Ben Franklin's World: A Podcast About Early American History

In 1705 a group of colonists in Simsbury, Connecticut founded a copper mine, which the Connecticut General Assembly purchased and turned into a prison in 1773. How did an old copper mine function as a prison? Morgan Bengel, a Museum Assistant at the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine, a Connecticut State Historic Site, helps us investigate both the history of early American mining and the history of early American prisons by taking us on a tour of the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine in East Granby, Connecticut. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/195   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest (Listener-Only 40-Percent Discount Code 01BFW)   Complementary Episodes Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown) Episode 080: Jen Manion, Liberty’s Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 170: Wendy Warren: New England Bound: Slavery in E

As part of its mission, the National Park Service seeks to protect and preserve places saved by the American people so that all may experience the heritage of the United States. These places include those with historical significance. Supervisory Park Ranger Garrett Cloer joins us to explore the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site so we can discover more about the Siege of Boston (1775-76) and the birth of the Continental Army and the life and work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/194   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Daniel Livesay, Children of Uncertain Fortune   Complementary Episodes Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washington’s Revolution Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773 Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers Episode 158: The Revolutionaries’ Army     Helpful Show Links Be

In 1959, the Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press published Lester J. Cappon’s The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John and Abigail Adams. It was the first time that all 380 letters between Jefferson and the Adamses appeared in a single volume. Why did Lester Cappon and the Omohundro Institute undertake this great project? And how did they put together this important documentary edition? Karin Wulf, Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, takes us behind-the-scenes of The Adams-Jefferson Letters and its publication.   Links Omohundro Institute Lester J. Cappon ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters Karin Wulf Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of Adams and Jefferson Klepp and Wulf ed, The Diary of Hannah Callander Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale Charles F. Hobson, Papers of John Marshall Louis B. Wright ed., Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia Nat

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Two drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence, two diplomats who served the United States abroad in Europe, and two men who went on to serve as vice president and president of the United States. Both men left indelible marks on American society. Adams and Jefferson are two founders who captivate the attention of and greatly interest Americans today, so in honor of the 242nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 192nd anniversary of their deaths, we will explore their lives and relationship. Barbara Oberg and Sara Georgini, two historians and documentary editors, join us from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson and the Papers of John Adams Documentary Editing Projects so we can explore the lives and relationships of John and Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/193   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Discover the relationship between “Abigail and Tom” The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Compl

The Jersey Devil is a monster legend that originated in New Jersey’s early American past. How and why did this legend emerge? And, what can it tell us about New Jersey’s past? Brian Regal, an Associate Professor of History at Kean University and the co-author of The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created A Monster, takes us into New Jersey’s past by taking us through the origins of the New Jersey Devil story. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/192   Meet Ups Boston History Camp, July 7 Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common Cleveland Meet up at Shooters on the Water July 21, 4pm Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Molly Wash, American Baroque Sign up for the Ben Franklin’s World Email List    Complementary Episodes Episode 053: Emerson W. Baker: A Storm of Witchcraft Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy Episode

King Philip’s War is an event that appears over and over again in books about colonial America. So when you have an event that has been as studied as King Philip’s War has been, is there anything new that we can learn about it by re-examining it in our own time? Lisa Brooks, an Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College believes the answer to this question is “yes.” And today, she’s going to help us re-examine and re-think what we know about King Philip’s War by introducing us to new people, new ways we can look at known historical sources, and to different ways we can think about what we know about this event with details from her book Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/191   Meet Ups Boston History Camp, July 7 Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common Cleveland Meet Up: Saturday July 21 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Great Courses Plus (F

As many as 70 percent of Americans consider themselves to be members of the middle class. But if you consider income as a qualifier for membership, only about 50 percent of Americans qualify for membership. So what does it meant to be middle class and why do so many Americans want to be members of it? Jennifer Goloboy, an independent scholar based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the author of Charleston and the Emergence of Middle-Class Culture in the Revolutionary Era, helps us explore the origins of the American middle class so we can better understand what it is and why so many Americans want to be a part of it. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/190   Meet Ups Boston History Camp, July 7 Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common Cleveland Meet Up: Saturday July 21   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 Join the BF

We’re living in a period of climate change. Our Earth has been getting warmer since the mid-19th century. So how will humans adapt to and endure this period of global warming? Will they adapt to it and endure? It turns out the people of early America also lived through a period of climate change and their experiences may hold some answers for us. Sam White, an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University and author of A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter, joins us to explore the Little Ice Age and how it impacted initial European exploration and colonization of North America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/189   Meet Ups Boston History Camp Boston Meet Up: July 8, 10am Meet at the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on Boston Common Cleveland Meet Up: Saturday July 21   Episode 200 Tell Liz what would you like to know about early American history?   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Complementary Episod

The Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws enacted by the United States government in 1798. The United States passed these laws during a time of great uncertainty, a time when many Americans feared for the very survival for their nation. But why did Americans fear for the United States’ existence and why did they think four laws that limited citizenship and freedom of speech would protect and secure their young republic? Terri Halperin, an instructor at the University of Richmond and author of The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: Testing the Constitution, will help us find answers to these questions by taking us through the Alien and Sedition Acts and how they came to be. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/188   Send Liz your questions about early American history for Episode 200!   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Children of Uncertain Fortune  (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)   Complementary Episodes Episode 007: John Adams and the Adams Papers Documentary Editi

Our present-day American culture is obsessed with sports. To cite just two pieces of evidence of this, on average, more than 67,000 fans attend each National Football League game and more than 30,000 fans attend each Major League Baseball game. This is to say nothing of the millions of fans who watch these sports on television or listen to them on the radio. When did America become a place filled with sports nuts? When did the business of professional sports become a thing in the United States? Early American history has answers for us as does Kenneth Cohen, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the author of They Will Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the American Republic. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/187   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Audible.com (30-Day Free Trial and 1 Free Audiobook)     Complementary Episodes Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy Episode 136: Je

As a result of Great Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War, British North America expanded so that it stretched from the Atlantic seaboard west to the Mississippi River and from Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence south to Florida. Plus, it also included islands in the Caribbean. How exactly would Great Britain, centered on a small island over 3,000 miles away, govern this new, expanded North American empire? Max Edelson, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America Before Independence, helps us explore this question by taking us on an investigation of the Board of Trade and its General Survey of North America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/186   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute American Baroque (Use promo code 01DAH40 to save 40 percent)   Complementary Episodes Bonus: Mapping America’s War for Independence Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution Episode 152: Origins of the Ameri

Who should determine our culture and the morals our society follows? Culture, or the intellectual achievements, attitudes, and behaviors of our particular places and social groups, is all around us. It impacts how we think and act as members of families, local communities, states, and nations. Culture is important. So how do we establish culture? Who sets the unwritten social rules and ideas that we adopt and live by? Joyce Goodfriend, a professor of history at the University of Denver and author of Who Should Rule at Home? Confronting the Elite in British New York City, helps us investigate these questions by taking us through the history of early New York City and how its culture evolved between 1664 and 1776. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/185   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Listener Survey   Complementary Episodes Episode 009: Peter G. Rose, How the Dutch Brought Us Santa, Presents, and Treats Episode 020: Kyle T. Bulthuis, Four Steeples Over the City Streets Episode 104

Early North America was a place rife with violent conflict. Between the 17th and 19th centuries we see a lot of conflict between different Native American peoples, Native American peoples and colonists, colonists from one empire versus colonists from another empire, settlers from one state quarreling with settlers from another state, and in the 19th century, we also see strife between Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans. Today, we’re going to explore some of the causes of the violent conflict that took place in early America by looking specifically at Native America and the ways Native Americans used guns to shape their lives and the course of North American colonial and indigenous history. Our guide for this exploration is David J. Silverman, a professor of history at George Washington University and the author of Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/184   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute BFWorld Listener Survey   C

George Washington played three very important public roles during his lifetime. He served as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, the President of the Constitutional Convention, and as the first President of the United States. In addition to these important public roles, Washington also played a role that was very important to him. He served as a farmer and agricultural innovator. Douglas Bradburn, the CEO and President of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, joins us so we can explore the history of Washington’s storied estate and his agricultural practices. Plus, we’ll also discover all that Mount Vernon has to offer us as a historic site. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/183   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Listener Survey   Complementary Episodes Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington & His Library Episode 060: David Preston, Braddock’s Defeat Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement Episode 077: Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail Episode 10

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 Institu

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

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

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

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

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