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Welcome to Stuff You missed in History Class.

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A production of I Heart Radio Happy

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Friday. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm

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Holly Fry. We talked about

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the Rum Rebellion. I

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don't I don't know why I had it in

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my head so solidly that we had talked

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about this before, and I

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even looked through, like I

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did a search for the words rum rebellion

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in my giant folder of

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old scripts for the show, trying to be like,

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did we just mention it in passing in one

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of our other related to

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Australia episodes, like maybe the Catalpa

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Mutiny or maybe the Lady Julianna,

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like either of the NOE. It

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just seems like, not, is there any chance

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your brain is subbing it in for whiskey

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rebellion since it's a spirit related

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It's no, definitely not definitely

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not. Uh So yeah,

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um, this is definitely one

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of the more ridiculous coups

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we've talked about, maybe the most

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ridiculous coup, because most of the coups

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that we have talked about on the show have been just

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horrifying and violent, and

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this has, you know, horrifying context.

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We're talking about a prison colony

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in Australia, But

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the actual circumstances of the rebellion

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really seemed to be Bly

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did not go to Australia to make friends,

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and there were people there who had some

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really strong personalities already,

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and the actual coup

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itself was minimally

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violence. There was only one person that

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got hurt. And then you know,

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although Bly and his daughter were kept on

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house arrest, they were also on

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house arrest and what was effectively the governor's

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mansion. Right, So

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on the spectrum of cous it's

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like, on the goofier, less

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violent end of the it's less harrowing

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than many that we've talked about. Yeah,

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it also is, I think because

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so much of it boils down to kind of petty

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bickering that gets out of control because of egos,

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it just lends itself to a

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more jocular tone. Yeah.

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Yeah, it's like he really

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liked rules. I mean, it's kind of a sitcom,

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right, Like he

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really liked rules but had a temper.

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He's like the boss that wants to

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fix a very jumbled and messed up

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situation but doesn't know

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how to do it in terms of interpersonal

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communications. So they just sweep

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in and like erase all that has gone before

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to institute new things, which never

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ever works. No No.

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I also I was kind of fascinated

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by the descriptions of his

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um his sort of harangue that

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he would assault

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people with with the torrent of insults

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and um I wish I

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had written down or

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or bookmarked one of the things that it

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would just sort of described what these were

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like, and it they just in

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some ways just seemed like random,

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almost nonsensical torrents

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of insults that were really demoralizing

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to the people who were hearing them, in part because

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they just didn't they didn't make sense,

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and they didn't fit with the way

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people thought that officers should

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be disciplining anybody,

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oh humans in their piccadillos.

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Yeah, if you look at pictures

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of of William Bly, he

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also doesn't look like

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you might imagine if your familiarity

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with with him is like fictional

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depictions of the Mutiny on the Bounty,

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where he's kind of this red faced, screaming

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tyrant. He looks like a very

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pale person who somehow

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has managed to stay in the shade his whole

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life, in spite of being the

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captain of a ship and then living in Australia.

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Uh, maybe he always had a really lovely

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umbrella or Paris Hall said,

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uh yeah, I have a think a lot about still tess

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of late, because I have been, you know, studying how

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various spirits get made, and

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there's part of me that just wants to go, like you

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guys, it's not that hard. You could have made more. Um

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well, and that was part of the thing was stills had

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been outlawed and so they weren't supposed

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to have skills at all. But

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you know, there's a whole

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long tradition of the same classes

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of people who were transported to Australia

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also knowing how to keep their still secret.

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Um. So yeah, yeah,

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they probably had something

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there that would have worked as a

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a base grain, yeah,

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to start the whole process. Um,

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I don't know. I don't

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know if sugarcane grows there, I don't

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know. Um, but you don't need you can.

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You can make lots of other spirits with other grains,

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any of which would have been known to anybody that came

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from England. So right,

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and we know that they we had previously

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talked about people having io used that used

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tweet as currency, right,

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so you can, man,

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I'm just imagining a whole now very complicated

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monetary system for the colony

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of New South Wales, overlapping

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between wheat and alcohol. Yes,

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So anyway, now you know what's kind of weird

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connections. My brain will go down these

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kinds of episode of So

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Tracy. This week we had as a guest the wonderful

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and very charming Jeremy Kat's show,

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which is just so delightful

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to get to spend time with him and talk. Um.

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I was so excited because it was kind

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of happening at the same time we were

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getting that episode ready that he got

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to talk about having picked

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up the Hebrew Bible that John Assof had been

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sworn in on them, right, um,

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And he mentioned that that that Bible

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had belonged to Rabbi Rothschild.

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I don't remember if we connected the dots

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really that like he was a civil rights

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leader, he was the rabbi at the temple

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when it was bombed in nine So it

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is a really interesting piece of history

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for a number of reasons. And that they now

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get to have it in their collection and share

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it with people as this this monumental

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you know, prop sounds demeaning to

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it. But this item, that's that's part

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of the props of the world stage of

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like these very vital moments

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in Jewish history and Atlanta. I don't

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know, it's just very cool. History is still alive.

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We're making it all the time. Um

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So, I went to that museum once when I lived

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in Atlanta. I went

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there with my friend Aaron, and they

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have an exhibit that is, um

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like a history of the Jewish community in Atlanta

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through a set of I think eighteen

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artifacts. There's a number of artifacts, and

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then the temporary exhibit was

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on Murray Sendec. Loved

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it so much. The other

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thing I got really excited about when you told me you were

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doing this interview is I

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am so fascinated by these

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Images of America books that this

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book is part of. Like anytime

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I walk into some random in

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the middle of nowhere place that has

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a gift shop and the gift shop

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has an Images of America book that is

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about that specific places history,

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I'm just deeply fascinated by I have.

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I have one of them on my desk right

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now, which is about a place called break

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Heart Reservation, which today is

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like a um a park

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with lots of walking trails and a playground

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and and hiking in that kind of thing. Um,

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having the whole history of it. And

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as soon as you told me, I was like, I'm

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incredibly just like I

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want to note number one, Like

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I have this imagined world

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of like how how it becomes, how

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these books come into existence in so many

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places, um, And then anytime

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I see one, I just want to

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look through it and take it home. I would have a whole library

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of just imagism of America books

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random places. They're really really

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good. And I was glad that Jeremy shared

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with us kind of the process of how that came to be

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a thing, and and you know, he

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of course kind of had a similar project

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in mind already, so he was a little ahead of the game.

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But yeah, I mean it's one of those things too,

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right. I have lived in Atlanta for

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a long time now, with like thirty years,

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and just flipping through it, you

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know, is an interesting walk,

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not quite down memory lane, because many of

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these things certainly predated my time

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here, but you see the things that that

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continue to persist as part of Atlanta

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culture. Um. One of the

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things that really kind of struck me. It

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does not exist any longer. It has

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been absorbed by a larger conglomerate. But

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Riches department store for the very longest

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time was like and icon

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of Atlantic culture. Yeah.

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And I worked in the Riches for years.

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I worked in the salons there, and

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so to see pictures of the original Riches,

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yeah, it just did something to my heart. It's

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so wonderful. One of the other,

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like previous temporary exhibits

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at the museum, like, was a

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history of Riches, which I thought was really like.

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I didn't personally see that one, but I thought it was really cool. It's

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very very cool. Um. Yeah, you do sort

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of realize how much how

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much Atlanta has been shaped by its Jewish community

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in ways that we don't always appreciate. So I was really

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happy to have him on with us. We also

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made a deal after we finished recording that once we

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are both vaccinated, I'm gonna go visit the

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Freeman and he's going to give me a tour, which I

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was private tour of a museum

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my my dream, my dream scenarios.

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So we are going to go do that and hopefully

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he'll let me take him to lunch or something. But

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I hope people, I mean like you,

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I love these books. I just think visually

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they offer such an easy entry

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point to history and in ways that they're

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all also always so well written, even

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though there's limited text space.

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It's like whoever edits them to be concise

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but also really clear and very

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um good at conveying

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you know, really the importance and the significance

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of what you're seeing is doing an a plus job.

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Whoever the editors are on this series, kudos

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you so so. Wherever

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you are and run into these, I highly recommend them.

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And again, I'm just super grateful I had that conversation.

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We hope that whatever the weekend has in store

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for you, that it is delightful and

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enjoyable, and that you as good a time as possible,

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and we will see you right back here, starting

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tomorrow with a classic and then next week with new episodes.

11:12

Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of

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I Heart Radio. For more podcasts

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