessee of the plantation threatened to remove the chimney ruins. The NPS stopped him. There have been no further issues. They were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and stabilization work began in 2004.
Three ways to learn more about Cumberland’s history:
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The Chimneys at Stafford Plantation, the slave quarter ruins, standing in the forest. Accessible by hiking or biking from the Sea Camp dock, though remote. Not on the standard day-visitor route — you need to seek it out.
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First African Baptist Church at The Settlement, this humble one-room church was established in 1893 by African American residents of the island and their families. Some of the founders were born into slavery and emancipated following the Civil War. The church served as a free place of worship and community center for the North end community. It is 14 miles north of the Sea Camp dock, so the NPS recommends visiting only as part of the Lands & Legacies Tour.
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The Settlement Cemetery where Gullah-speaking descendants of the enslaved are buried, at the island’s north end. A profoundly moving place.
Website –
Cumberland Island National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service)
www.nps.gov
Cumberland Tours & ferry information
Harriet Tubman Woman of CourageHarriet Tubman: Conductor, Soldier, HumanitarianA Life of Freedom, Courage, and Purpose
Photo: U.S. Mint
Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage – Today, we journey through one of the most powerful stories in American history, a story of courage, determination, and an unshakable belief in freedom.
It’s the story of Harriet Tubman. A woman born into slavery… who would go on to lead others to freedom, serve her country in war, and spend her life caring for those in need. Her story so often is centered around her work on the Underground Railroad. While this courageous commitment to freedom is one that is truly her legacy – there so much more to the women once called “Moses” or “the Moses of her people”. This nickname was given to her because, the remarkable journeys she made leading enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, never losing a “passenger” during her rescue missions. But there is more and – Today….we say her name and we tell her story.
Her extraordinary life is honored through the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Program, issued by the United States Mint—a collection of coins that tells her story through three defining chapters of her life.
Chapter One: The Conductor
Harriet Tubman was born around 1822 on a plantation in Maryland.
Her birth name was Araminta “Minty” Ross.
From the very beginning, her life was marked by hardship, danger, and resilience.
But even in those early years, there was something within her, something strong and unyielding. A determination. A belief in freedom.
In 1849, Harriet Tubman made a decision that would change not only her life, but the lives of countless others. She escaped slavery.
Traveling under the cover of darkness, guided by the North Star and the hidden network known as the Underground Railroad, she made her way to freedom in Pennsylvania.
For many, that would have been enough. But not for Harriet Tubman. She went back. Not once. Not twice. But 13 times. Over the next decade, she returned to Maryland again and again, risking her life each time, to guide others to freedom. She personally led about 70 people to safety. And provided instructions that helped another 70 people escape on their own. She later said something that still echoes through history: “I never lost a passenger.”
The silver dollar in the commemorative coin series honors this chapter of her life—her work as a conductor, guiding people out of bondage and into freedom.
Chapter Two: The Soldier
When the American Civil War began, Harriet Tubman stepped forward. In 1862, she joined the Union Army. She began as a nurse, caring for wounded soldiers. But Harriet Tubman was never meant to stay in just one role. She became a scout. A spy. A leader.
She used her knowledge of the land, her courage, and her ability to move quietly and strategically to gather intelligence for the Union Army. And then came one of the most remarkable moments of her life. The Combahee River Raid.
Harriet Tubman became the first woman in American history to lead an armed military expedition. Under her leadership, Union forces traveled along the Combahee River in South Carolina. That mission resulted in the freedom of more than 700 enslaved people. Seven hundred lives changed in one night.
The half dollar coin in the commemorative series represents this chapter, her service during the Civil War. Her courage. Her leadership. Her unwavering commitment to freedom.
Chapter Three: A Life of Service
After the war, Harriet Tubman could have chosen to rest. She had done more than most could ever imagine. But once again, she chose service. She settled in Auburn, where she would spend the remaining 54 years of her life. And there, she continued her work.
She supported newly freed men and women trying to build new lives. She cared for the elderly. She opened her home to those who had nowhere else to go.
Later in life, she established what would become the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, a place where people could live with dignity and care. But she didn’t stop there. Harriet Tubman also became a powerful voice for women. She traveled and spoke at gatherings supporting women’s suffrage, advocating for the right of women to vote. She spoke about civil rights. She spoke about equality. She spoke about access to healthcare. Her work was never limited to one group of people. She believed in freedom for everyone.
The $5 gold coin in the commemorative series represents this final chapter of her life. A life dedicated not just to freedom—but to humanity.
The Meaning Behind the Coins
Each coin tells part of her story:
- The silver dollar reflects her work on the Underground Railroad
- The half dollar represents her Civil War service
- The $5 gold coin honors her later years in Auburn, caring for others and advocating for justice
Together, they form a portrait of a life lived with purpose. A life that never turned away from the fight for freedom.
Harriet Tubman’s story is not just about the past. It’s about courage. It’s about purpose. It’s about what one person can do, when they refuse to accept the world as it is and instead work to change it.
She walked into danger so others could walk into freedom. She stood in spaces where she was not expected, and led anyway. She gave her life to something greater than herself. And even today, her story asks us a quiet question.
What will we do with the freedom we have?
Because history is not just something we remember. It’s something we continue. And sometimes… it’s carried forward in the smallest of ways. Even in something as simple as a coin.
And that’s today’s journey.
Photos:
Commemorative CoinsEach photo: U.S. Mint
Photos from Auburn and Cayuga County
Harriet Tubman’s Home for Aged
Harriet Tubman’s New York Home – Auburn, NY
Quilt with Harriet’s image in the Cayuga Tourism Center
Cayuga Tourism Center
Mural in downtown Auburn
Tourism Office
Statue in downtown Auburn
U.S. Mint video – Harriet Tubman Commemorative Coins Act
Our commitment to storytelling –
Our goal is to journey through history in search of the untold and little-known stories — the ones overshadowed by larger narratives, pushed to the margins, or too often silenced and forgotten. We believe history is richest when all voices, experiences, and perspectives are explored with honesty and care.
We strive for accuracy, fairness, and thoughtful storytelling in every piece we create. Our work is grounded in research, historical records, oral histories, and cultural context. But we also recognize that history is not always fully preserved in written documents or official accounts. Sometimes it must also be understood through interpretation, lived experience, and the voices that history nearly lost.
Our commitment is to share these stories with integrity, insight, curiosity, and respect — bringing the past to life in ways that are meaningful, engaging, and thought-provoking.
And because history is always evolving through continued discovery and scholarship, we welcome thoughtful feedback. If you see something that may need correction, additional context, or if you have information that could deepen the story, we invite you to contact us at quartermilestravelshow@gmail.com
We value continued learning and will regularly review and update our content to ensure it remains as complete, accurate, and compelling as possible.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory BattalionQuarter Miles Travel – where the adventure begins when you reach into your pocket.
Today, we’re not just traveling across miles… we’re traveling across time. Back to World War II. A time when the world was at war… and millions of American soldiers were stationed far from home. Letters — simple letters — became lifelines. Messages from mothers, fathers, wives, sweethearts, children. Words of love, hope, and connection. And letters from soldiers back to their families.
But here’s the problem…Those letters weren’t getting through. Yet, called to create a solution were the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion
History has not shared their journey… but today we say their names and share their story. Warehouses in Europe were stacked floor to ceiling with undelivered mail — millions of pieces. Some estimates say over 17 million letters and packages, sitting in cold, dark buildings… waiting. And morale? It was dropping.
Because when you’re fighting a war, sometimes the most powerful thing you can receive… is a reminder of home. So the military made a decision. Send in a unit to fix it. Not just any unit…
But the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion: the only all-Black, all-female unit deployed overseas during World War II. They were known as the Six Triple Eight.
And their mission? Clear the backlog. Deliver the mail. Restore morale. Simple on paper. But nothing about what they faced… was simple.
The women of the 6888 trained at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They were disciplined. Organized. Ready. But when they arrived in Birmingham, England, what they walked into… was overwhelming.
Imagine this:
Cold warehouses. Poor lighting. Rats running through piles of mail. Packages stacked higher than a person could reach. No system. No order. Just chaos. And remember — many of these letters didn’t even have full names.
Just things like:
“Junior”
“Buster”
“Red”
No addresses. No unit numbers.
Just hope… written on paper.
The military expected it would take six months to sort through everything. Six months. But the women of the 6888 had a motto: “No mail, low morale.” They knew what was at stake. So they got to work.
They created a system from scratch. Card catalogs with over 7 million names. Cross-referencing units, nicknames, serial numbers. Working in three shifts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No breaks in mission. No slowing down. And they didn’t just meet expectations. They exceeded them. They cleared the entire backlog in three months. Half the expected time. Let that sink in. Three months to do what was supposed to take six. And then? They were sent to Rouen, France… where another backlog waited. And once again… they delivered Efficient. Focused. Unstoppable.
Now let’s be clear. They weren’t just sorting mail. They were delivering:
- A mother’s voice
- A child’s drawing
- A letter from home that said, “We’re waiting for you”
They were restoring morale. They were keeping connections alive. And in a war… that matters. Because soldiers fight differently when they know someone is thinking about them. The women of the 6888 understood that. They didn’t need headlines. They didn’t need recognition. They just needed to get the job done. And they did.
And then the war ended. The women of the 6888 returned home. And like many Black service members at the time…They came back to a country that did not fully recognize what they had done. No parades. No widespread celebration. Their story… quietly set aside. For decades. But here’s the thing about real impact…It doesn’t disappear. It waits to be rediscovered.
In recent years, their story has finally begun to receive the recognition it deserves. The 6888 was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal — one of the highest civilian honors in the United States. A long overdue acknowledgment. Their legacy now lives on in:
- Museums
- Military memorials
- Historical archives
And most importantly…In the stories we continue to tell.The women of the Six Triple Eight didn’t ask for attention. They showed up. They worked. They delivered. And in doing so… they made history.
So the next time you think about World War II… remember this: Victory wasn’t just won on the battlefield. Sometimes…It was delivered in a letter.
FOLLOWING THE 6888 IN THE UNITED STATES
Now we’ve just heard the powerful story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — the Six Triple Eight. But here’s the thing I love…This isn’t just history you hear. It’s history you can visit. So let’s talk about where you can go to connect with their story right here in the United States.
STOP ONE: FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS
This is where it all began.
Fort Leavenworth is where the women of the 6888 trained before heading overseas. Walking these grounds, you’re standing where they prepared for one of the most important logistical missions of World War II.
Now, while parts of the base are active military, there are areas open to the public — and nearby museums that help tell the broader story of military leadership and service.
This is your starting point. Where discipline met purpose.
STOP TWO: WASHINGTON, D.C. / ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
Next, head to the nation’s capital — because this is where their legacy is finally being recognized.
At the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, located at Arlington National Cemetery, you’ll find exhibits honoring women who served — including the 6888.
This is a powerful stop. Quiet. Reflective.
The kind of place where you pause… and take it all in.
Because for years, their story was overlooked — and now, it’s finally being told.
STOP THREE: NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM – NEW ORLEANS
If you really want to understand the scale of what they accomplished, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans is a must.
This is one of the most comprehensive World War II museums in the country — and it provides critical context about African American service members, women in uniform, and the global scope of the war.
This stop gives you the big picture — and shows just how vital their mission really was.
OPTIONAL EXTENSION: COMMUNITY & LEGACY EVENTS
Across the country, you’ll also find:
- Traveling exhibits
- Historical markers
- Community commemorations
Because their story is still being uncovered… and shared.
So if you’re ready to walk in the footsteps of the Six Triple Eight — from Kansas to Washington, D.C., to New Orleans — these are the places where their story comes to life.
And trust me…It’s one thing to hear about history. It’s another thing to stand where it happened. Because these aren’t just destinations…They’re stories waiting for you to experience.
Photo: U.S. Mint
Althea Gibson American Women’s Quarter SeriesThe adventure begins when you reach into your pocket.
Today, we’re stepping onto the court — not just any court — but one that changed the game forever. And at the center of it all is a woman who didn’t just break barriers… she shattered them.
Her name is Althea Gibson.
Now, before Serena, before Venus, before the world ever imagined what dominance in tennis could look like from a Black woman — there was Althea. Tall, powerful, and determined, she stepped into a sport that, at the time, didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat.
We’re talking about the 1950s. Country clubs. Grass courts. Closed doors.
But Althea Gibson? She had a game that could not be ignored.
She became the first African American to compete at Wimbledon… and then went on to win it. Not once — but twice. Same story at the U.S. Nationals, what we now know as the U.S. Open.
And she didn’t stop there.
Althea went on to break another barrier — becoming the first Black woman to compete on the LPGA golf tour. Now that’s what you call not staying in one lane.
But here’s the thing I love about her story… it’s not just about trophies and titles. It’s about resilience. It’s about showing up in spaces where you weren’t expected — and leaving the door wide open for others to walk through.
And today, her legacy is literally something you can hold in your hand… honored on a U.S. Mint quarter — a reminder that her story is part of the American journey.
So in this segment, we’re going to travel through Althea Gibson’s world — from Harlem streets to international courts — and explore the places, the people, and the moments that shaped a true pioneer.
Stay with me… because this is one story you don’t just hear — you feel.
Eleanor RooseveltU.S. Mint Women’s Quarter SeriesPhoto: U.S. Mint
There are times when you’re holding more than just a quarter … you’re holding a legacy. You’re holding a coin from Eleanor Roosevelt U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series – you’re holding a legacy.
A legacy carried by a phenomenal woman. Eleanor Roosevelt wasn’t just a First Lady — she redefined what that role could be. At a time when women were expected to stand quietly in the background, Eleanor stepped forward… and spoke up.
She traveled across the country during the Great Depression, listening to everyday Americans, women, workers, families, and bringing their voices into rooms where decisions were being made.
But she didn’t stop at the borders of the United States. Eleanor Roosevelt went on to become one of the driving forces behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a document that continues to shape freedoms around the world today.
Her name carries a legacy…. And, today… we say her name and we tell her story.
Eleanor Roosevelt – when it came to women’s rights, that’s where her legacy stands bold – she didn’t just advocate, she insisted that women belong at every table where change is happening.
Today, her image appears on a U.S. Mint quarter, a small piece of metal that carries a powerful reminder: leadership isn’t about title… it’s about action.
So in this episode, we’re traveling through the places, the moments, and the legacy of a woman who didn’t wait for permission to lead… she simply did. I talked with Jeffery Urbin – Jeffrey S. Urbin – Education Specialist Roosevelt Presendential Library & Museum and Director of the Pare Lorentz Film Center to share her story.
Stay with me. Her story is one that inspires.
Listen to the conversation where Jeff shares her story
And just like that… another journey, another story, all inspired by something you can hold in your hand.
Eleanor Roosevelt showed us that leadership begins with listening… and that real change starts when you’re willing to stand up and speak out.
Special thank you to Jeff for sharing Mrs. Roosevelts story. Learn more about her and the exhibits at the Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum visit their website – www.fdrlibraRy.org
Learn more about the U. S. Mint commemorative coins – us mint.gov
So the next time you reach into your pocket and find that quarter… take a closer look. Because every coin has a story. And every story is an American story and there … is a place waiting to be explored.
Until next time… keep traveling.
Reach in your pocket, or your sofa cushions, pull out a quarter and flip it over. Quarter Miles Travel will take it from there. We’ll help you turn that quarter, into an adventure.
Jovita Idar U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter SeriesPhoto: U.S. Mint
Jovita Idar U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series is unique and representative of her life’s work. Some women don’t just speak up… they stand firm when it matters most. Jovita Idar was one of those women.
A journalist, teacher, and activist, she used her voice to fight for the rights of Mexican Americans at a time when injustice was often ignored. When Texas Rangers tried to shut down her newspaper, Jovita didn’t step aside — she stood in the doorway and refused to let them in. Now that’s courage.
She believed in education, equality, and the power of the written word to spark change. And today, her legacy reminds us that sometimes history is shaped not in grand halls… but right at the front door.
Courage, bravery and commitment – we will say her name and tell her story.
Let’s say her name Javita Idar and honor her design on the reverse side of the U.S. Mint’s Women’s series Quarters, There are words inscribed that say it all – they are words that describe her commitment to change. Javita Idar U.S. Mint Women’s Quarter Series design shares words of her life experience.
I had a chance to visit the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute in San Antonio Texas and sit down with Sarah Gould, Executive Director. She shares Jovita’s story and how the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute honored her Quarter.
Stay with me… this is a story of strength you won’t forget.
Plan a visit to San Antonio –
Check out the websites:
San Antonio Tourism
Mexican American Civil Rights Institute
Joanne Bland Spirit of CourageWho is Joanne Bland Spirit of Courage. There are places in America where the ground remembers. Where every step carries an echo. Where every bridge holds a story. The Alabama quarter bears the words, Spirit of Courage. Not as decoration, but as truth. Because courage lived here. It walked these streets in worn shoes and steady faith.
It stood in the face of anger with quiet resolve. It belonged to women—young and determined—who believed that their footsteps could carry a nation forward.
In Selma, courage was not loud. It was the heartbeat of a young girl named Joanne Bland,
who stepped forward when the world told her to step back. She walked not knowing what waited on the other side of the bridge, only knowing that freedom was worth the walk.
Today, as we stand at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we are not just visitors. We are witnesses. Because the spirit of courage does not belong to history alone. It lives in the footsteps we follow…and in the stories we carry forward.
Today I share Joanne Bland’s story – one of bravery, fearlessness, fortitude, conviction and unshakable will…. And when I think of her…. I remember her boldness to remain steadfast to her purpose.
Joanne Bland – say her name and hear her story. Some heroes are not born into history—they step into it. Joanne Bland was just a child when she found herself standing at the center of one of America’s most defining moments. She was not driven by fame or recognition. She was driven by something far more powerful—an understanding, even at a young age, that dignity and freedom were worth standing for.
Growing up in Selma, Alabama, Joanne Bland witnessed injustice not as a distant headline, but as part of daily life. She saw the lines drawn. She felt the limits imposed. And yet, she chose not to accept them.
Instead, she walked. She walked beside neighbors, beside family, beside a movement. She walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, knowing the risks, but believing in the promise of something better. Her courage was not loud. It was steady. It was determined. It was the quiet strength of someone who understood that change begins with a single step.
Joanne Bland’s life reminds us that activism is not defined by age. It is defined by heart, by conviction, and by the willingness to stand—and walk—for what is right. And it is here in Selma, where her journey helped shape the course of a nation, that her story continues to guide us forward. Her recent death brings time to reflect on her life filled with strength of will and toughness to stay on the mission she started as a child. To honor her life, I am moved to share a conversation I had with her during a visit along the Alabama Civil Rights Trail. The time I spent with her was the highlight of the trip. I’m sharing the raw audio of our conversation – she tell her story, so that we do not forget and we do not stop the fight for justice.
When I think of Joanne Bland – Courage of Spirit the words below come to mind.
Words for Courage
- Bravery
- Valor
- Fearlessness
- Resolve
- Boldness
- Fortitude
- Heroism
- Strength
- Grit
- Backbone
- Defiance
- Inner strength
- Moral courage
- Steadfastness
- Nervel
- Devotion
- Commitment
- Loyalty
- Faithfulness
- Persistence
- Discipline
- Service
- Determination
- Steadfast commitment
- Sense of purpose
- Calling
- Passion
- Determination
- Resilience
- Persistence
- Resolve
- Staying power
- Strength of will
- Grit
- Relentlessness
- Toughness
- Drive
- U.S. Mint Alabama State Quarter has image of Helen Keller; however, Alabama has many women with the “Spirit of Courage” and Joanne Bland is top of the list. She too represents Alabama and their state quarter.
Destination: SwitzerlandA Closer LookHello, hello, hello and welcome aboard travel with annita & friends. Glad to have you here with me today for a show to take a look at our expectations when we travel and how we find countries we visit are not so different from what we experience at home.
When we travel, we often imagine we’re slipping out the side door of our own country’s troubles—leaving behind the social tensions, the political noise, the racial debates that feel stitched into our daily lives here in the U.S. We like to think that stepping onto foreign soil means stepping into a different mindset entirely, as if other places operate outside the gravity of the issues we wrestle with at home. But the truth—well, it travels, too.
Every city, every village, every postcard-perfect destination carries its own history, its own blind spots, its own deeply rooted ideas about identity, race, and belonging. And sometimes, the very conversations we think we’ve left behind come and tap us on the shoulder in the most unexpected places. That’s exactly what happened to me in Switzerland.
On a recent trip to Bern, I toured the “Resistances: On Dealing with Racism” exhibit at the Bern Historical Museum with guide and curator Dian Mezic. What I expected to be a straightforward walk-through turned into something much deeper—an honest look at Switzerland’s own cultural attitudes and the legacies that shape them.
At the center of our conversation was an alphabet mural taken from a local grade school—an innocent teaching tool on the surface, but one that carried some very loaded imagery. Three letters, three drawings, each representing non-white people in ways many today recognize as racist.
C for “Chinese.”
I for the Indigenous person of the Americas.
N for the Black person.
Those images had hung on a school wall for seventy years. Yes, you heard me – seventy years.
In the exhibit, the figures were deliberately marked through—both to avoid offending visitors and to signal that these depictions are not acceptable—but their presence sparked something powerful. Visitors were encouraged to talk, to question, to watch videos, to explore how such portrayals survived for decades, and what that says about Switzerland’s own racial history.
This wasn’t just a lesson in art or education. It was a reminder that every nation, no matter how neutral its reputation, carries its own complex story about race and identity. And often, those stories echo more closely with our own than we’d like to admit.
Today, you’ll hear my conversation with Dian Mezic—an insightful, eye-opening look at how one mural has opened a national dialogue, and how travel can reveal truths we don’t always expect to find.
Segment two
Travel is not just about seeing what’s different in the destinations we visit… it’s also about recognizing our similarities. The things we share. The histories and attitudes that show up in unexpected places, reminding us that no country is untouched by the conversations we’re having at home. Welcome back to Travel With Annita.
As we continue our conversation with Bern Historical Museum curator Dian Mezic, we’re taking a closer look at the mural at the heart of the “Resistances” exhibit. What seemed like a simple alphabet chart turned out to hold seventy years’ worth of assumptions, stereotypes, and silent lessons passed down to generations of schoolchildren.
In this segment, Dian walks us through the imagery itself—
how C was illustrated as a caricature of Chinese identity,
how I reduced Indigenous peoples of the Americas to a stereotype,
and how N portrayed Black identity using old colonial imagery.
These weren’t just letters on a wall—they were reflections of how a society once viewed the world, and in many ways, how it taught children to see it.
So let’s continue the conversation and take a closer look at what those images reveal.
Segment three
How does a national debate begin? Welcome back to Travel With Annita and Friends.
I ask that question because sometimes the spark isn’t a speech, a protest, or a headline. Sometimes it’s something far quieter… something hiding in plain sight. Like a mural that stood on a school wall for seventy years—unchallenged, unexamined, and untouched by the conversations swirling everywhere else.
How does a piece of art like that survive decades without anyone questioning its impact?
How does something loaded with silent meaning—images that shape how children see themselves and the world—manage to stand the test of time without raising so much as an eyebrow?
And then, just like that, media attention sweeps in. The winds of change pick up. Suddenly, what was once accepted as normal becomes the center of a national reckoning. A mural becomes a mirror. A debate is born.
In this next segment, we dive deeper into how public attention transformed this long-ignored artwork into a catalyst for reflection, conversation, and cultural change in Switzerland. And how a quiet classroom image became the spark for something much bigger.
Segment Four
For our final stop in Switzerland, we’re stepping into a place where the past and the present, the traditional and the emerging, all converge in one remarkable cultural hub. Welcome back to Travel With Annita and Friends.
Just beyond the Lausanne train station lies Plateforme 10—a sprawling arts district built on what was once a bustling railway yard. Trains once carried people, goods, and stories across Switzerland from this spot. Today, Plateforme 10 carries something just as important: conversations. Conversations about identity, culture, representation, and the evolving face of Swiss society.
What makes Plateforme 10 so compelling is that it isn’t simply a collection of museums. It’s a curated space where Switzerland is taking a thoughtful look at itself—its history, its artistic expressions, and the voices that have too often been missing from the narrative. Exhibits here challenge traditional imagery, question long-held assumptions, and elevate perspectives that broaden our understanding of what Swiss culture includes.
You’ll find photography that highlights marginalized communities, contemporary art that celebrates difference rather than smooths it over, and installations that ask visitors to consider who shapes cultural memory—and who gets left out of the frame. The district invites visitors to slow down, look closer, and recognize how diversity, inclusion, and social identity are shaping Switzerland’s cultural future.
Plateforme 10 reminds us that travel isn’t just about the places we explore—it’s about the ideas we encounter. It’s about noticing how a country expresses its values, and how art becomes a bridge between who we were, who we are, and who we’re becoming.
So let’s take a closer look at Plateforme 10 and discover how this reimagined railway yard is helping Switzerland expand its cultural landscape with creativity, openness, and intention.
Where to Eat Near Plateforme 10
- Le Nabi (inside Plateforme 10)
Modern, artsy, and convenient.
Fresh, seasonal dishes with a relaxed café vibe. Perfect for lunch before wandering the exhibits.
Take the Metro to the Olympic Museum
Yes, Lausanne is the Olympic capital.
The museum is interactive and beautifully curated — great for adults and kids.
Photos
Take a look at the photos the mural. The black and white photo is before the three letters were blacken in protest during the national debate.
Destination:Let’s Go To Bern, SwitzerlandCome along to hear all about Switzerland historic and beautiful city of Bern. From cobblestone streets with fascinating history to Jazz music and delicious food, this show shares it all.
Glad you’re here for a replay of New Orleans Culture Cuisine and Music. This was an exciting show to produce. I once lived in New Orleans and visiting again after several years was a real treat to wander around familiar places.
Here’s the transcript from the show. Click above to listen.
Hello, hello, hello and welcome aboard Travel With Annita, where we explore the stories behind the world’s most fascinating destinations — and today, we’re heading somewhere special. A place of history, heart, grit, and music that practically spills out onto the street — we’re going to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Now, I’ve always said, New Orleans isn’t just a city — it’s an experience, one of those rare places that feels alive, as if the sidewalks remember every step taken and every song ever played.
The history of New Orleans is as rich and layered as a good bowl of gumbo — and trust me, it’s just as flavorful.
Let’s take it back to the beginning. The year was 1718 — over 300 years ago. A French-Canadian explorer named Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville planted the flag along the Mississippi River and founded La Nouvelle-Orléans — that’s “New Orleans” in French, of course — named after Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.
But even before Bienville showed up, the land belonged to Native American tribes — the Chitimacha, Houma, and others — who lived along the Mississippi and its bayous. The river was their source of life, just like it remains for the city today.
Bienville and the French saw potential in this low-lying crescent of land — hence the nickname “The Crescent City.” But let me tell you, they also inherited a whole lot of headaches — swamps, hurricanes, disease, and mosquitoes the size of small birds. Yet, they stayed, and they built.
The French weren’t the only ones with their eyes on this prize. In 1763, after the Seven Years’ War, the city passed into Spanish hands. For nearly 40 years, the Spanish ruled, and they’re the reason so much of the French Quarter actually reflects Spanish architecture — those ornate iron balconies, pastel colors, quiet courtyards with trickling fountains — it’s all part of the Spanish legacy.
During that time, two devastating fires nearly wiped out the city — one in 1788, and another in 1794. But like New Orleans always does, it rose from the ashes, rebuilt with resilience, and added more character to its streets.
By 1803, the French briefly regained control of Louisiana, only to turn around and sell it to the United States in what’s still one of the most significant real estate deals in history — the Louisiana Purchase.
Now, I want you to picture this — at the stroke of a pen, the U.S. doubled in size, and New Orleans suddenly belonged to a new country. But let me tell you, the people of New Orleans? They didn’t just toss out their old ways and say, “Sure, let’s be American now.” Oh no, they clung to their French, Spanish, and African roots, their language, their food, their customs — and that stubborn independence still flavors the city today.
New Orleans quickly became one of the most important port cities in the world. The Mississippi River was the superhighway of the 18th and 19th centuries, carrying cotton, sugar, and goods right down to the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. That river made fortunes — and it also brought waves of new people.
French settlers, Spanish colonists, enslaved Africans, free people of color, Germans, Irish immigrants, Haitians — they all came, willingly or otherwise — and together, they created the cultural gumbo New Orleans is famous for.
And that word, “gumbo” — it’s more than a stew; it’s a perfect metaphor for the city. African okra, French roux, Spanish spices — mixed together in one pot, simmered, and shared. And, here’s a little trivia…did you know gumbo is French for okra Just like the music, the food, and the people.
Of course, the history isn’t all romance and jazz. New Orleans has seen its share of hardship — slavery, war, segregation, hurricanes — yet through it all, the city has an uncanny ability to dance through the storm. Literally.
By the early 1800s, Congo Square — right outside the French Quarter — became the only place in the South where enslaved Africans were allowed to gather publicly on Sundays. There, they danced, played drums, sang songs from their homelands — blending African rhythms with European instruments. Some historians say that’s the cradle of American music — where jazz was born.
And let’s not forget — during the 19th century, New Orleans was the largest city in the South. It was rowdy, wealthy, diverse, and unlike anywhere else in the country. The architecture, the cuisine, the language — even the legal system, based on Napoleonic code — all reflected its European roots more than typical American towns.
Fast-forward to the 20th century, and New Orleans gave us jazz, the first truly American music. Louis Armstrong, one of the most influential musicians of all time, was born and raised right here in New Orleans. The brass bands, the parades, the street performers — they’re not for show. They’re part of the lifeblood of the city.
But New Orleans isn’t just music and Mardi Gras — though believe me, both are unforgettable. It’s also resilience.
Hurricanes have battered this city, with Katrina in 2005 being the most devastating in modern memory. But in true New Orleans fashion, the city picked up the pieces — slowly, painfully — and carried on, proud, determined, and maybe with an even stronger sense of self.
And here’s something that always strikes me — in New Orleans, history isn’t behind glass in a museum. It walks the streets with you. It’s in the creak of old wooden floors, the aroma of red beans and rice simmering on a stove, the sound of a trumpet wailing in the night.
You can’t help but feel it — that deep, enduring soul that says, “We’ve been through it all, but we’re still here. And we’ve still got music to play, food to share, and stories to tell.”
Alright, folks—if you’ve wandered the cobblestone streets of the French Quarter, dodged a few beads, and maybe had one too many beignets—you’ve likely strolled right past one of the best-kept gems in New Orleans history: The Historic New Orleans Collection, tucked right there on Royal Street.
Now, don’t let the word “collection” fool you. This isn’t some dusty room full of knickknacks your Aunt Irene might keep. This is a living, breathing archive of everything that’s made New Orleans…well, New Orleans. The history, the art, the scandal, the culture—the good, the bad, and the jazzy.
Let’s start with how it all began. Back in 1966, General L. Kemper Williams and his wife Leila—two locals with a serious love for preserving Louisiana’s legacy—decided to do something about it. They didn’t just collect antiques or family heirlooms. No, they went after rare maps, priceless manuscripts, historic paintings, Mardi Gras treasures, and even old jazz records. Basically, they gathered everything that tells the wild story of this city.
Fast forward to today—their passion project has grown into what we now call The Historic New Orleans Collection or THNOC, with a campus spread across several beautifully restored French Quarter buildings, dating as far back as 1792. The architecture is truly New Orleans – You know the French Quarter: wrought-iron balconies, lush courtyards—it’s like walking onto a movie set, but this place? It’s the real deal.
And here’s what makes it a must-visit—besides the fact that admission is absolutely free, which in New Orleans is about as rare as finding a parking spot.
Inside, you’ll find the Louisiana History Galleries, thirteen of them to be exact, taking you on a deep dive from Native American life before the Europeans arrived, all the way through French and Spanish colonial rule, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, up to Hurricane Katrina and beyond. Artifacts? They’ve got ‘em. You’ll see an original letter discussing the Louisiana Purchase, 18th-century musical scores from the Ursuline nuns, and historic Mardi Gras costumes that make today’s parade outfits look downright subtle.
We always ask about ghost stories when visiting the Big Easy …. And there’s no shortage of ghost stories around these old buildings. This is New Orleans, after all.
But hey, even if history class wasn’t your favorite back in the day, I promise THNOC keeps it lively, accessible, and downright fascinating. You’ll walk away with a new appreciation for how this city came to be—and maybe a stronger sense of just how much gumbo, grit, and gumption it took to get here.
I recently had a chance to visit The Historic New Orleans Collection while a steel pan event was taking place. Not only was this location a true gift to visit, but the steel pans we phenomenal. I will have more about that in an upcoming show.
While there I sat down with Amanda McFillen, Director of Audience Engagement. I asked about the center and also who they got involved with the fabulous steel drums event which you’ll hear in the back ground. Amanda shares how Royal Street’s got a lot of glitter, but this is where the gold is—the stories, the people, the roots of a city that’s seen it all and still throws the best party on Earth.
Stick around, folks—coming up next, we dive into the top ten things you’ve got to see and do in New Orleans. Spoiler alert: some come with a side of jazz, history, or powdered sugar.
Amanda McFillen Director of Audience Engagement over at The Historic New Orleans Collection on Royal street
So that’s New Orleans — founded by the French, molded by the Spanish, shaped by Africans, Haitians, immigrants, and indigenous people — stitched together by history, hardship, and celebration.
Coming up next, I’ll tell you the top ten things you must see and do when you visit the Big Easy. And trust me, you’ll want your walking shoes and your appetite.
Stick around — more Travel With Annita after this.
Segment Three: Top Ten Things to See and Do in New Orleans
Alright friends, lace up those walking shoes, loosen your belts, and keep your ears open—because I’m about to walk you through the real New Orleans. This city isn’t for sitting still—it’s for wandering, listening, tasting, and soaking up centuries of history. So here we go—my top ten must-see, must-do, absolutely-can’t-miss experiences in the Big Easy… and yes, I snuck in one bonus for the true culture chasers.
1. The French Quarter —
We’re starting where every story in New Orleans starts—the French Quarter. The city’s oldest neighborhood and still its wildest at heart. Imagine narrow cobblestone streets, buildings painted in bright pastels, intricate iron balconies dripping with flowers, and the flicker of gas lamps at dusk.
You must swing by Jackson Square—that’s the people-watching capital of the South. Street performers, tarot card readers, artists with their easels, all set against the backdrop of the stunning St. Louis Cathedral—one of the oldest continuously active Catholic cathedrals in the United States. This isn’t just sightseeing—it’s stepping back in time.
2. Bourbon Street —
Look, I know Bourbon Street gets a reputation—but love it or leave it, you can’t come to New Orleans and notexperience this stretch of neon and noise. Even if you’re not there for Hurricanes in plastic cups, the atmosphere is electric. Live jazz drifts from open doors, beads hang like forgotten souvenirs from balconies, and there’s that “anything can happen” hum in the air. Tip: stroll during the day to admire the historic architecture, then come back at night if you’re feeling brave.
3. The Garden District —
Take the streetcar down St. Charles Avenue—it’s a ride through living history. The Garden District is dripping with Southern charm—ancient oak trees line the streets, Spanish moss sways, and stately mansions sit behind intricate wrought-iron fences. You’ll feel like Scarlett O’Hara might walk out on the porch at any minute. Look for the Lafayette Cemetery, film locations from movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and historic homes of the rich, famous, and a few ghosts.
4. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 —
Speaking of ghosts, you can’t skip St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. It’s the city’s most famous burial ground, and because of that swampy New Orleans soil, all the tombs sit above ground like little stone villages of the dead. Pay your respects to Voodoo queen Marie Laveau and hear stories of mystery, magic, and local legend. It’s haunting, but beautiful—a true reflection of this city’s layered soul.
5. Frenchmen Street —
Now, for live music with less chaos and more character—head to Frenchmen Street. This is where locals go when they’re craving brass bands, smoky jazz clubs, funky dive bars, and soulful street musicians. Places like The Spotted Cat or d.b.a. host music nearly every night, and the vibe is pure New Orleans—welcoming, a little gritty, and entirely unforgettable.
6. The National WWII Museum —
History buffs, buckle in. The National WWII Museum is world-class—seriously, folks travel from across the globe to visit. This isn’t your high school history lesson; it’s immersive, emotional, and told through personal stories, artifacts, and multimedia exhibits. From D-Day to the Pacific theater, it’s a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made—and the resilience that defines our nation.
7. Steamboat Natchez Cruise —
See the Crescent City from the water aboard the Steamboat Natchez. This paddlewheel beauty glides along the Mississippi River, and if you close your eyes, you can almost hear echoes of Mark Twain-era riverboats. The calliope music, the skyline views, and that Southern river breeze—pure magic. Book a daytime ride or opt for the dinner cruise with live jazz and let the good times roll.
8. Mardi Gras World —
Can’t make it for Carnival? Don’t fret. Mardi Gras World gives you backstage access to the biggest party of the year—minus the crowds and beads to the face. Tour the giant warehouses where the massive parade floats are designed, built, and painted. These creations are bold, bizarre, and downright impressive. It’s a rare peek at the creative heart behind the spectacle.
9. Café du Monde —
Warning: powdered sugar will be everywhere. But that’s part of the charm. Café du Monde has been frying up their famous beignets and brewing chicory coffee since 1862. It’s open 24 hours, because beignets don’t keep regular hours, and neither does New Orleans. There’s no shame in having beignets for breakfast, lunch, dinner—or all three.
10. City Park & New Orleans Museum of Art —
Need a break from the buzz? Head to City Park—1,300 acres of green space, walking trails, and ancient oaks draped in Spanish moss. It’s peaceful, romantic, and sprawling enough to get lost for an afternoon. And tucked within the park, you’ll find the New Orleans Museum of Art. Gorgeous collections of classic and modern art, plus an outdoor sculpture garden that’s a masterpiece in its own right.
BONUS — The Backstreet Cultural Museum
Alright, culture seekers, this one’s off the beaten path but absolutely essential. The Backstreet Cultural Museum in the Treme neighborhood is a love letter to the real heartbeat of New Orleans—its Black Mardi Gras Indian tribes, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, second-line parades, and jazz funerals. This is where you learn the stories behind the feathers, sequins, and brass bands. It’s small, grassroots, and packed with authentic, vibrant history that doesn’t always make the guidebooks—but trust me, it’s unforgettable.
There you have it—the must-see, must-hear, must-taste checklist for your next New Orleans adventure. But listen, the thing about this city? You could live here a lifetime and still uncover new corners, new sounds, and new flavors every day. That’s the beauty of New Orleans—it’s history that never stays still.
Stick around—after the break, we get to the heart of it all: food and music. Two things New Orleans does better than anywhere else on Earth. Be right back.
Welcome back, travelers. We’ve talked history, sights, but now — let’s get to what really makes New Orleans irresistible: the music and the food.
First up — the music. New Orleans invented jazz. That’s not me being dramatic — that’s a fact. At the turn of the 20th century, a mix of African rhythms, European horns, and Caribbean influence simmered together, and jazz was born right here on these streets.
Legends like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and later, Dr. John, Trombone Shorty — they all came up through this city’s clubs, parades, and second-line dances. Even today, jazz, brass bands, zydeco, blues, gospel — it’s everywhere. You hear it in the street performers, the tiny clubs on Frenchmen, the church choirs.
Now the food? Well, I hope you’re hungry. New Orleans cuisine is a world of its own — a spicy, soulful blend of French, African, Spanish, and Native American flavors. It’s where gumbo isn’t just soup — it’s a statement. Where jambalaya, étouffée, red beans and rice — they all tell stories of survival, celebration, and soul.
Don’t forget po’boys stuffed with fried shrimp, or oysters Rockefeller, or a muffuletta sandwich packed with meats and olive salad. And for the sweet tooth? Beignets, bread pudding, and pralines — that’s how they do dessert in the Big Easy.
What makes New Orleans a true culinary destination is that it’s not just about eating — it’s about gathering. You don’t rush through a meal here — you savor it. You listen to the music playing down the block, you laugh with strangers, and for a moment, you’re part of something timeless.
So that’s New Orleans — history, music, food, and soul. It’s a place that gets under your skin — and trust me, you’ll be planning your next visit before you’ve even left.
Thanks for traveling with me, Annita, today. Until next time — keep exploring, keep savoring, and never stop chasing the stories that make life worth the trip.
Destination: North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and AlabamaGreat American StatesGlad you’re here to have a replay of Destination: North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and Alabama. Four amazing states with so much to see and do. Learn more about the history and how today we can find exciting getaways for family fun.
Transcript is below:
Hello, hello, hello and welcome aboard Travel with Annita & friends.
This is the show where stories travel far and wide—and today, we’re headed straight into the heart of the American South and beyond. Come along with me ‘cause we’re rollin’ through four powerhouse states: from the sweet sounds and smoky BBQ of North Carolina, down to Georgia where peaches, porch swings, and purpose meet. We’re making a soulful stop in Alabama, steeped in history and hospitality, then heading up the coast to Maryland—where crab cakes, culture, and coastal charm await.
Each state has a voice, a rhythm, and a rich story to tell—and we’re bringing it all to the mic. So buckle up, because it’s time to explore the flavors, folks, and fantastic finds of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Let’s hit the road together—you know how we like to do things here on Travel With Annita – dig in and make all the connections – and it starts right now.”
This is where the past meets the present, and every journey tells a story. I’m your host, and today we’re diving into the rich cultural roots and vibrant rhythms of four iconic American states — each with its own legacy, flavor, and heartbeat.
First up, North Carolina — from the highlands of the Blue Ridge to the hush of the Outer Banks, this state shine and sings with old-time music, Black Wall Street legacies, and barbecue traditions that are both sacred and smoky. We’ll dig into the deep roots of Tar Heel history and meet the makers keeping culture alive.
One of the fastest growing cities in North Carolina is Charlotte from it’s beginnings in 1768 to today, where it continues to answer to the name the Queen City, – named after the wife of King George III – I know, I know that was a long time ago, but the city holds on to it’s history and legacy. It becomes a banking and business center where finance is part of the city’s fiber.
You can come to Charlotte without a is it to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Yep, that’s where you’ll find it along with the history and stories of it’s wild and fierce beginnings. The Hall of Fame is a 150,000 square foot facility where visitors can trace the story – the history, the people and cars who made stock car racing one of America’s favorite sports and pastimes. And if you’re in town when the action is hot and heavy on the track – you can catch it IRL – that’s in real life at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
For a close up view head over to Hendrick Motorsports complex where you can get a close up look at their popular racing teams, the cars, trophies and memorabilia.
Charlotte is calling your name – charlottesgotalot.com
Now we can’t talk North Carolina without pulling in the city know for great beer, arts and crafts and free and relaxed lifestyle. That would be Asheville, and should also include great restaurants are there too. Head downtown where you’ll find the action. Check out the Asheville women’s museum, Lexington Glassworks and over on the Blue Ridge Parkway you’ll find the boarding house where author Thomas Wolfe spent many years during his youth.
You’re in the heart of Appalachia so check out the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center. You’ll find demonstrations and things to see and purchase.
Visit the largest and most celebrated private estate – the Biltmore Estate – it’s open to the public. It was built by George Washington Vanderbilt II from 1889 to 1895. Today you can also visit the estate’s vineyard, restaurant and of course touring the home. And, if you’re looking for an exquisite holiday experience…. Come for the holidays for extreme Christmas decorating. But… the home is spectacular at time of the year.
Ready to visit Asheville – exploreashville.com
I can’t mentioned North Carolina without including the Outer Banks. There are some places that are super special to you and no matter how many times you go, it always feels a little like the first time and a whole lot like coming home. The 200 mile long stretch of barrier islands is very unique and filled with opportunities to enjoy the beach, delicious seafood, fishing, boating enjoying the changing sands along the dunes. But… I can’t send you over to the outer banks without suggesting a journey along the lighthouse trail. The outer banks is known as the ship graveyard of the Atlantic. And, it didn’t get that name by chance. The rough seas have seen a lot and so have those working and living along the shores. Lighthouses, led many ships home and were a beckon of hope to those fighting the waves, wind and foggy skies. The fascinating city names will capture your interest – Cape Hatteras, Nags Head, Duck, Kitty Hawk, Currituck and my favorite is Kill Devil Hill – it the spot where the Wright Brothers took the first flight. There’s a museum and memorial there. Gotta check it out. Visit the website – www.outerbanks.org
North Carolina… there’s something special there and a state that stretches from the application mountains to the Atlantic Ocean has something for everyone.
Before I take a break… I’ve got a bit of trivia for you.
1712 – the year North and South Carolina split as the colony was believed to have grown too large to function under a single governor
Did you know gold is the state mineral
A museum in Durham is dedicated to tubas…How about that.
I’ll stop here but when I come back we’re heading South… to Georgia. It’s our home state. And, I’ve got not only a bit of history and trivia about our beloved state, but also upcoming events. So get ready to take notes…
I’ll be back in a few minutes, here on travel with annita & friends.
It’s our home state and Georgia is always on our mind. From the rolling hills to the coastal shores, Georgia is always calling. Welcome back to travel with annita & friends.
As we roll into Georgia, where civil rights still stir the conversations and the red clay is never far away, and we can truly feel the pulse of Atlanta where there is innovation in many industries and the home of business leaders who are making their mark and creating their own path to success. Moving south, you’ll go to one of my favorite cities in the world. Savannah the city which holds a very strong story of history but also soul and charm.
Down on the coast are barrier islands. From well known Jekyll where you’ll find the spectacular driftwood beach and St. Simon island – beautiful homes and golf course to St. Catherines where you’re free to stroll the shorelines, Ossabaw with it’s wild hogs and donkeys, Cumberland where wild horses run free. And, of course there is From the spirituals of the Gullah-Geechee coast to the sweet heat of peach country, Georgia’s always had a story to tell — and we’re here to listen.
It’s the peach state – Georgia earned its nickname as “The Peach State” thanks to a mix of ideal climate, smart farming, and good ol’ Southern branding — even if South Carolina actually produces more peaches some years (but…. We don’t tell anyone that part).
Here’s the peach story in a nutshell:
The Origins
Peaches aren’t native to Georgia — they originated in China and were brought to the Americas by explorers as early as the 1600’s and by the 1700s, peaches were growing in the South, but it wasn’t until the late 1800s that Georgia started turning peaches into big business.
In 1856, a Belgian father-and-son pair, Louis and Prosper Berckmans, purchased a plot of orchard land in Augusta, Ga. And named it Fruitland. They planned to show that fruit and ornamental plants could become just as important an industry in the South as cotton, which was ruining the soil with its intensive planting.
The soil was perfect and now enters the Elberta peach which is a true Georgia peach. This peach helped turn Georgia into a national name in peach production. Peaches began to be shipped long distances without spoiling — opening up markets in the North and beyond.
Railroads were key. As Georgia’s rail lines expanded, peaches could reach markets across the country, and the state leaned into peach marketing hard. By the 1920s, the fruit had become both a cash crop and a cultural icon.
Even if other states sometimes outgrow it, Georgia’s peaches are prized for their flavor and quality — thanks to the state’s red clay soil and warm, sunny days with cool nights. The peach became a symbol of Georgia hospitality, sweetness, and resilience.
By the mid-20th century, Georgia was branded so successfully as “The Peach State” that it stuck — and you’ll find peaches on everything from license plates to state quarter designs.
Bonus Fact:
Atlanta’s obsession with “Peachtree” (as in Peachtree Street, Peachtree Road, Peachtree Everything) is less about actual peach trees and more about Creek Indian words, but the branding synergy was too good to pass up.
There are so many things to see and do around our great state. From Athens where you’ll find UGA to Macon where native american history can be found I the mounds around the city, down to LaGrange and West Point where industry offers jobs to many. And, down to the barrier island – Sapelo where history connects both sugar and cotton and the Gullah Geechee culture still lives.
You can hike, swim, golf – you have a long list of things to do outdoors.
Coming up at Callaway’s Garden Labor Day weekend brings ad unforgettable way to say goodbye to the summer. Friday Aug 29 – Sept. guests can enjoy four full days of entertainment and fun surrounded by 2,500 acres of natural beauty in Pine Mountain. It’s all day fun from 10am – 8pm.
Get ready to head over to Augusta for the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival from Sept 19 – 21. Downton Augusta turns into a kaleidoscope of music, multicultural flavor and art. You don’t want to miss it and the whole family will have a great time. The international village will have more than 20 authentic global food booths, run by those who know the culture and food. And, then juried fine arts market will show case 150+ Southeastern artists. See which one you like the most.
And, for those who really love the art scene Augusta has something cooking all year
- The Morris Museum of Art: the first museum dedicated to the art and artists of the American South
- Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art: fine art exhibitions, workshops, and local artist showcases
- Sacred Heart Cultural Center: a stunning former church hosting exhibits and concerts under stained glass
- Westobou Gallery: a contemporary space featuring curated shows by emerging and mid-career artists
I’m thinking our road trip definitely needs to take us over to Augusta. The original home of the Georgia peach and here’s a little trivia – Fruitland is now a very famous golf course where the Augusta national is played. How’s that for the ideal location to shine in Georgia.
It’s all there. Check out the website visitaugusta.com
And, if you’re like me and want to start planning and deciding where you’ll head for leaf peeping – well I’ve got that one for you too. Georgia State Parks has everything detailed for you – Their Fall in Full Color at Georgia is State Parks and Historic Sites to Reveal the Best Spots for Leaf Peeping in 2025 is at your fingertips. Visit their website GaStateParks.org/leafwatch and you’ll see all the listings along with accessible park suggestions, where you can find fewer crowds and places where you can stay over and enjoy the colors for more than one day.
Now here’s a little more GA trivia before I take a break –
Delta airlines was founded in 1925 in Macon
Savannah is America’s first planned city – James Oglethorpe laid out the city in 24 designated squares – 22 still exist.
Georgia has copperhead snakes and they can grow up to 38 inches long – keep and eye out for those creatures. You don’t want to surprise one of them.
Ok… I’ll be back in a few and we’ll go up to Maryland. Ready for Crab cakes? Stay where you are I’ll tell you all about our friends up on the Mason-Dixon Line. Here on Travel With annita & friends
The USA has something special in each state. History tells so much of the story of what makes them special. Maryland is one state with an interesting history that helped define our country. Welcome Back to Travel With Annita & friends.
As we swing north to Maryland, the cradle of the Chesapeake. This is a state where Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman carved paths to freedom — and where blue crabs and black history now share the spotlight. However, this Mid-Atlantic gem blends seafaring heritage with proud resilience and a fascinating determination of how the USA would be divided.
Maryland – and the Mason Dixon Line determined the North from the South. But… what’s the history of this famous line. Is it truly a line. I talked with Alex Lowenstein from the Museum Learning Manager at the Maryland Center for History & Culture in Baltimore.
And finally, we head to Alabama — where every step on the Edmund Pettus Bridge whispers the courage of generations. From Montgomery to Muscle Shoals, the state’s past is heavy with history and lifted by soul-stirring music, storytelling, and hard-earned pride.
Montegomery – located on the banks of the Alabama river it is the center of history, politics and American History. American Civil Rights movement is center to the history of the city. It was in the basement of Dexter Aven King Memorial Baptist Church that Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. You’ll also fin Dr. King’s home where he lived from 1954 to 1960. The Freedom Rides Museum is located in the old Greyhound bus station, along with the Rosa Parks Library and museum.
A little history about the city – it was founded as a trading post. Back in 1785 by a Jews from Philadelphia.
It is also the first white house of the confederacy – and Jefferson Davis’ official residence after his 1861 insulation. You can visit and see displays of personal items, period furniture and war relics.
Not too far from us is Birmingham it’s the state’s largest city. After the Civil War it was founded as a steel town and mining center. The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame is located there.
And, civil rights history is strong in the city too. Including the 16th street baptist church and the bombing in September 1963.
Alabama has so much to share – from the NASA flight center at Marshall Space Flight center in Huntsville, to Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington and where the Tuskegee airmen were trained and left for battle during WWII
Here’s a little trivia – did you know that part of lookout mountain is. In north eastern Alabama and you can see Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee from the top. Little River Canyon National Preserve hugs the summit with beautiful forest and waterfalls.
Some of the best oysters I’ve had were along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. The shoreline activities are everything from deep-sea fishing to sky gliding to shrimping and sun bathing. Water sports galore. You’ll need to plan several days to get it all in.
And speaking of delicious oysters. Alabama is known for Fried Green Tomatoes – a true southern comfort food coasted in cornmeal and cooked in bacon fat. I don’t think there are any healthy alternatives for that one… you gotta have it southern style. And, there is the Black Bottom Pie a delicious custard with both bourbon and chocolate. You can’t say no to that. Ok… I know I said the best oysters, but you also must have gulf shrimp. Didn’t Forrest Gump and Bubba tell us there are many ways to have your shrimp. I like them any way you can put them on a plate. Yes, please. If you don’t believe me – head down to the Gulf Shores for the Shrimp Festival. You’ll see and taste yummy deliciousness.
Eating not the only fun. Head over to Mobile for Mardi Gras… did you know their claim to fame is the first Mardi Gras … but don’t tell New Orleans, they will argue for the title.
Before I wrap up today’s road trip… I have a little trivia
Hammering Hank Aaron is from Mobile Alabama
43% of all snail species in north america can be found in Alabama. Hope you like snails.
1982 Geology professor Dr. David King and his wife Janet Abbott king discovered the most complete tyrannosaur ever found in eastern north america on a real road in Montgomery county
REady to plan a visit – head over to the website – tourism.alabama.gov
And, head over to www.travelwithannita.com to our quarter miles travel tab to hear stories about each state and their commemorative state quarter design.
Well folks, whether you’re cruisin’ down I-95 or taking the scenic route through small towns and backroads, these four states — North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Alabama — make one unforgettable road trip.
In North Carolina, you’ve got the Blue Ridge Mountains brushing the sky and the Outer Banks stretching into the sea. It’s a state where barbecue is a love language, and history lives in every brick of old tobacco towns and colonial ports. One minute you’re sipping sweet tea in Asheville, the next you’re beachcombing in Wilmington.
Then we roll into Georgia, where peaches aren’t just a fruit — they’re a state of mind. From the buzzing heart of Atlanta to the moss-draped magic of Savannah, Georgia serves up civil rights history, antebellum architecture, and enough soul food to make you rethink your belt size. It’s charm with grit, hospitality with heat.
Maryland brings a coastal cool all its own — from the cobblestone streets of Annapolis to the crab shacks of the Eastern Shore. It’s where maritime history meets blue crab feasts and where the Chesapeake Bay whispers stories of sailors, settlers, and seafood traditions passed down for generations.
And in Alabama, the road bends through powerful landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement and swings by fields where blues and gospel were born. Whether you’re chasing white-sand beaches on the Gulf Coast or eating your way through a meat-and-three lunch in Birmingham, Alabama brings you deep roots and warm welcomes.
So whether you’re traveling for history, culture, or just chasing the best fried chicken and sweet tea this side of the Mississippi — these four states are more than just places on the map. They’re chapters in America’s story. And every mile is packed with flavor, rhythm, and soul.
So pack the car, cue the playlist, and keep your eyes open. The South’s calling — and it’s got a whole lot to show you.
So whether you’re tuning in from your porch, your car, or across the miles, sit back and let these states speak for themselves — through the voices of the people who live them, love them, and keep their stories alive.
AVA Resort CancunAll inclusive and all about the time of your lifeDuring a recent trip to AVA Resort Cancun I had an amazing time filled with all the things I enjoy and most especially – an all inclusive experience. This property is ultra-luxury set along a secluded stretch of Cancún’s Hotel Zone, just a 10-minute drive from the airport. It is one of the largest new resorts in Cancún (1,600+ oceanfront suites), built around a dramatic, sail-inspired “let’s dive in” pools and lagoon. Just standing on your room balcony you feel the call to come and relax by the pool or glide along the lagoon on a paddle board.
Every room, suite, and villa boasts floor-to-ceiling windows and private terraces overlooking the Caribbean and standard rooms have a spacious layouts (~463 sq ft interior + 108 sq ft terrace), smart TVs, Nespresso machines, spa tubs, and plush robes. Are you feeling the luxury.
If you’d like to extend your luxury experience, you may choose suites and villas ranging from Family & Friends Suites with living zones, daybeds, and plunge pools, to grand Panoramic Villas with multiple bedrooms, kitchens, spa tubs, and butler service. There is something for everyone to say, “yes, please!”
Cuisine – oh, yes. When I travel I want to try the local cuisine and I especially like finding the creative and inspiring options where chefs have taken their local specialities a “creative step” further. At AVA Resort Cancun there are 17 bars and restaurants each with a global flair – from modern Mexican at Copal and hand-rolled tacos to Mediterranean (Livo), Peruvian (Aji), Italian (Veranda), French (Chez Moi), teppanyaki (Kita & Minami), and gourmet buffet markets. Something for your the tastes you have been craving and also finding something new and delicious.
Any nighttime entertainment must be filled with the unique and special AVA Resort vibe and you’ll find just that around the property – the sleek digital-art display at Digit NFT Bar, swanky Cocktail Bar, lively swim-up bars, a whiskey lounge, speakeasy, and nighttime club life – it’s all there. When talking about cuisine, I can’t leave off spots where a simple relaxing bite becomes an extra-special moment in your day with a gourmet ice cream cone at Konos and freshly baked pastries options at Aroma coffee shop. All good, all delicious.
Fill the day with water activities right on property. A 2.8-acre sustainable saltwater lagoon for paddleboarding, kayaking, floating cabanas—and uses 50× less energy and 100× fewer chemicals than typical pools. How’s that for conservation. Your choice of pools includes adult-only, family-friendly, swim-up bar pools, and a vibrant waterpark for younger guests. While were on the subject of family and bringing along the kids, the Kid’s Club with crafts and water fun; Teen Lounge with bowling, AR games means kids are free (and safe) to have their own fun while mom and dad have their day too.
One day I spent most of the day in the luxe spa having an experience that could only be topped by doing it all over again. A full hydrotherapy circuit, sauna, mud room, facials, and indulgent treatments in VIP cabins. Yes, please. And, for those of you who like to workout on vacation, the state-of-the-art fitness center has everything you need from group classes like yoga, Pilates, spin and more. It’s your day, work at making it the best.
I can’t leave off shopping. It there for more than souvenirs. Did you forget an important item – you’ll find it in one of the shops. Everything for swimwear to fine jewelry.
AVA Resort Cancun offers a stunningly modern, fully oceanfront all-inclusive experience with luxe accommodations, an upscale culinary scene, an eco-lagoon centerpiece, and entertainment for all ages. It’s your ideal spot for your next family getaway, girlfriends gathering, guy trip or with your special someone.
Fleeting MomentsPan Am MemoriesHere’s a story that will capture your heart and definitely your interest. Fleeting Moments of Pan Am Memories written by Michelle da Silva Richmond captures her story torn between two lovers with Pan Am as your backdrop.
On this show I’m taking a walk down memory lane and going back to not only my days as a Pan American World Airways flight attendant, but my guest Michelle de Silva Richmond will share her memories too.
I’ve been asked what was it like working for Pan Am…. The airline is known for so many aviation firsts and the legendary airline is often used in movies, photos of stewardess and stewards during earlier days. But the question what was working for Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) like? Well, that was glamour on wings. It was the golden age of jet travel, and Pan Am wasn’t just an airline—it was a cultural icon. Think: tailored uniforms, five-course meals, multiple meals services, even in coach, and stewardesses fluent in multiple languages, gliding down the aisles like airborne ambassadors.
And for those of us working as stewardess, Stewards and flight attendants – Appearance mattered—big time. Height, weight, age – especially in the earlier years was a determining factor in not only being hired, but also how long you worked. In the earlier Pan Am days, stewardess resigned once they were married. Being poised was all part of the job description. But, it wasn’t just about the glamour, make no mistake, we were well trained in safety and emergency procedures.
Michelle and I lived a dream life, filled with adventure, meeting extraordinary people, learning about different cultures and food – and of course there was love. Michelle shares her story. Michelle has been a freelance travel writer for many years. Travel has always been in her blood. She was raised in different countries from the age of two. Her father’s career took them to many countries. Travel was in her blood for sure. She was always interested in writing. She worked for Pan Am starting in 1970’s and worked with the airline traveling to South & Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. After Pan Am she wanted to keep traveling and write about experiences. She has co-authored and contributed to guidebooks. She was the travel editor of an English language paper in Mexico City where she lived for 20 years. She also writes for several online and print publications as a freelancer. Next she is off to Cancun to update hotels details and later in the year she is taking a Viking cruise and venturing off to Portugal.
Here’s a little more about Pan Am:
Training was intense. Flight attendants learned emergency procedures, but also fine wine service, etiquette, and international customs.
- Travel perks? Unreal. Wr globe-trotted to exotic places—Tokyo, Rome, Nairobi—on a company pass. It was freedom with a paycheck and a ticket to see the world.
- Culture of prestige. Being a Pan Am stewardess was so iconic that Hollywood and Madison Avenue practically made us celebrities. And, we were welcomed around the world,
- Pilots, were called Gods of the sky. In the book Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am by Robert Gandt, he shares how Pan Am pilots were admired. His book delves into the history and decline of Pan American World Airways. The term “Skygods” in the title refers to the airline’s pilots, who were often regarded with a near-mythical status during the golden age of aviation.
- Pan Am captains were among the best-trained and best-paid in the world, and they were very often military veterans.
- They flew glamorous long-haul international routes on the cutting-edge Boeing 747—the “Queen of the Skies,” which Pan Am introduced in 1970.
- Headquarters in the Pan Am Building in New York was not just a based of international activity, the building was a landmark, sitting at 200 Park Avenue, directly above Grand Central Terminal, right in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
The Pan Am Building was one of the largest office buildings in the world and an unmistakable part of the New York skyline. The Pan Am logo, perched at the top in massive illuminated letters, became an international symbol of prestige and jet-set travel. The building remains – but today the Pan Am logo is gone and replaced by Met life
From its start on October 19, 1927 by Juan Trippe, a Yale-educated aviation entrepreneur with a taste for expansion was set on taking the airline to the world with Clipper Flying Boats. The first trip was a short hop from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba—mainly to deliver U.S. mail. That’s right, way before it UPS. Maybe we can call it a tropical UPS starting delivery service in the 1920’s.
- Pan Am was America to many around the world. It was the unofficial flag carrier of the U.S.
- The airline struggled with rising fuel costs, and deregulation beginning in the late ’70s and struggle to stay alive. Pan American World Airways officially ceased operations on December 4, 1991, at approximately 9:04 a.m. Eastern Time.
- That morning, after 64 years of service, Pan Am shut its doors for good.
- Pan Am flight 436, from Bridgetown, Barbados to Miami, landed at 6:45 a.m., becoming the airline’s final flight.
The shutdown came after a long financial tailspin, fueled by several major events:
- The Lockerbie bombing (1988)
- The loss of its profitable Pacific routes
- An ill-fated merger with National Airlines
- The Gulf War’s impact on international travel
- And a last-ditch deal with Delta Air Lines, which fell apart just before the collapse
The airline’s wings were clipped and not with a bang, but with heartbreak—employees crying at ticket counters, loyal travelers stunned, and a legend grounded for good. I know about the crying. I was one of those employees on December 4th stranded and crying at Miami International Airport instead of on my way to London Heathrow Airport.
- Pan Am’s flights around the world may have landed for good, but the legend never dies – Pan Am held significance not only as an aviation icon but also as a cultural icon, with its aviation history intricately linked to numerous culturally significant events. The airline played a role in transporting film stars and even featured its Clipper jets in movies. During WWII the US Govt. leaned heavily on Pan Am for not only transportation but military intelligence. The first around-the-world flights were Pan Am. The airline was the first to offer computerized reservation systems and launched the jumbo aircraft it was known for – the Boeing 747 in 1970. Pan Am also served as a means of transportation for presidents and politicians and was involved in humanitarian efforts like ‘Operation Babylift,’ which involved the evacuation of more than 3,000 infants from Vietnam. This year marks the 50 year anniversary of this important humanitarian and life-changing event.
And, back to the question what was it like working for Pan Am – it was like being part of a jet-setting secret society. We had the best view. It was a worldview from our office at 35,000 feet in the sky.
Off The Beaten Path IslandsWith over tourism becoming a trendy topic, now is the time to explore off the beaten path islands for your next trip. Here’s Travel With Annita’s list of four islands, ready for your special trip – are you going solo, family, couples or with a group of friends.
These four places—Little Corn Island (Nicaragua), Holbox (Mexico), Robinson Crusoe Island (Chile), and Edisto Island (South Carolina, USA)—are all off-the-radar gems with wildly different personalities. Here’s a quick rundown of each:
Get ready for your adventure with these off the beaten path islands.
Little Corn Island, NicaraguaVibe: Rustic Caribbean castaway fantasy
- No cars—you get around on foot or bicycle. Blissfully quiet.
- Pristine beaches, turquoise waters, and killer snorkeling/diving (especially at Blowing Rock).
- Electricity used to be spotty—still minimal but reliable enough for travelers now.
- Fresh lobster for under $10? Yes, please.
- Stay: Yemaya Reefs (luxury); Grace’s Cool Spot (budget charm).
- Eat: Café Desideri (Italian/seafood fusion), Tranquilo Café (cocktails + chill vibe).
Isla Holbox, MexicoVibe: Boho beach with Instagram flair
- Famous for bioluminescent waters and swimming with whale sharks (May–September).
- No paved roads—golf carts and bikes only.
- Stunning murals, hammocks in the sea, and laid-back charm.
- Stay: Casa Las Tortugas (boutique luxe), Hotel Mawimbi (beachfront quiet).
- Eat: Roots for lobster pizza, Painapol for smoothie bowls.
- Heads-up: Sargassum seaweed rarely affects Holbox, unlike Cancun or Tulum.
Robinson Crusoe Island, ChileVibe: Wild, remote, and dramatic
- Part of the Juan Fernández Archipelago, 400 miles off the Chilean coast.
- Real-life inspiration for the Daniel Defoe novel, after sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned there.
- Amazing hiking, endemic wildlife, and diving (especially shipwrecks).
- Only accessible by charter flight or boat—true off-grid adventure.
- Stay: Crusoe Island Lodge (eco-luxury), locals also offer homestays.
- Eat: Expect simple Chilean fare—fresh fish, goat cheese, and rustic island stews.
Edisto Island, South CarolinaVibe: Southern charm meets coastal calm
- A quiet Lowcountry treasure—no chain restaurants, no crowds.
- Known for Loggerhead turtle nesting, live oaks, and moss-draped history.
- Visit Botany Bay Plantation, a surreal boneyard beach + historic preserve.
- Stay: The Club at Edisto (condos); VRBO beach houses are popular.
- Eat: Whaley’s (seafood shack charm), The SeaCow Eatery (Southern breakfast heaven).
- Ideal for kayaking, biking, beach combing, and pure unplugged peace.
Each island gives you a different kind of escape—Holbox is trendy and photogenic, Little Corn is barefoot bohemian, Robinson Crusoe is an adventure novel come to life, and Edisto is southern soul with sea air.
Take a listen to the show to hear how you can visit each one and make it your off the beaten path island adventure.
Road Trips Adventures With Bill On The RoadAre you ready to hit the road this summer? I have suggestions and recommendations – it’s Road Trips Adventures With Bill On The Road. He is my go to for road trip tips, recommendations and trends. Bill Clevlen, the voice behind Bill On The Road, is a seasoned travel journalist and former St. Louis radio broadcaster who has been exploring America’s highways and byways since 2013. Clevlen launched his travel platform to spotlight the positive aspects of cities and towns across the United States. There are so many great places to visit around the U.S. and he find the big cities and he expertly knows how to find the off the beaten path places. Those quirky, fun places are all on the list of Road Trips With Bill On the Road.
Road trip adventures are no problem for our road warrior. Over the past decade, Clevlen has journeyed through all 50 states, sharing stories that celebrate local culture, history, and unique attractions. His travels have taken him from the bustling streets of New York City to the serene landscapes of small-town America, always with an eye for the offbeat and the overlooked.
Bill Clevlen, the well-traveled guys from Bill On The Road, has explored a vast array of destinations across the United States. Some of the spots he’s checked out are:
- San Francisco, California: Explored iconic sites like the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
- Daytona Beach, Florida: Shared insights on how to spend a perfect weekend, highlighting the area’s beaches and motorsport heritage.
- Kennedy Space Center, Florida: Discussed the value of visiting this iconic space exploration site
- St. Augustine, Florida: Provided a guide on must-do activities in America’s oldest city.
- Brevard, North Carolina: Known as the “Land of Waterfalls,” offering outdoor adventures and scenic beauty
- Stillwater, Oklahoma: Recognized for its friendly atmosphere, cultural attractions, and local cuisine.
- California’s Highway 1: Celebrated for its breathtaking coastal views and attractions.
For more detailed stories and travel tips from Bill Clevlen’s adventures, you can visit his official website: Bill On The Road.
Here all about his travels here on Travel With Annita. Click the link above and star planning your next road trip.
Episode 25: Bessie ColemanPhoto – U.S. MintBessie Coleman, the first African American and Native American woman to earn her international pilot’s license. Her story is one of determination and the tenacity to say, “yes, I can do it!”
From an early age Bessie Coleman’s mother taught her the importance of believing in herself and striving to “become somebody.” Her mother could not read, however she borrow books from a traveling library, and helped Bessie learn to read. It was a great success, because not only did Bessie learn to read, she became an avid reader and taught her siblings too. Her love of reading and ability to learn languages helped her achieve her greatest success: learning French and attending pilot training in France. Bessie Coleman, became the first African -American and Native American woman to receive her international pilot’s license in France on June 15, 1921.
Bessie once said, “I guess it was the newspapers reporting on air war in Europe during World War I that got me interested in flying. I was an avid reader, and searched the libraries looking for information on flying. I think all the articles I read finally convinced me I should be up there flying, and not just reading about it, so I started searching for a flying school. At first I thought it would be easy, just walk in and sign up. I didn’t realize that I had two strikes against me. I remember hearing of a few women pilots before the war but I had never seen one. The other strike against me was my color. No one had ever heard of a black woman pilot in 1919. I refused to take no for an answer. My mother’s words always gave me strength to overcome obstacles.”
Bessie’s story is one filled with determination and the example of believing in yourself and taking action, makes all the difference in the world.
On this podcast I share her story, with Dorothy Cochrane with the National Air and Space Museum, Sarah Fisher with the International Women Air & Space museum and, Gigi Coleman the great niece of Bessie Coleman. We come together to share her story and inspire others to reach for the sky and achieve their dreams.
I am Annita Thomas, host of Quarter Miles Travel, a podcast all about the U.S. Mint Quarters programs, where you’ll find not only an adventure on the back of a quarter, but history, iconic Americans, wildlife and so many ways to learn more about the United States.
A few facts about Bessie Coleman.
- learned French at a Berlitz school in the Chicago
- She worked as a manicurist to earn money and save for her dream of becoming a pilot.
- She received additional financial support from Robert Abbott and other African American entrepreneur, so she could set off for Paris from New York on November 20, 1920.
- Robert S. Abbott, the founder and editor of the Chicago Weekly Defender, was very enthusiastic about helping Coleman reach her goal.
- At first Coleman couldn’t believe it. If she wanted to fly she would have to travel across an ocean for her lessons. But, the climate in America did not openly welcome women to learn to fly, and especially not Black women.
- Coleman took Abbott’s advice and went to night school, and in a few months had learned enough French and saved enough money to travel to Europe.
For more information about Bessie Coleman and to visit places where you’ll learn more about her, click the websites for the following museums.
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
www.airandspace.si.edu
They are preparing for an upcoming Black Wings exhibit which will be part of the Pioneers of Flight gallery opening in 2024, all about African Americans learning to fly in the 1930’s.
International Women Air and Space Museum which preserves, educates and inspire their community to learn more about women’s achievement in all areas of aviation. The museum is located Cleveland, Ohio in the airport
www.iwasm.org
Gigi Coleman great niece has formed the Bessie Coleman Aviation Allstars to help youth interested in aviation learn more and find avenues to reach their dreams. Bessiecolemanaviationallstars.org –
To learn more about the U.S. Mint Quarter Programs visit their website – USMint.gov
Bessie Coleman earned her license on June 15, 1921. Her dream came true and she continues to inspire us today.
On April 30, 1926, with almost enough money saved to open her school. She had an fatal accident. Bessie was performing in a May Day exhibition in Orlando, Florida, for the Negro Welfare League. At 7:30 p.m. Bessie, accompanied by her mechanic and publicity agent, William Wills, took her plane up for a test flight. Wills had taken the plane up on a test flight a week earlier and had landed twice because of engine trouble.
After her death Willa Brown, who had been inspired by Bessie, opened the first flying school for blacks and that school was responsible for the primary training of the men of the 99th Pursuit Squadron, one of the most highly decorated all-black fighter squadrons in World War II.
“I returned to the United States with my air-pilot license from the Federation Aeronautique International. I was the first licensed black pilot in the world. I had grand dreams but I was a realist. If I could have a minimum of my desires, I would have no regrets. Having reached her first goal, she set a new one. “I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly. I needed money for this so I began giving flying exhibitions and lecturing on aviation. The color of my skin, at first a drawback, now drew large crowds wherever I went. At first I was a curiosity, but soon the public discovered I could really fly. Then they came to see “Brave Bessie,” as they called me.”
-Bessie Coleman
Photos
Photo usage courtesy of Coleman family
You can find the Bessie Coleman doll online or at your local department stores.
The post Episode 35: Bessie Coleman – U.S. Mint Women Quarters Program appeared first on Travel With Annita.
U.S. Mint State Quarters InspireThe Start of Quarter Miles TravelPhoto – U.S. MintU.S. Mint State Quarters are the inspiration! It all started with Travel With Annita back when we were Travel Bags With Annita. Each year a new theme is selected for programing as a way to keep content interesting, fresh and new.
Inspired by the U.S. Mint State Quarters, Quarter Miles Travel was born out of a desire to focus on travel around the US, inspired by the designs on the reverse side (back) of the U.S. Mint State Quarters. Our first quarter was the Georgia design, featuring the peach. We were amazed from our research the information we found to feature about Georgia, our home state. Information that neither Olivia or myself was aware of. This energized us even more to find more information – about things we thought we already knew. From there, we started featuring a quarter or two each show. The fourth segment of the show became, the “fourth quarter” where the U.S. Mint State Quarters designs were researched for information to tell the stories of the designs and why each state would select them.
Olivia Varnson was by my side researching and recording the show. We also sailed on the Victory Chimes sailboat which is featured on the reverse side of the Maine quarter. The U.S. Mint State Quarters feature historic places, people, wildlife all things you can travel to visit and learn more.
Take a listen to the start of this fascinating podcast highlighting all the makes America a great place to visit and tour. The U.S. Mint State Quarters program was followed by The America The Beautiful Commemorative Quarters and the American Women Program, which is being released now.
Here’s a link to start listening and find your favorite. You’ll see how a U.S. Mint State Quarter can inspire travel around this beautiful country.
For more information about the U.S. Mint State and Commemorative Quarters, visit their website – USMint.gov
The post Episode 34: U.S. Mint State Quarters Inspire The Start of Quarter Miles Travel appeared first on Travel With Annita.
Photo- U.S. MintNina Otero-WarrenAmerican Women Quarters ProgramNina Otero Warren – Women Nina was a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement, the first woman to be superintendent of Santa Fe public schools, Chairman of New Mexico’s Board of Health, an executive board member of the American Red Cross and director of an adult literacy program in New Mexico for the Works Projects Administration.
Nina has a long list of leadership accomplishments as an activists for Hispanic people.
And, today she is the fifth woman featured on a quarter in the American women quarter program
On this podcast I tell her story.
Born María Adelina Isabel Emilia Otero on October 23, 1881 on her family’s hacienda, “La Constancia,” near Los Lunas, New Mexico.
She was born into a prominent political family where Her parents, Manuel B. Otero and Eloisa Luna could trace their lineages to the early Spanish colonizers in the area.
At an early age she experienced the loss of her father who was killed by a squatter trying to settle on her family’s land.
The loss of her father had a great impact on her and the family. Her mother remarried in 1886. And, Nina stepped in to help take care of her younger siblings
She attended St. Vincent’s Academy in Albuquerque and Maryville College of the Sacred Heart (now Maryville University) in St. Louis.
However home was never far away…… always on her mind and in her heart. She returned to the family’s hacienda to help care for her younger siblings. She helped educate her siblings and contributed to the work on the family ranch — later when she wrote her book …. These were the experiences she recorded in her book, Old Spain in Our Southwest.
She became interested in activism In 1897, when her family moved to Santa Fe. It was there where her cousin, Miguel Otero II, became the governor of the New Mexico Territory and appointed her stepfather as a judicial clerk.
Now as an adult she was called Nina. Living in Santa Fe, she was around many people who inspired her as she socialized among the political and cultural elite of Santa Fe.
Nina met Rawson D. Warren, an officer in the Fifth U.S. Cavalry stationed at Fort Wingate. She married Warren on June 25, 1908 becoming….Nina Otero-Warren, the name she carries for the life and how we know her. She was 26 years old.
After their Santa Fe wedding, Nina and Rawson moved to Fort Wingate. Unhappy in her marriage, Nina divorced her husband after only two years, and returned to Santa Fe.
During that time, there were many attitudes prejudices against divorced women at the time, She decided to identify as a widow and continued to use her hyphenated name.
In 1912 Nina moved to New York City to help and support her brother who was studying at Columbia University. While there, she worked in the settlement house movement. Another opportunity to strengthen her fight for her people.
When her mother passed in 1914, and she decided to move back to Santa Fe
During her life Otero-Warren was very accomplished in many areas:
Always emphasized the use of the Spanish language in the suffrage fight in order to reach Hispanic women.
She also spearheaded the lobbying effort to ratify the 19th Amendment in New Mexico.
Otero-Warren believed in education and worked to improve education for all New Mexicans
Advancing and preserving bicultural education and cultural practices among the state’s Hispanic and Native American communities was very important to her.
In 1917, Otero-Warren was appointed superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe. She defeated a male opponent to win reelection to the position in 1918 and remained in the role until 1929.
Her focus as superintendent was to promote adult education programs, setting up a county high school, raising teacher standards and their salaries, and improving the physical conditions of schools.
It was undeniable that she held a strong sense of pride in her Spanish cultural heritage and made major efforts to oppose the federal government’s trend toward assimilating non-Anglos into white America.
During this time, the federal government was pressuring for assimilation of non-whites, including Native American and Hispano people, into white America. This assimilation meant loss of traditional language, customs, and often family ties. As Superintendent of Public Schools, Nina worked to balance the demands of the federal government.
Nina Otero Warren rgued that both Spanish and English be allowed in schools, despite the federal mandate of English-only. For a few years beginning in 1923, she was also appointed Santa Fe County’s Inspector of Indian Schools.
Not only public schools, She also served as Santa Fe’s County Inspector of Indian Schools. Without surprise, she was critical of the federal government and the poor condition of the schools. Her greatest argument was that the boarding schools threatened Indian family life and cultural stability.
Along with Alice Paul, who had supported Nina in 1917 to head the New Mexico chapter of the Congressional Union (precursor to the National Woman’s Party). Nina and other activists realized that the support of Hispanic culture and language in New Mexico was crucial to winning suffrage.
She also served as chair of the New Mexico Republican State Committee’s women’s division and as chair of the Legislative Committee of the New Mexico Federation of Women’s Clubs. And served as the Chairman of New Mexico’s Board of Health; an executive board member of the American Red Cross; and director of an adult literacy program in New Mexico for the Works Projects Administration.
Nina Otero Warren used her political connections and leverage to campaign for woman’s suffrage and to forcefully lobby the state legislature to ratify the 19th Amendment, which it did on February 21, 1920.
She did run for federal office, for the U.S. House of Respresentatives….However, she lost the general election by fewer than 10,000 votes.
It is said in part due to the public’s discovery that she was divorced rather than widowed. And, being divorce was not looked upon as acceptable at that time. And, she never rang for public office again.
However, that didn’t stop her from her work as an ativists.
Nina Otero-Warren American Women Quarter Program is featured on the quarters because of her activism. She served as New Mexico’s director of literacy education for the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and director of the Works Progress Administration in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico in the 1940s.
During World War II, she ran the Santa Fe County Office of Price Administration, charged with enforcing the federal government’s price controls.
With such a powerful way of leading and accomplishing civil rights for Hispanic people, you might wonder what was the woman like…. What was her personality.
Nina became a regular fixture in the social life of the Santa Fe elite,
She was described as “a graceful, intelligent young woman with an indomitable disposition,” and “high spirited and independent.”
Throughout her life, Nina was known both for her proper, mannered expectations of others and her unconventional personal life.
Although she never remarried or had children of her own, she took her role as “La Nina” or godmother to her siblings, nieces and nephews, and arguably to her community very serious. Each relationship was very important to her.
In the early 1930s, Nina Otero Warren and her partner Mamie Meadors established a ranch called “Las Dos” (The Two Women)
Outside of Santa Fe. They paid $67.40 for two homestead applications, and agreed to spend an average of five months a year living on their homestead, and to improve the land by building two houses, fencing the property which was around 1,257 acres), cultivating the land, and maintaining the road for five years.
By adhering to and meeting the homesteading requirements, of the Homesteading Act of 1862, they received title to the land.
In 1947, Nina Otero Warren and Mamie established a real estate and insurance company, also called “Las Dos” in Santa Fe. Sheand Meadors established Las Dos Realty and Insurance Company in 1947
Mamie died in 1951, but Nina continued running the business. Neither woman ever publicly announced the details of their relationship. What was known by everyone that they loved what they were doing and working together for over twenty years to achieve.
To capture her full life on paper and share it with the world, Nina starting writing and published “My People” for an issue of Survey Graphic. The them was Mexicans in our Midst: newest and Oldest Settlers of the Southwest” In May 1931.
In the early 1960’s Nina moved back to the family property in Santa Fe after the death of her brother. It was there where Nina died on January 3, 1965.
Otero-Warren, known in the state as a dedicated and skilled public servant, who fought for culture, tradition, laugnuage, education, health and welfare during her lifetime. She is an outstanding American woman.
The Nina Otero-Warren Quarter is the fourth coin in the American Women Quarters Program. And, this is her story.
For more information and to visit places where you can learn more about Nina Otero Warren, visit the website below:
National Park Service – nps.gov
National Women’s History Museum – Washington DC – womenshistory.org
Albuquerque library – ABQlibrary.org
Photos
Ready to hear about another outstanding American Woman? Here are story of Wilma Mankiller
The post Episode 33: Nina Otero-Warren – American Women Quarters Program appeared first on Travel With Annita.
Photo – U.S. MintEpisode 32: Anna May WongQuarter American Women SeriesAnna May Wong is on the U.S. Mint Women Series quarter.
In the early 1920’s acting roles for Asian Americans were limited. Hollywood was yet to have roles with leading ladies who looked like Anna May Wong.
But, that didn’t stop her….. There is a story of a courages woman, who advocated for representation for multi-dimensional roles for Asian Americans.
Anna May Wong would not stop… it would be her life’s journey and it is also her story…. And today I share her story with you.
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.
Her life and love of film began early…. She always loved film.
Anna May Wong was a third generation immigrant, born on January 3rd, 1905. Her grandfather emigrated to the US in the 1850s to find work and raise his family. It was at Anna May’s parent’s laundromat where she learned Chinese after school …. but even at an early age, learning a language wasn’t what was mostly on her mind. She felt her time was best spent skipping school for film.
As early as nine years old, she was fascinated with movies and film. Visiting sets often to look and take it all in, she dreamed of her day as a movie star as the actors, producers and directors would go about their routines.
Anna May once said “I would worm my way through the crowd and get close to the cameras.” Wong said. “I’d stare at these glamorous individuals and then I would rush home and do the scenes I had witnessed before a mirror.”
The curiosity and learning from being close up to the action, gave the young 14 year old Anna May, the opportunity for her first role in 1919 as an extra in Red Lantern, a story of family drama, of loss and deceit, the film gave her a chance to share her talent and experience working in film.
Her early films were silent, but her talent would shine through for all to see. Her style, elegance and expression of emotions showed her acting and performance strengths and skills. Wanting to put all of her efforts into an acting career, Anna May left high school in 1921 at the age of 16 to pursue a career in film. She would devote her time and effort full time to becoming an actress.
She was successful in finding a role in Bits of Life where she played Toy Ling’s wife and when she was 17 she was the leading lady in the silent film The Toll of the Sea in 1922.
Sadly, even with all of this success, America and Hollywood was not
Her drive to become a recognizable and successful leading actress Wong auditioned for countless lead roles but found herself landing only supporting character or the typical Asian character many times in a stereotypical character.
Times were very racially segregated in more areas than just film and theatre. During this time in America there was discrimination and lack of opportunities in many parts of everyday life. And, The mindset toward Asian migration at the time was negative in every way. Seeking of leading roles in a field so highly sought after by all races, it was no wonder she had difficulty finding leading roles. Laws at the time not only prevented interracial marriages, but it also forbade the kissing of interracial actors on screen. Because the majority of actors, especially leading ones, were white, Wong could never get into a leading romantic role either.
“There seems little for me in Hollywood,” Wong once said l. “because rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians for Chinese roles. Pathetic dying seemed to be the best thing I did.”
Her will and dedication to achieving her dream and goal was not stopped by lack of opportunities. She decided to move to Europe and try her chances there. Prior to moving there she created her own production company.
She left for Europe in the late 1920s, and gained success starring in several notable plays and films. Europe was much more welcoming for an young Asia woman, talented and driven to be successful and make a name for her self. She starred in films around Europe – Paris, Berlin, London…. Evening going so far as to learn French and German . She starred in Piccadilly. She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon and Daughter of Shanghai, and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s Shanghai Express when she returned to the states.
Wow… she was definitely finding great roles to show her love of acting and bringing her characters to life. But, what she didn’t forget were the struggles she faced in America to become an actress.
She wanted to be a role model and leader in bringing awareness to other Asian – American in a positive light and also to be given the opportunity to pursue their dreams too. Wong was a very courageous advocate who Asian American actors. She would gladly put forth her influence to championed for increased representation and more multi-dimensional roles for Asian American actors.
She herself would refuse roles which where harmful to her identify and that of Asian Americans. Her persistence and defiance to stand up to those who wanted her to play roles that would deminish Asian American helped pave the way for others to break into film and be accepted for who they were and not a characturture or sterotype.
Wong created her own film after that hiring a cinematographer and filmed a documentary of her travels in China in 1936.
She went on to become the first Asian American to lead a US television show on The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong in the 1950s. Wong is most well-known for her leading role in “The Toll of the Sea” in 1922.
She also raised money for Chinese refugees during World War II.
In 1960, Wong was awarded her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the first Asian American to receive this honor
She was slated to appear in Flower Drum Song by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1961.
However, the phenomenal actress suffered a heart attack and died on February 3rd, 1961.
She did receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, one year before she died. It is heartwarming to know she was able to see the recognition honoring her accomplishments.
It take fortatude and tenacity to stand up for what you believe in the face of those who want to diminish you. Anna May Wong, never wavered…. She took monumental step in standing up for not only herself but for other Asians and Asian Americans by carefully choosing her roles and filming her documentary created not only a path for actors in the future, but for people to look past differences and try to respect if not try to understand someone different from themselves.
Anna May Wong… an american legend.
She is featured on the four quarter of the U.S. Mint American Women Series.
And, this is her story.
For more information about the U.S. Mint Commemorative Quarters click here.
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Photo – U.S. MintEpisode 31 – West Virginia State QuarterToday it’s West Virginia State Quarter. It was released in 2005. The design on the reverse side of the quarter or the tail side, shows the New River and the New River Gorge Bridge which showcases the state’s natural beauty and the scenic views of the gorge located a few miles. north of Fayetteville, West Virginia. The bridge was build in 1977 to span across the New River Gorge. Before the bridge was constructed, people in the area had to make their way along winding curves on a forty-minute drive down and back up again.
October draws thousands of visitors to the area for Bridge Day. On the third Saturday in October travelers and visitors to the Fayetteville area have a chance to go on and leap off the bridge. This only happens during this time. The bridge has become so popular it is a destination in its own right.
The West Virginia state quarter is the 35th coin released in the 50 State Quarters Programs. And the 5th released in 2005. The state of West Virginia was admitted into the Union on June 20, 1863.
The quarter is featured on this episode in our Two Bits segment. Did you know that the quarter is also called two bits? Well, that’s based on the division of the Spanish peso. A bit back in time. But, quarters are still sometimes called two bits. There’s a lot of history in coins and trivia too.
Quarter Miles was first introduced on the radio show, Travel With Annita, Annita Thomas and Olivia Varnson shared trivia information about the state quarters and their designs. They featured the quarters and all the information inspiring listeners to plan and organize trips based on the quarter designs.
Here’s a bit of trivia and facts on how you can visit West Virginia and experience this state’s natural beauty.
To plan a trip to places mentioned go to:
State Park -nps.gov/neri
For more information on the U.s. Mint State and Comemoriatve quarters visit the website USMint.gov
Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button… it only take a second. And, you’ll be first in line for new episodes.
Here’s another Two Bits episode about the great state of Hawaii.
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Episode 30: Wilma Mankiller US Mint Women’s Quarter Series Notable Facts: First female Deputy Chief of the Cherokee Nation. First female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. First woman elected as chief of a major Native tribe. Early Life: Wilma was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, also known as the …
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Sally Ride Quarter American Women Series Sally Ride Quarter American Women Series is here! She was the first American woman in space. She was the first female CAPCOm – capsule communicator at NASA She was the first astronaut to acknowledge that she was Gay The excitement around her accomplishments and firsts as an American …
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Episode 28 – Quarter Miles Travel Hawaii State Quarter – Two Bits Quarter Miles Travel Hawaii State Quarter is all about the monarch history of the state. We capture it all in our Two Bits segment of Quarter Miles Travel Show Transcript Did you know that the quarter is also called two bits? Well, that’s …
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Sweetgrass Baskets South Carolina State Quarter Sweetgrass Baskets – South Carolina Quarter have something in common. Both carry the legacy of a people and their culture; from the West Coast of Africa to the South Carolina Low Country. Each Palmetto frond woven into a row of a Sweetgrass baskets holds the culture, traditions, values …
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Ohio State Quarter Ohio State Quarter, released in 2002 features an antique model airplane and astronauts highlighting the state is a celebration of aviation and space travel. This podcast shares the stories of Ohio’s native sons and their exploration of aviation and space travel. On this episode we have two bits of trivia about the …
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Maya Angelou Quarter U.S. Mint American Women Quarters Maya Angelou Quarter – Yes, quarters from U.S. Mint American Women series are here! The long awaited quarter series has started with Dr. Maya Angelou. The image of Dr. Angelou captures her spirit with her arms reaching toward a sunrise spanning the sky. Her love of …
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Utah State Quarter Two Bits Trivia Utah State Quarter is featured! Did you know that the quarter is also called two bits? Well, that’s based on the division of the Spanish peso. A bit back in time. But, quarters are still sometimes called two bits. There’s a lot of history in coins and trivia too. …
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The Live Oak Tree! It’s is part of nature that surrounds us with beauty, and inspires us with its uniqueness. Their importance and value is undeniable. They are an important part of our lives providing a natural elements for us to enjoy outdoors and a habitat for wildlife, animals and insects large and small. In Georgia …
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New Mexico State Quarter Two Bits Trivia Here’s New Mexico State Quarter with Two Bits of information. Did you know that the quarter is also called two bits? Well, that’s based on the division of the Spanish peso. Quarters are still sometimes called two bits. You will find there is a lot of history …
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Cumberland Island – Snowy Egrets are featured on the U.S. Mint Commemorative Quarter for Georgia. The island is a gem of an island, located on the coast of Georgia. It is home to many birds, however one has the elegance and beauty to capture a spot on a U.S. Mint Quarter. Basking in the sunshine …
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Iowa State Quarter Two Bits of Trivia Iowa State Quarter with Two Bits of information. Did you know that the quarter is also called two bits? Well, that’s based on the division of the Spanish peso. Quarters are still sometimes called two bits. You will find that there is a lot of history in coins and …
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Episode 19 Fort Moultrie National Park Fort Moultrie National Park has seen many courageous men and women stand on its grounds. Yet, every once in a while, there is one person who comes along, so courageous, brave and fearless their heroic spirit spans the years. That one valiant act can change the world around …
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Bicentennial Quarter Colonial Drummer Here’s two bits of trivia about the Bicentennial quarter which was first produced and released into circulation in 1975. This quarter was created to celebrate our 200th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America. The Quarter features a Colonial drummer facing left and a victory torch encircled by …
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Arizona State Quarter Grand Canyon Arizona State Quarter Grand Canyon design has a prominent display of one of the grandest sites in the U.S.A. Of the National Park Services sites, the Grand Canyon is one of the top ten most visited National Parks. It should be no surprise that it ranks very high. Over …
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United States Mint images Correction – National Parks Service Website – www.nps.gov National Parks – America The Beautiful National Parks – America The Beautiful Quarters express all the pride and joy we can find around our nation. Did you know that the quarter is also called two bits? Well, that’s based on the division …
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Alabama State Quarter Helen Keller The Spirit of Courage Alabama State Quarter! The inspiring, determined, intelligent, daring and brave woman who taught the world that beauty goes far beyond sight. These words describe a women so filled with confidence she was able to overcome her own limitations and go on to inspire others around …
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Maryland – The Old Line State Maryland – The Old Line State, just that name makes you sit up, take notice and wonder what does that mean. Why would Maryland have that name. Some will connect it to the Mason Dixon Line, which does have a relevance to the state, but Old Line is not …
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*Reference to adult content 50:45 (time stamp) First Women of Virginia Virginia State Quarter Part 2 In part 1 of the Virginia State Quarter the three ships of the Virginia Company of London are featured on the reverse side of the quarter and their stories are shared. The voyage of the Susan Constant, Godspeed …
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Washington Crossing the Delaware Two Bits Quarter Trivia Washington Crossing the Delaware. It’s Quarter trivia. Did you know that the quarter is also called Two Bits? Well, that’s based on the division of the Spanish peso…. A bit back in time when money was actual split to pay and receive the appropriate amount. …
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Virginia State Quarter The Three Ships – Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery Virginia State Quarter features three historic ships. The English settlement of Jamestown starts with the three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery as they set sail and arrive in 1607. The stories of the ships and the people who sailed the Atlantic on …
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The Missouri state quarter has a design of Lewis and Clark traveling on the Missouri River and the Gateway Arch standing on the spot where the city of St. Louis began. It is one of the most recognized monuments in the United States. It is described as majestic, stunning, spectacular, amazing, breathtaking, fascinating, a gleaming gem, …
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Episode 9 Tuskegee Airmen They fought two wars In 1941 the first group of African American solider started their journey to become pilots to fight for their county. The Army Air Corp created an experimental, all Black group of pilots to be trained in Tuskegee, Alabama. Interest was high and filled with excitement. The …
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Whitney Plantation – Quarter Miles Travel Whitney Plantation Quarter Miles Travel. Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase continues to bring interesting stories of families, sugar plantations and the enslaved people who helped build the wealth the region was known for. Our story continues with moving over to Whitney Plantation, another sugar plantation location along the Mississippi …
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Louisiana State Quarter The Louisiana Purchase and the Sugar Plantation Stories Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase continues to bring interesting stories of families, sugar plantations and the enslaved people who helped build the wealth the region was known for. Our story continues with sharing more about the Creole people who were assimilated into American culture, taught …
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Quarter Miles Travel – Louisiana Purchase Quarter Miles Travel features the Louisiana Purchase during Episode 6. Louisiana’s state quarter features three significant symbols – wildlife, music and the Louisiana Purchase. With so much great history and information to cover, we are diving into this quarter in several episodes. In our first Louisiana episode, we will focus on the …
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South Dakota State Quarter – Quarter Miles Travel This week we highlight the South Dakota state quarter on Quarter Miles Travel. The quarter features a memorial we’re all familiar with – the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It is one of the major tourist attractions in the US and is top of the list for most …
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Quarter Miles Travel Maine – Pemaquid Light Quarter Miles Travel takes you to Maine and the Pemaquid Light. The Maine state quarter highlights two recognizable landmarks. One is the Pemaquid Point Light, perched atop its rocky cliff. The other is a three-masted schooner, representing not only Maine’s long history of sailing but also its contributions …
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Maine Victory Chimes Sailing On A Windjammer Maine and sailing on the Windjammer Victory Chimes was simply amazing. Have you ever wanted to sail on a Windjammer? Where did the name Windjammer come from? Come along for an adventure sailing around Maine’s beautiful coast with Captain Kip Files on the Windjammer Victory Chimes. He has …
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Quarter Miles Travel Georgia, Peaches, Fruitland Vodka and the Berckmans Family Georgia Proud Georgia, peaches, Fruitland and Berckmans – how do they connect? Each state quarter tells a story of something unique about that state. Most designs on the back of a quarter are pretty easy to determine what it’s all about. And, Georgia is …
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Quarter Miles Travel A travel podcast with a different twist Quarter Miles, North Carolina and the Wright Brothers Memorial. How much do you know about North Carolina and the Wright Brothers? Quarter Miles Travel takes you on a journey to North Carolina where you will learn all about the Wright Brothers and their first manned …
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