Ben Franklin's World

What kinds of animals did early Americans keep as pets? How did early Americans acquire pets? What kinds of animals did early Americans keep as pets?

Ingrid Tague, a Professor of History at the University of Denver and the author of Animal Companions: Pets and Social Change in Eighteenth-Century Britain, joins us to answer your questions about pets and pet keeping in Early America.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/275

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
• Episode 077: Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail
• Episode 168: Andrea Smalley, Wild By Nature: Colonists and Animals in North America
• Episode 234: Richard Bushman, Farms & Farm Families in Early America

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What do we know about how and why England came to establish its first permanent colony at Jamestown? And what do we know about the English colony that came before it, the Colony of Roanoke?

Alan Gallay, Lyndon B. Johnson chair of United States History at Texas Christian University and author of Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire, leads us on exploration of the life and work of Sir Walter Ralegh, the man who crafted the blueprint for England’s colonization plans in the Americas.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/274

Production of this episode was made possible by a grant from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation of Richmond, Virginia.

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
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• Virtual Public Event: Equality: A Historical Perspective

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London
• Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery
• Episode 184: David Silverman, Thundersticks
• Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England, Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery
• Episode 250: Virginia, 1619

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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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How did Americans learn to establish philanthropic institutions?

Victoria Johnson, an Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College in New York City and author of American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, leads us on an investigation of the life of Dr. David Hosack and the many organizations he founded, including the Elgin Botanical Garden.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/273 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop
• Ben Franklin's World Virtual Reading Group

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 203: Joanne Freeman, Alexander Hamilton
• Episode 209: Considering Biography
• Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1
• Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2
• Episode 212: Researching Biography
• Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America
• Episode 263: Sari Altschuler, The Medical Imagination

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• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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What do you know about the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution?

Caitlin Galante-DeAngelis Hopkins, a Lecturer in the History Department at Harvard University and a former research associate for the Harvard and Slavery Project, joins us to explore the origins of the Eleventh Amendment and why the United States added it to its Constitution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/272

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• Ben Franklin’s World Virtual Reading Group
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
• Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
• Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights
• Episode 260: Creating the First Ten Amendments
• Episode 261: Creating the Fourth Amendment
• Episode 262: Interpreting the Fourth Amendment

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On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode to Lexington, Massachusetts to spread the alarm that the Regulars were marching. Revere made several important rides between 1774 and 1775, including one in September 1774 that brought the Suffolk Resolves to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

So why is it that we remember Paul Revere’s ride to Lexington and not any of his other rides?

Why is it that we remember Paul Revere on the night of April 18, 1775 and nothing about his life either before or after that famous ride?

Why is it that Paul Revere seems to ride quickly into history and then just as quickly out of it?

In this episode we speak with four scholars to explore Paul Revere’s ride through history.

This episode originally posted as Episode 130.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/271

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 128: Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History
• Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775
• Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July

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How do you uncover the life of an enslaved person who left no paper trail?

What can the everyday life of an enslaved person tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some enslaved people made the transition from slavery to freedom?

We explore the life of Charity Folks, an enslaved woman from Maryland who gained her freedom in the late-18th century. Our guide through Charity’s life is Jessica Millward, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and author of Finding Charity’s Folk.

This episode originally posted as Episode 089.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/270

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🎧 Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research

🎧 Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston

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🎧 Episode 176: Daina Ramey Berry, Price For Their Pound of Flesh

🎧 Episode 212: Erica Dunbar, Research Biography Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New 🎧 England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery

🎧 Episode 250: Virginia, 1619

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What was everyday life like for average men and women in early America?

Listeners ask this question more than any other question and today we continue to try to answer it.

Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England.

This episode originally posted as Episode 032.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/269 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
• Episode 145: Rosemarie Zaggari, Mercy Otis Warren & the American Revolution
• Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams, Revolutionary Speculator
• Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region
• Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America
• Episode 244: Kimberly Alexander, Shoe Stories from Early America

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Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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What in the first 40 years of his life made Benjamin Franklin the genius he became?

Benjamin Franklin serves as a great window on to the early American past because as a man of “variety” he pursued many interests: literature, poetry, science, business, philosophy, philanthropy, and politics.

But one aspect of Franklin’s life has gone largely unstudied: his childhood and early life.

Nick Bunker, author of Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s early life and how family, childhood, and youthful experiences shaped him as a scientist and diplomat.

This episode originally posted as Episode 207.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/268

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• Bombas, save 20 percent on your first order

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
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• Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
• Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
• Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House

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Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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How did the people of early America experience and feel about winter?

Thomas Wickman, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural Winter in the Early American Northeast, joins us to investigate how Native Americans and early Americans experienced and felt about winter during the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/267

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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• Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
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• Episode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice Age
• Episode 191: Lisa Brooks, A New History of King Philip’s War

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• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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How did early Americans educate their children? How and when did Americans create a formal system of public education?

You sent me these questions for Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America. You also said you wanted to know more about how early American boys and girls learned the trades they would practice later in life.

Johann Neem, a Professor of History at Western Washington University and author of Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America, joins us to further explore how early Americans educated their children and how early American children learned the trades they would practice later in life.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/266

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross
• Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
• Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
• Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America
• Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
• Episode 239: Joseph Adelman, Post & Travel in Early America

Listen!

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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