Ben Franklin's World

What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?Our Fourth of July series continues with an investigation of how the American War for Independence impacted those who remained on the home front. As episode 332 explored how the war impacted the lives of people who lived in urban Philadelphia, this episode investigates how the war impacted the lives of people who lived in the more rural setting of Yorktown, Virginia.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/333 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 162: Dunmore’s New World🎧 Episode 208: Nathaniel Philbrick, Turning Points of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth🎧 Episode 250: Virginia 1619🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?🎧 Episode 289: Marcus Nevius, Maroonage in the Great Dismal Swamp🎧 Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City🎧 Episode 332: Occupied Philadelphia REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?In honor of the Fourth of July, we’ll investigate answers to this question by exploring the histories of occupied Philadelphia and Yorktown, and how civilians, those left on the home front in both of those places, experienced the war and its armies.  These episodes will allow us to see how the war impacted those who remained at home. They will also allow us to better understand the messy confusion and uncertainty Americans experienced in between the big battles and events of the American Revolution. This first episode investigates everyday life in British-occupied Philadelphia.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/332 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross & The Making of America🎧 Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London🎧 Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House🎧 Episode 208: Nathaniel Philbrick, Turning Points of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?🎧 Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a town as old as Williamsburg, Virginia, which was established in 1638, it’s often the case that historic buildings with interesting pasts stand unnoticed and in plain sight.Such was the case for the building that once housed Williamsburg’s Bray School. A school founded by a group of Anglican clergymen with the express purpose of educating Black children in the ways of the Anglican faith. It was an education that included reading, possibly writing, and the Book of Common Prayer.In honor of Juneteenth, we explore the exciting rediscovery of Williamsburg’s Bray School with three scholars: Maureen Elgersman Lee, Director of the Bray School Lab at William & Mary; Ronald Hurst, Vice President of Museums, Preservation, and Historic Resources at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and Nicole Brown, a historic interpreter, American Studies graduate student, and the graduate student assistant at William & Mary’s Bray School Lab.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/331 Complementary Episodes0🎧 Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield🎧 Episode 073: Mark Noll, The Bible in Early America🎧 Episode 133: Patrick Breen, The Nat Turner Revolt 🎧 Episode 311: Katherine Carté, Religion and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 320: Ben Franklin’s London House  REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ll never know for certain how many Americans supported the American Revolution, remained loyal to the British Crown and Parliament, or tried to find a middle way as someone who was disaffected from either loyalty. But we can know about the different ideologies that drove people to support the Revolution, to remain loyal to crown and parliament, or to become disaffected from both sides. Brad Jones, Professor of History at California State University, Fresno and author of the book, Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic, joins us to investigate what loyalists believed and how loyalism was not just a loyalty or ideology adopted by British Americans living in the 13 rebellious colonies, but by Britons across the British Atlantic World.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/330 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration🎧 Episode 122: Andrew O’Shaugnessy, The Men Who Lost America🎧 Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution🎧 Episode 232: Christopher Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora🎧 Episode 238: Stephen Brumwell, Benedict Arnold🎧 Episode 283: Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Acadie 300🎧 Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail🎧 Episode 311: Katherine Carté, Religion and the American Revolution   REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is an episode you’ve been waiting for!Mark Tabbert, the Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association and the author of Almanac of American Freemasonry and A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry, joins us so we can investigate and better understand Freemasonry and its role in Early America.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/329 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washington’s Revolution🎧 Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington & His Library🎧 Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments🎧 Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History🎧 Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London🎧 Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin🎧 Episode 317: Jews in Early America REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know from our explorations of early America that not all Americans were treated equally or enjoyed the freedoms and liberties other Americans enjoyed.Warren Milteer Jr., an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the author of North Carolina’s Free People of Color and Beyond Slavery’s Shadow, joins us to explore the lives and experiences of free people of color, men and women who ranked somewhere in the middle or middle bottom of early American society.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/328 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 118: Christy Clark Pujara: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island🎧 Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition🎧 Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave🎧 Episode 289: Marcus Nevius, Maroonage and the Great Dismal Swamp🎧 Episode 312: Joshua Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade  REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we know what we know about Benjamin Franklin? We know historians, museum curators, and archivists rely on historical documents and objects to find and learn information about the past. But how does a documentary filmmaker present what they know about history through video?David Schmidt works as a senior producer at Florentine Films where he worked alongside Ken Burns to produce a 2-episode documentary about the life of Benjamin Franklin. The documentary is called Benjamin Franklin and Schmidt joins us for a behind-the-scenes tour of documentary filmmaking and to investigate some of the lesser-known details of Ben Franklin’s life.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/327 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache🎧 Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London🎧 Episode 169: Thomas Kid, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin🎧 Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House🎧 Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin🎧 Episode 320: Ben Franklin’s London House  REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy under attack, Americans have been wondering: Should our government be doing more than placing economic sanctions on Russia? Should I, as U.S. military veteran, travel to Ukraine and offer to fight in their army? What would official U.S. military involvement mean for the politics of Europe and in our age of nuclear weapons?While the situation in Ukraine is new and novel, Americans’ desire to assist other nations seeking to create or preserve their democracies and republics is not new. Maureen Connors Santelli, an Associate Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College and author of The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Fervor in the Age of Revolutions, joins us to investigate the Greek Revolution and early Americans’ reactions to it.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/327 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 017: François Furstenburg, When the United States Spoke French🎧 Episode 052: Ronald A. Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy🎧 Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America🎧 Episode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities🎧 Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do we know about the American Revolution? Why is it important that we see the Revolution as a political event, a war, a time of social and economic reform, and as a time of violence and upheaval?Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, joins us to explore and discuss answers to these questions so that we can better see and understand the American Revolution as a whole event.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/325 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 060: David Preston, Braddock’s Defeat🎧 Episode 128: Alan Taylor: American Revolutions: A Continental History🎧 Episode 144: Rob Parkinson, The Common Cause🎧 Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator🎧 Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 181: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire🎧 Episode 294: Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution 🎧 Episode 296: Serena Zabin, The Boston Massacre  REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Henry Hudson’s 1609-voyage along the river that now bears his name, Dutch traders began to visit and trade at the area they called New Netherland. In 1614, the Dutch established a trading post near present-day Albany, New York. In 1624, the Dutch West India Company built the settlement of New Amsterdam.How did the colony of New Netherland take shape? In what ways did the Dutch West India Company and private individuals use enslaved labor to develop the colony?Andrea Mosterman, an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and author of Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York, joins us to explore what life was like in New Netherland and early New York, especially for the enslaved people who did much of the work to build this Dutch, and later English, colony.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/324  Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World🎧 Episode 159: The Revolutionary Economy🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 170: Wendy Warren, Slavery in Early New England🎧 Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its Culture🎧 Episode 226: Ryan Quintana, Making the State of South Carolina🎧 Episode 242: David Young, A History of Early Delaware🎧 Episode 256: Christian Koot, Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake   REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices