Ben Franklin's World

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Ben Franklin's Worldinactive

Publisher |: Airwave Media

Media Type |: audio

Podknife tags |: History,; Interview,; Society & Culture,; USA

Categories Via RSS |: History,; Society & Culture

This is a show about early American history. Awarded Best History Podcast by the Academy of Podcasters in 2017, it’s 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 conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

People |: Liz Covart (@lizcovart)
Country Of Origin |: USA
Produced In |: Boston, MA
Premiere Date |: 2014-09-27
Frequency |: Biweekly
Explicit |: No

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393 Available Episodes (393 Total) / Average duration: 00:53:11

Date Duration Most Reviewed Highest Rated

393 Available Episodes (393 Total)Average duration: 00:53:11

Apr 11, 2023

00:54:25

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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Mar 28, 2023

01:07:24

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 we’ve 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 Girl’s 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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Mar 14, 2023

00:55:50

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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Feb 28, 2023

00:47:45

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 they’ve 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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Feb 14, 2023

00:51:13

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 wasn’t 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 colony’s 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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Jan 31, 2023

01:03:20

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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Jan 17, 2023

01:04:53

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 Richard’s 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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Jan 03, 2023

01:05:46

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 Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/348 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Dec 30, 2022

00:07:40

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

Dec 20, 2022

00:57:16

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of African and African American music to the United States’ musical traditions. Steven Lewis, a Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian, notes that “African American influences are so fundamental to American music there would be no American music without them.”

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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Dec 13, 2022

00:44:09

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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Dec 06, 2022

00:47:55

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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Nov 29, 2022

00:40:27

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 22, 2022

00:45:43

What was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans—Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans—integrate 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 America’s musical landscapes before European colonization.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/343 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 08, 2022

01:12:03

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 25, 2022

01:00:53

Prepare for tricks, treats, and time travel! In honor of Halloween, we’re 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 11, 2022

01:16:34

The War of 1812 is an under-known conflict in United States history. It’s 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 Britain’s Most Terrifying Prison.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/340 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Sep 27, 2022

01:14:29

Between May 25 and September 17, 1787, delegates from each of the United States’ 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 Constitution’s creation? What was happening around the Convention, and what issues were Americans discussing and debating as the Convention’s delegates met?

sarah-bilder.html">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 Constitution’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Sep 13, 2022

01:19:28

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 30, 2022

01:00:36

What made trade with China so important to the new United States that one of Americans’ first acts after securing the United States’ 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 16, 2022

01:12:38

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 Turner’s Rebellion.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/336 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 02, 2022

01:10:10

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 University’s Belfer Center, joins us to investigate the Jewish world and upbringing of Alexander Hamilton.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/335 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jul 19, 2022

01:05:29

Spanish explorers and colonists visited, settled, and claimed territory in 42 of the United States’ 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jul 05, 2022

00:59:07

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 28, 2022

01:03:03

What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?

In honor of the Fourth of July, we’ll 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 21, 2022

01:26:05

In a town as old as Williamsburg, Virginia, which was established in 1638, it’s 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 Williamsburg’s 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 Williamsburg’s Bray School with three scholars: lee-m.php">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 & Mary’s Bray School Lab.

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Jun 07, 2022

01:10:06

We’ll 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.

bjones.html">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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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May 24, 2022

01:05:14

This is an episode you’ve 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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May 10, 2022

01:08:12

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 Carolina’s Free People of Color and Beyond Slavery’s 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.

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Apr 26, 2022

00:57:00

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 Franklin’s life.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/327 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Apr 12, 2022

01:05:04

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, Americans’ 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 Americans’ reactions to it.

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Mar 29, 2022

01:17:32

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.

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Mar 15, 2022

01:05:46

After Henry Hudson’s 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.

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Mar 01, 2022

01:22:47

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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Feb 15, 2022

00:54:46

During the War for American Independence, the British Army attempted to create chaos and inflict economic damage to the revolutionaries’ 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 Army’s promise of freedom.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Feb 01, 2022

01:13:38

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” In this episode, we explore Douglass’ 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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Feb 01, 2022

01:14:45

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

In this episode, we explore Douglass’ 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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Jan 28, 2022

00:06:08

Thank you for your support! Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706. In honor of Franklin’s birthday, this bonus episode takes a further look at Ben’s culinary preferences with culinary historian Rae Katherine Eighmey.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/221

Jan 18, 2022

01:12:46

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 Franklin’s 316th birthday, Márcia Balisciano, the Founding Director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum in London, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jan 04, 2022

01:06:49

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 Yucatán 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 “Key to the Indies?” What kind of relationship and exchange did early Cuba have with British North America and the early United States?

ferrer.html">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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Dec 31, 2021

00:10:16

What challenges do National Park Service interpretive rangers face when they interpret non-British colonial history? How did the relationships between Ste. Geneviéve's inhabitants and Indigenous peoples change over time?

NPS Interpretive Ranger Claire Casey is back to answer more of your questions about colonial Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri and the Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318

Dec 21, 2021

00:59:29

About 620 miles north of New Orleans and 62 miles south of St. Louis, sits the town of Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri.

Established in 1750 by the French, Ste. Geneviéve 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. Geneviéve National Historical Park, joins us to explore the early American history of Ste. Geneviéve.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Dec 07, 2021

01:01:19

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 23, 2021

00:47:18

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 city’s land, peoples, and wealth– the American government also inherited the city’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 09, 2021

01:02:18

What has enabled the American experiment in democracy to endure for nearly 250 years?

What is it about early American history that captivates peoples’ 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 02, 2021

00:41:14

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.

Oct 29, 2021

00:18:30

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 26, 2021

01:04:45

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, “The Chiefs Now In This City": Indians and the Urban Frontier in Early America.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/314 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 19, 2021

00:14:57

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 12, 2021

01:09:50

You know “America’s favorite fighting Frenchman” 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?

me.html">Mike Duncan, a self-described history geek, public historian, and the podcaster behind the award-winning podcast history-of-rome.html">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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Sep 28, 2021

01:04:14

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. 

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 States’ domestic slave trade and the lives of three slave traders who helped to define this trade.  

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Sep 14, 2021

00:56:07

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 Carté, 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 31, 2021

01:02:56

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 Métis, one of the three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/310 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 17, 2021

01:03:22

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 03, 2021

01:00:46

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jul 30, 2021

00:19:51

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 didn’t have time to explore in our full-length episode: A listener question about how British Americans thought about the British Empire’s 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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Jul 20, 2021

01:09:50

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 America’s 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 “grand narrative” about the Revolution and the United States’ founding, with details from his book, Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution.

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Jul 02, 2021

01:03:49

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 Horse’s Tail, a remnant of a grand equestrian statue of King George III, which stood in New York City’s Bowling Green park.

Historians Wendy Bellion, m-harris.html">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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 22, 2021

00:53:51

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.

sciences.buffalo.edu/history/faculty/faculty-directory/seeman-erik.html">Erik Seeman is a Professor of History at the University at Buffalo. He’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 08, 2021

00:53:50

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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May 25, 2021

00:54:43

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. 

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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May 11, 2021

00:52:54

Before its eradication in 1980, smallpox was the most feared disease in many parts of the world. Known as the “king of terrors” and the “disease of diseases” the search for a way to lessen and avoid smallpox was on!

How did vaccination come about? What are vaccination’s 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 “From Inoculation to Vaccination” series.

In this episode, we join experts najera.html">Dr. René Najera, Farren Yero, and Andrew Wehrman for a journey through the history of smallpox, the creation of the world’s first vaccine, and first mass public health initiative.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/302 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Apr 27, 2021

00:46:46

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, we’ll explore smallpox in North America. We’ll 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 najera.html">Dr. René Najera, Farren Yero, Ben Mutschler, and Andrew Wehrman for a journey through the history of smallpox and the world’s first immunization procedure: inoculation.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/301 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Apr 13, 2021

01:05:13

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 Franklin’s 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.

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Apr 06, 2021

00:41:14

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Mar 30, 2021

01:01:20

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Mar 16, 2021

01:00:39

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.  

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Mar 02, 2021

00:56:24

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Feb 16, 2021

01:02:52

What does it take to create a museum? How can a museum help visitors grapple with a very uncomfortable aspect of their nation’s 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.

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Feb 02, 2021

00:56:13

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jan 19, 2021

01:05:44

How did Jamaica grow to become the "crown jewel" of the British Atlantic World?

Part of the answer is that Jamaica’s women served as some of the most ardent and best supporters of the island’s practice of slavery.

nus.edu.sg/about/faculty/christine-walker/">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 Britain’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jan 05, 2021

00:56:59

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 people’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Dec 18, 2020

00:08:17

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 Lorén Spears, Executive Director of the Tomaquag Museum in Rhode Island.

Both Jade and Lorén 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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Dec 15, 2020

00:55:25

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Dec 08, 2020

00:46:53

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, we’ll explore the World of the Wampanoag before and after 1620, a year that saw approximately 100 English colonists enter the Wampanoags’ world. Those English colonists have been called the “Pilgrims” 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 Wampanoags’ 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, we’ll investigate the cultures, society, and economy of the Wampanoags’ 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 “World of the Wampanoag” 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/290 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 24, 2020

01:03:07

The name “Great Dismal Swamp” doesn’t 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. 

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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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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Nov 10, 2020

01:03:38

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Nov 06, 2020

00:03:37

Join the Omohundro Institute and Mass Humanities for a special two-episode series about the World of the Wampanoag before and after 1620. The Wampanoag’s history has always been spoken. Hear it on Ben Franklin’s World in December 2020.

Oct 30, 2020

00:18:22

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

Oct 27, 2020

01:01:56

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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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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Oct 20, 2020

00:56:36

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 13, 2020

01:10:11

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Oct 06, 2020

00:51:43

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 birmingham.academia.edu/AmyWatson">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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Sep 22, 2020

00:10:38

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 President’s 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 sarah-bilder.html"> Mary Sarah Bilder, the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/259 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Sep 22, 2020

01:02:44

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Sep 08, 2020

01:00:22

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 Tacky’s Revolt and how that revolt served as an eddy within the larger current of Atlantic warfare, with details from his book, Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/282 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 25, 2020

00:53:24

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 “age of the spreadsheet” and quantification of habits develop? 

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Aug 11, 2020

01:02:30

The American Revolution is embedded in the American character. It’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jul 28, 2020

01:12:40

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 Washington’s 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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jul 14, 2020

00:54:31

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 30, 2020

01:12:06

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/277 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 26, 2020

00:16:01

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 Join Ben Franklin's World!

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Jun 16, 2020

01:05:30

Who gets to be a founding father?

“Founding Father” 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. We’re talking about more than 100 men and yet, we don’t really talk about more than a handful of these “founders” 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 don’t always talk about, Benjamin Rush.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/276

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Jun 02, 2020

00:25:18

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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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

May 19, 2020

01:09:12

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 England’s 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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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

May 05, 2020

01:03:38

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 Sponsor Links

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Apr 21, 2020

00:11:07

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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Apr 14, 2020

00:46:16

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: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/077

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Apr 07, 2020

00:44:45

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 “American Revolutions?”

fitz.html"> Caitlin Fitz, an Associate 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: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/090

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Mar 31, 2020

00:55:16

Located 600 miles inland from Philadelphia and over 700 miles from Québec 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 entrepôt filled with many different people 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: Detroit’s Transformation into an Atlantic Entrepôt.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/051

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Apr 11 | 00:54:25

355 Misha Ewen, The Virginia Venture

Mar 28 | 01:07:24

354 John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Girl's Tale

Mar 14 | 00:55:50

353 Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba Identity

Feb 28 | 00:47:45

352 Matthew Skic, James Forten and the Making of the United States

Feb 14 | 00:51:13

351 Nicole Maskiell, Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland

Jan 31 | 01:03:20

350 Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

Jan 17 | 01:04:53

349 Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Women Behind Benjamin Franklin

Jan 03 | 01:05:46

348 Ricardo Herrera, Valley Forge

Dec 30 | 00:07:40

Bonus: Craft in Early America

Dec 20 | 00:57:16

347 Jon Beebe, African and African American Music

Dec 13 | 00:44:09

346 Billy Coleman, Music and Politics in the Early United States

Dec 06 | 00:47:55

345 Glenda Goodman, Amateur Musicians in the Early United States

Nov 29 | 00:40:27

344 David Hildebrand, Music in British North America

Nov 22 | 00:45:43

343 Chad Hamill, Music and Song in Native North America

Nov 08 | 01:12:03

342 Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations

Oct 25 | 01:00:53

341 Mairi Cowan, Possession and Exorcism in New France

Oct 11 | 01:16:34

340: Nicholas Guyatt, Prisoners of War and the War of 1812

Sep 27 | 01:14:29

339 Mary Sarah Bilder, Women and the Constitutional Moment of 1787

Sep 13 | 01:19:28

338 The Early History of the United States Senate

Aug 30 | 01:00:36

337 Dael Norwood, Early America's Trade with China

Aug 16 | 01:12:38

336 Vanessa Holden, Surviving the Southampton Rebellion

Aug 02 | 01:10:10

335 Andrew Porwancher, The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton

Jul 19 | 01:05:29

334 Brandon Bayne, Missions & Mission Building in New Spain

Jul 05 | 00:59:07

333 Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown

Jun 28 | 01:03:03

332 Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia

Jun 21 | 01:26:05

331 The Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School

Jun 07 | 01:10:06

330 Brad Jones, Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

May 24 | 01:05:14

329 Mark Tabbert, Freemasonry in Early America

May 10 | 01:08:12

328 Warren Milteer Jr., Free People of Color in Early America

Apr 26 | 00:57:00

327 David Schmidt, Benjamin Franklin: A Film by Ken Burns

Apr 12 | 01:05:04

327 Maureen Connors Santelli, The Greek Revolution in Early America

Mar 29 | 01:17:32

325 Woody Holton, Everyday People of the American Revolution

Mar 15 | 01:05:46

324 Andrea Mosterman, New Netherland and Slavery

Mar 01 | 01:22:47

323 Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder

Feb 15 | 00:54:46

322 Karen Cook-Bell, Running from Bondage in Revolutionary America

Feb 01 | 01:13:38

321 BFW Team Favorite: Whose Fourth of July? (No Ad)

Feb 01 | 01:14:45

321 BFW Team Favorite: Whose Fourth of July?

Jan 28 | 00:06:08

Bonus: Cooking with Benjamin Franklin

Jan 18 | 01:12:46

320 Benjamin Franklin's London House

Jan 04 | 01:06:49

319 Ada Ferrer, Cuba: An Early American History

Dec 31 | 00:10:16

Bonus: Colonial Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri

Dec 21 | 00:59:29

318 Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park

Dec 07 | 01:01:19

317 American Jewish Historical Society, Jews in Early America

Nov 23 | 00:47:18

316 Kathryn Olivarius, Yellow Fever, Immunity, & Early New Orleans

Nov 09 | 01:02:18

315 David M. Rubenstein, History & American Democracy

Nov 02 | 00:41:14

Bonus: The Object of History

Oct 29 | 00:18:30

Bonus: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in American Cities

Oct 26 | 01:04:45

314 Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities

Oct 19 | 00:14:57

OI Reads: Carolyn Eastman, The Strange Genius of Mr. O

Oct 12 | 01:09:50

313 Mike Duncan, The Marquis de Lafayette

Sep 28 | 01:04:14

312 Joshua Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade

Sep 14 | 00:56:07

311 Katherine Carté, Religion and the American Revolution

Aug 31 | 01:02:56

310 Rosalyn LaPier, The Blackfeet: A History

Aug 17 | 01:03:22

309 Phillip Reid, Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century

Aug 03 | 01:00:46

308 Jessica Marie Johnson, Slavery and Freedom in French Louisiana

Jul 30 | 00:19:51

Bonus: A History of American Revolution Histories

Jul 20 | 01:09:50

307 Michael Hattem, History & the American Revolution

Jul 02 | 01:03:49

306 The Horse's Tail

Jun 22 | 00:53:51

305 Erik Seeman, Speaking with the Dead in Early America

Jun 08 | 00:53:50

304 Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

May 25 | 00:54:43

303 Matthew Powell, An Early History of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

May 11 | 00:52:54

302 From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2

Apr 27 | 00:46:46

301 From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1

Apr 13 | 01:05:13

300 Vast Early America

Apr 06 | 00:41:14

299 Janine Yorimoto Boldt, Colonial Virginia Portraits

Mar 30 | 01:01:20

298 Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Origins of American Manufacturing

Mar 16 | 01:00:39

297 Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830

Mar 02 | 00:56:24

296 Serena Zabin, The Boston Massacre: A Family History

Feb 16 | 01:02:52

295 Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum

Feb 02 | 00:56:13

294 Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution

Jan 19 | 01:05:44

293 Christine Walker, Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholding in Jamaica

Jan 05 | 00:56:59

292 Glenn Adamson, Craft in Early America

Dec 18 | 00:08:17

Bonus: The Plimoth Patuxet and Tomaquag Museums

Dec 15 | 00:55:25

291 The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and Beyond

Dec 08 | 00:46:53

290 The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620

Nov 24 | 01:03:07

289 Marcus Nevius, Maroonage in the Great Dismal Swamp

Nov 10 | 01:03:38

288 Tyson Reeder, Smugglers & Patriots in the 18th-Century Atlantic

Nov 06 | 00:03:37

Our History Has Always Been Spoken: Trailer for Massachusetts, 1620 Series

Oct 30 | 00:18:22

Bonus. Listener Q&A: The Early History of the United States Congress

Oct 27 | 01:01:56

287 Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections & the Electoral College

Oct 20 | 00:56:36

286 Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty

Oct 13 | 01:10:11

285 Elections in Early America: Elections & Voting in the Early American Republic

Oct 06 | 00:51:43

284 Elections in Early America: Democracy & Voting in British North America

Sep 22 | 00:10:38

Bonus: A Brief History of the United States Supreme Court

Sep 22 | 01:02:44

283 Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Acadie 300

Sep 08 | 01:00:22

282 Vincent Brown, Tacky's Revolt

Aug 25 | 00:53:24

281 Caitlin Rosenthal, The Business of Slavery

Aug 11 | 01:02:30

280 Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming

Jul 28 | 01:12:40

279 Lindsay Chervinsky, The Cabinet: Creation of an American Institution

Jul 14 | 00:54:31

278 Sarah Pearsall, Polygamy: An Early American History

Jun 30 | 01:12:06

277 Whose Fourth of July?

Jun 26 | 00:16:01

Bonus Listener Q & A: Young Benjamin Franklin

Jun 16 | 01:05:30

276 Stephen Fried, Benjamin Rush: Founding Father

Jun 02 | 00:25:18

275 Ingrid Tague, Pets in Early America

May 19 | 01:09:12

274 Alan Gallay, Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire

May 05 | 01:03:38

273 Victoria Johnson, David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic

Apr 21 | 00:11:07

272 Origins of the 11th Amendment

Apr 14 | 00:46:16

286 Vast Early America Series: The Oregon Trail

Apr 07 | 00:44:45

285 Vast Early America Series: Age of American Revolutions

Mar 31 | 00:55:16

284 Vast Early America Series: A History of Early Detroit

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