The 1862 battle between the C.S.S. Virginia and the U.S.S. Monitor off Hampton Roads, Virginia marked the first time ironclad ships met in combat. The Civil War ushered in a number of advances in naval technology beyond the use of ironclads, including gains in mine, torpedo and artillery design, as well as the first-time use of a submarine to sink an enemy ship.

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American History TV visited the Jamestown Rediscovery project's archaeology and conservation labs to learn how history is revealed through artifacts. The original 1607 English fort was discovered in 1994, and over a million objects have been unearthed and catalogued since then.  In a related American Artifacts program, we took a tour of the current excavation sites. Part two of a three-part series.

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On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed at Jamestown Island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history, the original fort was unearthed in 1994. We visited Jamestown to learn how the story of the 1607 settlers is being revealed everyday through the study of artifacts, and how artifacts are conserved for future scholars.

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C-SPAN’s Local Content Vehicles take American History TV on the road. Throughout the weekend of May 18-20 we feature the history of Columbia, South Carolina.

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Thousands of colonists rejected the War for American Independence and many fled to the British stronghold of New York City. San Jose State University History Professor Ruma Chopra discusses the situation in the city and the perspective of those who looked upon the British as natural allies in religion, language and blood and thought the violence of rebellion was unnecessary and unlawful.

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American History TV visited San Francisco’s Chinatown to follow historian Charlie Chin as he tells the story of the Chinese in America to a group of college students. This is part one of a three-part series on San Francisco’s Chinatown. This portion of the series was recorded in the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum.
 

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Metropolitan State University professor Douglas Rossinow teaches a class on the Iran-Contra affair, which took place in the mid-1980s during the Reagan Administration. The Iran-Contra affair stems from Reagan administration officials funding the Contras - who were fighting against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua - with money from the sale of arms to Iran. The arms were being sold to Iran in the hope of gaining the release of American hostages held in Lebanon - hence the reason the affair is sometimes called as the “arm-for-hostages” scandal. Metropolitan State University is in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Forty years ago, in May 1973, a U.S. Senate Select Committee began its nationally televised hearings on Watergate. James McCord was one of the five men arrested a year earlier attempting to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. McCord was security director for the 1972 Committee to Re-elect President Nixon, and was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in January 1973. In this portion, Committee Chair Sam Ervin questioned McCord about his January 1973 conversation with Jack Caulfield, a former White House aide.

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Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a former slave who became a Union spy in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. She was part of a pro-Union underground spy ring run by Elizabeth Van Lew, the daughter of a prominent Richmond citizen. In this program, authors Elizabeth Varon and Lois Leveen talk about the life and story of Ms. Bowser, as well as her relationship with Ms. Van Lew. The two authors also discuss how they wrote and researched their books. The event took place at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.

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