Growing Pains: The Fragile Republic (1792–1800)

We often look at the founding of America like a statue—marble, white, and motionless. But the 1790s? They were anything but still. They were messy, loud, and violent. Between 1792 and 1800, we weren't just deciding how to govern; we were fighting over who got to be an American.

We’ve got a government testing its muscles, Native Confederacies fighting for their borders, epidemics clearing out cities, and enslaved men and women stealing their own bodies back from the Founding Fathers.

In this episode, we dissect the absolute foundations of the American government, focusing on the crucial years 1790 and 1791.

Forging a Republic: The First Presidential Election and the Birth of the Senate.

In this episode, we'll explore how a fragile young nation, barely held together by the failing Articles of Confederation, managed to create the world's first modern republic. We'll dive deep into the dramatic compromises that gave birth to the Senate during the sweltering summer of 1787, examine the unprecedented first presidential election of 1789 that unanimously chose George Washington, and uncover the enormous internal and external challenges that threatened to tear apart this experimental democracy before it could even take root.

From heated debates in Philadelphia's Independence Hall to the complex web of foreign and domestic threats facing the new republic, this is the story of how America's founders navigated uncharted political waters to establish institutions that would endure for centuries.