Ben Franklin's World

In the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain ceded to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi River and between the southern borders of Canada and Georgia. How would the United States take advantage of its new boundaries and incorporate these lands within its governance?Answering this question presented a quandary for the young United States. The lands it sought to claim by right of treaty belonged to Indigenous peoples.Michael Witgen, a Professor of History at Columbia University and a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, joins us to investigate the story of the Anishinaabeg and Anishinaabewaki, the homelands of the Anishinaabeg people, with details from his book, Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/323 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, A History of Early Detroit🎧 Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France🎧 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: Native Sovereignty🎧 Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet 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

During the War for American Independence, the British Army attempted to create chaos and inflict economic damage to the revolutionaries’ war effort by issuing two proclamations that promised freedom to any enslaved person who ran away from their revolutionary owners. How did enslaved people make their escape to British lines? What do we know about their lives and escape experiences?Karen Cook-Bell, an Associate Professor of History at Bowie State University and author of Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the experiences of enslaved women who feld their bondage for the British Army’s promise of freedom.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge🎧 Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolitionism🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers🎧 Episode 162: Dunmore’s New World🎧 Episode 212: Researching Biography🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?🎧 Episode 312: Joshua D. 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

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”In this episode, we explore Douglass’ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?To help us investigate this question, we are joined by Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and Christopher Bonner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland.This episode originally posted as Episode 277.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/321 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration🎧 Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers🎧 Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth🎧 Episode 255: Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens 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

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, to Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Although Franklin began his life as the youngest son of a youngest son, he traveled through many parts of what is now the northeastern United States and the Province of Quebec and lived in four different cities in three different countries: Boston, Philadelphia, London, and Passy, France.In honor of Benjamin Franklin’s 316th birthday, Márcia Balisciano, the Founding Director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum in London, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s life in London using details from the largest artifact Franklin left behind: his rented rooms at 36 Craven Street.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/320 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 001: James N. Green, Library Company of Philadelphia🎧 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  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

One of the Caribbean islands that Christopher Columbus stopped at during his 1492-voyage was an alligator-shaped island that sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico in between the Yucatán and Florida peninsulas. This is, of course, is the island of Cuba.What do we know about early Cuba, the island the Spanish described as the “Key to the Indies?” What kind of relationship and exchange did early Cuba have with British North America and the early United States?Ada Ferrer, a Professor of History at New York University and author of Cuba: An American History, joins us to investigate the early history of Cuba.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions🎧 Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier🎧 Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions 🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2🎧 Episode 313: Mike Duncan, The Marquis de Lafayette  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 challenges do National Park Service interpretive rangers face when they interpret non-British colonial history? How did the relationships between Ste. Geneviéve's inhabitants and Indigenous peoples change over time? NPS Interpretive Ranger Claire Casey is back to answer more of your questions about colonial Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri and the Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318 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 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

The first Jewish colonists in North America arrived in 1654. From that moment, Jews worked to build and contribute to early American society and the birth of the United States.Gemma Birnbaum and Melanie Meyers, the Executive Director and Director of Collections and Engagement at the American Jewish Historical Society, join us to explore the history and experiences of Jews in early America and their contributions to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/317 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its culture🎧 Episode 232: Christopher Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora🎧 Episode 311: Katherine Cartè, 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

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the important port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the city’s land, peoples, and wealth– the American government also inherited the city’s Yellow Fever problem.  Kathryn Olivarius, an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University and author of Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, leads us on an exploration of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/316 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans🎧 Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early America Republic🎧 Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 1🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2 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 has enabled the American experiment in democracy to endure for nearly 250 years?What is it about early American history that captivates peoples’ attention and makes them want to support the creation of historical scholarship and the sharing of historical knowledge?David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group and a great student and supporter of history and history education, joins us to explore his patriotic philanthropy and the history of American democracy with details from his book, The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/315 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration🎧 Episode 038: Carolyn Harris, Magna Carta & Its Gifts to North America🎧 Episode 078: Rachel Shelden, Washington Brotherhood🎧 Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft🎧 Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution🎧 Episode 285: Elections and Voting in the Early Republic  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