He was born the year before the Revolution began. His mother died before his 7th birthday. His father ended up in debtor's prison and provided material aid to men involved in Shays's Rebellion. Yet his story is known to many and has been portrayed in song, story and animated movies across the world. This is the story of John Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed" who left his impoverished home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts to spendhis life wandering the Northwest Territory creating nurseries for apple trees as far away Ohio and Indiana. Melissa M. Cybulski, Vice President of the Longmeadow Historical Society and author of Appleseeds: A Boy Named Johnny Chapman she shares with us the role of the Chapman family, Longmeadow & Western Massachusetts in the age of the American Revolution.

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For the last 250 years Americans remain conflicted over the meaning and legacy of the Revolution—including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. All of the social and political movements of the last two centuries have been shaped by the work of the founders and they in turn shape the way the next generations view the founding of the nation. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Michael Hattem, author of "The Memory of '76" (Yale University Press) on how we have, and do, remember the American Revolution.

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On July 4, 1776, two hundred miles northwest of Philadelphia, on Indigenous land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, a group of colonial squatters declared their independence. They were not alone in their efforts. This bold symbolic gesture was just a small part of a much broader and longer struggle in the Northern Susquehanna River Valley, where diverse peoples, especially Indigenous nations, fought tenaciously to safeguard their lands, sovereignty, and survival. We talk with Christopher Pearl about his new book, Declarations of Independence: Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution, which examines this intense struggle among Indigenous Americans, rebellious colonial squatters, opportunistic land speculators, and imperial government agents which shaped the American Revolution.

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