Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston stands on genuinely awkward foundations. Peter Faneuil, the French-descended merchant who bankrolled the original building in 1742, made his family fortune through the slave trade, rum, molasses, and tobacco. The Puritan selectmen nearly rejected his gift: 376 voted in favour, 370 against. Peter died the following year. When the interior burned in 1760, it was rebuilt with a meeting room above, and something changed.

James Otis, Sam Adams, Jefferson Davis, Daniel Webster, all the Kennedys, and Barack Obama delivered electric speeches from its upper floor, earning Faneuil Hall the unlikely nickname the Cradle of Liberty. Quincy Market, the long granite building alongside, followed in the 1820s when the hall could no longer contain the overflow of vendors and commerce. The whole complex now draws around ten million visitors a year.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace this transformation from a slave-trader's gift to a crucible of independence, connecting Faneuil Hall to Paul Revere's midnight ride and the broader story of revolutionary Boston.