Each September, Constitution Day marks the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787.

But beyond celebration, this commemoration invites deeper reflection: Whose voices helped shape this foundational document? And who was imagined as part of the political community it created?

In honor of Constitution Day and Constitution Month, we’re revisiting a pivotal conversation from Episode 339 with constitutional historian Mary Sarah Bilder.

Drawing from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution, Mary challenges us to reconsider who influenced the Constitution and how women publicly engaged with its political possibilities.
Join us as we explore: Eliza Harriot’s advocacy for “female genius” and intellectual equality. Why the Constitution’s gender-neutral language mattered. And, the debates over representation, education, and citizenship in 1787
Mary’s Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/339
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 107: Madison's Hand
🎧 Episode 137: The Washingtons' Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
🎧 Episode 255: Birthright Citizens
🎧 Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights
🎧 Episode 285: Elections & Voting in Early America
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What happens when the very people meant to uphold justice become the ones exploiting it?

In the 1760s, North Carolina farmers watched sheriffs pocket their tax payments, judges rule in favor of corrupt land speculators, and government officials literally steal their land, all while claiming to represent the Crown’s interests.

Nathan Schultz, a public historian and the Site Manager at the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site in North Carolina, joins us to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement.

Show Notes:  https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/419
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America
🎧 Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair
🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West
🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's Wife
🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775

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Revolutionary upheaval didn't just reshape governments—it transformed daily life for ordinary families across colonial America.

 In this revisited episode, historian Cynthia Kierner reveals the remarkable story of Jane Spurgin, a woman navigating loyalty, survival, and family obligations in Revolutionary-era North Carolina.

Through Jane's experience as a Loyalist's wife, we discover how political conflicts reached into homes and communities, forcing women to make difficult choices between personal safety and family loyalty.

As we prepare to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement, Jane's story illuminates the human cost of colonial resistance and the often-overlooked voices of women caught in the crossfire of revolution. 

Guest: Cynthia Kierner, Professor of History at George Mason University and author of The Tory's Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America

Cynthia’s Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 085: American Loyalists in Canada
🎧 Episode 126: The Reintegration of American Loyalists
🎧 Episode 237: Motherhood in Early America
🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
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We often learn about slavery in early America through broad economic or political terms—cotton, sugar, markets, revolutions. But what happens when we turn our focus to the lived experiences of enslaved people themselves?

What did slavery feel and look like on the ground? What did survival look like day to day? And what do we make of the enslaved people who were forced into positions of authority over others, like the plantation drivers who were tasked with extracting labor from their fellow enslaved workers?

Randy Browne, an award-winning historian and Professor of History at Xavier University, joins us to investigate plantation slavery and its driving system with details from his book The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery.

Randy’s Website | Book

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/418
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery
🎧 Episode 282: Tacky's Revolt
🎧 Episode 289: Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp
🎧 Episode 295: The Whitney Plantation & Museum
🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland & Slavery

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When we think about slavery in early America, we often rightfully focus on the human toll–the violence, the exploitation, the dehumanization that defined the institution. But slavery wasn’t just a system of forced labor; it was also a business.

Next week, in Episode 418, we’ll be investigating a different facet of the business of slavery: the story of slave drivers–enslaved people who were forced or took up positions of authority over others. To better understand the system slave drivers operated within, I thought we should revisit Episode 281 with historian Caitlin Rosenthal.

Caitlin is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Her book, Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, won the Simkins Award from the Southern Historical Association and the Economic Historical Society’s First Book Prize.

Caitlin’s Website | Book 
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 173: Colonial Port Cities & Slavery
🎧 Episode 176: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave
🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade
🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland and Slavery
🎧 Episode 386: Sleeping with the Ancestors
🎧 Episode 387: California and Slavery
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When we think of early American champions of religious liberty, one name often rises above the rest: Roger Williams.

Best known as the founder of Rhode Island and a fierce advocate for the separation of church and state, Williams was a man who defied convention at every turn. He turned down a prestigious post in Boston, challenged Puritan orthodoxy, and was ultimately banished—only to build a new colony rooted in his radical ideas of liberty of conscience and religious toleration.

In this episode, we explore the life and legacy of this “nonconformist among nonconformists” with the co-editors of Reading Roger Williams: Rogue Puritans, Indigenous Nations, and the Founding of America: 

Together, they help us uncover:

Guests' Book

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/417
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 1
🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 2
🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America
🎧 Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair
🎧 Episode 392: Religion and Race in Early America

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Why do we trace our family histories? What drives our desire to know who our ancestors were and how we’re connected to past people and events?

Genealogy is often seen as a modern pursuit, spurred by DNA tests and online records–but in reality, early Americans were deeply invested in understanding and documenting their familial ties. Their desire to understand these ties, however, extended far beyond sheer curiosity.

Last week, in Episode 416, we were joined by Karin Wulf, who shared with us her now-finished project on genealogy and family history in Lineage: Genealogy and the Politics of Connection in the British Atlantic World. Karin’s book is built on the research she shared with us in 2016, so I thought it would be fun to return to her first conversation with us about her research so we can see how her thoughts, ideas, and her book project changed over time as she did more research and thinking on the subject.

Karin’s Website | Book | Instagram

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/114
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 231: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family
🎧 Episode 236: Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family
🎧 Episode 278: Polygamy: An Early American History
🎧 Episode 354: The Sewing Girl's Tale
🎧 Episode 416: Lineage: Genealogy in Early America

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Have you ever wondered why genealogy captivates so many people?

Whether it’s tracing a family tree back generations or holding on to stories told around the dinner table, genealogy offers a powerful sense of connection—a connection that can shape identities, claims of property, and even arguments for freedom.

But genealogy isn’t just a modern-day hobby. In early America, genealogy was a deeply consequential practice with social, political, and legal implications.

Karin Wulf, a Professor of History and the Eighth Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, joins us to explore the ways early Americans were interested in their family histories with details from her book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America.

Karin’s Website | Book | Instagram

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 114: The History of Genealogy
🎧 Episode 231: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family
🎧 Episode 236: Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family
🎧 Episode 278: Polygamy: An Early American History
🎧 Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History
🎧 Episode 354: The Sewing Girl's Tale

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The Declaration of Independence is one of the most iconic documents in United States history. But what do we really know about how it came to be?

In our most recent episode, historian Emily Sneff helped us explore the Declaration through your questions–questions that revealed just how complex, living, and contested this document still is.

So in today’s Revisited episode, we take a listen to the podcast that Emily helped to produce back in 2017: Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft.

Originally part of the Omohundro Institute’s Doing History: To the Revolution! Series, this episode features three distinguished scholars: Danielle Allen, Patrick Spero, and Peter Onuf, Together, these scholars reveal that many hands and minds shaped the Declaration of Independence. They also help us dive into some of the document’s contradictions around slavery and equality.

Emily’s Website 

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/415
 
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration
🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
🎧 Episode 388: John Hancock
🎧 Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness
🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence

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Preview of Karin Wulf’s book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America.

In eighteenth-century America, genealogy was more than a simple record of family ties--it was a powerful force that shaped society. Lineage delves into an era where individuals, families, and institutions meticulously documented their connections. Whether driven by personal passion or mandated by churches, local governments, and courts, these records appeared in diverse forms-from handwritten notes and account books to intricate silk threads and enduring stone carvings.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices