As the Center marks the 250th anniversary of the nation, we’re taking a closer look at the people, events, and ideas that set the American Revolution in motion and ultimately led to the creation and adoption of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. This moment invites us to broaden the story of the founding by exploring not only the familiar figures we often study, but also the wider community of thinkers who helped shape the principles of our constitutional democracy.
In this episode Mary Sarah Bilder of Boston College Law School and Sara Georgini of the Massachusetts Historical Society join the program to discuss two remarkable women central to 18th-century intellectual life whose ideas influenced many of the era’s most notable figures: Catharine Macaulay and Mercy Otis Warren. Julie Silverbrook, Chief Content and Learning Officer at the National Constitution Center, moderates.
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This episode was produced and mixed by Bill Pollock. With production support from Charles Sahm. Research was provided by Anna Salvatore, Trey Sullivan, and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
Mary Sarah Bilder is Founders Professor of Law and Michael and Helen Lee Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School. She has published numerous articles and is the author of three books: Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention, which was awarded the 2016 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy; The Transatlantic Constitution: Colonial Legal Culture and the Empire; and, most recently, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution.
Dr. Sara Georgini is series editor for The Papers of John Adams, part of the Adams Papers editorial project at the Massachusetts Historical Society, where she has worked on nearly 20 volumes. She is the author of Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family and the forthcoming Our Library in Paris, as well as editor of The Oxford Handbook of Family History and Genealogy and co-editor of Americans in Revolution: New Intellectual Histories.
Julie Silverbrook is chief content and learning officer at the National Constitution Center. She oversees the Center’s content and learning strategy and the development and distribution of the Center’s resources and programs.
Additional Resources
- Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention (2017)
- Mary Sarah Bilder, The Transatlantic Constitution: Colonial Legal Culture and the Empire (2008)
- Mary Sarah Bilder, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution (2022)
- Mary Sarah Bilder, "Hater of Kings: Catharine Macaulay’s Constitutional Regicide and the Declaration of Independence,” Boston College Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 654, (July 23, 2025)
- Sara Georgini, Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family (2022)
- Sara Georgini (series editor), Adams Papers Digital Edition, Massachusetts Historical Society
- Karen Green (editor), The Correspondence of Catharine Macaulay (2019)
- Mercy Otis Warren Letter to Catharine Macaulay, August 24, 1775, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
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