Ben Franklin's World

By Liz Covart

Society & Culture History

What's Ben Franklin's World about?

This is a show about early American history. Awarded Best History Podcast by the Academy of Podcasters in 2017, it’s for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history. It is produced by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

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353 Brooke Bauer, Women and...

03.14.2023

How did Indigenous people adapt to and survive the onslaught of Indigenous warfare, European diseases, and population loss between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries? How did past generations of Indigenous women ensure their culture would live on from one generation ...

Ben Franklin's World episodes:

03.14.2023 353 Brooke Bauer, Women and the Making of Catawba Identity How did Indigenous people adapt to and survive the onslaught of Indigenous warfare, European diseases, and population loss between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries? How did past generations of Indigenous women ensure their culture would live on from one generation ...
02.28.2023 352 Matthew Skic, James Forten and the Making of the United States People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about ...
02.14.2023 351 Nicole Maskiell, Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland African chattel slavery, the predominant type of slavery practiced in colonial North America and the early United States, did not represent one monolithic practice of slavery. Practices of slavery varied by region, labor systems, legal codes, and empire. Slavery also ...
01.31.2023 350 Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams Before the American Revolution became a war and a fight for independence, the Revolution was a movement and protest for more local control of government. So how did the American Revolution get started? Who worked to transform a series of ...
01.17.2023 349 Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Women Behind Benjamin Franklin There are a lot of books about Benjamin Franklin. They tell us about his youth and accomplishments in business, politics, and diplomacy. They tell us about his serious interest in electricity and science, and about his philanthropic work. But only ...
01.03.2023 348 Ricardo Herrera, Valley Forge On December 19, 1777, George Washington marched his Continental Army into its winter encampment at Valley Forge. In school we learned this was a hard, cold winter that saw the soldiers so ill-supplied they chewed on the leather of their ...
12.30.2022 Bonus: Craft in Early America Thank you for being a subscriber! How did early Americans create all of the the things they needed and wanted in life? We re-visit with Glenn Adamson to answer more of your questions about trade and crafts work in Early ...
12.20.2022 347 Jon Beebe, African and African American Music It’s impossible to overstate the importance of African and African American music to the United States’ musical traditions. Steven Lewis, a Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian, notes that “African American influences are so fundamental to American ...
12.13.2022 346 Billy Coleman, Music and Politics in the Early United States How did everyday Americans in the early United States use and enjoy music? How did they create and circulate new songs and musical lyrics? Our five-episode series about music in early America continues in this fourth episode about music and ...
12.06.2022 345 Glenda Goodman, Amateur Musicians in the Early United States Our study of music in Early America continues with this third episode in our five-episode series. Our last two episodes (Episode 343 and Episode 344) helped us better understand the musical landscapes of Native North America around 1492 and colonial ...
11.29.2022 344 David Hildebrand, Music in British North America Our 5-episode series about music in Early America continues with this second episode that seeks to answer your questions about music in Early America. David Hildebrand is a musicologist and an expert on early American music. His research specialty is ...
11.22.2022 343 Chad Hamill, Music and Song in Native North America What was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans—Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans—integrate and use music in their daily lives? Your questions about music inspired this 5-episode series about music in Early America. Our exploration ...
11.08.2022 342 Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations Did you know that small Native American nations had the power to dictate the terms of French colonization in the Gulf South region? Elizabeth Ellis, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and a citizen of the Peoria Tribe ...
10.25.2022 341 Mairi Cowan, Possession and Exorcism in New France Prepare for tricks, treats, and time travel! In honor of Halloween, we’re traveling back to the mid-seventeenth century to investigate a case of demonic possession and the practice of exorcism in New France. Mairi Cowan, an Associate Professor of History ...
10.11.2022 340: Nicholas Guyatt, Prisoners of War and the War of 1812 The War of 1812 is an under-known conflict in United States history. It’s not a war that many Americans think about or dwell upon. And it was not a war that the United States can claim it clearly won. Nicholas ...
09.27.2022 339 Mary Sarah Bilder, Women and the Constitutional Moment of 1787 Between May 25 and September 17, 1787, delegates from each of the United States’ thirteen states assembled in Philadelphia for an event we now call the Constitutional Convention. What do we know about the moment of the United States Constitution’s ...
09.13.2022 338 The Early History of the United States Senate On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution and submitted it to the states for ratification. In honor of Constitution Day, we join three historians from the Senate Historical Office to investigate Article ...
08.30.2022 337 Dael Norwood, Early America's Trade with China What made trade with China so important to the new United States that one of Americans’ first acts after securing the United States’ independence was to establish a trade with China and other Southeast Asian countries? Deal Norwood, an Assistant ...
08.16.2022 336 Vanessa Holden, Surviving the Southampton Rebellion What did it take to stage a successful slave uprising? Over the course of the early republic, we see a few violent slave uprisings in the United States. A particularly brutal rebellion took place in Louisiana in January 1811. Another ...
08.02.2022 335 Andrew Porwancher, The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton played important roles in the founding of the United States. He served in the Continental Army, helped frame the United States Constitution, and helped place the United States on a secure economic footing with his work as the ...
07.19.2022 334 Brandon Bayne, Missions & Mission Building in New Spain Spanish explorers and colonists visited, settled, and claimed territory in 42 of the United States’ 50 states. So what does the history of Early America look like from a Spanish point of view? Brandon Bayne, an Associate Professor of Religious ...
07.05.2022 333 Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence? Our Fourth of July series continues with an investigation of how the American War for Independence impacted those who remained on the home front. As episode 332 explored how ...
06.28.2022 332 Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence? In honor of the Fourth of July, we’ll investigate answers to this question by exploring the histories of occupied Philadelphia and Yorktown, and how civilians, those left on the ...
06.21.2022 331 The Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School In a town as old as Williamsburg, Virginia, which was established in 1638, it’s often the case that historic buildings with interesting pasts stand unnoticed and in plain sight. Such was the case for the building that once housed Williamsburg’s ...
06.07.2022 330 Brad Jones, Loyalism in the British Atlantic World We’ll never know for certain how many Americans supported the American Revolution, remained loyal to the British Crown and Parliament, or tried to find a middle way as someone who was disaffected from either loyalty. But we can know about ...
05.24.2022 329 Mark Tabbert, Freemasonry in Early America This is an episode you’ve been waiting for! Mark Tabbert, the Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association and the author of Almanac of American Freemasonry and A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry, ...
05.10.2022 328 Warren Milteer Jr., Free People of Color in Early America We know from our explorations of early America that not all Americans were treated equally or enjoyed the freedoms and liberties other Americans enjoyed. Warren Milteer Jr., an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro ...
04.26.2022 327 David Schmidt, Benjamin Franklin: A Film by Ken Burns How do we know what we know about Benjamin Franklin? We know historians, museum curators, and archivists rely on historical documents and objects to find and learn information about the past. But how does a documentary filmmaker present what they ...
04.12.2022 327 Maureen Connors Santelli, The Greek Revolution in Early America With Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy under attack, Americans have been wondering: Should our government be doing more than placing economic sanctions on Russia? Should I, as U.S. military veteran, travel to Ukraine and offer to fight in their army? What ...
03.29.2022 325 Woody Holton, Everyday People of the American Revolution What do we know about the American Revolution? Why is it important that we see the Revolution as a political event, a war, a time of social and economic reform, and as a time of violence and upheaval? Woody Holton, ...
03.15.2022 324 Andrea Mosterman, New Netherland and Slavery After Henry Hudson’s 1609-voyage along the river that now bears his name, Dutch traders began to visit and trade at the area they called New Netherland. In 1614, the Dutch established a trading post near present-day Albany, New York. In ...
03.01.2022 323 Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder In the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain ceded to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi River and between the southern borders of Canada and Georgia. How would the United States take advantage of its new boundaries ...
02.15.2022 322 Karen Cook-Bell, Running from Bondage in Revolutionary America During the War for American Independence, the British Army attempted to create chaos and inflict economic damage to the revolutionaries’ war effort by issuing two proclamations that promised freedom to any enslaved person who ran away from their revolutionary owners. ...
02.01.2022 321 BFW Team Favorite: Whose Fourth of July? (No Ad) On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” In this episode, we explore Douglass’ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: ...
02.01.2022 321 BFW Team Favorite: Whose Fourth of July? On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” In this episode, we explore Douglass’ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: ...
01.28.2022 Bonus: Cooking with Benjamin Franklin Thank you for your support! Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706. In honor of Franklin’s birthday, this bonus episode takes a further look at Ben’s culinary preferences with culinary historian Rae Katherine Eighmey. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/221
01.18.2022 320 Benjamin Franklin's London House Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, to Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Although Franklin began his life as the youngest son of a youngest son, he traveled through many parts of what is now the northeastern ...
01.04.2022 319 Ada Ferrer, Cuba: An Early American History One of the Caribbean islands that Christopher Columbus stopped at during his 1492-voyage was an alligator-shaped island that sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico in between the Yucatán and Florida peninsulas. This is, of course, is the ...
12.31.2021 Bonus: Colonial Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri What challenges do National Park Service interpretive rangers face when they interpret non-British colonial history? How did the relationships between Ste. Geneviéve's inhabitants and Indigenous peoples change over time? NPS Interpretive Ranger Claire Casey is back to answer more of ...
12.21.2021 318 Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park 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 ...
12.07.2021 317 American Jewish Historical Society, Jews in Early America The first Jewish colonists in North America arrived in 1654. From that moment, Jews worked to build and contribute to early American society and the birth of the United States. Gemma Birnbaum and Melanie Meyers, the Executive Director and Director ...
11.23.2021 316 Kathryn Olivarius, Yellow Fever, Immunity, & Early New Orleans In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the important port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the city’s land, peoples, and wealth– the American government also inherited ...
11.09.2021 315 David M. Rubenstein, History & American Democracy What has enabled the American experiment in democracy to endure for nearly 250 years? What is it about early American history that captivates peoples’ attention and makes them want to support the creation of historical scholarship and the sharing of ...
11.02.2021 Bonus: The Object of History The Massachusetts Historical Society has a podcast! In this bonus episode of Ben Franklin's World, we'll introduce you to The Object of History, with a full-episode preview of "Episode 4: A Miniature Portrait of Elizabeth Freeman." For more information about ...
10.29.2021 Bonus: Colin Calloway, Native Americans in American Cities We rejoin Colin Calloway, Professor of History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, in this bonus episode so he can answer more of your questions about Native American experiences in early American cities. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/314 Join Ben Franklin's ...
10.26.2021 314 Colin Calloway, Native Americans in Early American Cities Have you ever considered early American cities as places where Native Americans lived, worked, and visited? Native Americans often visited early American cities and port towns, especially the towns and cities that dotted the Atlantic seaboard of British North America. ...
10.19.2021 OI Reads: Carolyn Eastman, The Strange Genius of Mr. O Welcome to OI Reads, an occasional series on Ben Franklin's World where we introduce you to new books that we'll think you love and that are published by the Omohundro Institute. Using details from her book, The Strange Genius of ...
10.12.2021 313 Mike Duncan, The Marquis de Lafayette You know “America’s favorite fighting Frenchman” is the Marquis de Lafayette. But what do you know about Lafayette and his life? How and why did this French-born noble end up fighting in the American Revolution? Mike Duncan, a self-described history ...
09.28.2021 312 Joshua Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade The transatlantic slave trade dominated in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries. But by 1808, a different slave trade came to dominate in the young United States, the domestic or internal slave trade. Joshua D. Rothman, an award-winning ...
09.14.2021 311 Katherine Carté, Religion and the American Revolution Investigations of the American Revolution often include explorations of politics, ideology, trade and taxation, imperial control, and social strife. What about religion? What role did religion play in the American Revolution? Katherine Carté, an Associate Professor of History at Southern ...

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