Ben Franklin's World

What drove George Washington to become a Patriot during the American Revolution? How did he overcome the ill-trained and inexperienced troops, inadequate pay, and supply problems that plagued the Continental Army to win the War for American Independence? Robert Middlekauff reveals the answers to these questions as we explore details from his book Washington’s Revolution: The Making of America’s First Leader.

Do you know who George Whitefield was? George Whitefield stood as one of the most visible figures in British North America between the 1740s and 1770. He was a central figure in the trans-Atlantic revivalist movement and a man whose legacy remains influential to evangelical Christians today. Historian Jessica Parr, author of Inventing George Whitefield: Race, Revivalism, and the Making of a Religious Icon, introduces us to the Reverend George Whitefield.

Bonus: Longfellow's Wayside Inn

The clothing a person wears tells you a lot about them: Whether they are rich or poor, what kind of work they do, what colors they like, and what they value. Museum professional and textiles expert Kimberly Alexander joins us to explore the world of 18th-century fashion and material culture and what objects like John Hancock's suit communicate about the past. 

Have you ever wondered what happens when four historians get together to talk about early American history? In this episode, we chat with three young and promising historians of early America: Michael Hattem, Roy Rogers, and Ken Owen. All three scholars discuss history at the Junto Blog, A Group Blog on Early American History and as regular panelists on the JuntoCast, a monthly podcast about Early American History.

Have you heard the saying that behind every great man stands a great woman? Vivian Bruce Conger, the Robert Ryan Professor in the Humanities at Ithaca College, joins us to explore the two great women that Benjamin Franklin had standing behind and beside him: his wife, Deborah Read Franklin, and his daughter, Sally Franklin Bache.

Do you know that John Hancock was a smuggler? Smuggling presented a large problem for the imperial governments of Great Britain and France during the colonial period. Eugene Tesdahl, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, joins us to discuss the early American business of smuggling and his involvement with living history as a French and Indian War-era re-enactor.

The Puritans of New England, the German Protestants of the Mid-Atlantic region, and the Catholics of Maryland all migrated to North America to worship freely, to name but a few religious groups in colonial North America. Kyle T. Bulthuis, Assistant Professor of History at Utah State University and author of Four Steeples Over the City Streets: Religion and Society in New York’s Early Republic Congregations, takes us on an exploration of early American religious life. 

Have you ever wondered where colonial Americans purchased their food? Although many colonial Americans lived in rural areas or on farms where they could grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs, graze their livestock, or hunt wild game, many others lived in early American cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Kenneth Turino, the Manager of Community Relations and Exhibitions for Historic New England, joins us to explore the colonial Boston marketplace.

Do you know who authored the Declaration of Independence? If you answered “Thomas Jefferson,” you would be wrong. Jefferson merely wrote the first draft of a document others created. In this episode, Danielle Allen, a Professor at Harvard University and author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, leads us on an exploration of the Declaration of Independence. 

In the 1790s many Americans spoke French. They understood and embraced French culture, art, and culinary traditions. Early Americans experimented with and adopted many forms of French culture as they sought to define their new identity as Americans. François Furstenberg, Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and author of When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation, joins us to explore how and why the United States spoke French during the 1790s. 

The United States claimed victory in the War of 1812, but did you know that the British nearly won the war by promising freedom to escaped slaves in Virginia and Maryland? Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor, author of The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832, reveals how Virginia’s “Internal Enemy” almost cost the United States its second war for independence.

Joyce E. Chaplin, Professor of Early American History at Harvard University and author of Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit, leads us on an exploration of the early history of around-the-world voyages and the impact those voyages had on the peoples and places of the Americas, the Pacific Islands, Asia, and Europe.

As the American Revolution and its War for Independence raged, events occurred elsewhere in North America that would have important implications for the development of the later United States. Claudio Saunt, author of West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, joins us to explore events that took place west of the American Revolution. 

We tend to view gay marriage as a cultural and legal development of the 21st century.  But did you know that some early Americans lived openly in same-sex marriages? Rachel Hope Cleves, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and author of Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, will reveal the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, women who lived openly as a married couple in Weybridge, Vermont between 1807 and 1851.