In Pursuit | Episode 2: Land (1700 to 1763) @historymakingproductions

Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

Quaker ideals of religious freedom attract waves of immigrants from Ireland and Germany to Pennsylvania, but they cannot settle on land that has not been formally acquired at treaty from the Lenape.

In Episode 2, pressure builds on the Penn family as debt mounts and demand for expansion grows. William Penn’s original vision required fair treaties with Indigenous communities, but his sons Thomas, Richard, and John Penn face debt and difficult choices. The future of Philadelphia, North America’s fastest growing city, lies in the balance.

At the center of it all is power broker James Logan. As he helps guide rising figures like Benjamin Franklin and John Bartram, he also becomes deeply involved in the colony’s push for land, industry, and wealth. His authority is challenged by the revolt of an enslaved man, Sampson.

For the Lenape, land is meant to be shared. For Europeans, it becomes something to be owned. That difference leads Logan to attempt to defraud Lenape sachems, an act of dispossession we know as the Walking Purchase, which expands the colony’s developable land by the size of Rhode Island. Lenape sachem Teedyuscung authors a rebellion as Pennsylvania explodes into the violence of the French and Indian War.

This episode explores how ambition, economics, and competing worldviews helped define the future of Philadelphia and the foundations of American democracy. Featuring Pulitzer Prize winning Inga Saffron, music legend Kenny Gamble, artist Aislinn Pentecost-Farren, and Lenape leader Jeremy Johnson.

Director: Andrew Ferrett
Writer: Nathaniel Popkin
Executive Producer: Sam Katz
Producers: Wendy Cox, Andrew Ferrett, Jonathan Kohl, Nathaniel Popkin, Eva Roben
Editor: Jonathan Kohl
Director of Photography: Paul Van Haute
Narrator: Michael Boatman
Composer: Daniel Slatkin

SERIES TRAILER: youtu.be/Bm3qtfVpR0I?si=r6t3Q8CdTHz0moKU

ALL EPISODES AVAILABLE HERE: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwEWxvgiPVsVD_g6JsElVoPT_HfsMvuSe&si=TKHuegmLvS5uw_vz

In Pursuit | Episode 2: Land (1700 to 1763)

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Jessica Roney on The Dancing Assembly and Womens Political Roles

Episode 4 Trailer | In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal on Franklin in London

Allen Guelzo on Scottish Presbyterianism

Peter Silver on What Drew Immigrants to Early Pennsylvania

Sharon Ann Holt on the Paxton Boys Christian Victims

Steven Conn on Why Benjamin Franklin Formed Associations

$In Pursuit | Episode 5: America (1838 to 1876) Episode Five’s pursuit of America is a battle to reclaim and expand on the ideals animating the Declaration of Independence. In the years surrounding the Civil War, Philadelphians confront the chaotic unraveling of city and nation. Anti-immigrant fervor builds against Irish Catholics as American urban life fractures and tensions explode into violence, what will be known as the Bible Riots. A rising class of Black Philadelphians led by the Reverend William Catto transform an agriculture school in the Fourth Ward into the top high school for Black students in a nation that denies all Black people basic civil rights, including the right to vote. Catto’s son Octavius Valentine Catto, a brilliant student, and his classmate Jacob White confront Pennsylvania Governor James Pollock when he visits their school, The Institute for Colored Youth, demanding equal rights. By the time Abraham Lincoln is elected President in 1860, Philadelphia is a few years into an effort to mend divisions, the largest effort of municipal unification yet in American history. And when Southern States join together to secede from the nation, Philadelphians of all backgrounds rise to defend the Union, including Democrat William McMullen, the Irish Catholic power broker of the Fourth Ward. But when Lincoln stops at Independence Hall on George Washington’s birthday his life is in danger. When Civil War breaks out, Philadelphias railroad tycoons and rising industrial moguls create the Union League, giving money and power to a nationwide effort to bolster the Union Army. After President Lincoln falls to an assassins bullet, five hundred thousand Philadelphians line the streets as his body is brought to lie in state in the same room where the founders created the United States less than a century before. All this upheaval is powerfully brought to life by UCLA sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter, Lincoln Prize-winner Allen Guelzo, and journalists Daniel Biddle and Murray Dubin, authors of Taste of Freedom. Author Kalela Williams personal reflections center the episode’s original approach to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Revealing the largely untold story of Philadelphia’s multi-faceted and central role in preserving the Union and advancing Reconstruction, Episode Five also traces the brutal costs. Octavius Catto, the rising civil rights leader speaks alongside Frederick Douglass during the grand celebrations of the 15th Amendment, a position that puts him in the crosshairs of those hoping to maintain the racial status quo. Director: Andrew Ferrett Writers: Nathaniel Popkin and Andrew Ferrett Executive Producer: Sam Katz Producers: Wendy Cox, Andrew Ferrett, Jonathan Kohl, Nathaniel Popkin, Eva Roben Editor: Rachel Sophia Stewart Director of Photography: Paul Van Haute Narrator: Michael Boatman Composer: Daniel Slatkin SERIES TRAILER: https://youtu.be/Bm3qtfVpR0I?si=r6t3Q8CdTHz0moKU ALL EPISODES AVAILABLE HERE: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwEWxvgiPVsVD_g6JsElVoPT_HfsMvuSe&si=TKHuegmLvS5uw_vz$