So when you think of New Jersey today, you probably
just think of highways. Right, yeah, the Turnpike
or the Jersey Shore. Exactly, like a place you
drive through to get somewhere else. But we are
looking at a stack of sources today. that prove
this specific slice of land is, well, it's essentially
the engine room of American history. Oh, absolutely.
I mean, it's where George Washington literally
saved the revolution. Right. And where Thomas
Edison invented the future. Yeah. And where Martians
supposedly landed. Yeah, the alien invasion.
It is the absolute definition of a historical
crucible. It really is. And our mission for this
deep dive is to synthesize this really massive
historical survey of the state. We want to show
you how a relatively small area became the ultimate
crossroads. Like a crossroads of innovation and
conflict. Yeah, and huge societal change. So
we're taking you on a fast -paced journey today,
from its glacial origins all the way to its really
complex, modern identity. Because to understand
the state, you have to look at the physical land
first. Right, long before the highways. OK, let's
unpack this European conflict stuff later. But
first, we have to go back to the Wisconsin glacier
melting. Right. Around 13 ,000 BC. Right. And
Paleo -Indians settle there. But the real shift
in the sources happens around 1000 AD. Yeah.
When the Lenape arrived from the Mississippi
Valley. And what's amazing is they weren't just
living there. They were actively engineering
the ecosystem. Like with companion planting.
Oh, the companion planting is brilliant. It's
perfectly balanced. I mean, they planted corn,
pole beans, and squash together in the exact
same mound. Yeah, so the corn acts as a pole
for the bean. Exactly. And the beans pull nitrogen
from the air to fertilize the corn. While the
squash, it acts like a living mulch. It blocks
the weeds. It's genius. And they use deadfall
traps, too, just to maximize yield with minimal
energy. But because of all this prime real estate,
the fertile soil, the rivers, It became a massive
target. Yeah, by the 17th century, it was the
ultimate portfolio piece for European empires.
OK, let's unpack this because the Dutch arrive
first with New Netherland. Right. But the Dutch
West India Company mismanages it terribly. I
mean, they just viewed it as this extractive
corporate asset. Which led to awful, bloody friction
with the lineup. Exactly. But then you have the
Swedes down south in New Sweden. And they actually
introduced the log cabin. which is wild. Yeah,
and they live much more peacefully with the locals,
but the English wanted it. Right, so 1664, the
Duke of York sends Colonel Richard Nichols. And
the Dutch governor was so unpopular, there was
basically zero resistance. They just hand it
over. And it gets named New Jersey to reward
the Isle of Jersey for loyalty to King Charles
II. And then they literally chop it in half.
East and West Jersey. They sold the West to the
Quakers like they just sold it to developers.
And that is why it matters so much because you
had Swedes, Dutch outposts, English loyalists,
and radical Quakers all crammed together. So
it never had a single monolithic culture. Exactly.
North Jersey kept this distinctly Dutch multicultural
character for decades. Which perfectly sets up
the American Revolution because it's sandwiched
right between New York and Philadelphia. The
two most vital cities. It's the hallway between
the two main rooms of the house. Right. If they
fight, the hallway gets destroyed. It becomes
the crossroads of the revolution. The sources
say more engagements happened in New Jersey than
any other colony. Oh, easily. The biggest one
being the ten crucial days. Washington crossing
the Delaware. The Continental Army is about to
collapse. Enlistments are expiring. So he makes
that desperate crossing on Christmas night. Through
a literal blizzard. Yeah, and catches the Hessian
mercenaries at Trenton. They capture 900 highly
trained soldiers in 90 minutes. It's insane.
And then they slip away to win at Princeton.
But it wasn't just winter stuff. The Battle of
Monmouth was in June. in 100 degree heat. Oh,
that was brutal. Men dropping dead from sunstroke
before even firing. Charles Lee botches the assault.
Washington has to rally the troops himself. And
you have the legend of Molly Pitcher there, too.
Right, because traditional government structures
just completely evaporated in this war zone.
Which leads to, and this blew my mind in the
sources, the 1776 New Jersey Constitution. Ah,
the voting laws. They let women and non -whites
vote in 1776, but both political parties actually
mocked each other for relying on them. Like,
they called them petticoat electors. How did
something so progressive happen so early? Well,
what's fascinating here is that the Constitution
explicitly called itself temporary. Oh, like
a backup plan. Exactly. Just in case they reconciled
with Great Britain. It was deeply fragile wartime
experimentation. They needed buy in from anyone
with 50 pounds of property to fund the war. But
then they revoked it in 1807. Right. Just restricted
it to white males. Yeah. Political calculus.
Party bosses couldn't control those irregular
votes, so they just blamed them for voter fraud
and stripped the rights away. That is so cynical.
But they still had a huge impact on the U .S.
government, like with the New Jersey plan. Right.
Equal representation for smaller states. Which
gave us the Senate. But after the war, they hit
an economic wall. Poor soil, crop failures. So
they had to pivot aggressively toward industrialization.
And here's where it gets really interesting.
They go to Paterson, to the Great Falls. A 77
-foot waterfall. Massive kinetic energy. Paterson
becomes Silk City. the cradle of the Industrial
Revolution. Samuel Colt starts making his firearms
there in 1835. And that engineering culture paves
the way for Thomas Edison. The Wizard of Menlo
Park. And I always pictured him alone with a
candle having a eureka moment. Not at all. It
was basically a 19th century Silicon Valley tech
incubator. Yes. He secured 1 ,093 patents. He's
making the phonograph. The kinetoscope. And the
tattoo gun, surprisingly. Tattoo guns. Like,
who knew? He famously said genius is 1 % inspiration
and 99 % perspiration. It was constant trial
and error. But, you know, making all this stuff
means nothing if you can't move it. Right. The
transportation boom. The Morris Canal, where
they literally dragged massive boats of mountains
on rails. Yeah, using water -powered cables.
And the Camden and Amboy Railroad. Cutting travel
from Philly to New York down to just seven hours.
And that's the market revolution right there,
shifting from local farming to massive national
-scale industrial entrepreneurship. But so what
does this all mean for you, the listener, because
there's a huge contradiction here. How can a
state... With such strong anti -slavery Quaker
roots that sent 88 ,000 troops to fight for the
North, simultaneously hold on to slavery the
longest. It's a really dark reality. And they
rejected Lincoln twice. Right. They favored Stephen
Douglas in 1860 and then George B. McClellan
in 1864. McClellan even became their governor.
Yeah. Well, it ties directly back to that massive
industrial boom we just talked about. Because
of the money. Exactly. New Jersey's manufacturing
economy was deeply, deeply reliant on southern
markets. They were selling shoes, carriages,
clothing to the plantation economy. So they were
caught in this. Between their moral Quaker foundations
and brutal capitalist reality, they passed a
gradual Abolition Act in 1804. But it was so
gradual that at the end of the Civil War, there
were still about a dozen African Americans held
as apprentice freedmen. Right. There were major
stops on the Underground Railroad and places
like Paterson grew incredibly rich making union
ammo. But the politics remained tied to corporate
wealth. And that corporate wealth obsession just
explodes in the 20th century. New Jersey becomes
the mother of trusts. Oh, absolutely. They allowed
massive monopolies like Standard Oil to just
thrive. Basically acting like a modern offshore
tax haven. until Woodrow Wilson gets elected
governor in 1910. Right. The party bosses thought
this quiet Princeton professor would be easy
to control. And he completely turns on them,
sheds the academic vibe, passes the Seven Sisters
antitrust laws, and undercuts the whole machine.
Which propels him to the presidency. But the
state itself during this time in 1920s and 30s
is just... It's pure chaos, like a wild movie
script. First, you have the 1916 Jersey Shore
shark attacks. Right in the middle of a polio
outbreak and a heat wave. Four people dead, national
panic. Then the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the
literal trial of the century. And the Hindenburg
explosion in 1937 at Lakehurst. 36 people dead
in 34 seconds. Captured on film. And then the
very next year, 1938, Orson Welles does the War
of the Worlds radio broadcast. claiming Martians
are landing in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. And
people believed it because they were already
on edge from the Hindenburg. Well, if we connect
this to the bigger picture, New Jersey is so
geographically central, it basically acts as
a microcosm for global anxieties. Like a lightning
rod. Exactly. Sitting in the shadow of New York
and Philly's media markets, whenever the world
shifts, the shockwaves hit New Jersey directly.
Which we see in World War Two. They handle nine
percent of all allied defense contracts. Right.
Places like Camp Kilmer. But again, you have
those moral contradictions. Yeah. The sources
mentioned they use Japanese -American internment
labor at Seabrook Farms to keep up agricultural
production. While simultaneously building Cold
War Nike anti -aircraft missile batteries to
defend against Soviet bombers. And then the pressure
cooker really explodes in the 1960s with the
race riots. Yeah. Deindustrialization was wiping
out jobs in the cities. Driven by urban decay,
biased policing, and just decades of racial tension.
You had riots in Jersey City, Patterson, Elizabeth.
Culminating in the deadly 1967 Newark riots,
it was catastrophic. 24 people died. and it triggered
this massive wave of suburban flight. White flight
out of the cities, stripping them of their tax
base. It's incredibly heavy. So to summarize
all this for you listening, we've watched New
Jersey transform from this contested Lenape land
to the bloody crossroads of the revolution. Through
a massive industrial powerhouse. Right, and ultimately
it acts as this mirror for America's greatest
triumphs and its deepest struggles. It really
does. And to leave you with one final thread
to pull on, think back to that time temporary
1776 Constitution we talked about in Section
2. One that let women and non -whites vote. Right.
What if New Jersey hadn't revoked those rights
in 1807? Oh, wow. If the crossroads of the revolution
had allowed that radical inclusive experiment
to just become permanent, how might the entire
trajectory of American democracy and civil rights
have changed? That is a fascinating question
to end on. It really makes you look at the state
in a totally different light.