4.40 - The Year Without a Summer
Year(s) Discussed: 1815-1816
While Madison's administration in its latter days worked to secure peace with Native peoples in the Gulf South, General Andrew Jackson decided to act unilaterally in Florida against a fortified settlement of people seeking their freedom from enslavement. Meanwhile, a volcanic eruption in southeast Asia had climatic impacts on the eastern seaboard of the US while the nation prepared for its 8th presidential election. Sources used for this episode can be found at https://www.presidenciespodcast.com.
Special thanks to Cassie of the Autocrat podcast and Meredith of the Alexander Standard for providing intro quotes for this episode! Special thanks also to Christian of Your Podcast Pal for his audio editing work on this episode!
The transcript for this episode can be found here.
- Allgor, Catherine. A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 2006.
- Barnhart, John D, and Dorothy L Riker. Indiana to 1816: The Colonial Period. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Bureau & Indiana Historical Society, 1971.
- Clavin, Matthew J. The Battle of Negro Fort: The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community. New York: New York University Press, 2019.
- Cunningham, Noble E, Jr. The Presidency of James Monroe. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
- Fischer, David Hackett; and James C Kelly. Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2000.
- Irwin, Ray W. Daniel D. Tompkins: Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States. New York: The New-York Historical Society, 1968.
- Jefferson, Thomas. “To Albert Gallatin, 8 September 1816,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-10-02-0263. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 10, May 1816 to 18 January 1817, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 379–380.] [Last Accessed: 14 Nov 2024]
- Klingaman, William K; and Nicholas P Klingaman. The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013.
- Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2017-2025. https://www.presidenciespodcast.com.
- Madison, James. “Annual Message to Congress, 3 December 1816,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-11-02-0557. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 11, 1 May 1816–3 March 1817, ed. J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, Katharine E. Harbury, and Anne Mandeville Colony. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020, pp. 532–540.] [Last Accessed: 13 Dec 2024]
- Mattern, David B, and Holly C Shulman, eds. The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison. Charlottesville, VA and London: University of Virginia Press, 2003.
- McCoy, Drew R. The Last of the Fathers: James Madison & The Republican Legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991 [1989].
- Mooney, Chase C. William H. Crawford: 1772-1834. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1974.
- Nichols, Roger L, and Patrick L Halley. Stephen Long and American Frontier Exploration. Norman, OK and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
- Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767-1821. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
- Rutland, Robert Allen. The Presidency of James Madison. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1990.
- Turner, Lynn W. “Elections of 1816 and 1820.” History of American Presidential Elections 1789-1968, Volume I. Arthur M Schlesinger Jr, ed. New York: Chelsea House Publishers and McGraw-Hill, 1971. pp. 299-345.
- Wood, Gillen D’Arcy. Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Featured Image: "Two Men By the Sea" by Caspar David Friedrich [c. 1817], courtesy of Wikipedia
Intro and Outro Music: "Hull's Victory," as performed by David and Ginger Hildebrand, courtesy of the Colonial Music Institute at George Washington's Mount Vernon
