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

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

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

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

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 1

The histories of early North America and the Caribbean are intimately intertwined. The same European empires we encounter in our study of early America also appear in the Caribbean. The colonies of these respective empires often traded goods, people, and ideas between each other. Marisa Fuentes, an associate professor of history and women and gender studies at Rutgers University and author of Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, joins us to explore some of the connections mainland North America and the British Caribbean shared in their practices of slavery in urban towns. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/173   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Georgian Papers Programme Citizen Transcriber Sign Up   Complementary Episodes Episode 066: Simon Newman, How Historians Find Their Research Topics Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston Episode 084: Zara Anishanslin, How Historians Read Historical Sources Episode 161: Smuggling and the A

Intelligence gathering plays an important role in the foreign policies of many modern-day nation states, including the United States. Which raises the questions: How and when did the United States establish its foreign intelligence service?
 To answer those questions we’ll need to journey back to the American Revolution. Our guide is Kenneth Daigler, an intelligence professional with 33 years experience managing human sources and collection and the author of Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War, will facilitate our mental time travel and exploration of this topic. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/172   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Georgian Papers Programme Georgian Papers Transcriber Sign-up   Complementary Episodes Episode 065: Alexander Rose, Washington’s Spies Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the Revolution Episode 155: P

History books like to tell us that Native Americans did not fully understand British methods and ideas of trade. Is this really true? Did Native Americans only understand trade as a form of simplistic, gift exchange? Jessica Stern, a Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton and the author of The Lives in Objects: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Cultures of Labor and Exchange in the Southeast, takes us on a journey into the southeast during the early 18th century to show us how trade between Native Americans and British colonists really took place. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/171   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Hello Fresh (Promo Code: BFWorld30) The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Complementary Episodes Episode 056: Daniel J. Tortora, The Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761 Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Hoaxes, and Legends in Early America Episode 104: Andrew Lipmann, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern

New England was a place with no cash crops. It was a place where many of its earliest settlers came to live just so they could worship their Puritan faith freely. New England was also a place that became known for its strong anti-slavery sentiment during the 19th century. So how did New England also become a place that practiced slavery? Wendy Warren, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist book New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America, joins us to explore why New Englanders practiced slavery and just how far back the region’s slave past goes. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/170   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Complementary Episodes Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeaste

We remember Benjamin Franklin as an accomplished printer, scientist, and statesman. Someone who came from humble beginnings and made his own way in the world. Rarely do we remember Franklin as a man of faith. Benjamin Franklin spent more time grappling with questions of religion, faith, virtue, and morality in his writing than about any other topic. Thomas S. Kidd, a Professor of History at Baylor University and author of Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father, leads us on a detailed exploration of the religious life of Benjamin Franklin. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/169   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Complementary Episodes Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield Episode 031: Michael Hattem, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Episode 141: Drafting the Declaration

When we study the history of colonial North America, we tend to focus on European colonists and their rivalries with each other and with Native Americans. But humans weren’t the only living beings occupying North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Rivalries existed between humans and animals too. And these human-animal rivalries impacted and shaped how European colonists used and settled North American lands. Andrea Smalley, an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of Wild By Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization, joins us to explore the many ways wild animals shaped colonists’ ideas and behavior as they settled and interacted with North American lands. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/168   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Complementary Episodes Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early Califo

The French established New Orleans and the greater colony of Louisiana in 1717. By 1840, New Orleans had become the 3rd largest city in the United States. How did that happen? How did New Orleans transform from a sleepy, minor French outpost into a large and important early American city with a thriving, bustling port? Eberhard “Lo” Faber, an assistant professor of history at Loyola University, New Orleans and the author of Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America, leads us on an exploration of the early history of New Orleans. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/167   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)   Complementary Episodes Episode 017: François Furstenberg, How the United States Became French Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy Episode 103: Sara Bon-Harper: James Monroe and His Estate Highland Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright Episode 124:

The Declaration of Independence described “all men” as “created equal” when its authors knew they were not. So was the revolutionary idea of freedom dependent on slavery? In this last episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we return to the place our series began: the world of Paul Revere. We speak with Christopher Cameron, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss how Phillis Wheatley, Cesar Sarter and other black revolutionaries in Massachusetts grappled with the seeming paradox of American freedom as they fought to end slavery during the American Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/166   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution ($10 listener-only special) Doing History: To the Revolution series   Complementary Episodes Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreed

Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions took place in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. But why is it that we only seem to remember the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution? Given that the American Revolution took place before all of these other revolutions, what was its role in influencing this larger “Age of Revolutions?” Did it influence this larger period? Our exploration of what the American Revolution looked like within the larger period known as the “Age of Revolutions” continues as Janet Polasky, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call of Liberty in the Atlantic World, guides us through the period to explore answers to these questions. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/165   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The OI Reader William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special joint issue on the American Revolution $10 promotion The Great

The American Revolution took place within a larger period known today as the “Age of Revolutions.” What does the Revolution look like when we place it within this larger context? Did it really help foment the many other failed and successful revolutions that took place during the period? Over the next two episodes of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we’ll explore answers to these questions by taking a closer look at how the American Revolution fit within the larger context of the Age of Revolutions. The first part of our exploration will take us into the Caribbean. Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University and the author of four books about slavery and revolution in the French Caribbean, will serve as our guide. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/164   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution $10 listener-only sale The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimite

When we think about North America during the American Revolution, most of our brains show us images of eastern Canada and the thirteen British American colonies that waged a revolution and war for independence against Great Britain. But what about the rest of the North American continent? What about the areas that we know today as the midwest, the Great Plains, the southwest, the west, and the Pacific Northwest? What about Alaska? What went on in these areas during the American Revolution? What did the American Revolution look like through the eyes of Native American peoples? In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore what the American Revolution looked like within the larger context of North American history with historians Claudio Saunt and Alyssa Mt. Pleasant. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/163   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion The G

What did British imperial officials in London and their North America-based representatives make of the American Revolution? In this episode, we explore the American Revolution through the eyes of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, a British imperial official who served the empire in North America before, during, and after the American Revolution. James Corbett David, author of Dunmore’s New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America, serves as our guide for this exploration. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/162   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion HelloFresh (Use Promo Code BFWorld30 to save $30 off your first week)   Complementary Episodes Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 131: Frank Cogliano, Thomas Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty Episode 157: The Rev

At the end of the French and Indian, or Seven Years’ War in 1763, Great Britain claimed that smuggling was a BIG problem in its North American colonies and cracked down on the practice. But just how BIG of a problem was smuggling in North America? Why did British North Americans choose to engage in the illegal importation of goods like tea? Was it really all about cheaper prices? Fabrício Prado, Christian Koot, and Wim Klooster join us to explore the history of smuggling in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and to investigate the connections between smuggling and the American Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)   Complementary Blog Post Eugene R.H. Tesdahl, “Smuggling, the American Revolution, and the Riverine Highway”    Complementary Episodes Episod

How did early Americans go from hosting social tea parties to hosting protests like the Boston Tea Party? Tea played a central role in the economic, cultural, and political lives of early Americans. As such, tea came to serve as a powerful symbol of both early American culture and of the American Revolution. In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, Jane Merritt, Jennifer Anderson, and David Shields take us on an exploration of the politics of tea during the era of the American Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/160   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution $10 promotion The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month)   Complementary Blog Posts John Fea, "The Greenwich Tea Burning: The Political and Religious Roots of Local Revolutionary Resistance"   Complementary Episodes Episode 043: Matthew Osborn, Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic E

How much merit do the economic factors behind the cry “No Taxation Without Representation” have when we consider the origins of the American Revolution? In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we begin a 3-episode exploration of different aspects of the early American economy and what roles these economic aspects played in causing the American Revolution. Serena Zabin, a Professor of History at Carleton College and author of Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York, helps us survey the economic scene by guiding us through the British North American economy on the eve of the American Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/159   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader App The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)   Complementary Episodes Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment and Cadwallader Colden Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India and the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830 Episode 112: Mary

Between 1775 and 1783, an estimated 230,000 men served in the Continental Army with another approximately 145,000 men serving in state militia units. Who were the men who served in these military ranks? What motivated them to take up arms and join the army? And what was their military experience like? In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore the development of the Continental Army, partisan militia groups, and Native American scouting parties. Our guides for this exploration are Fred Anderson, Randy Flood, and Brooke Bauer. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/158   Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute William and Mary Quarterly OI Reader Episode 128: Alan Taylor, American Revolutions William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount   Complementary Blog Post Holly Mayer, "Following the Army"   Complementary Episodes Episode 010: Don Hagist, British Soldiers, American War Episode 048: