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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey guys, the show is currently on break

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Speaker 1: until the new year, but we've got plenty of classic

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Speaker 1: episodes to tide you over. Enjoy this trip through the

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Speaker 1: show's own history, and I'll see you back here on

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Speaker 1: January second with a batch of brand new episodes. See

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Speaker 1: you then. Welcome to This Day in History Class from

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk of

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show where

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Speaker 1: we explore the past one day at a time with

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Speaker 1: a quick look at what happened today in history. Hi there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Christopher haciotas your temporary hosts,

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Speaker 1: sitting in for Tracy V. Wilson. Will be back in

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Speaker 1: four days. But today It's December thirteenth, and Ibn Batuta

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Speaker 1: completed the account of his world travels on this day

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Speaker 1: in thirteen. The man born Abu Abdullah Mohammed ibn Batuta

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Speaker 1: became one of the most accomplished travelers of history. He

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Speaker 1: was born in Tangier on February four now Tangiers in

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Speaker 1: what's to day known as Morocco, but the city's history

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Speaker 1: may go back as far as the Phoenicians. In the

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Speaker 1: tenth century b c e. When Ibin Buttuta was born,

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Speaker 1: Morocco was ruled by the Marinids, one of several Berber

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Speaker 1: dynasties from medieval times. Buttuta left Tangier when he was

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Speaker 1: twenty years old, setting out on the Haj to Mecca.

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Speaker 1: He wrote, I left Tangier's, my birthplace, on Thursday, the

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Speaker 1: second of Rajab seven twenty five, that's seven twenty five

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Speaker 1: in the Hider Islamic calendar, with the intention of going

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Speaker 1: on pilgrimage to Mecca. I set out alone, having neither

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Speaker 1: fellow traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor

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Speaker 1: caravan whose part I might join, but swayed by an

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Speaker 1: overmastering impulse within me, and a desire long cherished in

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Speaker 1: my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced

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Speaker 1: my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male,

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Speaker 1: and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests. My

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Speaker 1: parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed

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Speaker 1: sorely upon me to part from them, and both they

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Speaker 1: and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. I

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Speaker 1: was then only twenty iban Batuta traveled east from the

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Speaker 1: Maghreb along the southern Mediterranean coast through Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli,

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Speaker 1: and Alexandria. Sometimes he joined caravans for safety numbers. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: he met people along the way. He married a woman

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Speaker 1: in Spacks, for instance, in what is now Tunisia. He

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Speaker 1: spent Ramadan in Damascus, then went on to Medina and

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Speaker 1: finally completed his Hajj in Mecca. But after performing his pilgrimage,

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Speaker 1: he just decided to keep traveling. He could have returned home,

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Speaker 1: but instead headed to what's now Iraq, Iran, Somalia, the

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Speaker 1: eastern coast of Africa, Anatolia, Crimea, India, Pakistan, Indonesia. He did,

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Speaker 1: over his lifetime return to Mecca for several Hajj pilgrimages,

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Speaker 1: but on this travels he met with many rulers, emperors,

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Speaker 1: sheikhs and viziers. He served for a while as a

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Speaker 1: local judge in the islands known as the Maldives, which

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Speaker 1: had then recently converted to Islam. While there he married

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Speaker 1: into the royal family. In fact, iban Ututa had a

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Speaker 1: number of marriages over the years and in multiple countries.

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Speaker 1: He made his way to China under Mongol rule. While there,

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Speaker 1: he saw paper money and was very, very impressed. Now,

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Speaker 1: by the time Batuta wrapped up his life of travel,

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Speaker 1: he'd have visited forty four different countries if you're judging

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Speaker 1: by today's boundaries. He hit up Central Asia and South Asia, China,

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Speaker 1: and parts of Southern Africa and Eastern Europe. He covered

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Speaker 1: the majority of the Islamic world, also known as Dara Islam.

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Speaker 1: Bin Batuta traveled seventy five thousand miles or a hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty one thousand kilometers. He spent twenty nine years traveling.

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Speaker 1: He was a geographer, a botanist, a legal scholar, a

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Speaker 1: kadi or judge, and he finally did make his way

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Speaker 1: back to Tangier in thirteen forty nine. Both of his

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Speaker 1: parents had passed away by then, and upon learning that news,

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Speaker 1: Batuta set out to explore the Sahara. He went to

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Speaker 1: Ulata and Timbuctoo in the Mali Empire, and finally returned

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Speaker 1: to Morocco in thirteen fifty four. Now, throughout his travels

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Speaker 1: he didn't ba diary, he didn't keep a journal, and

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Speaker 1: it was only in thirteen fifty four that he dictated

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Speaker 1: his travels to a man named ibn Jus. There were

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Speaker 1: no sources that ibn Jus cited, and some passages that

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Speaker 1: he wrote were the same as other sources. There were

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Speaker 1: some conflicting information, and again all of this travel was

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Speaker 1: remembered by Ibn Batuta. But it was eventually published as

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Speaker 1: Tufa Alan Zar figarab Alam Sara jaib alas Far, or

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Speaker 1: a Gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities

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Speaker 1: and the marvels of traveling. Now that title can be

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Speaker 1: a bit much, but but to this travelog is generally

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Speaker 1: just referred to as the rich La or the Journey.

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Speaker 1: It was published in thirteen fifty five. After that the

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Speaker 1: details of Batuta's life become a little less certain. He

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Speaker 1: was appointed a judge in Morocco and eventually died in

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Speaker 1: either thirteen sixty eight or thirteen sixty nine. Now, Batuta

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Speaker 1: was little known outside the Islamic world until the eighteenth century,

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Speaker 1: when his works began to be translated. He's often been

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Speaker 1: compared to other world travelers like Mark Apollo, for instance.

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Speaker 1: For more about Ibn Batuta, give a listen to the

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Speaker 1: August second, two thousand seventeen episode of Stuffy missed in

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Speaker 1: History class. It's called Ibn Batuta, The Traveler of Islam.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Casey Pegrum and Chandler Mays for their audio

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Speaker 1: work on this show. You can subscribe to This Day

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Speaker 1: in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: or wherever else you like to find your podcasts. Please

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Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for the anniversary of an ambitious expedition

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Speaker 1: finally reaching its goal. Hello. Hello again, I'm Eves and

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Speaker 1: you're listening to This Day in History Class, where we

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Speaker 1: examine the past from the present. The day was December

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Speaker 1: nineteen o three. Ella Josephine Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia.

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Speaker 1: Baker is known for her organizing work in the fight

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Speaker 1: for black civil rights and human rights. Baker grew up

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Speaker 1: in Littleton, a small rural town in North Carolina. She

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Speaker 1: was the second of three children born to Blake Baker,

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Speaker 1: a ferry boat waiter, and Georgiana Baker, a teacher. Her

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Speaker 1: family and upbringing instilled in her a sense of communal responsibility,

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Speaker 1: historical awareness, pride, and rebellion. There were no secondary schools

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Speaker 1: in Littleton, so her parents sent her to Raleigh to

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Speaker 1: attend Shaw Boarding School. After high school. She enrolled at

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Speaker 1: Shaw University in Raleigh, where she majored in sociology. During

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Speaker 1: her time at Shaw, she already had social justice inclinations,

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Speaker 1: speaking up against restrictive school rules. She graduated from Shaw

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Speaker 1: University as valedictorian of her class and moved to New

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Speaker 1: York City. There she got jobs as a server and

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Speaker 1: factory worker, and her social and political consciousness grew as

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Speaker 1: she witnessed poverty and suffering in Harlem and the effects

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Speaker 1: of the Great Depression descended on the city. She worked

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Speaker 1: as a correspondent for black newspapers, and she helped found

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Speaker 1: the Young Negros Cooperative League, which helped people gain economic

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Speaker 1: power by buying collectively. She became the organization's first national

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Speaker 1: director in nineteen thirty one. Throughout the nineteen thirties, she

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Speaker 1: was involved with many of their organizations, like the Workers

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Speaker 1: Education Project, part of the Works Progress Administration, which hired

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Speaker 1: her to teach consumer and labor education. She was also

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Speaker 1: involved with the Women's Day Workers in Industrial League, the

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Speaker 1: Harlem Housewives Cooperative, and the Harlem Young Women's Christian Association,

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Speaker 1: and she wrote about economic oppression. In ninety five, she

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Speaker 1: and Marville Cook co authored and expose on the exploitation

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Speaker 1: of black domestic workers. By the early nineteen forties, Baker

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Speaker 1: had become an assistant Field secretary and later national Field

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Speaker 1: Secretary for the National Associateation for the Advancement of Colored People,

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Speaker 1: or in Double A CP. She traveled around the South

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Speaker 1: US organizing in Double A CP branches and starting membership drives.

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Speaker 1: Though she worked with the in Double A CP for

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Speaker 1: a while, she resigned from her post as director of

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Speaker 1: Branches in nineteen forty six. She was disillusioned with the

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Speaker 1: organization because it was so bureaucratic and because it relied

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Speaker 1: so heavily on legal approaches to fight discrimination. Baker supported

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Speaker 1: more control from the branches rather than the existing top

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Speaker 1: down approach. Around this time, she married Thomas Roberts and

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Speaker 1: took on the responsibility of raising her niece, Jacqueline, but

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Speaker 1: she's still associated with the Double A CP as president

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Speaker 1: of the New York branch and was an advisor to

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Speaker 1: the organization's youth council. When activists in the South were

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Speaker 1: preparing for the Montgomery bus boycott, Baker, along with a.

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Speaker 1: Philip Brandolph Bayard Rustin, and Stanley Levison, found it a

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Speaker 1: group called in Friendship. In Friendships, supported desegregation in the

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Speaker 1: South and provided financial assistance to the boycotts. In the

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Speaker 1: wake of the successful boycott's, civil rights leaders formed the

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Speaker 1: Southern Christian Leadership Conference or s c l C. Baker

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Speaker 1: emerged as a leader who's organizing was integral to its projects,

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Speaker 1: and she became a director in the s c l C.

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Speaker 1: Though she coordinated the organization's voter rights campaign and ran

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Speaker 1: the office, she rejected its hierarchical, charismatic leadership centered around Dr.

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Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. In favor of group center to leadership. Also,

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Speaker 1: women in the organization were often relegated to administrative roles.

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Speaker 1: Baker resigned from the s c l C in nineteen sixty.

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Speaker 1: She turned her attention to the sit ins students were

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Speaker 1: initiating in the South, and she helped organize the Student

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Speaker 1: Non Violent Coordinating Committee or SNAKE, which led more sit ins,

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Speaker 1: voter registration drives, and other civil rights initiatives. Baker helped

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Speaker 1: organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a grassroots political organization

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Speaker 1: that challenged the all white Mississippi Democratic Party, and she

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Speaker 1: joined the Southern Conference Educational Fund, an interracial organization that

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Speaker 1: advocated for white support of racial justice. Throughout the rest

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Speaker 1: of her life, she remained committed to championing civil and

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Speaker 1: human rights, working with groups like the Puerto Rican Solidarity

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Speaker 1: Committee and the African National Congress. Baker died in New

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Speaker 1: York on her eighty third birthday. I'm each Jeff Cote

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you're hungry for more history,

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Speaker 1: you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: t D I h C Podcast, and you can email

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Speaker 1: us at This Day at I heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for going on this trip through history with us.

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Speaker 1: We'll see you again tomorrow with another episode. Hello, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that

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Speaker 1: proves there's more than one way to make history. I'm

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Speaker 1: Gabe Lousier and in this episode, we're remembering the day

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Speaker 1: when one of the best trained commanders of the American

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Speaker 1: Revolution was taken prisoner while still in his pajamas. The

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Speaker 1: day was December seventeen, seventy six. Continental Army General Charles

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Speaker 1: Lee surrendered to British forces after being caught off guard

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Speaker 1: at a tavern in basking Ridge, New Jersey. Lee had

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Speaker 1: stayed at Widow White's tavern the previous night, But historians

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Speaker 1: still aren't sure why. The several thousand American soldiers under

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Speaker 1: his command were encamped north in a town now known

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Speaker 1: as Bernardsville, but Lee, their commanding officer, had chosen to

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Speaker 1: spend the night three miles away inside a cozy tavern.

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Speaker 1: Some people think he just wanted to get away from

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Speaker 1: his troops and get a good night's sleep. Others have

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Speaker 1: suggested that Lee had gone to see the house of

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Speaker 1: an acquaintance because he wanted to copy the design for

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Speaker 1: his own house in Virginia, and when it got late,

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Speaker 1: he just stayed the night at the nearest tavern. However,

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Speaker 1: the prevailing theory is that Lee ditched his army in

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Speaker 1: search of, let's say, female companionship. No matter which explanation

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Speaker 1: you go with, Charles Lee doesn't come off as a

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Speaker 1: responsible or reliable commander, which was a shame because, as

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Speaker 1: George Washington noted, Lee was also quote the first officer

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Speaker 1: in military knowledge and experience in the whole army. Lee,

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Speaker 1: who was second in command under Washington, had attended military

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Speaker 1: school in England as a child. When he graduated, he

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Speaker 1: took a commission in the British Army and traveled to

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Speaker 1: North America to fight in the Seven Years War. During

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Speaker 1: that time, Lee married a Mohawk woman and was given

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Speaker 1: the name Boiling Water in recognition of his short temper.

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Speaker 1: Lee settled in the American colonies in seventeen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: and when the Revolutionary War began, he volunteered his service

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Speaker 1: in the Continental Army. His resume made him a strong

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Speaker 1: candidate for commander in Chief, but he was ultimately passed over,

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Speaker 1: with the job going to George Washington instead. Lee was

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Speaker 1: insulted and carried a grudge from the then on That

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Speaker 1: brings us to December seventeen seventy six, and especially dark

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Speaker 1: time for the Continental Army. Its forts along the Hudson

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Speaker 1: River had fallen to the British a few weeks earlier.

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Speaker 1: This force the Continental Army to retreat from New York

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Speaker 1: in two directions. General George Washington took three thousand soldiers

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Speaker 1: west across the northern part of New Jersey, hoping to

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Speaker 1: cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, General Charles Lee

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Speaker 1: took his wing of the army to White Plains just

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Speaker 1: above New York City. His mission was to hold off

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Speaker 1: the advance of the British Army in the event they

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Speaker 1: tried to head north. By early December, Washington and the

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Speaker 1: main body of the U. S. Army had reached the

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. The British Army, under

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Speaker 1: the command of Sir William Howe, had chosen to follow

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Speaker 1: Washington and was currently making its way across New Jersey

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Speaker 1: to intercept him. Washington was determined to make a final stand,

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Speaker 1: knowing that if they couldn't hold the line, the American

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Speaker 1: Revolution would be snuffed out before the end of the year.

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Speaker 1: Washington wrote numerous letters to Lee urging him to bring

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Speaker 1: his troops from New York and join the rest of

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Speaker 1: the army on the Delaware River. However, Lee was still

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Speaker 1: angry over having to serve under someone with less experience.

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Speaker 1: He dodged Washington's requests with a string of excuses. The

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Speaker 1: delay prompted the following response from Washington, quote, I have

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Speaker 1: so frequently mentioned our situation and the necessity of your aid,

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Speaker 1: that it is painful to me to add a word

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Speaker 1: upon the subject. Let me once more request and entreat

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Speaker 1: you to march immediately. Finally, on December tenth, Lee got moving,

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Speaker 1: though he pledged to stop short of crossing the Delaware.

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Speaker 1: He commanded his troops to march to Morristown, New Jersey,

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Speaker 1: and two days later they pushed southwest to present day Bernardsville.

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Speaker 1: That evening on December twelfth, General Lee decided to find

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Speaker 1: accommodations more suited to a man of his station. He

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Speaker 1: rode three miles to Basking Ridge and rented a room

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Speaker 1: at a two story tavern nicknamed Widow Whites. Lee was

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Speaker 1: accompanied by just over a dozen troops while the rest

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Speaker 1: remained back at camp. They spent a lovely evening there

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Speaker 1: in the company of strangers, but the next morning it

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Speaker 1: turned out to be a far less pleasant experience. A

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Speaker 1: group of British dragoons or soldiers on horseback had learned

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Speaker 1: of Lee's location from local residents who remained loyal to

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Speaker 1: the British Crown. The dragoons were commanded by twenty two

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Speaker 1: year old officer Banister Tarleton. By ten am, he and

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Speaker 1: his men had re the woods surrounding the tavern and

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Speaker 1: were preparing to make their attack. Meanwhile, Lee was still inside,

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Speaker 1: unaware of the danger he was in. His army had

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Speaker 1: already started marching out of Bernardsville, but Lee chose to

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Speaker 1: hang back so he could finish his breakfast and dictate

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Speaker 1: a derogatory letter about George Washington to fellow General Horatio Gates.

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Speaker 1: He was in the midst of these pressing matters when

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Speaker 1: Tarleton and his dragoons stormed out of the woods and

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Speaker 1: took Lee's guards by surprise. They fired through every door

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Speaker 1: and window in the tavern for several minutes. Then Tarleton

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Speaker 1: delivered an ultimatum to whoever was left standing. He said

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Speaker 1: that if General Lee did not surrender in five minutes,

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Speaker 1: he would set fire to the house and kill everyone inside.

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Speaker 1: Lee watched the scene unfold from his upstairs window, and

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Speaker 1: within a few minutes he surrendered. A few of the

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Speaker 1: General's aids managed to escape, but Lee was taken prisoner

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Speaker 1: and eventually jailed in New York City. An American officer

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Speaker 1: named James Wilkinson described the embarrassing scene, writing quote, A

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Speaker 1: general shout ensued, the trumpets sounded the assembly, and the

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Speaker 1: unfortunate Lee, mounted on my horse, which stood ready at

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Speaker 1: the door, was hurried off in triumph, bareheaded in his

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Speaker 1: slippers and blanket coat, his collar open and his shirt

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Speaker 1: very much soiled from several days use. The bright side

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Speaker 1: of Lee's capture was that it silenced George Washington's most

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Speaker 1: vocal critic. With Lee out of the picture, Washington was

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Speaker 1: able to win support for his proposed sneak attack, and

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Speaker 1: with the combined might of Lee's soldiers, he managed to

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Speaker 1: pull it off. Twelve days after Lee was taken prisoner,

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Speaker 1: Washington and his army made their history Christmas crossing of

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Speaker 1: the Delaware River. Over the next ten days, they won

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Speaker 1: a series of crucial battles that ultimately turned the tide

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Speaker 1: of the Revolutionary War, which leads you to wonder how

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Speaker 1: the world might be different if Charles Lee hadn't lied

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Speaker 1: down on the job and gotten himself captured. As for

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Speaker 1: what actually happened, Lee spent the next sixteen months in

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Speaker 1: British custody. He made sure his stay wasn't too uncomfortable, though,

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Speaker 1: by turning Trader and advising William how On the best

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Speaker 1: strategy for invading Philadelphia. His treason wasn't discovered until eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifty seven, nearly eighty years after his death, because no

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Speaker 1: one knew what he had done at the time. Lee

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Speaker 1: was eventually reclaimed by the Continental Army as part of

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Speaker 1: a prisoner swap. In May of seventeen seventy eight, he

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Speaker 1: briefly returned to his post, but was court martialed for cowardice.

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Speaker 1: By July, he wrote to Congress to try and get

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Speaker 1: the court martial overturned, but his letter was so poorly

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Speaker 1: received that he was officially dismissed from the army instead.

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Speaker 1: By that point, Lee had contracted a chronic cough along

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Speaker 1: with other symptoms indicative of tuberculosis. His health continued to decline,

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Speaker 1: and on October second two, he was stricken with fever

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Speaker 1: and died alone in a tavern at the age of fifty.

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Speaker 1: In his will, Lee requested that he not be buried

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Speaker 1: in a churchyard or within a mile of any religious

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Speaker 1: meeting house, as he explained, quote, since I have resided

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Speaker 1: in this country, I have kept so much bad company

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Speaker 1: when living that I do not choose to continue it

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Speaker 1: when dead. In the end, Lee's wishes were ignored, and

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Speaker 1: he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Christ

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Speaker 1: Church Cemetery in Philadelphia. He was disgraced and virtually friendless

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Speaker 1: by the time of his death, but George Washington still

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Speaker 1: came to his funeral. It's unclear whether that gesture would

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Speaker 1: have pleased Lee or enraged him, but I imagine Washington

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Speaker 1: would have done it either way. I'm Gabe Louisier and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you have a moment and

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Speaker 1: you're so inclined, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at t I HC show. You can also send

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions to This Day at I heart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another Day in History class. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from my radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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