Ben Franklin's World

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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.

1 HR AGO

439 When the Declaration of Independence Was News

The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, but it had absolutely no plan for telling the world about it. Congress sent just one copy of the Declaration to France. It was lost at sea. Printers ran the text however they liked. And the first formal acknowledgment of American independence came not from a European court, but from a Native American chief responding to a verbal translation of the Declaration in the middle of a treaty negotiation. Historian and Declaration expert Emily Sneff joins us to explore what the Declaration of Independence looked like when it was just news — urgent, imperfect, and far beyond anyone's control. Emily’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/439 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:04:07 The Declaration as a Congressional Product00:06:28 Jefferson's humble signature00:11:10 Congress Has No Plans for Circulation00:16:22 News of the Declaration Breaks00:24:36 Pubilc Readings of the Declaration00:27:27 Ministers Spread News of the Declaration00:32:57 German-American Translation of the Declaration00:42:04 French Translation Failures00:46:42 Verbal Translations of the Declaration00:51:52 No Official Copy Sent to King George III00:58:43 The Declaration of Independence as News01:02:17 Time Warp01:07:48 Upcoming 250th Exhibitions01:11:24 ConclusionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration🎧 Episode 119: The Heart of the Declaration🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft🎧 Episode 388: John Hancock🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence🎧 Episode 431: Thomas Paine's Common Sense at 250SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 18min
14 APR · BONUS

BFW Revisited: Age of Revolutions

Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions swept across four continents. We tend to remember three of them — the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. But what about all the rest? And what connected them to each other? In this episode, we're bringing back our conversation with Janet Polasky, Presidential Professor of History Emerita at the University of New Hampshire and author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World, and Paul Mapp, Associate Professor of History at William & Mary, who helps us understand why historians are increasingly looking at the American Revolution through an international lens.Together, they reveal why the Age of Revolutions happened when it did, how the American Revolution fit within this larger Atlantic-wide moment of upheaval, and how revolutionary ideas traveled across borders through people, print, and rumor. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/165 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 428: Canal Dreamers🎧 Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Win American Independence🎧 Episode 433: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence🎧 Episode 438: The American Revolution and the Fate of the WorldSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 20min
7 APR

438 The American Revolution & the Fate of the World

What if the American Revolution didn't just create the United States, but also created Australia? Most of us learned about the Revolution as a story of thirteen North American colonies pushing back against a distant king. But this episode reveals something far wilder: a genuinely global war whose consequences rippled across every inhabited continent — reshaping empires, forcing migrations, and planting the seeds of more than a hundred declarations of independence that would follow over the next two and a half centuries. Joseph Adelman joins historian Richard Bell to explore the American Revolution as a world war. They discuss: Why the Declaration of Independence was really a Declaration of Interdependence How Hyder Ali, the Muslim ruler of Mysore in southern India, became George Washington's ally by the logic of wartime coalitions How Spain's campaign to recapture Florida tied down thousands of British troops How Britain's convict crisis, caused by losing access to Maryland and Virginia, led to the founding of Australia at Botany Bay. Rick's Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/438 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:06:28 Differences in Perception of the American Revolution00:09:00 Reframing the Declaration of Independence00:17:32 Molly Brandt and Haudenosaunee Diplomacy00:24:38 Baron von Steuben: A Mercenary's Tale00:29:15 The American Revolution: Myth vs. Reality00:35:02 The American Revolution and Florida00:43:39 The American Revolution's Impact on India00:50:24 The Connection Between the American Revolution and Australia00:56:50 Themes of the American Revolution00:59:16 The Time Warp00:62:00 Conclusion RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America🎧 Episode 238: Benedict Arnold🎧 Episode 348: Valley Forge🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 437: The Home FrontSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 11min
31 MAR · BONUS

BFW Revisited: British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777–1778

In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new nation's capital was occupied territory. But what did that actually mean for the people who lived there? Not the generals, not the Congress: ordinary Philadelphians who had to decide whether to flee or stay, share their homes with British officers, watch their fences get chopped up for firewood, and figure out which neighbors to trust when it was all over. In this episode, Aaron Sullivan, a professor of History at Rider University, George Boudreau, a public historian and Executive Director of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Museum in Germantown, PA, and historical interpreter Kalela Williams, now the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book, take us inside occupied Philadelphia. Together, they reveal how a city that was never fully committed to independence experienced nine months of British rule, and what the occupation cost everyone who lived through it: Quaker women negotiating with soldiers at their back gates, merchants whose fortunes rose on British hard currency while their neighbors went hungry, and Black Philadelphians who looked at the upheaval and asked whether it might open a door to freedom. Plus: the most extravagant party thrown in eighteenth-century America, staged while the city's almshouses overflowed. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/332RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 050: Betsy Ross & the Making of America🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tail🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 333: Life in Occupied Yorktown🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's Wife🎧 Episode 437: Civilian Life in America's Occupied CitiesSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 10min
24 MAR

437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities

The British Army is at your door. They need a room. What do you do? For thousands of civilians living in cities occupied during the American War for Independence — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, Savannah — this wasn't a hypothetical. It was a reality that upended daily life and revealed a side of the revolution we rarely talk about. Lauren Duval, author of The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupations, and the Making of American Independence, joins us to explore what the War for Independence actually looked like from inside the household. Women who negotiated quartering terms and held their ground. Men who came to blows over who controlled the parlor. Enslaved people who used the chaos of occupation to reunite families and reach British lines. The revolution didn't just happen on battlefields. It happened at kitchen tables, in back gardens, and on doorsteps.Lauren's Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:38 The Home Front of the American Revolution00:05:24 The Gensis of the Revolutionary Household00:10:49 Why Focus on Urban Port Cities00:19:46 The British Occupation's Impact on City Life00:25:55 Quartering a British Officer: The Drinker Household00:33:38. Quartering Experiences in Male-Headed Households00:39:22 Lower-Class Experiences During British Occupation00:40:55 The Impact of British Hard Currency on Urban Labor Markets00:44:21 Black Experiences During British Occupation00:51:21 The Overall American Experience of the War for Independence00:54:01. The Time Warp00:59:47 ConculsionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 050: Betsy Ross & the Making of America🎧 Episode 175: The War in Ben Franklin's House🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tail🎧 Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia🎧 Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Yorktown🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's WifeSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 5min
17 MAR · BONUS

BFW Revisited: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site

250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston: driven out by cannon that had traveled 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga. But where did the plan for those cannons take shape?In this Revisited episode, we return to our conversation with Garrett Cloer, now Program Manager for Interpretation and Visitor Experience at Saratoga National Historical Park, to explore the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts.This Georgian mansion served as George Washington's home and headquarters for nearly nine months during the Siege of Boston. In this house, Washington forged the Continental Army and plotted the moves that liberated the city. Garrett reveals the house's Loyalist origins, life inside during the siege, and how poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later transformed it into a literary landmark.A companion to Episode 436 on Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/194RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773🎧 Episode 228: The Boston Massacre🎧 Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord🎧 Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker Hill🎧 Episode 436: Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of ArtillerySUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 1min
10 MAR

436 Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery

On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, driven out by cannon hauled 300 miles through winter wilderness from a crumbling fort in upstate New York. Join Matthew Keagle, Curator at Fort Ticonderoga, as we trace the fort's dramatic history from its French origins in the Seven Years' War, its chaotic capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in May 1775, and Henry Knox's legendary expedition to move nearly 60 tons of artillery to George Washington's army. Discover the logistics, rivalries, and resourcefulness behind one of the Revolution's most remarkable feats. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/436 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:06:26 British Withdrawl from Boston00:07:55 Fort Ticonderoga's Origins00:25:05 British Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 175600:28:04 British Improvements to Fort Ticonderoga00:32:44 American Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 177500:49:06 Henry Knox's Expedition01:04:46 Cannon on Dorchester Heights01:10:36 British Evacuation of Boston01:13:43 Legacy of Knox's Noble Train of Artillery01:17:36 Visiting Fort Ticonderoga01:24:65 ConclusionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 130: Paul Revere's Ride Through History🎧 Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters, NHS🎧 Episode 238: Benedict Arnold🎧 Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord🎧 Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker HillSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 28min
3 MAR

435 Common Sense at 250: The Unfinished Work of Democracy, A Live Conversation

In January 1776, Thomas Paine told the American colonies to break free from their king. But what was supposed to come next? 250 years later, that question still doesn't have a good answer. To mark the anniversary of *Common Sense*, we traveled to Lewes, England, the town where Paine lived before he ever set foot in America, and recorded our first-ever LIVE episode inside Bull House, the building where Paine honed his ideas about citizens and their government. Joseph Adelman chairs a panel with scholars Leanne O'Boyle, Nicole Mahoney, and Jeanne Sheehan Zaino as they dig into the legacy of *Common Sense*: democracy's "day two problem," the women Paine wrote out of his own story, why "the law is king" keeps showing up on protest signs, and what a 15th-century building in a small English town can teach us about where democratic ideas actually take root. Recorded live in partnership with the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/435 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:06 What Happened After the Revolution?00:02:59 Live from the Bull House in Lewes, England00:04:49 A Template for Common Sense and Civic Life00:07:12 Thomas Paine's Legacy in Lewes, England00:10:24 Thomas Paine's Legacy in New Rochelle, New York00:16:04 Democracy's "Day Two Problem"00:22:50 Local Civic Engagement in Lewes00:27:46 Women and Common Sense00:34:54 Paine's Family Life in Lewes00:35:31 Reconstituting Government00:42:44 Violence and Change00:49:31 "No Kings" Protest and 'The Law is King'00:56:29 Thomas Paine's Legacy00:58:10 Audience Q&A01:18:20 Episode Wrap-UpRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution🎧 Episode 243: Revolutionary Print Networks🎧 Episode 287: Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections & the Electoral College🎧 Episode 431: Thomas Paine's Common Sense at 250SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1hr 24min

See All (496)

Elizabeth Covart

Host
Janet Polasky

Guest
Paul Mapp

Guest
Aaron Sullivan

Guest
George Boudreau

Guest
Kalela Williams

Guest
Lauren Duval

Guest

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.