Ben Franklin's World
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.
Episodes
BFW Bonus: We Want More History
American history is in the news a lot these days. We see and hear about fights over monuments, textbooks, and the stories we should include or exclude from our museums and historic markers.What these stories overshadow is the great demand for more history in the United States. A coalition of historians and history organizations noticed this demand and decided to feed it by organizing a new initiat
451 The Court-Martial That Put The American Revolution on Trial
In December 1777, Continental Army Colonel David Henley climbed off his horse to discipline a drunk British prisoner of war who was screaming epithets about Americans and vowing to fight for his king. Henley struck the prisoner, one of 6,000 in his care, with his sword.The wound was minor, but Major General John Burgoyne cited this incident when he accused Henley of plotting to murder British pris
BFW Revisited: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
What caused the American Revolution? Taxation without representation? Colonies that had outgrown their dependence on the British Empire? Or something harder to see: a quarrel about power itself and about what a government may rightly do to the people it governs?In 1967, Bernard Bailyn published The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, a book he built out of more than 400 pamphlets, and
450 Whose Revolution? The Delaware and the War for Independence
In December 1776, a Delaware Chief named White Eyes stood before the Second Continental Congress. He had not come to declare himself a revolutionary, nor had he come to pledge his loyalty to King George III. White Eyes came to test a promise.What does the American Revolution look like to people for whom independence was never a question? For the Delaware, also known as the Lenape, the War for Inde
BFW Revisited: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1
In 1723, the College of William & Mary opened the Brafferton building, a permanent home for an Indian School the college had been chartered to run and struggled to fill for its first 30 years. The premise of the Brafferton: take Native boys and strategically teach them in ways that would make them more useful to the British Empire.So what actually happened inside the Brafferton Indian School?I
449 Stealing America: Indigenous Slavery and the American Revolution
More than half a million Indigenous people were enslaved within the present-day borders of the United States. Historian Linford Fisher spent fifteen years in archives across North America, the Caribbean, and Britain to investigate this forgotten history. What he found was not a second story running alongside African slavery. It was something different in kind. Europeans and early Americans enslave
BFW Revisited: American Expansion & the Political Economy of Plunder
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.But what did liberty and equality mean for the peoples the Declaration never named—the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations who had governed the vast Great Lakes homeland they called Anishinaabewake for generations before a single European sailed its water
448 The Declaration of Independence as American Scripture
The engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence is on display at the National Archives building in Washington, DC. Millions of visitors flock to see it and the other Charters of Freedom. But how did it end up there and why do people approach it with religious reverence?In this episode, we explore how the Declaration took on its symbolic role as the founding text of the United States.Pauline'
BFW Revisited Threads of Power
For the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations People, the American Revolution brought not liberty, but land loss, displacement, and the dismantling of their world. The new United States seized land from Haudenosaunee nations regardless of which side they supported during the Revolution. And yet the Haudenosaunee survived, and Haudenosaunee women are central to this story.In this revisited episode, Maeve
447 The Other Committee Members: Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and the Declaration of Independence
Five men served on the Continental Congress’s Declaration Committee. We know three of them well: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. But who were the other two?In this episode, we explore the lives and contributions of Robert R. Livingston of New York and Roger Sherman of Connecticut.Historians Geoff Benton and Michael Morand join us as we uncover the stories of the other Committe
BFW Revisited: A Declaration in Draft, 2026
Every American knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but was he really its sole architect?In this revisited episode, we sit down with three scholars to pull back the curtain on how the Declaration came to be written. Danielle Allen of Harvard University, Patrick Spero of the American Philosophical Society, and Peter Onuf of the University of Virginia reveal that the Declara
446 The Declaration of Independence at 250
250 years after its signing, the Declaration of Independence remains an unfinished document. Its famous assertion "that all men are created equal" and endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness stands not as a settled truth, but as a call every generation of Americans must answer on its own terms.
What did the founders mean by "all men are created equal
445 How Independence Happened, Pt 3: The Articles of Confederation
The man Congress chose to draft the United States’ first constitution refused to vote for independence.
John Dickinson wrote a bold plan, one with a strong central government, religious liberty protections that included women, and a question in the margins about whether Congress should abolish slavery. Congress stripped out nearly all of these ideas and provisions. What replaced it sparke
444 How Independence Happened, Part 2: The Model Treaty
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776 was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign allies, international recognition, and the credibility to negotiate as an equal among the world's great powers.
Five days after Richard Henry Lee introduced his famous Virginia Resolution, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five — John
443 How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning.
To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign allies, international recognition, and the credibility to negotiate as an equal among the world's great powers.
Five days after Richard Henry Lee introduced his famous Virginia Resolution, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five — Joh
BFW Revisited: Reading the Declaration of Independence for Equality
On July 4th, 2026, the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence announced a new nation to the world. But how well do we actually know the document we're celebrating?
Most of us can recite "We hold these truths to be self-evident," but how many of us have read all 1,337 words, and traced the argument the Declaration actually makes?
Danielle Allen, the James Bryan
442 Everyday Military Life in the American Revolution
When we picture the American Revolution, we picture battles. But for the men and women who actually lived and fought in it, the Revolution was also a job with mess rotations, night watches, short rations, and children underfoot.
Historians Eugene Procknow, Gabriel Neville, and Thomas Sobol pull back the curtain on everyday military life during the War for Independence. They discuss how th
BFW Revisited: Valley Forge
Most of us learned the same story: During the winter at Valley Forge, George Washington's army suffered and endured. Ragged soldiers huddled together in frozen huts and gnawed on shoe leather for food.
But what if that story is mostly myth?
Military historian Ricardo Herrera, author of Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778, reveals what was really happening
441 The Escapes of David George
When David George lay sick with smallpox in Savannah during the Revolutionary War, he faced three possible outcomes: death, re-enslavement, or freedom.
Greg O'Malley, Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz, follows David George across six decades and three continents, from enslaved Virginia to the Muscogee Creek nation, and from British-occupied Georgia to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, in h
BFW Revisited: Running from Bondage in the American Revolution
She fled on horseback in the thick of war. Her six-year-old son rode with her. The white tailor at her side would pass, when anyone asked, as her husband. Her name was Sarah. She was one of tens of thousands of enslaved people who self-emancipated during the American Revolution, and one of the many women earlier histories barely noticed. In this Revisited episode, Karen Cook-Bell, author
440 Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence contained 28 grievances against King George III — not 27.
The final grievance, the one Congress cut before signing, accused the British king of waging cruel war against human nature by trafficking enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, forcing slavery onto unwilling American colonists, and then inciting those same enslaved people
BFW Revisited: Whose Fourth of July?
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and asked one of the most searing questions in American history: "What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?"
To answer Douglass's question, we have to go back to the Revolution itself; to the choices Black Americans made in wartime, to the ways they read, used, and interrogated the Declaration of
439 When the Declaration of Independence Was News
The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, but it had absolutely no plan for telling the world about it.
Congress sent just one copy of the Declaration to France. It was lost at sea. Printers ran the text however they liked. And the first formal acknowledgment of American independence came not from a European court, but from a Native American chief responding
BFW Revisited: Age of Revolutions
Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions swept across four continents. We tend to remember three of them — the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. But what about all the rest? And what connected them to each other?
In this episode, we're bringing back our conversation with Janet Polasky, Presidential Professor of History Emerita at the University of New Hampshire and author of Re
438 The American Revolution & the Fate of the World
What if the American Revolution didn't just create the United States, but also created Australia?
Most of us learned about the Revolution as a story of thirteen North American colonies pushing back against a distant king. But this episode reveals something far wilder: a genuinely global war whose consequences rippled across every inhabited continent — reshaping empires, forcing migrations
BFW Revisited: British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777–1778
In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new nation's capital was occupied territory.
But what did that actually mean for the people who lived there?
Not the generals, not the Congress: ordinary Philadelphians who had to decide whether to flee or stay, share their homes with British officers,
437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities
The British Army is at your door. They need a room. What do you do? For thousands of civilians living in cities occupied during the American War for Independence — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, Savannah — this wasn't a hypothetical. It was a reality that upended daily life and revealed a side of the revolution we rarely talk about. Lauren Duval, author of The Home F
BFW Revisited: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston: driven out by cannon that had traveled 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga. But where did the plan for those cannons take shape?In this Revisited episode, we return to our conversation with Garrett Cloer, now Program Manager for Interpretation and Visitor Experience at Saratoga National Historical Park, to explore the Longfellow House–Washington's
436 Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery
On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, driven out by cannon hauled 300 miles through winter wilderness from a crumbling fort in upstate New York.
Join Matthew Keagle, Curator at Fort Ticonderoga, as we trace the fort's dramatic history from its French origins in the Seven Years' War, its chaotic capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in May 1775, and Henry Knox's legendary e
435 Common Sense at 250: The Unfinished Work of Democracy, A Live Conversation
In January 1776, Thomas Paine told the American colonies to break free from their king. But what was supposed to come next? 250 years later, that question still doesn't have a good answer. To mark the anniversary of *Common Sense*, we traveled to Lewes, England, the town where Paine lived before he ever set foot in America, and recorded our first-ever LIVE episode inside Bull House, the b
434 Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
What would you fight for if you were free but still not equal? In 1777, brothers William and Benjamin Frank answered that question by enlisting in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. Freeborn men of color, they gambled that military service would earn them what freedom alone had not: equality, land, and a better future.
Historian Shirley Green, author of Revolutionar
BFW Revisited: The American Revolution's African American Soldiers
More than 6,000 Black men—free and enslaved—served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Yet their stories remain some of the least told of the war. In this revisited episode, we rejoin Judith Van Buskirk, Professor Emerita of History at SUNY Cortland and author of Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution, to explore what motivate
433 Entangled Revolutions: Haiti, France, and the American Revolution
What if the American Revolution was never just an American story?
Historian Ronald Angelo Johnson helps us uncover the deep connections between the American and Haitian Revolutions to reveal how both revolutions emerged from the same Atlantic imperial struggle for empire, racialized power, and war.
Using details from his book Entangled Alliances, Ron will guide us from the Treaty of Paris
BFW Revisited: The Marquis de Lafayette
What does it take to become a revolutionary in more than one revolution? In this revisited conversation with Mike Duncan, we explore the life of the Marquis de Lafayette—an ambitious young Frenchman who crossed the Atlantic to fight for the American cause and later carried those lessons into the political storms of France. From early idealism to a complicated role in two upheavals, Lafaye
432 How France and Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
The American Revolution wasn’t just a colonial rebellion; it was a global conflict shaped by European rivalries and high-stakes diplomacy. Without the help of foreign allies like France and Spain, the United States might never have won its independence.
Historian John Ferling joins us to explore the international dimensions of the Revolutionary War. Drawing from his new book Shots Heard R
BFW Revisited: The Common Cause
Before Common Sense could ignite a revolution, colonists had to be convinced they shared a cause worth fighting for. So how did Revolutionary leaders turn thirteen very different colonies into “Americans”—and what stories did they tell to make that unity feel real?
In this Ben Franklin’s World Revisited episode, historian Robert Parkinson returns to explore how newspapers and wartime mess
431 Common Sense at 250: The Pamphlet That Sparked a Revolution
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense turned a colonial rebellion into a full-blown revolution. But how did one pamphlet move so many minds in 1776—and why does it still matter 250 years later?
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Common Sense, historian and Director of the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University, Nora Slonimsky, joins us to explore Paine’s life, the pamphlet’s exp
BFW Revisited: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution
Common Sense didn’t just make an argument for independence—it moved through a world of newspapers, pamphlets, and personal networks that carried revolutionary ideas from one doorstep to the next. So how did political news travel in 1776, and what made print such a powerful engine of persuasion?
As we approach the 250th anniversary of Common Sense, Ben Franklin’s World Revisited returns to
430 The Founding Father of American Medicine: Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush was one of early America’s most fascinating figures. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a leading Philadelphia physician, and a thinker who believed that a healthy body was the foundation of a healthy republic. In this episode, historian Sarah Naramore, author of Benjamin Rush, Civic Health and Human Illness in the Early American Republic, introduces us to R
BFW Revisited: Smuggling and the American Revolution
British officials had a problem: Their American colonists wouldn't stop smuggling. Even after Parliament slashed tea prices and passed laws to make legal imports cheaper, colonists kept buying Dutch and French goods on the black market. So what was really going on? If it wasn't just about saving money, what drove thousands of merchants and consumers to risk fines, seizure, and worse? In t
429 Coffee in Early America: Why Americans Really Drink Coffee
Think the Boston Tea Party made America a coffee-drinking nation? Historian Michelle McDonald reveals the truth: colonists were already choosing coffee over tea because it was cheaper.
Michelle Craig McDonald, the Librarian/Director of the Library & Museum at the American Philosophical Society and author of Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States, explains
428 America's Forgotten Quest to Link Two Oceans
In the 1820s, American entrepreneurs, engineers, and politicians dared to dream big. They believed they could cut a canal, not through Panama, but through the wild, rain-soaked terrain of Nicaragua. Their goal: To link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and transform global trade forever.
But what inspired these ambitious "canal dreamers?” And why did they believe Nicaragua held the key to c
427 How States Are Planning the 250th: Commemorating the American Revolution in 2026
As we look ahead to the 250th anniversary—the semiquincentennial—of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, communities and commissions across the United States are asking big questions: How should we commemorate this historic milestone?
What’s the right balance between celebration and education? And how can this moment bring people together across political divides, generational gaps, a
BFW Revisited: The Mayflower
Each November, we Americans come together to celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that invites us to reflect on gratitude, community, and the stories we tell about our past.
But what do we really know about the origins of this holiday? What did the “First Thanksgiving” look like, and who were the people who made it happen?
In honor of Thanksgiving, we’re revisiting our 2018 conversation with
426 Indigenous Agriculture and the Hidden Science of Native Foodways
As Thanksgiving approaches, many Americans are gathering to reflect on gratitude, family—and of course—food.
It's the time of year when we may think about the so-called "First Thanksgiving" and imagine scenes of Pilgrims and Native peoples gathering in Massachusetts to share in the bounty of their fall harvests.
But how much do we really know about the food systems and agricultural know
425 Ken Burns' The American Revolution
What does it take to bring the American Revolution to life?
How can an event that took place 250 years ago be conveyed to us through modern-day film?
Ken Burns and his team worked to answer these questions in their new, epic six-part documentary, Ken Burns’ The American Revolution. Their work promises to deepen, complicate, and transform our understanding of the Revolution over 12 hours o
424 Dunmore's Proclamation & the American Revolution in Virginia
In November 1775, as tensions between the British Empire and its rebellious colonies continued to escalate, Virginia’s royal governor made a radical—and to some, terrifying—proclamation: Any enslaved person who fled a revolutionary enslaver and joined the British Army would gain their freedom.
Known to history as Dunmore’s Proclamation, this single decree changed the course of the America
BFW Revisited: Disruptions in Yorktown
What did it take to end the War for Independence?
When we think of the American Revolution’s final chapter, we think of the Siege of Yorktown.
Between September 28 and October 19, 1781, British forces endured a siege by the Franco-American forces that ultimately led to a triumphant Franco-American victory, British recognition of American independence, and the birth of a new nation.
But th
423 The Forgotten Artists of the American Revolution
Have you ever noticed how conversations about the American Revolution often center on great battles, founding documents, and famous statesmen?
What if, instead, we explored that world through the eyes—and the hands—of everyday people who shaped it through art?
Zara Anishanslin, Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware and Director of its Museum Studies
BFW Revisited: The World of John Singleton Copley
What does it mean to be caught between two worlds? Between loyalty and liberty, artistry and commerce, and between the British North American colonies and the British Empire?
We’re revisiting our exploration of the life of John Singleton Copley, one of early America’s most celebrated portrait artists. Copley’s story reveals much about the upheaval of the American Revolution and the choice
422: Plantation Goods: How Northern Industry Fueled Slavery
When we talk about slavery in Early America, we often focus on plantations: their large, fertile fields, their cash crops, and the people who labored on those fields to produce those cash crops under conditions of enslavement.
But what about the ordinary objects that made slavery work? The shoes, axes, cloth, and hoes? What can these everyday objects reveal about the economic and social s
BFW Revisited: Origins of American Manufacturing
When we picture the early United States, we often imagine a young nation fighting for political independence. But what about economic independence—and what did it take to achieve it?
Historian Lindsay Schakenbach Regele of Miami University in Ohio joins us to explore how manufacturing became central to the nation's post-Revolution identity.
Drawing from her book Manufacturing Advantage: W
421 Loyalism and Revolution in Georgia
What if loyalty, not rebellion, was the default position in revolutionary British North America?
It’s easy to forget that before 1776, most colonists identified as proud Britons. They didn’t see themselves as future Americans or revolutionaries; they saw themselves as subjects of a global empire. And in the colony of Georgia, many clung to that identity longer than we might expect.
Greg B
BFW Revisited: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
When we think of the American Revolution, we often focus on the patriots who fought for independence. But what about the Loyalists—those who chose to remain faithful to the British crown?
In this episode, we revisit a thought-provoking conversation with historian Brad Jones of Fresno State University, author of Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic
420: Creating the U.S. Federal Government
When we think about the founding of the United States, we often focus on the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and those first landmark elections.
But how did the United States actually build its federal government, the entire apparatus of state that could collect revenue, manage international diplomacy, provide law and order, and extend its reach across a rapidly expanding nation?
Who
BFW Revisited: Women & the Constitutional Moment of 1787
Each September, Constitution Day marks the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787.
But beyond celebration, this commemoration invites deeper reflection: Whose voices helped shape this foundational document? And who was imagined as part of the political community it created?
In honor of Constitution Day and Constitution Month, we’re revisiting a pivotal conversation from Ep
419 The North Carolina Regulator Movement
What happens when the very people meant to uphold justice become the ones exploiting it?
In the 1760s, North Carolina farmers watched sheriffs pocket their tax payments, judges rule in favor of corrupt land speculators, and government officials literally steal their land, all while claiming to represent the Crown’s interests.
Nathan Schultz, a public historian and the Site Manager at the
BFW Revisited: The Tory's Wife
Revolutionary upheaval didn't just reshape governments—it transformed daily life for ordinary families across colonial America.
In this revisited episode, historian Cynthia Kierner reveals the remarkable story of Jane Spurgin, a woman navigating loyalty, survival, and family obligations in Revolutionary-era North Carolina.
Through Jane's experience as a Loyalist's wife, we discover how
418 The Driver's Story
We often learn about slavery in early America through broad economic or political terms—cotton, sugar, markets, revolutions. But what happens when we turn our focus to the lived experiences of enslaved people themselves?
What did slavery feel and look like on the ground? What did survival look like day to day? And what do we make of the enslaved people who were forced into positions of au
BFW Revisited: The Business of Slavery
When we think about slavery in early America, we often rightfully focus on the human toll–the violence, the exploitation, the dehumanization that defined the institution. But slavery wasn’t just a system of forced labor; it was also a business.
Next week, in Episode 418, we’ll be investigating a different facet of the business of slavery: the story of slave drivers–enslaved people who wer
417 Roger Williams, Rogue Puritan
When we think of early American champions of religious liberty, one name often rises above the rest: Roger Williams.
Best known as the founder of Rhode Island and a fierce advocate for the separation of church and state, Williams was a man who defied convention at every turn. He turned down a prestigious post in Boston, challenged Puritan orthodoxy, and was ultimately banished—only to bui
BFW Revisited: The History of Genealogy
Why do we trace our family histories? What drives our desire to know who our ancestors were and how we’re connected to past people and events?
Genealogy is often seen as a modern pursuit, spurred by DNA tests and online records–but in reality, early Americans were deeply invested in understanding and documenting their familial ties. Their desire to understand these ties, however, extended
416: Lineage: Genealogy in Early America
Have you ever wondered why genealogy captivates so many people?
Whether it’s tracing a family tree back generations or holding on to stories told around the dinner table, genealogy offers a powerful sense of connection—a connection that can shape identities, claims of property, and even arguments for freedom.
But genealogy isn’t just a modern-day hobby. In early America, genealogy was a d
BFW Revisited: A Declaration in Draft
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most iconic documents in United States history. But what do we really know about how it came to be?
In our most recent episode, historian Emily Sneff helped us explore the Declaration through your questions–questions that revealed just how complex, living, and contested this document still is.
So in today’s Revisited episode, we take a listen
Lineage Book Preview
Preview of Karin Wulf’s book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America.
In eighteenth-century America, genealogy was more than a simple record of family ties--it was a powerful force that shaped society. Lineage delves into an era where individuals, families, and institutions meticulously documented their connections. Whether driven by personal passion or mandated
415: The Many Declarations of Independence
When you picture the Declaration of Independence, what comes to mind?
Most people envision a single, iconic document–parchment, signatures, maybe even a scene from National Treasure. But what if I told you, the Declaration of Independence isn’t just one document, but many documents? And that each version of the Declaration tells a different story–a story not just about American independen
414 Queerness and Reputation in Revolutionary America
How do we uncover queer lives from the distant past, especially in an era when language and records often erased or obscured them?
What did queerness look like in early America, and how might it have intersected with power, religion, and empire on the eve of the American Revolution?
John McCurdy, a Professor of History and Philosophy at Eastern Michigan University and the author of Vicio
413 Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker Hill
June 17, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first full-scale battle of what would become the American War for Independence.
Although technically a British victory, Bunker Hill proved that colonial soldiers could hold their own against the might of the British Empire. New England militiamen inflicted 1,054 casualties on the British, 50 percent of the Britis
BFW Revisited: On Juneteenth
Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, is nearly upon us, and it offers us the perfect moment for reflection.
What do we know about Juneteenth? Where did this holiday begin? And how has it grown from a regional commemoration into a national conversation about freedom, equality, and memory?
In this episode, we return to our conversation with An
412 The Franklin Stove
It might surprise you, but in the 18th century, people across the globe were reckoning with colder-than-usual weather brought on by the Little Ice Age—a centuries-long chill that made heating homes more urgent than ever.
At the same time, early Americans were cutting down trees at an unsustainable pace to stay warm. Enter Benjamin Franklin.
In this episode, Harvard historian Joyce Chaplin
BFW Revisited: The Early History of the U.S. Congress
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress, this episode revisits the origins of the United States Congress and how early Americans built a representative government from revolutionary ideals.
Historians Matt Wasniewski and Terrence Ruckner of the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives join us to explore how Congress evolved from its colo
411 Philadelphia: An Early History
Two hundred fifty years ago, in May 1775, delegates from thirteen British North American colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress.
Why was Philadelphia chosen as the seat of Congress? What made the city a critical hub for revolutionary ideas, commerce, and culture? And how has Philadelphia’s early history shaped the broader narrative of American Independence?
BFW Revisited: Founding Friendships
What did friendship between men and women look like in the decades following the American Revolution? Could emotional closeness and intellectual kinship flourish outside of marriage— and without scandal?
In this episode, we revisit our earlier conversation with historian Cassandra Good, author of Founding Friendships: Friendships between Men and Women in the Early American Republic. Build
Ben Franklin's World Trailer
This is a 30-second trailer for Ben Franklin's World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
410 The World's First Personal Advice Column
When did people begin seeking anonymous advice for their most profound personal dilemmas? What can the answers to their early questions tell us about the emotional lives of people in the past?
We’re traveling back in time to 1690s England to explore the world’s first personal advice column, The Athenian Mercury. This two-sided broadsheet publication invited readers to send in questions a
BFW Revisited: Paul Revere's Ride Through History
Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride is one of the most famous events in American history. On the night of April 18, 1775, Revere set out to warn the Massachusetts countryside that British regulars were marching to seize rebel supplies in Concord. Revere’s name has become legendary, immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
But how much do we real
409 The Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775
April 19, 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord—the moment the American Revolution turned from protest to war.
What do we really know about that fateful day? How did the people of Concord prepare for what they faced in April 1775?
David Wood, the longtime curator of the Concord Museum and the author of Eyewitness to Revolution: The American Revolution
BFW Revisited: The Road to Concord
April 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
One of the lesser-known catalysts for these battles was the hunt for artillery. The British military, under General Thomas Gage, sought to seize weapons stockpiled by colonial militias, while Massachusetts Patriots scrambled to secure and hide weapons. This tug-of-war over firepower played a crucial role in pu
408 The Memory of 1776
The American Revolution was more than just a series of events that unfolded between 1763 and 1783, the American Revolution is our national origin story–one we’ve passed down, shaped, and reshaped for the last 250 years.
But what do we really mean when we talk about “the Revolution?” Whose Revolution are we remembering? And how has the meaning of 1776 shifted from generation to generatio
BFW Revisited: Samuel Adams
This month, we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the “shot heard round the world” that ignited the Revolutionary War.
But before those battles, and before the Revolution became a war for independence, it was a movement—a fight to secure more local control over government. And no one worked harder to transform that movement into a revolution than S
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