Ben Franklin's World
Ben Franklin’s World is an award-winning 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. It is produced by Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.
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382 Hessians in the American Revolutionary War
04/16/2024
382 Hessians in the American Revolutionary War
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 “is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat [sic] the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun.” What do we know about the “Armies of foreign Mercenaries” King George III sent to his rebellious American colonies? 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 . Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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381 Texas in the Spanish Empire
04/02/2024
381 Texas in the Spanish Empire
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. , 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, . Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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380 The Tory's Wife
03/19/2024
380 The Tory's Wife
The American Revolution was a movement that divided British Americans. Americans did not universally agree on the Revolution’s ideas about governance and independence. And the movement’s 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. is a professor of history at George Mason University and the author of the book The Tory’s 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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379 Women Healers in Early America
03/05/2024
379 Women Healers in Early America
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? , 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, . Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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378 Everyday Black Living in Early America
02/20/2024
378 Everyday Black Living in Early America
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. , an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of , 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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377 Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright
02/06/2024
377 Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright
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. , an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, has written two plays about Phillis Wheatley’s life to commemorate the semiquincentennial of Wheatley’s 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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376 Cotton Mather's Spanish Lessons
01/23/2024
376 Cotton Mather's Spanish Lessons
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. , 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 . Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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375 Misinformation Nation: Fake News in Early America
01/09/2024
375 Misinformation Nation: Fake News in Early America
Over the past decade, we’ve heard a lot about “fake news” and “misinformation.” And as 2024 is an election year, it’s likely we’re 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? 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 Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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374 The American Revolutionary War in the West
12/26/2023
374 The American Revolutionary War in the West
The American Revolution and its War for Independence comprised the United States’ 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 Years’ War, reshaped and redefined Europe’s worldwide colonial landscape in Great Britain’s favor. The American Revolutionary War presented Britain’s 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 War’s Western Theater. , 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 . Stephen joins us as our expert guide on our expedition through the Revolution’s Western Theater. Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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373 The Gaspee Affair, 1772
12/12/2023
373 The Gaspee Affair, 1772
The so-called “March to the American Revolution” 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. , 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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372 A History of the Myaamia
11/28/2023
372 A History of the Myaamia
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 continent’s shores. Diane Hunter and 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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371 An Archive of Indigenous Slavery
11/14/2023
371 An Archive of Indigenous Slavery
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. , Executive Director of Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery, joins us to discuss the digital project Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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370 The Ruin of All Witches
10/31/2023
370 The Ruin of All Witches
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. , 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, . Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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369 Livestock and Animal Breeds in Early America
10/24/2023
369 Livestock and Animal Breeds in Early America
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 at the . 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 Foundation’s efforts to bring back the population numbers of some of these historic animal breeds through its rare breeds program. Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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368 Legacies of the Brafferton Indian School
10/10/2023
368 Legacies of the Brafferton Indian School
The Brafferton Indian School has a long and complicated legacy. Chartered with the College of William & Mary in 1693, the Brafferton Indian School’s 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 “kill the Indian and save the man.” 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 we’ll 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Series Music Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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367 The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1
09/26/2023
367 The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1
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 . The history of the is a story of power, trade, land, and culture. It’s an Indigenous story. It’s 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. We’ll 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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366 James Wilson & the U.S. Constitution
09/12/2023
366 James Wilson & the U.S. Constitution
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. Professor of United States History and Political Science at Northeast Community College and author of , joins us to investigate the life of James Wilson, who stands as one of the United States’ overlooked founders. Show Notes: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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365 Road Trip 2023: Early Settlement at Île Ste. Jean
08/29/2023
365 Road Trip 2023: Early Settlement at Île Ste. Jean
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 , 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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364 Road Trip 2023: La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum
08/15/2023
364 Road Trip 2023: La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum
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 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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363 Road Trip 2023: Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park
08/01/2023
363 Road Trip 2023: Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park
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 , joins us to explore the early American history of Ste. Geneviéve. This episode is originally posted as Episode 318. Show Notes: Sponsor Links save 20 percent with promo code bloody20 Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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362 Treaties Between the United States & American Indian Nations
07/18/2023
362 Treaties Between the United States & American Indian Nations
The has an exhibit called . 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. is the Associate Director of Museum Scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. He’s 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: Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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361 The Fourth of July in 2026
07/04/2023
361 The Fourth of July in 2026
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 States’ founding? , , and 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: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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360 Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts
06/20/2023
360 Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts
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 didn’t just occur on one day or at one time. And it didn’t just occur in the mid-19th century. The fight to end slavery was a long process that started during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. , the Executive Director of the 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: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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359 Trans-ing Gender in Early America
06/06/2023
359 Trans-ing Gender in Early America
“People are complicated” 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 aren’t just one thing and they don’t 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. , a Professor of History and of Sexuality and Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College and author of the book, , 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: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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358 St. Augustine & Early Florida
05/23/2023
358 St. Augustine & Early Florida
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. is a Senior Research Librarian at the 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. Show Notes: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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357, Privateering in the American Revolution
05/09/2023
357, Privateering in the American Revolution
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? joins us to answer part of that question by looking at the creation of the United States’ privateer fleet. Dolin is the author of fifteen books about the maritime history of early America, including . Show Notes: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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356 The Moravian Church in North America
04/25/2023
356 The Moravian Church in North America
In 1682, the first Assembly of Pennsylvania and the Delaware counties met in Chester, Pennsylvania, and adopted “the Great Law,” a humanitarian code that guaranteed the people of Pennsylvania liberty of conscience. “The Great Law” created an environment that not only welcomed William Penn’s fellow Quakers to Pennsylvania but also created space for the migration of other unestablished religions, such as the Lutherans, Schwenkfelders, and Moravians. , an archivist and the Director of the 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 . Show Notes: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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355 The Virginia Venture
04/11/2023
355 The Virginia Venture
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? , a Lecturer in early modern history at the University of Bristol and author of , joins us to discuss the early history of the Virginia Company and its early investors. Show Notes: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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354 The Sewing Girl's Tale
03/28/2023
354 The Sewing Girl's Tale
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. , a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of the book, , 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: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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353 Women and the Making of Catawba Identity
03/14/2023
353 Women and the Making of Catawba Identity
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? , an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and author of the book , joins us to investigate these questions and what we might learn from the Catawba. Show Notes: Join Ben Franklin's World! Sponsor Links Complementary Episodes Listen! Helpful Links acebook Group
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