The Future of America's Past (TV Series)

The Revolutions (2020)

Edward L. Ayers: Self - Host

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Self - Host : Every year, millions of people visit Philadelphia and Boston to learn how this nation came to be. Here, some of the Revolution's first shots were fired. Here men wrote and debated the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Traces of the founding fathers are easy to find. Less clear is what the Revolution meant for those outside the halls of power. What did freedom mean for people who needed it most?

• [discussing the story of Belinda Sutton, a slave freed by his master's will who sues for the annual pension which was promised to her] 

  Self - Host : So we can understand why people want to teach their children inspiring stories have wanted to clean up the past, but your sense is we're not doing 'em a service by cleaning up the past.

  Self - Royall House Board Member and Tour Guide : Or we're not doing them a service by what we think is inspiring.

  Self - Host : I think that's good.

  Self - Royall House Board Member and Tour Guide : I think the story is very inspiring. Belinda's story is amazing that she got a lawyer and she actually sued for that annuity, given her status in colonial times and I find that a lot of people really react to that when I get to that part of the story.

• [last lines] 

  Self - Host : This place is one of many where Americans took their founders at their words: "All men are created equal." At the African Meeting House this wasn't a distant dream; it was a call to action. Across the new United States, African Americans, women and Native Americans worked to make equality real in their lives. That struggle endures. But you can see in Boston, in Philadelphia, generations of Americans have found the promise of liberty too inspiring to abandon.