Stay ConnectedThis 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.
Copyright: © Liz Covart 2024
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
In this episode, we explore Douglass’ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?
To help us investigate this question, we are joined by Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and Christopher Bonner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland.
This episode originally posted as Episode 277.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/321
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
🎧 Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers
🎧 Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth
🎧 Episode 255: Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens
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Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706, to Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Although Franklin began his life as the youngest son of a youngest son, he traveled through many parts of what is now the northeastern United States and the Province of Quebec and lived in four different cities in three different countries: Boston, Philadelphia, London, and Passy, France.
In honor of Benjamin Franklin’s 316th birthday, Márcia Balisciano, the Founding Director of the Benjamin Franklin House museum in London, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s life in London using details from the largest artifact Franklin left behind: his rented rooms at 36 Craven Street.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/320
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 001: James N. Green, Library Company of Philadelphia
🎧 Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
🎧 Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
🎧 Episode 169: Thomas Kid, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
🎧 Episode 175: Daniel Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House
🎧 Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin
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One of the Caribbean islands that Christopher Columbus stopped at during his 1492-voyage was an alligator-shaped island that sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico in between the Yucatán and Florida peninsulas. This is, of course, is the island of Cuba.
What do we know about early Cuba, the island the Spanish described as the “Key to the Indies?” What kind of relationship and exchange did early Cuba have with British North America and the early United States?
Ada Ferrer, a Professor of History at New York University and author of Cuba: An American History, joins us to investigate the early history of Cuba.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 090: Caitlin Fitz, Age of American Revolutions
🎧 Episode 104: Andrew Lipman, The Saltwater Frontier
🎧 Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery
🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions
🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1
🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2
🎧 Episode 313: Mike Duncan, The Marquis de Lafayette
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What challenges do National Park Service interpretive rangers face when they interpret non-British colonial history? How did the relationships between Ste. Geneviéve's inhabitants and Indigenous peoples change over time?
NPS Interpretive Ranger Claire Casey is back to answer more of your questions about colonial Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri and the Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318
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About 620 miles north of New Orleans and 62 miles south of St. Louis, sits the town of Ste. Geneviéve, Missouri.
Established in 1750 by the French, Ste. Geneviéve reveals much about what it was like to establish a colony in the heartland of North America and what it was like for colonists to live so far removed from seats of imperial power.
Claire Casey, a National Park Service interpretative ranger at the Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park, joins us to explore the early American history of Ste. Geneviéve.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/318
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark and the Fight for the Illinois Country
🎧 Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
🎧 Episode 120: Marcia Zug, Mail Order Brides in Early America
🎧 Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery
🎧 Episode 308: Jessica Marie Johnson, Slavery and Freedom in French Louisiana
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The first Jewish colonists in North America arrived in 1654. From that moment, Jews worked to build and contribute to early American society and the birth of the United States.
Gemma Birnbaum and Melanie Meyers, the Executive Director and Director of Collections and Engagement at the American Jewish Historical Society, join us to explore the history and experiences of Jews in early America and their contributions to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/317
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 121: Wim Klooster, The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World
🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and its culture
🎧 Episode 232: Christopher Hodson, The Acadian Diaspora
🎧 Episode 311: Katherine Cartè, Religion and the American Revolution
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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com
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In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This purchase included the important port city of New Orleans. But the United States did not just acquire the city’s land, peoples, and wealth– the American government also inherited the city’s Yellow Fever problem.
Kathryn Olivarius, an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University and author of Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, leads us on an exploration of yellow fever, immunity, and inequality in early New Orleans.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/316
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
🎧 Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early America Republic
🎧 Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum
🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 1
🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2
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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com
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What has enabled the American experiment in democracy to endure for nearly 250 years?
What is it about early American history that captivates peoples’ attention and makes them want to support the creation of historical scholarship and the sharing of historical knowledge?
David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group and a great student and supporter of history and history education, joins us to explore his patriotic philanthropy and the history of American democracy with details from his book, The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/315
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
🎧 Episode 038: Carolyn Harris, Magna Carta & Its Gifts to North America
🎧 Episode 078: Rachel Shelden, Washington Brotherhood
🎧 Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
🎧 Episode 285: Elections and Voting in the Early Republic
REQUEST A TOPIC
📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com
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The Massachusetts Historical Society has a podcast!
In this bonus episode of Ben Franklin's World, we'll introduce you to The Object of History, with a full-episode preview of "Episode 4: A Miniature Portrait of Elizabeth Freeman."
For more information about this new podcast and how to subscribe visit: https://masshist.org/podcast.
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We rejoin Colin Calloway, Professor of History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, in this bonus episode so he can answer more of your questions about Native American experiences in early American cities.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/314 Join Ben Franklin's World!
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