WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.620 So when you think of New Jersey today, you probably 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.559 just think of highways. Right, yeah, the Turnpike 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.800 or the Jersey Shore. Exactly, like a place you 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.519 drive through to get somewhere else. But we are 00:00:12.519 --> 00:00:15.109 looking at a stack of sources today. that prove 00:00:15.109 --> 00:00:18.690 this specific slice of land is, well, it's essentially 00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:21.070 the engine room of American history. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:21.250 --> 00:00:23.230 I mean, it's where George Washington literally 00:00:23.230 --> 00:00:25.609 saved the revolution. Right. And where Thomas 00:00:25.609 --> 00:00:29.109 Edison invented the future. Yeah. And where Martians 00:00:29.109 --> 00:00:31.269 supposedly landed. Yeah, the alien invasion. 00:00:31.370 --> 00:00:33.649 It is the absolute definition of a historical 00:00:33.649 --> 00:00:36.310 crucible. It really is. And our mission for this 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:40.369 deep dive is to synthesize this really massive 00:00:40.369 --> 00:00:43.140 historical survey of the state. We want to show 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:45.859 you how a relatively small area became the ultimate 00:00:45.859 --> 00:00:49.020 crossroads. Like a crossroads of innovation and 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:51.780 conflict. Yeah, and huge societal change. So 00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:53.759 we're taking you on a fast -paced journey today, 00:00:54.299 --> 00:00:57.159 from its glacial origins all the way to its really 00:00:57.159 --> 00:00:59.579 complex, modern identity. Because to understand 00:00:59.579 --> 00:01:01.439 the state, you have to look at the physical land 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:05.750 first. Right, long before the highways. OK, let's 00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:07.650 unpack this European conflict stuff later. But 00:01:07.650 --> 00:01:10.030 first, we have to go back to the Wisconsin glacier 00:01:10.030 --> 00:01:13.430 melting. Right. Around 13 ,000 BC. Right. And 00:01:13.430 --> 00:01:16.530 Paleo -Indians settle there. But the real shift 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:19.530 in the sources happens around 1000 AD. Yeah. 00:01:19.609 --> 00:01:21.329 When the Lenape arrived from the Mississippi 00:01:21.329 --> 00:01:23.310 Valley. And what's amazing is they weren't just 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:26.730 living there. They were actively engineering 00:01:26.730 --> 00:01:29.799 the ecosystem. Like with companion planting. 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:31.900 Oh, the companion planting is brilliant. It's 00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:33.980 perfectly balanced. I mean, they planted corn, 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:36.939 pole beans, and squash together in the exact 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:39.620 same mound. Yeah, so the corn acts as a pole 00:01:39.620 --> 00:01:42.280 for the bean. Exactly. And the beans pull nitrogen 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.980 from the air to fertilize the corn. While the 00:01:44.980 --> 00:01:48.000 squash, it acts like a living mulch. It blocks 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.340 the weeds. It's genius. And they use deadfall 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:52.859 traps, too, just to maximize yield with minimal 00:01:52.859 --> 00:01:55.439 energy. But because of all this prime real estate, 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:58.530 the fertile soil, the rivers, It became a massive 00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:01.230 target. Yeah, by the 17th century, it was the 00:02:01.230 --> 00:02:03.890 ultimate portfolio piece for European empires. 00:02:04.189 --> 00:02:06.090 OK, let's unpack this because the Dutch arrive 00:02:06.090 --> 00:02:09.289 first with New Netherland. Right. But the Dutch 00:02:09.289 --> 00:02:12.270 West India Company mismanages it terribly. I 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:14.669 mean, they just viewed it as this extractive 00:02:14.669 --> 00:02:17.830 corporate asset. Which led to awful, bloody friction 00:02:17.830 --> 00:02:20.030 with the lineup. Exactly. But then you have the 00:02:20.030 --> 00:02:23.189 Swedes down south in New Sweden. And they actually 00:02:23.189 --> 00:02:26.639 introduced the log cabin. which is wild. Yeah, 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:29.580 and they live much more peacefully with the locals, 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:33.560 but the English wanted it. Right, so 1664, the 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:36.139 Duke of York sends Colonel Richard Nichols. And 00:02:36.139 --> 00:02:38.379 the Dutch governor was so unpopular, there was 00:02:38.379 --> 00:02:40.719 basically zero resistance. They just hand it 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:43.699 over. And it gets named New Jersey to reward 00:02:43.699 --> 00:02:48.020 the Isle of Jersey for loyalty to King Charles 00:02:48.020 --> 00:02:50.080 II. And then they literally chop it in half. 00:02:50.219 --> 00:02:52.340 East and West Jersey. They sold the West to the 00:02:52.340 --> 00:02:54.340 Quakers like they just sold it to developers. 00:02:54.620 --> 00:02:56.360 And that is why it matters so much because you 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:00.180 had Swedes, Dutch outposts, English loyalists, 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:02.560 and radical Quakers all crammed together. So 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.199 it never had a single monolithic culture. Exactly. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.620 North Jersey kept this distinctly Dutch multicultural 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:11.819 character for decades. Which perfectly sets up 00:03:11.819 --> 00:03:14.340 the American Revolution because it's sandwiched 00:03:14.340 --> 00:03:16.400 right between New York and Philadelphia. The 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:19.039 two most vital cities. It's the hallway between 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:21.500 the two main rooms of the house. Right. If they 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:23.639 fight, the hallway gets destroyed. It becomes 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:25.879 the crossroads of the revolution. The sources 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:28.139 say more engagements happened in New Jersey than 00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:31.060 any other colony. Oh, easily. The biggest one 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:33.780 being the ten crucial days. Washington crossing 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:37.360 the Delaware. The Continental Army is about to 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:40.099 collapse. Enlistments are expiring. So he makes 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:43.180 that desperate crossing on Christmas night. Through 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:46.099 a literal blizzard. Yeah, and catches the Hessian 00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:49.639 mercenaries at Trenton. They capture 900 highly 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.639 trained soldiers in 90 minutes. It's insane. 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:54.680 And then they slip away to win at Princeton. 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:57.840 But it wasn't just winter stuff. The Battle of 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:00.620 Monmouth was in June. in 100 degree heat. Oh, 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.500 that was brutal. Men dropping dead from sunstroke 00:04:03.500 --> 00:04:06.240 before even firing. Charles Lee botches the assault. 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:08.939 Washington has to rally the troops himself. And 00:04:08.939 --> 00:04:10.919 you have the legend of Molly Pitcher there, too. 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:13.719 Right, because traditional government structures 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:16.600 just completely evaporated in this war zone. 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:19.660 Which leads to, and this blew my mind in the 00:04:19.660 --> 00:04:23.600 sources, the 1776 New Jersey Constitution. Ah, 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:27.519 the voting laws. They let women and non -whites 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:32.019 vote in 1776, but both political parties actually 00:04:32.019 --> 00:04:34.399 mocked each other for relying on them. Like, 00:04:34.620 --> 00:04:37.139 they called them petticoat electors. How did 00:04:37.139 --> 00:04:39.360 something so progressive happen so early? Well, 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.379 what's fascinating here is that the Constitution 00:04:41.379 --> 00:04:44.279 explicitly called itself temporary. Oh, like 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:46.699 a backup plan. Exactly. Just in case they reconciled 00:04:46.699 --> 00:04:50.480 with Great Britain. It was deeply fragile wartime 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.000 experimentation. They needed buy in from anyone 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.300 with 50 pounds of property to fund the war. But 00:04:55.300 --> 00:04:58.180 then they revoked it in 1807. Right. Just restricted 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:00.399 it to white males. Yeah. Political calculus. 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:02.420 Party bosses couldn't control those irregular 00:05:02.420 --> 00:05:04.480 votes, so they just blamed them for voter fraud 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:06.680 and stripped the rights away. That is so cynical. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.269 But they still had a huge impact on the U .S. 00:05:09.410 --> 00:05:11.470 government, like with the New Jersey plan. Right. 00:05:11.589 --> 00:05:14.009 Equal representation for smaller states. Which 00:05:14.009 --> 00:05:17.449 gave us the Senate. But after the war, they hit 00:05:17.449 --> 00:05:21.410 an economic wall. Poor soil, crop failures. So 00:05:21.410 --> 00:05:24.129 they had to pivot aggressively toward industrialization. 00:05:24.189 --> 00:05:25.670 And here's where it gets really interesting. 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:29.009 They go to Paterson, to the Great Falls. A 77 00:05:29.009 --> 00:05:32.850 -foot waterfall. Massive kinetic energy. Paterson 00:05:32.850 --> 00:05:35.560 becomes Silk City. the cradle of the Industrial 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:38.579 Revolution. Samuel Colt starts making his firearms 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:42.480 there in 1835. And that engineering culture paves 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:44.819 the way for Thomas Edison. The Wizard of Menlo 00:05:44.819 --> 00:05:47.839 Park. And I always pictured him alone with a 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:49.779 candle having a eureka moment. Not at all. It 00:05:49.779 --> 00:05:52.959 was basically a 19th century Silicon Valley tech 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:56.579 incubator. Yes. He secured 1 ,093 patents. He's 00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:58.879 making the phonograph. The kinetoscope. And the 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.019 tattoo gun, surprisingly. Tattoo guns. Like, 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:04.699 who knew? He famously said genius is 1 % inspiration 00:06:04.699 --> 00:06:07.339 and 99 % perspiration. It was constant trial 00:06:07.339 --> 00:06:09.439 and error. But, you know, making all this stuff 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:11.579 means nothing if you can't move it. Right. The 00:06:11.579 --> 00:06:13.939 transportation boom. The Morris Canal, where 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:16.220 they literally dragged massive boats of mountains 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:18.439 on rails. Yeah, using water -powered cables. 00:06:18.779 --> 00:06:21.519 And the Camden and Amboy Railroad. Cutting travel 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:24.220 from Philly to New York down to just seven hours. 00:06:24.500 --> 00:06:26.579 And that's the market revolution right there, 00:06:26.899 --> 00:06:29.759 shifting from local farming to massive national 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:32.680 -scale industrial entrepreneurship. But so what 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:34.319 does this all mean for you, the listener, because 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:36.779 there's a huge contradiction here. How can a 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:40.339 state... With such strong anti -slavery Quaker 00:06:40.339 --> 00:06:43.980 roots that sent 88 ,000 troops to fight for the 00:06:43.980 --> 00:06:47.060 North, simultaneously hold on to slavery the 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:50.259 longest. It's a really dark reality. And they 00:06:50.259 --> 00:06:52.779 rejected Lincoln twice. Right. They favored Stephen 00:06:52.779 --> 00:06:55.600 Douglas in 1860 and then George B. McClellan 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:58.540 in 1864. McClellan even became their governor. 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:00.819 Yeah. Well, it ties directly back to that massive 00:07:00.819 --> 00:07:02.839 industrial boom we just talked about. Because 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.839 of the money. Exactly. New Jersey's manufacturing 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:08.740 economy was deeply, deeply reliant on southern 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:10.819 markets. They were selling shoes, carriages, 00:07:11.100 --> 00:07:13.480 clothing to the plantation economy. So they were 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:16.870 caught in this. Between their moral Quaker foundations 00:07:16.870 --> 00:07:20.029 and brutal capitalist reality, they passed a 00:07:20.029 --> 00:07:23.170 gradual Abolition Act in 1804. But it was so 00:07:23.170 --> 00:07:25.350 gradual that at the end of the Civil War, there 00:07:25.350 --> 00:07:28.089 were still about a dozen African Americans held 00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:31.420 as apprentice freedmen. Right. There were major 00:07:31.420 --> 00:07:33.699 stops on the Underground Railroad and places 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.420 like Paterson grew incredibly rich making union 00:07:36.420 --> 00:07:39.139 ammo. But the politics remained tied to corporate 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:41.779 wealth. And that corporate wealth obsession just 00:07:41.779 --> 00:07:44.839 explodes in the 20th century. New Jersey becomes 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:48.199 the mother of trusts. Oh, absolutely. They allowed 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:51.560 massive monopolies like Standard Oil to just 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.300 thrive. Basically acting like a modern offshore 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:56.949 tax haven. until Woodrow Wilson gets elected 00:07:56.949 --> 00:07:59.709 governor in 1910. Right. The party bosses thought 00:07:59.709 --> 00:08:02.149 this quiet Princeton professor would be easy 00:08:02.149 --> 00:08:04.829 to control. And he completely turns on them, 00:08:05.129 --> 00:08:07.730 sheds the academic vibe, passes the Seven Sisters 00:08:07.730 --> 00:08:10.310 antitrust laws, and undercuts the whole machine. 00:08:10.370 --> 00:08:12.189 Which propels him to the presidency. But the 00:08:12.189 --> 00:08:14.529 state itself during this time in 1920s and 30s 00:08:14.529 --> 00:08:17.389 is just... It's pure chaos, like a wild movie 00:08:17.389 --> 00:08:20.430 script. First, you have the 1916 Jersey Shore 00:08:20.430 --> 00:08:22.569 shark attacks. Right in the middle of a polio 00:08:22.569 --> 00:08:25.290 outbreak and a heat wave. Four people dead, national 00:08:25.290 --> 00:08:28.810 panic. Then the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the 00:08:28.810 --> 00:08:31.189 literal trial of the century. And the Hindenburg 00:08:31.189 --> 00:08:35.309 explosion in 1937 at Lakehurst. 36 people dead 00:08:35.309 --> 00:08:38.470 in 34 seconds. Captured on film. And then the 00:08:38.470 --> 00:08:41.429 very next year, 1938, Orson Welles does the War 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:43.919 of the Worlds radio broadcast. claiming Martians 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:46.799 are landing in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. And 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:48.539 people believed it because they were already 00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:50.740 on edge from the Hindenburg. Well, if we connect 00:08:50.740 --> 00:08:52.740 this to the bigger picture, New Jersey is so 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:54.899 geographically central, it basically acts as 00:08:54.899 --> 00:08:57.399 a microcosm for global anxieties. Like a lightning 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:00.500 rod. Exactly. Sitting in the shadow of New York 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:03.120 and Philly's media markets, whenever the world 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:06.340 shifts, the shockwaves hit New Jersey directly. 00:09:06.460 --> 00:09:08.799 Which we see in World War Two. They handle nine 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:11.039 percent of all allied defense contracts. Right. 00:09:11.059 --> 00:09:12.740 Places like Camp Kilmer. But again, you have 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:14.799 those moral contradictions. Yeah. The sources 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:16.759 mentioned they use Japanese -American internment 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:19.200 labor at Seabrook Farms to keep up agricultural 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.019 production. While simultaneously building Cold 00:09:22.019 --> 00:09:25.240 War Nike anti -aircraft missile batteries to 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:28.710 defend against Soviet bombers. And then the pressure 00:09:28.710 --> 00:09:31.289 cooker really explodes in the 1960s with the 00:09:31.289 --> 00:09:34.190 race riots. Yeah. Deindustrialization was wiping 00:09:34.190 --> 00:09:36.809 out jobs in the cities. Driven by urban decay, 00:09:37.370 --> 00:09:40.409 biased policing, and just decades of racial tension. 00:09:40.789 --> 00:09:43.129 You had riots in Jersey City, Patterson, Elizabeth. 00:09:43.370 --> 00:09:46.570 Culminating in the deadly 1967 Newark riots, 00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:50.710 it was catastrophic. 24 people died. and it triggered 00:09:50.710 --> 00:09:53.610 this massive wave of suburban flight. White flight 00:09:53.610 --> 00:09:55.730 out of the cities, stripping them of their tax 00:09:55.730 --> 00:09:58.549 base. It's incredibly heavy. So to summarize 00:09:58.549 --> 00:10:00.769 all this for you listening, we've watched New 00:10:00.769 --> 00:10:04.429 Jersey transform from this contested Lenape land 00:10:04.429 --> 00:10:06.950 to the bloody crossroads of the revolution. Through 00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:09.710 a massive industrial powerhouse. Right, and ultimately 00:10:09.710 --> 00:10:12.149 it acts as this mirror for America's greatest 00:10:12.149 --> 00:10:14.190 triumphs and its deepest struggles. It really 00:10:14.190 --> 00:10:17.049 does. And to leave you with one final thread 00:10:17.049 --> 00:10:19.580 to pull on, think back to that time temporary 00:10:19.580 --> 00:10:22.299 1776 Constitution we talked about in Section 00:10:22.299 --> 00:10:25.159 2. One that let women and non -whites vote. Right. 00:10:25.399 --> 00:10:27.379 What if New Jersey hadn't revoked those rights 00:10:27.379 --> 00:10:30.740 in 1807? Oh, wow. If the crossroads of the revolution 00:10:30.740 --> 00:10:33.860 had allowed that radical inclusive experiment 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.559 to just become permanent, how might the entire 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:38.759 trajectory of American democracy and civil rights 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:41.080 have changed? That is a fascinating question 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:43.299 to end on. It really makes you look at the state 00:10:43.299 --> 00:10:44.379 in a totally different light.