The Declaration of Independence said all men are created equal. But what did that mean to the women who heard those words and knew they were being lied to? Who were the women the founding fathers never mentioned — and what did they do about it? And, if America was founded on the idea of freedom, why did it take another century — and a civil war — to even begin to make good on that promise? Afua and Peter turn the founding of America upside down, telling the story of 1776 through the women the Declaration forgot: a teenage poet who became the first Black woman in history to publish a book of poetry in English, and an enslaved woman who walked into a lawyer's office and used the Constitution to abolish slavery in Massachusetts.

(0:00) The Declaration of Independence is about to turn 250 — but whose freedom was it really for?

(1:43) Legacy Plus — bonus episodes, early access, and fewer ads 2:00 Why enslaved Americans didn't wait to be freed — they were already fighting

(5:36) Lord Dunmore's proclamation and the moment thousands of Black men chose their side

(7:48) Phillis Wheatley: kidnapped at seven, named after the slave ship that took her

(9:59) From chalk letters on a wall to mastering Greek — the making of a prodigy

(12:09) The court case where she had to prove she wrote her own poems

(14:23) Sent to London as pro-slavery propaganda — and why it spectacularly backfired

(16:12) Published in London, ignored in Boston: the first Black woman to publish poetry in English

(17:23) The poem she sent to George Washington — and why he actually wrote back

(18:47) They met in Cambridge in 1776: the Virginia enslaver and the young woman he couldn't ignore

(20:04) How post-revolutionary America still wouldn't publish her — and how she built a subscription model 250 years before Substack

(21:50) She reached Washington, Jefferson, Thomas Paine — and died at 30 in a boarding house

(23:34) Elizabeth Freeman: the woman who heard the Declaration read aloud and walked straight to a lawyer

(25:11) "Where's my freedom?" — the most direct question anyone asked of the founding fathers

(27:05) The iron-shaped scar she refused to hide — and how she weaponised it

(27:41) Bett v Ashley: the case that abolished slavery in Massachusetts

(31:36 She wins not just her freedom but freedom for every enslaved person in the state — then changes her name to Elizabeth Freeman

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Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

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Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

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