Ben Franklin's World: Recent Episodes
Liz Covart
This is a multiple award-winning podcast about early American history. Itβs a show for people who love history and who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But what did liberty and equality mean for the peoples the Declaration never namedβthe Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations who had governed the vast Great Lakes homeland they called Anishinaabewake for generations before a single European sailed its waters?
In this revisited conversation, historian Michael Witgen, Professor of History at Columbia University and a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, takes us inside the Anishinaabe world and reveals how the new United States set about transforming it.
The answer, Witgen shows us, wasn't simple conquest. It was something more elaborate, more profitable, and in some ways more insidious: what he calls the political economy of plunderβa system engineered to strip Indigenous peoples of their homelands while funneling the wealth of that dispossession directly into the settler colonial economy.
Michael's Website | Book
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/323
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 051: A History of Early Detroit
π§ Episode 064: Native American Slavery in New France
π§ Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
π§ Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region
π§ Episode 286: Native Sovereignty
π§ Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
The engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence is on display at the National Archives building in Washington, DC. Millions of visitors flock to see it and the other Charters of Freedom. But how did it end up there and why do people approach it with religious reverence?
In this episode, we explore how the Declaration took on its symbolic role as the founding text of the United States.
Pauline's Book
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:30 Introducing Mary Beth Norton
00:07:17 American Scripture: Pauline Maier
00:10:00 Graduate School with Pauline Maier
00:13:36 The State of Historians' Thinking in the 1990s
00:15:23 Other Declarations of Independence
00:21:08 Thomas Jefferson's Drafting of the Declaration
00:23:44 Why Create a Parchment Copy of the Declaration?
00:28:24 How the Declaration Became American Scripture
00:30:32 The Impact of American Scripture
00:32:10 Situating the Declaration in the American Revolution
00:35:39 The Role of the Parchment Copy Today
00:40:12 Closing Thoughts on Pauline Maier
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 155: Pauline Maier's American Revolution
π§ Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution
π§ Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
For the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations People, the American Revolution brought not liberty, but land loss, displacement, and the dismantling of their world. The new United States seized land from Haudenosaunee nations regardless of which side they supported during the Revolution. And yet the Haudenosaunee survived, and Haudenosaunee women are central to this story.
In this revisited episode, Maeve Kane, Associate Professor of History at the University at Albany and author of Shirts Powdered Red, reveals how Haudenosaunee women used cloth, trade, and cultural creativity as tools of sovereignty and survival across three centuries of colonial pressure.
Maeve's Website | Book |
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/406
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 021: Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
π§ Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
π§ Episode 223: A native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region
π§ Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua
π§ Episode 353: Women and the Making of Catawba Identity
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Five men served on the Continental Congressβs Declaration Committee. We know three of them well: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. But who were the other two?
In this episode, we explore the lives and contributions of Robert R. Livingston of New York and Roger Sherman of Connecticut.
Historians Geoff Benton and Michael Morand join us as we uncover the stories of the other Committee members.
Clermont State Historic Site: Website
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/447
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:46 The Lee Resolution and the Committee of Five
00:05:26 Robert R. Livingston's Early Life
00:06:56 Colonial New York Politics
00:11:02 Livingston's Appointment to the Second Continental Congress
00:15:20 Why Livingston Chosen for Declaration Committee
00:18:44 Livingston's feud with John Adams
00:19:18 Livingston Misses the Vote for Independence
00:20:50 Livingston Becomes Chancellor of New York State
00:24:06 Livingston's Role in Steam Navigation
00:26:15 Clermont State Historic Site
00:32:35 Roger Sherman's Early Life
00:36:47 Sherman's Family and Life in New Haven
00:37:43 Sherman's Involvement in the Imperial Crisis
00:40:38 Sherman's Role in the Second Continental Congress
00:42:28 Why Sherman Chosen For Declaration Committee
00:43:42 Sherman's Role in Drafting the Declaration
00:46:16 The Connecticut Compromise, 1787
00:50:28 What Made Sherman Effective in Legislatures
00:53:47 1776 in Context
00:58:10 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
π§ Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July
π§ Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
π§ Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
π§ Episode 439: When the Declaration of Independence Was News
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Every American knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but was he really its sole architect?
In this revisited episode, we sit down with three scholars to pull back the curtain on how the Declaration came to be written. Danielle Allen of Harvard University, Patrick Spero of the American Philosophical Society, and Peter Onuf of the University of Virginia reveal that the Declaration was never one man's work.
Together, they show how John Adams β not Jefferson β was the intellectual architect behind "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." How Benjamin Franklin changed the Declaration with just four or five surgical edits. And what the Second Continental Congress cut from Jefferson's original draft, including his striking grievance blaming King George III for the international slave trade.
Originally recorded in 2017 as part of Ben Franklin's World's Doing History to the Revolution series, this episode pairs with Episode 446 and Episode 447 to mark the Declaration's 250th anniversary.
Danielleβs Website | Book
Patrick's Website | Book
Peter's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/141
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 018: Our Declaration
π§ Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance
π§ Episode 443: How Independence Happend, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution, 1776
π§ Episode 444: How Independence Happened, Pt 2: The Model Treaty
π§ Episode 445: How Independence Happened, Pt 3: Articles of Confederation
π§ Episode 446: The Declaration of Independence at 250
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250 years after its signing, the Declaration of Independence remains an unfinished document. Its famous assertion "that all men are created equal" and endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness stands not as a settled truth, but as a call every generation of Americans must answer on its own terms.
What did the founders mean by "all men are created equal?" Who did they believe was eligible to pursue life, liberty, and happiness? And how are the generations living in the United States today thinking through their own answers?
Four historians join us to explore these questions. Robert Parkinson and Steve Sarson draw on their new books to help us understand what it meant in 1776. Anthea Hartig and Virginia Scharff show us how two 250th anniversary museum exhibitions use objects to make the Declaration's living legacy tangible, and to remind us that its promises have always been claimed not just in words, but in action.
Rob's Book | Steve's Book | Smithsonian Exhibit | Autry Exhibit
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:44 Celebrating the Declaration of Independence
00:03:50 The Declaration As An Ongoing Experiment
00:04:14 Anthea Hartig on the National Museum of American History
00:05:30 Virginia Scharff on the Autry Museum of the American West
00:07:58 Robert Parkinson on Understanding the Declaration
00:19:17 Steve Sarson on the Declaration's Philosophical Argument
00:21:10 The Original Meaning of the Declaration
00:34:47 Conclusion
00:41:16 The Massachusetts Historical Society's Declaration Exhibit
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 018: Our Declaration
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness
π§ Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
π§ Episode 439: When the Declaration of Independence Was News in 1776
π§ Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance
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The man Congress chose to draft the United Statesβ first constitution refused to vote for independence.
John Dickinson wrote a bold plan, one with a strong central government, religious liberty protections that included women, and a question in the margins about whether Congress should abolish slavery. Congress stripped out nearly all of these ideas and provisions. What replaced it sparked a debate over federal vs. state power that has never gone away.
This is the third episode in our How Independence Happened series. In Part 1, we explored Richard Henry Lee's Virginia Resolution of June 7, 1776. In Part 2, we examined the Model Treaty and how the new United States made foreign alliances. In this third part, we're joined by historians Jane Calvert and Jonathan Gienapp so we can investigate the Articles of Confederation, the third element of independence.
Jane's Website | Book
Jonathan's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/445
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:34 The Articles of Confederation
00:08:29 Why A Confederation Was Important
00:12:49 Why the Second Continental Congress Create A Formal Union
00:21:44 Drafting the Articles of Confederation
00:22:38 John Dickinson's Role in Drafting the Articles
00:45:50 The Founding Generation's Ideas About Government
01:05:40 Viewing the Articles of Confederation in Context
01:13:07 The Unwritten Constitution of the People
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 179: Governance During the Critical Period
π§ Episode 258: John Dickinson, Life, Religion, & Politics
π§ Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
π§ Episode 366: James Wilson & the U.S. Constitution
π§ Episode 443: How Independence Happened, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution
π§ Episode 444: How Independence Happened, Pt 2: The Model Treaty
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Declaring independence on July 2, 1776 was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign allies, international recognition, and the credibility to negotiate as an equal among the world's great powers.
Five days after Richard Henry Lee introduced his famous Virginia Resolution, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five β John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Harrison β to figure out how to achieve international recognition. The result was the Model Treaty: a document we almost never discuss today, but one that Adams considered his most important contribution to Congress and the nation.
Historians Sara Georgini and Eliga Gould guide us through Adams's revolutionary blueprint for American foreign policy and how the founders understood that the United States would need to become a "treaty worthy" nation before France would take them seriously.
This is the second episode in a three-part series.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning.
To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign allies, international recognition, and the credibility to negotiate as an equal among the world's great powers.
Five days after Richard Henry Lee introduced his famous Virginia Resolution, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five β John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Harrison β to figure out how to achieve international recognition. The result was the Model Treaty: a document we almost never discuss today, but one that Adams considered his most important contribution to Congress and the nation.
Historians Sara Georgini and Eliga Gould guide us through Adams's revolutionary blueprint for American foreign policy and the founders' understanding that the United States would need to become a "treaty-worthy" nation before France would take it seriously.
This is the second episode in a three-part series.
Saraβs Website | Book
Lige's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/444
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:21 Three Legs of Independence
00:01:17 The Second Continental Congress Votes Independence
00:02:58 The Second Leg of Independence: Foreign Alliances
00:03:28 The Model Treaty
00:07:12 Why the Virginia Resolution Included Foreign Alliances
00:19:00 Specifics of the Model Treaty
00:21:30 Founders' Goals for the Model Treaty
00:28:21 The Model Treaty Drafting Committee
00:41:20 The Model Treaty as a Document
00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense
00:50:07 Commercial Alliances
01:04:42 The Model Treaty's Place in the American Revolution
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 007: John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Project
π§ Episode 128: American Revolutions: A Continental History
π§ Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Jefferson & Adams
π§ Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Save the American Revolution
π§ Episode 433: Entangled Alliances: Haiti, France, & the American Revolution
π§ Episode 443: How Independence Actually Happened, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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On July 4th, 2026, the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence announced a new nation to the world. But how well do we actually know the document we're celebrating?
Most of us can recite "We hold these truths to be self-evident," but how many of us have read all 1,337 words, and traced the argument the Declaration actually makes?
Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and author ofOur Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, reveals how New Hampshire's desperate need for a functioning government set the Continental Congress on the path toward independence, why the Declaration was authored by many voices β not just Thomas Jefferson β and how a slow, careful reading of the document uncovers a powerful argument that freedom and equality are entwined. You cannot have one without the other.
This is the essential starting point for Ben Franklin's World's Independence at 250 series.
Danielleβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/018
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 119: The Heart of the Declartion
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
π§ Episode 438: The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
π§ Episode 439: When the Declartion of Independence War News in 1776
π§ Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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When we picture the American Revolution, we picture battles. But for the men and women who actually lived and fought in it, the Revolution was also a job with mess rotations, night watches, short rations, and children underfoot.
Historians Eugene Procknow, Gabriel Neville, and Thomas Sobol pull back the curtain on everyday military life during the War for Independence. They discuss how the armies were structured, what soldiers actually ate, what camp followers endured, and how soldiers found humanity amid grinding hardship.
You'll hear about a Black Continental soldier who had eaten nothing but bread for eleven days, and was still writing letters home that went unanswered. A Georgia soldier who agreed to fight for the British just to escape a prison ship, then deserted and marched across two states to rejoin Nathanael Greene's army. And you'll discover why John Adams believed the most dangerous moment of the Revolution wasn't a battle at all.
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:05:44 Structure of the British and Continental Armies
00:10:33 Militia, German Soldiers, and Indian Allies
00:20:43 Everyday Life in the American War for Independence
00:25:80 Camp Followers
00:33:10 Downtime in the Army
00:36:59 Soldiers' Letters
00:46:00 Food Procurement & Supply Chains
00:50:27 Supplementing Rations
00:55:34 War Mementoes & Plunder
00:58:36 Medical Care in the Army
01:08:07 The Revolution in Context
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 158: The Revolutionaries' Army
π§ Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America
π§ Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America
π§ Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2
π§ Episode 348: Valley Forge
π§ Episode 374: The Revolutionary War in the West
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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Most of us learned the same story: During the winter at Valley Forge, George Washington's army suffered and endured. Ragged soldiers huddled together in frozen huts and gnawed on shoe leather for food.
But what if that story is mostly myth?
Military historian Ricardo Herrera, author of Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778, reveals what was really happening during the winter of 1777β1778.
Valley Forge wasn't a place of frozen inactivity, it was a hub of military operations. The army's survival depended not on virtue and willpower alone, but on the armed foraging columns Washington sent into the Pennsylvania countryside to seize food, horses, and supplies from the civilians he was fighting to protect.
Rickβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/348
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 158: The Revolutionaries' Army
π§ Episode 189: The Little Ice Age
π§ Episode 301: Innoculation to Vaccination, Part 1
π§ Episode 302: Innoculation to Vaccination, Part 2
π§ Episode 332: Occupied Philadelphia
π§ Episode 333: Occupied Yorktown
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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When David George lay sick with smallpox in Savannah during the Revolutionary War, he faced three possible outcomes: death, re-enslavement, or freedom.
Greg O'Malley, Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz, follows David George across six decades and three continents, from enslaved Virginia to the Muscogee Creek nation, and from British-occupied Georgia to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, in his new book, The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution. It's a story that will change how you think about what the Revolution actually delivered, and for whom.
Gregβs Website | Book
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:14 Welcome to Ben Franklin's World
00:02:31 Introducing Greg O'Malley and David George
00:05:43 David George's Odyssey Begins
00:08:12 The Rare Narrative of David George
00:11:07 Authenticating David George's Voice
00:13:39 David George's Multiple Escapes from Slavery
00:20:30 David George's Conversion to Christianity
00:24:53 Why Baptist? The Appeal of Evangelical Faith
00:29:52 David George's Family and Name
00:37:12 Life in Nova Scotia as a Refugee Preacher
00:42:03 Journey to Sierra Leone
00:54:44 Piecing Together David George's Later Years
00:59:49 Discovering the Silver Bluff Baptist Church
01:06:24 Time Warp: What If David George Stayed?
01:10:29 Reflections and Takeaways
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 008: Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade
π§ Episode 322: Running from Bondage in Revolutionary America
π§ Episode 424: Dunmore's Proclamation
π§ Episode 434: The Frank Brothers: Freeborn Black Soldiers
π§ Episode 440: Brooke Newman, Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
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She fled on horseback in the thick of war. Her six-year-old son rode with her. The white tailor at her side would pass, when anyone asked, as her husband.
Her name was Sarah. She was one of tens of thousands of enslaved people who self-emancipated during the American Revolution, and one of the many women earlier histories barely noticed.
In this Revisited episode, Karen Cook-Bell, author ofRunning from Bondage: Enslaved Women and the Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, recovers their stories.
We learn how Lord Dunmore's 1775 proclamation reshaped the landscape of resistance, why motherhood drove women to flee rather than keeping them in place, and what creative, subversive strategies they used to slip out of bondage and into freedom.
This is the companion conversation to Ep. 440's exploration of Jefferson's cut grievance. If Brooke Newman gave us the view from the throne, Karen Cook-Bell gives us the view from the ground. And it changes what the proclamations look like.
Karen's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 137: The Washingtons' Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
π§ Episode 157: The Revolution's African American Soldiers
π§ Episode 162: Dunmore's New World
π§ Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
π§ Episode 424: Dunmore's Proclamation and the American Revolution in Virginia
π§ Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievances and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
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Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence contained 28 grievances against King George III β not 27.
The final grievance, the one Congress cut before signing, accused the British king of waging cruel war against human nature by trafficking enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, forcing slavery onto unwilling American colonists, and then inciting those same enslaved people to rise up and kill their enslavers.
Did King George III and the British monarchy actually bear responsibility for slavery in the 13 colonies? Or was Jefferson's grievance a strategic sleight of hand β an attempt to pin a uniquely American system onto the crown he wanted to escape?
Historian Brooke Newman, author of The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery, joins us to find out. She traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade from Queen Elizabeth I through King George III, examines what Jefferson got right and what he got wrong, and delivers her verdict on one of the most explosive what-ifs in United States history.
Brooke's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/440
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:24 Episode Welcome and Jefferson's Cut Grievance
00:03:15 Guest Introduction: Brooke Newman
00:04:58 Jefferson's Claim and Brooke's Research Origins
00:09:28 Timeline of Monarchies and Terminology
00:12:03 England Enters the Slave Trade under Elizabeth I
00:17:41 Crown Investments and Royal African Company
00:30:15 Colonies Structured for Slavery
00:37:02 Logistics of the Slave Trade by Revolution
00:47:01 King George III's Views on Slavery
00:52:20 Virginia's 1772 Slave Trade Ban and Royal Veto
00:57:35 Dunmore's Proclamation: Not a Royal Act
01:01:17 Was George III to Blame? Jefferson's Strategy
01:04:26 Time Warp: If George III Abolished Slavery
01:10:56 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 206: Christian Slavery
π§ Episode 351: Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland
π§ Episode 360: Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts
π§ Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness
π§ Episode 438: The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
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On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and asked one of the most searing questions in American history: "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?"
To answer Douglass's question, we have to go back to the Revolution itself; to the choices Black Americans made in wartime, to the ways they read, used, and interrogated the Declaration of Independence, and to the alternative celebrations they created when the Fourth of July felt like someone else's holiday.
Historians Christopher Bonner and Martha S. Jones help us explore what the Fourth of July meant for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and how their experiences with the Fourth contributed to the larger history of the nation's founding.
Christopher's Website | Book
Martha's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/277
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 157: The Revolution's African American Soldiers
π§ Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
π§ Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July
π§ Episode 255: Birthright Citizens
π§ Episode 434: The Frank Brothers, Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
π§ Episode 439: When the Declaration of Independence Was News
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The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, but it had absolutely no plan for telling the world about it.
Congress sent just one copy of the Declaration to France. It was lost at sea. Printers ran the text however they liked. And the first formal acknowledgment of American independence came not from a European court, but from a Native American chief responding to a verbal translation of the Declaration in the middle of a treaty negotiation.
Historian and Declaration expert Emily Sneff joins us to explore what the Declaration of Independence looked like when it was just news β urgent, imperfect, and far beyond anyone's control.
Emilyβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/439
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:07 The Declaration as a Congressional Product
00:06:28 Jefferson's humble signature
00:11:10 Congress Has No Plans for Circulation
00:16:22 News of the Declaration Breaks
00:24:36 Pubilc Readings of the Declaration
00:27:27 Ministers Spread News of the Declaration
00:32:57 German-American Translation of the Declaration
00:42:04 French Translation Failures
00:46:42 Verbal Translations of the Declaration
00:51:52 No Official Copy Sent to King George III
00:58:43 The Declaration of Independence as News
01:02:17 Time Warp
01:07:48 Upcoming 250th Exhibitions
01:11:24 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 018: Our Declaration
π§ Episode 119: The Heart of the Declaration
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 388: John Hancock
π§ Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
π§ Episode 431: Thomas Paine's Common Sense at 250
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Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions swept across four continents. We tend to remember three of them β the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. But what about all the rest? And what connected them to each other?
In this episode, we're bringing back our conversation with Janet Polasky, Presidential Professor of History Emerita at the University of New Hampshire and author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World, and Paul Mapp, Associate Professor of History at William & Mary, who helps us understand why historians are increasingly looking at the American Revolution through an international lens.
Together, they reveal why the Age of Revolutions happened when it did, how the American Revolution fit within this larger Atlantic-wide moment of upheaval, and how revolutionary ideas traveled across borders through people, print, and rumor.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/165
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
π§ Episode 428: Canal Dreamers
π§ Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Win American Independence
π§ Episode 433: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence
π§ Episode 438: The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
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What if the American Revolution didn't just create the United States, but also created Australia?
Most of us learned about the Revolution as a story of thirteen North American colonies pushing back against a distant king. But this episode reveals something far wilder: a genuinely global war whose consequences rippled across every inhabited continent β reshaping empires, forcing migrations, and planting the seeds of more than a hundred declarations of independence that would follow over the next two and a half centuries.
Joseph Adelman joins historian Richard Bell to explore the American Revolution as a world war. They discuss:
- Why the Declaration of Independence was really a Declaration of Interdependence
- How Hyder Ali, the Muslim ruler of Mysore in southern India, became George Washington's ally by the logic of wartime coalitions
- How Spain's campaign to recapture Florida tied down thousands of British troops
- How Britain's convict crisis, caused by losing access to Maryland and Virginia, led to the founding of Australia at Botany Bay.
Rick's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/438
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:28 Differences in Perception of the American Revolution
00:09:00 Reframing the Declaration of Independence
00:17:32 Molly Brandt and Haudenosaunee Diplomacy
00:24:38 Baron von Steuben: A Mercenary's Tale
00:29:15 The American Revolution: Myth vs. Reality
00:35:02 The American Revolution and Florida
00:43:39 The American Revolution's Impact on India
00:50:24 The Connection Between the American Revolution and Australia
00:56:50 Themes of the American Revolution
00:59:16 The Time Warp
00:62:00 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
π§ Episode 238: Benedict Arnold
π§ Episode 348: Valley Forge
π§ Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 437: The Home Front
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In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new nation's capital was occupied territory.
But what did that actually mean for the people who lived there?
Not the generals, not the Congress: ordinary Philadelphians who had to decide whether to flee or stay, share their homes with British officers, watch their fences get chopped up for firewood, and figure out which neighbors to trust when it was all over.
In this episode, Aaron Sullivan, a professor of History at Rider University, George Boudreau, a public historian and Executive Director of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Museum in Germantown, PA, and historical interpreter Kalela Williams, now the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book, take us inside occupied Philadelphia.
Together, they reveal how a city that was never fully committed to independence experienced nine months of British rule, and what the occupation cost everyone who lived through it: Quaker women negotiating with soldiers at their back gates, merchants whose fortunes rose on British hard currency while their neighbors went hungry, and Black Philadelphians who looked at the upheaval and asked whether it might open a door to freedom.
Plus: the most extravagant party thrown in eighteenth-century America, staged while the city's almshouses overflowed.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/332
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 050: Betsy Ross & the Making of America
π§ Episode 306: The Horse's Tail
π§ Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 333: Life in Occupied Yorktown
π§ Episode 380: The Tory's Wife
π§ Episode 437: Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities
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The British Army is at your door. They need a room. What do you do?
For thousands of civilians living in cities occupied during the American War for Independence β Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, Savannah β this wasn't a hypothetical. It was a reality that upended daily life and revealed a side of the revolution we rarely talk about.
Lauren Duval, author of The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupations, and the Making of American Independence, joins us to explore what the War for Independence actually looked like from inside the household. Women who negotiated quartering terms and held their ground. Men who came to blows over who controlled the parlor. Enslaved people who used the chaos of occupation to reunite families and reach British lines.
The revolution didn't just happen on battlefields. It happened at kitchen tables, in back gardens, and on doorsteps.
Lauren's Website | Book |
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:38 The Home Front of the American Revolution
00:05:24 The Gensis of the Revolutionary Household
00:10:49 Why Focus on Urban Port Cities
00:19:46 The British Occupation's Impact on City Life
00:25:55 Quartering a British Officer: The Drinker Household
00:33:38. Quartering Experiences in Male-Headed Households
00:39:22 Lower-Class Experiences During British Occupation
00:40:55 The Impact of British Hard Currency on Urban Labor Markets
00:44:21 Black Experiences During British Occupation
00:51:21 The Overall American Experience of the War for Independence
00:54:01. The Time Warp
00:59:47 Conculsion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 050: Betsy Ross & the Making of America
π§ Episode 175: The War in Ben Franklin's House
π§ Episode 306: The Horse's Tail
π§ Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia
π§ Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Yorktown
π§ Episode 380: The Tory's Wife
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250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston: driven out by cannon that had traveled 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga. But where did the plan for those cannons take shape?
In this Revisited episode, we return to our conversation with Garrett Cloer, now Program Manager for Interpretation and Visitor Experience at Saratoga National Historical Park, to explore the Longfellow HouseβWashington's Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This Georgian mansion served as George Washington's home and headquarters for nearly nine months during the Siege of Boston. In this house, Washington forged the Continental Army and plotted the moves that liberated the city. Garrett reveals the house's Loyalist origins, life inside during the siege, and how poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later transformed it into a literary landmark.
A companion to Episode 436 on Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/194
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
π§ Episode 228: The Boston Massacre
π§ Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History
π§ Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord
π§ Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker Hill
π§ Episode 436: Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery
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On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, driven out by cannon hauled 300 miles through winter wilderness from a crumbling fort in upstate New York.
Join Matthew Keagle, Curator at Fort Ticonderoga, as we trace the fort's dramatic history from its French origins in the Seven Years' War, its chaotic capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in May 1775, and Henry Knox's legendary expedition to move nearly 60 tons of artillery to George Washington's army. Discover the logistics, rivalries, and resourcefulness behind one of the Revolution's most remarkable feats.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/436
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:26 British Withdrawl from Boston
00:07:55 Fort Ticonderoga's Origins
00:25:05 British Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 1756
00:28:04 British Improvements to Fort Ticonderoga
00:32:44 American Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 1775
00:49:06 Henry Knox's Expedition
01:04:46 Cannon on Dorchester Heights
01:10:36 British Evacuation of Boston
01:13:43 Legacy of Knox's Noble Train of Artillery
01:17:36 Visiting Fort Ticonderoga
01:24:65 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 130: Paul Revere's Ride Through History
π§ Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters, NHS
π§ Episode 238: Benedict Arnold
π§ Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History
π§ Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord
π§ Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker Hill
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In January 1776, Thomas Paine told the American colonies to break free from their king. But what was supposed to come next? 250 years later, that question still doesn't have a good answer.
To mark the anniversary of Common Sense, we traveled to Lewes, England, the town where Paine lived before he ever set foot in America, and recorded our first-ever LIVE episode inside Bull House, the building where Paine honed his ideas about citizens and their government.
Joseph Adelman chairs a panel with scholars Leanne O'Boyle, Nicole Mahoney, and Jeanne Sheehan Zaino as they dig into the legacy of Common Sense: democracy's "day two problem," the women Paine wrote out of his own story, why "the law is king" keeps showing up on protest signs, and what a 15th-century building in a small English town can teach us about where democratic ideas actually take root.
Recorded live in partnership with the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/435
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:06 What Happened After the Revolution?
00:02:59 Live from the Bull House in Lewes, England
00:04:49 A Template for Common Sense and Civic Life
00:07:12 Thomas Paine's Legacy in Lewes, England
00:10:24 Thomas Paine's Legacy in New Rochelle, New York
00:16:04 Democracy's "Day Two Problem"
00:22:50 Local Civic Engagement in Lewes
00:27:46 Women and Common Sense
00:34:54 Paine's Family Life in Lewes
00:35:31 Reconstituting Government
00:42:44 Violence and Change
00:49:31 "No Kings" Protest and 'The Law is King'
00:56:29 Thomas Paine's Legacy
00:58:10 Audience Q&A
01:18:20 Episode Wrap-Up
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
π§ Episode 243: Revolutionary Print Networks
π§ Episode 287: Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections & the Electoral College
π§ Episode 431: Thomas Paine's Common Sense at 250
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What would you fight for if you were free but still not equal? In 1777, brothers William and Benjamin Frank answered that question by enlisting in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. Freeborn men of color, they gambled that military service would earn them what freedom alone had not: equality, land, and a better future.
Historian Shirley Green, author of Revolutionary Blacks: Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence, joins us to tell their story. Drawing on genealogical research rooted in her own family history, Green reveals what daily life looked like for free Black families in Revolutionary Rhode Island, how the Frank Brothers fought at the Battles of Red Bank, Monmouth, and Rhode Island, and how the Revolution ultimately divided themβone brother serving through Yorktown, the other crossing to the British side and resettling in Nova Scotia as a Black Loyalist.
Their story is a window into the full range of Black experiences during the Revolution, and a reminder that for men like William and Benjamin Frank, choosing a side was never simple. It was a calculated gamble, shaped by promises madeβand promises broken.
Shirleyβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/434
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:19 The Frank Brothers' Revolutionary Choices
00:05:14 Discovering the Frank Brothers Through Family Oral History
00:09:01 Blending Genalogy and Microhistory
00:15:22 Life for Free Black Families in Early Rhode Island
00:20:50 Why Free Black Men Joined the Continental Army
00:24:00 Motivations: Land, Pay, and Equality
00:29:15 The Gamble of Military Service Amid Policy Shifts
00:41:13 Daily Life and Combat in the Integrated Regiments
00:44:46 Ben Frank's Desertion
00:52:51 The Book of Negroes
01:00:02 Postwar Outcomes: Did Promises of Land, Pay, and Equality Hold?
01:02:47 Lessons from Black Soldiers' Experiences
01:07:26 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
π§ Episode 157: African American Soldiers in the Continental Army
π§ Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1
π§ Episode 333: Disruptions in Yorktown
π§ Episode 348: Valley Forge
π§ Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker Hill
π§ Episode 424: Dunmore's Proclamation & the American Revolution in Virginia
π§ Episode 427: How States Are Planning the 250th of the American Revolution
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More than 6,000 Black menβfree and enslavedβserved in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Yet their stories remain some of the least told of the war.
In this revisited episode, we rejoin Judith Van Buskirk, Professor Emerita of History at SUNY Cortland and author of Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution, to explore what motivated African American men to fight for the Revolutionary cause, how the Continental Army's policies toward Black enlistment shifted over the course of the war, and what life and service looked like in units like the First Rhode Island Regiment.
Judy's Book
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 016: The Internal Enemy
π§ Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
π§ Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
π§ Episode 433: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence
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What if the American Revolution was never just an American story?
Historian Ronald Angelo Johnson helps us uncover the deep connections between the American and Haitian Revolutions to reveal how both revolutions emerged from the same Atlantic imperial struggle for empire, racialized power, and war.
Using details from his book Entangled Alliances, Ron will guide us from the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to the Siege of Savannah in 1779, where hundreds of Black soldiers from French Saint Domingue landed on Georgiaβs shoresβnot as enslaved laborers, but as uniformed volunteers ready to fight for American Independence.
Ron's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/433
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:08 Episode Overview
00:04:50 The Treaty of Paris 1763 and its Impact
00:09:09 Consequences of the Seven Years' War for Saint Domingue
00:18:39 Saint Domingue Society Post-Seven Years' War
00:24:32 French Imperial Reaction vs. Local Resentment
00:28:36 Circulation of News Between British North America & Saint Domingue
00:39:22 France's Strategy to Assist American Revolutionaries
00:50:42 Reception of the Chasseurs Volontaires Regiment in Georgia
00:54:42 Re-evaluating the American Revolution
00:57:32 Time Warp
01:05:38 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 052: Diplomacy in Black and White
π§ Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution
π§ Episode 228: The Boston Massacre (King Street Riot)
π§ Episode 325: The Everyday People of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 361: The Fourth of July in 2026
π§ Episode 421: Loyalism & Revolution in Georgia
π§ Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
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What does it take to become a revolutionary in more than one revolution? In this revisited conversation with Mike Duncan, we explore the life of the Marquis de Lafayetteβan ambitious young Frenchman who crossed the Atlantic to fight for the American cause and later carried those lessons into the political storms of France. From early idealism to a complicated role in two upheavals, Lafayetteβs story reveals how ideas, alliances, and personal relationships shaped the Age of Revolutions.
Youβll hear how Lafayette became close to George Washington, what he learned in America, and why his legacy makes the most sense when you follow him across borders.
Mikeβs Instagram | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/313
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Bonus: The Marquis de Lafayette & the Hermione
π§ Episode 071: Saratoga & Hubbardton, 1777
π§ Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton
π§ Episode 363: Ste. GenΓ©vieve National Historical Park
π§ Episode 365: 300 Years of French Settlment at Γle Sait-Jean
π§ Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
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The American Revolution wasnβt just a colonial rebellion; it was a global conflict shaped by European rivalries and high-stakes diplomacy. Without the help of foreign allies like France and Spain, the United States might never have won its independence.
Historian John Ferling joins us to explore the international dimensions of the Revolutionary War. Drawing from his new book Shots Heard Round the World, Ferling reveals how secret aid, political gambles, and naval power from Europe (especially France) influenced the outcome of the war, and nearly derailed it.
Johnβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/432
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:01:06 Introduction
00:01:52 Why European Powers Intervened
00:08:02 International Interest in the American Revolution
00:14:20 French Reaction to the Outbreak of War
00:19:28 Initiation of Foreign Aid
00:23:46 British Expectations of a Quick Victory
00:25:35 Saratoga as a Turning Point
00:31:46 French Naval and Military Support
00:37:36 Spain's Ambitions and Entry into the War
00:42:55 Britain's War Fatigue and Missed Opportunities
00:51:31 Outcomes for France and Spain
00:54:53 Time Warp
00:59:20 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 046: The American Revolution and the War that Won It
π§ Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
π§ Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America
π§ Episode 208: Turning Points of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 313: The Marquis de Lafayette
π§ Episode 421: Loyalism & Revolution in Georgia
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π https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quiz
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Before Common Sense could ignite a revolution, colonists had to be convinced they shared a cause worth fighting for. So how did Revolutionary leaders turn thirteen very different colonies into βAmericansββand what stories did they tell to make that unity feel real?
In this Ben Franklinβs World Revisited episode, historian Robert Parkinson returns to explore how newspapers and wartime messaging helped forge the Revolutionβs βcommon causeββand how that campaign leaned on fear, race, and exclusion to build a new national identity.
Robβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/144
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 016: The Internal Enemy
π§ Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 243: Revolutionary Print Networks
π§ Episode 375: Misinformation Nation: Fake News in Early America
π§ Episode 431: Common Sense at 250: The Pamphlet That Sparked A Revolution
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REQUEST A TOPIC
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TAKE THE QUIZ
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π https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quiz
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Thomas Paineβs Common Sense turned a colonial rebellion into a full-blown revolution. But how did one pamphlet move so many minds in 1776βand why does it still matter 250 years later?
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Common Sense, historian and Director of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University, Nora Slonimsky, joins us to explore Paineβs life, the pamphletβs explosive impact, and what this revolutionary text still teaches us about democracy, communication, and civic life.
ITPS Website
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:06 Thomas Pain's Early Life and Influences
00:05:53 The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies
00:07:51 Thomas Paine as an English Excise Man
00:13:34 Paine's Ideas for Reform of the British Government
00:19:27 Reception of Paine's First Pamphlet
00:21:48 Paine's Intellectual Life in England
00:27:30 Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin
00:31:44 Paine's Migration to Philadelphia
00:35:55 Paine's View of the American Revolution
00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense
00:50:34 Measuring the Reach of Common Sense
00:59:34 The Legacy of Common Sense and Thomas Paine
01:02:54 Time Warp
01:05:02 Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of Common Sense
01:08:17 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 127: American Enlightenments
π§ Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
π§ Episode 144: The Common Cause
π§ Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
π§ Episode 243: Revolutionary Print Networks
π§ Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness
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TAKE THE QUIZ
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Common Sense didnβt just make an argument for independenceβit moved through a world of newspapers, pamphlets, and personal networks that carried revolutionary ideas from one doorstep to the next. So how did political news travel in 1776, and what made print such a powerful engine of persuasion?
As we approach the 250th anniversary of Common Sense, Ben Franklinβs World Revisited returns to Episode 156 to explore how early Americans shared, debated, and embraced revolutionary ideas. Youβll discover how print and networks spread the Revolution, what made Common Sense a publishing phenomenon, and how media shaped political debate and public opinion.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/156
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 091: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America
π§ Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 144: The Common Cause
π§ Episode 243: Revolutionary Print Networks
π§ Episode 375: Misinformation Nation: Fake News in Early America
π§ Episode 428: America's Forgotten Quest to Link Two Oceans
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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π Join the History Explorers Club
TAKE THE QUIZ
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π https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quiz
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Benjamin Rush was one of early Americaβs most fascinating figures. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a leading Philadelphia physician, and a thinker who believed that a healthy body was the foundation of a healthy republic.
In this episode, historian Sarah Naramore, author of Benjamin Rush, Civic Health and Human Illness in the Early American Republic, introduces us to Rush as both doctor and political philosopher.
Weβll explore:
- How Rush developed an βAmerican systemβ of medicine
- His groundbreaking ideas on mental health and addiction
- And why he believed the human body modeled the ideal form of government.
Rush may be what Sarah calls a βB-list Founding Father,β but his influence on early American science, politics, and public health was anything but minor.
Sarahβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/430
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:06 Episode Introduction
00:04:48 Who Was Benjamin Rush
00:13:52 Benjamin Rush's Medical Practice
00:17:01 The American System of Medicine
00:22:30 Rush's Ideas about Civic Health
00:29:07 Rush's Approach to Mental Health
00:33:53 Rush's Views on Addiction
00:48:00 Rush's Legacy
00:52:13 Time Warp
00:55:00 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 174: Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic
π§ Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
π§ Episode 263: The Medical Imagination
π§ Episode 279: Benjamin Rush, Founding Father
π§ Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1
π§ Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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LISTEN π§
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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British officials had a problem: Their American colonists wouldn't stop smuggling. Even after Parliament slashed tea prices and passed laws to make legal imports cheaper, colonists kept buying Dutch and French goods on the black market.
So what was really going on? If it wasn't just about saving money, what drove thousands of merchants and consumers to risk fines, seizure, and worse?
In this revisited episode, we follow the illicit trade networks that connected colonial port cities to the "Golden Rock,β Sint Eustatius, a tiny Dutch island that became the Atlantic World's busiest smuggling hub.
You'll discover why American merchants risked everything to trade there, how these underground networks shaped revolutionary resistance, and what Britain's crackdown on smuggling reveals about the deeper economic and political tensions that ignited the Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/161
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 021: Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
π§ Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
π§ Episode 121: The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
π§ Episode 159: Dangerous Economies
π§ Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
π§ Episode 288: Smugglers & Pirates in the 18th-Century Atlantic World
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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Think the Boston Tea Party made America a coffee-drinking nation? Historian Michelle McDonald reveals the truth: colonists were already choosing coffee over tea because it was cheaper.
Michelle Craig McDonald, the Librarian/Director of the Library & Museum at the American Philosophical Society and author of Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States, explains how coffee shaped American identity long before the Revolution.
You'll hear about Revolutionary-era women storming a Boston warehouse to seize hoarded coffee and sell it at regulated prices. You'll discover why Parliament protected coffee while taxing tea. And you'll learn how enslaved Caribbean laborers made America's favorite beverage possible.
From colonial coffee houses to debates about caffeine addiction in the early republic, discover how one imported commodity became distinctly American.
Michelle's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/429
EPISODE OUTLINE
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:03:20 Meet our Guest
- 00:04:35 Coffee vs. Tea in Early America
- 00:06:50 Coffeehouses and How Coffee Was Served
- 00:08:04 Medical Concerns About Coffee
- 00:09:12 Coffee Production
- 00:12:35 Attempts to Grow Coffee in North America
- 00:14:04 The Use of Enslaved Labor in Coffee Cultivation
- 00:19:50 The Early American Market for Coffee
- 00:22:21 Early American Coffee Connoisseurs
- 00:29:57 Early American Coffeehouses
- 00:34:48 Coffee and the American Revolution
- 00:36:40 The Boston Coffee Riot, 1777
- 00:42:48 Coffee in the Early Republic
- 00:45:00 Coffee and the Haitian Revolution
- 00:47:53 Early Republic Attempts to Grow Coffee
- 00:50:55 Early Republic Coffee Culture
- 00:53:56 Time Warp
- 00:58:31 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
π§ Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
π§ Episode 288: Smugglers & Patriots in the 18th-Century Atlantic World
π§ Episode 294: 1774, The Long Year of American Revolution
π§ Episode 319: Cuba: An Early American History
π§ Episode 401: Tea, Boycotts, & Revolution
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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In the 1820s, American entrepreneurs, engineers, and politicians dared to dream big. They believed they could cut a canal, not through Panama, but through the wild, rain-soaked terrain of Nicaragua. Their goal: To link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and transform global trade forever.
But what inspired these ambitious "canal dreamers?β And why did they believe Nicaragua held the key to controlling the future of commerce?
Jessica Lepler, Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire and author ofCanal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific in the Age of Revolutions, joins us to explore this nearly forgotten story of innovation, illusion, and international ambition in early American history.
Jessicaβs Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/428
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:01:00 Introduction
00:04:05 Desire to Build a Canal Across Central America
00:08:01 Political Landscape of Central America During the 1820s
00:09:55 Creating a Stable Central American Government
00:11:55 Geography of the Nicaraguan Canal Route
00:16:03 Economic Opportunities of an Interoceanic Canal
00:17:57 Individual vs. State Interest in a Nicaraguan Canal
00:21:58 Why Americans Sought A Private Canal Contract
00:26:44 Information Canal Dreamers Relied On to Build a Canal
00:33:12 Competitive Advantages of American Canal Dreamers
00:35:40 American Surveys of a Central American Canal Route
00:39:12 Influence of the Erie Canal
00:42:32 Why the Nicaraguan Canal Failed
00:44:50 What Canal Dreamers Reveal About the Early United States
0046:40 Overview of the Panama Canal
00:49:50 Time Warp
00:56:00 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 028: Building the Erie Canal
π§ Episode 090: The Age of American Revolutions
π§ Episode 113: Building the Empire State
π§ Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions
π§ Episode 186: The New Map of Empire
π§ Episode 329: Freemasonry in Early America
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As we look ahead to the 250th anniversaryβthe semiquincentennialβof the Declaration of Independence in 2026, communities and commissions across the United States are asking big questions:
How should we commemorate this historic milestone?β¨Whatβs the right balance between celebration and education? And how can this moment bring people together across political divides, generational gaps, and complex histories?
To explore these questions, Iβve invited my friend, colleague, and Clio Digital Media co-founder Karin Wulf to guest host a special conversation with two people who are leading the way: Gregg Amore, Chair of the Rhode Island 250 Commission, and Carly Fiorina, Chair of the Virginia 250 Commission.
Together, they reveal how their states are planning commemorative programs that center civic engagement, local storytelling, and inclusive historyβand how the 250th can be more than a moment. It can be a spark.
Karinβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/427
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:10 Welcome & Episode Overview
00:04:45 Guest Introductions
00:07:32 Virginia & Rhode Island's Commemorative Plans
00:11:21 State Efforts and Collaborations
00:16:32 Engaging Young People
00:20:11 Educational Initiatives
00:22:13 Ken Burns's The American Revolution
00:24:30 Navigating the Political Climate
00:32:05 Reflections on the Bicentennial
00:35:00 Challenges to Achieving Commemorative Goals
00:42:51 Conclusion and Future Opportunities
00:46:53 Final Thoughts
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
π§ Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair
π§ Episode 417: Roger Williams, Rogue Puritan
π§ Episode 416: Lineage: Genealogy in Early America
π§ Episode 424: Dunmore's Proclamation & the American Revolution in Virginia
π§ Episode 425: Ken Burns's The American Revolution
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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Each November, we Americans come together to celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that invites us to reflect on gratitude, community, and the stories we tell about our past.
But what do we really know about the origins of this holiday? What did the βFirst Thanksgivingβ look like, and who were the people who made it happen?
In honor of Thanksgiving, weβre revisiting our 2018 conversation with Rebecca Fraser, author of The Mayflower: The Families, The Voyage, and the Founding of America. This rich conversation offers a look at the English Separatists or Pilgrims who settled in Massachusetts. It explores who they were, why they came to North America, and what their life was like in the early years of Plymouth Colony.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/213
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 095: A Tale of Two Bostons
π§ Episode 104: The Saltwater Frontier
π§ Episode 121: The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
π§ Episode 182: The Great Awakening in New England
π§ Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1
π§ Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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As Thanksgiving approaches, many Americans are gathering to reflect on gratitude, familyβand of courseβfood.
It's the time of year when we may think about the so-called "First Thanksgiving" and imagine scenes of Pilgrims and Native peoples gathering in Massachusetts to share in the bounty of their fall harvests.
But how much do we really know about the food systems and agricultural knowledge of Indigenous peoples of North America? In what ways were the Wampanoag people able to contribute to this harvest celebrationβand what have we gotten wrong about their story?
Michael Wise, Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas and author of Native Foods: Agriculture, Indigeneity, and Settler Colonialism in American History, joins us to challenge four persistent myths about Indigenous food practices. Discover how Native communities shaped and stewarded the land and its agriculture long before European colonists arrivedβand why this history matters more than we might think.
Michaelβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/426
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:10 Episode Introduction
00:03:43 Guest Introduction
00:04:30 Myths about Indigenous Agriculture
00:11:29 Indigenous and European Gender Roles
00:15:56 Wampanoag Agriculture
00:17:29 Wampanoag Corn Cultivation
00:25:59 Wampanoag Cuisine
00:27:52 Indigenous Disspossession in New England
00:32:58 Cherokee Agriculture
00:37:13 The Cherokee Hunter Myth
00:40:53 The Origin of the Myths about Native American Agriculture
00:45:40 Future Projects
00:47:13 Closing Thoughts & Resources
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 131: Thomas Jefferson's Empire of Liberty
π§ Episode 189: The Little Ice Age
π§ Episode 278: Polygamy: An Early American History
π§ Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt 1
π§ Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt 2
π§ Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
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What does it take to bring the American Revolution to life?
How can an event that took place 250 years ago be conveyed to us through modern-day film?
Ken Burns and his team worked to answer these questions in their new, epic six-part documentary, Ken Burnsβ The American Revolution. Their work promises to deepen, complicate, and transform our understanding of the Revolution over 12 hours of film.
But how did Burns and his team make this film? What stories did they choose to tell? And what challenges did they face in telling those stories?
Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, the two co-directors of Ken Burnsβ The American Revolution, join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of their film and how they made it.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/425
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:09 Guest Introduction
00:04:42 Becoming Involved in the Documentary
00:07:57 Approach to Telling the Story of the Revolution
00:18:57 Images and Representation
00:21:53 Challenges Faced
00:27:03 Choosing Which Stories to Include
00:39:00 Relevance and Meaning of the Revolution
00:45:45 Time Warp
00:52:15 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 307: History and the American Revolution
π§ Episode 314: Native Americans in Early American Cities
π§ Episode 327: Ken Burns' Benjamin Franklin
π§ Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States
π§ Episode 382: Hessians
π§ Episode 408: The Memory of 1776
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In November 1775, as tensions between the British Empire and its rebellious colonies continued to escalate, Virginiaβs royal governor made a radicalβand to some, terrifyingβproclamation: Any enslaved person who fled a revolutionary enslaver and joined the British Army would gain their freedom.
Known to history as Dunmoreβs Proclamation, this single decree changed the course of the American Revolution in the South. It offered a lifeline to thousands of enslaved men, women, and their families, ignited fierce debates about loyalty and liberty, and revealed deep contradictions at the heart of a revolution that claimed to fight for freedom.
In honor of the 250th anniversary of Lord Dunmoreβs Proclamation, weβre taking a deeper look at the man behind it: John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore, and at the Revolution in Virginia, which he helped fuel.
Our guide for this exploration is Andrew Lawler, an award-winning journalist and author of A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution.
Andrew's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/424
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 109: The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
π§ Episode 162: Dunmore's New World
π§ Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America
π§ Episode 322: Running From Bondage in Revolutionary America
π§ Episode 333: Disruptions in Yorktown
π§ Episode 398: The Shawnee-Dunmore War, 1774
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π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
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LISTEN π§
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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What did it take to end the War for Independence?
When we think of the American Revolutionβs final chapter, we think of the Siege of Yorktown.
Between September 28 and October 19, 1781, British forces endured a siege by the Franco-American forces that ultimately led to a triumphant Franco-American victory, British recognition of American independence, and the birth of a new nation.
But the real story of the Yorktown victory is far more layered. It involved international alliances, enslaved people seeking freedom, and years of hardship.
Today, weβre revisiting the events of October 1781 as we revisit Episode 333.
In this episode, we join three historiansβMarcus Nevius, Ed Ayers, and Gretchen Johnsonβ who help us uncover:
- How American, French, and British forces converged at Yorktown
- The vital role of the French army and navy in securing victory
- And what this final battle looked like on the ground for soldiers, civilians, and Black Virginians alike
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/333
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:59 Siege of Yorktown
00:05:13 The British Military Approach
00:08:50 The Importance of Virginia's Regions
00:18:57 The Impact of War on Yorktown
00:28:03 Dunmore's Proclamation and the British Strategy
00:33:44 The British Invasion of Virginia
00:48:00 Aftermath and Legacy
00:55:49 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 162: Dunmore's New World
π§ Episode 208: Turning Points of the American Revolution
π§ Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
π§ Episode 289: Maroonage in the Great Dismal Swamp
π§ Episode 306: The Horse's Tail
π§ Episode 332: Occupied Philadelphia
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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LISTEN π§
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Have you ever noticed how conversations about the American Revolution often center on great battles, founding documents, and famous statesmen?
What if, instead, we explored that world through the eyesβand the handsβof everyday people who shaped it through art?
Zara Anishanslin, Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware and Director of its Museum Studies and Public Engagement Program, joins us to uncover the hidden world of artists, artisans, and makers who painted, stitched, and crafted the Revolution into being. Drawing from her book The Painterβs Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution, Zara helps us see how creativity and craftsmanship tell a fullerβand more humanβstory of Americaβs founding.
Zaraβs Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/423
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:41.79 Welcome & Episode Overview
00:02:59 Meet Our Guest
00:07:11 The Transatlantic Network of Revolutionary Artists
00:11:28 Why Revolutionary Artwork Didn't Survive
00:14:13 Prince Demah & His Mother Daphny
00:21:21 How Art Patronage Worked in the 18th Century
00:24:01 Finding Prince Demah a Teacher in London
00:27:40 Life as a Black Artist in London
00:41:22 Prince Demah's Life in Revolutionary Boston
00:49:24 Robert Edge Pine: The English Artist Who Supported America
00:59:24 How Revolutionary Art Differs from Later Commemorative Art
01:04:55 What Artists Reveal About the Revolution
01:07:29 Closing Thoughts & Resources
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Episode 084: How Historians Read Historical Sources
π§ Episode 106: The World of John Singleton Copley
π§ Episode 201: Art, Politics, and Everyday Life in Early America
π§ Episode 299: Colonial Virginia Portraits
π§ Episode 390: Objects of Revolution
π§ Episode 422: Plantation Goods
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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LISTEN π§
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does it mean to be caught between two worlds? Between loyalty and liberty, artistry and commerce, and between the British North American colonies and the British Empire?
Weβre revisiting our exploration of the life of John Singleton Copley, one of early Americaβs most celebrated portrait artists. Copleyβs story reveals much about the upheaval of the American Revolution and the choices people made as events unfolded around them.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/106
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
π§ Bonus: The Boston Stamp Act Riots of 1765
π§ Episode 075: How Archives Work (Paul Revere)
π§ Episode 084: How Historians Read Historical Sources
π§ Episode 136: Material Culture and the Making of America
π§ Episode 201: Art, Politics, and Everyday Life in Early America
π§ Episode 299: Colonial Virginia Portraits
SUPPORT OUR WORK
π Make a Donation to Ben Franklinβs World
REQUEST A TOPIC
π¨ Topic Request Form
π« liz@benfranklinsworld.com
WHEN YOU'RE READY
ποΈ BFW Gazette Newsletter
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LISTEN π§
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SAY THANKS
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/404_Spivey.mp3Did you know that many of the food traditions that define cuisine in the United States today have roots in African American culinary history?
Diane M. Spivey, a culinary historian and author of three culinary history books, joins us to uncover the rich and complex legacy of African and African American foodways and how those foodways helped establish the United States.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryDiane M. Spivey is a culinary historian who has devoted more than forty years to studying and recording African American food traditions in cooking. She has written many articles and three books on the topics of African and African American cuisine and culinary traditions including The Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool Cookbook: The Global Migration of African Cuisine and At the Table of Power: Food and Cuisine in the African American Struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality.
During our conversation, Diane reveals how African and African American cooking made European colonial success possible. The ways African Americans contributed to and supported the Continental Army and the revolutionariesβ success in the American Revolution. And, how African American chefs, bakers, and cooks worked as culinary activists during the anti-slavery and abolition movements.
What Youβll Discover* No recognition of African people and foods in some 20th-century cookbooks * Cooking as labor-intensive work * Why African Americans were often cooks * Why modern-day chefs and cooks are exalted for skill, flavor, and creativity * French cuisine during the 17th and 18th centuries * French agricultural techniques in the 17th and 18th centuries * How Africans became involved with cooking in early North America * How African cooking lead to the success of European American colonies * The Story of Hannah Till, Continental Army cook at Valley Forge * Samuel Frances, cook and tavernkeeper in early New York City * Hercules Posey and James Hemings, chefs of Washington and Jefferson * How Black cooks used cooking to further the anti-slavery movement * The movement to erase the contributions of African and African American cooks and chefs from the historical record
Links to People, Places, and Publications Diane Spivey * Spivey, At the Table of Power * Spivey, The Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool Cookbook * Spivey, Once You Go Black, You Never Go Back * George Washington Headquarters Tent * A. Leon Higgenbothem, In the Matter of Color* * Transcript
1776 in ContextHow do you think your research into the contributions and culinary accomplishments of black chefs, cooks, and bakers can help us better understand the American Revolution?
Complementary Episodes Episode 137: The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
Episode 170: New England Bound
Episode 222: Early History of Washington, D.C.
Episode 226: Making the State of South Carolina
Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
Episode 348: Valley Forge
Episode 395: The Great New York Fire of 1776
Request a Topic Topic Request Form
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Sponsors Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg
Say Thanks Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
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Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 404: Diane M. Spivey, How Black Chefs Shaped Early America appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/403_Chervinsky_CW.mp3Did you know that John Adams, not George Washington, solidified the precedents of the executive branch and the presidency?
Lindsay Chervinsky, an award-winning presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, has written a book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. She joins us to investigate the presidency of the United Statesβ second president, John Adams.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryLindsay Chervinsky is a presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Sheβs an award-winning historian who regularly writes for The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Magazine, The Daily Beast, Time, and The Washington Post. She is the author of two books, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution and Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic.
During our investigation of John Adamsβs presidency, Lindsay reveals precedents that George Washington set for the presidency that John Adams solidified for the future. The political and international crises John Adams inherited, including tensions with Great Britain and France and vicious political discord between the Federalist and Democratic-Republic parties. And, how John Adams navigated these crises to secure peace with France and the peaceful transition of power between political parties in the United States.
What Youβll Discover* Preview of the work of President John Adams and his administration * Washingtonβs retirement * Work of the Presidentβs Cabinet * Adamsβ lack of training in the inner workings of the Executive Branch * Filling John Adamsβ Cabinet * Adamsβ relationship with his Cabinet secretaries * Relations between the United States and France in 1791 * John Adamsβ decision to keep the United States neutral * Adamsβ skill as a diplomat * 1791 peace delegation to France * The XYZ Affair and what this affair meant for American neutrality with France * Secretary of State Timothy Pickering * The United States creates a standing army * The Crisis of 1798 * The Alien and Sedition Acts * 1799 peace delegation to France * Alexander Hamiltonβs unofficial role in John Adamsβ Cabinet * The Election of 1800 * How the House of Representatives Decided the Election of 1800
Links to People, Places, and Publications Lindsay Chervinsky * Lindsayβs Substack * Chervinsky, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic* * Chervinsky, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution * George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon * Transcript
Time Warp QuestionIn your opinion, what might have happened if John Adams had been elected to a second term as president?
Complementary Episodes Episode 040: For Fear of an Elected King
Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
Episode 188: The Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798
Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams and Jefferson
Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton
Episode 279: The Cabinet: Creation of An American Institution
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Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 403: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, From Crisis to Peace: Re-Evaluating the Presidency of John Adams appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/402_Frishman.mp3Do you know what time it is?
In early America, this question wasnβt as simple to answer as it is today. Urban dwellers in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston often wondered about the timeβbut few owned their own watches or clocks. So, how did they keep track of the hours?
In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of early American timekeeping. Bob Frishman, a horologistβa specialist in clocks and watchesβand a scholar of horology, joins us to explore how timepieces and their makers shaped community life and craftsmanship in the 18th century. Along the way, weβll uncover the remarkable story of Edward Duffield, a Philadelphia clockmaker who wasnβt just a master craftsman but also a close friend and neighbor of Benjamin Franklin.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryBob Frishman, a horologistβa specialist in clocks and watchesβand a scholar of horology, joins us to explore the life and work of Edward Duffield, using details from his book, Edward Duffield: Philadelphia Clockmaker, Citizen, and Gentleman, 1730-1803.
During our exploration, Bob reveals information about early Americansβ interest in time and timekeeping. The work and place of early American clock and watchmakers in Early American society. And, what Edward Duffieldβs life and work reveal about the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
What Youβll Discover* Clock and watchmaking * Eighteenth-century Philadelphia * Eighteenth-century Philadelphiansβ interest in keeping time * Edward Duffieldβs life and work by 1750 * What we know about Duffieldβs early life * Historical sources about Edward Duffield * The Duffield Familyβs wealth and early settlement * Clockmaker training in the 18th century * The finances of clocks and clockmaking in the 18th century * How 18th-century clockmakers worked * The early American market for timepieces * Edward Duffieldβs clockmaking * How clockmakers worked with cabinet-makers * Clockmaking as a family business * Duffield's work as Keeper of the Independence Hall clock * Duffieldβs relationship with Benjamin Franklin * The Declaration of Independence in Duffieldβs Benfield Estate * How clockmakers can help us better understand early America
Links to People, Places, and Publications Bob Frishman * Edward Duffield Website * Frishman, Edward Duffield: Philadelphia Clockmaker, Citizen, Gentleman, 1730-1803* * Ebenezer Kinnersley * Historical Society of Pennsylvania * Elizabeth Drinker Diary * American Philosophical Society * American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklinβs Post Office Ledgers * John Harrison, Marine Chronometer * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Colonial Williamsburg Newsletters
Complementary Episodes* Episode 149: Benjamin Franklin in London * Episode 175: The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House * Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin * Episode 244: Shoe Stories from Early America * Episode 292: Craft in Early America * Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 1 * Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2 * Episode 332: Occupied Philadelphia
1776 in ContextWhat do you think your research into Edward Duffield and clockmaking in early Philadelphia can teach us about the American Revolution?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
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Why Not Listen regularly through one of these apps?
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
Positive ratings and reviews help bring Ben Franklin's World to the attention of other history lovers who may not be aware of our show
Click here to rate & review on iTunes
Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 402: Bob Frishman, Clocks, Watches, and Life in Early America appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/401_Fichter.mp3During the early days of the American Revolution, British Americans attempted to sway their fellow Britons with consumer politics.
In 1768 and 1769, they organized a non-consumption movement of British goods to protest the Townshend Duties. In 1774, they arranged a non-importation and non-exportation movement to protest the Tea Act and Coercive Acts.
Why did the colonists protest the Tea Act and Coercive Acts? Why did they chose to protest those acts with the consumer politics of a non-importation/non-exportation program?
James Fichter, the author of Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776, joins us to explore the Tea Crisis of 1773 and the resulting non-importation/non-exportation movement the colonists organized after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryJames Fichter is a historian and associate professor at the University of Hong Kong. Heβs also the author of Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776. He joins us to explore the Tea Crisis of 1773 and the resulting non-importation/non-exportation movement the colonists organized after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts.
During our exploration, James reveals information about early Americansβ taste for tea and the origin of the early American βtea crazeβ; The stories we learned about the Tea Crisis and Boston Tea Party and what historical sources have to say about the reality of those events; And, details about the Continental Association and the non-importation/non-exportation program it outlined for 1775 and 1776.
What Youβll Discover* Early Americansβ taste for tea by 1773 * Origins of the βtea crazeβ in Great Britain & Early America * The relationship between trade and British imperial politics * Why Early Americans struggled to get trade goods they wanted * Tea smuggling * English and British Navigation Acts * The Tea Act of 1773 * Tea consignees and the propaganda about them * The Tea Crisis of 1773 * Tea as a symbol of British identity * Chestertown, Maryland Tea Party * The American turn away from tea * The Continental Association and its boycott of British goods * Shaping the messaging of the Tea Crisis and Boston Tea Party * Boston as an outlier of revolutionary action * The Boston Port Act, 1774 * Harvard University Tea Riot, 1775 * Impact of the Continental Association boycott
Links to People, Places, and Publications James Fichter * Jamesβs website * Ficther, Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776* * Catherine of Braganza ββ * Massachusetts Historical Society, Non-importation and Non-Consumption * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists
Complementary Episodes* Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773 * Episode 160: The Politics of Tea * Episode 228: The Boston Massacre * Episode 229: The Townshend Moment * Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History * Episode 337: Early Americaβs Trade with China * Episode 375: Misinformation Nation * Episode 390: The Objects of Revolution
Time Warp QuestionWhat if the Boston Tea Party and other tea protests had really led to a significant reduction in tea consumption among British American colonists? If the colonists had truly given up their tea in protest of the Tea Act, how might this have altered the course of the American Revolution?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
Listen!Enjoy the Podcast?
Why Not Listen regularly through one of these apps?
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
Positive ratings and reviews help bring Ben Franklin's World to the attention of other history lovers who may not be aware of our show
Click here to rate & review on iTunes
Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 401: James Fichter, Tea, Boycotts, and Revolution appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/400_Ben_Franklins_world.mp3How do historians define Ben Franklinβs βworld?β What historical event, person, or place in the era of Ben Franklin do they wish you knew about?
In celebration of the 400th episode of Ben Franklinβs World, we posed these questions to more than 20 scholars. What do they think?
Join the celebration and discover more about the world Ben Franklin lived in.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryHow do historians define Ben Franklinβs βworld?β What historical event, person, or place in the era of Ben Franklin do they wish you knew about?
To celebrate our 400th episode, we posed these questions to more than 20 historians. Their answers offer many similarities in their temporal and geographic scope, but they diverge greatly on the people and places they would like you to know more about.
What Youβll Discover* Adrian Weimer, Providence College * Phillip Reid, Independent Historian of Maritime History * Catherine OβDonnell, Arizona State University * David Schmidt, Florentine Films * Morgan McCullough, Team Ben Franklinβs World * Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College * Kate CartΓ©, Southern Methodist University * Terrance Rucker, Office of the Historian, United States House of Representatives * Serena Zabin, Carleton College * John Bickers, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Case Western Reserve University * Nicole Maskiell, University of South Carolina * Joseph Adelman, Framingham State University * MΓ‘rcia Balisciano, Benjamin Franklin House, London * Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University, Emerita * Marcus Nevius, University of Missouri * Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill * Karin Wulf, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University * EstΓ¨van Rael-GΓ lvez, Native Bound-Unbound Project
Links to People, Places, and Publications Adrian Weimer, A Constitutional Culture * Joseph Plumb Martin, Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin * Ken Burnsβ Benjamin Franklin * Colin Calloway, The Indian World of George Washington * 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt * Park Street Church Boston * Sheilla Skemp, First Lady of Letters: Judith Sargent Murray and the Struggle for Female Independence* * Sheila Skemp, Judith Sargent Murray: A Brief Biography with Documents * Omohundro Institute * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes* Episode 285: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic * Episode 300: Vast Early America * Episode 389: Indigenous Justice in Early America * Episode 393: Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
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The post Episode 400: Ben Franklinβs world appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/399_Schipper.mp3Denmark Veseyβs failed revolt in 1822 could have been the largest insurrection of enslaved people against their enslavers in United States history. Not only was Veseyβs plan large in scale, but Charleston officials arrested well over one hundred rumored participants.
Jeremy Schipper, a Professor in the departments for the Study or Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of Denmark Veseyβs Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Scripture and Slavery on Trial, joins us to investigate Veseyβs planned rebellion and the different ways Vesey used the Bible and biblical texts to justify his revolt and the violence it would have wrought.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryJeremy Schipper is a biblical scholar who teaches in the Departments for the Study of Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Heβs a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the author and co-author of several books including co-authored book with Nyasha Junior, Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, and most recently, Denmark Veseyβs Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Scripture and Slavery on Trial.
During our investigation, Jeremy reveals what historians know about Denmark Vesey and his life prior to his thwarted rebellion; How Denmark Veseyβs literacy and ability to read and interpret the Bible played a significant role in his decision to plan an anti-slavery rebellion in Charleston; And, details about Veseyβs trial and the biblical interpretations Vesey and the white magistrates who tried him employed to refute and support slavery.
What Youβll Discover* Overview of Denmark Veseyβs life * Veseyβs work as a carpenter * How Denmark Vesey purchased his freedom * Veseyβs transition from slavery to freedom * Life in Charleston, South Carolina ca. 1800 * Charleston as a slave society * News circulation in early 19th-century Charleston * Veseyβs literacy * Veseyβs connection to the Bible and Christian religion * The Second Great Awakening in Charleston * The Second Great Awakening in the lives of African Americans * The African Episcopal Methodist Church in Charleston * Denmark Veseyβs rebellion and why it never began * The trial of Denmark Vesey * How Charleston magistrates used biblical interpretations against Vesey * Biblical interpretations used by anti-slavery movements
Links to People, Places, and Publications* Jeremy Schipper * Schipper, Denmark Veseyβs Bible * Schipper & Junior, Black Samson * Emmanual Church Massacre, 2015 * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists
Complementary Episodes* Episode 052: Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy * Episode 124: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America * Episode 133: Nat Turnerβs Rebellion * Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions * Episode 190: Origins of the American Middle Class * Episode 226: Making the State of South Carolina * Episode 384: Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood * Episode 390: Objects of Revolution
Time Warp QuestionIn your opinion, what would have happened if Denmark Vesey and his co-planners had been able to move forward with their insurrection? How might the history of slavery in the early United States be different?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
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Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 399: Jeremy Schipper, Denmark Veseyβs Bible appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/398_Dunmore_War.mp3After the Seven Yearsβ War (1754-1763), Great Britain instituted the Proclamation Line of 1763. The Line sought to create a lasting peace in British North America by limiting British colonial settlement east of the Appalachian Mountains.
In 1768, colonists and British Indian agents negotiated the Treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labour to extend the boundary line further west. In 1774, the Shawnee-Dunmore War broke out as colonists attempted to push even further west.
Fallon Burner and Russell Reed, two of the three co-managers of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundationβs American Indian Initiative, join us to investigate the Shawnee-Dunmore War and what this war can show us about Indigenous life, warfare, and sovereignty during the mid-to-late eighteenth century.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryFallon Burner and Russell Reed, two of the three co-managers of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundationβs American Indian Initiative, join us to investigate the Shawnee-Dunmore War and what this war can show us about Indigenous life, warfare, and sovereignty during the mid-to-late eighteenth century.
During our investigation, Russell and Fallon reveal the geography of the Shawnee-Dunmore War and information about the different Native Nations involved in the war; The tensions, causes, and moving treaty lines that prompted the Shawnee-Dunmore War to break out; And, details about the Shawnee-Dunmore War, the skirmishes and battles it entailed, and the resolution of the war in the Treaty of Camp Charlotte on October 19, 1774.
What Youβll Discover* Geography of the Shawnee-Dunmore War * Native Nations and colonies involved in the Shawnee-Dunmore War * Causes of the Shawnee-Dunmore War of 1774 * John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore * The Proclamation Line of 1763 * British promises of land around Pittsburgh * Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768 * Treaty of Hard Labour, 1768 * Naming the Shawnee-Dunmore War * The Shawnee Nation * Competition for land in the Ohio River Valley * Yellow Creek Massacre, April 30, 1774 * Logan, Mingo leader * Loganβs attacks and Virginiaβs mobilization * Shawnee entrance into the Shawnee-Dunmore War * Indigenous guerilla warfare * British brute force military tactics * The Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774 * The Treaty of Camp Charlotte, October 19, 1774 * Legacy of the Shawnee-Dunmore War
Links to People, Places, and Publications* Colonial Williamsburg American Indian Initiative * Eastern Shawnee Tribe * The Shawnee Tribe * Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indiana of Oklahoma * Glenn Williams, Dunmoreβs War * Stephen Warren, The Worlds the Shawnees Made * Colin Calloway, The Shawnees and the War for America * Michael Cressap * Documentary History of Dunmoreβs War, 1774 * Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg, The Draper Papers * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Colonial Williamsburg American Indian Initiative
Complementary Episodes* Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region * Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet * Episode 353: Women and the Making of Catawba Identity * Episode 367: Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 * Episode 368: Brafferton Indian School, Part 2
Time Warp QuestionImagine if Lord Dunmore had pursued a diplomatic approach rather than a military one to address Virginiansβ tensions with the Shawnee and Mingo tribes in 1774. How might a peaceful resolution have altered the course of events and their impact on colonial expansion and the American Revolution?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
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Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 398: The Shawnee-Dunmore War, 1774 appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
Itβs November, the time of year when we Americans get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. Although the federal holiday we know and honor today came about in 1863, Thanksgiving is a day that many modern-day Americans associate with the Indigenous peoples and religious separatists of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
What do we know about the Indigenous people the so-called Pilgrims interacted with?
This month, in between our new episodes about Indigenous history, the Ben Franklinβs World Revisited series explores the World of the Wampanoag. The World of the Wampanoag originally posted as a two-episode series in December 2020. This first episode will introduce you to the life, societies, and cultures of the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples the Plymouth colonists interacted with before the colonistsβ arrival in December 1620.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/290 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- Mass Humanities
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- Omohundro Institute
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 104: The Salwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 132: Indigenous London
- Episode 184: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
- Episode 220: New England indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery
- Episode 235: A 17th-Century Native American Life
- Episode 267: Snowshoe Country
- Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 2
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- Spotify
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- Amazon Music
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Helpful Links
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/397_DuVal.mp3The North American continent is approximately 160 million years old, yet in the United States, we tend to focus on what amounts to 3300 millionths of that history, which is the period between 1492 to the present.
Kathleen DuVal, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, asks us to widen our view of early North American history to at least 1,000 years. Using details from her book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, DuVal shows us that long before European colonists and enslaved Africans arrived on North American shores, Indigenous Americans built vibrant cities and civilizations, and adapted to a changing world and climate.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryKathleen DuVal, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, leads us on an exploration of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America. DuValβs research shows us that long before European colonists and enslaved Africans arrived on North American shores, Indigenous Americans built vibrant cities and civilizations, and adapted to a changing world and a changing climate.
During our investigation of one thousand years of North American history, Kathleen reveals what Indigenous North America looked like one thousand years ago; How and why large Indigenous cities like Cahokia experienced depopulation and abandonment prior to the sixteenth century; And what the history of colonial North America looks like when we view it through Native American eyes.
What Youβll Discover* Why write about Native American history over 1,000 years * The recent trend of big books on Indigenous history * Indigenous North America one thousand years ago * Native cities and urban centers like Cahokia * How Indigenous urban centers may have operated * Historical sources for ancient Native cities * Depopulation of Native urban centers * Oβodham societies and their formation * Keeping ancestral knowledge * Reciprocity in Indigenous societies and cultures * Reciprocity between the Quapaws and French * Information about the Quapaw and their homelands * Gender roles in 16th- and 17th-century Indigenous cultures * The story of westward expansion through Indigenous eyes * Perspectives on the end of the North American colonial period * Places to learn more about Indigenous history * Adding Indigenous perspectives to United States history
Links to People, Places, and Publications Kathleen DuVal * Native Nations: A Millennium in North America * Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution * Pekka HΓ€mΓ€lainen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America * Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History* * Tohono Oβodham Nation * Quapaw Nation * National Museum of the American Indian * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Ben Franklinβs World Listener Community * Colonial Williamsburg Native American Heritage Month Programs
Complementary Episodes* Episode 037: Independence Lost * Episode 189: The Little Ice Age * Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region * Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua * Episode 286: Native Sovereignty * Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet * Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder * Episode 362: Treaties Between the U.S. & Native Nations
Time Warp QuestionIn your opinion, what would Indigenous nations across North America look like today if the American revolutionaries had lost the American Revolution?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
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Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post Episode 397: Kathleen DuVal, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post Episode 397: Kathleen DuVal, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/396_Carpenters_Hall.mp3βMonday, September 5, 1774. A number of the Delegates chosen and appointed by the Several Colonies and Provinces in North America to meet and hold a Congress at Philadelphia assembled at the Carpentersβ Hall.β
That statement begins the Journals of the Continental Congress, the official meeting minutes of the First and Second Continental Congresses. Between September 1774 and March 1789, the congressmen filled 34-printed volumes worth of entries.
Join Michael Norris, the Executive Director of the Carpentersβ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, for a tour of Carpentersβ Hall, the meeting place of the First Continental Congress, and discover more about this historic building and the historic work of the First Continental Congress.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryMichael Norris is the Executive Director of the Carpentersβ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia. As part of his responsibilities, Michael oversees the Companyβs meeting hall, Carpentersβ Hall, which has served as an incubator of early Philadelphiaβs cultural community and as the home of the First Continental Congress.
During our exploration of Carpentersβ Hall, Michael reveals the origins of the Carpentersβ Company of Philadelphia and why early Philadelphia carpenters established this trade guild; Details about Carpentersβ Hall, its construction, and why the Carpentersβ Company rented out their meeting hall; And, information about the First Continental Congress, why it met, and what it accomplished before it adjourned on October 26, 1774.
What Youβll Discover* The Carpentersβ Company of Philadelphia * Why early Americans did not replicate the guild system * Architecture of Carpentersβ Hall * Tenants of Carpentersβ Hall * Ben Franklinβs Library Company and Carpentersβ Hall * First Continental Congress and Carpentersβ Hall * The Coercive Acts of 1774 * Paul Revere and the Suffolk Resolves * Economic boycott of British goods * The Continental Association * Legacy of the First Continental Congress * Meeting of the Second Continental Congress
Links to People, Places, and Publications The Carpentersβ Company of Philadelphia * Carpentersβ Hall * Library Company of Philadelphia * Williamsburg Public Hospital * Journals of the Continental Congress* * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Ben Franklinβs World Listener Community on Facebook
Complementary Episodes* Episode 001: The Library Company of Philadelphia * Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution * Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin * Episode 229: The Townshend Moment * Episode 292: Craft in Early America * Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution
Time Warp QuestionWhat might have happened if Carpentersβ Hall had not existed? Where would the First Continental Congress have met, and would its work and outcomes have been different?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
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Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post 396 Carpentersβ Hall and The First Continental Congress first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post 396 Carpentersβ Hall and The First Continental Congress appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/395_Carp.mp3When we think about the American Revolution, textbooks, documentaries, and historic sites have trained most of us to think about American triumphs in battles or events when American revolutionaries overcame moments of despair, when all seemed lost, to triumph in the cause of American independence.
Benjamin L. Carp will help us look at the American Revolution differently. The Daniel M. Lyons Chair of History at Brooklyn College, Ben will use details from his book The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution to help us consider the strategic military importance of New York City and its capture by the British Army and how both armies used fire as an instrument of war.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryBenjamin L. Carp is the Daniel M. Lyons Chair of History at Brooklyn College. His research interests include urban politics, society, and culture in eighteenth-century America. He is the author of several books including Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America and, most recently, The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution.
During our investigation of the Battle for New York and the Great New York Fire of 1776, Ben reveals why the British and American armies wanted to hold New York City during the American War for Independence; How and why the British and American militaries used fire as an instrument of war; And details about the Great New York Fire of 1776 and what the evidence has to say about how it broke out.
What Youβll Discover* New York City on the eve of the American Revolution * The politics of revolutionary New York City * New Yorkersβ loyalties by 1776 * Fire as a weapon of the Revolutionary War * Military strategy behind using fire as a weapon * Why the British Army wanted control of New York City in 1776 * Why the British Army chose New York City instead of Philadelphia * Tactical advantages of New York City as a βloyalist strongholdβ * The Battle for New York City * George Washingtonβs decision not to burn New York City * The Great New York Fire of 1776 * Conflicting accounts about the origin of the Great New York Fire * Newspapers as evidence of the Great New York Fire * What New Yorkers believed about the start of the fire in 1776 * The British inquiry into the Great New York Fire * The impact the Great New York Fire had on the British Army * The impact the Great New York fire had on everyday New Yorkers
Links to People, Places, and Publications Benjamin Carp * Carp, The Great New York Fire of 1776 * Ruma Chopra, Unnatural Rebellion * Donald Johnson, Occupied America* * George Washington to Lund Washington, October 6, 1776 * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * Ben Franklin's World Listener Community
Complementary Episodes* Episode 113: Building the Empire State * Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances * Episode 185: Early New York City and Its Culture * Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City * Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution * Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World * Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia * Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown
Time Warp QuestionIf the Great New York Fire of 1776 had never happened, how would the lack of a major fire in New York have impacted the rest of the American War for Independence?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
Positive ratings and reviews help bring Ben Franklin's World to the attention of other history lovers who may not be aware of our show
Click here to rate & review on iTunes
Ben Franklinβs World is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. To advertise on Ben Franklin's World contact sales@advertisecast.com.
The post 395 Benjamin Carp, The Great New York Fire of 1776 first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post 395 Benjamin Carp, The Great New York Fire of 1776 appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/394_Rosen.mp3βWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.ββ United States Declaration of Independence
What did Thomas Jefferson and the members of the Second Continental Congress mean by βthe pursuit of Happiness?β And why is pursuing happiness so important that Jefferson and his fellow Founding Fathers included it in the Declaration of Independenceβs most powerful statement of the new United Statesβ ideals?
Jeffrey Rosen, the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center and a law professor at George Washington University Law School, joins us to investigate and answer these questions with details from his book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryJeffery Rosen is the author of The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. Heβs also the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and a law professor at George Washington University Law School.
During our investigation of βthe pursuit of happiness,β Jeffrey reveals the subject of moral philosophy and the Founding generationβs interest in it; How the ideas of Greek, Roman, and Enlightenment moral philosophers shaped the Foundersβ understandings of virtue, happiness, and the characteristics of a virtuous citizenry; And, why the Founders described βthe pursuit of happinessβ as the chief aim of good government.
What Youβll Discoverβ’ Influence of classical and enlightenment philosophers
β’ Pursuit of happiness and virtue
β’ Moral philosophy
β’ Thomas Jeffersonβs reading list
β’ Education and self-Improvement through reading classical texts
β’ Unalienable rights
β’ State of nature
β’ 13 Virtues identified by Benjamin Franklin
β’ Ideas about virtue in the Declaration of Independence
β’ Ideas about virtue in the United States Constitution
β’ Classical texts and the education of women
β’ George Washington's ideas about moral philosophy and virtue
β’ Ideas on public and private happiness
β’ The Federalist Papers and their use of reason and virtue
β’ Representative democracy
β’ The Foundersβ efforts to pursue happiness and lead good, moral lives
Links to People, Places, and Publicationsβ’ Jeffery Rosen
β’ The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
β’ National Constitution Center
β’ Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
β’ National Constitution Center, Interactive Constitution
β’ Transcript
Sponsor Linksβ’ Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
β’ The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
Complementary Episodesβ’ Episode 061: The Retirement of George Washington
β’ Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
β’ Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
β’ Episode 145: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution
β’ Episode 150: Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator
β’ Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton
β’ Episode 231: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family
β’ Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin
β’ Episode 307: History and the American Revolution
β’ Episode 377: Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright
Time Warp QuestionWhat if happiness was not written into the Declaration of Independence? How would that have shaped the Early Republic and the personal lives of the people we discussed today?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment.
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
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Click here to rate & review on iTunes | Click here to rate & review on Stitcher
The post 394 Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post 394 Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/393_Political_Civility.mp3The Constitution is a document of βWe the People.β The ways Americans have supported, debated, and interpreted the Constitution since 1787 have played a vital role in the rise of politics and political parties within the United States.
What kind of political culture did the United States Constitution and its interpretations help establish? What were the expectations, practices, and cultural norms early Americans had to follow when debating the Constitution or its interpretation in the early American republic?
In honor of Constitution Day on September 17, the day the United States commemorates the signing of the United States Constitution, we speak with two historiansβ Jonathan Gienapp, an Associate Professor of History and Associate Professor of Law at Stanford University and Rachel Shelden, Director of the Richard Civil War Era Center and an Associate Professor of History at Penn State Universityβ about early American political culture and political civility in the early American republic.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryOur guests are Jonathan Gienapp, an Associate Professor of History and Associate Professor of Law, and Rachel Shelden, an Associate Professor of History and Director of the Richards Civil War Era Center. They are the authors of The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era and Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, & the Coming of the Civil War, respectively.
As we untangle the many rules of political culture and civility, Gienapp and Shelden help us understand why these rules existed, why they were and werenβt followed, and how they structured even everyday interactions between Americans. Furthermore, we explore how these rules influenced political participation and politics itself in the nation.
What Youβll Discoverβ’ How civility and political culture were closely connected in Early America
β’ Why it was important for some Americans to uphold the rules of civility and political culture
β’ Why some early Americans were not willing to uphold the rules of civility and conventions of early American political culture
β’ How the American Revolution affected political culture in the new United States
β’ Why codes of conduct for civility were written or unwritten
β’ The ways Americans defined political participation
β’ The role of political violence in early American democracy
Links to People, Places, and Publicationsβ’ Jonathan Gienapp
β’ Jonathan Gienapp, The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era
β’ Rachel Shelden
β’ Rachel Shelden, Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, & the Coming of the Civil War
β’ Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
β’ Congressional Pugilists
β’ Joanne Freeman, Affairs of Honor
β’ Joanne Freeman, Field of Blood
β’ Transcript
Sponsor Linksβ’ Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
β’ The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
β’ Constitution Day Resource
Complementary Episodesβ’ Episode 078: Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War
β’ Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
β’ Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress
β’ Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
β’ Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2
β’ Episode 285: Election & Voting in the Early Republic
Time Warp QuestionWhat do you think would have happened to Early American political culture if the United States Constitution had expressed a more inclusive idea of citizenship and who could participate in politics? What would early American political culture have looked like if the Constitution had allowed women and people of color to participate more broadly in acts like voting?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail or leave a comment.
Listen!Enjoy the Podcast?
Why Not Listen regularly through one of these apps?
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
Positive ratings and reviews help bring Ben Franklin's World to the attention of other history lovers who may not be aware of our show
Click here to rate & review on iTunes | Click here to rate & review on Stitcher
The post Episode 393: Jonathan Gienapp and Rachel Shelden, Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post Episode 393: Jonathan Gienapp and Rachel Shelden, Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
What does history have to tell us about how we, as Americans, came to define people by their race; the visual ways we have grouped people together based on their skin color, facial features, hair texture, and ancestry?
As you might imagine, history has a LOT to tell us about this question! So today, weβre going to explore one aspect of the answer to this question by focusing on some of the ways religion shaped European and early American ideas about race and racial groupings.
Kathryn Gin Lum is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. Sheβs also the author of Heathen: Religion and Race in American History.
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/392 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
- Constitution Day Resources
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 047: Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic
- Episode 109: The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 139: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 311: Religion and the American Revolution
- Episode 334: Missions and Mission Building in New Spain
- Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1
- Episode 376: Cotton Matherβs Spanish Lessons
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Do you ever wonder how governments met and worked in colonial British America?
Williamsburg, Virginia, served as the capital of Virginia between 1699 and 1779. During its 80 years of service as capital, Williamsburg represented the center of British authority in Virginia. This meant the Royal Governor of the colony lived in Williamsburg. Indigenous, colonial, and other delegations came to Williamsburg to negotiate treaties and trade with Virginia. And, the colonial government met in Williamsburgβs capitol building to pass laws, listen to court cases, and debate ideas.
Katie Schinabeck, a historian of historical memory and the American Revolution and the Digital Projects Researcher at Colonial Williamsburgβs Innovation Studios, takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Williamsburgβs colonial capitol building to explore how the government of colonial Virginia worked and operated.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/391 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Civics Resources
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 084: How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 099: Pirates & Pirate Nests in the British Atlantic World
- Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution
- Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress
- Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights
- Episode 315: History and American Democracy
- Episode 328: Warren Milteer, Free People of Color in Early America
- Episode 389: Nicole Eustace, Indigenous Justice in Early America
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When we think about the American Revolution, the French Revolution, or the Haitian Revolution, we think about the ideals of freedom and equality. These ideals were embedded and discussed in all of these revolutions.
What we donβt always think about when we think about these revolutions are the objects that inspired, came out of, and were circulated as they took place.
Ashli White, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Miami in Florida, joins us to investigate the βrevolutionary thingsβ that were created and circulated during the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions with details from her book Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/390 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
- Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
- Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America
- Episode 164: The American Revolution in the Age of Revolutions
- Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions
- Episode 177, Martin BrΓΌckner, The Social Life of Maps in America
- Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City
- Episode 319: Cuba: An Early American History
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Early North America was a place that contained hundreds of distinct Indigenous nations and peoples who spoke at least 2,000 distinct languages. In the early sixteenth century, Spain began to establish colonies on mainland North America, and they were followed by the French, Dutch, and English, and the forced migration of enslaved Africans who represented at least 45 different ethnic and cultural groups. With such diversity, Early North America was full of cross-cultural encounters.
What did it look like when people of different ethnicities, races, and cultures interacted with one another? How were the people involved in cross-cultural encounters able to understand and overcome their differences?
Nicole Eustace is an award-winning historian at New York University. Using details from her Pulitzer-prize-winning book, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America, Nicole will take us through one cross-cultural encounter in 1722 between the Haudenosaunee and Susquehannock peoples and English colonists in Pennsylvania.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/389 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
- Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 080: Libertyβs Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America
- Episode 171: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America
- Episode 220: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery
- Episode 264: Treaty of Canandaigua
- Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America
- Episode 362: Treaties Between the US and American Indian Nations
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Happy Fourth of July!
Weβve created special episodes to commemorate, celebrate, and remember the Fourth of July for years. Many of our episodes have focused on the Declaration of Independence, how and why it was created, the ideas behind it, and its sacred words: βWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.β
This year, we examine a different aspect of the Declaration of Independence: the man behind the boldest signature on the document: John Hancock.
Brooke Barbier is a public historian and holds a Ph.D. in American History from Boston College. Sheβs also the author of the first biography in many years about John Hancock, itβs called King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/388 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
- Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 018: Our Declaration
- Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
- Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City
- Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century
- Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts
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When we think of California, we might think about sunny weather, Hollywood, beaches, wine country, and perhaps the Gold Rush.
What we donβt usually think about when we think about California is the stateβs long history of slavery.
Jean Pfaelzer, a Californian and a Professor Emerita of English, Asian Studies, and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware, joins us to lead us through some of Californiaβs long 250-year history of slavery with details from her book, California: A Slave State.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/387 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- American Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-Enactment
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 014: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776
- Episode 067: An Environmental History of Early California and Hawaii
- Episode 115: The Early American History of Texas
- Episode 139: The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 233: A History of Russian America
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
- Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
- Episode 371: An Archive of Indigenous Slavery
- Episode 384: Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/386_McGill.mp3In this special Juneteenth episode, as we honor the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, we will delve into the work of those working to preserve slave dwellings across the United States, safeguarding the essential stories these structures embody.
In our conversation, our guest will share why former slave dwellings are vital to our nation's history and what they reveal about those who once lived in them. As we explore these poignant remnants of the past, consider: Why is it important to preserve these humble yet powerful symbols of history? What stories do they hold that we risk losing if they are forgotten? And how can understanding this part of our heritage shape a more inclusive and truthful reflection of our nation's past?
Joseph McGill, executive director/founder of the Slave Dwelling Project and author of Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery.
Featured image courtesy of The Slave Dwelling Project.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryJoseph McGill is a public historian, scholar, and executive director/founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. He joins us to discuss the importance of preserving colonial era housing for the enslaved communities with details from his book, Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery.
During our conversation, Joseph reveals: History of slavery in the United States; impact of history preservation; how living history programs impact historic sites; and establishing a career in public history and historic preservation.
What Youβll Discoverβ’ Public Memory and preserving colonial era structures
β’ Impact of Living History Programs
β’ Slavery in Early America
β’ Using documents and artifacts at historic sites
β’ Working with descendants of formerly enslaved communities
β’ Professional Development in historic preservation
Links to People, Places, and Publicationsβ’ Joseph McGill
β’ Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery
β’ National Trust for Historic Preservation
β’ National Park Service
β’ Freedmenβs Bureau, National Archives
β’ Port Royal Experiment
β’ Transcript
Sponsor Linksβ’ Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
β’ The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
β’ BFW Listener exclusive deal with NordVPN
Complementary Episodesβ’ Episode 075: How Archives Work
β’ Episode 079: What is a Historic Source?
β’ Episode 089: Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland
β’ Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
β’ Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School
β’ Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts
β’ Episode 378: Everyday Black Living in Early America
Time Warp QuestionYouβve shared the story about visiting the Anne Frank House Site in Amsterdam, and how pivotal this experience was in your journey to develop the Slave Dwelling Project.
In your opinion, do you think your life would be different if you never visited that site?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail or leave a comment.
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
Positive ratings and reviews help bring Ben Franklin's World to the attention of other history lovers who may not be aware of our show
Click here to rate & review on iTunes | Click here to rate & review on Stitcher
The post Episode 386: Joseph McGill, Sleeping with the Ancestors first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post Episode 386: Joseph McGill, Sleeping with the Ancestors appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
In this special Juneteenth episode, as we honor the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, we delve into the work of those working to preserve slave dwellings across the United States, safeguarding the essential stories these structures embody.
In our conversation, Joseph McGill, the Executive Director and Founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, joins us to share why former slave dwellings are vital to our nation's history and what they reveal about the lives of those who once lived in them.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/386 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 075: How Archives Work
- Episode 079: What is a Historic Source?
- Episode 089: Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland
- Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
- Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School
- Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts
- Episode 378: Everyday Black Living in Early America
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The United States Constitution of 1787 gave many Americans pause about the powers the new federal government could exercise and how the government's leadership would rest with one person, the president.
The fact that George Washington would likely serve as the new nationβs first president calmed many Americansβ fears that the new nation was creating an opportunity for a hereditary monarch. Washington had proven his commitment to a democratic form of government when he gave up his army command peacefully and voluntarily. He had proven he was someone Americans could trust. Plus, George Washington had no biological heirsβno sonsβto whom he might pass on the presidency.
But while George Washington had no biological heirs, he did have heirs.
Cassandra A. Good, an Associate Professor of History at Marymount University and author of First Family: George Washingtonβs Heirs and the Making of America, joins us to explore Washingtonβs heirs and the lives they lived.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/385 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 027: A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
- Episode 033: George Washington and His Library
- Episode 061: George Washinton in Retirement
- Episode 074: Martha Washington
- Episode 137: The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave
- Episode 183: George Washintonβs Mount Vernon
- Episode 222: The Early History of Washington, D.C.
- Episode 265: An Early History of the White House
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/benfranklinsworld/384_Smith.mp3 Article IV, Section 3 of the United States Constitution establishes guidelines by which the United States Congress can admit new states into the American Union. It clearly states that βno new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other Stateβ¦without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.β
Five states have been formed from pre-existing states: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maine. How did the process of forming a state from a pre-existing state work? Why would territories within a state want to declare their independence from their home state?
Joshua Smith, the interim director of the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York, and author of the book Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812, leads us on an exploration of Maineβs journey to statehood.
Feature image from The New York Public Library.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryJoshua Smith is an award-winning curator, professor, and the interim director of the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York. He joins us to discuss the impact of the War of 1812 on the American Northeast and Maineβs journey to statehood with details from his book, Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812.
During our conversation, Josh reveals: Maineβs early history and how this territory became a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; The benefits and challenges Mainers faced as residents of Massachusettsβ northern and eastern districts; And how the War of 1812 grew the momentum for Mainersβ calls for independent statehood.
What Youβll Discoverβ’ Relationship between Maine and Massachusetts
β’ Maine and the American Revolutionary War
β’ Political and social climate of early Maine
β’ Leaders of the movement for Maine's statehood
β’ Maine and the United States government
β’ British Navy occupation of military and trading posts in U.S. territories
β’ Maine and the War of 1812
β’ Direct taxation in the Massachusetts Bay colony
β’ Maine Maritime History
Links to People, Places, and Publicationsβ’ Joshua Smith
β’ Joshua Smith, Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812
β’ Laura Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwifeβs Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
β’ Alan Taylor, Liberty Men and Great Proprietors
β’ Maine State Archives
β’ United States Marine Academy
β’ Transcript
Sponsor Linksβ’ Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
β’ The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg
β’ BFW Listener exclusive deal with NordVPN
Complementary Episodesβ’ Episode 030: Northern New Englandβs Religious Geography
β’ Episode 057: Money and the American State
β’ Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man
β’ Episode 103, James Monroe and & His Estate Highland
β’ Episode 134: Pulpit and Nation
β’ Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century
Time Warp QuestionWhat might have been the long-term consequences for Maine, and the broader United States, if Maine had not gained statehood following the War of 1812? What would Maineβs history have been like if it had remained a territory and a part of Massachusetts?
Questions, Comments, SuggestionsDo you have a question, comment, or suggestion?
Get in Touch! Send me an e-mail or leave a comment.
Listen!Enjoy the Podcast?
Why Not Listen regularly through one of these apps?
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Ratings & ReviewsIf you enjoy this podcast, please give it a rating and review.
Positive ratings and reviews help bring Ben Franklin's World to the attention of other history lovers who may not be aware of our show
Click here to rate & review on iTunes | Click here to rate & review on Stitcher
The post Episode 384: Joshua Smith, Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post Episode 384: Joshua Smith, Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
If you will recall from Episode 331, the Williamsburg Bray School is the oldest existing structure in the United States that we know was used to educate African and African American children.
As the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation prepares the Bray School for you to visit and see, weβre having many conversations about the history of the school, its scholars, and early Black American History in general. During one of these conversations, the work of Kevin Dawson came up. Kevin is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Merced and author of the book, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/383Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 104: The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 241: Pearls and the Nature of the Spanish Empire
- Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
- Episode 277: Who's Fourth of July?
- Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School
- Episode 347: African and African American Music
- Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States
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Within the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States present twenty-seven grievances against King George III as they declare their reasons for why the thirteen British North American colonies sought their independence from Great Britain. Their twenty-fifth grievance declares that King George III βis at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat [sic] the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun.β
What do we know about the βArmies of foreign Mercenariesβ King George III sent to his rebellious American colonies?
Friederike Baer, an Associate Professor of History at Penn State Abbington College, joins us to explore the lives and wartime experiences of the 30,000 German soldiers the British Crown hired and dispatched to North America during the American War for Independence. Frederike is the author of the award-winning book Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/382 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 046: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It
- Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence
- Episode 081: After Yorktown
- Episode 144: The Common Cause
- Episode 147: British Soldiers, American War
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America
- Episode 375: Misinformation Nation
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The vast and varied landscapes of Texas loom large in our American imaginations. As does Texas culture with its BBQ, cowboys, and larger-than-life personality. But before Texas was a place that embraced ranching, space flight, and country music, Texas was a place with rich and vibrant Indigenous cultures and traditions and with Spanish and Mexican cultures and traditions.
Martha Menchaca, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, is a scholar of Texas history and United States-Mexican culture. She joins us to explore the Spanish and Mexican origins of Texas with details from her book, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/381 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
- Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas
- Episode 178, Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America
- Episode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire
- Episode 334, Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain
- Episode 358: Charles Tingley, St Augustine and Early Florida
- Episode 371: Estevan Rael-GΓ‘lvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery
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The American Revolution was a movement that divided British Americans. Americans did not universally agree on the Revolutionβs ideas about governance and independence. And the movementβs War for Independence was a bloody civil war that not only pitted brother against brother and fathers against sons; it also pitted wives against husbands.
Cynthia A. Kierner is a professor of history at George Mason University and the author of the book The Toryβs Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America. Cindy joins us to lead us through the story of Jane and William Spurgin, an everyday couple who lived in the North Carolina Backcountry during the American Revolution and who found themselves supporting different sides of the Revolution.
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- John D. Rockefeller Jr., Library The Virginia Gazette
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
- Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
- Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America
- Episode 325: Woody Holton, Everyday People of the American Revolution
- Episode 330: Brad Jones, Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
- Episode 356: Paul Peucker, The Moravian Church in North America
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Women make up eight out of every ten healthcare workers in the United States. Yet they lag behind men when it comes to working in the roles of medical doctors and surgeons.
Why has healthcare become a professional field dominated by women, and yet women represent a minority of physicians and doctors who serve at the top of the healthcare field?
Susan H. Brandt, a historian and lecturer at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, seeks to find answers to these questions. In doing so, she takes us into the rich history of women healers with details from her book, Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/379 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 003: Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia
- Episode 005: Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and Health
- Episode 116: Disease & the Seven Yearsβ War
- Episode 174: Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic
- Episode 263: The Medical Imagination
- Episode 273: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic
- Episode 276: Benjamin Rush: Founding Father
- Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1
- Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2
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When we study the history of Black Americans, especially in the early American period, we tend to focus on slavery and the slave trades. But focusing solely on slavery can hinder our ability to see that, like all early Americans, Black Americans were multi-dimensional people who led complicated lives and lived a full range of experiences that were worth living and talking about.
Tara Bynum, an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America, joins us to explore the lives of four early Black American writers: Phillis Wheatley, John Marrant, James Albert Unkawsaw Groniosaw, and David Walker.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/378 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- BFW Listener Survey
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 025: Inventing George Whitefield
- Episode 083: Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 328: Free People of Color in Early America
- Episode 360: Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts
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2023 marked the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Phillis Wheatley's published book of poetry in the British American colonies.
Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African woman who, as a teenager, became the first published African author of a book of poetry written in English.
Ade Solanke, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, has written two plays about Phillis Wheatleyβs life to commemorate the semiquincentennial of Wheatleyβs literary accomplishments. She joins us to not only explore the life of Phillis Wheatley, but also how playwrights use and research history to help them create dramatic works of art. Works of art that can help us forge an emotional connection with the past.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/377 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
- Exclusive BFW Listener Discount NordVPN
- BFW Listener Survey
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
- Episode 086: Ben Franklin in London
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 132: Indigenous London
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 170: New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England
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Colonial America was born in a world of religious alliances and rivalries. Missionary efforts in the colonial Americas allow us to see how some of these religious alliances and rivalries played out. Spain, and later France, sent Catholic priests and friars to North and South America, and the Caribbean, purportedly to save the souls of Indigenous Americans by converting them to Catholicism. We also know that Protestants did similar work to help counteract this Catholic work in the Americas.
Kirsten Silva Gruesz, a Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, joins us to explore the life and work of Cotton Mather, a Boston Puritan minister who actively sought to counteract the work of Catholic conversion, with details from her book Cotton Matherβs Spanish Lessons: A Story of Language, Race, and Belonging in the Early Americas.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/376 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Over the past decade, weβve heard a lot about βfake newsβ and βmisinformation.β And as 2024 is an election year, itβs likely weβre going to hear even more about these terms.
So what is the origin of misinformation in the American press? When did Americans decide that they needed to be concerned with figuring out whether the information they heard or read was truthful or fake?
Jordan E. Taylor joins us to find answers to these questions. Jordan is a historian who studies the history of media and the ways early Americans created, spread, and circulated news. He is also the author of the book Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/375 Sponsor Links
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The American Revolution and its War for Independence comprised the United Statesβ founding movement. The War for Independence also served as the fifth major war for European empire in North America.
The fourth war for European empire, the Seven Yearsβ War, reshaped and redefined Europeβs worldwide colonial landscape in Great Britainβs favor. The American Revolutionary War presented Britainβs European rivals with an opportunity to regain some of the territory they had lost. An opportunity we can see those rivals seizing in the Revolutionary Warβs Western Theater.
Stephen Kling, Jr., is the author and co-author of several books and articles about the American Revolution in the West. His latest book, The American Revolutionary War in the West, has served as the basis for a museum exhibit at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum in St. Peters, Missouri. Stephen joins us as our expert guide on our expedition through the Revolutionβs Western Theater.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/374 Sponsor Links
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- Episode 372: A History of the Myaamia
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The so-called βMarch to the American Revolutionβ comprised many more events than just the Stamp Act Riots, the Boston Massacre, and the Tea Crisis. One event we often overlook played an essential and direct role in the events needed to draw the thirteen rebellious British North American colonies into a union of coordinated response. That event was the Gaspee Affair in 1772.
Adrian Weimer, a professor of history at Providence College, has been researching the Gaspee Affair and what it can tell us about the constitutional balance between the British Empire and its colonies. She leads us on an investigation of the Gaspee Affair.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/373 Sponsor Links
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Early America was a diverse place. A significant part of this diversity came from the fact that there were at least 1,000 different Indigenous tribes and nations living in different areas of North America before the Spanish and other European empires arrived on the continentβs shores.
Diane Hunter and John Bickers join us to investigate the history and culture of one of these distinct Indigenous tribes: the Myaamia. At the time of this recording, Diane Hunter was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. She has since retired from that position. John Bickers is an Assistant Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Both Diane and John are citizens of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and experts in Myaamia history and culture.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/372 Sponsor Links
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Long before European arrival in the Americas, Indigenous people and nations practiced enslavement. Their version of enslavement looked different from the version Christopher Columbus and his fellow Europeans practiced, but Indigenous slavery also shared many similarities with the Euro-American practice of African Chattel Slavery.
While there is no way to measure the exact impact of slavery upon the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, we do know the practice involved many millions of Indigenous people who were captured, bound, and sold as enslaved people.
Estevan Rael-GΓ‘lvez, Executive Director of Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery, joins us to discuss the digital project Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/371 Sponsor Links
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Happy Halloween! In honor of the 31st of October and All Hallows Eve, we investigate a historical incident of witches and witchcraft in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651.
Malcolm Gaskill, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and one of the leading experts in the history of witchcraft, joins us to discuss details from his new book, The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/370 Sponsor Links
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Establishing colonies in North America took an astonishing amount of work. Colonists had to clear trees, eventually remove stumps from newly cleared fields, plant crops to eat and sell, weed and tend those crops, and then they had to harvest crops, and get the crops they intended to sell to the nearest market town, and that was just some of the work involved to establish colonial farms.
Colonists did not often perform this work on their own. They enlisted the help of children and neighbors, purchased enslaved people, and used animals.
Undra Jeter is the Bill and Jean Lane Director of Coach and Livestock at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He joins us to explore the animals English and British colonists brought with them to North America and used to build, run, and sustain their colonial farms and cities. Animals provided many benefits to early Americans, so Undra also shares information about the Colonial Williamsburg Foundationβs efforts to bring back the population numbers of some of these historic animal breeds through its rare breeds program.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/369 Sponsor Links
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The Brafferton Indian School has a long and complicated legacy. Chartered with the College of William & Mary in 1693, the Brafferton Indian Schoolβs purpose was to educate young Indigenous boys in the ways of English religion, language, and culture. The Brafferton performed this work for more than 70 years, between the arrival of its first students in 1702 and when the last documented student left the school in 1778.
This second episode in our 2-episode series about the Brafferton Indian School will focus on the legacy of the Brafferton Indian School and how it and other colonial-era Indian Schools established models for the schools the United States government and religious institutions established during the Indian Boarding School Era.
As one of the architects of these later Boarding Schools, Richard Henry Pratt, stated, the purpose of these boarding schools was to βkill the Indian and save the man.β Pratt meant that the United States government desired to assimilate and fully Americanize Indigenous children so there would be no more Native Americans.
But Indigenous peoples are resilient, and they have resisted American attempts to extinguish their cultures. So weβll also hear from three tribal citizens in Virginia who are working in different ways to reawaken long-dormant aspects of their Indigenous cultures.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/368 Sponsor Links
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In 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II of England granted a royal charter for two institutions of higher education in the Colony of Virginia. The first institution was the College of William & Mary. The second institution was the Indian School at William & Mary, known from 1723 to the present as the Brafferton Indian School.
The history of the Brafferton Indian School is a story of power, trade, land, and culture. Itβs an Indigenous story. Itβs also a story of English, later British, colonialism.
Over the next two episodes, we will investigate the Brafferton Indian School and the stories it tells about power, trade, land, culture, and colonialism in early America. Weβll also explore the legacy of the Brafferton and other colonial Indian schools by examining the connections between these schools and the creation of the Indian Boarding Schools that operated within the United States between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.
In this episode, we focus on the history and origins of the Brafferton Indian School.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/367 Sponsor Links
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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- Episode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities
- Episode 353: Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba Identity
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On September 17, 1787, the members of the Constitutional Convention concluded their work by signing the final draft of their new proposed government. The document they signed was the United States Constitution, which is why the United States marks Constitution Day each year on September 17.
In honor of Constitution Day, we explore the life of a Founder who played a large role in the creation and shaping of the United States Constitution: James Wilson.
Michael H. Taylor, Professor of United States History and Political Science at Northeast Community College and author of James Wilson: The Anxious Founder, joins us to investigate the life of James Wilson, who stands as one of the United Statesβ overlooked founders.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/366
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2020 commemorated the 300th anniversary of French presence on Prince Edward Island. Like much of North America, the Canadian Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island were highly contested regions. In fact, the way France and Great Britain fought for presence and control of this region places the Canadian Maritimes among the most contested regions in eighteenth-century North America.
Anne Marie Lane Jonah, a historian with the Parks Canada Agency, joins us to explore the history of Prince Edward Island and why Great Britain and France fought over the Canadian Maritime region.
This episode originally posted as Episode 283.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/365
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The Mississippi Gulf Coast was the home of many different peoples, cultures, and empires during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to some historians, the Gulf Coast region may have been the most diverse region in early North America.β¨
Matthew Powell, a historian of slavery and southern history and the Executive Director of the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum in Pascagoula, Mississippi, joins us to investigate and explore the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a prominent family who has lived there since about 1718.
This episode originally posted as Episode 303.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/364
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About 620 miles north of New Orleans and 62 miles south of St. Louis, sits the town of Ste. GeneviΓ©ve, Missouri.
Established in 1750 by the French, Ste. GeneviΓ©ve reveals much about what it was like to establish a colony in the heartland of North America and what it was like for colonists to live so far removed from seats of imperial power.
Claire Casey, a National Park Service interpretative ranger at the Ste. GeneviΓ©ve National Historical Park, joins us to explore the early American history of Ste. GeneviΓ©ve.
This episode is originally posted as Episode 318.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/363
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The Smithsonianβs National Museum of the American Indian has an exhibit called Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States & American Indian Nations. This exhibit allows you to see treaties the United States has made with American Indian nations and learn more about those treaties and their outcomes.
David W. Penney is the Associate Director of Museum Scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement at the Smithsonianβs National Museum of the American Indian. Heβs also an internationally recognized scholar and curator who has a lot of expertise in Native American art history, and he was involved in creating the Nation to Nation exhibit. He joins us to guide us through this exhibit and some of the treaties the United States has made with Indigenous nations.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/362
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July 4, 2023 marks the 247th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States. In three short years, we will be marking the 250th anniversary of these events.
How are historians thinking about the American Revolution for 2026? What are they discussing when it comes to the 250th anniversary of the United Statesβ founding?
Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ronald Angelo Johnson, and Kariann Akemi Yokota join us to answer these questions. All three guests are historians of the American Revolutionary Era who research the American Revolution from different perspectives.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/361
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Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates and commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. We choose to reflect on the end of slavery in the United States on June 19, because, on June 19, 1865, United States General Gordon Granger issued his General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, informing Texans that all slaves are free.
Juneteenth may feel like it is a mid-19th-century moment, but the end of slavery didnβt just occur on one day or at one time. And it didnβt just occur in the mid-19th century. The fight to end slavery was a long process that started during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Kyera Singleton, the Executive Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts, has spent years researching the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the Royall Plantation and the significant contributions they made to ending slavery in Massachusetts. Kyera joins us to investigate the story of slavery and freedom within the first state in the United States to legally abolish slavery.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/360
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βPeople are complicatedβ is a truism that holds in the past and the present. Seldom do we find a person where all of their actions and thoughts are black and white. What we see instead is that people are colorful because they arenβt just one thing and they donβt think and act in one way.
Human identities are one area where we find a lot of colorfulness and complexity. Most humans have multiple Identities based in geography, nationality, religious affiliation, race and ethnicity, and also gender.
Jen Manion, a Professor of History and of Sexuality and Womenβs and Gender Studies at Amherst College and author of the book, Female Husbands: A Trans History, joins us to investigate the early American world of female husbands, people who were assigned female at birth and then transed-gender at some point in their lives to live as men.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/359
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For much of the colonial period, Spain claimed almost all of North America as Spanish territory. It displayed this claim on maps and in the administrative units it created to govern this vast territory: New Spain and La Florida.
Charles Tingley is a Senior Research Librarian at the St. Augustine Historical Society in St. Augustine, Florida, and an expert in the history of St. Augustine. He joins us to explore the early American history of La Florida through the lens of one of its capitals: the City of St. Augustine.
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- Episode 334: Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain
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How did the Continental Congress approach creating military forces that could go toe-to-toe with the British military during the American War for Independence?
Eric Jay Dolin joins us to answer part of that question by looking at the creation of the United Statesβ privateer fleet. Dolin is the author of fifteen books about the maritime history of early America, including Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/357 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 153: Committees and Congresses of the American Revolution
- Episode 161: Smuggling in the American Revolution
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- Episode 288: Tyson Reeder, Smugglers & Patriots in the 18th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 309: Philip Reid, Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century
- Episode 348: Ricardo Herrera, Valley Forge
- Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States
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In 1682, the first Assembly of Pennsylvania and the Delaware counties met in Chester, Pennsylvania, and adopted βthe Great Law,β a humanitarian code that guaranteed the people of Pennsylvania liberty of conscience.
βThe Great Lawβ created an environment that not only welcomed William Pennβs fellow Quakers to Pennsylvania but also created space for the migration of other unestablished religions, such as the Lutherans, Schwenkfelders, and Moravians.
Paul Peucker, an archivist and the Director of the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, joins us to investigate the establishment of the Moravian Church in North America. Paul is the author of many articles, essays, and books about the Moravians and their history, including Herrnhut: The Formation of a Moravian Community, 1722-1732.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/356 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Eddie Arning: Artist Exhibition at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg
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- Episode 311: Kate Carte, Religion and the American Revolution
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On April 10th, 1606, King James I granted the Virginia Company of London a charter. Just over a year later, on May 14, 1607, this privately-funded, joint-stock company established the first, permanent English colony in North America at Jamestown, in the colony of Virginia.
What work did the Virginia Company have to do to establish this colony? How much money did it have to raise, and from whom did it raise this money, to support its colonial venture?
Misha Ewen, a Lecturer in early modern history at the University of Bristol and author of The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660, joins us to discuss the early history of the Virginia Company and its early investors.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/355 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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History tells us who we are and how we came to be who we are. It also allows us to look back and see how far weβve come as people and societies. Of course, history also has the power to show us how little has changed over time.
John Wood Sweet, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of the book, The Sewing Girlβs Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America, winner of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History, joins us to investigate the first published rape trial in the United States and how one woman, Lanah Sawyer, bravely confronted the man who raped her by bringing him to court for his crime.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/354 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 257: Catherine OβDonnell, Elizabeth Seton An Early American Life
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How did Indigenous people adapt to and survive the onslaught of Indigenous warfare, European diseases, and population loss between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries? How did past generations of Indigenous women ensure their culture would live on from one generation to the next so their people would endure?
Brooke Bauer, an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and author of the book Becoming Catawba: Catawba Women and Nation Building, 1540-1840, joins us to investigate these questions and what we might learn from the Catawba.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/353 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 342: Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/benfranklinsworld/352_Skic.mp3People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about the sacrifices theyβve made to create and protect the United States as an independent nation.
Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to investigate the life and deeds of the Forten Family, a family of African-descended people who worked in the revolutionary era and beyond to build a better world for their family, community, state, and nation.
About the ShowBen Franklinβs World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklinβs World is a production of the Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
Episode SummaryMatthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to explore the life and deeds of James Forten, with details from the museumβs new exhibit, Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia.
During our investigation, Matthew reveals information about the Museum of the American Revolutionβs Black Founders exhibit and why this exhibit features the Forten Family of Philadelphia; Details about the life and deeds of James Forten, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a savvy businessman who worked tirelessly to make the revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality a reality in his community, state, and nation; And the lives and deeds of James Fortenβs children and grandchildren, all of whom shared Fortenβs desire for the United States to live up to its founding principles.
What Youβll Discover Overview of the Museum of the American Revolutionβs Black Founders Exhibit * Three generations of the Forten Family of Philadelphia * The early life of James Forten in Revolutionary Philadelphia * James Fortenβs role in the American Revolution * James Fortenβs time served on the privateer ship the Royal Louis * The risks and rewards of serving on privateer ships for free Black men * James Fortenβs imprisonment on the HMS Jersey* * James Fortenβs time in London and his return to Philadelphia * James Fortenβs success as a sail-maker * James and Charlotte Fortenβs marriage and children * James Forten as a leader and investor in Philadelphiaβs Black communities * The Forten familyβs activism and philanthropic work
Links to People, Places, and Publications* Matthew Skic * Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia Exhibit * Museum of the American Revolution * Transcript
Sponsor Links* Colonial Williamsburg Foundation * βI Made Thisβ Exhibition at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg
Support Ben Franklin's WorldJoin Us!! Become a Ben Franklinβs World Member. Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears!
Complementary Episodes* Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition * Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution * Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers * Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July * Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? * Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution Part 1: Occupied Philadelphia
Time Warp QuestionIn your opinion, what might have happened if Forten had never heard the Declaration of Independence read out loud on July 8th, 1776? Do you think he still would've supported the American Revolution?
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The post Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States first appeared on Ben Franklin's World.
The post Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about the sacrifices theyβve made to create and protect the United States as an independent nation.
Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to investigate the life and deeds of the Forten Family. A family of African-descended people who worked in the revolutionary era and beyond to build a better world for their family, community, state, and nation.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/352 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition
- Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
- Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution Part 1: Occupied Philadelphia
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African chattel slavery, the predominant type of slavery practiced in colonial North America and the early United States, did not represent one monolithic practice of slavery. Practices of slavery varied by region, labor systems, legal codes, and empire.
Slavery also wasnβt just about enslavers enslaving people for their labor. Enslavers used enslaved people to make statements about their social status, as areas of economic investment that built generational wealth, and as a form of currency.
Nicole Maskiell, an associate professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Bound By Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of the Northern Gentry, joins us to investigate the practice of slavery in Dutch New Netherland and how the colonyβs elite families built their wealth and power on the labor, skills, and bodies of enslaved Africans and African Americans.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/351 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its Culture
- Episode 220: Margaret Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery
- Episode 242: David Young, A History of Early Delaware
- Episode 256: Christian Koot, Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
- Episode 324, Andrea Mosterman, New Netherland and Slavery
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Before the American Revolution became a war and a fight for independence, the Revolution was a movement and protest for more local control of government. So how did the American Revolution get started? Who worked to transform a series of protests into a revolution?
This is a BIG question with no one answer. But one American who worked to transform protests into a coordinated revolutionary movement was a Boston politician named Samuel Adams.
Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, joins us to explore and investigate the life, deeds, and contributions of Samuel Adams using details from her book, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/350 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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There are a lot of books about Benjamin Franklin. They tell us about his youth and accomplishments in business, politics, and diplomacy. They tell us about his serious interest in electricity and science, and about his philanthropic work. But only a handful of these books tell us about Benjamin Franklin as a man. What did Benjamin Franklin think about and experience when it came to his private, lived life?
Nancy Rubin Stuart, an award-winning historian and journalist and author of Poor Richardβs Women: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father, joins us to investigate the private life of Benjamin Franklin by using the women in his life as a window on to his experiences as a husband, father, and friend.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/349 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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On December 19, 1777, George Washington marched his Continental Army into its winter encampment at Valley Forge. In school we learned this was a hard, cold winter that saw the soldiers so ill-supplied they chewed on the leather of their shoes. But is this what really happened at Valley Forge? Were soldiers idle, wallowing in their misery?
Ricardo Herrera, a historian of American military history and a visiting professor in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College, joins us to investigate the winter at Valley Forge with details form his book, Feeding Washingtonβs Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/348 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2
- Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia
- Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown
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Thank you for being a subscriber!
How did early Americans create all of the the things they needed and wanted in life?
We re-visit with Glenn Adamson to answer more of your questions about trade and crafts work in Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/292
Itβs impossible to overstate the importance of African and African American music to the United Statesβ musical traditions. Steven Lewis, a Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian, notes that βAfrican American influences are so fundamental to American music there would be no American music without them.β
Jon Beebe, a Jazz pianist, professional musician, and an interpretive ranger at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, leads us on an exploration of how and why African rhythms and beats came to play important roles in the musical history and musical evolution of the Untied States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/347 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 343: Chad Hamill, Music & Song in Native North America
- Episode 344: Music in British North America
- Episode 345: Amateur Musicians in the Early United States
- Episode 346: Music & Politics in the Early United States
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How did everyday Americans in the early United States use and enjoy music? How did they create and circulate new songs and musical lyrics?
Our five-episode series about music in early America continues in this fourth episode about music and politics in the early United States.
Billy Coleman, an Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the University of Missouri and author of the book Harnessing Harmony: Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788-1865, joins us to investigate the role music played in early American politics.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/346 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 344: David Hildebrand, Music in British North America
- Episode 345: Glenda Goodman, Amateur Musicians in the Early United States
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Our study of music in Early America continues with this third episode in our five-episode series.
Our last two episodes (Episode 343 and Episode 344) helped us better understand the musical landscapes of Native North America around 1492 and colonial British America before 1776. In this episode, we jump forward in time to the early days of the United States.
Glenda Goodman, an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the book Cultivated by Hand: Amateur Musicians in the Early American Republic, joins us to investigate the role of music in the lives of wealthy white Americans during the earliest days of the early American republic.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/345 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 145: Rosemarie Zagarri, Mercy Otis Warren
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- Episode 343: Chad Hamil, Music and Song in Native North America
- Episode 344: David Hildebrand, Music in British North America
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Our 5-episode series about music in Early America continues with this second episode that seeks to answer your questions about music in Early America.
David Hildebrand is a musicologist and an expert on early American music. His research specialty is in Anglo-American music, and he joins us to answer your questions.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/344
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 219: Adrian Covert, Taverns in Early America
- Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
- Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1
- Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2
- Episode 343: Chad Hamill, The Musical Landscape of Native America
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What was music like in Early America? How did different early AmericansβNative Americans, African Americans, and White Americansβintegrate and use music in their daily lives?
Your questions about music inspired this 5-episode series about music in Early America.
Our exploration begins with music in Native America. Chad Hamill, a Professor of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University, is an ethnomusicologist who studies Native American and Indigenous music. He will guide us through Native North Americaβs musical landscapes before European colonization.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/343
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- Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
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- Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2
- Episode 297: Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830
- Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet
- Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
- Episode 342: Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations
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Did you know that small Native American nations had the power to dictate the terms of French colonization in the Gulf South region?
Elizabeth Ellis, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and a citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, joins us on an exploration of the uncovered and recovered histories of the more than 40 distinct and small Native nations who called the Gulf South region home during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ellis is the author of The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/342
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Prepare for tricks, treats, and time travel! In honor of Halloween, weβre traveling back to the mid-seventeenth century to investigate a case of demonic possession and the practice of exorcism in New France.
Mairi Cowan, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, joins us to investigate the life of a young French woman named Barbe Hallay and her demonic possession. Cowan is the author of The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/341
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- Episode 334: Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain
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The War of 1812 is an under-known conflict in United States history. Itβs not a war that many Americans think about or dwell upon. And it was not a war that the United States can claim it clearly won.
Nicholas Guyatt, a Professor of North American History at the University of Cambridge, joins us to investigate the War of 1812 and the experiences of American prisoners of war using details from his book, The Hated Cage: An American Tragedy in Britainβs Most Terrifying Prison.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/340
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Between May 25 and September 17, 1787, delegates from each of the United Statesβ thirteen states assembled in Philadelphia for an event we now call the Constitutional Convention.
What do we know about the moment of the United States Constitutionβs creation? What was happening around the Convention, and what issues were Americans discussing and debating as the Conventionβs delegates met?
Mary Sarah Bilder, an award-winning historian and the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, joins us to investigate the context of the United States Constitutionβs creation with details from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution.
*Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
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- Episode 276: Stephen Fried, Benjamin Rush
- Episode 285: Elections & Voting in Early America
- Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
- Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia
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On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution and submitted it to the states for ratification.
In honor of Constitution Day, we join three historians from the Senate Historical Office to investigate Article 1 of the Constitution and its creation of the United States Senate.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/338
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- Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution
- Episode 202: An Early History of the United States Congress
- Episode 279: Lindsay Chervinsky, The Cabinet
- Episode 285: Elections and Voting in the Early Republic
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What made trade with China so important to the new United States that one of Americansβ first acts after securing the United Statesβ independence was to establish a trade with China and other Southeast Asian countries? Dael Norwood, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delaware, joins us to explore the lure of [β¦]
The post Episode 337: Dael Norwood Early Americaβs Trade with China appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
What made trade with China so important to the new United States that one of Americansβ first acts after securing the United Statesβ independence was to establish a trade with China and other Southeast Asian countries? Dael Norwood, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delaware, joins us to explore the lure of [β¦]
The post Episode 337: Dael Norwood Early Americaβs Trade with China appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
What made trade with China so important to the new United States that one of Americansβ first acts after securing the United Statesβ independence was to establish a trade with China and other Southeast Asian countries?
Deal Norwood, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delaware, joins us to explore the lure of trade with China with details from his book, Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/337
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- Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
- Episode 298: Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Origins of American Manufacturing
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What made trade with China so important to the new United States that one of Americansβ first acts after securing the United Statesβ independence was to establish a trade with China and other Southeast Asian countries?
Deal Norwood, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Delaware, joins us to explore the lure of trade with China with details from his book, Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/337
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- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India in the Making of Britain & America
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- Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
- Episode 298: Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Origins of American Manufacturing
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What did it take to stage a successful slave uprising?Β Over the course of the early republic, we see a few violent slave uprisings in the United States. A particularly brutal rebellion took place in Louisiana in January 1811. Another violent rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. Neither of these rebellions led [β¦]
The post Episode 336: Vanessa Holden, Surviving the Southampton Rebellion appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
What did it take to stage a successful slave uprising?Β Over the course of the early republic, we see a few violent slave uprisings in the United States. A particularly brutal rebellion took place in Louisiana in January 1811. Another violent rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. Neither of these rebellions led [β¦]
The post Episode 336: Vanessa Holden, Surviving the Southampton Rebellion appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
What did it take to stage a successful slave uprising?
Over the course of the early republic, we see a few violent slave uprisings in the United States. A particularly brutal rebellion took place in Louisiana in January 1811. Another violent rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. Neither of these rebellions led to the abolishment of slavery, but they did lead to the death of many enslaved people and their enslavers.
Vanessa Holden, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and the author of the award-winning book Surviving Southampton, leads us through the events and circumstances of the 1831-Southampton Rebellion, a rebellion we tend to know today as Nat Turnerβs Rebellion.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/336
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- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
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What did it take to stage a successful slave uprising?
Over the course of the early republic, we see a few violent slave uprisings in the United States. A particularly brutal rebellion took place in Louisiana in January 1811. Another violent rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. Neither of these rebellions led to the abolishment of slavery, but they did lead to the death of many enslaved people and their enslavers.
Vanessa Holden, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and the author of the award-winning book Surviving Southampton, leads us through the events and circumstances of the 1831-Southampton Rebellion, a rebellion we tend to know today as Nat Turnerβs Rebellion.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/336
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- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution
- Episode 133: Patrick Breen, The Nat Turner Revolt
- Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, The Value of the Enslaved
- Episode 282: Vincent Brown, Tackyβs Revolt
- Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum
- Episode 312: Joshua D. Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade
- Episode 328: Warren Milteer, Jr., Free People of Color in Early America
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Alexander Hamilton played important roles in the founding of the United States. He served in the Continental Army, helped frame the United States Constitution, and helped place the United States on a secure economic footing with his work as the first Secretary of the Treasury.
But how did Hamilton come to know so much about the economic systems that could help the new United States build a strong economic footing?
Why did Hamilton work for and believe that the new United States should be a nation that welcomed all religions and forms of religious worship?
Andrew Porwacher, the Wick Cary Associate Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma and the Ernest May Fellow at Harvard Universityβs Belfer Center, joins us to investigate the Jewish world and upbringing of Alexander Hamilton.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/335
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- Episode 317: Jews in Early America
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Spanish explorers and colonists visited, settled, and claimed territory in 42 of the United Statesβ 50 states. So what does the history of Early America look like from a Spanish point of view?
Brandon Bayne, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and author of the book Missions Begin with Blood, joins us to investigate some of the religious aspects of Spanish colonization. Specifically, the work of Spanish missionaries.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/334
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What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?
Our Fourth of July series continues with an investigation of how the American War for Independence impacted those who remained on the home front. As episode 332 explored how the war impacted the lives of people who lived in urban Philadelphia, this episode investigates how the war impacted the lives of people who lived in the more rural setting of Yorktown, Virginia.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/333
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- Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City
- Episode 332: Occupied Philadelphia
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What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?
In honor of the Fourth of July, weβll investigate answers to this question by exploring the histories of occupied Philadelphia and Yorktown, and how civilians, those left on the home front in both of those places, experienced the war and its armies. These episodes will allow us to see how the war impacted those who remained at home. They will also allow us to better understand the messy confusion and uncertainty Americans experienced in between the big battles and events of the American Revolution.
This first episode investigates everyday life in British-occupied Philadelphia.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/332
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- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
- Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City
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In a town as old as Williamsburg, Virginia, which was established in 1638, itβs often the case that historic buildings with interesting pasts stand unnoticed and in plain sight.
Such was the case for the building that once housed Williamsburgβs Bray School. A school founded by a group of Anglican clergymen with the express purpose of educating Black children in the ways of the Anglican faith. It was an education that included reading, possibly writing, and the Book of Common Prayer.
In honor of Juneteenth, we explore the exciting rediscovery of Williamsburgβs Bray School with three scholars: Maureen Elgersman Lee, Director of the Bray School Lab at William & Mary; Ronald Hurst, Vice President of Museums, Preservation, and Historic Resources at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and Nicole Brown, a historic interpreter, American Studies graduate student, and the graduate student assistant at William & Maryβs Bray School Lab.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/331
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- Episode 320: Ben Franklinβs London House
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Weβll never know for certain how many Americans supported the American Revolution, remained loyal to the British Crown and Parliament, or tried to find a middle way as someone who was disaffected from either loyalty. But we can know about the different ideologies that drove people to support the Revolution, to remain loyal to crown and parliament, or to become disaffected from both sides.
Brad Jones, Professor of History at California State University, Fresno and author of the book, Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic, joins us to investigate what loyalists believed and how loyalism was not just a loyalty or ideology adopted by British Americans living in the 13 rebellious colonies, but by Britons across the British Atlantic World.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/330
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- Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail
- Episode 311: Katherine CartΓ©, Religion and the American Revolution
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This is an episode youβve been waiting for!
Mark Tabbert, the Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association and the author of Almanac of American Freemasonry and A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry, joins us so we can investigate and better understand Freemasonry and its role in Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/329
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- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 317: Jews in Early America
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We know from our explorations of early America that not all Americans were treated equally or enjoyed the freedoms and liberties other Americans enjoyed.
Warren Milteer Jr., an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the author of North Carolinaβs Free People of Color and Beyond Slaveryβs Shadow, joins us to explore the lives and experiences of free people of color, men and women who ranked somewhere in the middle or middle bottom of early American society.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/328
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- Episode 289: Marcus Nevius, Maroonage and the Great Dismal Swamp
- Episode 312: Joshua Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade
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How do we know what we know about Benjamin Franklin? We know historians, museum curators, and archivists rely on historical documents and objects to find and learn information about the past. But how does a documentary filmmaker present what they know about history through video? David Schmidt works as a senior producer at Florentine Films [β¦]
The post Episode 327: Ken Burns Documentary with Producer David Schmidt appeared first on Ben Franklin's World.
How do we know what we know about Benjamin Franklin? We know historians, museum curators, and archivists rely on historical documents and objects to find and learn information about the past. But how does a documentary filmmaker present what they know about history through video?
David Schmidt works as a senior producer at Florentine Films where he worked alongside Ken Burns to produce a 2-episode documentary about the life of Benjamin Franklin. The documentary is called Benjamin Franklin and Schmidt joins us for a behind-the-scenes tour of documentary filmmaking and to investigate some of the lesser-known details of Ben Franklinβs life.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/327
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- Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
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- Episode 169: Thomas Kid, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
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- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 320: Ben Franklinβs London House
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With Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy under attack, Americans have been wondering: Should our government be doing more than placing economic sanctions on Russia? Should I, as U.S. military veteran, travel to Ukraine and offer to fight in their army? What would official U.S. military involvement mean for the politics of Europe and in our age of nuclear weapons?
While the situation in Ukraine is new and novel, Americansβ desire to assist other nations seeking to create or preserve their democracies and republics is not new.
Maureen Connors Santelli, an Associate Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College and author of The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Fervor in the Age of Revolutions, joins us to investigate the Greek Revolution and early Americansβ reactions to it.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/327
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- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
- Episode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities
- Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
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What do we know about the American Revolution? Why is it important that we see the Revolution as a political event, a war, a time of social and economic reform, and as a time of violence and upheaval?
Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, joins us to explore and discuss answers to these questions so that we can better see and understand the American Revolution as a whole event.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/325
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After Henry Hudsonβs 1609-voyage along the river that now bears his name, Dutch traders began to visit and trade at the area they called New Netherland. In 1614, the Dutch established a trading post near present-day Albany, New York. In 1624, the Dutch West India Company built the settlement of New Amsterdam.
How did the colony of New Netherland take shape? In what ways did the Dutch West India Company and private individuals use enslaved labor to develop the colony?
Andrea Mosterman, an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and author of Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York, joins us to explore what life was like in New Netherland and early New York, especially for the enslaved people who did much of the work to build this Dutch, and later English, colony.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/324
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- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
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- Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its Culture
- Episode 226: Ryan Quintana, Making the State of South Carolina
- Episode 242: David Young, A History of Early Delaware
- Episode 256: Christian Koot, Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
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In the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain ceded to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi River and between the southern borders of Canada and Georgia. How would the United States take advantage of its new boundaries and incorporate these lands within its governance?
Answering this question presented a quandary for the young United States. The lands it sought to claim by right of treaty belonged to Indigenous peoples.
Michael Witgen, a Professor of History at Columbia University and a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, joins us to investigate the story of the Anishinaabeg and Anishinaabewaki, the homelands of the Anishinaabeg people, with details from his book, Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/323 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 264: Michael Oberg, The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794
- Episode 286: Native Sovereignty
- Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet
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During the War for American Independence, the British Army attempted to create chaos and inflict economic damage to the revolutionariesβ war effort by issuing two proclamations that promised freedom to any enslaved person who ran away from their revolutionary owners. How did enslaved people make their escape to British lines? What do we know about their lives and escape experiences?
Karen Cook-Bell, an Associate Professor of History at Bowie State University and author of Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the experiences of enslaved women who feld their bondage for the British Armyβs promise of freedom.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322
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- Episode 212: Researching Biography
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
- Episode 312: Joshua D. Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade
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On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked βWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July?β
In this episode, we explore Douglassβ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?
To help us investigate this question, we are joined by Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and Christopher Bonner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland.
This episode originally posted as Episode 277.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/321 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
- Episode 255: Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens
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On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked βWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July?β
In this episode, we explore Douglassβ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?
To help us investigate this question, we are joined by Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and Christopher Bonner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland.
This episode originally posted as Episode 277.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/321
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- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
- Episode 255: Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens
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Thank you for your support! Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706. In honor of Franklinβs birthday, this bonus episode takes a further look at Benβs culinary preferences with culinary historian Rae Katherine Eighmey. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/221
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, to Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Although Franklin began his life as the youngest son of a youngest son, he traveled through many parts of what is now the northeastern United States and the Province of Quebec and lived in four different cities in three different countries: Boston, Philadelphia, London, and Passy, France.
In honor of Benjamin Franklinβs 316th birthday, MΓ‘rcia Balisciano, the Founding Director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum in London, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklinβs life in London using details from the largest artifact Franklin left behind: his rented rooms at 36 Craven Street.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/320
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- Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
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One of the Caribbean islands that Christopher Columbus stopped at during his 1492-voyage was an alligator-shaped island that sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico in between the YucatΓ‘n and Florida peninsulas. This is, of course, is the island of Cuba.
What do we know about early Cuba, the island the Spanish described as the βKey to the Indies?β What kind of relationship and exchange did early Cuba have with British North America and the early United States?
Ada Ferrer, a Professor of History at New York University and author of Cuba: An American History, joins us to investigate the early history of Cuba.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
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- Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2
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What challenges do National Park Service interpretive rangers face when they interpret non-British colonial history? How did the relationships between Ste. GeneviΓ©ve's inhabitants and Indigenous peoples change over time?
NPS Interpretive Ranger Claire Casey is back to answer more of your questions about colonial Ste. GeneviΓ©ve, Missouri and the Ste. GeneviΓ©ve National Historical Park.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318
About 620 miles north of New Orleans and 62 miles south of St. Louis, sits the town of Ste. GeneviΓ©ve, Missouri.
Established in 1750 by the French, Ste. GeneviΓ©ve reveals much about what it was like to establish a colony in the heartland of North America and what it was like for colonists to live so far removed from seats of imperial power.
Claire Casey, a National Park Service interpretative ranger at the Ste. GeneviΓ©ve National Historical Park, joins us to explore the early American history of Ste. GeneviΓ©ve.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318
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- Episode 308: Jessica Marie Johnson, Slavery and Freedom in French Louisiana
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The first Jewish colonists in North America arrived in 1654. From that moment, Jews worked to build and contribute to early American society and the birth of the United States.
Gemma Birnbaum and Melanie Meyers, the Executive Director and Director of Collections and Engagement at the American Jewish Historical Society, join us to explore the history and experiences of Jews in early America and their contributions to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/317
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- Episode 311: Katherine Cartè, Religion and the American Revolution
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In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the important port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the cityβs land, peoples, and wealthβ the American government also inherited the cityβs Yellow Fever problem.
Kathryn Olivarius, an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University and author of Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, leads us on an exploration of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/316
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- Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2
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What has enabled the American experiment in democracy to endure for nearly 250 years?
What is it about early American history that captivates peoplesβ attention and makes them want to support the creation of historical scholarship and the sharing of historical knowledge?
David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group and a great student and supporter of history and history education, joins us to explore his patriotic philanthropy and the history of American democracy with details from his book, The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/315
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The Massachusetts Historical Society has a podcast!
In this bonus episode of Ben Franklin's World, we'll introduce you to The Object of History, with a full-episode preview of "Episode 4: A Miniature Portrait of Elizabeth Freeman."
For more information about this new podcast and how to subscribe visit: https://masshist.org/podcast.
We rejoin Colin Calloway, Professor of History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, in this bonus episode so he can answer more of your questions about Native American experiences in early American cities.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/314
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Have you ever considered early American cities as places where Native Americans lived, worked, and visited?
Native Americans often visited early American cities and port towns, especially the towns and cities that dotted the Atlantic seaboard of British North America.
Colin Calloway, an award-winning historian and a Professor History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, joins us to investigate Native American experiences in early American cities with details from his book, βThe Chiefs Now In This City": Indians and the Urban Frontier in Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/314
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Welcome to OI Reads, an occasional series on Ben Franklin's World where we introduce you to new books that we'll think you love and that are published by the Omohundro Institute.
Using details from her book, The Strange Genius of Mr. O, Carolyn Eastman, a Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University, acquaints us with James Ogilvie, one of early America's first bonafide celebrities.
For more details about The Strange Genius of Mr. O: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/MrO
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You know βAmericaβs favorite fighting Frenchmanβ is the Marquis de Lafayette. But what do you know about Lafayette and his life?
How and why did this French-born noble end up fighting in the American Revolution?
Mike Duncan, a self-described history geek, public historian, and the podcaster behind the award-winning podcast The History of Rome and the popular podcast Revolutions, joins us to investigate the life of the Marquis de Lafayette with details from his book, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/313
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- Episode 311: Katherine CartΓ©, Religion and the American Revolution
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The transatlantic slave trade dominated in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries. But by 1808, a different slave trade came to dominate in the young United States, the domestic or internal slave trade.β¨
Joshua D. Rothman, an award-winning historian, Professor of History at the University of Alabama, and author of the book, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America, leads us on an exploration of the United Statesβ domestic slave trade and the lives of three slave traders who helped to define this trade. β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/312
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- Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition
- Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave
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Investigations of the American Revolution often include explorations of politics, ideology, trade and taxation, imperial control, and social strife. What about religion?
What role did religion play in the American Revolution?
Katherine CartΓ©, an Associate Professor of History at Southern Methodist University and the author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, joins us to investigate the role of religion in the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/311
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- Episode 307: Michael Hattem, History and the American Revolution
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To understand early American history, we need to investigate and understand North America as an Indigenous space. A place where Native American populations, politics, religion, and trade networks prevailed for centuries before and after the arrival of Europeans and enslaved Africans.
In this episode, we travel into the heart of the North American continent to explore the life, history and culture of the Blackfeet People with Rosalyn LaPier, a University of Montana professor, historian, ethnobotanist, and award-winning Indigenous writer. Rosalyn is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana and a member of the MΓ©tis, one of the three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/310
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- Robert Parkinsonβs Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence
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- Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag: 1620 and Beyond
- Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1
- Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2
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By the eighteenth century, the Atlantic Ocean had become a busy highway of ships crisscrossing its waters.
What do we know about the ships that made these transatlantic voyages and connected the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world through trade, people, and information?
Phillip Reid, a historian of the Atlantic World and maritime technology and author of The Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, joins us to explore the eighteenth-century British merchant ship and the business of transatlantic shipping.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/309
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- Episode 099: Mark Hanna, Pirates & Pirate Nests in the British Atlantic World
- Episode 140: Tamara Thornton, Nathaniel Bowditch: 19th-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea
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The story of freedom in colonial New Orleans and Louisiana pivoted on the choices black women made to retain control of their bodies, families, and futures.
How did black women in colonial Louisiana navigate French and Spanish black and slavery codes to retain control of their bodies, families, and futures?
Jessica Marie Johnson, Assistant Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and author of the award-winning book Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World, joins us to investigate answers to this question and to reveal what viewing the history of the Atlantic World through the histories of slavery and gender can show us about what life was really like for colonists, settlers, and the enslaved.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/308
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- Episode 282: Vincent Brown, Tackyβs Revolt
- Episode 289: Marcus Nevius, Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp
- Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum
- Episode 303: Matthew Powell, La Pointe-Krebs House
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In Episode 307, Michael Hattem helped us investigate the role history played in the American Revolution and the ways early historians used history as a tool to unite Americans as one people after the Revolution.
This bonus episode brings us back together with Michael Hattem so we can explore a few topics we didnβt have time to explore in our full-length episode: A listener question about how British Americans thought about the British Empireβs responsibility to protect them and historical schools of thought, how schools of thought develop, and the different schools of historical thought when it comes to the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/307
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The story of the founding of the United States is a familiar one. It usually (but not always) begins with the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, describes the founding and development of thirteen British North American colonies that hugged North Americaβs eastern seaboard, and then delves into the imperial reforms and conflicts that caused the colonists to respond with violent protests during the 1760s and 1770s.
Then there is the war, which began in April 1775 and ended in 1783. The adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. And the story of how against all odds, the Americans persevered and founded an independent United States.
Have you ever wondered where this familiar narrative came from and why it was developed?
Michael Hattem, a historian of Early America who has a research expertise in the age and memory of the American Revolution, joins us to investigate the creation of the βgrand narrativeβ about the Revolution and the United Statesβ founding, with details from his book, Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/307
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- Episode 031: Michael Hattem, Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of the Benjamin Franklin Editorial Project
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July
- Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
- Episode 306: The Horseβs Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City
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The words of the Declaration of Independence are not the only aspect of the American Revolution that carry power. Visual and material objects from during and after the Revolution also carry power and meaning. Objects like monuments, uniforms, muskets, powder horns, and the Horseβs Tail, a remnant of a grand equestrian statue of King George III, which stood in New York Cityβs Bowling Green park.
Historians Wendy Bellion, Leslie Harris, and Arthur Burns join us to investigate the history of revolutionary New York City and how New Yorkers came to their decisions to both install and tear down a statue to King George III, and what happened to this statue after it came down.
This episode is sponsored in part by Humanities New York. The mission of Humanities New York is to strengthen civil society and the bonds of community, using the humanities to foster engaging inquiry and dialog around social and cultural concerns.
*Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/306
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- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July
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Death is one of the few universals in life. Everyone who is born, will die.
How do the living make peace with death?
While different cultures make peace with death in different ways, Erik Seeman joins us to investigate how white, American Protestants made their peace with death during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
Erik Seeman is a Professor of History at the University at Buffalo. Heβs an award-winning historian who has written three books on death practices in early America, including his most recent book, Speaking with the Dead in Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/305
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- Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1
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Juneteenth is a state holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865, the day slavery ended in Texas. Over the last decade, a push to make Juneteenth a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States has gained momentum.
What do we know about Juneteenth and its origins?
Annette Gordon-Reed, an award-winning historian at Harvard University and Harvard Law School, is a native Texan and she joins us to discuss the early history of Texas and the origins of the Juneteenth holiday with details from her book, On Juneteenth.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/304
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The Mississippi Gulf Coast was the home of many different peoples, cultures, and empires during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to some historians, the Gulf Coast region may have been the most diverse region in early North America.β¨
Matthew Powell, a historian of slavery and southern history and the Executive Director of the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum in Pascagoula, Mississippi, joins us to investigate and explore the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a prominent family who has lived there since about 1718.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/303
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Before its eradication in 1980, smallpox was the most feared disease in many parts of the world. Known as the βking of terrorsβ and the βdisease of diseasesβ the search for a way to lessen and avoid smallpox was on!
How did vaccination come about? What are vaccinationβs connections to smallpox inoculation? And how did news and practice of vaccination spread throughout North America? These questions will be our focus in this second, and final, episode in our βFrom Inoculation to Vaccinationβ series.
In this episode, we join experts Dr. RenΓ© Najera, Farren Yero, and Andrew Wehrman for a journey through the history of smallpox, the creation of the worldβs first vaccine, and first mass public health initiative.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/302
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- Episode 273 Victoria Johnson, David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic
- Episode 276: Stephen Fried, Benjamin Rush
- Episode 301 From Inoculation to Vaccination
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Smallpox was the most feared disease in North America and in many parts of the world before its eradication in 1980. So how did early Americans live with smallpox and work to prevent it? How did they help eradicate this terrible disease?
Over the next two episodes, weβll explore smallpox in North America. Weβll investigate how smallpox came to North America, how North Americans worked to contain, control, and prevent outbreaks of the disease, and how the story of smallpox is also the story of immunization.
In this episode, we join experts Dr. RenΓ© Najera, Farren Yero, Ben Mutschler, and Andrew Wehrman for a journey through the history of smallpox and the worldβs first immunization procedure: inoculation.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/301
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- Episode 273: Victoria Johnson, David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic
- Episode 276: Stephen Fried, Benjamin Rush
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What do historians wish more people better understood about early American history and why do they wish people had that better understanding?
In celebration of the 300th episode of Ben Franklinβs World, we posed these questions to more than 30 scholars. What do they think?
Join the celebration to discover more about Early America and take a behind-the-scenes tour of your favorite history podcast.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/300
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What can a portrait reveal about the history of colonial British America?
Portraits were both deeply personal and yet collaborative artifacts left behind by people of the past. When historians look at multiple portraits created around the same time and place, their similarities can reveal important social connections, trade relationships, or cultural beliefs about race and gender in early American history.
Janine Yorimoto Boldt, Associate Curator of American Art at the Chazen Museum of Art and the researcher behind the digital project Colonial Virginia Portraits, leads us on an exploration of portraiture and what it can reveal about the early American past.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/299
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Have you ever stopped to think about how the United States became a manufacturing nation? Have you ever wondered how the United States developed not just products, but the technologies, knowledge, and machinery necessary to manufacture or produce various products?
Lindsay Schakenbach Regele has.
Lindsay is an Associate Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and the author of Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776-1848, and she joins us today to lead our exploration into the early American origins of industrialization.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/298
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The history of Native American land dispossession is as old as the story of colonization. European colonists came to the Americas, and the Caribbean, wanting land for farms and settlement so they found ways to acquire lands from indigenous peoples by the means of negotiation, bad-faith dealing, war, and violence.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is deeply rooted in early American history.
Claudio Saunt, a scholar of Native American history at the University of Georgia, and author of the book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, joins us to discuss the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and how Native Americans in the southeastern part of the United States were removed from their homelands and resettled in areas of southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma. β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
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Is there anything more we can know about well-researched and reported events like the Boston Massacre?
Are there new ways of looking at oft-taught events that can help us see new details about them, even 250 years after they happened?
Serena Zabin, a Professor of History at Carleton College in Minnesota and the author of the award-winning book, The Boston Massacre: A Family History, joins us to discuss the Boston Massacre and how she found a new lens through which to view this famous event that reveals new details and insights.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/296
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What does it take to create a museum? How can a museum help visitors grapple with a very uncomfortable aspect of their nationβs past?
Ibrahima Seck, a member of the History Department at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, author of the book, Bouki Fait Gombo: A History of the Slave Community of Habitation Haydel (Whitney Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860, and the Director of Research of the Whitney Plantation museum, leads us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Whitney Plantation and through the history of slavery in early Louisiana.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/295
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When we think of important years in the history of the American Revolution, we might think of years like 1765 and the Stamp Act Crisis, 1773 and the Tea Crisis, 1775 and the start of what would become the War for American Independence, or 1776, the year the United States declared independence.
Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlan Alger Professor Emerita at Cornell University and the author of 1774: The Long Year of Revolution, joins us to discuss another year that she would like us to pay attention to as we think about the American Revolution: the year 1774.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/294
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How did Jamaica grow to become the "crown jewel" of the British Atlantic World?
Part of the answer is that Jamaicaβs women served as some of the most ardent and best supporters of the islandβs practice of slavery.
Christine Walker, an Assistant Professor of History at the Yale-NUS College in Singapore and the author of the award-winning book, Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholders and the Creation of Britainβs Atlantic Empire, leads us on an investigation of female slave holder-ship in 17th and 18th-century Jamaica.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/293
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What was everyday life like for those who lived in early America?
To understand the everyday lives of early Americans we need to look at the goods they made and how they produced those goods. In essence, nothing explains the everyday as much as the goods in peopleβs lives.
Glenn Adamson, author of Craft: An American History, joins us to investigate craft and craftspeople in Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/282
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This episode is a companion episode to the 2-episode World of the Wampanoag series.
This bonus episode allows us to speak with two guests from the World of the Wampanoag series: Jade Luiz, Curator of Collections at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, and LorΓ©n Spears, Executive Director of the Tomaquag Museum in Rhode Island.
Both Jade and LorΓ©n help us explore their museums and what it will be like when we visit them in person.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/290
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Before New England was New England, it was the Dawnland. A region that remains the homeland of numerous Native American peoples, including the Wampanoag.
When the English colonists arrived at Patuxet 400 years ago, they arrived at a confusing time. The World of the Wampanoag people had changed in the wake of a destabilizing epidemic.
This episode is part of a two-episode series about the World of the Wampanoag. In Episode 290, we investigated the life, cultures, and trade of the Wampanoag and their neighbors, the Narragansett, up to December 16, 1620, the day the Mayflower made its way into Plymouth Harbor.
In this episode, our focus will be on the World of the Wampanoag in 1620 and beyond.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/291
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Before New England was New England, it was the Dawnland. A region that remains the homeland of numerous Native American peoples, including the Wampanoag.
Over the next two episodes, weβll explore the World of the Wampanoag before and after 1620, a year that saw approximately 100 English colonists enter the Wampanoagsβ world. Those English colonists have been called the βPilgrimsβ and this year, 2020, marks the 400th anniversary of their arrival in New England. T
he arrival of these English settlers brought change to the Wampanoagsβ world. But many aspects of Wampanoag life and culture persisted, as did the Wampanoag who lived, and still live, in Massachusetts and beyond.
In this episode, weβll investigate the cultures, society, and economy of the Wampanoagsβ 16th- and 17th-century world. This focus will help us develop a better understanding for the peoples, places, and circumstances of the World of the Wampanoag.
This two-episode βWorld of the Wampanoagβ series is made possible through support from Mass Humanities.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/290Join Ben Franklin's World!
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- Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and Origins of Slavery
- Episode 235: Jenny Hale Pulsipher, A 17th-Century Native American Life
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The name βGreat Dismal Swampβ doesnβt evoke an image of a pleasant or beautiful place, and yet, it was an important place that offered land speculators the chance to profit and enslaved men and women a chance for freedom in colonial British America and the early United States.β¨
Marcus Nevius, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island and author of City of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Maroonage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763-1856, has offered to guide us into and through the Great Dismal Swamp and its history, so that we can better understand maroons and maroon communities in early America and learn more about how enslaved people used an environment around them to resist their enslaved condition.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/289
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Programming Note
- Episodes in December 2020 will run on December 8 and December 15. BFW will be back with new episodes on January 5, 2021.
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- Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
- Episode 263: Sari Altschuler, The Medical Imagination
- Episode 282: Vincent Brown, Tackyβs Revolt
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In what ways did the Atlantic World contribute to the American Revolution?
Empire, slavery, and constant warfare interacted with each other in the Atlantic World. Which brings us to our question: In what ways did the Atlantic World and its issues contribute to the American Revolution?
Tyson Reeder, an editor of the Papers of James Madison and an affiliated assistant professor at the University of Virginia, is a scholar of the Atlantic World, who will help us see how smuggling and trade in the Luso-Atlantic, or Portuguese-Atlantic, World contributed to the development and spread of ideas about free trade and republicanism.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/288
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- Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions
- Episode 099: Mark Hanna, Pirates & Pirate Nests in the British Atlantic World
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 161: Smuggling in the American Revolution
- Episode 229: Patrick Griffin, The Townshend Moment
- Episode 254: Jeffrey Sklansky, The Money Question in Early America
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Join the Omohundro Institute and Mass Humanities for a special two-episode series about the World of the Wampanoag before and after 1620. The Wampanoagβs history has always been spoken. Hear it on Ben Franklinβs World in December 2020.
This special bonus episode previews the Ben Franklin's World Subscription program and its monthly bonus episode for program subscribers.
In this bonus episode, Historian of the United States House of Representatives Matt Wasniewski and Historical Publications Specialist Terrance Rucker answer your questions about the early history of the United States Congress.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/202
For four months during the summer of 1787, delegates from the thirteen states met in Philadelphia to craft a revised Constitution that would define the government of the United States. It took them nearly the entire time to settle on the method for selecting the President, the Chief Executive. What they came up with is a system of indirect election where the states would select electors who would then cast votes for President and Vice President. Today we call these electors the Electoral College.
In this final episode of our series on Elections in Early America, we explore the origins and early development of the Electoral College and how it shaped presidential elections in the first decades of the United States with Alexander Keyssar and Frank Cogliano.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/287
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Production of this episode was made possible by a grant from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation of Richmond, Virginia
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- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
- Episode 179: George Van Cleve, After the Revolution: Governance During the Critical Period
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
- Episode 279: Lindsay Chervinsky, The Cabinet: Creation of an American Institution
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Who is American democracy for and who could participate in early American democracy?
Women and African Americans were often barred from voting in colonial and early republic elections. But what about Native Americans? Could Native Americans participate in early American democracy?
Julie Reed, an Assistant Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University, and Kathleen DuVal, the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, join us to investigate how the sovereignty of native nations fits within the sovereignty of the United States and its democracy.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/286
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Independence from Great Britain provided the former British American colonists the opportunity to create a new, more democratic government than they had lived under before the American Revolution.
What did this new American government look like? Who could participate in this new American democracy? And what was it like to participate in this new democracy?
Scholars Terrance Rucker, a Historical Publications Specialist in the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Marcela Miccuci, a curator at the Museum of the American Revolution, join us to investigate the first federal elections in the United States and who could vote in early U.S. elections.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/285
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- Election Series Bibliography
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- Episode 260: Creating the First Ten Amendments
- Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July
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The British North American colonies formed some of the most democratic governments in the world. But that doesn't mean that all early Americans were treated equally or allowed to participate in representative government.
So who could vote in Early America? Who could participate in representative government?
Historians James Kloppenberg, the Charles Warren Professor of History at Harvard University, and Amy Watson, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, help us explore who democracy was meant for and how those who lived in colonial British America understood and practiced representative government.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/284
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On Friday, September 18, 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, died.
Justice Ginsburg's death has caused a lot of debate about whether the President should appoint a new justice to fill her seat and, if he does appoint someone, whether the Senate should vote on the Presidentβs nomination before the election.
This short bonus episode offers a brief history of the Supreme Court and how it functions within the United States government. Our guest for this episode is Mary Sarah Bilder, the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/259
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2020 commemorates the 300th anniversary of French presence on Prince Edward Island. Like much of North America, the Canadian Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island were highly contested regions. In fact, the way France and Great Britain fought for presence and control of this region places the Canadian Maritimes among the most contested regions in eighteenth-century North America.
Anne Marie Lane Jonah, a historian with the Parks Canada Agency, joins us to explore the history of Prince Edward Island and why Great Britain and France fought over the Canadian Maritime region.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/283
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Between 1760 and 1761, Great Britain witnessed one of the largest slave insurrections in the history of its empire. Although the revolt took place on the island of Jamaica, the reverberations of this revolt stretched across the Atlantic Ocean and into the British North American colonies.
Vincent Brown, the Charles Warren Professor of American History and a Professor of African American Studies at Harvard University, joins us to investigate Tackyβs Revolt and how that revolt served as an eddy within the larger current of Atlantic warfare, with details from his book, Tackyβs Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/282
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- Episode 281: Caitlin Rosenthal, The Business of Slavery
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We live in an age where big businesses track our shopping habits and in some cases our work habits. But is the age of data new? When did the βage of the spreadsheetβ and quantification of habits develop?β¨
Caitlin Rosenthal, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, leads us on an investigation into the origins of how American businesses came to collect and use data to manage their workers and their pursuit of profits.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/281
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- Episode 253: Susan Clair Imbarrato, Life & Revolution in Boston & Grenada
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The American Revolution is embedded in the American character. Itβs an event that can tell us who we are, how we came to be who we are, and how we can strive to be who we want to be as a nation and people.
Rick Atkinson, a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a journalist who has worked at The Washington Post, and the author of The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, joins us to explore how the War for Independence has impacted and shaped the American character.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/280
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- Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
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As the first President of the United States, George Washington set many precedents for the new nation. One of the biggest precedents Washington set came in the form of the Cabinet, a body of advisors from across the U.S. government who advise the president on how to handle matters of foreign and domestic policy.
Today, we investigate Washingtonβs creation of the Cabinet and how it became a government institution with Lindsay Chervinsky, a Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies, a Senior Fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies, and the author of the book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/279
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- Episode 203: Joanne Freeman: Alexander Hamilton
- Episode 265: Lindsay Chervinsky, An Early History of the White House
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Polygamy is not a practice that often comes to mind when many of us think about early America. But it turns out, polygamy was a ubiquitous practice among different groups of early Americans living in 17th and 18th-century North America.
Sarah Pearsall, a University Teaching Officer, Fellow, and Historian at the University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss the surprising history of polygamy in early North America, with details from her book, Polygamy: An Early American History.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/278
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On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked βWhat to the Slave is the Fourth of July?β
In this episode, we explore Douglassβ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?
To help us investigate this question, we are joined by Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and Christopher Bonner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/277
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- Derrick Spires, βDreams of a Revolution Deferredβ
- Suggested Readings: βSlavery and the American Revolutionβ
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This special bonus episode introduces the Ben Franklin's World Subscription program and a new monthly Listener Question & Answer feature for subscribers to that program.
In this preview, award-winning historian Nick Bunker answers your questions about the life of young Benjamin Franklin.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/207
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- Episode 207: Nick Bunker: Young Benjamin Franklin
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Who gets to be a founding father?
βFounding Fatherβ status goes to men who helped found the United States. That means the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, those who led the Continental Army, and the 36 delegates who signed the Constitution. Weβre talking about more than 100 men and yet, we donβt really talk about more than a handful of these βfoundersβ as Founders.
Stephen Fried, an award-winning journalist and author of Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father, joins us to explore the life and deeds of one founder we donβt always talk about, Benjamin Rush.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/276
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- Episode 273: Victoria Johnson, David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic
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What kinds of animals did early Americans keep as pets? How did early Americans acquire pets? What kinds of animals did early Americans keep as pets?
Ingrid Tague, a Professor of History at the University of Denver and the author of Animal Companions: Pets and Social Change in Eighteenth-Century Britain, joins us to answer your questions about pets and pet keeping in Early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/275
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- Virtual Public Event: Equality: A Historical Perspective
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What do we know about how and why England came to establish its first permanent colony at Jamestown? And what do we know about the English colony that came before it, the Colony of Roanoke?
Alan Gallay, Lyndon B. Johnson chair of United States History at Texas Christian University and author of Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire, leads us on exploration of the life and work of Sir Walter Ralegh, the man who crafted the blueprint for Englandβs colonization plans in the Americas.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/274
Production of this episode was made possible by a grant from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation of Richmond, Virginia.
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- Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did Americans learn to establish philanthropic institutions?
Victoria Johnson, an Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College in New York City and author of American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, leads us on an investigation of the life of Dr. David Hosack and the many organizations he founded, including the Elgin Botanical Garden.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/273
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What do you know about the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution?
Caitlin Galante-DeAngelis Hopkins, a Lecturer in the History Department at Harvard University and a former research associate for the Harvard and Slavery Project, joins us to explore the origins of the Eleventh Amendment and why the United States added it to its Constitution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/272
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- Episode 261: Creating the Fourth Amendment
- Episode 262: Interpreting the Fourth Amendment
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On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode to Lexington, Massachusetts to spread the alarm that the Regulars were marching. Revere made several important rides between 1774 and 1775, including one in September 1774 that brought the Suffolk Resolves to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
So why is it that we remember Paul Revereβs ride to Lexington and not any of his other rides?
Why is it that we remember Paul Revere on the night of April 18, 1775 and nothing about his life either before or after that famous ride?
Why is it that Paul Revere seems to ride quickly into history and then just as quickly out of it?
In this episode we speak with four scholars to explore Paul Revereβs ride through history.
This episode originally posted as Episode 130.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/271
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- Episode 128: Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History
- Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775
- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July
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How do you uncover the life of an enslaved person who left no paper trail?
What can the everyday life of an enslaved person tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some enslaved people made the transition from slavery to freedom?
We explore the life of Charity Folks, an enslaved woman from Maryland who gained her freedom in the late-18th century. Our guide through Charityβs life is Jessica Millward, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and author of Finding Charityβs Folk.
This episode originally posted as Episode 089.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/270
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- Episode 212: Erica Dunbar, Research Biography
Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery - Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
What was everyday life like for average men and women in early America?
Listeners ask this question more than any other question and today we continue to try to answer it.
Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England.
This episode originally posted as Episode 032.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/269 Sponsor Links
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- Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America
- Episode 244: Kimberly Alexander, Shoe Stories from Early America
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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
What in the first 40 years of his life made Benjamin Franklin the genius he became?
Benjamin Franklin serves as a great window on to the early American past because as a man of βvarietyβ he pursued many interests: literature, poetry, science, business, philosophy, philanthropy, and politics.
But one aspect of Franklinβs life has gone largely unstudied: his childhood and early life.
Nick Bunker, author of Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklinβs early life and how family, childhood, and youthful experiences shaped him as a scientist and diplomat.
This episode originally posted as Episode 207.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/268
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- Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
How did the people of early America experience and feel about winter?
Thomas Wickman, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural Winter in the Early American Northeast, joins us to investigate how Native Americans and early Americans experienced and felt about winter during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/267
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- Episode 191: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philipβs War
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did early Americans educate their children? How and when did Americans create a formal system of public education?
You sent me these questions for Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America. You also said you wanted to know more about how early American boys and girls learned the trades they would practice later in life.
Johann Neem, a Professor of History at Western Washington University and author of Democracyβs Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America, joins us to further explore how early Americans educated their children and how early American children learned the trades they would practice later in life.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/266
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- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 239: Joseph Adelman, Post & Travel in Early America
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
On July 1, 1790, Congress passed βAn Act for Establishing the temporary and permanent Seat of the Government of the United States.β This act formalized a plan to move the capital of the United States from New York City to Philadelphia, for a period of 10 years, and then from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., where the United States government would make its permanent home.
What buildings did Congress have erected to house the government?
Lindsay Chervinsky works for the White House Historical Association as the White House Historian and she joins us to explore the history of one of the earliest buildings in Washington D.C., the White House.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/265
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- Episode 222: Adam Costanzo, The Early History of Washington D.C.
- Episode 256: Christian Koot, Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
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The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American War for Independence, but it did not bring peace to North America. After 1783, warfare and violence continued between Americans and Native Americans. So how did the early United States attempt to create peace for itsnew nation?
Michael Oberg, a Distinguished Professor of History at the State University of New York-Geneseo and the author of Peacemakers: The Iroquois, the United States, and the Treaty of Canandaigua, joins us to investigate how the United States worked with the Haudenosaunee or Six Nations peoples to create peace through the Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/264
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Did you know that imagination once played a key role in the way Americans understood and practiced medicine?
Sari Altschuler, an Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern University and author of The Medical Imagination: Literature and Health in the Early United States, joins us to investigate the ways early American doctors used imagination in their practice and learning of medicine.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/263
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- Episode 251: Cameron Strang, Frontiers of Science
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
History is an important tool when it comes to understanding American law.
History is what the justices of the United States Supreme Court use when they want to ascertain what the framers meant when they drafted the Constitution of 1787 and its first ten amendments in 1789. History is also the tool we use when we want to know how and why the Supreme Courtβs interpretation of the Constitution and its amendments have changed over time.β¨
Sarah Seo, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Iowa, Fourth Amendment expert, and the author of Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom, joins us to investigate how and why the Supreme Courtβs interpretation of the Fourth Amendment has changed over time and how that change has impacted the way the Fourth Amendment protects us from unreasonable search and seizures.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/262
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- Episode 260: Creating the First Ten Amendments
- Episode 261: Creating the Fourth Amendment
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution doesnβt always make headlines, but itβs an amendment that undergirds foundational rights. Itβs also an amendment that can show us a lot about the intertwined nature between history and American law. β¨
In this 3rd episode of our 4th Doing History series, we explore the early American origins of the Fourth Amendment with Thomas Clancy, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Law and an expert on the Fourth Amendment.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/261
Series Resources
- Lauren Duval, "Domestic Tranquility: Privacy and the Household in Revolutionary America"
- Joseph Adelman, "Articles of Amendment: Copying "The" Bill of Rights"
- Gautham Rao, Friends in All the Right Places: The Newest Legal History
- Doing History 4 Legal Lexicon; or A Useful List of Terms You Might Not Know"
- "Doing History 4: Bibliography"
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The Ben Franklin's World Shop
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- Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
- Episode 259: The Bill of Rights & How Legal Historians Work
- Episode 260: Creating the First Ten Amendments
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How and why did Congress draft the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution?
In the United States, we use the Constitution and Bill of Rights to understand and define ourselves culturally. Americans are a people with laws and rights that are protected by the Constitution because they are defined in the Constitution. And the place where the Constitution defines and outlines our rights is within its First Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights.
In this second episode of our 4th Doing History series, weβre investigating how and why Congress drafted the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution. Our guide for this investigation is Kenneth Bowling, a member of the First Federal Congress Project and a co-editor of A Documentary History of the First Federal Congress.β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/260
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
Production of this episode was made possible by a grant from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation of Richmond, Virginia.
Series Resources
- Joseph Adelman, "Articles of Amendment: Copying "The" Bill of Rights"
- Gautham Rao blog post: Friends in All the Right Places: The Newest Legal History
- Doing History 4 Legal Lexicon; or A Useful List of Terms You Might Not Know"
- "Doing History 4: Bibliography"
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- Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress
- Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights
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Law is all around us. And the basis of American Law comes not only from our early American past, but from our founding documents.
This episode begins our 4th Doing History series. Over the next four episodes, weβll explore the early American origins of the Bill of Rights as well as the history of the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment will serve as our case study so we can see where our rights come from and how they developed from the early American past.
In this episode we go inside the United States National Archives to investigate the Constitution and Bill of Rights. During our visit weβll speak with Jessie Kratz, First Historian of the National Archives, and Mary Sarah Bilder, the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College, to better understand our founding documents and the laws they established.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/259
About the Series
Law is all around us. The Doing History: Why the 4th? series uses the Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment as case studies to examine where our rights come from and how they developed out of early American knowledge and experiences. It also uses the history of the Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment to explore the history of law as a field of study and how this field of study differs from other historical subjects and how historians and lawyers use and view the history of the law differently.
The Doing History series explores early American history and how historians work. It is part of Ben Franklinβs World, which is a production of the Omohundro Institute.
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The Ben Franklin's World Shop
Series Resources
- Gautham Rao blog post: "Friends in All the Right Places: The Newest Legal History"
- Jonathan Gienapp, βConstitutional Originalism and Historyβ
- Doing History 4 Legal Lexicon; or A Useful List of Terms You Might Not Know"
- "Doing History 4: Bibliography"
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- Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
- Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2
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The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776 with 12 colonies and one abstention. The delegation from New York abstained from the vote. And Pennsylvania voted in favor of independence because two of its delegates were persuaded not to attend the vote given their opposition.
John Dickinson was one of the two delegates who absented himself from the vote. Later, he would refuse to sign the Declaration of Independence. But why? β¨
Jane Calvert, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and the Director/Editor of The John Dickinson Writings Project, joins us to explore the life, religion, and political views of John Dickinson. β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/258
Listener Meet Up
- Atlanta, Georgia October 12, 4pm
Sponsor Links
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- Episode 179: George Van Cleve, Governance During the Critical Period
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What was it like to live as a woman of faith in early republic America? What was it like to live as a Catholic in the early United States?
Catherine OβDonnell, an Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University and author of Elizabeth Seton: American Saint, helps us investigate answers to these questions by taking us through the life of the United Statesβ first saint: Elizabeth Ann Seton.β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/257
Atlanta Meet Up
- October 12, 4pm at Atkins Park Restaurant. RSVP Here
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- Episode 212: Researching Biography
- Episode 214: Christopher Grasso, Skepticism & American Faith
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How do empires come to be? How are empires made and who makes them? What role do maps play in making empires?
Christian Koot is a Professor of History at Towson University and the author of A Biography of a Map in Motion: Augustine Herrmanβs Chesapeake. Christian has researched and written two books about the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch World to better understand empires and how they are made. Today, he joins us to take us through his research and to share what one specific map, Augustine Herrmanβs 1673 map Virginia and Maryland, reveals about empire and empire making.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/256
Augustine Herrmanβs Map, Virginia and Maryland as it is planted and inhabited
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Production of this episode was made possible by a grant from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation of Richmond, Virginia.
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- Episode 209: Considering Biography
- Episode 242: David Young, A History of Early Delaware
- Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Who gets to be a citizen of the United States? How does the United States define who belongs to the nation?
Early Americans asked and grappled with these questions during the earliest days of the early republic.
Martha S. Jones is a Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and a former public interest litigator. Using details from her book, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America, Martha joins us to investigate how early Americans thought about citizenship and how they defined who could and couldnβt belong to the United States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/255
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We read and hear a lot about money. We read and hear about fluctuations in the value of the Dollar, Pound, and Euro, interest rates and who can and canβt get access to credit, and we also read and hear about new virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Facebookβs Libra.
We talk a lot about money. But where did the idea of money come from?
Did early Americans think about money a lot too?
Jeffrey Sklansky is a Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of Sovereign of the Market: The Money Question in Early America. Jeff is an expert in the intellectual and social history of capitalism in early America and heβs agreed to lead us on an investigation of the world of money in early America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/254
Sponsor Links
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What can a family history tell us about revolutionary and early republic America?
What can the letters of a wife and mother tell us about life in the Caribbean during the Age of Revolutions?
These are questions Susan Clair Imbarrato, a Professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead, set out to answer as she explored an amazing trove of letters to and from a woman named Sarah Gray Cary. β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/253
Sponsor Links
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- Episode 228: Eric Hinderaker, The Boston Massacre
- Episode 231: Sara Georgini, The Religious Lives of the Adams Family
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Much of early American history comprises stories of empire and how different Native, European, and Euro-American nations vied for control of North American territory, resources, and people.Β β¨ In this episode, Matthew P. Dziennick, an Assistant Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy and author The Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier, presents us with one of these imperial stories. Specifically, weβre going to investigate the world of the eighteenth-century Scottish Highlands and how the 12,000 soldiers the Highlands sent to North America shaped the course of the British Empire during Seven Yearsβ War and the American Revolution.
What did early Americans think about science? And how did they pursue and develop their knowledge of it?
Cameron Strang, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno and author of Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850, joins us to investigate the early American world of science and how early Americans developed their scientific knowledge.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
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- Get 40 percent off Frontiers of Science (Use Promo Code 01BFW)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
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- Episode 186: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire
- Episode 204: James Lewis Jr., The Burr Conspiracy
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
2019 marks the 400th anniversary of two important events in American History: The creation of the first representative assembly in English North America and the arrival of the first African people in English North America.
Why were these Virginia-based events significant and how have they impacted American history?
Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a scholar of African American and American History and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Norfolk State University, helps us find answers.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/250
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- Bibliography: 1619 and Virginia
- Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America (Save 40 percent with promo code 01BFW)
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- Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and Origins of Slavery
- Episode 224: Kevin Dawson, Aquatic Culture in Early America
- Episode 226: Ryan Quintana, Making the State of South Carolina
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Between 1789 and 1825, five men would serve as President of the United States. Four of them hailed from Virginia.
Many of us know details about the lives and presidencies of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. But what do we know about the life and presidency of the fourth Virginia president, James Monroe?
Sara Bon-Harper, Executive Director of James Monroeβs Highland, joins us to explore the public and private life of James Monroe.
This episode originally posted as Episode103.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/249
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 094: Cassandra Good, Founding Friendships
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator
- Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
- Episode 183: Douglas Bradburn, George Washingtonβs Mount Vernon
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Not all historians publish their findings about history in books and articles. Some historians convey knowledge about history to the public in public spaces and in public ways.
We conclude the βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series with a look at how historians do history for the public with guest historian Lonnie Bunch, the Founding Director of the Smithsonianβs National Museum of African American History and Culture.
This episode originally posted as a Bonus Episode in 2016.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/248
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave
- Episode 212: Researching Biography
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A βlittle short of madness.β That is how Thomas Jefferson responded when two delegates from New York approached him with the idea to build the Erie Canal in January 1809.
Jeffersonβs comment did not discourage New Yorkers. On January 4, 1817, New York State began building a 363-mile long canal to link the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes and the Midwest.
Janice Fontanella, site manager of Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter, New York, joins us to discuss the Erie Canal, its construction, and the impact that this waterway made on New York and the United States.
This episode originally posted as Episode 028.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/247
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 035: Michael Lord, Historic Hudson Valley & Washington Irving
- Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: A History of Early Detroit
- Episode 071: Bruce Venter, Saratoga and Hubbardton, 1777
- Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State
- Episode 239: Joseph Adelman, Post & Travel in Early America
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Did Canada almost join the American Revolution?
Bruno Paul Stenson, a historian and musicologist with the ChΓ’teau de Ramezay historic site in MontrΓ©al, joins us to discuss how the American Revolution played out in Canada.
This episode originally posted as Episode 041.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/246
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
- Episode 038: Carolyn Harris, Magna Carta & Its Gifts to North America
- Episode 039: Eric Nelson, The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding
- Episode 040: Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789
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It wasnβt always fireworks on the fourth.
John Adams predicted Americans would celebrate the Second of July, the day Congress voted in favor of independence, "with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other." He got the date wrong, but he was right about the festivities in commemoration of Independence Day. And yet July Fourth events have changed a great deal since 1776.
How do our fireworks displays, barbecues, parades, and sporting events compare to the first and earliest celebrations of independence? How and why do we celebrate the United States and its independence as we do?
Three historical experts take us through the early American origins of Fourth of July celebration.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/245
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- Emily Sneff, "The Sounds of Independence" blog post
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
- Episode 230: Mitch Kachun, First Martyr of Liberty
- Episode 243: Joseph Adelman, Revolutionary Print Networks
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Thereβs a saying that tells us we should walk a mile in someone elseβs shoes. Itβs a reminder we should practice empathy and try to understand people before we cast judgement.
As it happens, this expression is right on the mark because it seems when we use shoes as historical objects, we can learn a LOT about people and their everyday lives and actions.
Kimberly Alexander, museum specialist, lecturer at the University of New Hampshire, and author of Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era, joins us to help us better understand shoes and what they can tell us about the everyday lives of early Americans.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/244
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 024: Kimberly Alexander: Eighteenth-Century Fashion & Material Culture
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution
- Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
- Episode 201: Catherine E. Kelly, Art, Politics, and Everyday Life in Early America
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
For the American Revolution to be successful, it needed ideas people could embrace and methods for spreading those ideas. It also needed ways for revolutionaries to coordinate across colonial lines.
How did revolutionaries develop and spread their ideas? How did they communicate and coordinate plans of action?
Joseph Adelman, an Assistant Professor of History at Framingham State University and author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789, joins us to investigate the roles printers and their networks played in developing and spreading ideas of the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/243
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 112: Mary Beth North, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
- Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America
- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 227: Kyle Courtney, Copyright & Fair Use in Early America
- Episode 229: Patrick Griffin, The Townshend Moment
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Delaware may be the second smallest state in the United States, but it has a BIG, rich history that can tell us much about the history of early America.
David Young, the Executive Director of the Delaware Historical Society, joins us to explore the early American history of Delaware from its Native American inhabitants through its emergence as the first state in the United States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/242
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 059: Eric Foner, The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 138: Patrick Spero, Frontier Politics in Early America
- Episode 177: Martin BrΓΌckner, The Social Life of Maps in America
- Episode 217: Jessica Millward, Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland
- Episode 234: Richard Bushman, Farms & Farm Families in Early America
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Spain became the first European power to use the peoples, resources, and lands of the Americas and Caribbean as the basis for its Atlantic Empire.
How did this empire function and what wealth was Spain able to extract from these peoples and lands?
Molly Warsh, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and author of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700, helps us investigate answers to these questions by showing us how Spain attempted to increase its wealth and govern its empire through its American and Caribbean pearl operations.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/241
Meet Ups
- Pittsburgh Meet Up, June 15, 2:30pm
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 015: Joyce Chaplin, Round About the Earth
- Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
- Episode 178: Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America
- Episode 224: Kevin Dawson, Aquatic Culture in Early America
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Have you ever had one of those really conversations where the person was so fascinating that you wished the conversation didnβt have to end?
Flora Fraser joins us for one of those conversations. Weβll talk about biography, and in doing so, sheβll tell us what it was like to grow up as the daughter and granddaughter of two famed, British biographers and about the genre of biography and how it developed in the United Kingdom.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/240
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
- Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
- Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2
- Episode 212: Researching Biography
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did the postal system work in Early America? How did people send mail across the North American colonies and the British Empire?
Joseph Adelman, an Assistant Professor of History at Framingham State University and author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing, 1763-1789, joins us to further explore how the early American postal system worked and how people and mail traveled around early North America and the Atlantic World.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/239
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 028: Janice Fontanella, Building the Erie Canal
- Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State
- Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
- Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America
- Episode 219: Adrian Covert, Taverns in Early America
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Benedict Arnold is an intriguing figure. He was both a military hero who greatly impacted and furthered the American War for Independence with his bravery on the battlefield and someone who did something unthinkable: he betrayed his country.
Stephen Brumwell, an award-winning historian and the author of Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty, joins us to explore the life and deeds of Benedict Arnold and Arnoldβs stunning metamorphosis from hero to traitor.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/238
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 071: Bruce Venter, Saratoga and Hubbardton, 1777
- Episode 158: The Revolutionariesβ Army
- Episode 194: Longfellow House Washingtonβs Headquarters, NHS
- Episode 208: Nathaniel Philbrick, Turning Points of the American Revolution
- Episode 225: Elaine Forman Crane, The Poison Plot
- Episode 229: Patrick Griffin, The Townshend Moment
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Motherβs Day became a national holiday on May 9, 1914 to honor all of the work mothers do to raise children.
But what precisely is the work that mothers do to raise children? Has the nature of mothers, motherhood, and the work mothers do changed over time?
Nora Doyle, an Assistant Professor of History at Salem College in North Carolina, has combed through the historical record to find answers to these questions. Specifically, sheβs sought to better understand the lived and imagined experiences of mothers and motherhood between the 1750s and 1850s.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/237
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- Maternal Bodies: Redefining Motherhood in Early America
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
- Episode 120: Marcia Zug, A History of Mail Order Brides in Early America
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator
- Episode 205: Jeanne Abrams, First Ladies of the Republic
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Who do we count as family?
If a relative was born in a foreign place and one of their parents was of a different race? Would they count as family?
Eighteenth-century Britons asked themselves these questions. As we might suspect, their answers varied by time and whether they lived in Great Britain, North America, or the Caribbean.
Daniel Livesay, an Associate Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College in California, helps us explore the evolution of British ideas about race with details from his book Children of Uncertain Fortune: Mixed-Race Jamaicans in Britain and the Atlantic Family, 1733-1833.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/236
Sponsor Links
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 099: Mark Hanna, Pirates & Pirate Nests in the British Atlantic World
- Episode 173: Marisa Fuentes, Colonial Port Cities and Slavery
- Episode 206: Katharine Gerbner, Christian Slavery
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Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What does early America look like if we view it through Native American eyes?
Jenny Hale Pulsipher, an Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University and author of Swindler Sachem, is a scholar who enjoys investigating the many answers to this question. And today, she introduces us to a Nipmuc Indian named John Wompas and how he experienced a critical time in early American history, the period between the 1650s and 1680s.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/235
Meet Ups & Talks
- Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception.
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiroβs Pizza
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library
Sponsor Links
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren, Slavery in Early New England
- Episode 192: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philipβs War
- Episode 198: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeast Coast
- Episode 199: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of the Empire
- Episode 220: Margaret Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery
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If we want to understand everyday life in early America we need to understand the everyday life of early American farms and farmers.
Roughly three-quarters of Americans in British North America and the early United States considered themselves to be farmers. So how did early Americans establish farms and what were the rhythms of their daily lives?
Richard Bushman, the Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, joins us to investigate farms and farm life in early America with details from his book, The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century: A Social and Cultural History.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/234
Meet Ups & Talks
- Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception.
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiroβs Pizza
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Ben Franklinβs World T-shirts
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 087: Sean Condon, Shaysβ Rebellion
- Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
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When we think about colonial American history we think about the colonies of the English, the Dutch, the French, and the Spanish. Rarely do we think about the colonies of the Russians. And yet Russia had colonies in North America.
Gwenn Miller, an Associate Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, joins us to investigate a history of Russiaβs colonies in North America with details from her book Kodiak Kreol: Communities of Empire in Early Russian America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/233
Sponsor Links
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Meet Ups & Talks
- Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception.
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiroβs Pizza
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 021: Eugene Tesdhal, Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
- Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
- Episode 184: David Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
- Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley
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Before the English settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 or the Dutch settled near Albany, New York in 1615, a group of French-speaking, Catholic settlers established a settlement in Nova Scotia in 1605.
By 1755, nearly 15,000 Acadians lived in Acadia.
Christopher Hodson, an Associate Professor of history at Brigham Young University and the author of The Acadian Diaspora, joins us to investigate the lives of these early North American colonists and how the British government came to displace them through a forced migration in 1755.β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/232
Sponsor Links
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Meet Ups & Talks
- Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception.
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiroβs Pizza
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
- Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
- Episode 167: The Early History of New Orleans
- Episode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice Age
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Historians use archives to create the histories we love to read, watch, and listen to. So weβre going into one archive to investigate how historians use them and to discover more about the religious lives of the Adams Family.
Sara Georgini, Series Editor of The Papers of John Adams, invites us to join her inside the Massachusetts Historical Society so we can take a closer look at the historical details provided by the Adams Papers and the role these manuscripts played in helping her write her book, Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/231
Meet Ups
- Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception.
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiroβs Pizza
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Books (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams & The Adams Papers Editorial Project
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of John Adams & Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 214: Christopher Grasso, Skepticism and American Faith
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Helpful Links * Join the Ben Franklin's World Community * Ben Franklinβs WorldTwitter: @BFWorldPodcast * Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page * Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, Patrick Carr, and Crispus Attucks. These are the five men who died as a result of the shootings on Bostonβs King Street on the night of March 5, 1770.
Of these five victims, evidence points to Crispus Attucks falling first, and of all the victims, Crispus Attucks is the name we can recall.
Why is that?
To help us answer this question and to conclude our 3-episode series on the Boston Massacre, weβre joined by Mitch Kachun, a Professor of History at Western Michigan University and the author of First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/230
Meet Ups
- Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception.
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiroβs Pizza
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Books (Use Promo Code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent on any title)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 212: Researching Biography
- Episode 228: Eric Hinderaker, The Boston Massacre
- Episode 229: Patrick Griffin, The Townshend Moment
SUBSCRIBE! * Apple Podcasts * Spotify * Google Podcasts * Ben Franklin's World iOS App * Ben Franklin's World Android App
Helpful Links * Join the Ben Franklin's World Community * Ben Franklinβs WorldTwitter: @BFWorldPodcast * Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page * Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Within days of the Boston Massacre, Bostonians politicized the event. They circulated a pamphlet about βthe Horrid Massacreβ and published images portraying soldiers firing into a well-assembled and peaceful crowd. β¨
But why did the Boston Massacre happen? Why did the British government feel it had little choice but to station as many 2,000 soldiers in Boston during peacetime? And what was going on within the larger British Empire that drove colonists to the point where they provoked armed soldiers to fire upon them?
Patrick Griffin, the Madden-Hennebry Family Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and author of The Townshend Moment: The Making of Empire and Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, joins us to answer these questions as we continue our 3-episode investigation of the Boston Massacre.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/229
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Bonus Episode: The Boston Stamp Act Riots of 1765
- Episode 106: The World of John Singleton Copley
- Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 186: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire
- Episode 228: Eric Hinderaker, The Boston Massacre
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered in Bostonβs King Street and confronted a a sentry and his fellow soldiers in front of the custom house. The confrontation led the soldiers to fire their muskets into the crowd, five civilians died.
What happened on the night of March 5, 1770 that led the crowd to gather and the soldiers to discharge their weapons?
Eric Hinderaker, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Utah and the author of Bostonβs Massacre, assists our quest to discover more about the Boston Massacre.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/228
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Omohundro Institute Books (Use Promo Code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)
Complementary Episodes
- Bonus Episode: J.L. Bell, The Stamp Act of 1765
- Episode 106: Jane Kamensky, The World of John Singleton Copley
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 186: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In the 21st century, we are all creators and users of content. We take original photos with our smartphones, generate blog posts, digital videos, and podcasts. Some of us write books and articles. And nearly everyone contributes content to social media.
Given all of the information and content we generate and use, itβs really important for us to understand the principles of copyright and fair use, principles that have an early American past.
Kyle Courtney, a lawyer, librarian, and Copyright Advisor for Harvard University, will serve as our guide through the early American origins of copyright and fair use.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/227
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader App with bonus content from episode
- Nora Slonimsky, βThe Public Figure Exception(s): Finding Fair Use in the Vastness of Early American IPβ
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 062: Carol Berkin, The Bill of Rights
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand
- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
- Episode 179: George Van Cleve, Governance During the Critical Period
- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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What do we mean by βthe state?β
How is a βstateβ produced?
Is βthe stateβ something everyone can participate in producing?
Ryan Quintana, an Associate Professor of History at Wellesley College and the author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina, joins us to answer these questions with a look at the creation and development of the State of South Carolina.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/226
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader app
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
- Episode 157: Judith Van Buskirk, The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 186: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire
- Episode 190: Jennie Goloboy, Origins of the American Middle Class
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In 1738, a cooper named Benedict Arnold petitioned the Rhode Island General Assembly for a divorce from his wife Mary Ward Arnold. Benedict claimed that Mary had taken a lover and together they had attempted to murder him with poison.
How did this story of love, divorce, and attempted murder unfold? What does it reveal about the larger world of colonial America and the experiences of colonial American men and women?
Elaine Forman Crane, a Distinguished Professor of History at Fordham University, takes us through the Arnoldsβ story with details from her book, The Poison Plot: A Tale of Adultery and Murder in Colonial Newport.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/225
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader app
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 110: Joshua Taylor, How Genealogists Research
- Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of Genealogy
- Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
- Episode 208: Nathaniel Philbrick, Turning Points of the American Revolution
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
- Episode 212: Researching Biography
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Atlantic World has brought many disparate peoples together, which has caused a lot of ideas and cultures to mix.
How did the Atlantic World bring so many different peoples and cultures together? How did this large intermixing of people and cultures impact the development of colonial America?
Kevin Dawson, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California-Merced and author of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora, joins us to explore answers to these questions with an investigation of the African Diaspora and African and African American aquatic culture.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Institute for Thomas Paine Studies
- Follow the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies on Twitter (@TheITPS)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
- Bonus: Lonnie Bunch, History & Historians in the Public
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic
- Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America
- Episode 206: Katharine Gerbner, Christian Slavery
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ohio River Valley proved to be a rich agrarian region. Many different Native American peoples prospered from its land both in terms of the the landβs ability to produce a wide variety of crops and its support of a wide variety of small fur-bearing animals for the fur trade.
Susan Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women and the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792, helps us explore this unique region and the important roles it played in the early American past.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/223
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Institute for Thomas Paine Studies
- Follow the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies on Twitter (@TheITPS)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Native American Defeat of the First American Army
- Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: A History of Early Detroit
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 088: Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing
- Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark & the Fight for the Illinois Country
- Episode 162: Dunmoreβs New World
- Episode 184: David Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Have you ever wondered how the capital of the United States came to be situated at Washington D.C.?
The banks of the Potomac River represent an odd place to build a national city, a place that would not only serve as the seat of government for the nation, but also as an economic, cultural, and intellectual hub. Still in 1790, the United States Congress passed the Residence Act and mandated that it would establish a new, permanent capital along the banks of the Potomac River. Why?
Adam Costanzo, a Professional Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi and author of George Washingtonβs Washington: Visions for the National Capital in the Early American Republic, joins us to consider questions of the national capitalβs location and construction.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/222
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Audible 30-Day Free Trial
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 078: Rachel Shelden, Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War
- Episode 099: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Can food help us better understand the people and events of the past? Can we better understand a person like Benjamin Franklin and who he was by the foods he ate?
Rae Katherine Eighmey, an award-winning food historian, author, and cook, joins us to explore the culinary tastes and habits of Benjamin Franklin and colonial British Americans with details from her book Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin: A Founding Fatherβs Culinary Adventures.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/221
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Books (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)
- Denver Meet Up Saturday, January 19, 3:30pm at Prost Brewing
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 019: Kenneth Turino, The Colonial Boston Marketplace
- Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
- Episode 044: Adam Shprintzen, The Vegetarian Crusade
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Tranatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
- Episode 169: Thomas S. Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Did you know that one of the earliest practices of slavery by English colonists originated in New England?
In fact, Massachusetts issued the very first slave code in English America in 1641. Why did New Englanders turn to slavery and become the first in English America to codify its practice?
Margaret Ellen Newell, a professor of history at The Ohio State University and the author of Brethren By Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery, joins us to investigate these questions and issues.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/220
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Books (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)
- Denver Meet Up Saturday, January 19, 3:30pm at Prost Brewing
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, The Other Slavery
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound
- Episode 191: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philipβs War
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Inns and taverns played prominent roles in early American life. They served the needs of travelers who needed food to eat and places to sleep.They offered local communities a form of poor relief. And they functioned as public spaces where men could gather to discuss news, organize movements, and to drink and play cards.
Adrian Covert, author of Taverns of the American Revolution, helps us explore taverns and the many roles they played in early American life.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/219
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Books (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)
- Denver Meet Up Saturday, January 19, 3:30pm at Prost Brewing
Complementary Episodes
- Bonus: Longfellowβs Wayside Inn
- Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 187: Kenneth Cohen, Sport in Early America
- Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Have you ever wondered where the Christmas traditions of stockings, presents, and cookies come from?
What about jolly, old Saint Nicholas? Who was he and why do we often call him Santa Claus?
Peter G. Rose, culinary historian of Dutch foodways in North America and author of Delicious December: How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats joins us to discuss the origins of Santa Claus and edible goodies such as cookies in the United States.
This episode originally posted as Episode 009.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/218
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Chicago 2019 Meetup
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 035: Michael Lord, Historic Hudson Valley & Washington Irving
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Who Should Rule at Home?
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How do you uncover the life of an enslaved person who left no paper trail?
What can the everyday life of an enslaved person tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some enslaved people made the transition from slavery to freedom?
We explore the life of Charity Folks, an enslaved woman from Maryland who gained her freedom in the late-18th century. Our guide through Charityβs life is Jessica Millward, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and author of Finding Charityβs Folk: Enslaved and Free Black Women in Maryland.
This episode originally posted as Episode 089.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/217
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Chicago 2019 Meetup
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, Price For Their Pound of Flesh
- Episode 212: Erica Dunbar, Research Biography
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What do George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln have in common?
They all grew-up in blended or stepfamilies.
Lisa Wilson, the Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of American History at Connecticut College and author of A History of Stepfamilies in Early America, takes us through the creation and interactions of blended and stepfamilies in early America.
This episode originally posted as Episode 027.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/216
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Chicago 2019 Meetup
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams
- Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, House Divided: The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
- Episode 183: Douglas Bradburn, Mount Vernon
- Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
We tend to view gay marriage as a cultural and legal development of the 21st century.
But did you know that some early Americans lived openly as same-sex married couples?
Rachel Hope Cleves, a Professor of History at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and author of Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, reveals the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, women who lived as a married couple in Weybridge, Vermont between 1807 and 1851.
This episode originally posted as Episode 013.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/215
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Chicago 2019 Meetup
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 004: Thomas Foster, Sex and the Founding Fathers
- Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
- Episode 032: Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, One Colonial Womanβs World
- Episode 120: Marcia Zug, A History of Mail Order Brides in Early America
- Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, House Divided: The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Was the early United States a βChristian nation?β Did most of its citizenry accept God and the Bible as the moral authority that bound them together as one nation?
Scholars have taken a binary stance on these questions. Some argue that early America was a thoroughly religious place and that even those who didnβt attend church were on the same basic page as those who did. While others argue early America boasted an increasingly secularized society.
Christopher Grasso, a professor of history at William & Mary and the author of Skepticism and American Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War, challenges and complicates these two ideas by offering a third explanation: the religious landscape of early America was a continuum where many people experienced both faith and doubt over the course of their lives.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/214
Seattle Meet Up Details
- Alaskan Sourdough Bakery and Restaurant 3pm
- Copperworks Distilling Company Distillery Tour 5pm
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Babbel (Use Promo Code BFWorld to save 50% off your first 3 months)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
- Episode 134: Spencer McBride, Pulpit and Nation
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 182: Douglas Winiarski, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light, the Great Awakening in New England
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In 1621, the Pilgrims of Plimoth Colony and their Wampanoag neighbors came together to celebrate their first harvest. Today we remember this event as the first Thanksgiving.
But what do we really know about this holiday and the people who celebrated it?
So much of what we know about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving comes to us through myth and legend, which is why Rebecca Fraser, author of The Mayflower: The Families, The Voyage, and the Founding of America, joins us to help suss out fact from fiction.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/213
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Babbel (Use promo code BFWorld to save 50% on first 3 months)
Seattle Meet Up Details
- Alaskan Sourdough Bakery and Restaurant 3pm
- Copperworks Distilling Company Distillery Tour 5pm
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 095: Rose Doherty, A Tale of Two Bostons
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, Saltwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 182: Douglas Winiarski, When Darkness Falls On The Land of Light
- Episode 191: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philipβs War
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How do historians and biographers reconstruct the lives of people from the past?
Good biographies rely on telling the lives of people using practiced historical methods of thorough archival research and the sound interrogation of historical sources. But what does this practice of historical methods look like?
In this final episode of the Omohundro Instituteβs Doing History series about biography, Erica Dunbar, the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University and author of Never Caught: The Washingtonsβ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge, takes us into the archives to show us how she recovered the life of Ona Judge.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/212
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- John Marshall Foundation
- Babbel (Use Code BFWorld to save 50% off first 3 months)
- OI Reader App
- Nastassia Parker-Gross
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- Episode 173: Marisa Fuentes, Colonial Port Cities and Slavery
- Episode 183: Douglas Bradburn, George Washingtonβs Mount Vernon
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
- Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
- Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
As part of the Omohundro Institute's Doing History series on biography, Episode 212 offers us a new conversation with Erica Dunbar, the author of Never Caught: The Washingtonβs Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge.
The new episode will explore how historians and biographers reconstruct the lives of people from the past using the story of Ona Judge. In preparation for this new episode, here is our original conversation with Erica Dunbar about Ona Judge.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/137
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Doing History Series
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
- Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
- Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Can a biography help us explore big historical questions?
Can knowing about the life of John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, help us better understand the Supreme Court and how it came to occupy the powerful place it has in the United State government?
The Doing History: Biography series continues and explores these questions with Richard Brookhiser, author of John Marshall: The Man Who Made The Supreme Court.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/211
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- John Marshall Foundation
- Richard Brookhiserβs Virginia Museum of History & Culture Talk
- OI Reader App for Bonus Content
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 055: Robb Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten Founder
- Episode 068: Richard Brookhiser, Foundersβ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
- Episode 180: Kate Elizabeth Brown, Alexander Hamilton and the Making of American Law
- Episode 203: Joanne Freeman, Alexander Hamilton
- Episode 204: James Lewis Jr., The Burr Conspiracy
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
- Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
For 34 years, John Marshall presided as the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During his service, Marshal transformed the nationβs top court and its judicial branch into the powerful body and co-equal branch of government we know it as today.
The Doing History: Biography series continues as Joel Richard Paul, a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings Law School and author of Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times, joins us to explore the life of John Marshall and how he wrote his biography.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/210
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- John Marshall Foundation
- John Marshall Papers (Use 01BFW to save 40 percent)
- OI Reader App for Bonus Content
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
- Episode 179: After the Revolution: Governance During the Critical Period
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
- Episode 209: Considering Biography
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklinβs World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Biography. Since the earliest days of the United States, and even before the thirteen colonies came together to forge a nation, Americans have been interested in biography. But why?
What is it about the lives of others that makes the past so interesting and fun to explore?
This episode marks the start of the Omohundro Instituteβs 4-episode Doing History series about biography. This series will take us behind-the-scenes of biography and how historians and biographers reconstruct the lives of people from the past.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/209
About the Series
The Doing History: Biography series explores the genre of biography, how it relates to and is different from the genre of history, and how historians and biographers can best uncover and understand the lives of people from the past.
The Doing History series explores early American history and how historians work. It is part of Ben Franklinβs World, which is produced by the Omohundro Institute.
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- John Marshall Foundation
- OI Reader App for Bonus Content
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 055: Rob Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten Founder
- Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator
- Episode 183: Douglas Bradburn, George Washingtonβs Mount Vernon
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
- Episode 205: Jeanne Abrams, First Ladies of the Republic
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
2018 marks the 241st anniversary of the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga and the 240th anniversary of the Franco-American Alliance. But was the victory that prompted the French to join the American war effort, truly the "turning point" of the War for Independence?
National Book Award-winner Nathaniel Philbrick joins us to explore the two events he sees as better turning points in the American War for Independence: Benedict Arnoldβs treason and the French Navyβs participation in the war.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/208
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Babbel (Free Trial)
- Follow Us onTwitter: @BFWorldPodcast
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washingtonβs Revolution
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
- Episode 071: Bruce Venter, Saratoga and Hubbardton, 1777
- Episode 081: Don Glickstein, After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence
- Episode 122: Andrew OβShaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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What in the first 40 years of his life made Benjamin Franklin the genius he became?
Benjamin Franklin serves as a great window on to the early American past because as a man of βvarietyβ he pursued many interests: literature, poetry, science, business, philosophy, philanthropy, and politics.
But one aspect of Franklinβs life has gone largely unstudied: his childhood and early life.
Nick Bunker, author of Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklinβs early life and how family, childhood, and youthful experiences shaped him as a scientist and diplomat.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/207
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 112: Mary Beth North, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklinβs House
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Between 1500 and the 1860s, Europeans and Americans forcibly removed approximately 12 million African people from the African continent, transported them to the Americas, and enslaved them.
Why did Europeans and Americans enslave Africans? How did they justify their actions?
Katherine Gerbner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Minnesota and author of Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World, leads us on an exploration of ways Christianity influenced early ideas about slavery and its practice.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/206
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The OI Reader App (Android | iOS)
- Babble (Free Trial)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 047: Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christian Imperialism
- Episode 064: Brett Rusthforth, Native American slavery in New France
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren, Slavery in Early New England
- Episode 173: Marisa Fuentes, Colonial Port Cities and Slavery
- Episode 178: Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
La Presidente? The Presidentess? The First Lady of the Land?
The Second Article of the United States Constitution defines the Executive Branch of the government, the powers it has, and the role of the chief executive, the President of the United States. But what about the position of the Presidentβs spouse?
Jeanne Abrams, a Professor at the University Libraries and the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, joins us to explore the lives and work of the first First Ladies of the American Republic with details from her book, First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Dolley Madison and the Creation of an Iconic American Role.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/205
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Special Events
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 005: Jeanne Abrams, Revolutionary Medicine
- Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Spectator
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Aaron Burr: Revolutionary War hero, talented lawyer, Vice President, and Intriguer of treason?
Between 1805 and 1807, Aaron Burr supposedly intended to commit treason by dividing the American union. How did Americans learn about and respond to this treasonous intrigue?
James Lewis Jr., a Professor of History at Kalamazoo College and author of The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis, guides us through what we know and donβt know about about Aaron Burrβs supposed plot to divide the American union.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/204
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Cameron Strang, Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1750 (Use promo code 01BFW to save 50 percent)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 091; Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, & Homes in Early America
- Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
- Episode 177: Martin Bruckner, The Social Life of Maps in America
- Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America
- Episode 202: Early History of the United States Congress
- Episode 203: Joanne Freeman, Alexander Hamilton
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Hamilton the Musical hit Broadway in August 2015 and since that time people all around the world have been learning about a man named Alexander Hamilton. Or, at least theyβve been learning about the musicalβs character Alexander Hamilton.
But who was Alexander Hamilton as a real person?
Joanne Freeman, a Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, and one of the foremost experts on the life of Alexander Hamilton, joins us to explore this large question so we can discover more about the man who helped to create the United States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/203
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The History List (Use promo code BEN to save $5)
Complementary Episodes
- Bonus: The Marquis de Lafayette and the Hermione
- Episode 094: Cassandra Good, Founding Friendships
- Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the Revolution
- Episode 179: George Van Cleve, Governance During the Critical Period
- Episode 180: Kate Elizabeth Brown, Alexander Hamilton and the Making of American Law
- Episode 202: Early History of the United States Congress
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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On September 17, 1787, a majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention approved the new form of government they had spent months drafting and submitted it to the 13 states for their ratification and approval.
On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify the Constitution, which prompted the transition to the government of the United States Constitution.
Matt Wasniewski, the Historian of the United States House of Representatives and Terrance Rucker, a Historical Publications Specialist in the Office of the Historian at the United States House of Representatives, lead us on an exploration of why and how the United States Constitution established a bicameral Congress and how and why the House of Representatives took the shape and form that it did during its early meetings.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/202
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The Great Courses Plus (Free Month Unlimited Trial)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 040: Kata Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elective King
- Episode 078: Rachel Shelden, Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution
- Episode 179: George Van Cleve, Governance During the Critical Period
- Episode 180: Kate Elizabeth Brown, Alexander Hamilton and the Making of American Law
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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What kind of character should Americans have? Is it possible to create a shared sense of national character and identity that all Americans can subscribe to?
Americans grappled with many questions about what it meant to be an American and a citizen of the new republic after the American Revolution. They grappled with these questions because the people who made up the new United States hailed from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. So they wondered: How do you unite the disparate peoples of the United States into one national people?
Catherine Kelly, author of Republic of Taste: Art, Politics, and Everyday Life in Early America, joins us to explore the world of art, politics, and taste in the early American republic and how that world contributed to the formation of American character and virtue.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/201
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Babbel (Use promo code BFWorld to save 50 percent off your first 3 months)
- OI Books Flash Sale (Use promo code 01BFW before September 4, 2018 to save 50 percent)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 024: Kimberly Alexander, 18th-Century Fashion & Material Culture
- Episode 076: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
- Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What would you like to know about Early American History?
It turns out, you wanted to know about the establishment of schools, how the colonial postal service worked, and about aspects of health and hygiene in early America.
In this listener-inspired Q&A episode, we speak with Johann Neem, Joseph Adelman, and Ann Little to explore these aspects of early American history and to get answers to your questions about them.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/200
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Babbel (Use promo code BFWorld to save 50 percent off your first 3 months)
- The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)
- Episode Bibliography
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg OβMalley, Final Passages
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
- Episode 156: Information and Communication
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 190: Jennifer Goloboy, Origins of the American Middle Class
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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When we explore the history of early America, we often look at people who lived in North America. But what about the people who lived and worked in European metropoles?
What about Native Americans?
We explore early American history through a slightly different lens, a lens that allows us to see interactions that occurred between Native American peoples and English men and women who lived in London.
Our guide for this exploration is Coll Thrush, an Associate Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and author of Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of the Empire.
This episode originally posted as Episode 132.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/199
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- BFWorld Newsletter Signup
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historic Source? (Jamestown and Pocahontas)
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England
- Episode 184: David J. Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
- Episode 191: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philipβs War
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
When we think of Native Americans, many of us think of inland dwellers. People adept at navigating forests and rivers and the skilled hunters and horsemen who lived and hunted on the American Plains.
But did you know that Native Americans were seafaring mariners too?
Andrew Lipman, an Assistant Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast, leads us on an exploration of the northeastern coastline and of the Native American and European peoples who lived there during the seventeenth century.
This episode originally posted as Episode 104.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/198
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- BFWorld Newsletter Signup
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Centur Atlantic World
- EpIsode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London: Native Travelers in the Heart of the Empire
- Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and Its Culture
- Episode 191: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philipβs War
- Episode 196: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information Exchange in the Early Southeast
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
When we think about early American slavery, our minds evoke images of plantations where enslaved men and women were forced to labor in agricultural fields and inside the homes of wealthy Americans.
These images depict the practice of chattel slavery; a practice where early Americans treated slaves as property that they could buy, sell, trade, and use as they would real estate and draught animals.
But, did you know that some early Americans practiced a different type of slavery?
We investigate the practice of Native American or indigenous slavery, a little-known aspect of early American history, with Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France.
This episode originally published as Episode 064.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/197
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- BFWorld Newsletter Signup
- Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France (Listener-Only 40-Percent Discount Code 01BFW)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 021: Eugene Tesdahl, Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
- Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelright
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England
- Episode 184: David J. Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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We live in an age of information. The internet provides us with 24/7 access to all types of informationβnews, how-to articles, sports scores, entertainment news, and congressional votes.
But what do we do with all of this knowledge? How do we sift through and interpret it all?
We are not the first people to ponder these questions.
Today, Alejandra Dubcovsky, an Associate Professor at University of California Riverside and author of Informed Power: Communication in the Early South, takes us through the early American south and how the Native Americans, Europeans, and enslaved Africans who lived there acquired, used, and traded information.
This episode originally published as Episode 082.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/196
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- BFWorld Newsletter Sign up
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 168: Andrea Smalley, Wild By Nature: Colonists and Animals in North America
- Episode 171: Jessica Stern, Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America
- Episode 178: Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America
- Episode 184: David J. Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In 1705 a group of colonists in Simsbury, Connecticut founded a copper mine, which the Connecticut General Assembly purchased and turned into a prison in 1773.
How did an old copper mine function as a prison?
Morgan Bengel, a Museum Assistant at the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine, a Connecticut State Historic Site, helps us investigate both the history of early American mining and the history of early American prisons by taking us on a tour of the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine in East Granby, Connecticut.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/195
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest (Listener-Only 40-Percent Discount Code 01BFW)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 080: Jen Manion, Libertyβs Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren: New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England
- Episode 181: Virginia DeJohn Anderson: The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale and Moses Dunbar
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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As part of its mission, the National Park Service seeks to protect and preserve places saved by the American people so that all may experience the heritage of the United States. These places include those with historical significance.
Supervisory Park Ranger Garrett Cloer joins us to explore the Longfellow House-Washingtonβs Headquarters National Historic Site so we can discover more about the Siege of Boston (1775-76) and the birth of the Continental Army and the life and work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/194
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Daniel Livesay, Children of Uncertain Fortune
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washingtonβs Revolution
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
- Episode 158: The Revolutionariesβ Army
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In 1959, the Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press published Lester J. Capponβs The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John and Abigail Adams. It was the first time that all 380 letters between Jefferson and the Adamses appeared in a single volume.
Why did Lester Cappon and the Omohundro Institute undertake this great project? And how did they put together this important documentary edition?
Karin Wulf, Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, takes us behind-the-scenes of The Adams-Jefferson Letters and its publication.
Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Lester J. Cappon ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters
- Karin Wulf
- Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of Adams and Jefferson
- Klepp and Wulf ed, The Diary of Hannah Callander
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwifeβs Tale
- Charles F. Hobson, Papers of John Marshall
- Louis B. Wright ed., Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia
- National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHCRP)
- Ronald Hoffman and Sally Mason ed., The Carroll Papers (2001)
- Winthrop Jordan, White Over Black
- Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic
- Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs
- Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Two drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence, two diplomats who served the United States abroad in Europe, and two men who went on to serve as vice president and president of the United States. Both men left indelible marks on American society.
Adams and Jefferson are two founders who captivate the attention of and greatly interest Americans today, so in honor of the 242nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 192nd anniversary of their deaths, we will explore their lives and relationship.
Barbara Oberg and Sara Georgini, two historians and documentary editors, join us from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson and the Papers of John Adams Documentary Editing Projects so we can explore the lives and relationships of John and Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/193
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Discover the relationship between βAbigail and Tomβ
- The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams and The Adams Papers Editorial Project
- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 145: Rosemarie Zaggari, Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution
- Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator
- Episode 188: Terri Halperin, The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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The Jersey Devil is a monster legend that originated in New Jerseyβs early American past.
How and why did this legend emerge? And, what can it tell us about New Jerseyβs past?
Brian Regal, an Associate Professor of History at Kean University and the co-author of The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created A Monster, takes us into New Jerseyβs past by taking us through the origins of the New Jersey Devil story.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/192
Meet Ups
- Boston History Camp, July 7
- Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common
- Cleveland Meet up at Shooters on the Water July 21, 4pm
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Molly Wash, American Baroque
- Sign up for the Ben Franklinβs World Email List
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 053: Emerson W. Baker: A Storm of Witchcraft
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
- Episode 138: Patrick Spero, Frontier Politics in Early America
- Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its Culture
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
King Philipβs War is an event that appears over and over again in books about colonial America.
So when you have an event that has been as studied as King Philipβs War has been, is there anything new that we can learn about it by re-examining it in our own time?
Lisa Brooks, an Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College believes the answer to this question is βyes.β And today, sheβs going to help us re-examine and re-think what we know about King Philipβs War by introducing us to new people, new ways we can look at known historical sources, and to different ways we can think about what we know about this event with details from her book Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philipβs War.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/191
Meet Ups
- Boston History Camp, July 7
- Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common
- Cleveland Meet Up: Saturday July 21
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 053: Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans and Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 181: Virginia DeJohn Anderson, The Martyr and the Traitor
- Episode 184: David Silverman, Thundersticks
- Episode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice Age
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
As many as 70 percent of Americans consider themselves to be members of the middle class. But if you consider income as a qualifier for membership, only about 50 percent of Americans qualify for membership.
So what does it meant to be middle class and why do so many Americans want to be members of it?
Jennifer Goloboy, an independent scholar based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the author of Charleston and the Emergence of Middle-Class Culture in the Revolutionary Era, helps us explore the origins of the American middle class so we can better understand what it is and why so many Americans want to be a part of it.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/190
Meet Ups
- Boston History Camp, July 7
- Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common
- Cleveland Meet Up: Saturday July 21
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792
- Join the BFWorld listener community on Facebook
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 012: Dane Morrison, True Yankees: The South Seas & the Discovery of American Identity
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
- Episode 133: Patrick Breen, The Nat Turner Revolt
- Episode 159: The Revolutionary Economy
- Episode 161: Smuggling in the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Weβre living in a period of climate change. Our Earth has been getting warmer since the mid-19th century.
So how will humans adapt to and endure this period of global warming? Will they adapt to it and endure?
It turns out the people of early America also lived through a period of climate change and their experiences may hold some answers for us.
Sam White, an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University and author of A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europeβs Encounter, joins us to explore the Little Ice Age and how it impacted initial European exploration and colonization of North America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/189
Meet Ups
- Boston History Camp
- Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common
- Cleveland Meet Up: Saturday July 21
Episode 200
- Tell Liz what would you like to know about early American history?
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 015: Joyce Chaplin, Round About the Earth
- Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became America
- Episode 079: James Horn, What Are Historical Sources (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 116: Erica Charters, Disease & the Seven Yearsβ War
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws enacted by the United States government in 1798. The United States passed these laws during a time of great uncertainty, a time when many Americans feared for the very survival for their nation.
But why did Americans fear for the United Statesβ existence and why did they think four laws that limited citizenship and freedom of speech would protect and secure their young republic?
Terri Halperin, an instructor at the University of Richmond and author of The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: Testing the Constitution, will help us find answers to these questions by taking us through the Alien and Sedition Acts and how they came to be.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/188
Send Liz your questions about early American history for Episode 200!
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Children of Uncertain Fortune (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: John Adams and the Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project
- Episode 017: François Furstenberg, When the United States Spoke French
- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 076: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution
- Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions
- Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
Helpful Show Links
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Our present-day American culture is obsessed with sports. To cite just two pieces of evidence of this, on average, more than 67,000 fans attend each National Football League game and more than 30,000 fans attend each Major League Baseball game. This is to say nothing of the millions of fans who watch these sports on television or listen to them on the radio.
When did America become a place filled with sports nuts? When did the business of professional sports become a thing in the United States?
Early American history has answers for us as does Kenneth Cohen, a curator at the Smithsonianβs National Museum of American History and the author of They Will Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the American Republic.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/187
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
- Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America
- Episode 140: Tamara Thornton, Nathaniel Bowditch: 19th-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea
- Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
As a result of Great Britainβs victory in the Seven Yearsβ War, British North America expanded so that it stretched from the Atlantic seaboard west to the Mississippi River and from Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence south to Florida. Plus, it also included islands in the Caribbean.
How exactly would Great Britain, centered on a small island over 3,000 miles away, govern this new, expanded North American empire?
Max Edelson, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America Before Independence, helps us explore this question by taking us on an investigation of the Board of Trade and its General Survey of North America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/186
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Complementary Episodes
- Bonus: Mapping Americaβs War for Independence
- Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution
- Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
- Episode 162: Dunmoreβs New World: The British Empire and the American Revolution
- Episode 177: Martin BrΓΌckner, The Social Life of Maps in America
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Who should determine our culture and the morals our society follows?
Culture, or the intellectual achievements, attitudes, and behaviors of our particular places and social groups, is all around us. It impacts how we think and act as members of families, local communities, states, and nations.
Culture is important. So how do we establish culture? Who sets the unwritten social rules and ideas that we adopt and live by?
Joyce Goodfriend, a professor of history at the University of Denver and author of Who Should Rule at Home? Confronting the Elite in British New York City, helps us investigate these questions by taking us through the history of early New York City and how its culture evolved between 1664 and 1776.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/185
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 009: Peter G. Rose, How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats
- Episode 020: Kyle T. Bulthuis, Four Steeples Over the City Streets
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 159: The Revolutionary Economy
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 182: Douglas Winiarski, The Great Awakening in New England
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Early North America was a place rife with violent conflict. Between the 17th and 19th centuries we see a lot of conflict between different Native American peoples, Native American peoples and colonists, colonists from one empire versus colonists from another empire, settlers from one state quarreling with settlers from another state, and in the 19th century, we also see strife between Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans.
Today, weβre going to explore some of the causes of the violent conflict that took place in early America by looking specifically at Native America and the ways Native Americans used guns to shape their lives and the course of North American colonial and indigenous history.
Our guide for this exploration is David J. Silverman, a professor of history at George Washington University and the author of Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/184
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth: Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans and Native Americans along the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
- Episode 171: Jessica Stern, Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
George Washington played three very important public roles during his lifetime. He served as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, the President of the Constitutional Convention, and as the first President of the United States.
In addition to these important public roles, Washington also played a role that was very important to him. He served as a farmer and agricultural innovator.
Douglas Bradburn, the CEO and President of George Washingtonβs Mount Vernon, joins us so we can explore the history of Washingtonβs storied estate and his agricultural practices. Plus, weβll also discover all that Mount Vernon has to offer us as a historic site.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/183
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington & His Library
- Episode 060: David Preston, Braddockβs Defeat
- Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 077: Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail
- Episode 103: Sara Bon-Harper, James Monroe & His Highland Estate
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave Ona Judge
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What was it like to live through an extraordinary time?
The 1740s and 1750s proved to be an extraordinary time for many ordinary New Englanders. It was a period when itinerant preachers swept through the region and asked its people to question the fundamental assumptions of their religion: What did it mean to be a Puritan? What did it mean to be a Protestant Christian?
Douglas Winiarski, a Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Richmond and the author of the Bancroft prize-winning book, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England, helps us explore the religious landscape of New England during the 18th century and how New Englanders answered these powerful questions during the extraordinary period known as the Great Awakening.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/182
Listener Meet up
- Las Vegas Meet up: Saturday April 21, 4pm, Wyndham Grand Desert Hotel Lobby
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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- OI Reader--Bonus Content and Sample Chapters from Darkness Falls on the Land of Light
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield
- Episode 073: Mark Noll, The Bible in Early America
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Why did early Americans choose to become patriots or loyalists during the American Revolution?
How did they make the decision to either stand with or against their neighbors?
Did political beliefs really drive them to support one side of the imperial conflict over the other?
In this episode, we explore answers to these questions about how and why Americans chose to support the sides they did during the American Revolution, by looking at the lives of two young soldiers from Connecticut: Moses Dunbar and Nathan Hale.
Taking us through the lives, politics, and decisions of these young men is Virginia DeJohn Anderson, a professor of history at the University of Colorado-Boulder and author of The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale, Moses Dunbar, and the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/181
Listener Meet ups
- Sacramento Meet up: Saturday April 14, 4pm, Firestone Public House
- Las Vegas Meet up: Saturday April 21, 4pm, Wyndham Grand Desert Hotel Lobby
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Complementary Episodes
- Bonus: J.L. Bell, The Boston Stamp Act Riots
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Origins of the American Revolution
- Episode 172: Kenneth Daigler, American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War
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The legacy of Alexander Hamilton tells us that he was Thomas Jeffersonβs political rival, a man who fought to secure strong powers for the national government, and the first Secretary of the Treasury.
What Hamiltonβs legacy doesnβt tell us is that he also fought for states rights and championed civil liberties for all Americans, even those Americans who had supported the British during the American Revolution.
Kate Elizabeth Brown, an Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Huntington University in Indiana and author of Alexander Hamilton and the Development of American Law, joins us to explore more about the Alexander Hamilton we donβt know, the Hamilton who helped develop American law.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/180
Listener Meet ups
- Sacramento Meet up: Saturday April 14, 4pm, Firestone Public House
- Las Vegas Meet up: Saturday April 21, 4pm, Wyndham Grand Desert Hotel Lobby
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 057: Max Edling, War, Money, and the American State
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State
- Episode 179: George Van Cleve, The Articles of Confederation
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Douglas Winiarski answers your questions about religion in early New England with details from his book, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England.
Darkness Falls on the Land of Light is the story of how ordinary New Englanders living through extraordinary times ended up giving birth to todayβs evangelical movement. Doug performed a close reading of letters, diaries, and testimonies to write this book and his outstanding scholarship in this book was recognized with a 2018 Bancroft Prize.
Download the FREE OI Reader app for Bonus Content and Sample Chapters from Darkness Falls on the Land of Light
Sponsor Links
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Confederation period is one of the most neglected aspects of United States History. And yet, itβs a very important period. Between 1781 and 1789, the Confederation Congress established by the Articles of Confederation had to deal with war, economic depression, infighting between the states, trouble in the west, foreign meddling, and domestic insurrection. Itβs a critical period where no one knew whether the United States would survive as an independent nation.
George William Van Cleve, a researcher in law and history at the University of Seattle Law School and author of We Have Not A Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution, takes us into the Confederation period so we can discover more about the Articles of Confederation, the government it established, and the problems that government confronted.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/179
*Correction: After production we noticed that in her second question to George, Liz noted the Articles of Confederation has a history that begins in 1787. Liz misspoke. The Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation in 1777, ratified them in 1781, and they remained the active constitution of the United States until 1789, when the Constitution of 1787 went into effect on March 4, 1789.
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 062: Carol Berkin, The Bill of Rights
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
- Episode 119: Steven Pincus: The Heart of the Declaration
- Episode 141: Drafting the Declaration of Independence
- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
- Episode 155: Pauline Maierβs American Revolution
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In 1535, Spanish holdings in the Americas proved so great that the Spanish government created the Viceroyalty of New Spain to govern all territory north of the Isthmus of Panama.
The jurisdiction of New Spain included areas of upper and lower California and large areas of the American southwest and southeast, including Florida.
Karoline Cook, author of Forbidden Passages: Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America, serves as our guide as we explore some of the political, cultural, and religious history of New Spain. Specifically, how Spaniards and Spanish Americans used ideas about Muslims and a group of βnew Christianβ converts called Moriscos to define who could and should be able to settle and help colonies North America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South
- Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions
- Episode 110: Joshua Taylor, How Genealogists Research
- Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of Genealogy in British North America
- Episode 139: AndΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americans
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
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Did you know that maps have social lives?
Maps facilitate a lot of different social and political relationships between people and nations. And they did a lot of this work for Americans throughout the early American past.
Martin BrΓΌckner, a Professor of English at the University of Delaware, joins us to discuss early American maps and early American mapmaking with details from his book The Social Life of Maps in America.β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/177
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 015: Joyce Chaplin, Round About The Earth
- Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross
- Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America
- Episode 138: Patrick Spero, Frontier Politics in Early America
- Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What did it mean to be a person and to also be a commodity in early America?
Daina Ramey Berry, author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation, takes us behind the scenes of her research so we can explore how early Americans valued and commodified enslaved men, women, and children.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/176
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- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Gregory OβMalley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade in British America, 1619-1807
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy, Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
- Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research
- Episode 126: Terri Snyder, Death, Suicide, & Slavery in British North America
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Just how personal was the American Revolution?
What could the event and war mean for individual people and families?
Daniel Mark Epstein, author of The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklinβs House, guides as as we explore what the Revolution meant for Benjamin Franklin and his family and how the Revolution caused a major rift between Franklin and his beloved son, William.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/176
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
- Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
- Episode 031: Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 138: Patrick Spero, Frontier Politics in Early America
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Itβs February 2018 and doctors have declared this yearβs seasonal flu epidemic as one of the worst to hit the United States in over a decade. Yet this flu epidemic is nothing compared to the yellow fever epidemics that struck the early American republic during the 1790s and early 1800s.
So what happened when epidemic diseases took hold in early America? How did early Americans deal with disease and illness?
Thomas Apel, author of Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Science and the Yellow Fever Controversy in the Early American Republic, has some answers for us.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/174
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 005: Jeanne Abrams, Revolutionary Medicine
- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 116: Erica Charters, Disease & the Seven Yearsβ War
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
- Episode 164:The American Revolution in the Haitian Revolution
- Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
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The histories of early North America and the Caribbean are intimately intertwined. The same European empires we encounter in our study of early America also appear in the Caribbean. The colonies of these respective empires often traded goods, people, and ideas between each other.
Marisa Fuentes, an associate professor of history and women and gender studies at Rutgers University and author of Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, joins us to explore some of the connections mainland North America and the British Caribbean shared in their practices of slavery in urban towns.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/173
Sponsor Links
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 066: Simon Newman, How Historians Find Their Research Topics
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
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Intelligence gathering plays an important role in the foreign policies of many modern-day nation states, including the United States. Which raises the questions: How and when did the United States establish its foreign intelligence service?β¨
To answer those questions weβll need to journey back to the American Revolution.
Our guide is Kenneth Daigler, an intelligence professional with 33 years experience managing human sources and collection and the author of Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War, will facilitate our mental time travel and exploration of this topic.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/172
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Georgian Papers Programme
- Georgian Papers Transcriber Sign-up
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 065: Alexander Rose, Washingtonβs Spies
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the Revolution
- Episode 155: Pauline Maierβs American Revolution
- Episode 158: The Revolutionariesβ Army
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History books like to tell us that Native Americans did not fully understand British methods and ideas of trade. Is this really true?
Did Native Americans only understand trade as a form of simplistic, gift exchange?
Jessica Stern, a Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton and the author of The Lives in Objects: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Cultures of Labor and Exchange in the Southeast, takes us on a journey into the southeast during the early 18th century to show us how trade between Native Americans and British colonists really took place.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/171
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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- Episode 056: Daniel J. Tortora, The Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761
- Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Hoaxes, and Legends in Early America
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipmann, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 158: The Revolutionariesβ Army
- Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
New England was a place with no cash crops. It was a place where many of its earliest settlers came to live just so they could worship their Puritan faith freely. New England was also a place that became known for its strong anti-slavery sentiment during the 19th century. So how did New England also become a place that practiced slavery?
Wendy Warren, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist book New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America, joins us to explore why New Englanders practiced slavery and just how far back the regionβs slave past goes.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/170
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
- Episode 118: Christy Pujara-Clark, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition
- Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
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We remember Benjamin Franklin as an accomplished printer, scientist, and statesman. Someone who came from humble beginnings and made his own way in the world. Rarely do we remember Franklin as a man of faith.
Benjamin Franklin spent more time grappling with questions of religion, faith, virtue, and morality in his writing than about any other topic.
Thomas S. Kidd, a Professor of History at Baylor University and author of Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father, leads us on a detailed exploration of the religious life of Benjamin Franklin.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/169
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
- Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
- Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield
- Episode 031: Michael Hattem, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
- Episode 141: Drafting the Declaration of Independence
- Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
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When we study the history of colonial North America, we tend to focus on European colonists and their rivalries with each other and with Native Americans. But humans werenβt the only living beings occupying North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
Rivalries existed between humans and animals too. And these human-animal rivalries impacted and shaped how European colonists used and settled North American lands.
Andrea Smalley, an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of Wild By Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization, joins us to explore the many ways wild animals shaped colonistsβ ideas and behavior as they settled and interacted with North American lands.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/168
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
- Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (History of Jamestown)
- Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The French established New Orleans and the greater colony of Louisiana in 1717. By 1840, New Orleans had become the 3rd largest city in the United States. How did that happen?
How did New Orleans transform from a sleepy, minor French outpost into a large and important early American city with a thriving, bustling port?
Eberhard βLoβ Faber, an assistant professor of history at Loyola University, New Orleans and the author of Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America, leads us on an exploration of the early history of New Orleans.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/167
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 017: François Furstenberg, How the United States Became French
- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 103: Sara Bon-Harper: James Monroe and His Estate Highland
- Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
- Episode 164: The American Revolution in the Age of Revolutions
Listener Meetup Details
Date: Saturday, January 6, 2018
Time: 5pm
Place: Open City Diner, Woodley Park
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Declaration of Independence described βall menβ as βcreated equalβ when its authors knew they were not. So was the revolutionary idea of freedom dependent on slavery?
In this last episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we return to the place our series began: the world of Paul Revere. We speak with Christopher Cameron, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss how Phillis Wheatley, Cesar Sarter and other black revolutionaries in Massachusetts grappled with the seeming paradox of American freedom as they fought to end slavery during the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/166
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution ($10 listener-only special)
- Doing History: To the Revolution series
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 133: Patrick Breen, The Nat Turner Revolt
- Episode 134: Spencer McBride, Pulpit and Nation
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonβs Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- Episode 157: The Revolution's African American Soldiers
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions took place in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. But why is it that we only seem to remember the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution?
Given that the American Revolution took place before all of these other revolutions, what was its role in influencing this larger βAge of Revolutions?β Did it influence this larger period?
Our exploration of what the American Revolution looked like within the larger period known as the βAge of Revolutionsβ continues as Janet Polasky, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call of Liberty in the Atlantic World, guides us through the period to explore answers to these questions.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/165
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- The OI Reader
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special joint issue on the American Revolution $10 promotion
- The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)
Complementary Blog Posts
- Dael A. Norwood, "Global Trade and Revolution: The Politics of Americans' Commerce with China"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions
- Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America
- Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
- Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
- Episode 155: Pauline Maierβs American Revolution
- Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
- Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
- Episode 163: The Revolution in Continental North America
- Episode 164: The Age of Revolutions in the Caribbean
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- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The American Revolution took place within a larger period known today as the βAge of Revolutions.β
What does the Revolution look like when we place it within this larger context? Did it really help foment the many other failed and successful revolutions that took place during the period?
Over the next two episodes of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, weβll explore answers to these questions by taking a closer look at how the American Revolution fit within the larger context of the Age of Revolutions.
The first part of our exploration will take us into the Caribbean. Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University and the author of four books about slavery and revolution in the French Caribbean, will serve as our guide.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/164
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution $10 listener-only sale
- The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 017: François Furstenberg, When the United States Spoke French
- Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
- Episode 144: Rob Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
- Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
- Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African-American Soldiers
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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When we think about North America during the American Revolution, most of our brains show us images of eastern Canada and the thirteen British American colonies that waged a revolution and war for independence against Great Britain.
But what about the rest of the North American continent? What about the areas that we know today as the midwest, the Great Plains, the southwest, the west, and the Pacific Northwest? What about Alaska? What went on in these areas during the American Revolution?
What did the American Revolution look like through the eyes of Native American peoples?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore what the American Revolution looked like within the larger context of North American history with historians Claudio Saunt and Alyssa Mt. Pleasant.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/163
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion
- The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 014: Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution
- Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory With No Name
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution
- Episode 158: The Revolutionariesβ Army
Complementary Blog Posts
- Rachel Hermann, "Histories of Hunger in the American Revolution"
YouTube Videos of Episode Music
- Men's Smoke Dance Salamanca Powwow 2017 Third Round
- Water Song by Akwesasne Women Singers
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What did British imperial officials in London and their North America-based representatives make of the American Revolution?
In this episode, we explore the American Revolution through the eyes of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, a British imperial official who served the empire in North America before, during, and after the American Revolution.
James Corbett David, author of Dunmoreβs New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America, serves as our guide for this exploration.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/162
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion
- HelloFresh (Use Promo Code BFWorld30 to save $30 off your first week)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 131: Frank Cogliano, Thomas Jeffersonβs Empire of Liberty
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African American Soldiers
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
At the end of the French and Indian, or Seven Yearsβ War in 1763, Great Britain claimed that smuggling was a BIG problem in its North American colonies and cracked down on the practice.
But just how BIG of a problem was smuggling in North America? Why did British North Americans choose to engage in the illegal importation of goods like tea? Was it really all about cheaper prices?
FabrΓcio Prado, Christian Koot, and Wim Klooster join us to explore the history of smuggling in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and to investigate the connections between smuggling and the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion
- The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)
Complementary Blog Post
- Eugene R.H. Tesdahl, βSmuggling, the American Revolution, and the Riverine Highwayβ
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 036: Abigail Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
- Episode 139: AndrΓ©s ResΓ©dez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
- Episode 158: The Revolutionariesβ Army
- Episode 159: Serena Zabin, Dangerous Economies
- Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
Helpful Show Links
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How did early Americans go from hosting social tea parties to hosting protests like the Boston Tea Party?
Tea played a central role in the economic, cultural, and political lives of early Americans. As such, tea came to serve as a powerful symbol of both early American culture and of the American Revolution.
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, Jane Merritt, Jennifer Anderson, and David Shields take us on an exploration of the politics of tea during the era of the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/160
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution $10 promotion
- The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month)
Complementary Blog Posts
- John Fea, "The Greenwich Tea Burning: The Political and Religious Roots of Local Revolutionary Resistance"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 043: Matthew Osborn, Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic
- Episode 106: Jane Kamensky, The World of John Singleton Copley
- Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India in the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
- Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
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How much merit do the economic factors behind the cry βNo Taxation Without Representationβ have when we consider the origins of the American Revolution?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we begin a 3-episode exploration of different aspects of the early American economy and what roles these economic aspects played in causing the American Revolution.
Serena Zabin, a Professor of History at Carleton College and author of Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York, helps us survey the economic scene by guiding us through the British North American economy on the eve of the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/159
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader App
- The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment and Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India and the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
- Episode 150: Abigail Adams, Revolutionary Speculator
- Bonus: The Stamp Act of 1765
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Between 1775 and 1783, an estimated 230,000 men served in the Continental Army with another approximately 145,000 men serving in state militia units.
Who were the men who served in these military ranks? What motivated them to take up arms and join the army? And what was their military experience like?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore the development of the Continental Army, partisan militia groups, and Native American scouting parties. Our guides for this exploration are Fred Anderson, Randy Flood, and Brooke Bauer.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/158
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader
- Episode 128: Alan Taylor, American Revolutions
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount
Complementary Blog Post
- Holly Mayer, "Following the Army"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 010: Don Hagist, British Soldiers, American War
- Episode 048: Ken Miller, Enemy Captives During the War for Independence
- Episode 056: Daniel J. Totora, The Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761
- Episode 060: David Preston, Braddockβs Defeat
- Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark
- Episode 122: Andrew OβShaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London
- Episode 153: Committees and Congress: Governments of the American Revolution
- Episode 157: The Revolutionβs African-American Soldiers
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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Between 1775 and 1783, an estimated 230,000 men served in the Continental Army with another approximately 145,000 men serving in state militia units.
But who were the men who served in these military ranks? What motivated them to take up arms and join the army? And what was their military experience like?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we begin a 2-episode exploration of some of the military aspects of the American Revolution by exploring the experiences of the approximately 6,000-7,000 African American men who served in the Continental Army. Our guide for this exploration is Judith Van Buskirk, a professor of history at the State University of New York, Cortland and the author of Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/157
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader App
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonβs Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- Episode 153: Committees and Congress: Governments of the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did Americans find out about the Revolution?
What effect did printed materials like newspapers, pamphlets, and books have on shaping the debate about independence? And just how big of a role did Thomas Paineβs Common Sense play in causing Americans to declare their independence from Great Britain?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution! series, we explore these question with four scholars of Revolutionary communication: Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt, Eric Slauter, Seth Cotlar, and Trish Loughran.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/156
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader App
- Episode 076: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special issue on the American Revolution discount
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Cause of the American Revolution
- Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
- Episode 153: Committees and Congress: Governments of the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How much can the work of one historian impact how we view and study the American Revolution?
We investigate the answer to this question by exploring the life and work of Pauline Maier, a historian who spent her life researching and investigating the American Revolution. Over the course of her lifetime, Maier wrote four important books about the American Revolution: From Resistance to Revolution, The Old Revolutionaries, American Scripture, and Ratification.
Mary Beth Norton, Joanne Freeman, Todd Estes, and Lindsay Chervinsky join us as we journey through Maierβs body of work to better understand the American Revolution and how one historian can impact how we view and study history.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/155
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader App
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams and the Adams Papers Editorial Project
- Episode 031: Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin Editorial Project
- Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 112: Mary Beth North, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The making of the United States Constitution
- Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Origins of the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Declaring independence from Great Britain required the formation of new governments.
But why did Americans want and need new governments? And how did their interactions and experiences with their old, colonial governments inform their decisions to create new governments?
Barbara Clark Smith, a curator in the division of political history at the Smithsonianβs National Museum of American History and the author of The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America, leads us on an exploration of how Americans interacted with their government before the American Revolution and how the Revolution changed their interaction and ideas about government.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/154
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader App
- William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 036: Abigail Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
- Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 150: Abigail Adams, Revolutionary Speculator
- Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
- Episode 153: Governments of the American Revolution
- Bonus: J.L. Bell, The Boston Stamp Act Riots
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did the American revolutionaries organize and coordinate local, provincial, and intercolonial action?
How did the revolutionaries form governments?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we explore governance and governments of the American Revolution with three scholars: Mark Boonshoft, Benjamin Irvin, and Jane Calvert.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/153
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Doing History: To the Revolution! series
- OI Reader App
- Care.com Senior Services
Complementary Blog Post
- William Huntting Howell, "The Committee of Correspondence and the War at Home"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 134: Spencer McBride, Pulpit and Nation
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
- Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
- Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Origins of the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What caused the American Revolution?
Was it the issue of βNo Taxation without Representation?β Was it conflict and change in the social order of colonial and British society? Or, was the Revolution about differences in ideas about governance and the roles government should play in society?
In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore one set of ideas about the origins of the American Revolution with Bernard Bailyn, a Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Doing History: To the Revolution!
- OI Reader app
- Hello Fresh (Promo Code: BFWorld30)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand
- Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What do we mean by the American Revolution?
How do we define it? Was it a war? Was it a movement? Was it a series of movements?
The Doing History: To the Revolution! Series seeks to explore not just the history of the American Revolution, but the histories of the American Revolution. In this episode, we undertake the difficult task of trying to define the American Revolution by going behind-the-scenes of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/151
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Doing History: To the Revolution!
- OI Reader app
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- Bonus: Why Historians Study History
- Bonus: History and Historians in the Public
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Abigail Adams lived through and participated in the American Revolution. As the wife of John Adams, she used her position to famously remind Adams and his colleagues to "remember the ladies" when they created laws for the new, independent United States.
In this episode, Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and author of Abigail Adams: A Life, helps us explore a different, largely unknown aspect of Adams' life: Her financial investments.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/150
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Doing History: To the Revolution! series
- The William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader App
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project
- Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
- Bonus: Why Historianβs Study History
- Episode 103: Sara Bon Harper, James Monroe & His Highland Estate
- Episode 131: Frank Cogliano, Thomas Jeffersonβs Empire of Liberty
- Episode 145: Rosemarie Zagarri, Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Over the course of his long life, Benjamin Franklin traveled to and lived in London on two different occasions. The first time he went as a teenager. The second, as a man and colonial agent. All told he spent nearly 18 years living in the heart of the British Empire.
How did Franklinβs experiences in London shape his opportunities and view of the world?
George Goodwin, author of Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of Americaβs Founding Father, leads us on an exploration of Franklinβs life in London.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/149
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- The OI Reader App
- Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
- Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
- Episode 031: Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin Editorial Project
- Episode 122: Andrew OβShaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did everyday men and women experience life in the colonial America?
How did the American Revolution transform their work and personal lives?
Marla Miller, a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the author of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, guides us through the life of Betsy Ross with an aim to help us answer these questions.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/148
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- The Octo
- Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- βA Turning Point: The Declaration of Independence and the House of Lords,β History of Parliament
- βHistorical Fiction Roundtable,β The Junto
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 013:Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America
- Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
- Episode 032: Michelle Coughlin, One Colonial Womanβs World
- Episode 089: Jessica Millward, Slavery & Freedom in Early America
- Episode 145: Rosemarie Zagarri, Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What about the British Redcoats?
When we discuss the military history of the American War for Independence, we tend to focus on specific battles or details about the men who served in George Washingtonβs Continental Army. Rarely do we take the opportunity to ask questions about the approximately 50,000 men who served in the British Army that opposed them.
Don N. Hagist, independent scholar and author of British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution, leads us on exploration of the βotherβ men who fought in the American War for Independence, the soldiers in the British Army.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/147
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- The Octo
- Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- βThe Adverts 250 Projectβ
- βGeorge Washingtonβs Bodies,β Nursing Clio
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 081: Don Glickstein, After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence
- Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
- Episode 122: Andrew OβShaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
- Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What drove George Washington to become a Patriot during the American Revolution?
How did he overcome the ill-trained and inexperienced troops, inadequate pay, and supply problems that plagued the Continental Army to win the War for American Independence?
Robert Middlekauff, professor emeritus of colonial and early United States history at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals the answers to these questions as we explore details from his book Washingtonβs Revolution: The Making of Americaβs First Leader.
This episode originally posted as Episode 026.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/146
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- The Octo
- Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
- Episode 130: Paul Revere's Ride Through History
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
- "Dartmouth College and Canada: The Problem of National Historiographies," Borealia: A Group Blog on Early Canadian History
- "Era of Good Feelings Roundtable," U.S. Intellectual History Blog
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington & His Library
- Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 065: Alexander Rose, Washingtonβs Spies
- Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Mercy Otis Warren wasnβt your typical early American woman. She was a woman with strong political viewpoints, which she wrote about and published for the world to see and consider.
Did anyone take her views seriously?
Did her writings sway public opinion in the direction of her political views?
In this episode, Rosemarie Zagarri, a professor of history at George Mason University and author of A Womanβs Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution, helps us kick off a new, six-episode series about the people of the American Revolution by taking us through the life of Mercy Otis Warren.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/145
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- The Octo
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 032: Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, One Colonial Womanβs World
- Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances (Doing History)
- Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How do you get people living in thirteen different colonies to come together and fight for independence?
What ideas and experiences would even unite them behind the fight?
Patriot leaders asked themselves these very questions, especially as the American Revolution turned from a series of political protests against imperial policies to a bloody war for independence. Whatβs more, Patriot leaders also asked themselves once we find these ideas and experiences, how do we use them to unite the American people?
Robert Parkinson, an Assistant Professor of History at Binghamton University and author of the award-winning book, The Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution, has some ideas for how patriot leaders answered these questions.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/144
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- The Octo: Eight Curated Blogs About Early American History
- "Historicizing Freedom & Black Abolitionism," Black Perspectives
- "A 'Thorough Deist?' The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin," Age of Revolutions
- OI Reader App for Free Chapter of The Common Cause
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 122: Andrew OβShaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did the framers draft the Constitution of 1787? What powers does the Constitution provide the federal government? Why do we elect the President of the United States by an electoral system rather than by popular vote?
These are some of the many questions youβve asked since November 2016. And today weβre going to explore some answers.
Michael Klarman, the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and author of The Foundersβ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution joins us to discuss the United States Constitution and how and why the framers drafted it.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/143
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Georgian Papers Programme
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 057: Max Edling: War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867
- Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 087: Sean Condon, Shaysβ Rebellion
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
- Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Most histories of American abolitionism begin just before the Civil War, during the Antebellum period. But the movement to end chattel slavery in America began long before the United States was a nation.
Manisha Sinha, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut and author of the award-winning book The Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition, takes us through the early American origins of the the abolition movement.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/142
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Georgian Papers Programme
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 055: Robb Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten Founder
- Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
- Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce
- Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtonsβ Runaway Slave Ona Judge
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Declaration of Independence stands first in a series of documents that founded the United States. It also stands as an early step in the long process of establishing a free, independent, and self-governing nation. Since 1776, more than 100 nation-states and freedom organizations have used the Declaration of Independence as a model for their own declarations and proclamations of independence.
Given the Declaration of Independenceβs important place in the hearts and minds of peoples around the world, we need to go behind its parchment and explore just how the Declaration of Independence came to be.
In this preview episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution! Series, we explore how the Second Continental Congress drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/141
About the Series
The mission of episodes in the Doing History: To the Revolution series is to ask not just βwhat is the history of the American Revolution?β but βwhat are the histories of the American Revolution?β
Episodes in this series will air beginning in September 2017.
The Doing History series explores early American history and how historians work. It's produced by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Be sure to check out Doing History season 1, Doing History: How Historians Work.
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Doing History: To the Revolution! series
- OI Reader App
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project
- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 062: Carol Berkin, The Bill of Rights
- Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Nathaniel Bowditch worked as a navigator, mathematician, astronomer, and business innovator. Over the course of his lifetime, his fellow Americans hailed him as the βAmerican Sir Isaac Newton.β
Tamara Thornton, a professor of history at the University of Buffalo and author of Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed America, leads us on a detailed exploration of the life of Nathaniel Bowditch.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/140
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Georgian Papers Programme
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 057: Max Edling, War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
- Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He also played a central role in the European adoption of Indian or Native American slavery.
When we think of slavery in early America, we often think of the practice of African and African-American chattel slavery. However, that system of slavery wasnβt the only system of slavery that existed in North America. Systems of Indian slavery existed too. In fact, Indians remained enslaved long after the 13th Amendment abolished African-American slavery in 1865.
In this episode, AndrΓ©s ResΓ©ndez, a professor of history at the University of California, Davis and author of The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in Americas, leads us on an investigation of this βother" form of American slavery.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/139
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Georgian Papers Programme
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
- Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information and Communication in the Early American South
- Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Did you know that Connecticut and Virginia once invaded Pennsylvania?
During the 1760s, Connecticut invaded and captured the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania just as Virginia invaded and captured parts of western Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania stood powerless to stop them.
In this episode, Patrick Spero, the Librarian of the American Philosophical Society and author of Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania, takes us through these invasions and reveals why Pennsylvania proved unable to defend its territory.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Georgian Papers Programme
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory With No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army
- Episode 048: Ken Miller, Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence
- Episode 056: Daniel J. Tortora, The Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761
- Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native American on the Northeastern Coast
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
George Washington was an accomplished man. He served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, first President of the United States, and on top of all that he was also a savvy businessman who ran a successful plantation.
George Washington was also a slaveholder. In 1789, he and his wife Martha took 7 slaves to New York City to serve them in their new role as First Family. A 16 year-old girl named Ona Judge was one of the enslaved women who accompanied and served the Washingtons.
Erica Dunbar, a Professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware and author of Never Caught: The Washingtonβs Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge, leads us through the early American life of Ona Judge. β¨
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/137
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly
- Episode 105: Joshua Piker, How Historians Publish History (Behind-the-scenes of the William and Mary Quarterly)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 026: George Washingtonβs Revolution
- Episode 033: George Washington and His Library
- Episode 061: George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 089: Jessica Millward, Slavery and Freedom in Early Maryland
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What do the objects we purchase and use say about us?
If we take the time to think about the material objects and clothing in our lives, weβll find that we can actually learn a lot about ourselves and other people. The same holds true when we take the time to study the objects and clothing left behind by people from the past.
Jennifer Van Horn, an Assistant Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware and author of The Power of Objects in Eighteenth-Century British America, leads us on an exploration of the 18th-century British material world and how objects from that world can help us think about and explore the lives of 18th-century British Americans.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/136
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly
- OI Reader app
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 024: Kimberly Alexander, 18th-Century Fashion & Material Culture
- Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historical Source
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madisonβs Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
If early Americans desired slaves mostly to produce sugarcane, cotton, rice, indigo, and tobacco, what would happen if Europeans and early Americans stopped purchasing those products?β¨
Would boycotting slave-produced goods and starving slavery of its economic sustenance be enough to end the practice of slavery in North America?
Julie Holcomb, an Associate Professor of Museum Studies at Baylor University and author of Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy, helps us explore answers to these questions by leading us through the transatlantic boycott of slave produced goods.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/135
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly
- Karin Wulf, βThe Art and Craft of Reviewβ
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 020: Kyle Bulthuis, Four Steeples Over the City Streets
- Episode 030: Shelby Balik, Rally the Scattered Believers: Northern New Englandβs Religious Geography
- Episode 045: Spencer McBride, Joseph Smith and the Founding of Mormonism
- Episode 073: Mark Noll, The Bible in Early America
- Episode 077: Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail
- Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In Colonial America, clergymen stood as thought leaders in their local communities. They stood at the head of their congregations and many community members looked to them for knowledge and insight about the world around them.
So what happened to these trusted, educated men during the American Revolution? How did they choose their political allegiances? And what work did they undertake to aid or hinder the revolutionary cause?
Spencer McBride, an editor at the Joseph Smith Papers documentary editing project, joins us to explore some of the ways politics and religion intersected during the American Revolution with details from his book, Pulpit and Nation: Clergymen and the Politics of Revolutionary America.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/134
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly
- Episode 105: Josh Piker, How Historians Publish History (Behind-the-Scenes of the WMQ)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 045: Spencer McBride, Joseph Smith and the Founding of Mormonism
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life & Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord
- Episode 130: Paul Revereβs Ride Through History
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The institution of African slavery in North America began in late August 1619 and persisted until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in December 1865.
Over those 246 years, many slaves plotted and conspired to start rebellions, but most of the plotted rebellions never took place. Slaveholders and whites discovered them before they could begin. Therefore, North America witnessed only a handful of slave revolts between 1614 and 1865. Nat Turnerβs Rebellion in August 1831 stands as the most deadly.
Patrick Breen, an Associate Professor of History at Providence College and author of The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt joins us to investigate the ins and outs of this bloodiest of North American slave revolts.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/133
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly
- WMQ Editor Josh Piker, βThe Five-Reader Problemβ
- WMQ Editor Josh Piker, βGetting Lostβ
- Susanah Shaw Romney, β5,000 More Wordsβ
- Episode 105: Josh Piker, How Historians Publish History (Behind-the-Scenes of the William and Mary Quarterly)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 020: Kyle Bulthuis, Four Steeples Over the City Streets
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America
- Episode 125: Teri Snyder, Death, Suicide, and Slavery in British North America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
When we explore the history of early America, we often look at people who lived and the events that took place in North America. But what about the people who lived and worked in European metropoles?
What about Native Americans?
Today, we explore early American history through a slightly different lens, a lens that allows us to see interactions that occurred between Native American peoples and English men and women who lived in London. Our guide for this exploration is Coll Thrush, an Associate Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and author of Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of the Empire.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/132
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly
- Episode 105: Josh Piker, How Historians Publish History (Behind-the-Scenes of the William and Mary Quarterly)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historic Source? (Jamestown and Pocahontas)
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The United States has a complicated history when it comes to ideas of empire and imperialism. Since itβs earliest days, the United States has wanted the power that came with being an empire even while declaring its distaste for them.
Therefore, it should not be surprising that the man who drafted the Declaration of Independence, which severed the 13 American coloniesβ ties to the most powerful empire in the mid-to-late 18th-century world, also had strong views about empire: Thomas Jefferson wanted the United States to become a great and vast βEmpire of Liberty.β
Frank Cogliano, a Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh and author of Emperor of Liberty: Thomas Jeffersonβs Foreign Policy, joins us to explore how Thomas Jefferson came to be a supporter and promoter of empires.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/131
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- William and Mary Quarterly, the leading journal of early American history since 1943
- Episode 105: Joshua Piker, How Historians Publish History (Behind-the-Scenes of the William and Mary Quarterly)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 042: Heather Richardson, The History of the Republican Party
- Episode 052: Ronald A. Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
- Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz: Age of American Revolutions
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed: The Life & Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
- Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode to Lexington, Massachusetts to spread the alarm that the Regulars were marching. Revere made several important rides between 1774 and 1775, including one in September 1774 that brought the Suffolk Resolves to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
So why is it that we remember Paul Revereβs ride to Lexington and not any of his other rides?
Why is it that we remember Paul Revere on the night of April 18, 1775 and nothing about his life either before or after that famous ride?
Why is it that Paul Revere seems to ride quickly into history and then just as quickly out of it?
In this episode we speak with four scholars to explore Paul Revereβs ride through history.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/130
About the Series
The mission of episodes in the Doing History: To the Revolution series is to ask not just βwhat is the history of the American Revolution?β but βwhat are the histories of the American Revolution?β
Episodes in this series will air beginning in Fall 2017.
The Doing History series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Be sure to check out Doing History season 1: Doing History: How Historians Work.
Bonus Content
- Episode Bibliography
- Doing History: To the Revolution!
- OI Reader
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 059: Eric Foner, The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad
- Episode 075: Peter Drummey, How Archives Work (History of Paul Revereβs Accounts of his Ride)
- Episode 106: Jane Kamensky, The World of John Singleton Copley
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 128: Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History
- Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
How did the colonists of Massachusetts go from public protests meant to shame government officials and destroy offending property, to armed conflict with British Regulars in Lexington and Concord?
John Bell, the prolific blogger behind Boston1775.net and the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War, leads us on an investigation of what brought colonists and redcoats to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/129
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
- Doing History series
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 039: Eric Nelson, The Royalist Revolution
- Episode 046: John Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War that Won It
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Bonus: Stamp Act of 1765
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Historians often portray the American Revolution as an orderly, if violent, event that moved from British colonistsβ high-minded ideas about freedom to American independence from Great Britain and the ratification of the Constitution of 1787.
But was the American Revolution an orderly event that took place only between Great Britain and her North American colonists? Was it really about high-minded ideas?
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor joins us to explore the American Revolution as a Continental event with details from his book, American Revolutions: A Continental History. 1750-1804.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/128
Sponsor Links
- DelanceyPlace.com
- "The U.S. Helps the Rebels in Panama"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 014: Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory with No Name
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal: Independence Lost
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Bonus: Why Historians Study History
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In many ways, the Enlightenment gave birth to the United States. Enlightened ideas informed protests over imperial governance and taxation and over whether there should be an American bishop.
If we want to understand early America, we need to understand the Enlightenment.
Caroline Winterer, a Professor of History at Stanford University and author of American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason, takes us through her ideas about the Enlightenment and how it influenced early America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/127
Sponsor Links
- DelanceyPlace.com
- βThe Hostility Between Christians and Deistsβ
Complementary Episodes
- Bonus: Why Historians Study History
- Episode 085: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 088: Michael McDonnell: The History of History Writing
- Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life & Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What happened to the loyalists who stayed in the United States after the War for Independence?
After the war, 60,000 loyalists and 15,000 slaves evacuated the United States. But thousands more opted to remain in the new nation.
Rebecca Brannon, an Associate Professor of History at James Madison University and author of From Revolution to Reunion: The Reintegration of South Carolina Loyalists, joins us to explore what happened to the loyalists who stayed.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/126
Sponsor Links
- Delanceyplace.com
- "Not One, But Ninety Declarations of Independence"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
- Episode 046: John Ferling: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It
- Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
- Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
Helpful Show Links
- Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
- Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
- Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
- Ben Franklin's World iOS App
- Ben Franklin's World Android App
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Early America was a diverse place. It contained many different people who had many different traditions that informed how they livedβ¦and died.
How did early Americans understand death? What did they think about suicide?
Terri Snyder, a Professor of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton and author of The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in British North America, helps us answer these questions, and more, as she takes us on an exploration of slavery and suicide in British North America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/125
Sponsor Links
- Delanceyplace.com
- Excerpt from Slavery's Capitalism
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg OβMalley, Final Passages the Intercolonial Slave Trade
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research
- Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historic Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 089: Jessica Millward, Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What did the American Revolution mean and achieve? What sort of liberty and freedom did independence grant Americans and which Americans should receive them?
Americans grappled with these questions soon after the American Revolution. They debated these issues during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, in the first congresses, and as they followed events in revolutionary France and Haiti during the 1790s and early 1800s.
James Alexander Dun, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and author of Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America, joins us to explore the ways the Haitian Revolution shaped how Americans viewed their own revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/124
Sponsor Links
- Delanceyplace.com
- Excerpt from 10 Feb 2017: "How New Amsterdam Became New York"
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Project
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 017: François Furstenberg, When the United States Spoke French
- Episode 052: Ronald A. Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Relations
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
In December 1773, the Cape Cod Tea Crisis revealed that the people of βradicalβ Massachusetts were far from united in their support for the American Revolution. An observation that leads us to wonder: How many Americans supported the Patriot cause?
In this episode we speak with four scholars to explore the complexities of political allegiance during the American Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/123
About the Series
The mission of episodes in the Doing History: To the Revolution series is to ask not just βwhat is the history of the American Revolution?β but βwhat are the histories of the American Revolution?β
Episodes in this series will air beginning in Fall 2017.
The Doing History series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Be sure to check out Doing History season 1: Doing History: How Historians Work.
Bonus Content
- Episode Bibliography
- OI Reader
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams and the Adams Papers Editorial Project
- Episode 014: Claudio Saunt, West of the American Revolution
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 025: Jessica Parr, The Invention of George Whitefield
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
- Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
- Episode 088: Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
Helpful Show Links
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Did the Americans win the War for Independence? Or did the British simply lose the war?
The history of the American War for Independence is complicated. And history books tell many different versions of the event, which is why we need an expert to guide us through the intricacies of whether we should look at the war as an American victory, a British defeat, or in some other light.
Andrew OβShaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, joins us to explore British viewpoints of the American War for Independence.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/122
Georgian Papers Programme
- Georgian Papers Programme
- Draft of a message of abdication from George III to the Parliament
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Critical Edition of Cadwallader Coldenβs The History of Five Indian Nations
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washingtonβs Revolution
- Episode 046: John Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It
- Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
- Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
- Bonus: Stamp Act
Helpful Show Links
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
The Spanish, French, and English played large roles in the origins of colonial America. But so too did the Dutch. During the 17th century, they had a βmoment" in which they influenced European colonization and development of the Atlantic World.
Wim Klooster, a Professor of History at Clark University and author of The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth Century Atlantic World, guides us through Dutch contributions to the Atlantic World.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/121
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Joyce D. Goodfriend, Who Should Rule at Home?
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
- Episode 021: Eugene Tesdahl, Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
- Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
- Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: A History of Early Detroit
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
Helpful Show Links
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How do you build colonies without women?
Most of the colonial adventurers from England and France who set out for Jamestown, New France, and colonial Louisiana were men. But how do you build and sustain societies and spread European cultureβin essence, fulfill the promises of a colonial programβwithout women?
You canβt. Which is why Marcia Zug, a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Law School and author of Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail Order Matches, joins us to explore one of the solutions that England and France used to build their North American colonies: mail order bride programs.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/120
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Brian Rouleau, With Sails Whitening Every Sea
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 036: Abby Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
- Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
Helpful Show Links
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that the Second Continental Congress resolve βthat these United Colonies are, and of right out to be, free and independent Statesβ¦β
The Second Continental Congress adopted Leeβs motion and on June 11, 1776, it appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence.
Today, Steve Pincus, the Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University and author of The Heart of the Declaration: The Foundersβ Case for an Activist Government, leads us on an investigation of the Declaration of Independence and the context in which the founders drafted it.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/119
Episode Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Julie Fisher and David Silverman, Ninigret, Sachem of the Niantics and Narragansetts
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
- Episode 062: Carol Berkin, The Bill of Rights
- Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State (Political Economy)
- Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How did the smallest colony and smallest state in the union became the largest American participant in the slave trade?
Christy Clark-Pujara, an Assistant Professor in the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island, joins us to explore the history of Rhode Island and New Englandβs involvement with slavery.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/118
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Episode 040: Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elective King
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
- Episode 036: Abby Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Bonus: Lonnie Bunch, History & Historians in the Public (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Thomas Jefferson wrote about liberty and freedom and yet owned over six hundred slaves during his lifetime.
Heβs a founder who many of us have a hard time understanding.
This why we need an expert to lead us through his life, so we can better understand who Jefferson was and how he came to his seemingly paradoxical ideas about slavery and freedom.
Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of history and legal history at Harvard University and the winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for her work on Thomas Jefferson and the Hemings Family, leads us on an exploration through the life and ideas of Thomas Jefferson.β¨
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/117
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Margaret Newell, Brethren by Nature
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
- Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washington's Revolution
- Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington and His Library
- Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
- Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison's Hand
When we think of the French and Indian, or Seven Yearsβ War, we often think of battles: The Monongahela, Ticonderoga, QuΓ©bec. Yet, wars arenβt just about battles. Theyβre about people and governments too.
In this episode, we explore a very different aspect of the French and Indian or Seven Yearsβ War. We explore the war through the lens of disease and medicine and how disease prompted the British government to take steps to keep its soldiers healthy.
Our guide for this investigation is Erica Charters, an Associate Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Oxford and author of Disease, War, and the Imperial State: The Welfare of British Armed Forces during the Seven Yearsβ War.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Episode 109: John Dixon, The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 060: David Preston, Braddockβs Defeat
- Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America
- Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Like many states in the south and west, Texas has an interesting early American past that begins with Native American settlement followed by Spanish colonization. It's also a state that was an independent nation before being admitted to the United States.
Today we explore Texasβ intriguing early American history with Andrew Torget, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Texas and author of Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/115
Sponsor Links
- Cornell University Press
- Episode 046: Ken Miller, Dangerous Guests
- Episode 047: Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christian Imperialism
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
- Episode 075: Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail
- Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of Revolutions
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Throughout the βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series weβve explored how historians find and research historical topics, how they identify and read historical sources for information, and how they publish their findings so others can know what they know about the past.
But not all historians work to publish their findings about history in books and articles. Some historians work to convey knowledge about history to the public in public spaces and in public ways.
Therefore, we conclude the βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series with a look at how historians do history for the public with guest historian Lonnie Bunch, the Founding Director of the Smithsonianβs National Museum of African American History and Culture.
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Partner Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- Doing History series
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/museums
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 011: Jessica Baumert, The Woodlands Historic Site of Philadelphia
- Episode 028: Janice Fontanella, The Erie Canal (Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site)
- Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington & His Library
- Episode 035: Michael Lord, Historic Hudson Valley & Washington Irving
- Episode 041: Bruno Paul Stenson, Canada & the American Revolution (ChΓ’teau Ramesay)
- Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Historic Jamestown)
- Episode 103: Sara Bon-Harper, James Monroe and His Highland Estate
History has a history and genealogy has a history. And the histories of both affect how and why we study the past and how we understand and view it.
Today, we explore why itβs important for us to understand that the practices and processes of history and genealogy have histories by exploring what the history of genealogy reveals about the early American past.
Our guide for this exploration is Karin Wulf, a Professor of History at the College of William & Mary and the Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/114
Partner Links
- Omohundro Institute
- OI Reader
- Doing History series
- Karin's article "Bible, King, and Common Law" is available on the OI Reader
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research
- Episode 084, Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 110: Joshua Taylor, How Genealogists Research
After seven, long years of occupation, Americans found New York City in shambles after the British evacuation on November 25, 1783.
Ten to twenty-five percent of the city had burned in 1776. The British used just about every building that remained to billet officers, soldiers, refugees, and their horses. Plus more refugees and animals crammed into vacant lots, streets, and alleyways. New York City stood in need of a lot of repair.
Which raises the question: How did New Yorkers rebuild New York City? Where did they get the money to rebuild, improve, and encourage the economic development that would transform the city into the thriving metropolis and economic hub that it would be come?
Brian Murphy, an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University-Newark, takes us through part of this amazing story with details from his book Building the Empire State: Political Economy in the Early Republic.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/113
Episode Sponsor
Cornell University Press
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 028: Janice Fontanella, The Erie Canal
- Episode 088: Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing (What is Historiography)
- Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India in the Making of Britain and America
On December 16, 1773, the colonists of Boston threw 342 chests of English East India Company tea into Boston Harbor, an act we remember as the βBoston Tea Party.β
Have you ever wondered what drove the Bostonians to destroy the tea? Or whether they considered any other less destructive options for their protest?
Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History at Cornell University, takes us through the Tea Crisis of 1773.
About the Series
Episodes in the βDoing History: To the Revolutionβ series explore the American Revolution and how what we know about it and how our view of it has changed over time.
Episodes will air in 2017.
The βDoing Historyβ series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Be sure to check out season 1, βDoing History: How Historians Work.β
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Helpful Show Links
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 088: Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing
- Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Brith of the American Tax Man
- Episode 105: Joshua Piker, How Historians Publish History
- Episode 106: Jane Kamensky, The World of John Singleton Copley
- Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India in the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830
Neither colonial North America nor the United States developed apart from the rest of the world. Since their founding, both the colonies and the United States have participated in the politics, economics, and cultures of the Atlantic World.
And every so often, the politics, economics, and cultures of lands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans intersected with and influenced those of the Atlantic World. Thatβs why today, weβre going to explore the origins of the English trade with India and how that trade connected and intersected with the English North American colonies.
Our guide for this investigation is Jonathan Eacott, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside and author of Selling Empire: India in the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/111
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 012: Dane Morrison, True Yankees
- Episode 015: Joyce Chaplin, Voyage Round the Earth
- Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, Between Two Worlds
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Jamestown)
- Episode 095: Rose Doherty, A Tale of Two Bostons
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
History tells us who we are and how we came to be who we are.
Like history, genealogy studies people. Itβs a field of study that can tell us who we are in a more exact sense by showing us how our ancestral lines connect from one generation to the next.
In this episode of the βDoing History: How Historians Workβ seres, we investigate the world of genealogical research with Joshua Taylor, President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and a professional genealogist.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/110
Genealogy Resources PDF
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Helpful Show Links
Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 066: Simon Newman, How Historians Find Research Topics
- Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan: How Historians Research History
- Episode 075: Peter Drummey, How Archives Work
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 092: Sharon Block: How Historians Research Online
- Episode 097: Billy Smith, How Historians Organize Their Research
Weβve heard that the American Revolution took place during a period called βthe Enlightenment.β But what was the Enlightenment?
Was it an intellectual movement? A social movement? A scientific movement?
Today, John Dixon, an Assistant Professor of History at CUNY-College of Staten Island, leads us on an exploration of the Enlightenment by taking us through the life of Cadwallader Colden, the subject of his book The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden: Empire, Science, and Intellectual Culture in British New York.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/109
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Cornell University Press
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 021: Eugene Tesdahl, Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
- Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: A History of Early Detroit
- Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South
- Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
Colonial America comprised many different cultural and political worlds. Most colonial Americans inhabited just one world, but today, weβre going to explore the life of a woman who lived in THREE colonial American worlds: Frontier New England, Northeastern Wabanaki, and Catholic New France.
Ann Little, an Associate Professor of History at Colorado State University and the author of The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright, leads us through the remarkable life of Esther Wheelwright, a woman who experienced colonial America as a Puritan New English girl, Wabanaki daughter, and Ursuline nun in Catholic New France.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/108
Episode Sponsor
Cornell University Press
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 041: Bruno Paul Stenson, Canada & the American Revolution
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 073: Mark Noll, The Bible in Early America
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin: How Historians Read Historical Sources
- Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
When politicians, lawyers, and historians discuss the Constitutional Convention of 1787, they often rely on two sources: The promotional tracts collectively known as the Federalist Papers and James Madisonβs Notes of the Constitutional Convention.
But what do we really know about Madisonβs Notes?
Did Madison draft them to serve as a definitive account of the Constitutional Convention?
Today, we explore James Madisonβs Notes on the Constitutional Convention with award-winning legal historian Mary Sarah Bilder, the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College and author of Madisonβs Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/107
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 055: Robb Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten Founder
- Episode 057: Max Edling, War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867
- Episode 061: Ed Larson, George Washington in Retirement
- Episode 062: Carol Berkin, The Bill of Rights
- Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How to Historians Read Historical Sources
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What can the life of an artist reveal about the American Revolution and how most American men and women experienced it?
Today, we explore the life and times of John Singleton Copley with Jane Kamensky, a Professor of History at Harvard University and the author of A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/106
Complementary Books
- Karin Wulf, Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia
- Alan Taylor, The Divided Ground
- Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804
Complementary Episodes
- J.L. Bell, The Boston Stamp Act Riots of 1765
- 016 Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
- 046 John Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War that Won It
- 075 Peter Drummey, How Archives Work (Paul Revere)
- 083 Jared Hardesty, Slavery in Colonial Boston
- 085 Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
- 095 Rose Doherty, Tale of Two Bostons
Helpful Show Links
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Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
What do historians do with their research once they finish writing about it?
How do historians publish the books and articles we love to read?
This episode of our βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series, takes us behind-the-scenes of how historians publish their writing about history. Our guide through the world of history publications is Joshua Piker, a Professor of History at the College of William and Mary, and the Editor of the William and Mary Quarterly, the leading journal of early American history and culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/105
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Helpful Show Links
OI Reader
William and Mary Quarterly
Kirsten Fischer's Blog Post
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Complementary Episodes
- 066 Simon Newman, How Historians Find Their Research Topics
- 079 James Horn, What is a Historical Source?
- 084 Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources
- 088 Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing
- 101 John Demos, How Historians Write About History
When we think of Native Americans, many of us think of inland dwellers. People adept at navigating forests and rivers and the skilled hunters and horsemen who lived and hunted on the American Plains.
But did you know that Native Americans were seafaring mariners too?
Today, Andrew Lipman, an Assistant Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast, leads us on an exploration of the northeastern coastline and of the Native American and European peoples who lived there during the seventeenth century.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/104
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovskyβ¨, Information & Communication in the Early American South
- Episode 095: Rose Doherty, Tale of Two Bostons
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first President of the United States. Between 1789 and 1825, five men would serve as president. Four of them hailed from Virginia.
Many of us know details about the lives and presidencies of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. But what do we know about the life and presidency of the fourth Virginia president, James Monroe?
Today, we explore the public and private life of James Monroe with Sara Bon-Harper, Executive Director of James Monroeβs Highland, the 535-acre farm and home of James Monroe.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/103
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In the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain offered the new United States generous terms that included lands in between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
Why did the biggest empire with the greatest army and navy concede so much to a new nation?
Because George Rogers Clark and his men seized the Illinois Country and held it during the American War for Independence.
Today, William Nester, a Professor of Government and Politics at St. Johnβs University and author of George Rogers Clark: βI Glory in War,β leads us on an exploration of the life and deeds of George Rogers Clark.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/102
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
- Episode 081: Don Glickstein, After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence
- Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South
- Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, & Hoaxes in Early America
Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.*
How do historians write about the people, places, and events theyβve studied in historical sources?
We continue our βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series by investigating how historians write about history. Our guide for this investigation is John Demos, the Samuel Knight Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and an award-winning historian.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/101
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
- Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
- Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
- Episode 099: Mark Hanna: Pirates & Pirates Nests in the British Atlantic World
Wow! Ben Franklinβs World has made it to episode 100.
How do we celebrate and mark this special occasion?
By your request, host Liz Covart answers your questions about history, podcasting, and time travel.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/100
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Pirates are alive and well in our popular culture. Thanks to movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and television shows like Black Sails, we see pirates as peg-legged, eye-patch wearing, rum-drinking men.
But are these representations accurate?
What do we really know about pirates?
In this episode, Mark Hanna, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and author of the award-winning book Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740, helps us fill in the gaps in our knowledge to better understand who pirates were and why they lived the pirateβs life.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/099
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Could customs collectors, the tax men of early America, be the unsung founders of the early United States?
Today, we explore the creation of the United States customs service and its contributions to the establishment of the federal government with Gautham Rao, an Assistant Professor of History at American University and author of National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/098
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What do historians do with all of the information they collect when they research?
How do they access their research in a way that allows them to find the information they need to write the books and articles we enjoy reading?
Billy Smith, a Professor of History at Montana State University, joins us as part of our βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series to lead us on an exploration of how historians organize and access their research.
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/097
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Ever wonder how the United Statesβ problem with race developed and why early American reformers didnβt find a way to fix it during the earliest days of the republic?
Today, Nicholas Guyatt, author of Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation, leads us on an exploration of how and why the idea of separate but equal developed in the early United States.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/096
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The City Upon a Hill. The Athens of America. The Cradle of Liberty.
Boston has many names because it has played important roles in the history of North America. But how did Boston, or βThe Hub,β come to be?
Why did the Puritans who sailed from England in 1630, choose to settle in Massachusetts Bay on the Shawmut Peninsula?
What were their early days like?
Today, we explore answers to those questions by exploring the history of the two BostonsβBoston, England & Boston, New Englandβ during the 17th century with Rose Doherty, President of the Partnership of Historic Bostons.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/095
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Who are you friends with?
Why are you friends with your friends?
In the early American republic, men and women formed and maintained friendships for many of the same reasons we make friends today: companionship, shared interests, and, in some cases, because they helped expand thinking and social circles.
Today, we explore friendship in the early American republic. Specifically, we investigate what it was like for men and women to form and maintain friendships with each other. Our guide for this exploration is Cassandra Good, author of Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men & Women in the Early American Republic.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/094
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What can the collections of the Harvard University Libraries teach us about our early American past?
It turns out, quite a lot.
Taylor Stoermer, a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, takes us through the Harvard Librariesβ new digital and free-to-use history archive: the Colonial North American Project.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/093
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How do historians conduct research online? This is your second-most asked question after how did everyday people live their day-to-day lives in early America.
As the βDoing Historyβ series explores how historians work, it offers the perfect opportunity to answer your question.
Sharon Block, a Professor of History at the University of California-Irvine, has made use of computers and digital resources to do history for years, which is why she serves as our guide for how to research history online.
About the Series
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/092
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Did you know that George Washingtonβs favorite drink was whiskey?
Actually, it wasnβt.
Washington preferred Madeira, a fortified Portuguese wine from the island of Madeira. Why the false start to todayβs exploration of history?
Gregory Dowd, a Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan, leads us on an exploration of rumors, legends, and hoaxes that circulated throughout early America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/091
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The American Revolution inspired revolutions in France, the Caribbean, and in Latin and South America between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.
Naturally, Spanish and Portuguese American revolutionaries turned to the United States for assistance with their fights. How did Americans in the United States respond to these calls for assistance? What did they make of these other βAmerican Revolutions?β
Caitlin Fitz, an Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University and the author of Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions, helps us investigate answers to these questions.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/090
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How do you uncover the life of a slave who left no paper trail?
What can her everyday life tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some slaves made the transition from slavery to freedom?
Today, we explore the life of Charity Folks, an enslaved woman from Maryland who gained her freedom in the late-18th century. Our guide through Charityβs life is Jessica Millward, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and author of Finding Charityβs Folk: Enslaved and Free Black Women in Maryland.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/089
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Historians rely on secondary historical sources almost as much as they rely on primary historical sources.
But what are secondary historical sources and how do they help historians know what they know about the past?
Michael McDonnell, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney, guides us through how he used secondary historical sources to investigate the pivotal role Native Americans played in the history of the Great Lakes region and early North America.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/088
After achieving independence from Great Britain, the new United States and its member states had to pay war debts. As the national government lacked the power to tax its citizens, the problem of paying war debts fell to the states.
Many states tried to solve the post-war debt problem by paying state debts before national debts. But Massachusetts tried to pay both. Its strategy created hardship for many Bay Staters and ultimately sparked a rebellion.
Sean Condon, a Professor of History at Merrimack College and author of Shays's Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the rebellion, which we remember today as Shaysβ Rebellion.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/087
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Over the course of his long life, Benjamin Franklin traveled to and lived in London twice. The first time he went as a teenager. The second as a man and colonial agent. All told he spent nearly 18 years living in the heart of the British Empire.
How did Franklinβs experiences in London shape his opportunities and view of the world?
George Goodwin, author of Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of Americaβs Founding Father, leads us on an exploration of Franklinβs life in London.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/086
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The War for Independence was a conflict between Great Britain and her 13 North American colonies. It was also a civil war.
Not only did the war pit Briton against Briton when the conflict began in 1775, but it also pitted American against American.
But what happened to the Americans who lost?
Today, Bonnie Huskins, coordinator of Loyalist Studies at the University of New Brunswick, joins us to explore the experiences of the American Loyalists.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/085
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What do historians do with historical sources once they find them?
How do they read them for information about the past?
Today, Zara Anishanslin, an Assistant Professor of History at CUNYβs College of Staten Island, leads us on an exploration of how historians read historical source by taking us through the documents and objects left behind by four, everyday people.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/084
Colonial Bostonians practiced slavery. But slavery in Boston looked very different than slavery in the American south or in the Caribbean.
Today, Jared Hardesty, an Assistant Professor of History at Western Washington University and author of Unfreedom: Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston, takes us on a tour of slavery, and the lives enslaved people lived, in colonial Boston.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/083
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We live in an age of information. The internet provides us with 24/7 access to all types of informationβnews, how-to articles, sports scores, entertainment news, and congressional votes.
But what do we do with all of this knowledge? How do we sift through and interpret all it all?
We are not the first people to ponder these questions.
Today, Alejandra Dubcovsky, an Assistant Professor at Yale University and author of Informed Power: Communication in the Early South, takes us through the early American south and how the Native Americans, Europeans, and enslaved Africans who lived there acquired, used, and traded information.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/082
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When did the fighting of the American War for Independence end?
In school we learn that the war came to an end at Yorktown. But, this lesson omits all of the fighting that took place after Charles, Earl Cornwallisβ surrender in October 1781.
Today, Don Glickstein, author of After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence, takes us on a whirlwind and global tour of the fighting that took place after Yorktown.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/081
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American prisons are overcrowded. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and nearly 2.5 million Americans are serving prison sentences.
Nearly all politicians agree that we need to reform the American prison system, but they disagree on how to do it.
Can gaining historical perspective on this present-day problem help us solve it?
Today, we investigate early American prisons and prison life with Jen Manion, an Assistant Professor of History at Connecticut College and author of Libertyβs Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/080
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Historians research the past through historical sources.
But what are the materials that tell historians about past peoples, places, and events?
Today, James Horn, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, helps us investigate historical sources by taking us on an exploration of historic Jamestown and the types of sources that inform what we know about it.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/079
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The United States is in midst of a political and cultural divide.
The last time the United States faced this deep of a division, the nation descended into Civil War.
Can history help us solve our present-day political and cultural crisis?
Today, we investigate whether the past might help us with the present with Rachel Shelden, author of Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/078
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Do you have what it takes to be a pioneer?
If offered the opportunity, would you undertake a journey across the Oregon Trail in a mule-pulled covered wagon?
Today, we explore the Oregon Trail past and present with Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/077
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What did it mean to be a citizen during the late-18th and early-19th centuries?
Why and how did early American sailors seem intent on proving their citizenship to the United States?
In this episode, we explore citizenship and maritime life during the Age of Revolutions with Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, an Assistant Professor of History and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California and author of Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/076
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Historians research history in archives.
But how do you gain access to one? And how do you use an archive once you find that it likely contains the information you seek?
In this third episode of our βDoing History: How Historians Workβ series, we investigate how archives work with Peter Drummey, an archivist and the Stephen T. Riley Librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/075
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George Washington stands as one of the most famous Americans in history, but what do we know of his helpmeet and partner, Martha?
Who was the woman who stood beside and encouraged Washington?
How did she assist him as he led the Continental Army and governed a new nation?
Today, we investigate the life of Martha Washington with Mary Wigge, Research Editor at the Martha Washington Papers Project.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/074
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What role did the Bible play in the development of British North America and the early United States?
How did the settlement of numerous religious groups in the thirteen American colonies affect the politics and religion of both the colonies and early United States?
Today, we address these questions by exploring the place of the Bible in early America. Our guide for this exploration is Mark Noll, the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and the author of In the Beginning Was the Word The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/073
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The American Civil War took place over 150 years ago.
The war claimed over 600,000 American lives and its legacy affects the way present-day Americans view civil rights and race relations.
The Civil War stands as an important, watershed event in United States history, which is why, in todayβs episode, we will discuss the event with Civil War historian Ari Kelman, Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/072
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Historians refer to the Battle of Saratoga as the βturning pointβ of the American Revolution.
They argue the Patriot Armyβs defeat of British General John Burgoyneβs forces convinced the French to enter the War for Independence. Together, the Franco and American forces cornered Charles, Earl Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 and ended the war.
This is the quick version of Saratoga, but as we know, history is more complicated.
Today, we explore the Saratoga Campaign of 1777 in more depth with Bruce M. Venter, author of The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/071
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How did enslaved African and African American women experience slavery?
What were their daily lives like?
And how do historians know as much as they do about enslaved women?
Today, we explore the answers to these questions with Jennifer L. Morgan, a Professor of History and Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University and our guide for an investigation into how historians research history.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/070
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Law and order stood as a sign of civilization for many 17th-century Europeans, which is why some of the first European settlers in North America created systems of law and order in their new homeland.
Today, we explore the legal history of colonial New England with Abby Chandler, author of Law and Sexual Misconduct in New England 1650-1750.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/069
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Abraham Lincoln grew up as the son of a poor farmer. Yet, he became the 16th President of the United States.
How did the son of a poor farmer achieve election to the presidency?
Today, we investigate the life of Abraham Lincoln and his journey to the presidency with Richard Brookhiser, author of Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/068
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Aside from nice weather, what do California and Hawaii have in common?
Spanish longhorn cattle.
Today, we explore how Spanish longhorn cattle influenced the early American and environmental histories of California and Hawaii with John Ryan Fischer, author of Cattle Colonialism: An Environmental History of the Conquest of California and Hawaii.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/067
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How did average, poor, and enslaved men and women live their day-to-day lives in the early United States?
Today, we explore the answers to that question with Simon P. Newman, a Professor of History at the University of Glasgow and our guide for an investigation into how historians choose their research topics.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/066
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History is about people, but what do we know about the people behind historyβs scenes?
Who are the people who tell us what we know about our past?
How do they come to know what they know?
Today, we begin our year-long βDoing Historyβ series with a special bonus episode about historians and why they do the work that they do.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
βDoing Historyβ episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklinβs World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/historians
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Today, we explore espionage during the American Revolution and the origins and operations of the Culper Spy Ring with Alexander Rose, author of Washingtonβs Spies: The Story of Americaβs First Spy Ring and a historian, writer, and producer for AMCβs television drama TURN.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/065
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Most early Americans practiced chattel slavery: the practice of treating slaves as property that people could buy, sell, trade, and use as they would draught animals or real estate.
But, did you know that some early Americans practiced a different type of slavery?
Today, we investigate the practice of Native American or indigenous slavery, a little-known aspect of early American history, with Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/064
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The American Civil War claimed more than 620,000 American lives.
Did you know that it also cost American forests, landscapes, cities, and institutions?
Today, we explore the different types of ruination wrought by the American Civil War with Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/063
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Did you know that when James Madison originally proposed the Bill of Rights, it consisted of 36 amendments and that the House of Representatives did not want to consider or debate Madisonβs proposed amendments to the Constitution?
Today, we explore the Bill of Rights and its ratification with Carol Berkin, author of The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure Americaβs Liberties.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/062
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If you had only six years to enjoy retirement what would you do?
Would you improve your plantation? Build canals? Or work behind-the-scenes to unite your country by framing a new central government?
These were just some of the activities undertaken by George Washington during his brief retirement from public service between 1783 and 1789.
Today, we explore the brief retirement of George Washington with Edward Larson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history and author of The Return of George Washington, 1783-1789.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/061
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Did Washington really start the French and Indian War?
Why should we remember a battle that took place over 260 years ago?
In this episode, we investigate the answers to those questions as we explore the Battle of the Monongahela with David Preston, author of Braddockβs Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/060
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Between the 1830s and 1860s, a clandestine communications and transportation network called the βUnderground Railroadβ helped thousands of slaves escape to freedom.
Today, we will investigate and explore this secret network with Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/059
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Why do we refer to the men who founded the United States as the βfounding fathers?β
Why do we choose to remember the American Revolution as a glorious event that had almost universal, colonial support when in fact, the Revolutionβs events were bloody, violent, and divisive?
Today, we explore our memory of the American Revolution and how our memory of the event and its participants evolved with Andrew Schocket, author of Fighting over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/058
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Do you know what we have in common with our early American forebears?
Taxes.
As Benjamin Franklin stated in 1789, βnothing is certain but death and taxes.β Given the certainty of taxes it seems important that we understand how the United Statesβ fiscal system developed.
Today, we explore the development of the early American fiscal system with Max Edling, Professor of History at Kingβs College, London and author of A Hercules in the Cradle: War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/057
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Between 1754 and 1763, North Americans participated in the French and Indian War; a world war Europeans call the Seven Yearsβ War.
As this world war raged, many South Carolinians, Virginians, Britons, and Cherokee people also fought a war for land, trade, and respect.
Today, we explore the Anglo-Cherokee War with Daniel Tortora, author of Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/056
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Who was John Jay?
Jay played important and prominent roles during the founding of the United States and yet, his name isnβt one that many would list if asked to name founding fathers.
Today, we explore John Jay and his contributions to the founding of the United States with Robb Haberman, associate editor of The Selected Papers of John Jay documentary editing project.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/055
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The United States is a diverse nation of immigrants and their ancestors. With such diversity, and no one origination point for its people, how do we describe what the United States is and what its people stand for?
What is the underlying ideological current that links Americans together regardless of their ancestral or regional diversity?
We explore βAmerican Exceptionalismβ and the ideas it embodies with John D. Wilsey, author of American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/054
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Do you believe in the supernatural? In ghosts, zombies, or perhaps witches?
Today we celebrate All Hallows Eve with an exploration of the specters and witches that haunted 17th-century Massachusetts.
Our guide for this exploration is Emerson W. Baker, author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/053
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Much like the United States, the colonists of Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) sought their independence from France by fighting a war and waging a revolution. However, unlike the Americans, the San Dominguans who fought the war and waged the revolution were predominantly African and Caribbean-born slaves.
We explore the Haitian Revolution and the quest of both the United States and Saint Domingue to establish diplomatic and trade relations with each other. Our guide for this exploration is Ronald A. Johnson, a history professor at Texas State University and author of Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint LβOuverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/052
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Located 600 miles inland from Philadelphia and over 700 miles from QuΓ©bec City, early Detroit could have been a backwater, a frontier post that Europeans established to protect colonial settlements from Native American attacks.
Yet Detroit emerged as a cosmopolitan entrepΓ΄t filled with many different peoples and all of the goods you would expect to find in early Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, or Charleston.
Today, we explore the early history of Detroit with Catherine Cangany, an associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of Frontier Seaport: Detroitβs Transformation into an Atlantic EntrepΓ΄t.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/051
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How did every day men and women experience life in colonial America?
How did the American Revolution transform their work and personal lives?
Today, we explore the answers to those questions by investigating the life of Betsy Ross with Marla Miller, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of Betsy Ross and the Making of America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/050
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Why did England want to establish colonies in North America and how did Englishmen go about establishing them?
We explore the early days of English settlement in North America with Malcolm Gaskill, Professor of History at the University of East Anglia and author of Between Two Worlds: How the English Became American.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/049
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When we think about the War for American Independence many of us conjure images of Washington crossing the Delaware, Cornwallisβ surrender at Yorktown, or perhaps the freezing winters at Valley Forge or Jockey Hollow.
What we donβt tend to think about are enemy prisoners of war, the British and German soldiers the patriot militia and Continental Army units captured during and after battles.
Today, we explore the day-to-day experiences of British and German POWs during the War for Independence with Ken Miller, Associate Professor of History at Washington College and author of Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives and Revolutionary Communities during the War for Independence.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
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Where did the United States fit within the world between 1810 and 1847?
After the United States secured its independence from Great Britain, many Americans looked at the world and wondered about their place within it.
What role would early Americans play in shaping the world around them?
Today, we explore early American conceptions of the world with Emily Conroy-Krutz, an Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/047
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What caused the American Revolution?
Can we use the term βAmerican Revolutionβ to describe both the revolution and the War for Independence?
What was the greatest challenge that George Washington and his Continental Army faced during the War for Independence?
In this listener-requested episode, we dive deep into the American Revolution with John Ferling, professor emeritus at the University of West Georgia and author of Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It.
Show Notes Page: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/046
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Many Americans associate the state of Utah with Mormons.
But did you know the Mormons almost settled in Texas?
Spencer McBride, an editor with the Joseph Smith Papers Documentary Editing Project, joins us to explore the life of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism and the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/045
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Do you know which early American reform movement pushed for abolition, womenβs rights, pacifism, and economic growth?
Today, Adam Shprintzen, Assistant Professor of History at Marywood University and author of The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an American Reform Movement, 1817-1921, takes us on a journey through the origins of vegetarianism and the Vegetarian reform movement in the United States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/044
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How and when did doctors become respected professionals in American society?
The answer lies in early Americansβ fascination with delirium tremens, or alcoholic insanity, and the Temperance Movement of the early-to-mid 19th century.
Matthew Osborn, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early Republic, leads us on an exploration of early American medical history and reform movements.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/043
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βNo Taxation Without Representation!β
August 14, 2015 marks the 250th anniversary of the first Boston Stamp Act riot.
Todayβs bonus episode commemorates the anniversary with a conversation about the Stamp Act, the Boston riots, and the American Revolution with J.L. Bell, proprietor of Boston1775.net.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/stampact
Ask the Historian
Is the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln?
The United States has entered presidential primary season, which means it wonβt be long before a Republican presidential candidate or a reporter mentions the birth of the βGrand Old Partyβ in 1854 and its association with Lincoln.
We explore the history of the Republican Party with Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History at Boston College and author of To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/042
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Did Canada almost join the American Revolution?
In September 1775, Major-General Philip Schuyler launched the Patriotβs invasion into Canada. The Patriots hoped to end the threat of a British invasion from the north by occupying Canada and bringing the colony into the American Revolution.
Did the Patriotsβ plans work?
Today, we discuss Canada and how the American Revolution played out there with Bruno Paul Stenson, an historian and musicologist with the ChΓ’teau de Ramezay historic site in MontrΓ©al. ChΓ’teau de Ramezay served as the headquarters for the American forces between 1775 and 1776.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/041
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Today we address the President of the United States as βMr. President.β But did you know that the proper title for the office was almost βHis Highness the President?β
Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, author of For Fear of an Elective King, leads us on an exploration of the presidential title controversy of 1789, the first controversy to wrack the United States Congress.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/040
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The American Revolution was a revolution against Parliament not a king.
This is the idea offered by Eric Nelson in his new book The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding.
We explore the royalist revolution and how it affected the American Revolution with Eric Nelson, Professor of Government at Harvard University.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/039
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Are you ready to time travel?
2015 marks the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, a document created to limit the powers of King John of England and his successors in 1215.
Today, Magna Carta and its four key principles continue to influence and inspire the governments of English-speaking countries around the world, including the United States and Canada.
We explore Magna Carta and its long legacy with Carolyn Harris, author of Magna Carta and Its Gifts to Canada: Democracy, Law, and Human Rights.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/038
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What battle proved to be the turning point of the American War for Independence?
If you answered Saratoga, you are in general agreement with most scholars of the American Revolution.
General John Burgoyneβs surrender to the Continental Army on October 17, 1777 demonstrated to France that the American had what it took to defeat the British Army and France entered the war on the behalf of the United States.
And with France came Spain.
Today, we explore the consequences of Spanish involvement in the War for American Independence with Kathleen DuVal, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/037
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How and where did the colonies of North America and the Caribbean fit within the British Empire?
The answer to this question depends on whether you explore the views of a British imperial officer, such as the King of England, or a colonist who lived in one of the North American or Caribbean colonies.
In todayβs episode, Abigail Swingen, professor of history at Texas Tech University and author of Competing Visions of Empire: Labor, Slavery, and the Origins of the British Atlantic Empire, leads us on an exploration of how colonists and British imperial officers viewed the colonies and their place within the British Empire during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/036
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Who was the Marquis de Lafayette? How did he make the Patriotsβ success in the American Revolution possible? And why did a group known as the Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America build an exact replica of the French frigate that brought Lafayette to the United States?
These are just some of the questions that Miles Young, President of the Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America, will answer in this listener-requested episode.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/lafayette
Ask the Historian
Washington Irving was an historian and writer. Some historians and biographers have called him the first great American author.
Today, Michael Lord, Director of Education at Historic Hudson Valley, joins us to explore the life of Washington Irving, his home, Sunnyside, and the historic Hudson Valley region that he immortalized in stories such as Diedrich Knickerbockerβs History of New York, βThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow,β and βRip Van Winkle.β
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/035
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The Hero of New Orleans. Old Hickory. General. President of the United States. Andrew Jackson held and embodied all of these titles and nicknames.
During his lifetime, Jackson served as one of the most popular presidents and yet, today we remember him as a controversial figure given his views on slavery, Native Americans, and banks.
Mark R. Cheathem, professor of history at Cumberland University and author of Andrew Jackson, Southerner, leads us on an exploration of the life and times of Andrew Jackson.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/034
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When you think about George Washington, what image comes to mind?
Washington the general?
Washington the president?
Perhaps, Washington the gentleman farmer of Mount Vernon?
But did you know that George Washington loved to read?
In this episode, we chat with Douglas Bradburn, the Founding Director of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, which serves as the George Washington Presidential Library.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/033
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What was everyday life like for average men and women in early America?
Listeners ask this question more than any other question and today we continue to try to answer it.
Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/032
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Benjamin Franklinβs life spanned almost the entire 18th century.
Between his birth on January 17, 1706 and his death on April 17, 1790, Franklin lived well-traveled and accomplished life.
Michael D. Hattem, research assistant for the Papers of Benjamin Franklin documentary editing project, leads us on an exploration of the life and deeds of Benjamin Franklin.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/031
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You may know the stereotype of the βbusibody New Englander,β the person who knows all about their neighborsβ private affairs.
This stereotype comes from the New England town-church ideal: The idea that ministers and congregants of the town church had a responsibility to maintain civic and moral order in their town.
Shelby M. Balik, Assistant Professor of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver and author of Rally the Scattered Believers: Northern New Englandβs Religious Geography, joins us to explore the New England town-church ideal, how it helped New Englanders organize their towns, and why the post-Revolution migration into northern New England forced New Englanders to change and adapt how they maintained civic and moral order in their towns.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/030
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Can you name the battle that took place between the United States Army and the Miami Confederacy on November 4, 1791?
It's a trick question. You canβt name the battle because the victory has no name.
Colin Calloway, Professor of History and Native American History at Dartmouth College, joins us to discuss how American settlement in the Ohio Valley led to The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/029
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What can maps tell us about the past?
How do maps affect the way we view events such as the American Revolution?
The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library has a new, traveling exhibition called We Are One: Mapping Americaβs Road from Revolution to Independence, which seeks to help us change the way we look at and explore the tumultuous events that led thirteen colonies to break away from Great Britain and forge a new nation.
Michelle LeBlanc, Director of Education and Public Programming at the Leventhal Map Center joins us to explore maps as historical documents and this amazing new exhibit.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/maps
Ask the Historian
A βlittle short of madness.β That is how Thomas Jefferson responded when two delegates from New York approached him with the idea to build the Erie Canal in January 1809.
Jeffersonβs comment did not discourage New Yorkers. On January 4, 1817, New York State began building a 363-mile long canal to link the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes and the Midwest.
Janice Fontanella, site manager of Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter, New York, joins us to discuss the Erie Canal, its construction, and the impact that this waterway made on New York and the United States.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/028
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What do George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln have in common?
They all grew-up in blended or stepfamilies.
Lisa Wilson, the Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of American History at Connecticut College and author of A History of Stepfamilies in Early America, leads us on an exploration of blended and stepfamilies in early America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/027
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What drove George Washington to become a Patriot during the American Revolution?
How did he overcome the ill-trained and inexperienced troops, inadequate pay, and supply problems that plagued the Continental Army to win the War for American Independence?
Robert Middlekauff, professor emeritus of colonial and early United States history at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals the answers to these questions as we explore details from his book Washingtonβs Revolution: The Making of Americaβs First Leader.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/026
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Do you know who George Whitefield was?
George Whitefield stood as one of the most visible figures in British North America between the 1740s and 1770. He was a central figure in the trans-Atlantic revivalist movement and a man whose legacy remains influential to evangelical Christians today.
Historian Jessica Parr, author of Inventing George Whitefield: Race, Revivalism, and the Making of a Religious Icon, introduces us to the Reverend George Whitefield.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/025
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In this bonus episode, we explore a listener requested topic of colonial inns and taverns by investigating the history of the oldest inn still in operation: Longfellowβs Wayside Inn.
The Wayside Inn served as the inspiration for Henry Wadsworth Longfellows poetry collection "Tales of a Wayside Inn," in which you will find his poem "The Landlord's Tale," better known as "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/wayside
Ask the Historian
What can John Hancockβs suit tell you about the man who wore it?
The clothing a person wears tells you a lot about them: Whether they are rich or poor, what kind of work they do, what colors they like, and what they value.
We know that John Hancock was a wealthy merchant and prominent politician, but did you know that his suit reveals even more about his life and personality than the documents and portraits he left behind?
Museum professional and textiles expert Kimberly Alexander joins us to explore the world of 18th-century fashion and material culture and what objects like John Hancock's suit communicate about the past.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/024
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Have you ever wondered what happens when four historians get together to talk about early American history?
In this episode, we chat with three young and promising historians of early America: Michael Hattem, Roy Rogers, and Ken Owen. All three scholars discuss history at the Junto Blog, A Group Blog on Early American History and as regular panelists on the JuntoCast, a monthly podcast about Early American History.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/023
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Have you heard the saying that behind every great man stands a great woman?
Vivian Bruce Conger, the Robert Ryan Professor in the Humanities at Ithaca College, joins us to explore the two great women that Benjamin Franklin had standing behind and beside him: his wife, Deborah Read Franklin, and his daughter, Sally Franklin Bache.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/022
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Do you know that John Hancock was a smuggler?
Smuggling presented a large problem for the imperial governments of Great Britain and France during the colonial period.
Eugene Tesdahl, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, joins us to discuss the early American business of smuggling and his involvement with living history as a French and Indian War-era re-enactor.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/021
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Have you ever wondered about how early American men, women, and slaves worshipped?
Religion played a large role in why some Europeans settled in British North America.
The Puritans of New England, the German Protestants of the Mid-Atlantic region, and the Catholics of Maryland all migrated to North America to worship freely, to name but a few religious groups in colonial North America.
Kyle T. Bulthuis, Assistant Professor of History at Utah State University and author of Four Steeples Over the City Streets: Religion and Society in New Yorkβs Early Republic Congregations, takes us on an exploration of early American religious life.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/020
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Have you ever wondered where colonial Americans purchased their food?
Although many colonial Americans lived in rural areas or on farms where they could grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs, graze their livestock, or hunt wild game, many others lived in early American cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston.
Where did these colonial city-dwellers get their food?
Kenneth Turino, the Manager of Community Relations and Exhibitions for Historic New England, joins us to explore the colonial Boston marketplace.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/019
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Do you know who authored the Declaration of Independence?
If you answered βThomas Jefferson,β you would be wrong. Jefferson merely wrote the first draft of a document others created.
In this episode, Danielle Allen, a Professor at Harvard University and author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, leads us on an exploration of the Declaration of Independence.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/018
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Parlez-vous Français?
Do you speak French?
Believe it or not in the 1790s many Americans spoke French. They may not have spoken the French language, but they understood and embraced French culture, art, and culinary traditions.
Early Americans experimented with and adopted many forms of French culture as they sought to define their new identity as Americans.
François Furstenberg, Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and author of When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation, joins us to explore how and why the United States spoke French during the 1790s.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/017
Ask the Historian
The United States claimed victory in the War of 1812, but did you know that the British nearly won the war by promising freedom to escaped slaves in Virginia and Maryland?
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor, author of The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832, reveals how Virginiaβs βInternal Enemyβ almost cost the United States its second war for independence.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/016
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In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue as part of the great European quest to find new routes and shortcuts to the spice islands and territories of Asia.
Spain and Portugal led this quest during the 15th and 16th centuries and their race to access the Asian spice trade caused Columbus to sail unwittingly into the Caribbean and North America.
Columbusβ βdiscoveryβ caused European peoples to colonize North and South America. It also encouraged Europeans to keep up their search for new ways to access Asia via water routes through or around these continents.
Joyce E. Chaplin, the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University and author of Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit, leads us on an exploration of the early history of around-the-world voyages and the impact those voyages had on the peoples and places of the Americas, the Pacific Islands, Asia, and Europe.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/015
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Did you know that Russian activities in North America caused the Spanish to colonize California?
When we think of North America in 1776, our minds take us to the Atlantic seaboard where inhabitants in thirteen colonies fought Great Britain for independence.
However, as the American Revolution and its War for Independence raged, events occurred elsewhere in North America that would have important implications for the development of the later United States.
Claudio Saunt, the Richard B. Russell Professor of History at the University of Georgia and author of West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, joins us to explore events that took place west of the American Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/014
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We tend to view gay marriage as a cultural and legal development of the 21st century.
But did you know that some early Americans lived openly in same-sex marriages?
Rachel Hope Cleves, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and author of Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, will reveal the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, women who lived openly as a married couple in Weybridge, Vermont between 1807 and 1851.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/013
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Did you know that Americans undertook their first trade mission to China in February 1784?
In fact, a mercantile partnership led by Robert Morris sent the Empress of China, a 360 ton ship to Canton, China one month and eight days after the Congress of the United States ratified the Treaty of Paris, 1783.
Why did these merchants look so far east to secure a profitable trade? And why did they attempt such a venture not long after the United States secured its independence from Great Britain?
Dane Morrison, Professor of History at Salem State University and author of True Yankees: The South Seas and the Discovery of American Identity helps us discover the answers to these questions and more as he leads us on an exploration of the early American trade with China.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/012
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania plays host to many historic sites associated with our early American history: Carpenters Hall, Independence Hall, and the Betsy Ross House represent just a few of this city's historic holdings.
But have you ever heard about, or visited, The Woodlands?
The Woodlands and its founder/developer, William Hamilton played an important role in the architectural and botanical development of Philadelphia and the young United States.
Jessica Baumert, Executive Director of The Woodlands historic site in West Philadelphia, guides us through The Woodlands and its significant architectural and botanical history.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/011
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What about the British Redcoats?
When we discuss the military history of the American War for Independence, we tend to focus on specific battles or details about the men who served in George Washingtonβs Continental Army.
Rarely do we take the opportunity to ask questions about the approximately 50,000 men who served in the British Army that opposed them.
Don N. Hagist, independent scholar and author of British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution, leads us on exploration of the βotherβ men who fought in the American War for Independence, the soldiers in the British Army.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/010
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ββTwas the night before Christmas, when all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse./ The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,/ In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.β
Undoubtedly, you have heard, or read, this first stanza of Clement Mooreβs famous βA Visit from St. Nicholasβ (1822) poem, but have you ever wondered about the traditions and saint contained within its lines?
Where did the Christmas traditions of stockings, presents, and cookies come from? And what about jolly, old Saint Nicholas? Who was he and why do we often call him Santa Claus?
Peter G. Rose, culinary historian of Dutch foodways in North America and author of Delicious December: How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats joins us to discuss the origins of Santa Claus and edible goodies such as cookies in the United States.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/009
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The Middle Passage forced millions of African men, women, and children to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean, but did you know that there existed an even more deadly voyage for slaves?
For many Africans the journey into slavery did not end with their arrival at a Caribbean entrepΓ΄t such as Barbados or Jamaica.
After their transatlantic journey, many captives had to embark on a second, deadlier voyage to their new homes.
In this episode we explore this second, deadlier voyage with Gregory OβMalley, author of the new book, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/008
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The United States declared independence from Great Britain in July 1776, but the King and Parliament of Great Britain did not recognize this independence until April 9, 1784.
On June 1, 1785, King George III received his first diplomat from the United States.
Do you know what happened when His Majesty came face-to-face with John Adams?
The Papers of John Adams reveal much about his meeting with King George III as well as the time he spent as a Revolutionary, Statesmen, President, and retired gentleman farmer. Sara Georgini, Assistant Editor at the Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project joins us to discuss John Adamsβ experiences as the first U.S. Minister to Great Britain and what it is like to work with the more than 250,000 documents that Adams and his descendants have generated.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/007
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Arrr, so ye like pirates do ye?
Did ye know that as much as 33% of pirate crews were made up of captured seamen, not pirates?
Weβll be talking about the βGolden Ageβ of pirates in this here episode of Ben Franklinβs World with historian and pirate expert Gregory N. Flemming, author of the new book At the Point of a Cutlass: The Pirate Capture, Bold Escape, and Lonely Exile of Philip Ashton.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/006
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You likely know the names of George and Martha Washington, John and Abigail Adams, and James and Dolley Madison, as the names of a few of the founding mothers and fathers of the United States.
You may have heard of some of their deeds and political accomplishments. But did you know that all of these couples endured tragic and sometimes frequent episodes with illness and disease?
Do you know what the founding fathers and mothers really understood about health and wellness?
Jeanne Abrams, Professor at the University of Denver University Libraries, joins us to discuss the world of 18th-century medicine and her recent book, Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and in Health.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/005
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Did you know that most biographies about the founders of the United States reveal more about the Americans who wrote the biographies than about the true character of the founders themselves?
Thomas A. Foster, Professor of History at DePaul University, joins us to discuss his latest book Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past, an exploration ofhow Americans have imagined and reimagined the founding fathers from the 18th century to the present.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/004
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Benjamin Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. Today, you can visit his library and its amazing collections, which begs the question: How has the Library Company managed to stay open, and remain relevant, for over 283 years?
Richard S. Newman, Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia discusses past and present efforts of the Library Company to serve the public at large. Newman reveals how the Library Company has adapted to the needs of the public over time. He also unveils ideas for how the Library Company can continue to remain relevant in our twenty-first digital age.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/003
Have you ever walked through a museum and wondered why its staff chose to feature the artifacts you saw?
Cornelia King, Chief of Reference at the Library Company of Philadelphia discusses βThatβs So Gay: Outing Early America,β an exhibition that she curated for the Library Company. In addition to providing us with information about the history of gay men and women in early America, Connie gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how she decided what artifacts, books, and ephemera to display in βThatβs So Gayβ and how she sought to interpret those items for the education and enjoyment of visitors.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/002
Dd you know that Ben Franklin founded the first successful lending library in North America?
With James N. Green, Librarian at the Library Company of Philadelphia, we explores the role Franklin played in the founding of the Library Company of Philadelphia, the history of libraries in colonial North America, and the Junto, Franklinβs sociability and improvement club for Philadelphia tradesmen.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/001
Host Liz Covart welcomes you to Ben Franklin's World: A Podcast About Early American History. Liz describes the show and reveals what what you can expect to discover in future episodes.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/000