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 City Upon a Hill. The Athens of America. The Cradle of Liberty.
Boston has many names because it has played important roles in the history of North America. But how did Boston, or “The Hub,” come to be?
Why did the Puritans who sailed from England in 1630, choose to settle in Massachusetts Bay on the Shawmut Peninsula?
What were their early days like?
Today, we explore answers to those questions by exploring the history of the two Bostons—Boston, England & Boston, New England— during the 17th century with Rose Doherty, President of the Partnership of Historic Bostons.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/095
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Who are you friends with?
Why are you friends with your friends?
In the early American republic, men and women formed and maintained friendships for many of the same reasons we make friends today: companionship, shared interests, and, in some cases, because they helped expand thinking and social circles.
Today, we explore friendship in the early American republic. Specifically, we investigate what it was like for men and women to form and maintain friendships with each other. Our guide for this exploration is Cassandra Good, author of Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men & Women in the Early American Republic.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/094
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What can the collections of the Harvard University Libraries teach us about our early American past?
It turns out, quite a lot.
Taylor Stoermer, a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, takes us through the Harvard Libraries’ new digital and free-to-use history archive: the Colonial North American Project.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/093
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How do historians conduct research online? This is your second-most asked question after how did everyday people live their day-to-day lives in early America.
As the “Doing History” series explores how historians work, it offers the perfect opportunity to answer your question.
Sharon Block, a Professor of History at the University of California-Irvine, has made use of computers and digital resources to do history for years, which is why she serves as our guide for how to research history online.
About the Series
“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/092
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Did you know that George Washington’s favorite drink was whiskey?
Actually, it wasn’t.
Washington preferred Madeira, a fortified Portuguese wine from the island of Madeira. Why the false start to today’s exploration of history?
Gregory Dowd, a Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan, leads us on an exploration of rumors, legends, and hoaxes that circulated throughout early America.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/091
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The American Revolution inspired revolutions in France, the Caribbean, and in Latin and South America between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.
Naturally, Spanish and Portuguese American revolutionaries turned to the United States for assistance with their fights. How did Americans in the United States respond to these calls for assistance? What did they make of these other “American Revolutions?”
Caitlin Fitz, an Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University and the author of Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions, helps us investigate answers to these questions.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/090
Helpful Show Links
Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
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How do you uncover the life of a slave who left no paper trail?
What can her everyday life tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some slaves made the transition from slavery to freedom?
Today, we explore the life of Charity Folks, an enslaved woman from Maryland who gained her freedom in the late-18th century. Our guide through Charity’s life is Jessica Millward, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and author of Finding Charity’s Folk: Enslaved and Free Black Women in Maryland.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/089
Helpful Show Links
Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
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Historians rely on secondary historical sources almost as much as they rely on primary historical sources.
But what are secondary historical sources and how do they help historians know what they know about the past?
Michael McDonnell, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Sydney, guides us through how he used secondary historical sources to investigate the pivotal role Native Americans played in the history of the Great Lakes region and early North America.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/088
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
After achieving independence from Great Britain, the new United States and its member states had to pay war debts. As the national government lacked the power to tax its citizens, the problem of paying war debts fell to the states.
Many states tried to solve the post-war debt problem by paying state debts before national debts. But Massachusetts tried to pay both. Its strategy created hardship for many Bay Staters and ultimately sparked a rebellion.
Sean Condon, a Professor of History at Merrimack College and author of Shays's Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the rebellion, which we remember today as Shays’ Rebellion.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/087
Helpful Show Links
Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
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Over the course of his long life, Benjamin Franklin traveled to and lived in London twice. The first time he went as a teenager. The second as a man and colonial agent. All told he spent nearly 18 years living in the heart of the British Empire.
How did Franklin’s experiences in London shape his opportunities and view of the world?
George Goodwin, author of Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father, leads us on an exploration of Franklin’s life in London.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/086
Helpful Show Links
Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
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