Ben Franklin's World

On October 28, 1776, the two armies of the American Revolutionary War met in White Plains, a small town about 30 miles north of New York City. Westchester County remained a wedge between the British Army to the south and the Continental Army to the north.

For the remaining seven years of the war, both British and American patrols monitored the roads of the county, tracking enemy movement and occasionally skirmishing. Locals leaned one way or the other, sometimes changed sides, and often found themselves at odds with their neighbors.

Char Weigel, a historian with Revolutionary Westchester 250, investigates how the county became a "neutral ground” and offers us a window into how, for residents, the Revolution felt like a civil war.

Show notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/454

EPISODE OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:10:16 How Westchester Farmers Fed New York City

00:14:08 Dutch Influence in Westchester

00:22:30 The War Arrives in Westchester in 1776

00:30:50 What Local Families Saw during the Battle of White Plains

00:34:51 Life in the Neutral Ground between the Armies

00:38:24 Women, Native Americans, and Enslaved People in the Neutral Ground

00:51:22 The Benedict Arnold Plot and the Spy Caught in Westchester

00:58:23 Washington Irving and the American Revolution's Legacy

01:02:46 Lessons from a Divided County

01:08:49 Final Thoughts

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 055: John Jay: Forgotten Founder

🎧 Episode 065: Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Network

🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland and Slavery

🎧 Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution, Part 1: Occupied Philadelphia

🎧 Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution, Part 2: Disruptions in Yorktown

🎧 Episode 437: Civilian Life in Revolutionary War Occupied Cities

🎧 Episode 452: How Everyday Loyalists Experienced the American Revolution

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All year, we’ve explored the American Revolution from many vantage points, from its politics and battles to the experiences of women, enslaved and free people of color, Native Americans, and Loyalists.

In this episode, we’re going to take an LBGTQ+ lens to the Revolution.

Three historians, Rachel Hope Cleves, Jen Manion, and John McCurdy bring together different stories to explore how everyday LGBTQ+ people took part in the American Revolution and how its legacy shaped LGBTQ+ lives in the new United States.

Rachel’s Book | Jen’s Book | John’s Book

Show notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/453

EPISODE OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:05:02 Meet Our Guest Historians

00:06:51 LGBTQ+ Lives and Language in the Revolutionary Era

00:14:21 Finding a Same-Sex Marriage in the Archives

00:24:16 A British Army Chaplain Under Suspicion

00:28:33 Reading Through the Bias of Trial Transcripts

00:35:37 Fluid Identities and Historical Erasure

00:37:57 Military Service as a Path to Reinvention

00:47:40 War, Upheaval, and New Possibilities

00:54:24 LGBTQ+ People and the Culture of the New Nation

01:10:10 Final Thoughts

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 004: Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past

🎧 Episode 013: Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America

🎧 Episode 278: Polygamy: An Early American History

🎧 Episode 359: Trans-ing Gender in Early America

🎧 Episode 414: Robert Newburgh’s Trials: Queerness & Reputation in Revolutionary America

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In late spring 1776, 150 armed revolutionary soldiers marched into the Anglican Trinity Church to warn the reverend to stop praying for King George III and his family. The reverend read the prayers anyway. Later that year, another Anglican reverend faced the same choice but made the opposite decision.

Throughout our recent conversations about Loyalism, we’ve heard that religion shaped the loyalty choices many early Americans made. In this revisited episode, Kate Carté helps us explore how the British Empire was a Protestant Empire and how the Revolution broke religious bonds, as well as political bonds.

Kate’s Book

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 214: Skepticism & American Faith

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🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America

🎧 Episode 392: Religion and Race in Early America

🎧 Episode 399: Denmark Vesey’s Bible

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We often ask why some Americans chose to remain loyal to the British and why they did not want to seek independence. But the question some Americans asked at the time of the Revolution focused more on navigating daily life: How could they protect their families, property, and honor when neighbors, committees, and crowds decided what side they were on?

Today we’re joined by three guests who will help us investigate the American Revolution through Loyalist eyes and explore how Loyalists experienced the American Revolution.

Timothy Compeau, an Associate Professor of History at Huron University College at Western University in London, Ontario; Bonnie Huskins who teaches history at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick; and Kacy Tillman, a professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa.

Timothy's Book | Bonnie's Work | Kacy's Book

Show notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/452

EPISODE OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:06:07 The Origins and Definitions of the Term “Loyalist”

00:11:11 Common Misconceptions about Loyalists

00:22:52 How Communities Identified their Loyalist Neighbors

00:31:34 How Everyday Loyalists Experienced the Revolution

00:40:19 Women Loyalists and the Fear of Violence

00:50:40 Black Loyalists and the Search for Freedom

01:00:05 Post-War Animosities Between Loyalists and Revolutionaries

01:09:12 What We Still Get Wrong About the Revolution

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 085: American Loyalists in Canada

🎧 Episode 126: The Reintegration of American Loyalists

🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's Wife

🎧 Episode 421: Loyalism and Revolution in Georgia

🎧 Episode 441: The Escapes of David George

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What would it take for you to forgive a neighbor who sided against you in a civil war? And what would you say to win back a community that you had fought against?

In our last episode, we explored loyalism across the Atlantic World and met Loyalists who, as serious political actors, had their own ideas about how the British Empire should operate. But the story of Loyalism didn’t end with the founding of the United States, nor with the end of the war.

In this revisited episode, Rebecca Brannon explores how South Carolina’s War for Independence was a true civil war, one that pitted neighbor against neighbor and, in some instances, fathers against sons.

Rebecca’s Book | Website

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 126: Reintegration of Loyalists in South Carolina

🎧 Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution

🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

🎧 Episode 380: The Tory’s Wife

🎧 Episode 421: Loyalism and Revolution in Georgia

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In the late winter of 1775, colonists in a village outside of New York City hoisted the royal standard of King George III 75 feet into the air.

The standard raisers signed their names to a proclamation pledging to defend the king and his government. For them, defending the British crown did not mean surrender; it served as a clear statement of what it still meant to be British.

In Episode 451, we explored a court-martial trial that allowed us to see how early Americans thought about what it would mean to be an American after independence.

In this revisited episode, historian Brad Jones helps us take up the other half of that question: what did it mean to be British during the age of the American Revolution? And why did answers to this question take different forms around the Atlantic World?

Brad’s Book

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American history is in the news a lot these days. We see and hear about fights over monuments, textbooks, and the stories we should include or exclude from our museums and historic markers.

What these stories overshadow is the great demand for more history in the United States. A coalition of historians and history organizations noticed this demand and decided to feed it by organizing a new initiative: A We Want More History weekend, which takes place September 25-27.

In this bonus episode, we’re joined by Beth English, the Executive Director of the Organization of American Historians, and Kate Masur, the John D. MacArthur Professor of History at Northwestern University. The guest historians share more about the origins of the national, coordinated weekend of history programs, how we can get involved, and where to find more information.

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In December 1777, Continental Army Colonel David Henley climbed off his horse to discipline a drunk British prisoner of war who was screaming epithets about Americans and vowing to fight for his king. Henley struck the prisoner, one of 6,000 in his care, with his sword.

The wound was minor, but Major General John Burgoyne cited this incident when he accused Henley of plotting to murder British prisoners of war. Burgoyne demanded a formal court-martial.

Professor Timothy Breen joins us to examine Henley’s trial with details from his new book, The American Revolution on Trial. Timothy asks a question most grand narratives of the American Revolution skip past: What did it actually feel like, in real towns among real people, to stop being British? What did it mean to be American?

Timothy’s Book

Show notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/451

EPISODE OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:04:43 The 250th Anniversary and the Limits of Grand Narratives

00:09:31 How Timothy Found the Henley Court-Martial Transcript

00:13:26 Major General John Burgoyne and Aristocratic Privilege

00:23:00 Competing Ideas of Honor During the Revolution

00:29:53 Inside the Cambridge Prisoner of War Camps

00:36:23 The Two Incidents that Led to the Court-Martial

00:45:25 The Verdict and What Happened Next for Henley and Burgoyne

00:48:37 How Early Americans Judged the Revolution and the New Nation

00:53:41 What Happened to the British and German POWs in Cambridge

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence

🎧 Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America

🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West

🎧 Episode 414: Robert Newburgh’s Trials: Queerness & Reputation in Revolutionary America

🎧 Episode 434: The Frank Brothers: Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution

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What caused the American Revolution?

Taxation without representation? Colonies that had outgrown their dependence on the British Empire? Or something harder to see: a quarrel about power itself and about what a government may rightly do to the people it governs?

In 1967, Bernard Bailyn published The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, a book he built out of more than 400 pamphlets, and one historians have been arguing with ever since.

In this revisited conversation from Episode 152, Professor Bailyn explains why he never accepted a purely economic explanation for the Revolution, where the revolutionaries' ideas actually came from, and why colonists rationally concluded that the British government was concealing a conspiracy against their liberties.

Bernard Bailyn’s Wikipedia Page | Book |

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/152

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of American Revolution

🎧 Episode 311: Religion and the American Revolution

🎧 Episode 307: History and the American Revolution

🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution

🎧 Episode 407: Patrick Henry

🎧 Episode 434: The Frank Borthers: Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution

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In December 1776, a Delaware Chief named White Eyes stood before the Second Continental Congress. He had not come to declare himself a revolutionary, nor had he come to pledge his loyalty to King George III. White Eyes came to test a promise.

What does the American Revolution look like to people for whom independence was never a question? For the Delaware, also known as the Lenape, the War for Independence raised older and harder questions:

Whose word could be trusted? What choices can we make about whether to fight, stay neutral, or flee that might let our community remain itself on the land we know?

Jeremy Johnson, Cultural Education Director for the Delaware Tribe of Indians, traces Lenape and Delaware history from long before European contact through the American Revolution. He also introduces us to the September 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt, the first treaty the United States made with a Native Nation and which promised a 14th Native state.

Delaware Tribe of Indians’ Website

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/450

EPISODE OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:35 The Lenape Experience of the American Revolution

00:07:56 Lenape History and Indigenous Origin Stories

00:10:52 Diplomacy in Lenape Traditions

00:15:32 Evolution of Lenape Diplomacy Through European Contact

00:20:00 The Walking Purchase of 1737

00:24:55 Lenape Experiences of the Seven Years' War

00:32:13 Lenape Participation in Pontiac's Rebellion

00:37:17 The Delaware and the American Revolution

00:46:32 Negotiating the Treaty of Fort Pitt

00:50:16 The Hope for Delaware Sovereignty

00:52:53 The Delaware People & America's 250th

01:00:02 Time Warp

01:02:41 Resources

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America

🎧 Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua

🎧 Episode 286: Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty

🎧 Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder

🎧 Episode 397: Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

🎧 Episode 449: Stealing America: Indigenous Enslavement & the American Revolution

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