Matthew Warner Osborn
@nighthawkog.bsky.social
Historian of early America. Author of Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic, and Night Hawk: A Nineteenth-Century Superhero and the Dawn of American Mass Culture, coming September 2026 from the University of Chicago Press.
That’s fascinating, hope we get a chance to talk about it sometime. There were some very successful Black entrepreneurs in the oyster trade in Philadelphia, it would be very interesting to do some comparisons with other cities.
October 4, 2025 at 1:13 AM
That’s fascinating, hope we get a chance to talk about it sometime. There were some very successful Black entrepreneurs in the oyster trade in Philadelphia, it would be very interesting to do some comparisons with other cities.
Thanks so much, he is definitely a memorable character. The Night Hawk writes a lot about the oyster trade in Philadelphia, which was dominated by African Americans in the 1810s/1820s. I imagine might be a similar situation similar in early national Boston.
October 4, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Thanks so much, he is definitely a memorable character. The Night Hawk writes a lot about the oyster trade in Philadelphia, which was dominated by African Americans in the 1810s/1820s. I imagine might be a similar situation similar in early national Boston.
Yes! I wrote a whole book about him. Do you know the character?
October 4, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Yes! I wrote a whole book about him. Do you know the character?
Reposted by Matthew Warner Osborn
I was going to add Le Guin b/c "The way one does research into nonexistent history is to tell the story and find out what happened. I believe this isn't very different from what historians of the so-called real world do. You look at what happens and try to see why it happens... 1/2
September 20, 2025 at 10:58 AM
I was going to add Le Guin b/c "The way one does research into nonexistent history is to tell the story and find out what happened. I believe this isn't very different from what historians of the so-called real world do. You look at what happens and try to see why it happens... 1/2