Ben Franklin's World

After the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), Great Britain instituted the Proclamation Line of 1763. The Line sought to create a lasting peace in British North America by limiting British colonial settlement east of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1768, colonists and British Indian agents negotiated the Treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labour to extend the boundary line further west. In 1774, the Shawnee-Dunmore War broke out as colonists attempted to push further west. Fallon Burner and Russell Reed, two of the three co-managers of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s American Indian Initiative, join us to investigate the Shawnee-Dunmore War and what this war can show us about Indigenous life, warfare, and sovereignty during the mid-to-late eighteenth century. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/398 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg American Indian Initiative Complementary Episodes Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet Episode 353: Women and the Making of Catawba Identity Episode 367: Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 368: Brafferton Indian School, Part 2 Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

It’s November, the time of year when we Americans get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday. Although the federal holiday we know and honor today came about in 1863, Thanksgiving is a day that many modern-day Americans associate with the Indigenous peoples and religious separatists of Plymouth, Massachusetts. What do we know about the Indigenous people the so-called Pilgrims interacted with? This month, in between our new episodes about Indigenous history, the Ben Franklin’s World Revisited series explores the World of the Wampanoag. The World of the Wampanoag originally posted as a two-episode series in December 2020. This first episode will introduce you to the life, societies, and cultures of the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples the Plymouth colonists interacted with before the colonists’ arrival in December 1620. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/290 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Mass Humanities National Endowment for the Humanities Omohundro Institute Complementary Episodes Episode 104: The Salwater Frontier: Native Americans and Colonists on the Northeastern Coast Episode 132: Indigenous London Episode 184: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America Episode 220: New England indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery Episode 235: A 17th-Century Native American Life Episode 267: Snowshoe Country Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 2   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The North American continent is approximately 160 million years old, yet in the United States, we tend to focus on what amounts to 3300 millionths of that history, which is the period between 1492 to the present. Kathleen DuVal, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, asks us to widen our view of early North American history to at least 1,000 years. Using details from her book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, DuVal shows us that long before European colonists and enslaved Africans arrived on North American shores, Indigenous Americans built vibrant cities and civilizations, and adapted to a changing world and climate. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/397 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Ben Franklin’s World Listener Community Colonial Williamsburg Native American Heritage Month Programs Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Independence Lost Episode 189: The Little Ice Age Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua Episode 286: Native Sovereignty Episode 310: History of the Blackfeet Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Episode 362: Treaties Between the U.S. & Native Nations Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Ben Franklin’s World Revisited is a series where Liz surfaces one of our earlier episodes that complements and adds additional perspectives to the histories we discuss in our new episodes. Given the conversation we just had in Episode 396 about Carpenters’ Hall & the First Continental Congress, Liz would like to offer you an episode she produced in 2017 as part of our Doing History: To the Revolution series. Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution, furthers the discussion we just had about the First Continental Congress by helping us investigate how the American revolutionaries formed governments as imperial rule in British North American disintegrated and the American Revolution turned to war.

“Monday, September 5, 1774. A number of the Delegates chosen and appointed by the Several Colonies and Provinces in North America to meet and hold a Congress at Philadelphia assembled at the Carpenters’ Hall.”  That statement begins the Journals of the Continental Congress, the official meeting minutes of the First and Second Continental Congresses. Between September 1774 and March 1789, the congressmen filled 34-printed volumes worth of entries. Join Michael Norris, the Executive Director of the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, for a tour of Carpenters’ Hall, the meeting place of the First Continental Congress, and discover more about this historic building and the historic work of the First Continental Congress. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/396 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Ben Franklin's World Listener Community Complementary Episodes Episode 001: The Library Company of Philadelphia Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin Episode 229: The Townshend Moment Episode 292: Craft in Early America Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we think about the American Revolution, textbooks, documentaries, and historic sites have trained most of us to think about American triumphs in battles or events when American revolutionaries overcame moments of despair, when all seemed lost, to triumph in the cause of American independence. Benjamin L. Carp will help us look at the American Revolution differently. The Daniel M. Lyons Chair of History at Brooklyn College, Ben will use details from his book The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution to help us consider the strategic military importance of New York City and its capture by the British Army and how both armies used fire as an instrument of war. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/395 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Ben Franklin's World Facebook Community Complementary Episodes Episode 113: Building the Empire State Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 185: Early New York City and Its Culture Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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 Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/394 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 061: The Retirement of George Washington Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson Episode 145: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution Episode 150: Abigail Adams: Revolutionary Speculator Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton Episode 231: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin Episode 307: History and the American Revolution Episode 377: Phillis Wheatley & the Playwright Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

The Constitution is a document of “We the People.” The ways Americans have supported, debated, and interpreted the Constitution since 1787 have played a vital role in the rise of politics and political parties within the United States. What kind of political culture did the United States Constitution and its interpretations help establish? What were the expectations, practices, and cultural norms early Americans had to follow when debating the Constitution or its interpretation in the early American republic?  In honor of Consitution Day on September 17, the day the United States commemorates the signing of the United States Constitution, we speak with two historians–Jonathan Gienapp, an Associate Professor of History and Associate Professor of Law at Stanford University and Rachel Shelden, Director of the Richard Civil War Era Center and an Associate Professor of History at Penn State University– about early American political culture and political civility in the early American republic.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/393 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Constitution Day Resources Complementary Episodes Episode 078: Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War  Episode 160: The Politics of Tea Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress Episode 210: Considering John Marshall, Part 1 Episode 211: Considering John Marshall, Part 2 Episode 285: Election & Voting in the Early Republic    Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

What does history have to tell us about how we, as Americans, came to define people by their race; the visual ways we have grouped people together based on their skin color, facial features, hair texture, and ancestry? As you might imagine, history has a LOT to tell us about this question! So today, we’re going to explore one aspect of the answer to this question by focusing on some of the ways religion shaped European and early American ideas about race and racial groupings. Kathryn Gin Lum is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. She’s also the author of Heathen: Religion and Race in American History. Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/392 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Constitution Day Resources Complementary Episodes Episode 047: Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic Episode 109: The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden Episode 139: Indian Enslavement in the Americas Episode 311: Religion and the American Revolution Episode 334: Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 376: Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Do you ever wonder how governments met and worked in colonial British America?  Williamsburg, Virginia, served as the capital of Virginia between 1699 and 1779. During its 80 years of service as capital, Williamsburg represented the center of British authority in Virginia. This meant the Royal Governor of the colony lived in Williamsburg. Indigenous, colonial, and other delegations came to Williamsburg to negotiate treaties and trade with Virginia. And, the colonial government met in Williamsburg’s capitol building to pass laws, listen to court cases, and debate ideas. Katie Schinabeck, a historian of historical memory and the American Revolution and the Digital Projects Researcher at Colonial Williamsburg’s Innovation Studios, takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of Williamsburg’s colonial capitol building to explore how the government of colonial Virginia worked and operated. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/391 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Civics Resources Complementary Episodes Episode 084: How Historians Read Historical Sources Episode 099: Pirates & Pirate Nests in the British Atlantic World Episode 153: Committees and Congresses: Governments of the American Revolution Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights Episode 315: History and American Democracy Episode 328: Warren Milteer, Free People of Color in Early America Episode 389: Nicole Eustace, Indigenous Justice in Early America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we think about the American Revolution, the French Revolution, or the Haitian Revolution, we think about the ideals of freedom and equality. These ideals were embedded and discussed in all of these revolutions. What we don’t always think about when we think about these revolutions are the objects that inspired, came out of, and were circulated as they took place.  Ashli White, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Miami in Florida, joins us to investigate the “revolutionary things” that were created and circulated during the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions with details from her book Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/390 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment Complementary Episodes Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America Episode 164: The American Revolution in the Age of Revolutions Episode 165: The Age of Revolutions Episode 177, Martin Brückner, The Social Life of Maps in America Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 319: Cuba: An Early American History   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Early North America was a place that contained hundreds of distinct Indigenous nations and peoples who spoke at least 2,000 distinct languages. In the early sixteenth century, Spain began to establish colonies on mainland North America, and they were followed by the French, Dutch, and English, and the forced migration of enslaved Africans who represented at least 45 different ethnic and cultural groups. With such diversity, Early North America was full of cross-cultural encounters. What did it look like when people of different ethnicities, races, and cultures interacted with one another? How were the people involved in cross-cultural encounters able to understand and overcome their differences? Nicole Eustace is an award-winning historian at New York University. Using details from her Pulitzer-prize-winning book, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America, Nicole will take us through one cross-cultural encounter in 1722 between the Haudenosaunee and Susquehannock peoples and English colonists in Pennsylvania. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/389 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment Complementary Episodes Episode 080: Liberty’s Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America  Episode 171: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America Episode 220: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of Slavery  Episode 264: Treaty of Canandaigua Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America Episode 362: Treaties Between the US and American Indian Nations  Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Happy Fourth of July!  We’ve created special episodes to commemorate, celebrate, and remember the Fourth of July for years. Many of our episodes have focused on the Declaration of Independence, how and why it was created, the ideas behind it, and its sacred words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This year, we examine a different aspect of the Declaration of Independence: the man behind the boldest signature on the document: John Hancock. Brooke Barbier is a public historian and holds a Ph.D. in American History from Boston College. She’s also the author of the first biography in many years about John Hancock, it’s called King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/388 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg  Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-enactment  Complementary Episodes Episode 018: Our Declaration Episode 129: John Bell, The Road to Concord, 1775 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? Episode 306: The Horse’s Tail: Revolution & Memory in Early New York City Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

When we think of California, we might think about sunny weather, Hollywood, beaches, wine country, and perhaps the Gold Rush. What we don’t usually think about when we think about California is the state’s long history of slavery. Jean Pfaelzer, a Californian and a Professor Emerita of English, Asian Studies, and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware, joins us to lead us through some of California’s long 250-year history of slavery with details from her book, California: A Slave State.  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/387 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation American Friends of Lafayette Grand Tour Re-Enactment Complementary Episodes Episode 014: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 Episode 067: An Environmental History of Early California and Hawaii  Episode 115: The Early American History of Texas Episode 139: The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas Episode 233: A History of Russian America  Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade Episode 371: An Archive of Indigenous Slavery  Episode 384: Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

In this special Juneteenth episode, as we honor the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, we delve into the work of those working to preserve slave dwellings across the United States, safeguarding the essential stories these structures embody. In our conversation, Joseph McGill, the Executive Director and Founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, joins us to share why former slave dwellings are vital to our nation's history and what they reveal about the lives of those who once lived in them. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/386 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 075: How Archives Work Episode 079: What is a Historic Source? Episode 089: Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School Episode 360: Kyera Singleton, Slavery & Freedom in Massachusetts Episode 378: Everyday Black Living in Early America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The United States Constitution of 1787 gave many Americans pause about the powers the new federal government could exercise and how the government's leadership would rest with one person, the president. The fact that George Washington would likely serve as the new nation’s first president calmed many Americans’ fears that the new nation was creating an opportunity for a hereditary monarch. Washington had proven his commitment to a democratic form of government when he gave up his army command peacefully and voluntarily. He had proven he was someone Americans could trust. Plus, George Washington had no biological heirs–no sons–to whom he might pass on the presidency. But while George Washington had no biological heirs, he did have heirs. Cassandra A. Good, an Associate Professor of History at Marymount University and author of First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America, joins us to explore Washington’s heirs and the lives they lived. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/385 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 027: A History of Stepfamilies in Early America Episode 033: George Washington and His Library  Episode 061: George Washinton in Retirement  Episode 074: Martha Washington  Episode 137: The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave Episode 183: George Washinton’s Mount Vernon  Episode 222: The Early History of Washington, D.C.  Episode 265: An Early History of the White House   Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

Article IV, Section 3 of the United States Constitution establishes guidelines by which the United States Congress can admit new states to the American Union. It clearly states that “no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State…without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.” Five states have been formed from pre-existing states: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maine. How did the process of forming a state from a pre-existing state work? Why would territories within a state want to declare their independence from their home state? Joshua Smith, the interim director of the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York, and author of the book Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812, leads us on an exploration of Maine’s journey to statehood. Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/384 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 030: Northern New England’s Religious Geography Episode 057: Money and the American State Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man Episode 103, James Monroe and & His Estate Highland Episode 134: Pulpit and Nation Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

If you will recall from Episode 331, the Williamsburg Bray School is the oldest existing structure in the United States that we know was used to educate African and African American children. As the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation prepares the Bray School for you to visit and see, we’re having many conversations about the history of the school, its scholars, and early Black American History in general. During one of these conversations, the work of Kevin Dawson came up. Kevin is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Merced and author of the book, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/383 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 104: The Saltwater Frontier: Europeans & Native Americans on the Northeastern Coast Episode 241: Pearls and the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 250: Virginia, 1619 Episode 277: Who's Fourth of July? Episode 331: Discovery of the Williamsburg Bray School Episode 347: African and African American Music Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter  

Within the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States present twenty-seven grievances against King George III as they declare their reasons for why the thirteen British North American colonies sought their independence from Great Britain. Their twenty-fifth grievance declares that King George III “is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat [sic] the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun.” What do we know about the “Armies of foreign Mercenaries” King George III sent to his rebellious American colonies?  Friederike Baer, an Associate Professor of History at Penn State Abbington College, joins us to explore the lives and wartime experiences of the 30,000 German soldiers the British Crown hired and dispatched to North America during the American War for Independence. Frederike is the author of the award-winning book Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/382 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 046: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It  Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence  Episode 081: After Yorktown Episode 144: The Common Cause Episode 147: British Soldiers, American War  Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers Episode 252: The Highland Soldier in North America Episode 375: Misinformation Nation Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

The vast and varied landscapes of Texas loom large in our American imaginations. As does Texas culture with its BBQ, cowboys, and larger-than-life personality. But before Texas was a place that embraced ranching, space flight, and country music, Texas was a place with rich and vibrant Indigenous cultures and traditions and with Spanish and Mexican cultures and traditions. Martha Menchaca, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, is a scholar of Texas history and United States-Mexican culture. She joins us to explore the Spanish and Mexican origins of Texas with details from her book, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/381 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas Episode 178, Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America Episode 241: Molly Warsh, Pearls & the Nature of the Spanish Empire Episode 334, Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain Episode 358: Charles Tingley, St Augustine and Early Florida Episode 371: Estevan Rael-Gálvez, An Archive of Indigenous Slavery Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter