so in a way they're like the coral reefs of the chesapeake bay. teeming with oysters, but after decades of overharvesting the population was nearly wiped out, reaching about i% of historic levels. the resource almost slipped between our fingers forever. by the time we got to the �*90s, oysters were almost not even a blip on the on the radar, in terms of the bushels being landed or harvested and brought back to the dock. now the chesapeake bay foundation is part of an effort to replant 10 billion oysters by the year 2025. in virginia today, at low tide, you would see oysters beginning to break the surface of the water about two hours ahead of low tide. it's rebuilding oyster reefs, like this one along the lynnhaven river in virginia. you see the excitement. there really is sort of a renaissance happening around the oyster, but it's really the interest from the public that we're seeing which really gives me so much hope. that excitement is spreading on a smaller scale too. oh, look at this guy. that is a cool one. they're like little sculptures. oyst

for context in 1985, the states in the chesapeake bay region recognized the need to address pollutants in the bay and through their own initiative came together to conduct cleanup iforts. these state driven efforts were largely successful. water quality improved almost 50% from 1985 until 2010. however, in 2010, the e.p.a. seized the states' authority to determine their own method of compliance and threatened to take over the water quality plans if the states failed to comply. i'm sorry, states are not inferior agents to the federal government. states are not servants to the federal government. this 2010 power grab known as the chesapeake bay tmdl directly contradicts the intent of the clean water act. directly contradicts it. the clean water act clearly acknowledges state authority in water quality and requires cooperation, cooperation, not coercion between the states and federal government. now these coercive methods have been try tried and have failed. water quality has not improved since the federalization of bay cleanup efforts. it is imperative that we return the rights of states

example, along the chesapeake bay coast of virginia, african americans who have been enslaved and who were seeking freedom frequently sought cover and start protection with u.s. naval vessels. so, from the beginning of the conflict, commanders of u.s. naval vessels had to contend with men who were presenting themselves as volunteers for service in the united states navy. within a matter of months, the naval service began accepting these men into service. you may be familiar with the term contraband in reference to african americans who had been enslaved and who were becoming free during the course of the civil war. this term originated at hampton, virginia when general butler, as you may remember referred to three men -- freeman who had run away from slavery as contraband of war and use that as an excuse to give them federal protection. the secretary of the navy advised naval commanders they could use similar logic to take the men who were fleeing from slavery on board the vessels and put them to work. and wouldn't you know, they rated the men under the term contraband which had not e

he flees williamsburg gets on a man of war british man of war in chesapeake bay and he stole to criticize his suffering slings and arrows of outraous pamphlets and he's very unhappy. he's like, well, you know, i'm not going to i'm not going to be able to indict these these these newspaper publishers. but he has another idea. one morning he sends a dozen of his soldis on a boat off the man of war into into norfolk. and they go to the of the norfolk intelligence and they take the printing pressnd they take it out to thean of war. not only do they shut down the norfolk paper, very critical of him, b then they start publishing all kinds o propaganda in favor that of the king. so that's the desperation that theyad. how could they stop the criticism? it got to the point where the only way to stop it was to take thisind of radical action. no there's coming out of this period, i have to quote samuel adams, i think was, you know, maybe saidt best. listen tthis quote, there is nothing so terrible to tyrants a free press. there's noing so terrible to tyrants as a free press. you can see that today,

of president james was, of course, preoccupied with fighting the british in canada, new york, chesapeake bay, even keeping washington, d.c., in american hands and really had little time or attention to pay to events in the in the south. and so they much turned over the conduct of the war to the state of georgia, the state of tennessee, and the mississippi territory, as small as it was, and to their militias and volunteers. two two of the two of the more colorful and important characters to emerge on the american side in the greek war are, david crockett and sam houston both were young men at the time, and both saw elephant, so to speak, in the greek war. so their first experience in combat combat, david crockett, he joined up when andrew jackson again was commander of tennessee militia after the mims massacre, jackson became, the principal commander of the tennessee forces crockett, signed up a as a volunteer and served in jackson's first campaigns against the red sticks that didn't didn't go particularly well for jackson and crockett left remarkably remarkably colorful journal a poignant jo

actually had pulled up anchor and were sailing away just as their new governor is coming up the chesapeake bay forces them to turn around. it could have gone the way o roanoke. right. and plymouth almost goes t way of run up. but they you know, they managed to bring in their first harvest, including indian corn. right. which native people have taught them how to grow. sot looks like they're going to survive for longer than they had anticipated. and they decide it's time to take a break. pause. let our hair down a little bit right. did they dance? oh, that's a good question. i. i know, i know there are games of skill and strength, you know, so their target practice is wrestling. okay. you know, you don't want to offe god with, you know, provocative dancing. you know, i don't know what the puritans did. yeah, you'll have to ask somebody about that. someone else about that,ou know. but yeah. so they're having a feast and then all of a sudden usher mcquinn massasoit, the wampanoag leader shows up with 90 men. okay, well, you know, there's only about 50 english colonies at this point, so and you kn

horrible truce, boat and sail down to the two chesapeake bay downo james james river and then up to richmond on the river. and he will go into a hospital inside richmond where will be treated. then you'll go back out in the field with the texas then he gets wounded and then will go back home where he will e in 1907 as a pretty prominent member of the community down in polk county, texas. so let me tell you a little bit. so we have a letter down to baltimore the day that mark cuba got to baltimore, which is the 26th of july. this is what he said, his wife. i am once more permitted to write you. i was wounded on the second of this month near gettysburg, the ball, entering my leg just above the knee on the inside. and it came out of the hip joint on theutside, running t bone and the full length of the thigh. it is now getting along fine. finally i can get out a little bit with crutches. now i got wounded on the second and this is the 26th of september. d when he describes to the diary what this wod actually looked. thank you, mark. when describes what this woman looks like, he said it's festeri