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Speaker 1: The similarities and differences between humans and other animals have

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Speaker 1: long been a source of philosophical conundrum, since the time

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Speaker 1: of the Abrahamic religions, when the God of the Book

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Speaker 1: of Genesis told Adam he would have dominion over all

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Speaker 1: the animals in his kingdom. Many assume unquestionably that humans

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Speaker 1: are superior to other species, as if by somehow, having

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Speaker 1: a broader awareness of our earthly surroundings, we have permission

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Speaker 1: to take charge of all living things, that they, in

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Speaker 1: some ways, are here simply for our sustenance and gratification.

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Speaker 1: Some point to certain characteristics as a way of differentiating ourselves,

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Speaker 1: the supposedly uniquely human imperative towards art, the facility to

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Speaker 1: communicate in languages which have grammatical rules far more complex

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Speaker 1: than other animals. That we walk upright on two feet,

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Speaker 1: rendering us mobile in a way that few other animals

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Speaker 1: can mimic, freeing our hands for using tools, and allowing

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Speaker 1: us to better conserve our energy. And yet with Charles

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Speaker 1: Darwin's explosive theory of evolution outlined in the Origin of

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Speaker 1: the Species, since eighteen fifty nine, many began to question

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Speaker 1: the received wisdom that we are masters of our space.

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Speaker 1: One thing human beings continue to share with other animals

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Speaker 1: is a sense of territorialism. We see it on programs

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Speaker 1: narrated by the likes of David Attenborough about the natural world,

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Speaker 1: in the predominantly male species of lions or stags fighting

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Speaker 1: with one another to be crowned alpha of the herd.

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Speaker 1: In astonishing observations made by scientists in Thai National Park

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Speaker 1: in southwestern Cote Duvoir, for example, chimpanzees are recorded utilizing

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Speaker 1: distinctly human like warfare tactics, such as the use of

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Speaker 1: hillside terrain for reconnaissance and weapons. It can be amusing, therefore,

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Speaker 1: or disturbing to see these similarities reframed by certain human

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Speaker 1: beings as high minded or politically expedient predestined, even when

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Speaker 1: territorialism is used to whip up anger in instances of

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Speaker 1: political rhetoric, or when invasion narratives are used to justify

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Speaker 1: acts of violence in the name of protecting a state

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Speaker 1: or territory. It is perhaps for this reason that invasion

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Speaker 1: narratives have long been used as a staple of the

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Speaker 1: science fiction and horror genres, in particular, since they play

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Speaker 1: into humanities more animalistic tendencies when it comes to territorialism.

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Speaker 1: When we recognize our true animal nature, we see our

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Speaker 1: inclination for territorialism for what it is, which is to say,

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Speaker 1: an entirely natural impulse, instinctively driven by fear and the

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Speaker 1: will to survive perceived threats to the family, threat to

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Speaker 1: the colony, threat to food supplies, harvests, the prevailing political order,

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Speaker 1: or even as in H. G. Wells is classic, the

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Speaker 1: war of the world's threat to the species itself will

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Speaker 1: engender a shift toward territorialism, whereby just where we might

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Speaker 1: need them most, our base animal tendency will override the

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Speaker 1: one thing we might actually justifiably hold as something unique

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Speaker 1: to human beings, our ability to think rationally and abstractly

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Speaker 1: beyond our primal impulses. Historically, one of the most striking

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Speaker 1: examples of humanity's capacity for territorialism came in the form

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Speaker 1: of the series of witch panics which swept across England, Scotland,

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Speaker 1: Europe and other parts of the so called New World

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Speaker 1: during the late seventeenth century. It is testament to the

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Speaker 1: political turbulence of the time that figures such as self

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Speaker 1: appointed which Finder General Matthew Hopkins, as discussed in Season two,

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Speaker 1: Episode two's Time Out of Joint, were able to ascend

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Speaker 1: to positions of relative power in England or because of

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Speaker 1: a perceived threat to the status quo. And yet, despite

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Speaker 1: sharing some of the same fear led impulses as invasion narratives,

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Speaker 1: stories about witches and demons also offer something quite unique,

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Speaker 1: not just because of what they say about historical attitude

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Speaker 1: toward women and minorities as examples of individuals considered by

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Speaker 1: those in power to be different and unknown and therefore

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Speaker 1: fair game to be scapegoated, but because the supposed invasion

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Speaker 1: meant to be taking place is almost always embedded within

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Speaker 1: a community. Territorialism leads naturally to paranoia and is a

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Speaker 1: zero sum game. In order to justify the fear being

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Speaker 1: whipped up, an antagonist must be identified, and so when

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Speaker 1: all external threats have finally been exhausted, there is nowhere

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Speaker 1: left to turn except toward members of your own community.

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Speaker 1: It is no accident, for example, that Arthur Miller's most

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Speaker 1: famous play, The Crucible, ostensibly set during the Salem witch Trials,

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Speaker 1: was written and performed in the aftermath of the mid

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Speaker 1: twentieth century Red scare in the United Slce States. Miller

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Speaker 1: was explicit in drawing the connections, which he saw as

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Speaker 1: an indictment of Cold War hysteria as much as it

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Speaker 1: was a fable about the foundation of violence on which

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Speaker 1: his country was built. The story of the Gloucester invasions

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Speaker 1: during the summer of sixteen ninety two is perhaps the

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Speaker 1: most interesting example of North American witch hysteria, precisely because

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Speaker 1: it seems to explicitly marry together the most terrifying elements

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Speaker 1: from within the invasion narrative that the newly settled New

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Speaker 1: England outpost of Massachusetts viewed itself at war with enemies

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Speaker 1: both within and without, and as we shall see, people

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Speaker 1: were often at a loss to distinguish between them. You're

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Speaker 1: listening to unexplained and I'm Richard mc lean smith in Massachusetts, America,

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Speaker 1: July sixteen ninety two. Strange things are afoot in Salem Village.

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Speaker 1: Eleven women and one man a languishing in jail as

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Speaker 1: they await trial, accused of perpetrating witchcraft. One Bridget Bishop

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Speaker 1: had already been executed twenty miles away to the north,

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Speaker 1: in the small village of Capean. An unseasonable warmth seemed

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Speaker 1: to tighten its grip around the usually mild seaside location.

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Speaker 1: During this time of year, crops were being cultivated for harvest,

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Speaker 1: and twenty five year old renowned local family man and

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Speaker 1: smaller stateholder, Ebenezer Babson felt positive that the weather signaled

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Speaker 1: good things for his maize god fearing above all things. However,

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Speaker 1: Ebenezer knew only too well that the weather was prone

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Speaker 1: to change, and so he concentrated his energies on making

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Speaker 1: sure there was an ample store of food for what

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Speaker 1: would surely be another blistering winter. But the work was

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Speaker 1: proving a little harder than usual because that July, Ebenezer

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Speaker 1: and his family, including his widowed mother Eleanor, had not

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Speaker 1: been sleeping well. It started with the children crying out

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Speaker 1: in terror. One night. Babson ran to their bedroom to

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Speaker 1: find them shaking with fear in their beds, claiming they

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Speaker 1: could hear noises in the cottage. They said it was

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Speaker 1: almost as if a person or persons was walking freely

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Speaker 1: around the humble property, laughing and making merry, and even

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Speaker 1: rifling through the kitchen cupboards. Hearing though he was, Ebenezer

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Speaker 1: also possessed a fiercely practical streak. He reasoned that the

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Speaker 1: disturbances were likely something to do with the local wildlife,

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Speaker 1: or more possibly a figment of his children's imagination. He

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Speaker 1: told them to try and ignore it and get back

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Speaker 1: to sleep before returning himself to bed. But the strange

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Speaker 1: disturbances continued. Over the next few nights. The children continued

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Speaker 1: to claim that something was in the house with them

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Speaker 1: moving around at night. Finding no outward reason why his

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Speaker 1: children would lie to him. While out in the field,

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Speaker 1: one day, Ebeneza privately began to wander if his house

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Speaker 1: was being stalked by Native American hunting parties. He'd heard

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Speaker 1: of such things taking place down in Maryland and thought

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Speaker 1: that if it were happening to them, as the man

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Speaker 1: of the house, it was his job to defend it,

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Speaker 1: this being a time before law enforcement or even the

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Speaker 1: comfort of neighbors who lived anywhere nearby. For now, though,

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Speaker 1: he tried to put the thought out of his mind,

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Speaker 1: there was work to be done while the weather was

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Speaker 1: still good. When the sun went down, he finished up

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Speaker 1: for the day and made his way back to the cottage.

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Speaker 1: All things considered, it had been a solid day's work,

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Speaker 1: and he allowed himself a smile at the thought of

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Speaker 1: another job well done. By the time Ebenezer returned home,

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Speaker 1: it was pitch black as he approached the cottage. Candlelight

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Speaker 1: flickered from inside the windows. As he drew nearer. For

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Speaker 1: a moment, he fancied that he could see silhouettes moving

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Speaker 1: across them on the outside of the house. That strange,

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Speaker 1: The children must surely be in bed by now. As

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Speaker 1: he got closer, he made out the shape of two men,

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Speaker 1: both of whom seemed to have just stepped down from

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Speaker 1: the wooden porch. Who goes there? He called out, which

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Speaker 1: seemed to startle them when he trekked further down the path.

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Speaker 1: They seemed then to immediately bolt into one of the

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Speaker 1: nearby cornfields. Ebenezer ran into the house, demanding to know

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Speaker 1: from his wife who had been calling at such an hour.

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Speaker 1: With a look of confusion, she assured him that no

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Speaker 1: one had been calling, and neither had she heard anyone outside.

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Speaker 1: With this, Ebenezer became even more concerned and returned instantly

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Speaker 1: to the private fear he'd been harboring all day that

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Speaker 1: his house was now the target of a Native American

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Speaker 1: hunting party. With no explanation to his wife about what

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Speaker 1: had been troubling him. Ebenezer seized his long armed flint

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Speaker 1: lock from above the fireplace and tore off in search

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Speaker 1: of the elusive intruders. Ebenezer headed straight into the corn fields.

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Speaker 1: He knew them like the back of his own hand,

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Speaker 1: even in the dark, without a lantern to guide the way.

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Speaker 1: Every clod of dirt beneath his boots, every root and twig,

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Speaker 1: felt familiar to him. In this way, he was able

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Speaker 1: to track the men through the corn and emerged on

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Speaker 1: the other side at a nearby swamp. When he got there,

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Speaker 1: he saw the men start up from behind a log

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Speaker 1: and run into the marsh, seemingly disappearing with no indication

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Speaker 1: of their whereabouts. The last thing he thought he overheard

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Speaker 1: one of them say, was the man of the house

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Speaker 1: is now come, else we might have taken the house.

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Speaker 1: Back at the cottage, the whole family was awake and

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Speaker 1: every one on high alert. Upon his return, Ebenezer seemed

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Speaker 1: convinced that the mysterious men had been planning a siege.

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Speaker 1: He hustled his children on to the back of a

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Speaker 1: wagon while he hitched up his horses and sat up

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Speaker 1: front with his wife and mother. His plan was to

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Speaker 1: make haste to the nearest garrison, located about two miles away.

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Speaker 1: The rough hewn timber garrison, surrounded by a large wooden palisade,

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Speaker 1: was located high on the rocks of Cape Ann, overlooking

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Speaker 1: the sea. The heavy sound of waves crashing onto the

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Speaker 1: rocks could be heard in the distance. As Ebenezer and

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Speaker 1: his family approached the garrison gate in sight, a number

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Speaker 1: of men were stationed tasked with protecting the local area.

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Speaker 1: Seeing the looks of concern on the family's faces, the

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Speaker 1: garrison occupants quickly ushered them into the building. With the

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Speaker 1: Babsons safely inside, Ebenezer hurriedly told the others present about

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Speaker 1: his family's predicament. He wondered if anyone else had experienced

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Speaker 1: anything similar, but it was the first that anyone had

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Speaker 1: heard of it. But no sooner had he started his account,

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Speaker 1: he once again heard what he took to be the

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Speaker 1: sound of heavy footfall, but this time it was as

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Speaker 1: if a whole group of men were surrounding the building.

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Speaker 1: What was that, one of the children cried out with alarm.

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Speaker 1: Than others claimed to hear it too. The horses outside

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Speaker 1: began to winny. Ebeneze's youngest daughter. Ghased in horror, Eberneza

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Speaker 1: fetched his gun and ran out into the night. Under

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Speaker 1: the faint, bony sliver of a crescent moon above. He

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Speaker 1: caught sight of what appeared to be two men running

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Speaker 1: fast and away from the building, but he was too

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Speaker 1: exhausted to follow. The family chose to lie low at

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Speaker 1: the garrison the following day until they were sure it

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Speaker 1: was safe to return home. But when nightfall came, Eberoneza,

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Speaker 1: for the third time in its many days, was keeping

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Speaker 1: watch outside when once again he believed he caught sight

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Speaker 1: of the same two men loitering about in the darkness,

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Speaker 1: but this time he managed to get a good look

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Speaker 1: at them. Stepping forward to confront them, he paused suddenly

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Speaker 1: when he saw that one seemed to be carrying a

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Speaker 1: bright silver gun, the kind favored by French Canadian trappers,

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Speaker 1: worn slung across their shoulder. They wore white breeches and waistcoats, too,

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Speaker 1: so it stood to reason he thought that they were

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Speaker 1: most likely frenchmen. He chanced another step forward, the men

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Speaker 1: suddenly advanced on him, forcing a terrified Ebenezer to turn

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Speaker 1: on his heels and sprint back to the garrison. Once

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Speaker 1: safely inside, he warned the others that they might be

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Speaker 1: under attack. All the while, the apparent noise of the

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Speaker 1: men moving around outside remained, but few wanted to go

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Speaker 1: and confront them. At this point, Ebenezer sought counsel from

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Speaker 1: another man, local farmer and family friend, John Brown, who

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Speaker 1: agreed to help him. The pair disappeared into the night

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Speaker 1: and reappeared breathless shortly after. The men claimed to have

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Speaker 1: successfully chased off the miscreants, but there weren't two of them, now,

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Speaker 1: claimed Brown, but three. On July fourteenth, Ebenezer, John Brown

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Speaker 1: and the other men of h who were stationed at

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Speaker 1: the garrison were drawn out once more by the sound

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Speaker 1: of people flitting about outside. They were stunned to find that,

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Speaker 1: according to them, the enemy group had now swelled in

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Speaker 1: number from two or three to around half a dozen,

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Speaker 1: all seemingly darting away from the garrison back to the

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Speaker 1: cover of night. Worried that they might be about to

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Speaker 1: be drawn into an ambush, the group held back, with

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Speaker 1: the exception of Ebenezer Babson. Unable to help himself, he

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Speaker 1: tore off after them once again, and in the process

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Speaker 1: misfired his rifle, which allowed them all a moment to

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Speaker 1: take cover. Ebenezer later stated that he was just closing

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Speaker 1: in on the mystery men's position when he called out

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Speaker 1: to his friends. Here they are, he said, at which

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Speaker 1: point he took aim toward three of the supposed Frenchman,

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Speaker 1: brought his rifle up to his shoulder and fired. Ebenezer

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Speaker 1: was stunned for a moment. The three men he'd fired

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Speaker 1: on appeared to fall to the ground in sequence, like

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Speaker 1: fauns during a hunt, he thought, But just at the

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Speaker 1: moment when he was about to call to his comrades

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Speaker 1: that he'd killed them, the men rose like revenance and

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Speaker 1: disappeared once more as quickly as they came. Just then,

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Speaker 1: a shot rocketed past Ebeneze's head, missing by a matter

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Speaker 1: of inches. It seemed to have come from a nearby

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Speaker 1: copse of trees, close to where the spectral Frenchman had disappeared.

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Speaker 1: Ebniza turned to see the bullet, still hot, wedged into

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Speaker 1: the bark of a tree bright behind him. Believing he

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Speaker 1: was still under threat, Ebenezer swiftly took refuge behind the tree.

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Speaker 1: John Brown and the others soon joined him, claiming later

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Speaker 1: that they managed to pin down one of the Frenchmen

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Speaker 1: who they'd succeeded in separating from his group. This time,

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Speaker 1: Brown took aim and shot the man at point blank range,

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Speaker 1: then watched him crumple to the ground with a sickening thump.

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Speaker 1: The men of Cape Ann cheered in triumph, but when

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Speaker 1: they turned back to the body, it appeared to have

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Speaker 1: completely vanished into thin air. Exhausted, the colonists made their

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Speaker 1: way back to the garrison with only their small lanterns

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Speaker 1: to light the way. The men soon became spooked by

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Speaker 1: what seemed to be voices whispering out to them in

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Speaker 1: an indistinguishable language from somewhere in the underbush, But whenever

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Speaker 1: the light was whipped round and the shadows pushed back,

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Speaker 1: they saw nothing. The next day, one of the garrison men,

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Speaker 1: Richard Dolliver, burst into the building with some alarming news.

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Speaker 1: He had just been on a scout in one of

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Speaker 1: the many orchards scattered around Cape Ann when he spotted

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Speaker 1: a party of what seemed to be a dozen of

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Speaker 1: the frenchmen camped out in its center. They were chanting

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Speaker 1: in a strange language, he said, and performing bizarre rituals

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Speaker 1: around a fire, invoking false gods. Just like Ebenezer and

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Speaker 1: the other colonists, Dolliver was too, a god fearing man

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Speaker 1: who felt the influence of the devil acute. As he

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Speaker 1: explained to the others, he believed the Frenchmen were gathering

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Speaker 1: supernatural powers from occult forces beyond his control. So he

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Speaker 1: took aim at the troop of dancing strangers, raised his

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Speaker 1: rifle to his shoulder, and fired at them, just as

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Speaker 1: Ebenezer and John Smith had done before, and just as

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Speaker 1: in previous attempts, the shots only sir to break up

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Speaker 1: the ritual and send the apparent Frenchman scattering into the trees.

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Speaker 1: It was Dolliver's unnerving story that prompted the garrison to

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Speaker 1: finally seek help from the outside world. On July eighteenth,

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Speaker 1: after ten days of skirmishes with the mystery assailants who

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Speaker 1: descended on Cape Anne, Eboneze at Babson sent an emissary

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Speaker 1: to the nearby town of Ipswich. His communication emphasized dire

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Speaker 1: warnings about the potential consequences of an invasion. In response,

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Speaker 1: senior local army official, Captain Appleton, dispatched sixty men from

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Speaker 1: his own garrison in the hope of quelling the threat.

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Speaker 1: From records, however, it seems as though Captain Appleton's troops

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Speaker 1: fared no better. No sooner had they arrived than they

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Speaker 1: quickly learned that the so called infernal visitants responded to

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Speaker 1: lead and gunpowder as children were to snowballs. For a fortnight.

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Speaker 1: As news arrived from Salem that five more supposed witches

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Speaker 1: had been hanged, the apparent invaders toyed with the deployment

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Speaker 1: from Ipswich. Their laughter and jeering seemed to echo from

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Speaker 1: every bush and every tree. They apparently threw stones, rotten

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Speaker 1: fruit and vegetables, and even excrement. They beat upon the

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Speaker 1: doors of the garrison building with sticks and fists, and

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00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:16,920
Speaker 1: it now seemed to Ebenezer, as it did to Captain Appleton,

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Speaker 1: that the invader's sole purpose was simply mischief, rather than

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Speaker 1: any design on domination. It's unclear as to how the

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00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:32,040
Speaker 1: series of incidents, which later became known as the Gloucester Invasion,

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Speaker 1: came to an end. Some have speculated that once Ebenezer Babson,

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Speaker 1: Captain Appleton, and the rest of the team at the

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00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: garrison came to the realization that they could not defeat

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Speaker 1: their enemy with mortal weapons, the so called Frenchmen disappeared,

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Speaker 1: having seemingly proven some as yet undisclosed point about their

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Speaker 1: infernal power. Others, such as colonists and letter writer Thomas

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Speaker 1: Franklin Waters, seemed to suggest that the band of Mystery

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00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:09,159
Speaker 1: Invaders were connected to Satanic practices, and that their mission

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00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:14,399
Speaker 1: was simply to break the strong Puritanical Christian faith that

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Speaker 1: defined Gloucester County at that time. He wrote an account

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Speaker 1: of the event shortly after, in the midst of witchcraft accusations.

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Speaker 1: In sixteen ninety two, he wrote a new and unique

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Speaker 1: outburst of Satanic rage revealed itself. Gloucester was invaded by

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Speaker 1: a spectral company of Indians and French, coming out at

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00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 1: the swamps or cornfields, sometimes singly again in a group,

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00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 1: they approached the garrison. Usually the guns of the soldiers misfired,

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Speaker 1: but when the guns were discharged, the bullets had no effect.

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Speaker 1: Their speech was in an unknown tongue. They carried guns,

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Speaker 1: and real bullets shot from them would dug out of

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00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:02,479
Speaker 1: the trees. They suffered night and day for about a

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00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: fortnight altogether. In sixteen ninety three, Reverend John Emerson of

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Speaker 1: Gloucester County wrote to his close friend Cotton Mather, an

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Speaker 1: influential Puritan minister in the colonies, math the son of

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Speaker 1: Increased math considered himself an expert on the subject of bewitchment.

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Speaker 1: In sixteen eighty nine, he published memorial Providences relating to

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Speaker 1: Witchcrafts and Possessions, in which he confidently affirmed the indisputable

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Speaker 1: existence of witches and devils and urged all Christians to

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Speaker 1: weed them out at the first opportunity. It was Cotton

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Speaker 1: Mather who recommended bodily searches be carried out on the

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Speaker 1: accused in Salem to search for marks of the devil.

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Speaker 1: Emerson's letter to Mathers read, I hope the substance of

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Speaker 1: what is written will be enough to satisfy all rational

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Speaker 1: persons that Gloucester was not alarmed last summer by real

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Speaker 1: French and Indians, but that the devil and his agents

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Speaker 1: were the real cause of all the molestation. I would

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Speaker 1: take upon me to entreat your earnest prayers to the

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Speaker 1: Father of Mercies, that those apparitions may not prove the

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Speaker 1: sad omens of some future and more horrible molestations. Cotton

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00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:40,280
Speaker 1: Matha himself also recounted the incident in Great detail in

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Speaker 1: his book Magnalia Christie Americana, embellishing many details taken from

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Speaker 1: Reverend Emerson and others which describe the visitants in no

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00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: uncertain terms as demons who'd been sent to Gloucester by

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Speaker 1: the Devil himself to molest and upset the inhabitant's security

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00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,239
Speaker 1: for his fervent support of the Salem witch Trials and

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00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:09,439
Speaker 1: its puritanical dogma. More generally respected author and Salem native

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Speaker 1: Nathaniel Hawthorne, best remembered for his classic novel The Scarlet Letter,

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Speaker 1: referred to Cotton Mather as the chief agent of mischief

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00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:24,640
Speaker 1: at Salem, an ironic twist indeed, given Mather's own emphasis

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Speaker 1: on the mischief of the so called Frenchman at Gloucester,

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00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,160
Speaker 1: and a stark reminder of how moral values had changed

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Speaker 1: in the intervening century between his time and Hawthorne's. Nevertheless,

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00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: it seems that Mather's account of the Gloucester invasion endured,

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Speaker 1: for he was taken on good authority when the story

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00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,679
Speaker 1: was embellished later again by Samuel Adams Drake for his

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Speaker 1: book New England Legends and Folklore, published in eighteen eighty four.

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Speaker 1: Despite everything written about the glocester invasions. There appears to

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Speaker 1: be no concrete evidence that there were any assailants at all,

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00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: at least not in the material sense. Judged by today's standards.

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Speaker 1: The so called invasion could be read as a lesson

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Speaker 1: in the power of fear and how quickly it can

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00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 1: morph into xenophobia. On the one hand, the purported assailants

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00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: are described as being either French, Canadian or Native American,

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00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: whilst on the other they are ascribed to characteristics which

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Speaker 1: each teller of the tale seems keen to emphasize as

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Speaker 1: other worldly and sometimes even satanic. Despite the immateriality of

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00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: the apparent assailants, the threat is immediately assumed to be

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Speaker 1: one from outside. At no point is it considered to

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Speaker 1: be originating from within the settlement, and even when it does,

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Speaker 1: such as in the case of those accused of witchcraft

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Speaker 1: in Salem, it is only because the individuals in question

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Speaker 1: are apparently under the juress of an evil force. Because

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00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 1: any possibility that there was something rotten within the group

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00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: itself is unthinkable and crucially counterproductive to quelling the fear,

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Speaker 1: there was great value in sustaining the idea of an

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Speaker 1: external threat, too, For those at the top of the

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Speaker 1: community whose prosperity depended on maintaining a solid and committed flock.

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Speaker 1: There is little doubt there were genuine reasons to be fearful,

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Speaker 1: being abroad in an unknown land, far from the comforts

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Speaker 1: and familiarities of home. There is nowhere to turn if

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Speaker 1: the harvest fails, and not least of all the ever

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00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: present threat of attack with war between the colonists, competing

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00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: European powers and Native American communities, an ever present danger,

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Speaker 1: but seeming obliviousness that the colonists had for their own

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Speaker 1: violent contribution in creating that environment in the first place. Notwithstanding,

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Speaker 1: what perhaps chills me most of all is the propensity

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Speaker 1: with which a community, when feeling threatened, will seek cohesion

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Speaker 1: and strength by carelessly demonizing others, or even by seeking

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Speaker 1: enemies where none exist, as a way to dampen fear

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Speaker 1: and insecurity. And to think that this is an entirely

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Speaker 1: natural human phenomena, one we might all perhaps be susceptible

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Speaker 1: to given the right set of circumstances. This episode was

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00:30:56,040 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: written by James Connor Patterson and produced by me Richard

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00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: McLain Smith. James is a brilliant writer and poet. His

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00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:09,480
Speaker 1: debut collection of poems titled Bandit Country, Exploring the hinterland

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00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 1: between the North of Ireland and Republic, was shortlisted for

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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two T S. Eliot Prize and is

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00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: out now to buy. Do check it out. Thank you

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00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,720
Speaker 1: as ever for listening to the show. Please subscribe and

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Speaker 1: rate it if you haven't already done so. Unexplained will

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Speaker 1: be coming to YouTube very shortly in video form, so

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Speaker 1: please watch out for future developments there. You can subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the channel at YouTube dot com Forward Slash at

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Speaker 1: Unexplained pod. You can also now find us on TikTok

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Speaker 1: at TikTok dot com. Forward slash at Unexplained Podcast. Unexplained

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00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain smith.

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00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are

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Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book

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Speaker 1: and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can

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Speaker 1: purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.

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