Ben Franklin's World

We remember Benjamin Franklin as an accomplished printer, scientist, and statesman. Someone who came from humble beginnings and made his own way in the world. Rarely do we remember Franklin as a man of faith.

Benjamin Franklin spent more time grappling with questions of religion, faith, virtue, and morality in his writing than about any other topic.

Thomas S. Kidd, a Professor of History at Baylor University and author of Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father, leads us on a detailed exploration of the religious life of Benjamin Franklin.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/169

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
• Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
• Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield
• Episode 031: Michael Hattem, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
• Episode 141: Drafting the Declaration of Independence
• Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London

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When we study the history of colonial North America, we tend to focus on European colonists and their rivalries with each other and with Native Americans. But humans weren’t the only living beings occupying North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Rivalries existed between humans and animals too. And these human-animal rivalries impacted and shaped how European colonists used and settled North American lands.

Andrea Smalley, an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of Wild By Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization, joins us to explore the many ways wild animals shaped colonists’ ideas and behavior as they settled and interacted with North American lands.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/168

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
• Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
• Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (History of Jamestown)
• Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America

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The French established New Orleans and the greater colony of Louisiana in 1717. By 1840, New Orleans had become the 3rd largest city in the United States. How did that happen?

How did New Orleans transform from a sleepy, minor French outpost into a large and important early American city with a thriving, bustling port?

Eberhard “Lo” Faber, an assistant professor of history at Loyola University, New Orleans and the author of Building the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America, leads us on an exploration of the early history of New Orleans.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/167

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Great Courses Plus (Free Trial)

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 017: François Furstenberg, How the United States Became French
• Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
• Episode 103: Sara Bon-Harper: James Monroe and His Estate Highland
• Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
• Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
• Episode 164: The American Revolution in the Age of Revolutions

Listener Meetup Details

Date: Saturday, January 6, 2018

Time: 5pm

Place: Open City Diner, Woodley Park

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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The Declaration of Independence described “all men” as “created equal” when its authors knew they were not. So was the revolutionary idea of freedom dependent on slavery?

In this last episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we return to the place our series began: the world of Paul Revere. We speak with Christopher Cameron, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to discuss how Phillis Wheatley, Cesar Sarter and other black revolutionaries in Massachusetts grappled with the seeming paradox of American freedom as they fought to end slavery during the American Revolution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/166

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• OI Reader
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution ($10 listener-only special)
• Doing History: To the Revolution series

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 025: Jessica Parr, Inventing George Whitefield
• Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
• Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 133: Patrick Breen, The Nat Turner Revolt
• Episode 134: Spencer McBride, Pulpit and Nation
• Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washington’s Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
• Episode 157: The Revolution's African American Soldiers

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Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions took place in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. But why is it that we only seem to remember the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution?

Given that the American Revolution took place before all of these other revolutions, what was its role in influencing this larger “Age of Revolutions?” Did it influence this larger period?

Our exploration of what the American Revolution looked like within the larger period known as the “Age of Revolutions” continues as Janet Polasky, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call of Liberty in the Atlantic World, guides us through the period to explore answers to these questions.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/165

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The OI Reader
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special joint issue on the American Revolution $10 promotion
• The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)

Complementary Blog Posts

• Dael A. Norwood, "Global Trade and Revolution: The Politics of Americans' Commerce with China"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions
• Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America
• Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
• Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
• Episode 155: Pauline Maier’s American Revolution
• Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
• Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
• Episode 163: The Revolution in Continental North America
• Episode 164: The Age of Revolutions in the Caribbean

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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The American Revolution took place within a larger period known today as the “Age of Revolutions.”

What does the Revolution look like when we place it within this larger context? Did it really help foment the many other failed and successful revolutions that took place during the period?

Over the next two episodes of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we’ll explore answers to these questions by taking a closer look at how the American Revolution fit within the larger context of the Age of Revolutions.

The first part of our exploration will take us into the Caribbean. Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University and the author of four books about slavery and revolution in the French Caribbean, will serve as our guide.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/164

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• OI Reader
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution $10 listener-only sale
• The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 017: François Furstenberg, When the United States Spoke French
• Episode 052: Ronald Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Diplomacy
• Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
• Episode 144: Rob Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
• Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
• Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
• Episode 157: The Revolution’s African-American Soldiers

Helpful Show Links

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When we think about North America during the American Revolution, most of our brains show us images of eastern Canada and the thirteen British American colonies that waged a revolution and war for independence against Great Britain.

But what about the rest of the North American continent? What about the areas that we know today as the midwest, the Great Plains, the southwest, the west, and the Pacific Northwest? What about Alaska? What went on in these areas during the American Revolution?

What did the American Revolution look like through the eyes of Native American peoples?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore what the American Revolution looked like within the larger context of North American history with historians Claudio Saunt and Alyssa Mt. Pleasant.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/163

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• OI Reader
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion
• The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)

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• Episode 014: Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution
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• Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution
• Episode 158: The Revolutionaries’ Army

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• Rachel Hermann, "Histories of Hunger in the American Revolution"

YouTube Videos of Episode Music

• Men's Smoke Dance Salamanca Powwow 2017 Third Round
• Water Song by Akwesasne Women Singers

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What did British imperial officials in London and their North America-based representatives make of the American Revolution?

In this episode, we explore the American Revolution through the eyes of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, a British imperial official who served the empire in North America before, during, and after the American Revolution.

James Corbett David, author of Dunmore’s New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America, serves as our guide for this exploration.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/162

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• OI Reader
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion
• HelloFresh (Use Promo Code BFWorld30 to save $30 off your first week)

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 131: Frank Cogliano, Thomas Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty
• Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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At the end of the French and Indian, or Seven Years’ War in 1763, Great Britain claimed that smuggling was a BIG problem in its North American colonies and cracked down on the practice.

But just how BIG of a problem was smuggling in North America? Why did British North Americans choose to engage in the illegal importation of goods like tea? Was it really all about cheaper prices?

Fabrício Prado, Christian Koot, and Wim Klooster join us to explore the history of smuggling in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and to investigate the connections between smuggling and the American Revolution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• OI Reader
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special American Revolution issue $10 Promotion
• The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month of Unlimited Courses)

Complementary Blog Post

• Eugene R.H. Tesdahl, “Smuggling, the American Revolution, and the Riverine Highway” 

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 036: Abigail Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
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• Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
• Episode 139: Andrés Resédez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
• Episode 158: The Revolutionaries’ Army
• Episode 159: Serena Zabin, Dangerous Economies
• Episode 160: The Politics of Tea

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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How did early Americans go from hosting social tea parties to hosting protests like the Boston Tea Party?

Tea played a central role in the economic, cultural, and political lives of early Americans. As such, tea came to serve as a powerful symbol of both early American culture and of the American Revolution.

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, Jane Merritt, Jennifer Anderson, and David Shields take us on an exploration of the politics of tea during the era of the American Revolution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/160

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution $10 promotion
• The Great Courses Plus (1 Free Month)

Complementary Blog Posts

• John Fea, "The Greenwich Tea Burning: The Political and Religious Roots of Local Revolutionary Resistance"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 043: Matthew Osborn, Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic
• Episode 106: Jane Kamensky, The World of John Singleton Copley
• Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India in the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830
• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
• Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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