Hidden History of New England

Episode 5: Prudence Crandall - The Courageous New England Teacher Who Fought for Black Education

In 1833, a quiet schoolteacher in rural Connecticut made a decision that would place her at the center of one of the earliest legal and moral battles over racial equality in American education. Prudence Crandall did not set out to become a symbol. Rooted in Quaker belief and guided by conscience rather than spectacle, she chose to admit a Black student into her academy—and when faced with hostility, she went further, reopening her school exclusively for African American girls. What followed was harassment, legal persecution, and state-sanctioned resistance that exposed how deeply segregation and white supremacy were embedded in 19th-century New England. This episode traces Crandall's life, the students who risked everything to learn, and the laws designed to stop them. It examines how education became a battleground for power, why "respectable" communities defended inequality, and how a small town revealed a national contradiction. Prudence Crandall's school was eventually forced to close—but its impact did not end there. The questions raised in Canterbury echo into the present: who is education for, who controls access, and what justice demands when conscience collides with law.

Episode 4: The Ancient Stones of New England - Native and Pre-Contact Structures (Part I)

Across New England, thousands of miles of stone walls, chambers, cairns, and mysterious formations dot the landscape—often dismissed as simple remnants of colonial farming. But what if that explanation only tells part of the story? This episode explores the deeper, older possibilities behind New England's stone structures, examining evidence that some may predate European settlement and reflect Indigenous ceremonial, spiritual, and astronomical knowledge. Drawing on early colonial accounts, Native traditions, archaeological findings, and sites such as Gungywamp, the Upton Stone Chamber, Calendar II, and Turner's Falls, the episode challenges conventional narratives and asks who truly shaped these sacred landscapes. More than ruins, these stones represent a living relationship between people, land, and cosmos—one increasingly threatened by development and neglect. By reexamining these structures, we're invited to rethink New England's past and recognize the profound cultural legacy written into its very ground.

Episode 3: Slavery in Connecticut - The Malbone Estate and Old Trinity Church

Slavery in New England is often overlooked, but it shaped communities in lasting ways. This episode examines the Malbone estate in colonial Connecticut, the enslaved people who built and sustained it, and the quiet legacy embedded in Old Trinity Church. Through local records and lived histories, it challenges the myth of an innocent North and asks whose stories have been left out of the past.

Episode 2: Peskeompskut (1676) A Reckoning with the Tragedy at New England's Great Falls

In this episode of Hidden History of New England, we confront one of the most tragic and often overlooked events of King Philip's War: the Massacre at Peskeompskut, also known as the Battle of Turners Falls. On May 19, 1676, a dawn attack on a Native fishing village at the Connecticut River's Great Falls left hundreds of women, children, and elders dead, shattering a community that had thrived there for generations. This episode explores the broader context of King Philip's War, Indigenous resistance, and the devastating human cost of colonial expansion. It examines how the massacre disrupted centuries of cultural, spiritual, and social life, and how public memory often honors the perpetrators while marginalizing the victims. A sobering and essential story, this episode sheds light on the resilience, struggles, and survival of Native communities—and challenges us to reckon with history honestly.

Episode 1: The Pine Tree Riot (1772) The Real Beginning of the American Revolution in New England?

Long before the Boston Tea Party, colonists in a small New Hampshire town stood up to British authority over a surprising issue: trees. The Pine Tree Riot of 1772 shows how ordinary people—mill owners and workers—challenged unfair laws, sparked resistance, and helped ignite the fight for independence. A hidden story of defiance, autonomy, and the power of community.