Ben Franklin's World

What was it like to live through an extraordinary time? The 1740s and 1750s proved to be an extraordinary time for many ordinary New Englanders. It was a period when itinerant preachers swept through the region and asked its people to question the fundamental assumptions of their religion: What did it mean to be a Puritan? What did it mean to be a Protestant Christian? Douglas Winiarski, a Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Richmond and the author of the Bancroft prize-winning book, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England, helps us explore the religious landscape of New England during the 18th century and how New Englanders answered these powerful questions during the extraordinary period known as the Great Awakening. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/182   Listener Meet up Las Vegas Meet up: Saturday April 21, 4pm, Wyndham Grand Desert Hotel Lobby   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Listener Survey BFWorld Amazon Alexa Skill OI Reader--Bonus Content and Sample Chapters from Darkness Falls on the Land of Light   Complementary Episodes Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield Episode 073: Mark Noll, The Bible in Early America Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin   Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did early Americans choose to become patriots or loyalists during the American Revolution? How did they make the decision to either stand with or against their neighbors? Did political beliefs really drive them to support one side of the imperial conflict over the other? In this episode, we explore answers to these questions about how and why Americans chose to support the sides they did during the American Revolution, by looking at the lives of two young soldiers from Connecticut: Moses Dunbar and Nathan Hale. Taking us through the lives, politics, and decisions of these young men is Virginia DeJohn Anderson, a professor of history at the University of Colorado-Boulder and author of The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale, Moses Dunbar, and the American Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/181   Listener Meet ups Sacramento Meet up: Saturday April 14, 4pm, Firestone Public House Las Vegas Meet up: Saturday April 21, 4pm, Wyndham Grand Desert Hotel Lobby   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Listener Survey Ben Franklin’s World Amazon Alexa Skill   Complementary Episodes Bonus: J.L. Bell, The Boston Stamp Act Riots Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773 Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775 Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Origins of the American Revolution Episode 172: Kenneth Daigler, American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War   Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The legacy of Alexander Hamilton tells us that he was Thomas Jefferson’s political rival, a man who fought to secure strong powers for the national government, and the first Secretary of the Treasury. What Hamilton’s legacy doesn’t tell us is that he also fought for states rights and championed civil liberties for all Americans, even those Americans who had supported the British during the American Revolution. Kate Elizabeth Brown, an Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Huntington University in Indiana and author of Alexander Hamilton and the Development of American Law, joins us to explore more about the Alexander Hamilton we don’t know, the Hamilton who helped develop American law. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/180   Listener Meet ups Sacramento Meet up: Saturday April 14, 4pm, Firestone Public House Las Vegas Meet up: Saturday April 21, 4pm, Wyndham Grand Desert Hotel Lobby   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Listener Survey BFWorld Amazon Alexa Skill   Complementary Episodes Episode 057: Max Edling, War, Money, and the American State Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State Episode 179: George Van Cleve, The Articles of Confederation     Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Douglas Winiarski answers your questions about religion in early New England with details from his book, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England. Darkness Falls on the Land of Light is the story of how ordinary New Englanders living through extraordinary times ended up giving birth to today’s evangelical movement. Doug performed a close reading of letters, diaries, and testimonies to write this book and his outstanding scholarship in this book was recognized with a 2018 Bancroft Prize. Download the FREE OI Reader app for Bonus Content and Sample Chapters from Darkness Falls on the Land of Light   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute   Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Confederation period is one of the most neglected aspects of United States History. And yet, it’s a very important period. Between 1781 and 1789, the Confederation Congress established by the Articles of Confederation had to deal with war, economic depression, infighting between the states, trouble in the west, foreign meddling, and domestic insurrection. It’s a critical period where no one knew whether the United States would survive as an independent nation. George William Van Cleve, a researcher in law and history at the University of Seattle Law School and author of We Have Not A Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution, takes us into the Confederation period so we can discover more about the Articles of Confederation, the government it established, and the problems that government confronted. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/179 *Correction: After production we noticed that in her second question to George, Liz noted the Articles of Confederation has a history that begins in 1787. Liz misspoke. The Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation in 1777, ratified them in 1781, and they remained the active constitution of the United States until 1789, when the Constitution of 1787 went into effect on March 4, 1789.   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Georgian Papers Programme Citizen Transcriber Sign Up   Complementary Episodes Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration Episode 062: Carol Berkin, The Bill of Rights Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention Episode 119: Steven Pincus: The Heart of the Declaration Episode 141: Drafting the Declaration of Independence Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution Episode 155: Pauline Maier’s American Revolution     Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1535, Spanish holdings in the Americas proved so great that the Spanish government created the Viceroyalty of New Spain to govern all territory north of the Isthmus of Panama. The jurisdiction of New Spain included areas of upper and lower California and large areas of the American southwest and southeast, including Florida. Karoline Cook, author of Forbidden Passages: Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America, serves as our guide as we explore some of the political, cultural, and religious history of New Spain. Specifically, how Spaniards and Spanish Americans used ideas about Muslims and a group of “new Christian” converts called Moriscos to define who could and should be able to settle and help colonies North America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute HelloFresh (Promo Code BFWorld30)   Complementary Episodes Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions Episode 110: Joshua Taylor, How Genealogists Research Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of Genealogy in British North America Episode 139: Andés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americans Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution     Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that maps have social lives? Maps facilitate a lot of different social and political relationships between people and nations. And they did a lot of this work for Americans throughout the early American past. Martin Brückner, a Professor of English at the University of Delaware, joins us to discuss early American maps and early American mapmaking with details from his book The Social Life of Maps in America.
 Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/177   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Georgian Papers Programme Citizen Transcriber Sign Up  OI Reader App   Complementary Episodes Episode 015: Joyce Chaplin, Round About The Earth Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America Episode 138: Patrick Spero, Frontier Politics in Early America Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin   Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What did it mean to be a person and to also be a commodity in early America? Daina Ramey Berry, author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation, takes us behind the scenes of her research so we can explore how early Americans valued and commodified enslaved men, women, and children. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/176   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Georgian Papers Programme Citizen Transcriber Sign-up   Complementary Episodes Episode 008: Gregory O’Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade in British America, 1619-1807 Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy, Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research Episode 126: Terri Snyder, Death, Suicide, & Slavery in British North America Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge   Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just how personal was the American Revolution? What could the event and war mean for individual people and families? Daniel Mark Epstein, author of The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklin’s House, guides as as we explore what the Revolution meant for Benjamin Franklin and his family and how the Revolution caused a major rift between Franklin and his beloved son, William. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/176   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Georgian Papers Programme Citizen Transcriber Sign Up   Complementary Episodes Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache Episode 031: Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 138: Patrick Spero, Frontier Politics in Early America Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin     Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s February 2018 and doctors have declared this year’s seasonal flu epidemic as one of the worst to hit the United States in over a decade. Yet this flu epidemic is nothing compared to the yellow fever epidemics that struck the early American republic during the 1790s and early 1800s. So what happened when epidemic diseases took hold in early America? How did early Americans deal with disease and illness? Thomas Apel, author of Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Science and the Yellow Fever Controversy in the Early American Republic, has some answers for us. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/174   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Georgian Papers Programme Become a Citizen Transcriber   Complementary Episodes Episode 005: Jeanne Abrams, Revolutionary Medicine Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy Episode 116: Erica Charters, Disease & the Seven Years’ War Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America Episode 164:The American Revolution in the Haitian Revolution Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin   Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App   *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices