In Episode 401, we’ll be exploring the Tea Crisis and how it led to the non-importation/non-exportation movement of 1774-1776. Our guest historian, James Fichter, references the work of Mary Beth Norton and her “The Seventh Tea Ship” article from The William and Mary Quarterly. In this BFW Revisited episode, we’ll travel back to December 2016, when we spoke with Mary Beth Norton about her article and the Tea Crisis of 1773. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/112 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation   Complementary Episodes Episode 135: Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy Episode 160: The Politics of Tea Episode 228: The Boston Massacre Episode 229: The Townshend Moment Episode 337: Early America's Trade with China   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

How do historians define Ben Franklin’s “world?” What historical event, person, or place in the era of Ben Franklin do they wish you knew about? In celebration of the 400th episode of Ben Franklin’s World, we posed these questions to more than 20 scholars. What do they think? Join the celebration and discover more about the world Ben Franklin lived in. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/400 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of the Genealogy Episode 285: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic Episode 300: Vast Early America Episode 389: Indigenous Justice in Early America Episode 393: Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

In our last episode, Episode 399, we discussed Denmark Vesey’s revolt and the way biblical texts and scripture enabled Vesey to organize what would have been the largest slave revolt in United States history if the revolt had not been thwarted before Vesey could put it into action. Early American history is filled with revolts against enslavers that were thwarted and never made it past the planning stage. But, one uprising that did move beyond planning and into action was the Southampton Rebellion or Nat Turner’s Revolt in August 1831. In this BFW Revisited episode, Episode 133, which was released in May 2017, we met with Patrick Breen, an Associate Professor of History at Providence College. Patrick joined us to investigate Nat Turner’s Revolt with details from his book The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/133 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 016: The Internal Enemy Episode 083: Slavery in Colonial Boston Episode 091: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America Episode 124: Making the Haitian Revolution Episode 125: Death, Suicide, and Slavery in British North America Episode 336: Suviving the Southampton Rebellion Episode 399: Denmark Vesey's Revolt   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Denmark Vesey’s failed revolt in 1822 could have been the largest insurrection of enslaved people against their enslavers in United States history. Not only was Vesey’s plan large in scale, but Charleston officials arrested well over one hundred rumored participants. Jeremy Schipper, a Professor in the departments for the Study or Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of Denmark Vesey’s Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Scripture and Slavery on Trial, joins us to investigate Vesey’s planned rebellion and the different ways Vesey used the Bible and biblical texts to justify his revolt and the violence it would have wrought. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/399 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists Complementary Episodes Episode 052: Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy Episode 124: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America Episode 133: Nat Turner’s Rebellion Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions Episode 190: Origins of the American Middle Class Episode 226: Making the State of South Carolina Episode 384: Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood Episode 390: Objects of Revolution Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

This week is Thanksgiving week in the United States. On Thursday, most of us will sit down with friends, family, and other loved ones and share a large meal where we give thanks for whatever we’re grateful for over the last year. In elementary school, we are taught to associate this holiday and its rituals with the religious separatists, or pilgrims, who migrated from England to what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. We are taught that at the end of the fall harvest, the separatists sat down with their Indigenous neighbors to share in the bounty that the Wampanoag people helped them grow by teaching the separatists how to sow and cultivate crops like corn in the coastal soils of New England. In this BFW Revisited episode, Episode 291, we investigate the arrival of the Mayflower and the Indigenous world the separatists arrived in. We’ll also explore how the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples interacted with their new European neighbors and how they contended with the English people who were determined to settle on their lands. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/291 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 104: The Saltwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonsits on the Northeastern Coast Episode 132: Indigenous London Episode 184: Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America Episode 220: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery Episode 235: A 17th-Century Native American Life Episode 267: Snowshoe Country Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt 1 Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

After the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), Great Britain instituted the Proclamation Line of 1763. The Line sought to create a lasting peace in British North America by limiting British colonial settlement east of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1768, colonists and British Indian agents negotiated the Treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labour to extend the boundary line further west. In 1774, the Shawnee-Dunmore War broke out as colonists attempted to push further west. Fallon Burner and Russell Reed, two of the three co-managers of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s American Indian Initiative, join us to investigate the Shawnee-Dunmore War and what this war can show us about Indigenous life, warfare, and sovereignty during the mid-to-late eighteenth century. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/398 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg American Indian Initiative Complementary Episodes Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet Episode 353: Women and the Making of Catawba Identity Episode 367: Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 368: Brafferton Indian School, Part 2 Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

It’s November, the time of year when we Americans get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. Although the federal holiday we know and honor today came about in 1863, Thanksgiving is a day that many modern-day Americans associate with the Indigenous peoples and religious separatists of Plymouth, Massachusetts. What do we know about the Indigenous people the so-called Pilgrims interacted with? This month, in between our new episodes about Indigenous history, the Ben Franklin’s World Revisited series explores the World of the Wampanoag. The World of the Wampanoag originally posted as a two-episode series in December 2020. This first episode will introduce you to the life, societies, and cultures of the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples the Plymouth colonists interacted with before the colonists’ arrival in December 1620. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/290 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Mass Humanities National Endowment for the Humanities Omohundro Institute Complementary Episodes Episode 104: The Salwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeastern Coast Episode 132: Indigenous London Episode 184: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America Episode 220: New England indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery Episode 235: A 17th-Century Native American Life Episode 267: Snowshoe Country Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 2   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The North American continent is approximately 160 million years old, yet in the United States, we tend to focus on what amounts to 3300 millionths of that history, which is the period between 1492 to the present. Kathleen DuVal, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, asks us to widen our view of early North American history to at least 1,000 years. Using details from her book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, DuVal shows us that long before European colonists and enslaved Africans arrived on North American shores, Indigenous Americans built vibrant cities and civilizations, and adapted to a changing world and climate. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/397 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Ben Franklin’s World Listener Community Colonial Williamsburg Native American Heritage Month Programs Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Independence Lost Episode 189: The Little Ice Age Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua Episode 286: Native Sovereignty Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Episode 362: Treaties Between the U.S. & Native Nations Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Ben Franklin’s World Revisited is a series where Liz surfaces one of our earlier episodes that complements and adds additional perspectives to the histories we discuss in our new episodes. Given the conversation we just had in Episode 396 about Carpenters’ Hall & the First Continental Congress, Liz would like to offer you an episode she produced in 2017 as part of our Doing History: To the Revolution series. Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution, furthers the discussion we just had about the First Continental Congress by helping us investigate how the American revolutionaries formed governments as imperial rule in British North American disintegrated and the American Revolution turned to war.

“Monday, September 5, 1774. A number of the Delegates chosen and appointed by the Several Colonies and Provinces in North America to meet and hold a Congress at Philadelphia assembled at the Carpenters’ Hall.”  That statement begins the Journals of the Continental Congress, the official meeting minutes of the First and Second Continental Congresses. Between September 1774 and March 1789, the congressmen filled 34-printed volumes worth of entries. Join Michael Norris, the Executive Director of the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, for a tour of Carpenters’ Hall, the meeting place of the First Continental Congress, and discover more about this historic building and the historic work of the First Continental Congress. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/396 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Ben Franklin's World Listener Community Complementary Episodes Episode 001: The Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin Episode 229: The Townshend Moment Episode 292: Craft in Early America Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we think about the American Revolution, textbooks, documentaries, and historic sites have trained most of us to think about American triumphs in battles or events when American revolutionaries overcame moments of despair, when all seemed lost, to triumph in the cause of American independence. Benjamin L. Carp will help us look at the American Revolution differently. The Daniel M. Lyons Chair of History at Brooklyn College, Ben will use details from his book The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution to help us consider the strategic military importance of New York City and its capture by the British Army and how both armies used fire as an instrument of war. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/395 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Ben Franklin's World Facebook Community Complementary Episodes Episode 113: Building the Empire State Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 185: Early New York City and Its Culture Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

What did Thomas Jefferson and the members of the Second Continental Congress mean when they wrote “the pursuit of Happiness” into the United States Declaration of Independence? And why is pursuing happiness so important that Jefferson and his fellow Founding Fathers included it in the Declaration of Independence’s most powerful statement of the new United States’ ideals?  Jeffrey Rosen, the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center and a law professor at George Washington University Law School, joins us to investigate and answer these questions with details from his book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/394 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 061: The Retirement of George Washington Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson Episode 145: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution Episode 150: Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton Episode 231: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin Episode 307: History and the American Revolution Episode 377: Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

The Constitution is a document of “We the People.” The ways Americans have supported, debated, and interpreted the Constitution since 1787 have played a vital role in the rise of politics and political parties within the United States. What kind of political culture did the United States Constitution and its interpretations help establish? What were the expectations, practices, and cultural norms early Americans had to follow when debating the Constitution or its interpretation in the early American republic?  In honor of Consitution Day on September 17, the day the United States commemorates the signing of the United States Constitution, we speak with two historians–Jonathan Gienapp, an Associate Professor of History and Associate Professor of Law at Stanford University and Rachel Shelden, Director of the Richard Civil War Era Center and an Associate Professor of History at Penn State University– about early American political culture and political civility in the early American republic.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/393 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Constitution Day Resources Complementary Episodes Episode 078: Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War  Episode 160: The Politics of Tea Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1 Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2 Episode 285: Election & Voting in the Early Republic    Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

What does history have to tell us about how we, as Americans, came to define people by their race; the visual ways we have grouped people together based on their skin color, facial features, hair texture, and ancestry? As you might imagine, history has a LOT to tell us about this question! So today, we’re going to explore one aspect of the answer to this question by focusing on some of the ways religion shaped European and early American ideas about race and racial groupings. Kathryn Gin Lum is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. She’s also the author of Heathen: Religion and Race in American History. Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/392 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Constitution Day Resources Complementary Episodes Episode 047: Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic Episode 109: The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden Episode 139: Indian Enslavement in the Americas Episode 311: Religion and the American Revolution Episode 334: Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 376: Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Do you ever wonder how governments met and worked in colonial British America?  Williamsburg, Virginia, served as the capital of Virginia between 1699 and 1779. During its 80 years of service as capital, Williamsburg represented the center of British authority in Virginia. This meant the Royal Governor of the colony lived in Williamsburg. Indigenous, colonial, and other delegations came to Williamsburg to negotiate treaties and trade with Virginia. And, the colonial government met in Williamsburg’s capitol building to pass laws, listen to court cases, and debate ideas. Katie Schinabeck, a historian of historical memory and the American Revolution and the Digital Projects Researcher at Colonial Williamsburg’s Innovation Studios, takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Williamsburg’s colonial capitol building to explore how the government of colonial Virginia worked and operated. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/391 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Civics Resources Complementary Episodes Episode 084: How Historians Read Historical Sources Episode 099: Pirates & Pirate Nests in the British Atlantic World Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights Episode 315: History and American Democracy Episode 328: Warren Milteer, Free People of Color in Early America Episode 389: Nicole Eustace, Indigenous Justice in Early America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we think about the American Revolution, the French Revolution, or the Haitian Revolution, we think about the ideals of freedom and equality. These ideals were embedded and discussed in all of these revolutions. What we don’t always think about when we think about these revolutions are the objects that inspired, came out of, and were circulated as they took place.  Ashli White, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Miami in Florida, joins us to investigate the “revolutionary things” that were created and circulated during the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions with details from her book Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/390 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment Complementary Episodes Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America Episode 164: The American Revolution in the Age of Revolutions Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions Episode 177, Martin Brückner, The Social Life of Maps in America Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 319: Cuba: An Early American History   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Early North America was a place that contained hundreds of distinct Indigenous nations and peoples who spoke at least 2,000 distinct languages. In the early sixteenth century, Spain began to establish colonies on mainland North America, and they were followed by the French, Dutch, and English, and the forced migration of enslaved Africans who represented at least 45 different ethnic and cultural groups. With such diversity, Early North America was full of cross-cultural encounters. What did it look like when people of different ethnicities, races, and cultures interacted with one another? How were the people involved in cross-cultural encounters able to understand and overcome their differences? Nicole Eustace is an award-winning historian at New York University. Using details from her Pulitzer-prize-winning book, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America, Nicole will take us through one cross-cultural encounter in 1722 between the Haudenosaunee and Susquehannock peoples and English colonists in Pennsylvania. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/389 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment Complementary Episodes Episode 080: Liberty’s Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America  Episode 171: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America Episode 220: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery  Episode 264: Treaty of Canandaigua Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America Episode 362: Treaties Between the US and American Indian Nations  Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Happy Fourth of July!  We’ve created special episodes to commemorate, celebrate, and remember the Fourth of July for years. Many of our episodes have focused on the Declaration of Independence, how and why it was created, the ideas behind it, and its sacred words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This year, we examine a different aspect of the Declaration of Independence: the man behind the boldest signature on the document: John Hancock. Brooke Barbier is a public historian and holds a Ph.D. in American History from Boston College. She’s also the author of the first biography in many years about John Hancock, it’s called King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/388 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg  Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment  Complementary Episodes Episode 018: Our Declaration Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we think of California, we might think about sunny weather, Hollywood, beaches, wine country, and perhaps the Gold Rush. What we don’t usually think about when we think about California is the state’s long history of slavery. Jean Pfaelzer, a Californian and a Professor Emerita of English, Asian Studies, and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware, joins us to lead us through some of California’s long 250-year history of slavery with details from her book, California: A Slave State.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/387 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation American Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-Enactment Complementary Episodes Episode 014: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 Episode 067: An Environmental History of Early California and Hawaii  Episode 115: The Early American History of Texas Episode 139: The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas Episode 233: A History of Russian America  Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade Episode 371: An Archive of Indigenous Slavery  Episode 384: Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

In this special Juneteenth episode, as we honor the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, we delve into the work of those working to preserve slave dwellings across the United States, safeguarding the essential stories these structures embody. In our conversation, Joseph McGill, the Executive Director and Founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, joins us to share why former slave dwellings are vital to our nation's history and what they reveal about the lives of those who once lived in them. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/386 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 075: How Archives Work Episode 079: What is a Historic Source? Episode 089: Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts Episode 378: Everyday Black Living in Early America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The United States Constitution of 1787 gave many Americans pause about the powers the new federal government could exercise and how the government's leadership would rest with one person, the president. The fact that George Washington would likely serve as the new nation’s first president calmed many Americans’ fears that the new nation was creating an opportunity for a hereditary monarch. Washington had proven his commitment to a democratic form of government when he gave up his army command peacefully and voluntarily. He had proven he was someone Americans could trust. Plus, George Washington had no biological heirs–no sons–to whom he might pass on the presidency. But while George Washington had no biological heirs, he did have heirs. Cassandra A. Good, an Associate Professor of History at Marymount University and author of First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America, joins us to explore Washington’s heirs and the lives they lived. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/385 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 027: A History of Stepfamilies in Early America Episode 033: George Washington and His Library  Episode 061: George Washinton in Retirement  Episode 074: Martha Washington  Episode 137: The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave Episode 183: George Washinton’s Mount Vernon  Episode 222: The Early History of Washington, D.C.  Episode 265: An Early History of the White House   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Article IV, Section 3 of the United States Constitution establishes guidelines by which the United States Congress can admit new states to the American Union. It clearly states that “no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State…without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.” Five states have been formed from pre-existing states: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maine. How did the process of forming a state from a pre-existing state work? Why would territories within a state want to declare their independence from their home state? Joshua Smith, the interim director of the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York, and author of the book Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812, leads us on an exploration of Maine’s journey to statehood. Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/384 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 030: Northern New England’s Religious Geography Episode 057: Money and the American State Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man Episode 103, James Monroe and & His Estate Highland Episode 134: Pulpit and Nation Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

If you will recall from Episode 331, the Williamsburg Bray School is the oldest existing structure in the United States that we know was used to educate African and African American children. As the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation prepares the Bray School for you to visit and see, we’re having many conversations about the history of the school, its scholars, and early Black American History in general. During one of these conversations, the work of Kevin Dawson came up. Kevin is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Merced and author of the book, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/383 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 104: The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast Episode 241: Pearls and the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 250: Virginia, 1619 Episode 277: Who's Fourth of July? Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School Episode 347: African and African American Music Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

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?  Friederike Baer, an Associate Professor of History at Penn State Abbington College, joins us to explore the lives and wartime experiences of the 30,000 German soldiers the British Crown hired and dispatched to North America during the American War for Independence. Frederike is the author of the award-winning book Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/382 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 046: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It  Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence  Episode 081: After Yorktown Episode 144: The Common Cause Episode 147: British Soldiers, American War  Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America Episode 375: Misinformation Nation Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The vast and varied landscapes of Texas loom large in our American imaginations. As does Texas culture with its BBQ, cowboys, and larger-than-life personality. But before Texas was a place that embraced ranching, space flight, and country music, Texas was a place with rich and vibrant Indigenous cultures and traditions and with Spanish and Mexican cultures and traditions. Martha Menchaca, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, is a scholar of Texas history and United States-Mexican culture. She joins us to explore the Spanish and Mexican origins of Texas with details from her book, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/381 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas Episode 178, Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America Episode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 334, Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Episode 358: Charles Tingley, St Augustine and Early Florida Episode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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. Cynthia A. Kierner 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:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation John D. Rockefeller Jr., Library The Virginia Gazette Complementary Episodes Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America Episode 325: Woody Holton, Everyday People of the American Revolution Episode 330: Brad Jones, Loyalism in the British Atlantic World Episode 356: Paul Peucker, The Moravian Church in North America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Women make up eight out of every ten healthcare workers in the United States. Yet they lag behind men when it comes to working in the roles of medical doctors and surgeons. Why has healthcare become a professional field dominated by women, and yet women represent a minority of physicians and doctors who serve at the top of the healthcare field? Susan H. Brandt, a historian and lecturer at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, seeks to find answers to these questions. In doing so, she takes us into the rich history of women healers with details from her book, Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/379 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 003: Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 005: Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and Health Episode 116: Disease & the Seven Years’ War Episode 174: Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic Episode 263: The Medical Imagination Episode 273: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic Episode 276: Benjamin Rush: Founding Father Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we study the history of Black Americans, especially in the early American period, we tend to focus on slavery and the slave trades. But focusing solely on slavery can hinder our ability to see that, like all early Americans, Black Americans were multi-dimensional people who led complicated lives and lived a full range of experiences that were worth living and talking about. Tara Bynum, an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America, joins us to explore the lives of four early Black American writers: Phillis Wheatley, John Marrant, James Albert Unkawsaw Groniosaw, and David Walker. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/378 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation BFW Listener Survey  Complementary Episodes Episode 025: Inventing George Whitefield  Episode 083: Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution Episode 328: Free People of Color in Early America Episode 360: Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

2023 marked the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Phillis Wheatley's published book of poetry in the British American colonies. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African woman who, as a teenager, became the first published African author of a book of poetry written in English.  Ade Solanke, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, has written two plays about Phillis 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: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/377 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Exclusive BFW Listener Discount NordVPN BFW Listener Survey  Complementary Episodes Episode 008: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America Episode 086: Ben Franklin in London Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 132: Indigenous London Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution Episode 170: New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Colonial America was born in a world of religious alliances and rivalries. Missionary efforts in the colonial Americas allow us to see how some of these religious alliances and rivalries played out. Spain, and later France, sent Catholic priests and friars to North and South America, and the Caribbean, purportedly to save the souls of Indigenous Americans by converting them to Catholicism. We also know that Protestants did similar work to help counteract this Catholic work in the Americas. Kirsten Silva Gruesz, a Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, joins us to explore the life and work of Cotton Mather, a Boston Puritan minister who actively sought to counteract the work of Catholic conversion, with details from her book Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons: A Story of Language, Race, and Belonging in the Early Americas. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/376 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Exclusive Listener Deal NordVPN Ben Franklin's World Survey Complementary Episodes Episode 047: Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England Episode 196: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South Episode 242: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1 Episode 318: Ste Genevieve National Historic Park Episode 334: Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Episode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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? Jordan E. Taylor joins us to find answers to these questions. Jordan is a historian who studies the history of media and the ways early Americans created, spread, and circulated news. He is also the author of the book Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/375 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 26th Annual Wood in the Eighteenth Century Conference Complementary Episodes Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American Revolution Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin Episode 227: Copyright & Fair Use in Early America Episode 243:  Revolutionary Print Networks Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

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. Stephen Kling, Jr., is the author and co-author of several books and articles about the American Revolution in the West. His latest book, The American Revolutionary War in the West, has served as the basis for a museum exhibit at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum in St. Peters, Missouri. Stephen joins us as our expert guide on our expedition through the Revolution’s Western Theater. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/374 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg  Complementary Episodes Episode 014: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 Episode 037: Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution Episode 041: Canada & the American Revolution Episode 051: A History of Early Detroit Episode 081: After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence Episode 102: George Rogers Clark & the Fight for the Illinois Country Episode 318: Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park Episode 372: A History of the Myaamia Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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. Adrian Weimer, a professor of history at Providence College, has been researching the Gaspee Affair and what it can tell us about the constitutional balance between the British Empire and its colonies. She leads us on an investigation of the Gaspee Affair. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/373 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773 Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American Revolution Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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 John Bickers join us to investigate the history and culture of one of these distinct Indigenous tribes: the Myaamia. At the time of this recording, Diane Hunter was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. She has since retired from that position. John Bickers is an Assistant Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Both Diane and John are citizens of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and experts in Myaamia history and culture. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/372 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and Beyond Episode 297: Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830 Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Episode 362: David W. Penney, Treaties Between the US & American Indian Nations Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 368: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 2: Legacies Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Long before European arrival in the Americas, Indigenous people and nations practiced enslavement. Their version of enslavement looked different from the version Christopher Columbus and his fellow Europeans practiced, but Indigenous slavery also shared many similarities with the Euro-American practice of African Chattel Slavery. While there is no way to measure the exact impact of slavery upon the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, we do know the practice involved many millions of Indigenous people who were captured, bound, and sold as enslaved people. Estevan Rael-Gálvez, Executive Director of Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery, joins us to discuss the digital project Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/371 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists  The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg   Complementary Episodes Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery Episode 184: David J. Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violence Transformation of Native America Episode 197: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and Origins of Slavery Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 368: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 2: Legacies   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Happy Halloween! In honor of the 31st of October and All Hallows Eve, we investigate a historical incident of witches and witchcraft in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651. Malcolm Gaskill, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and one of the leading experts in the history of witchcraft, joins us to discuss details from his new book, The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/370 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial WIlliamsburg Email Lists "I made this": Black Artists & Artisans Conference, November 10-11, 2023 Complementary Episodes Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American Episode 053: Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft Episode 192: Brian Regal, The Secret History of the New Jersey Devil Episode 225: Elaine Forman Crane, The Poison Plot: Adultery & Murder in Colonial Newport Episode 341: Mairi Cowan, Possession and Exorcism in New France Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Establishing colonies in North America took an astonishing amount of work. Colonists had to clear trees, eventually remove stumps from newly cleared fields, plant crops to eat and sell, weed and tend those crops, and then they had to harvest crops, and get the crops they intended to sell to the nearest market town, and that was just some of the work involved to establish colonial farms. Colonists did not often perform this work on their own. They enlisted the help of children and neighbors, purchased enslaved people, and used animals. Undra Jeter is the Bill and Jean Lane Director of Coach and Livestock at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He joins us to explore the animals English and British colonists brought with them to North America and used to build, run, and sustain their colonial farms and cities. Animals provided many benefits to early Americans, so Undra also shares information about the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s efforts to bring back the population numbers of some of these historic animal breeds through its rare breeds program. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/369 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “I made this”: Black Artists & Artisans Conference, November 10-11, 2023  Factor Meals, Save 50 percent by using benfranklin50 Complementary Episodes Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii Episode 168: Andrea Smalley, Wild By Nature: Colonists and Animals in North America Episode 187: Kenneth Cohen, Sport in Early America Episode 234: Richard Bushman, Farms & Farm Families in Early America Episode 275: Ingrid Tague, Pets in Early America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/368 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The American Indian Initiative at Colonial Williamsburg  William & Mary, Brafferton Initiative William & Mary October 28th Lecture: Ned Blackhawk, “The Indigenous Origins of the American Revolution” Complementary Episodes Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and Beyond Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet Episode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities Episode 343: Music and Song in Native North America Episode 353: Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba Identity Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1   Series Music WarPaint Singers WarPaint Singers on YouTube  Blue Dot Sessions Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

In 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II of England granted a royal charter for two institutions of higher education in the Colony of Virginia. The first institution was the College of William & Mary. The second institution was the Indian School at William & Mary, known from 1723 to the present as the Brafferton Indian School. The history of the Brafferton Indian School is a story of power, trade, land, and culture. 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: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/367 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The American Indian Initiative at Colonial Williamsburg William & Mary, Brafferton Initiative William & Mary October 28th Lecture: Ned Blackhawk, “The Indigenous Origins of the American Revolution” Complementary Episodes Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeastern Coast Episode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London Episode 171: Jessica Stern, Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and Beyond Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet Episode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities Episode 353: Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba Identity   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

On September 17, 1787, the members of the Constitutional Convention concluded their work by signing the final draft of their new proposed government. The document they signed was the United States Constitution, which is why the United States marks Constitution Day each year on September 17. In honor of Constitution Day, we explore the life of a Founder who played a large role in the creation and shaping of the United States Constitution: James Wilson. Michael H. Taylor, Professor of United States History and Political Science at Northeast Community College and author of James Wilson: The Anxious Founder, joins us to investigate the life of James Wilson, who stands as one of the United States’ overlooked founders.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/366 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Factor Meals Save 50 percent by using code benfranklin50   Complementary Episodes Episode 055: Robb Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten Founder Episode 094: Cassandra Good, Founding Friendships Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution Episode 212: Researching Biography Episode 258: Jane Calvert, “John Dickinson Life, Religion, & Politics” Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

2020 commemorated the 300th anniversary of French presence on Prince Edward Island. Like much of North America, the Canadian Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island were highly contested regions. In fact, the way France and Great Britain fought for presence and control of this region places the Canadian Maritimes among the most contested regions in eighteenth-century North America. Anne Marie Lane Jonah, a historian with the Parks Canada Agency, joins us to explore the history of Prince Edward Island and why Great Britain and France fought over the Canadian Maritime region. This episode originally posted as Episode 283.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/365 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans Episode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice Age Episode 232: Christopher Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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. This episode originally posted as Episode 303. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/364 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans Episode 283: Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Acadie 300  Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum Episode 298: Lindsey Shackenback Regele, Manufacturing Advantage Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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. This episode is originally posted as Episode 318.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/363 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Brooding Over Bloody Revenge save 20 percent with promo code bloody20 Complementary Episodes   Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark and the Fight for the Illinois Country Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright Episode 120: Marcia Zug, Mail Order Brides in Early America Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery Episode 308: Jessica Marie Johnson, Slavery and Freedom in French Louisiana Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter    

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has an exhibit called Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States & American Indian Nations. This exhibit allows you to see treaties the United States has made with American Indian nations and learn more about those treaties and their outcomes. David W. Penney is the Associate Director of Museum Scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement at the 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: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/362 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists Complementary Episodes Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 264: Michael Oberg, The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794  Episode 286: Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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?  Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ronald Angelo Johnson, and Kariann Akemi Yokota join us to answer these questions. All three guests are historians of the American Revolutionary Era who research the American Revolution from different perspectives. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/361 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 052: Ronald A. Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? Episode 279: Lindsay M Chervinsky, The Cabinet: Creation of an American Institution Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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.  Kyera Singleton, the Executive Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts, has spent years researching the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the Royall Plantation and the significant contributions they made to ending slavery in Massachusetts. Kyera joins us to investigate the story of slavery and freedom within the first state in the United States to legally abolish slavery. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/360 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston Episode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters, NHS  Episode 220: Margaret Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery Episode 304: Annette Gordon-Reed: On Juneteenth Episode 324: Andrea Mosterman, New Netherland and Slavery Episode 329: Mark Tabbert, Freemasonry in Early America Episode 351: Nicole Maskiell, Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

“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. Jen Manion, a Professor of History and of Sexuality and Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College and author of the book, Female Husbands: A Trans History, joins us to investigate the early American world of female husbands, people who were assigned female at birth and then transed-gender at some point in their lives to live as men. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/359 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamburg Complementary Episodes Episode 002: Cornelia King, “That So Gay” Exhibit at the Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 013: Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America Episode 080: Jen Manion, Liberty's Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America  Episode 266: Johann Neem, Education in Early America Episode 292: Craft in Early America Episode 309: Philip Reid, Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Episode 354: John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Gir’s Tale Episode 357: Eric Jay Dolin, Privateering During the American Revolution  Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

For much of the colonial period, Spain claimed almost all of North America as Spanish territory. It displayed this claim on maps and in the administrative units it created to govern this vast territory: New Spain and La Florida. Charles Tingley is a Senior Research Librarian at the St. Augustine Historical Society in St. Augustine, Florida, and an expert in the history of St. Augustine. He joins us to explore the early American history of La Florida through the lens of one of its capitals: the City of St. Augustine. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/358 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans Episode 178: Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America Episode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 319: Ada Ferrer, Cuba, An Early American History Episode 334: Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

How did the Continental Congress approach creating military forces that could go toe-to-toe with the British military during the American War for Independence? Eric Jay Dolin joins us to answer part of that question by looking at the creation of the United States’ privateer fleet. Dolin is the author of fifteen books about the maritime history of early America, including Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/357 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 153: Committees and Congresses of the American Revolution Episode 161: Smuggling in the American Revolution Episode 208: Nathaniel Philbrick, Turning Points of the American Revolution Episode 288: Tyson Reeder, Smugglers & Patriots in the 18th-Century Atlantic World Episode 309: Philip Reid, Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Episode 348: Ricardo Herrera, Valley Forge Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter