Ben Franklin's World

Within the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States present twenty-seven grievances against King George III as they declare their reasons for why the thirteen British North American colonies sought their independence from Great Britain. Their twenty-fifth grievance declares that King George III “is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat [sic] the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun.” What do we know about the “Armies of foreign Mercenaries” King George III sent to his rebellious American colonies?  Friederike Baer, an Associate Professor of History at Penn State Abbington College, joins us to explore the lives and wartime experiences of the 30,000 German soldiers the British Crown hired and dispatched to North America during the American War for Independence. Frederike is the author of the award-winning book Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/382 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 046: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence Episode 081: After YorktownEpisode 144: The Common CauseEpisode 147: British Soldiers, American War Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American SoldiersEpisode 252: The Highland Soldier in North AmericaEpisode 375: Misinformation Nation Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The vast and varied landscapes of Texas loom large in our American imaginations. As does Texas culture with its BBQ, cowboys, and larger-than-life personality. But before Texas was a place that embraced ranching, space flight, and country music, Texas was a place with rich and vibrant Indigenous cultures and traditions and with Spanish and Mexican cultures and traditions. Martha Menchaca, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, is a scholar of Texas history and United States-Mexican culture. She joins us to explore the Spanish and Mexican origins of Texas with details from her book, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/381 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American RevolutionEpisode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of TexasEpisode 178, Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish AmericaEpisode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish EmpireEpisode 334, Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New SpainEpisode 358: Charles Tingley, St Augustine and Early FloridaEpisode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The American Revolution was a movement that divided British Americans. Americans did not universally agree on the Revolution’s ideas about governance and independence. And the movement’s War for Independence was a bloody civil war that not only pitted brother against brother and fathers against sons; it also pitted wives against husbands. Cynthia A. Kierner is a professor of history at George Mason University and the author of the book The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America. Cindy joins us to lead us through the story of Jane and William Spurgin, an everyday couple who lived in the North Carolina Backcountry during the American Revolution and who found themselves supporting different sides of the Revolution. Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationJohn D. Rockefeller Jr., Library The Virginia Gazette Complementary Episodes Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in CanadaEpisode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American LoyalistsEpisode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early AmericaEpisode 325: Woody Holton, Everyday People of the American RevolutionEpisode 330: Brad Jones, Loyalism in the British Atlantic WorldEpisode 356: Paul Peucker, The Moravian Church in North America Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Women make up eight out of every ten healthcare workers in the United States. Yet they lag behind men when it comes to working in the roles of medical doctors and surgeons. Why has healthcare become a professional field dominated by women, and yet women represent a minority of physicians and doctors who serve at the top of the healthcare field? Susan H. Brandt, a historian and lecturer at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, seeks to find answers to these questions. In doing so, she takes us into the rich history of women healers with details from her book, Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/379 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 003: Director of the Library Company of PhiladelphiaEpisode 005: Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and HealthEpisode 116: Disease & the Seven Years’ WarEpisode 174: Yellow Fever in the Early American RepublicEpisode 263: The Medical ImaginationEpisode 273: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early RepublicEpisode 276: Benjamin Rush: Founding FatherEpisode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2   Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we study the history of Black Americans, especially in the early American period, we tend to focus on slavery and the slave trades. But focusing solely on slavery can hinder our ability to see that, like all early Americans, Black Americans were multi-dimensional people who led complicated lives and lived a full range of experiences that were worth living and talking about. Tara Bynum, an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America, joins us to explore the lives of four early Black American writers: Phillis Wheatley, John Marrant, James Albert Unkawsaw Groniosaw, and David Walker. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/378 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationBFW Listener Survey  Complementary Episodes Episode 025: Inventing George Whitefield Episode 083: Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial BostonEpisode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode IslandEpisode 123: Revolutionary AllegiancesEpisode 166: Freedom and the American RevolutionEpisode 328: Free People of Color in Early AmericaEpisode 360: Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts   Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

2023 marked the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Phillis Wheatley's published book of poetry in the British American colonies. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African woman who, as a teenager, became the first published African author of a book of poetry written in English.  Ade Solanke, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, has written two plays about Phillis Wheatley’s life to commemorate the semiquincentennial of Wheatley’s literary accomplishments. She joins us to not only explore the life of Phillis Wheatley, but also how playwrights use and research history to help them create dramatic works of art. Works of art that can help us forge an emotional connection with the past. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/377 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationExclusive BFW Listener Discount NordVPNBFW Listener Survey  Complementary Episodes Episode 008: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British AmericaEpisode 086: Ben Franklin in LondonEpisode 123: Revolutionary AllegiancesEpisode 132: Indigenous LondonEpisode 166: Freedom and the American RevolutionEpisode 170: New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England   Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Colonial America was born in a world of religious alliances and rivalries. Missionary efforts in the colonial Americas allow us to see how some of these religious alliances and rivalries played out. Spain, and later France, sent Catholic priests and friars to North and South America, and the Caribbean, purportedly to save the souls of Indigenous Americans by converting them to Catholicism. We also know that Protestants did similar work to help counteract this Catholic work in the Americas. Kirsten Silva Gruesz, a Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, joins us to explore the life and work of Cotton Mather, a Boston Puritan minister who actively sought to counteract the work of Catholic conversion, with details from her book Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons: A Story of Language, Race, and Belonging in the Early Americas. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/376 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationExclusive Listener Deal NordVPNBen Franklin's World Survey Complementary Episodes Episode 047: Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American RepublicEpisode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the AmericasEpisode 170: Wendy Warren, New England Bound: Slavery in Early New EnglandEpisode 196: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American SouthEpisode 242: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish EmpireEpisode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1Episode 318: Ste Genevieve National Historic ParkEpisode 334: Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New SpainEpisode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Over the past decade, we’ve heard a lot about “fake news” and “misinformation.” And as 2024 is an election year, it’s likely we’re going to hear even more about these terms. So what is the origin of misinformation in the American press? When did Americans decide that they needed to be concerned with figuring out whether the information they heard or read was truthful or fake? Jordan E. Taylor joins us to find answers to these questions. Jordan is a historian who studies the history of media and the ways early Americans created, spread, and circulated news. He is also the author of the book Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/375 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation26th Annual Wood in the Eighteenth Century Conference Complementary Episodes Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American RevolutionEpisode 156: The Power of the Press in the American RevolutionEpisode 207: Young Benjamin FranklinEpisode 227: Copyright & Fair Use in Early AmericaEpisode 243:  Revolutionary Print Networks Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The American Revolution and its War for Independence comprised the United States’ founding movement. The War for Independence also served as the fifth major war for European empire in North America. The fourth war for European empire, the Seven Years’ War, reshaped and redefined Europe’s worldwide colonial landscape in Great Britain’s favor. The American Revolutionary War presented Britain’s European rivals with an opportunity to regain some of the territory they had lost. An opportunity we can see those rivals seizing in the Revolutionary War’s Western Theater. Stephen Kling, Jr., is the author and co-author of several books and articles about the American Revolution in the West. His latest book, The American Revolutionary War in the West, has served as the basis for a museum exhibit at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum in St. Peters, Missouri. Stephen joins us as our expert guide on our expedition through the Revolution’s Western Theater. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/374 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationColonial Williamsburg Email ListsThe Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg  Complementary Episodes Episode 014: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776Episode 037: Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American RevolutionEpisode 041: Canada & the American RevolutionEpisode 051: A History of Early DetroitEpisode 081: After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American IndependenceEpisode 102: George Rogers Clark & the Fight for the Illinois CountryEpisode 318: Ste. Genevieve National Historical ParkEpisode 372: A History of the Myaamia Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The so-called “March to the American Revolution” comprised many more events than just the Stamp Act Riots, the Boston Massacre, and the Tea Crisis. One event we often overlook played an essential and direct role in the events needed to draw the thirteen rebellious British North American colonies into a union of coordinated response. That event was the Gaspee Affair in 1772. Adrian Weimer, a professor of history at Providence College, has been researching the Gaspee Affair and what it can tell us about the constitutional balance between the British Empire and its colonies. She leads us on an investigation of the Gaspee Affair. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/373 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationThe Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode IslandEpisode 144: The Common Cause of the American RevolutionEpisode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American RevolutionEpisode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth CenturyEpisode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Early America was a diverse place. A significant part of this diversity came from the fact that there were at least 1,000 different Indigenous tribes and nations living in different areas of North America before the Spanish and other European empires arrived on the continent’s shores.  Diane Hunter and John Bickers join us to investigate the history and culture of one of these distinct Indigenous tribes: the Myaamia. At the time of this recording, Diane Hunter was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. She has since retired from that position. John Bickers is an Assistant Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Both Diane and John are citizens of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and experts in Myaamia history and culture. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/372 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationColonial Williamsburg Email ListsThe Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American ArmyEpisode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes RegionEpisode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and BeyondEpisode 297: Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of PlunderEpisode 362: David W. Penney, Treaties Between the US & American Indian NationsEpisode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1Episode 368: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 2: Legacies Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Long before European arrival in the Americas, Indigenous people and nations practiced enslavement. Their version of enslavement looked different from the version Christopher Columbus and his fellow Europeans practiced, but Indigenous slavery also shared many similarities with the Euro-American practice of African Chattel Slavery. While there is no way to measure the exact impact of slavery upon the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, we do know the practice involved many millions of Indigenous people who were captured, bound, and sold as enslaved people. Estevan Rael-Gálvez, Executive Director of Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery, joins us to discuss the digital project Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/371 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationColonial Williamsburg Email Lists The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg   Complementary Episodes Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British AmericaEpisode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other SlaveryEpisode 184: David J. Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violence Transformation of Native AmericaEpisode 197: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New FranceEpisode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and Origins of SlaveryEpisode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1Episode 368: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 2: Legacies   Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Happy Halloween! In honor of the 31st of October and All Hallows Eve, we investigate a historical incident of witches and witchcraft in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651. Malcolm Gaskill, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and one of the leading experts in the history of witchcraft, joins us to discuss details from his new book, The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/370 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationColonial WIlliamsburg Email Lists"I made this": Black Artists & Artisans Conference, November 10-11, 2023 Complementary Episodes Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became AmericanEpisode 053: Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of WitchcraftEpisode 192: Brian Regal, The Secret History of the New Jersey DevilEpisode 225: Elaine Forman Crane, The Poison Plot: Adultery & Murder in Colonial NewportEpisode 341: Mairi Cowan, Possession and Exorcism in New France Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Establishing colonies in North America took an astonishing amount of work. Colonists had to clear trees, eventually remove stumps from newly cleared fields, plant crops to eat and sell, weed and tend those crops, and then they had to harvest crops, and get the crops they intended to sell to the nearest market town, and that was just some of the work involved to establish colonial farms. Colonists did not often perform this work on their own. They enlisted the help of children and neighbors, purchased enslaved people, and used animals. Undra Jeter is the Bill and Jean Lane Director of Coach and Livestock at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He joins us to explore the animals English and British colonists brought with them to North America and used to build, run, and sustain their colonial farms and cities. Animals provided many benefits to early Americans, so Undra also shares information about the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s efforts to bring back the population numbers of some of these historic animal breeds through its rare breeds program. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/369 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation“I made this”: Black Artists & Artisans Conference, November 10-11, 2023 Factor Meals, Save 50 percent by using benfranklin50 Complementary Episodes Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & HawaiiEpisode 168: Andrea Smalley, Wild By Nature: Colonists and Animals in North AmericaEpisode 187: Kenneth Cohen, Sport in Early AmericaEpisode 234: Richard Bushman, Farms & Farm Families in Early AmericaEpisode 275: Ingrid Tague, Pets in Early America Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The Brafferton Indian School has a long and complicated legacy. Chartered with the College of William & Mary in 1693, the Brafferton Indian School’s purpose was to educate young Indigenous boys in the ways of English religion, language, and culture. The Brafferton performed this work for more than 70 years, between the arrival of its first students in 1702 and when the last documented student left the school in 1778.  This second episode in our 2-episode series about the Brafferton Indian School will focus on the legacy of the Brafferton Indian School and how it and other colonial-era Indian Schools established models for the schools the United States government and religious institutions established during the Indian Boarding School Era.  As one of the architects of these later Boarding Schools, Richard Henry Pratt, stated, the purpose of these boarding schools was to “kill the Indian and save the man.” Pratt meant that the United States government desired to assimilate and fully Americanize Indigenous children so there would be no more Native Americans.  But Indigenous peoples are resilient, and they have resisted American attempts to extinguish their cultures. So we’ll also hear from three tribal citizens in Virginia who are working in different ways to reawaken long-dormant aspects of their Indigenous cultures. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/368 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationThe American Indian Initiative at Colonial Williamsburg William & Mary, Brafferton InitiativeWilliam & Mary October 28th Lecture: Ned Blackhawk, “The Indigenous Origins of the American Revolution” Complementary Episodes Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and BeyondEpisode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the BlackfeetEpisode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American CitiesEpisode 343: Music and Song in Native North AmericaEpisode 353: Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba IdentityEpisode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1   Series Music WarPaint SingersWarPaint Singers on YouTube Blue Dot Sessions Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

In 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II of England granted a royal charter for two institutions of higher education in the Colony of Virginia. The first institution was the College of William & Mary. The second institution was the Indian School at William & Mary, known from 1723 to the present as the Brafferton Indian School. The history of the Brafferton Indian School is a story of power, trade, land, and culture. It’s an Indigenous story. It’s also a story of English, later British, colonialism. Over the next two episodes, we will investigate the Brafferton Indian School and the stories it tells about power, trade, land, culture, and colonialism in early America. We’ll also explore the legacy of the Brafferton and other colonial Indian schools by examining the connections between these schools and the creation of the Indian Boarding Schools that operated within the United States between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. In this episode, we focus on the history and origins of the Brafferton Indian School. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/367 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationThe American Indian Initiative at Colonial WilliamsburgWilliam & Mary, Brafferton InitiativeWilliam & Mary October 28th Lecture: Ned Blackhawk, “The Indigenous Origins of the American Revolution” Complementary Episodes Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeastern CoastEpisode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous LondonEpisode 171: Jessica Stern, Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North AmericaEpisode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and BeyondEpisode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the BlackfeetEpisode 314: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American CitiesEpisode 353: Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba Identity   Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

On September 17, 1787, the members of the Constitutional Convention concluded their work by signing the final draft of their new proposed government. The document they signed was the United States Constitution, which is why the United States marks Constitution Day each year on September 17. In honor of Constitution Day, we explore the life of a Founder who played a large role in the creation and shaping of the United States Constitution: James Wilson. Michael H. Taylor, Professor of United States History and Political Science at Northeast Community College and author of James Wilson: The Anxious Founder, joins us to investigate the life of James Wilson, who stands as one of the United States’ overlooked founders.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/366 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationFactor Meals Save 50 percent by using code benfranklin50  Complementary Episodes Episode 055: Robb Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten FounderEpisode 094: Cassandra Good, Founding FriendshipsEpisode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s HandEpisode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States ConstitutionEpisode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American RevolutionEpisode 212: Researching BiographyEpisode 258: Jane Calvert, “John Dickinson Life, Religion, & Politics” Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

2020 commemorated the 300th anniversary of French presence on Prince Edward Island. Like much of North America, the Canadian Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island were highly contested regions. In fact, the way France and Great Britain fought for presence and control of this region places the Canadian Maritimes among the most contested regions in eighteenth-century North America. Anne Marie Lane Jonah, a historian with the Parks Canada Agency, joins us to explore the history of Prince Edward Island and why Great Britain and France fought over the Canadian Maritime region. This episode originally posted as Episode 283.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/365 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New FranceEpisode 104: Andrew Lipman, Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern CoastEpisode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther WheelwrightEpisode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New OrleansEpisode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice AgeEpisode 232: Christopher Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The Mississippi Gulf Coast was the home of many different peoples, cultures, and empires during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to some historians, the Gulf Coast region may have been the most diverse region in early North America.
 Matthew Powell, a historian of slavery and southern history and the Executive Director of the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum in Pascagoula, Mississippi, joins us to investigate and explore the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a prominent family who has lived there since about 1718. This episode originally posted as Episode 303. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/364 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationColonial Williamsburg Email Lists Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence LostEpisode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New OrleansEpisode 283: Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Acadie 300 Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation MuseumEpisode 298: Lindsey Shackenback Regele, Manufacturing Advantage Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

About 620 miles north of New Orleans and 62 miles south of St. Louis, sits the town of Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri. Established in 1750 by the French, Ste. Geneviéve reveals much about what it was like to establish a colony in the heartland of North America and what it was like for colonists to live so far removed from seats of imperial power. Claire Casey, a National Park Service interpretative ranger at the Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park, joins us to explore the early American history of Ste. Geneviéve. This episode is originally posted as Episode 318.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/363 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg FoundationBrooding Over Bloody Revenge save 20 percent with promo code bloody20 Complementary Episodes   Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark and the Fight for the Illinois CountryEpisode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther WheelwrightEpisode 120: Marcia Zug, Mail Order Brides in Early AmericaEpisode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other SlaveryEpisode 308: Jessica Marie Johnson, Slavery and Freedom in French Louisiana Listen! Apple PodcastsSpotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook GroupBen Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcastBen Franklin's World Facebook PageSign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter