In Season 3, Episode 6, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe travels to 1313 Pierce Street, the Lynchburg home of Anne Spencer, a poet, gardener, and luminary of the Harlem Renaissance. What can her home tell us about this accomplished and sometimes eccentric woman? Wolfe and producer Miranda Bennett also sit down with Spencer’s […]
Type: Podcast
A Voice Out of Slavery
In Season 3, Episode 5, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe marvels at the power of Bethany Veney‘s writing, which tells the story of her life in slavery, the time she foiled an attempt to sell her, and her journey to freedom. Wolfe and producer Miranda Bennett also talk to Jobie Hill, an architectural […]
He Was Who He Needed to Be
In Season 3, Episode 4, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe considers the life of Henry Martin, a formerly enslaved man who for years worked as a janitor at the University of Virginia. Something of a mascot, something of a joke—that’s how the community treated him but underneath that was a black man just […]
The Fighting Editor
In Season 3, Episode 3, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe admires the African American newspaperman John Mitchell Jr. Known as the Fighting Editor, Mitchell was willing to strap on a pair of Smith & Wesson revolvers and risk his own death in the fight against lynching. His life ended on a sad note, […]
He Danced His Way to Jail
In Season 3, Episode 1, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe introduces us to Christopher McPherson, a free black man who knew Jefferson, dined with Madison, and worked for George Wythe. He also predicted the end of the world. Wolfe and producer Miranda Bennett also interview Deborah Murdock who owns properties where McPherson once […]
One of the Twenty
In Season 3, Episode 2, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe examines the life of Angela, one of the first twenty Africans to arrive at Jamestown in 1619. On the 400th anniversary of that propitious moment in Virginia history, Historic Jamestowne is looking in earnest for signs of Angela and her fellow Africans. Wolfe […]
Crazy Bet & Mary Jane
In Season 2, Episode 6, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe tells the story of Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Richards Bowser, two mysterious women with deep connections to the Episcopal Church. Both Union spies during the Civil War, one ended her life a pariah while the other disappeared from history. Producer Miranda Bennett also […]
A Most Savage Tale
In Season 2, Episode 5, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe investigates the life of Thomas Savage, a Jamestown colonist who, as a boy, was given over to the Indians. He spent the rest of his life negotiating the precarious line between two warring cultures. [soundcloud id=’372708896′ height=’false’ color=’#ff7700′] IMAGE: Negotiating Peace with the Indians […]
Keeping House with Marion Harland
In Season 2, Episode 4, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe reads Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery (1871) by Marion Harland. The Virginian brought cookbooks to the masses while defending the traditional roles of women. Producer Miranda Bennett also talks to Sarah Searle, proprietor of the cooking blog the Yellow House. [soundcloud […]
Another Man's Property
In Season 2, Episode 3, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe marvels at Anthony Johnson, a slaveholder on the Eastern Shore who, earlier in life, had been known only as “Antonio a Negro.” [soundcloud id=’372708905′ height=’false’ color=’#ff7700′] IMAGE: Iron wrist shackles that date to the seventeenth or eighteenth century (Virginia Historical Society)