History's super confused ideas about women's sex lives (with Kate Lister)

To listen to this episode in full, join at broadhistory.com/membership. Historian Malcolm Gaskill helps us understand the "wrong but sincere" 17th-century folks behind witchcraft accusations and busts some myths about witches and the witch hunts. Where do the pointy hat and broomstick come from? Who was accused of being witches? How many trials even took place and how often were people convicted? What was people's relationship to the supernatural and why did they see witches where we (mostly) no longer do? 🇺🇸 Pre-order Worlds of Fear and Wonder in the US 🇬🇧 Pre-order Worlds of Fear and Wonder in the UK (Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.) Click here to view the episode transcript.

Republican motherhood is a fundamental concept of the early American republic. Women's political power, it argues, is exercised not at the ballot box but in their own separate sphere, where they raise good little patriots. Carol Berkin concludes our series with a look at the long impact of the American revolution for women and connects the dots with the United States' current political landscape, 250 years on.

Mercy Otis Warren was what the Revolution called a "female politician" – a woman who cared about and discussed politics, a wholly new archetype for American society then. Her poems, plays and pamphlets – and ultimately her 3-volume history of the revolution – established her as a key political thinker of the movement for independence. But she walked a fine line: she never meant to "transgress the boundaries of (her) sex" and always thought of herself as a wife and mother first. To discuss her life and women's part in the political philosophy of the revolution, I'm joined by Mercy's biographer, Rosemarie Zagarri. Read the books 🇺🇸 Buy Rosemarie Zagarri's books in the US A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9781118775011 Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic: https://bookshop.org/a/79408/9780812220735 🇬🇧 Buy Rosemarie Zagarri's books in the UK A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781118775011 Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9178/9781666133929 (Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)

Phillis Wheatley Peters was transported to America as an enslaved 7-year-old. She quickly became a literary prodigy and an international celebrity – the unofficial first poet laureate of a new nation, says her biographer Vincent Carretta. Together we explore her life, her legacy and recent findings that transform our understanding of the final years of her too-short life. 🇺🇸 Get the books: (Affiliate bookshop.org links support Broad History and indie bookstores.)

When Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman overheard the opening of the new Massachussetts constitution in 1780 – "all men are born free and equal" – she knew the words had to apply to her, too. Elizabeth was the first enslaved woman to sue for and win her freedom in a US court. To talk about arguably the most impactful woman in this series and the true meaning of freedom and the American promise, I'm joined by Errin Haines, co-founder and editor-at-large of The 19th*.