Ben Franklin's World Airwave Media

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 
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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
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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  
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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
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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  
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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