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PODCAST

Ben Franklin"s World

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.

history

All Episodes

40:07

247 BFW Road Trip: Schoharie Crossing

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/07/16

A “little short of madness.” That is how Thomas Jefferson responded when two delegates from New York approached him with the idea to build the Erie Canal in January 1809. Jefferson’s comment did not discourage New Yorkers. On January 4, 1817, New York State began building a 363-mile long canal to link the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes and the Midwest. Janice Fontanella, site manager of Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter, New York, joins us to discuss the

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43:35

246 BFW Road Trip: Château de Ramezay

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/07/09

Did Canada almost join the American Revolution? Bruno Paul Stenson, a historian and musicologist with the Château de Ramezay historic site in Montréal, joins us to discuss how the American Revolution played out in Canada. This episode originally posted as Episode 041. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/246 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American

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01:12:18

245 Celebrating the Fourth

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/07/02

It wasn’t always fireworks on the fourth. John Adams predicted Americans would celebrate the Second of July, the day Congress voted in favor of independence, "with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other." He got the date wrong, but he was right about the festivities in commemoration of Independence Day. And yet July Fourth events have changed a great deal since 1776. How do our fireworks displays, barbecues, parades,

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01:00:52

244 Shoe Stories From Early America

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/06/25

There’s a saying that tells us we should walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. It’s a reminder we should practice empathy and try to understand people before we cast judgement. As it happens, this expression is right on the mark because it seems when we use shoes as historical objects, we can learn a LOT about people and their everyday lives and actions. Kimberly Alexander, museum specialist, lecturer at the University of New Hampshire, and author of Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian

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01:04:46

243 Revolutionary Print Networks

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/06/18

For the American Revolution to be successful, it needed ideas people could embrace and methods for spreading those ideas. It also needed ways for revolutionaries to coordinate across colonial lines. How did revolutionaries develop and spread their ideas? How did they communicate and coordinate plans of action? Joseph Adelman, an Assistant Professor of History at Framingham State University and author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789, joins us to

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51:02

242 An Early History of Delaware

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/06/11

Delaware may be the second smallest state in the United States, but it has a BIG, rich history that can tell us much about the history of early America. David Young, the Executive Director of the Delaware Historical Society, joins us to explore the early American history of Delaware from its Native American inhabitants through its emergence as the first state in the United States. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/242 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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57:25

241 Pearls and the Nature of the Spanish Empire

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/06/04

Spain became the first European power to use the peoples, resources, and lands of the Americas and Caribbean as the basis for its Atlantic Empire. How did this empire function and what wealth was Spain able to extract from these peoples and lands? Molly Warsh, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and author of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700, helps us investigate answers to these questions by showing us how Spain attempted to increase its

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45:05

240 Biography and a Biographer's Work

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/05/28

Have you ever had one of those really conversations where the person was so fascinating that you wished the conversation didn’t have to end? Flora Fraser joins us for one of those conversations. We’ll talk about biography, and in doing so, she’ll tell us what it was like to grow up as the daughter and granddaughter of two famed, British biographers and about the genre of biography and how it developed in the United Kingdom. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/240 Sponsor Links

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37:06

239 Travel and Post in Early America

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/05/21

How did the postal system work in Early America? How did people send mail across the North American colonies and the British Empire? Joseph Adelman, an Assistant Professor of History at Framingham State University and author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing, 1763-1789, joins us to further explore how the early American postal system worked and how people and mail traveled around early North America and the Atlantic World. Show

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01:11:55

238 Benedict Arnold

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/05/14

Benedict Arnold is an intriguing figure. He was both a military hero who greatly impacted and furthered the American War for Independence with his bravery on the battlefield and someone who did something unthinkable: he betrayed his country. Stephen Brumwell, an award-winning historian and the author of Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty, joins us to explore the life and deeds of Benedict Arnold and Arnold’s stunning metamorphosis from hero to traitor. Show

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54:47

237 Motherhood in Early America

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/05/07

Mother’s Day became a national holiday on May 9, 1914 to honor all of the work mothers do to raise children. But what precisely is the work that mothers do to raise children? Has the nature of mothers, motherhood, and the work mothers do changed over time? Nora Doyle, an Assistant Professor of History at Salem College in North Carolina, has combed through the historical record to find answers to these questions. Specifically, she’s sought to better understand the lived and imagined experiences of

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59:17

236 Mixed-Race Britons and the Atlantic Family

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/04/30

Who do we count as family? If a relative was born in a foreign place and one of their parents was of a different race? Would they count as family? Eighteenth-century Britons asked themselves these questions. As we might suspect, their answers varied by time and whether they lived in Great Britain, North America, or the Caribbean. Daniel Livesay, an Associate Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College in California, helps us explore the evolution of British ideas about race with details from

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01:03:18

235 A 17th-Century Native American Life

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/04/23

What does early America look like if we view it through Native American eyes? Jenny Hale Pulsipher, an Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University and author of Swindler Sachem, is a scholar who enjoys investigating the many answers to this question. And today, she introduces us to a Nipmuc Indian named John Wompas and how he experienced a critical time in early American history, the period between the 1650s and 1680s. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/235 Meet Ups &

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47:28

234 Farms & Farm Families in Early America

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/04/16

If we want to understand everyday life in early America we need to understand the everyday life of early American farms and farmers. Roughly three-quarters of Americans in British North America and the early United States considered themselves to be farmers. So how did early Americans establish farms and what were the rhythms of their daily lives? Richard Bushman, the Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, joins us to investigate farms and farm life in early America

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48:19

233 A History of Russian America

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/04/09

When we think about colonial American history we think about the colonies of the English, the Dutch, the French, and the Spanish. Rarely do we think about the colonies of the Russians. And yet Russia had colonies in North America. Gwenn Miller, an Associate Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, joins us to investigate a history of Russia’s colonies in North America with details from her book Kodiak Kreol: Communities of Empire in Early Russian America. Show

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01:02:43

232 The Acadian Diaspora

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/04/02

Before the English settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 or the Dutch settled near Albany, New York in 1615, a group of French-speaking, Catholic settlers established a settlement in Nova Scotia in 1605. By 1755, nearly 15,000 Acadians lived in Acadia. Christopher Hodson, an Associate Professor of history at Brigham Young University and the author of The Acadian Diaspora, joins us to investigate the lives of these early North American colonists and how the British government came to displace them

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01:02:26

231 The Religious Lives of the Adams Family

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/03/26

Historians use archives to create the histories we love to read, watch, and listen to. So we’re going into one archive to investigate how historians use them and to discover more about the religious lives of the Adams Family. Sara Georgini, Series Editor of The Papers of John Adams, invites us to join her inside the Massachusetts Historical Society so we can take a closer look at the historical details provided by the Adams Papers and the role these manuscripts played in helping her write her book,

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58:53

230 First Martyr of Liberty

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/03/19

Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, Patrick Carr, and Crispus Attucks. These are the five men who died as a result of the shootings on Boston’s King Street on the night of March 5, 1770. Of these five victims, evidence points to Crispus Attucks falling first, and of all the victims, Crispus Attucks is the name we can recall. Why is that? To help us answer this question and to conclude our 3-episode series on the Boston Massacre, we’re joined by Mitch Kachun, a Professor of History at

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01:00:57

229 The Townshend Moment

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/03/12

Within days of the Boston Massacre, Bostonians politicized the event. They circulated a pamphlet about “the Horrid Massacre” and published images portraying soldiers firing into a well-assembled and peaceful crowd.   But why did the Boston Massacre happen? Why did the British government feel it had little choice but to station as many 2,000 soldiers in Boston during peacetime? And what was going on within the larger British Empire that drove colonists to the point where they provoked armed soldiers

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01:03:36

228 The Boston Massacre

Ben Franklin"s World ·

2019/03/05

On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered in Boston’s King Street and confronted a a sentry and his fellow soldiers in front of the custom house. The confrontation led the soldiers to fire their muskets into the crowd, five civilians died. What happened on the night of March 5, 1770 that led the crowd to gather and the soldiers to discharge their weapons? Eric Hinderaker, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Utah and the author of Boston’s Massacre, assists our quest to

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