Ben Franklin's World

The American Revolution inspired revolutions in France, the Caribbean, and in Latin and South America between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.

Naturally, Spanish and Portuguese American revolutionaries turned to the United States for assistance with their fights. How did Americans in the United States respond to these calls for assistance? What did they make of these other “American Revolutions?”

Caitlin Fitz, an Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University and the author of Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions, helps us investigate answers to these questions.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/090

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How do you uncover the life of a slave who left no paper trail?

What can her everyday life tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some slaves made the transition from slavery to freedom?

Today, 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: Enslaved and Free Black Women in Maryland.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/089

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Historians rely on secondary historical sources almost as much as they rely on primary historical sources.

But what are secondary historical sources and how do they help historians know what they know about the past?

Michael McDonnell, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney, guides us through how he used secondary historical sources to investigate the pivotal role Native Americans played in the history of the Great Lakes region and early North America.

Doing History Series

This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series. 

“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.

Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.

This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/088

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After achieving independence from Great Britain, the new United States and its member states had to pay war debts. As the national government lacked the power to tax its citizens, the problem of paying war debts fell to the states.

Many states tried to solve the post-war debt problem by paying state debts before national debts. But Massachusetts tried to pay both. Its strategy created hardship for many Bay Staters and ultimately sparked a rebellion.

Sean Condon, a Professor of History at Merrimack College and author of Shays's Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the rebellion, which we remember today as Shays’ Rebellion.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/087

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Over the course of his long life, Benjamin Franklin traveled to and lived in London twice. The first time he went as a teenager. The second as a man and colonial agent. All told he spent nearly 18 years living in the heart of the British Empire.

How did Franklin’s experiences in London shape his opportunities and view of the world?

George Goodwin, author of Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father, leads us on an exploration of Franklin’s life in London.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/086

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The War for Independence was a conflict between Great Britain and her 13 North American colonies. It was also a civil war.

Not only did the war pit Briton against Briton when the conflict began in 1775, but it also pitted American against American.

But what happened to the Americans who lost?

Today, Bonnie Huskins, coordinator of Loyalist Studies at the University of New Brunswick, joins us to explore the experiences of the American Loyalists.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/085

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What do historians do with historical sources once they find them?

How do they read them for information about the past?

Today, Zara Anishanslin, an Assistant Professor of History at CUNY’s College of Staten Island, leads us on an exploration of how historians read historical source by taking us through the documents and objects left behind by four, everyday people.

Doing History Series

This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series. 

“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.

Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.

This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/084

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

Colonial Bostonians practiced slavery. But slavery in Boston looked very different than slavery in the American south or in the Caribbean.

Today, Jared Hardesty, an Assistant Professor of History at Western Washington University and author of Unfreedom: Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston, takes us on a tour of slavery, and the lives enslaved people lived, in colonial Boston.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/083

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We live in an age of information. The internet provides us with 24/7 access to all types of information—news, how-to articles, sports scores, entertainment news, and congressional votes.

But what do we do with all of this knowledge? How do we sift through and interpret all it all?

We are not the first people to ponder these questions.

Today, Alejandra Dubcovsky, an Assistant Professor at Yale University and author of Informed Power: Communication in the Early South, takes us through the early American south and how the Native Americans, Europeans, and enslaved Africans who lived there acquired, used, and traded information.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/082

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When did the fighting of the American War for Independence end?

In school we learn that the war came to an end at Yorktown. But, this lesson omits all of the fighting that took place after Charles, Earl Cornwallis’ surrender in October 1781.

Today, Don Glickstein, author of After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence, takes us on a whirlwind and global tour of the fighting that took place after Yorktown.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/081

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