
Ben Franklin's World
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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..
Ben Franklin's World
3d ago
Did you know that many of the food traditions that define cuisine in the United States today have roots in African culinary traditions and history?
Diane Spviey, a culinary historian and author of three culinary history books, joins us to uncover the rich and complex legacy of African and African American foodways and how those foodways helped establish the United States.
Diane’s Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/404
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Ben Franklin's World
2w ago
Did you know that John Adams, not George Washington, solidified the precedents of the executive branch and the presidency?
Lindsay Chervinsky, an award-winning presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, has written a book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. She joins us to investigate the presidency of the United States’ second president, John Adams.
Lindsay’s Website | Book | Instagram
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
? Episode 040: For ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
1M ago
Do you know what time it is?
In early America, this question wasn’t as simple to answer as it is today. Urban dwellers in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston often wondered about the time—but few owned their own watches or clocks. So, how did they keep track of the hours?
In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of early American timekeeping. Bob Frishman, a horologist—a specialist in clocks and watches—and a scholar of horology, joins us to explore how timepieces and their makers shaped community life and craftsmanship in the 18th century. Along the way, we’ll un ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
1M ago
To close out our mini-series on Tea in early America, we’re going to revisit Episode 160: The Politics of Tea. This episode was part of our Doing History: To the Revolution series with the Omohundro Institute in 2017.
In this episode, we’ll revisit how early Americans went from attending tea parties to holding the Boston Tea Party. We’ll also explore more in depth information about how tea became a central part of many early Americans’ lives.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/160
Sponsor Links
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
Episode 112: The Tea ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
1M ago
During the early days of the American Revolution, British Americans attempted to sway their fellow Britons with consumer politics.
In 1768 and 1769, they organized a non-consumption movement of British goods to protest the Townshend Duties. In 1774, they arranged a non-importation and non-exportation movement to protest the Tea Act and Coercive Acts.
Why did the colonists protest the Tea Act and Coercive Acts? Why did they chose to protest those acts with the consumer politics of a non-importation/non-exportation program?
James Fichter, the author of Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
1M ago
In Episode 401, we’ll be exploring the Tea Crisis and how it led to the non-importation/non-exportation movement of 1774-1776.
Our guest historian, James Fichter, references the work of Mary Beth Norton and her “The Seventh Tea Ship” article from The William and Mary Quarterly.
In this BFW Revisited episode, we’ll travel back to December 2016, when we spoke with Mary Beth Norton about her article and the Tea Crisis of 1773.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/112
Sponsor Links
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
Episode 135: Moral Commerce: The T ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
2M ago
How do historians define Ben Franklin’s “world?” What historical event, person, or place in the era of Ben Franklin do they wish you knew about?
In celebration of the 400th episode of Ben Franklin’s World, we posed these questions to more than 20 scholars. What do they think? Join the celebration and discover more about the world Ben Franklin lived in.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/400
Sponsor Links
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Complementary Episodes
Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of the Genealogy
Episode 285: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic
E ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
2M ago
In our last episode, Episode 399, we discussed Denmark Vesey’s revolt and the way biblical texts and scripture enabled Vesey to organize what would have been the largest slave revolt in United States history if the revolt had not been thwarted before Vesey could put it into action.
Early American history is filled with revolts against enslavers that were thwarted and never made it past the planning stage. But, one uprising that did move beyond planning and into action was the Southampton Rebellion or Nat Turner’s Revolt in August 1831.
In this BFW Revisited episode, Episode 133, which was rele ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
2M ago
Denmark Vesey’s failed revolt in 1822 could have been the largest insurrection of enslaved people against their enslavers in United States history. Not only was Vesey’s plan large in scale, but Charleston officials arrested well over one hundred rumored participants.
Jeremy Schipper, a Professor in the departments for the Study or Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of Denmark Vesey’s Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Scripture and Slavery on Trial, joins us to investigate Vesey’s planned rebellion and the different ways Vesey used the Bib ..read more
Ben Franklin's World
2M ago
What did Thomas Jefferson and the members of the Second Continental Congress mean when they wrote “the pursuit of Happiness” into the United States Declaration of Independence? And why is pursuing happiness so important that Jefferson and his fellow Founding Fathers included it in the Declaration of Independence’s most powerful statement of the new United States’ ideals?
Jeffrey Rosen, the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center and a law professor at George Washington University Law School, joins us to investigate and answer these questions with details from his book, The ..read more