Polygamy is not a practice that often comes to mind when many of us think about early America. But it turns out, polygamy was a ubiquitous practice among different groups of early Americans living in 17th and 18th-century North America.

Sarah Pearsall, a University Teaching Officer, Fellow, and Historian at the University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss the surprising history of polygamy in early North America, with details from her book, Polygamy: An Early American History.

278 Sarah Pearsall, Polygamy: An Early American History (No Ad)

This is a multiple award-winning podcast about early American history. It’s a show for people who love history and 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 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

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Within the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States present twenty-seven grievances against King George III as they declare their reasons for why the thirteen British North American colonies sought their independence from Great Britain. Their twenty-fifth grievance declares that King George III “is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat [sic] the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun.” What do we know about the “Armies of foreign Mercenaries” King George III sent to his rebellious American colonies?  Friederike Baer, an Associate Professor of History at Penn State Abbington College, joins us to explore the lives and wartime experiences of the 30,000 German soldiers the British Crown hired and dispatched to North America during the American War for Independence. Frederike is the author of the award-winning book Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/382    Sponsor Links  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation   Complementary Episodes  Episode 046: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It  Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence  Episode 081: After Yorktown Episode 144: The Common Cause Episode 147: British Soldiers, American War  Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America Episode 375: Misinformation Nation   Listen!   Apple Podcasts Spotify  Google Podcasts  Amazon Music  Ben Franklin's World iOS App  Ben Franklin's World Android App   Helpful Links  Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter 

382 Hessians in the American Revolutionary War

The vast and varied landscapes of Texas loom large in our American imaginations. As does Texas culture with its BBQ, cowboys, and larger-than-life personality. But before Texas was a place that embraced ranching, space flight, and country music, Texas was a place with rich and vibrant Indigenous cultures and traditions and with Spanish and Mexican cultures and traditions. Martha Menchaca, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, is a scholar of Texas history and United States-Mexican culture. She joins us to explore the Spanish and Mexican origins of Texas with details from her book, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/381    Sponsor Links  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation   Complementary Episodes  Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas Episode 178, Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America Episode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 334, Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Episode 358: Charles Tingley, St Augustine and Early Florida Episode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery   Listen!   Apple Podcasts Spotify  Google Podcasts  Amazon Music  Ben Franklin's World iOS App  Ben Franklin's World Android App   Helpful Links  Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter 

381 Texas in the Spanish Empire

The American Revolution was a movement that divided British Americans. Americans did not universally agree on the Revolution’s ideas about governance and independence. And the movement’s War for Independence was a bloody civil war that not only pitted brother against brother and fathers against sons; it also pitted wives against husbands. Cynthia A. Kierner is a professor of history at George Mason University and the author of the book The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America. Cindy joins us to lead us through the story of Jane and William Spurgin, an everyday couple who lived in the North Carolina Backcountry during the American Revolution and who found themselves supporting different sides of the Revolution. Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380    Sponsor Links  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation John D. Rockefeller Jr., Library The Virginia Gazette   Complementary Episodes  Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America Episode 325: Woody Holton, Everyday People of the American Revolution Episode 330: Brad Jones, Loyalism in the British Atlantic World Episode 356: Paul Peucker, The Moravian Church in North America   Listen!   Apple Podcasts Spotify  Google Podcasts  Amazon Music  Ben Franklin's World iOS App  Ben Franklin's World Android App   Helpful Links  Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter 

380 The Tory's Wife

Women make up eight out of every ten healthcare workers in the United States. Yet they lag behind men when it comes to working in the roles of medical doctors and surgeons. Why has healthcare become a professional field dominated by women, and yet women represent a minority of physicians and doctors who serve at the top of the healthcare field? Susan H. Brandt, a historian and lecturer at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, seeks to find answers to these questions. In doing so, she takes us into the rich history of women healers with details from her book, Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/379    Sponsor Links  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation   Complementary Episodes  Episode 003: Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 005: Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and Health Episode 116: Disease & the Seven Years’ War Episode 174: Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic Episode 263: The Medical Imagination Episode 273: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Early Republic Episode 276: Benjamin Rush: Founding Father Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2    Listen!   Apple Podcasts Spotify  Google Podcasts  Amazon Music  Ben Franklin's World iOS App  Ben Franklin's World Android App   Helpful Links  Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter 

379 Women Healers in Early America

When we study the history of Black Americans, especially in the early American period, we tend to focus on slavery and the slave trades. But focusing solely on slavery can hinder our ability to see that, like all early Americans, Black Americans were multi-dimensional people who led complicated lives and lived a full range of experiences that were worth living and talking about. Tara Bynum, an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and the author of Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America, joins us to explore the lives of four early Black American writers: Phillis Wheatley, John Marrant, James Albert Unkawsaw Groniosaw, and David Walker. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/378    Sponsor Links  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation BFW Listener Survey    Complementary Episodes  Episode 025: Inventing George Whitefield  Episode 083: Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution Episode 328: Free People of Color in Early America Episode 360: Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts    Listen!   Apple Podcasts Spotify  Google Podcasts  Amazon Music  Ben Franklin's World iOS App  Ben Franklin's World Android App   Helpful Links  Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter 

278 Sarah Pearsall, Polygamy: An Early American History (No Ad)

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