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The Revolutions

Ed Ayers visits public historians in Boston and Philadelphia and explores what “freedom” meant to those outside the halls of power in the Revolutionary era.

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What does “freedom” mean to those outside the halls of power — and what did it mean during the era of the American Revolution? Host Ed Ayers visits sites in Boston and Philadelphia to put that question to curators, museum educators, a playwright, and a tribal preservation officer. He learns about the ways in which women, Native Americans, and African Americans made the words of the Revolution come true in their own lives. He discovers that some of the most inspiring stories of the Revolution spring from people who remained on its margins.