Immigration (thread 12): Episode 5: John Jay and The Myth of One American People

This episode pulls back the curtain on John Jay’s Federalist No. 2 and how he painted early America as a single, homogenous people to sell the idea of a nation. It’s surprising — and a little ironic — given how mixed the founders themselves and colonial communities really were.

We trace how that origin story smoothed over real divisions (religion, language, slavery, Indigenous nations) and helped shape later attitudes toward newcomers. Short, sharp, and oddly relevant to debates we still have today.