Originally published on May 15, 2023 (Episode 316)
Introduction
William Hunter’s life encapsulates the twists of identity and allegiance in the age of revolution. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, he was the son of John Hunter, a British officer in the 26th Regiment of Foot. For the first ten years of his life, young William followed the regiment as his father’s peacetime service shifted into wartime duty in a rebellious America. When his father fell ill and was sent home for recruiting duty, William departed for Britain in 1778—never to see his mother or sister again.
Fifteen years later, Hunter returned to the United States, this time a convinced republican. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1793 during the yellow fever epidemic, and would never again cross the Atlantic. He became a pioneering advocate for American democracy, founding the second newspaper west of the Alleghenies, protesting the Alien and Sedition Acts, and serving in government under seven administrations. Long before Andrew Jackson’s rise, Hunter embodied a fiercely democratic spirit that shaped the politics of the early republic.
In his book William Hunter Finding Free Speech: A British Soldier’s Son Who Became an Early American, Gene Procknow recovers the story of this overlooked figure, tracing his journey from redcoat’s son to radical democrat.
About the Guest
Gene Procknow is an independent historian of early American history. Formerly a management consultant with a global consulting firm, he now writes widely on the Revolutionary and early national periods. William Hunter Finding Free Speech is his first book.
For Further Investigation
Gene Procknow, William Hunter, Finding Free Speech: A British Soldier’s Son Who Became an Early American
Gene Procknow’s website, with “behind the book” material and further resources
Related conversations:
Don Hagist on punishment in the British Army during the American Revolution
Don Hagist again, on the wider society and culture of the British Army in America
On another radical Democrat: Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
John Zaborney, Slaves for Hire: Renting Enslaved Laborers in Antebellum Virginia (LSU, 2012)
💬 Listen & Discuss
How do we make sense of William Hunter’s transformation from the son of a British soldier to one of America’s most radical democrats? What does his story reveal about loyalty, identity, and political conviction in the early republic? Share this with someone who likes stories of life transformation.
