Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant Season 4 Discussion Questions

Episode 53: "By Being Almost Murdered"

1. What is material culture?
2. Why can letters be a good source to use when telling women’s history?
3. What do we know about Konwatsi'tsiaienni Molly Brant and Daniel Claus? How might that influence the way we interpret these letters?
4. How might our understanding of early North America and the American Revolution change if we consider it from an indigenous perspective?
5. How are these letters limited in what they can tell us about Brant?
6. Dr. Maeve Kane and Kathryn Gehred discuss how Brandt may have been intentionally modest in writing the first letter. Why might she have done that, and what can that tell us, if anything, about Brandt’s many layered identities (as a woman, an Indigenous person, a mother, etc…) and some of the ways women exercised power?
7. How might these letters help us to understand Indigenous experiences in other aspects of American history?
8. What questions do you have about the source? What surprised you? What does it make you wonder?

Link to Episode 53

Episode 54: "I Am Frightened When I Look At Her"

1. Why are letters a good source for women’s history?
2. What do we know about Lucy Flucker Knox and General Henry Knox? How might this context influence the way we interpret this letter?
3. Are there limitations of this source in what it can tell us about Lucy Flucker Knox or the experience of everyday women during the American Revolution?
4. In what ways does this letter either disrupt or support traditional assumptions about femininity or women’s roles at the time?
5. What questions do you have about the source? What surprised you? What does it make you wonder?

Link to Episode 54

Episode 55: "An Insurrection Was Hourly Expected"

1. What is public history?
2. Why can personal writings be a good source to use when telling women’s history?
3. What do we know about Janet Shaw? Was Shaw’s journal intended to be read publicly or privately? How might this context change the way we interpret this letter?
4. What does this source tell us about ideas of freedom and liberty at the time it was written?
5. What can we learn about enslaved people from this letter? What about them is left out?
6. How can historians approach sources like this one that provide conflicting accounts or leave information gaps?

Link to Episode 55

Episode 56: "The Most Dreadful Of All Enemies"

1. What was a petition in early America? What was its purpose?
2. How did petitions differ from letters in terms of the kinds of information they provide? 
3. What do you find significant about the language in Belinda Sutton’s petition?
4. What do we know about Sutton and the court she was addressing? How might that influence the way we interpret this petition?
5. What does this source tell us about ideas of freedom and liberty at the time it was written?
6. What questions do you have about the source? What surprised you? What does it make you wonder?

Link to Episode 56

Episode 57: "Those Tumultuous Assemblies of Men"

1. Why are letters a good source for women’s history?
2. What does Dr. Cynthia Kierner mean by an expansive definition of “History?” Why might this be important?
3. What do we know about Richard Henry Lee and Hannah Lee Corbin? How might this influence the way we interpret this letter?
4. How could becoming a widow change the legal status of Hannah Lee Corbin or other women like her at the time?
5. How does religion and religious history inform this letter?
6. How were property, power, marriage, and gender connected?
7. Did the American Revolution matter for women? Did it make meaningful changes in their lives?
8. How does Dr. Kierner connect this letter to broader histories? What connections can you make between this and any other US history topics or events? 
9. What questions do you have about the source? What surprised you? What does it make you wonder? 

Link to Episode 57

Episode 58: "Our Unnatural Enemies May Be Turned From Us"

1. Why are letters a good source for women’s history?
2. What do we know about Polly Palmer and John Adams, particularly their relationship with each other? How might this influence the way we interpret this letter?
3. Dr. Emily Sneff says that this letter has been “separated from its context” and “been treated from John Adams' perspective and not Polly's perspective.” What does Sneff argue we gain from considering this letter from Polly’s perspective instead?
4. Sneff says that this letter reflects the “material conditions” of the time. What does she mean by that? How does she demonstrate that objects themselves can be historical sources?
5. How might this letter and Sneff’s interpretation of it add to or change our understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution?
6. Sneff mentions the Adams papers collection and says that historians are “fortunate” to have these sources. What might this discussion teach us about the creation of archives or collections and how that process affects the stories able to be told by historians?
7. What questions do you have about this letter? What surprised you? What does it make you wonder? 

Link to Episode 58

Questions by Annabelle Spencer, George Mason University PhD Student, 2025