As a part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Marshall Moriarty presents orator and statesman Daniel Webster (1782–1852); Representative Martha M. Walz presents activist Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880); and Daniel R. Coquillette presents sixth President of the U.S. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848).

Father-and-son writers Steven and Paul Kendrick discuss the legal establishment of segregation (the concept of "separate but equal"), tracing it back to 1847. In that year, an African-American man sued the city of Boston, wanting his daughter to be able to attend a school closer to her home than the nearest all-black school. He was eventually defeated.

In this lecture, historian Mary Beth Norton examines the original court documents from the Salem witchcraft trials; she places these well-known events in the context of the Indian wars and other witch trials in New England. The trials, she concludes, were driven more by politics than by superstition.

Christine Trowbridge, master brick maker at Colonial Williamsburg, talks about the process of making bricks according to colonial-era practices.

Kristen Spivey, a program manager in public history development at Colonial Williamsburg, talks about the roles and rights of women in the colonies, looking at legal rights, fashion and dress, and participation in the trades.

Valarie Holmes, an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, discusses the life of slave Lydia Broadnax, cook to George Wythe, whose role she plays.

Tom Hay, site supervisor of the Courthouse at Colonial Williamsburg, discusses colonial-era court proceedings, crime, and punishment.

Colonial Williamsburg interpreters Bill Barker, as Thomas Jefferson, and Richard Schumann, as Patrick Henry, debate on whether Virginia citizens should be taxed to support religious institutions.

Gaynelle McNichols, supervisor of the Capitol and Gaol in Colonial Williamsburg, describes the function of the Gaol and the punishment of criminals in colonial Wiliamsburg.