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. It is produced by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Episodes
July 29, 2025 • 74 mins
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 build a new colony rooted in his radical ideas...
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July 22, 2025 • 47 mins
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 far beyond sheer curiosity.
Last week, in...
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July 15, 2025 • 66 mins
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 deeply consequential practice with social, ...
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July 8, 2025 • 78 mins
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 to the podcast that Emily helped to produc...
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July 3, 2025 • 2 mins
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 by churches, local governments, and court...
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July 1, 2025 • 64 mins
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 independence, but about the people who printed, read,...
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June 24, 2025 • 61 mins
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 Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the America...
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June 17, 2025 • 74 mins
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 British force. The New Englanders sustained 411 c...
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June 10, 2025 • 54 mins
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 Annette Gordon-Reed in Episode 304. A nati...
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June 3, 2025 • 57 mins
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 joins us to explore how Franklin tackled ...
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May 27, 2025 • 68 mins
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 colonial and revolutionary predecessors into th...
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May 20, 2025 • 64 mins
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?
Paul Kahan, a historian of American poli...
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May 12, 2025 • 45 mins
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. Building on our recent exploration of love and a...
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May 8, 2025 • 37 secs
This is a 30-second trailer for Ben Franklin's World.
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May 6, 2025 • 66 mins
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 about anything–from science and religion to ...
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April 29, 2025 • 89 mins
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 really know about Paul Revere beyond that single...
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April 22, 2025 • 58 mins
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 in the Concord Museum, joins us to explore ...
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April 15, 2025 • 56 mins
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 pushing Massachusetts from political resistan...
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April 8, 2025 • 65 mins
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 generation?
Michael Hattem, a scholar of the America...
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April 1, 2025 • 63 mins
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 Samuel Adams.
To help us investigate, we’re ...
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