Ben Franklin's World

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HISTORY
TWICE MONTHLY

This is a multiple award-winning podcast about early American history. It’s a show for people who love history and who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world. Each episode features conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

1 DAY AGO

BFW Revisited: World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 1

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

49 min
5 NOV

397 Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

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

1h 3m
29 OCT

BFW Revisited: Committees & Congresses of the American Revolution

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.

1h 41m
22 OCT

396 Carpenters' Hall & the First Continental Congress

“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

43 min
8 OCT

395 The Great New York Fire of 1776

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

57 min
24 SEPT

394 The Pursuit of Happiness

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

1 hr
10 SEPT

393 Politics & Political Culture in the Early American Republic

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

1h 6m
27 AUG

392 Religion and Race in Early America

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

54 min

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Elizabeth Covart

Host

This is a multiple award-winning podcast about early American history. It’s a show for people who love history and who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world. Each episode features conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.