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
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's Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:30 Introducing Mary Beth Norton
00:07:17 American Scripture: Pauline Maier
00:10:00 Graduate School with Pauline Maier
00:13:36 The State of Historians' Thinking in the 1990s
00:15:23 Other Declarations of Independence
00:21:08 Thomas Jefferson's Drafting of the Declaration
00:23:44 Why Create a Parchment Copy of the Declaration?
00:28:24 How the Declaration Became American Scripture
00:30:32 The Impact of American Scripture
00:32:10 Situating the Declaration in the American Revolution
00:35:39 The Role of the Parchment Copy Today
00:40:12 Closing Thoughts on Pauline Maier
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 155: Pauline Maier's American Revolution
🎧 Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution
🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
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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 Kane, Associate Professor of History at the University at Albany and author of Shirts Powdered Red, reveals how Haudenosaunee women used cloth, trade, and cultural creativity as tools of sovereignty and survival across three centuries of colonial pressure.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/406
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 021: Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
🎧 Episode 223: A native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region
🎧 Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua
🎧 Episode 353: Women and the Making of Catawba Identity
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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 Committee members.
Clermont State Historic Site: Website
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/447
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:46 The Lee Resolution and the Committee of Five
00:05:26 Robert R. Livingston's Early Life
00:06:56 Colonial New York Politics
00:11:02 Livingston's Appointment to the Second Continental Congress
00:15:20 Why Livingston Chosen for Declaration Committee
00:18:44 Livingston's feud with John Adams
00:19:18 Livingston Misses the Vote for Independence
00:20:50 Livingston Becomes Chancellor of New York State
00:24:06 Livingston's Role in Steam Navigation
00:26:15 Clermont State Historic Site
00:32:35 Roger Sherman's Early Life
00:36:47 Sherman's Family and Life in New Haven
00:37:43 Sherman's Involvement in the Imperial Crisis
00:40:38 Sherman's Role in the Second Continental Congress
00:42:28 Why Sherman Chosen For Declaration Committee
00:43:42 Sherman's Role in Drafting the Declaration
00:46:16 The Connecticut Compromise, 1787
00:50:28 What Made Sherman Effective in Legislatures
00:53:47 1776 in Context
00:58:10 Conclusion
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of Adams & Jefferson
🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July
🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?
🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
🎧 Episode 439: When the Declaration of Independence Was News
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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 Declaration was never one man's work.
Together, they show how John Adams — not Jefferson — was the intellectual architect behind "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." How Benjamin Franklin changed the Declaration with just four or five surgical edits. And what the Second Continental Congress cut from Jefferson's original draft, including his striking grievance blaming King George III for the international slave trade.
Originally recorded in 2017 as part of Ben Franklin's World's Doing History to the Revolution series, this episode pairs with Episode 446 and Episode 447 to mark the Declaration's 250th anniversary.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/141
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration
🎧 Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance
🎧 Episode 443: How Independence Happend, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution, 1776
🎧 Episode 444: How Independence Happened, Pt 2: The Model Treaty
🎧 Episode 445: How Independence Happened, Pt 3: Articles of Confederation
🎧 Episode 446: The Declaration of Independence at 250
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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?" Who did they believe was eligible to pursue life, liberty, and happiness? And how are the generations living in the United States today thinking through their own answers?
Four historians join us to explore these questions. Robert Parkinson and Steve Sarson draw on their new books to help us understand what it meant in 1776. Anthea Hartig and Virginia Scharff show us how two 250th anniversary museum exhibitions use objects to make the Declaration's living legacy tangible, and to remind us that its promises have always been claimed not just in words, but in action.
Rob's Book | Steve's Book | Smithsonian Exhibit | Autry Exhibit
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:44 Celebrating the Declaration of Independence
00:03:50 The Declaration As An Ongoing Experiment
00:04:14 Anthea Hartig on the National Museum of American History
00:05:30 Virginia Scharff on the Autry Museum of the American West
00:07:58 Robert Parkinson on Understanding the Declaration
00:19:17 Steve Sarson on the Declaration's Philosophical Argument
00:21:10 The Original Meaning of the Declaration
00:34:47 Conclusion
00:41:16 The Massachusetts Historical Society's Declaration Exhibit
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness
🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
🎧 Episode 439: When the Declaration of Independence Was News in 1776
🎧 Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance
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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 sparked a debate over federal vs. state power that has never gone away.
This is the third episode in our How Independence Happened series. In Part 1, we explored Richard Henry Lee's Virginia Resolution of June 7, 1776. In Part 2, we examined the Model Treaty and how the new United States made foreign alliances. In this third part, we're joined by historians Jane Calvert and Jonathan Gienapp so we can investigate the Articles of Confederation, the third element of independence.
Jane's Website | Book
Jonathan's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/445
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:34 The Articles of Confederation
00:08:29 Why A Confederation Was Important
00:12:49 Why the Second Continental Congress Create A Formal Union
00:21:44 Drafting the Articles of Confederation
00:22:38 John Dickinson's Role in Drafting the Articles
00:45:50 The Founding Generation's Ideas About Government
01:05:40 Viewing the Articles of Confederation in Context
01:13:07 The Unwritten Constitution of the People
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 179: Governance During the Critical Period
🎧 Episode 258: John Dickinson, Life, Religion, & Politics
🎧 Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
🎧 Episode 366: James Wilson & the U.S. Constitution
🎧 Episode 443: How Independence Happened, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution
🎧 Episode 444: How Independence Happened, Pt 2: The Model Treaty
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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 Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Harrison — to figure out how to achieve international recognition. The result was the Model Treaty: a document we almost never discuss today, but one that Adams considered his most important contribution to Congress and the nation.
Historians Sara Georgini and Eliga Gould guide us through Adams's revolutionary blueprint for American foreign policy and how the founders understood that the United States would need to become a "treaty worthy" nation before France would take them seriously.
This is the second episode in a three-part series.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Harrison — to figure out how to achieve international recognition. The result was the Model Treaty: a document we almost never discuss today, but one that Adams considered his most important contribution to Congress and the nation.
Historians Sara Georgini and Eliga Gould guide us through Adams's revolutionary blueprint for American foreign policy and the founders' understanding that the United States would need to become a "treaty-worthy" nation before France would take it seriously.
This is the second episode in a three-part series.
Lige's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/444
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:21 Three Legs of Independence
00:01:17 The Second Continental Congress Votes Independence
00:02:58 The Second Leg of Independence: Foreign Alliances
00:03:28 The Model Treaty
00:07:12 Why the Virginia Resolution Included Foreign Alliances
00:19:00 Specifics of the Model Treaty
00:21:30 Founders' Goals for the Model Treaty
00:28:21 The Model Treaty Drafting Committee
00:41:20 The Model Treaty as a Document
00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense
00:50:07 Commercial Alliances
01:04:42 The Model Treaty's Place in the American Revolution
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 007: John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Project
🎧 Episode 128: American Revolutions: A Continental History
🎧 Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Jefferson & Adams
🎧 Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Save the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 433: Entangled Alliances: Haiti, France, & the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 443: How Independence Actually Happened, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution
SUPPORT OUR WORK
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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 Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and author ofOur Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, reveals how New Hampshire's desperate need for a functioning government set the Continental Congress on the path toward independence, why the Declaration was authored by many voices — not just Thomas Jefferson — and how a slow, careful reading of the document uncovers a powerful argument that freedom and equality are entwined. You cannot have one without the other.
This is the essential starting point for Ben Franklin's World's Independence at 250 series.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/018
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 119: The Heart of the Declartion
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence
🎧 Episode 438: The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
🎧 Episode 439: When the Declartion of Independence War News in 1776
🎧 Episode 440: Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
SUPPORT OUR WORK
🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com
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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 the armies were structured, what soldiers actually ate, what camp followers endured, and how soldiers found humanity amid grinding hardship.
You'll hear about a Black Continental soldier who had eaten nothing but bread for eleven days, and was still writing letters home that went unanswered. A Georgia soldier who agreed to fight for the British just to escape a prison ship, then deserted and marched across two states to rejoin Nathanael Greene's army. And you'll discover why John Adams believed the most dangerous moment of the Revolution wasn't a battle at all.
Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:05:44 Structure of the British and Continental Armies
00:10:33 Militia, German Soldiers, and Indian Allies
00:20:43 Everyday Life in the American War for Independence
00:25:80 Camp Followers
00:33:10 Downtime in the Army
00:36:59 Soldiers' Letters
00:46:00 Food Procurement & Supply Chains
00:50:27 Supplementing Rations
00:55:34 War Mementoes & Plunder
00:58:36 Medical Care in the Army
01:08:07 The Revolution in Context
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 158: The Revolutionaries' Army
🎧 Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America
🎧 Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America
🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2
🎧 Episode 348: Valley Forge
🎧 Episode 374: The Revolutionary War in the West
SUPPORT OUR WORK
🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World
REQUEST A TOPIC
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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.
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