For 74 days in 1810 the current-day parishes of East and West Feliciana in New Orleans were part of the independent Republic of West Florida, which flew a lone star flag. By that point the residents of the Felicianas, including a large enslaved population, living on land that had been stolen from indigenous people, had been part of three different empires. The republic ended with the parishes annexed into yet another country, the United States, though fifty years later they would be part of still another attempted breakaway republic, the Confederate States of America. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Rashauna Johnson, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago and author of Sweet Home Feliciana: Family, Slavery, and the Hauntings of History.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Louisiana,” composed by Oliver Wallace with Lyrics by Arthur Freed and performed by the Sterling Trio on December 27, 1920, in Camden, New Jersey; the recording is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a lithograph believed to be of drawings that artist Lewis Henry made on the Mississippi River around 1846-1848 with Bayou Sara in the foreground and St. Francisville on the bluff in the background; the lithograph was published in 1857 and is in the public domain in the United States and available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

• “Native Americans: the First Families of Louisiana on the Eve of French Settlement (Online Exhibition),” Louisiana State Museums.
• “Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803),” The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
• “West Florida Revolt,” by Samuel C. Hyde, 64 Parishes.
• “The History of the Short-Lived Independent Republic of Florida,” by William C. Davis, Smithsonian Magazine, May 2013.
• “The West Florida Republic,” by Anne Butler West Feliciana Historical Society and Museum.
• “The Siege of Port Hudson: ‘Forty Days and Nights in the Wilderness of Death’ (Teaching with Historic Places),” National Park Service.

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was formed in 1927 one of the goals of the founders was to recognize achievements in the industry. That recognition quickly took the form of annual awards banquets, with the first one hosted in 1929. Over time the format shifted from banquet to the Oscars telecast we all know today, as the categories and even membership of the Academy adapted to the shifts in filmmaking. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Monica Sandler, a film and media historian at Ball State University, whose forthcoming book is The Oscar Industry: Creative Labor, Cultural Production, and the Awards System in Media Industry.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “He’s working in the movies now,” composed by Henry Lodge, with lyrics by Harry Williams and Vincent Bryan; the song was performed by Billy Murray on February 27, 1914, in Camden, New Jersey; it’s in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is of Grace Kelly and Marlon Brando at the Academy Awards on March 30, 1955, published in the Los Angeles Times on March 31, 1955; the copyright is held by the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, and this work is licensed under a "Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International" .

Sources:

• “Experience over nine decades of the Oscars from 1927 to 2026,” Oscars.org.
• “Why Are the Academy Awards Called ‘Oscars’?” by Elizabeth Nix, History.com, January 22, 2026.
• “The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [Pamphlet],” June 20, 1927, Available via the Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections.
• “The Academy Awards Scandal That First Got PwC Its Job Counting Oscars Votes,” by Olivia B. Waxman, Time Magazine, March 2, 2018.
• “How Television Changed the Oscars,” by Lily Rothman, Time Magazine, February 22, 2015.
• ““TV – That’s Where Movies Go When They Die”: Rewatching the First Televised Oscars,” by Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, March 26, 2022.
• “What Determines Whether a Performance Is Lead or Supporting? Oscar Rules Explained,” by Eliza Thompson, US Weekly, March 7, 2024.

George Washington privately condemned slavery while actively holding hundreds of people in enslavement. He championed gradual emancipation plans while scheming to keep the people he enslaved from accessing them. He ruthlessly pursued a woman who escaped his enslavement and then emancipated the slaves he owned outright in his will. Washington’s complicated and contradictory legacy around slavery has been debated by Americans since his death. Joining us to discuss is Dr. John Garrison Marks, the Vice President of Research and Engagement at the American Association for State and Local History and author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode music is “I think we’ve got another Washington,” composed by George Fairman and performed by the Peerless Quartet on October 32, 2015, in New York City; the recording is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox.The episode image is “Washington at Mount Vernon plantation, 1797,” lithographed and published by Nathaniel Currier in 1852; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

• Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, 37 Ink, 2015.
• “The Enslaved Household of President George Washington,” by Lindsay M. Chervinsky, White House Historical Association, September 6, 2019.
• “George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786,A Spotlight on a Primary Source by George Washington,”Gilder Lehrman Institute.
• “George Washington’s Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives.
• “Forgotten No Longer: Archaeology of the Slave Memorial & African American Burial Ground at George Washington's Mount Vernon,” by Joe A. Downer, Archaeological Field Research Manager, George Washington's Mount Vernon.
• “People Enslaved at Monticello Who Gained Their Freedom,“ Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
• “Trump administration ordered to restore George Washington slavery exhibit it removed in Philadelphia,” by Hannah Schoenbaum, AP News, February 16, 2026.