Segment from Well-Regulated Militias

Sixteen Tons

The Battle of Blair Mountain was a five-day shootout between about 10,000 coal miners and authorities including local police and the national guard. It was the culmination of the Mine Wars.

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

Fill Your Hands

The hosts talk to historian Steve Beda about an armed group of rural farms staging a protest of the government near the California/Oregon border . . . 75 years ago.

00:06:07

Brothers In Arms

Shortly after the American Revolution, a group of farmers protesting high taxes planned to seize the U.S. Armory in Boston, Mass, in an incident we now know as Shays Rebellion.

00:09:43

Taking Up Arms

The hosts review the relationship between armed resistance and military service in American history.

00:03:42

The People United Will Never Be Defeated

The hosts answer a question from BackStory listener Evan Axelbank about armed anti-war protests.

00:06:01

Black Panthers

A listener asks the hosts how the Black Panther Party fits into the tradition of armed militias in American history.

00:03:40

Kostumed Kulture Klub

Today, we see the Ku Klux Klan as a hate group, but its founders saw themselves as a rebellion. Guest host Nathan Connolly talks to historian Elaine Franz Parsons about the formation of the Klan.

00:08:16

Sixteen Tons

The Battle of Blair Mountain was a five-day shootout between about 10,000 coal miners and authorities including local police and the national guard. It was the culmination of the Mine Wars.

00:07:46

¡Viva la Revolución!

In the late 1800s, Hispanic farmers and ranchers took up wire cutters and axes to fight off the encroachment of industrial ranchers and Anglo-American settlers in New Mexico.

00:08:40