History, Natural History & the Arts
In 1621, the Pilgrims of Plimoth (or Plymouth) Colony and their Wampanoag neighbors came together to celebrate their first harvest. Today we remember this event as the first Thanksgiving.
But what do we really know about this holiday and the people who celebrated it? [Read more…] about The Pilgrims of Plimoth & The First Thanksgiving
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Misha Ewen, a Lecturer in early modern history at the University of Bristol and author of The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660 (University of Penn Press, 2022), joins host Liz Covart to discuss the early history of the Virginia Company and its early investors. [Read more…] about The Virginia Venture: Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660
Much of early American history comprises stories of empire and how different Native, European, and Euro-American nations vied for control of North American territory, resources, and people. [Read more…] about The Highland Soldier in North America
This week on The Historians Podcast our guest is Sherri Cash, history professor at Utica College, who talks about the ginseng root, which grew wild in upstate New York in the 18th century. A colonial global trading network shipped ginseng to China, where it was prized as a health tonic, in return for tea. Cash recently gave a talk on the subject at Old Fort Johnson in Fort Johnson, NY.
Listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about The Colonial Ginseng Trade (Historians Podcast)
In 1492, Christopher Columbus’ voyage across the Atlantic linked Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean. As Columbus’ sponsor, Spain became the first European Power to use the peoples, resources, and lands of the Americas and the Caribbean as the basis for its Atlantic Empire.
How did this empire function and what wealth was Spain able to extract from these peoples and lands? [Read more…] about Pearls and the Nature of the Spanish Empire
Within days of the Boston Massacre, Bostonians politicized the event. They circulated a pamphlet about “the Horrid Massacre” and published images portraying soldiers firing into a well-assembled and peaceful crowd.
But why did the Boston Massacre happen? Why did the British government feel it had little choice but to station as many 2,000 soldiers in Boston during peacetime? And what was going on within the larger British Empire that drove colonists to the point where they provoked armed soldiers to fire upon them? [Read more…] about Boston Massacre: The Townshend Moment
On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered in Boston’s King Street and confronted a sentry and his fellow soldiers in front of the custom house. The confrontation led the soldiers to fire their muskets into the crowd, five civilians died.
What happened on the night of March 5, 1770 that led the crowd to gather and the soldiers to discharge their weapons?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History Eric Hinderaker, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Utah and the author of Boston’s Massacre (Harvard University Press, 2017) assists our quest to discover more about the Boston Massacre. [Read more…] about Boston’s Massacre
The Atlantic World has brought many disparate peoples together, which has caused a lot of ideas and cultures to mix.
How did the Atlantic World bring so many different peoples and cultures together? How did this large intermixing of peoples and cultures impact the development of colonial America?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History Kevin Dawson, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California-Merced and author of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), joins us to explore answers to these questions with an investigation of the African Diaspora and African and African American aquatic culture. [Read more…] about Aquatic Culture in Early America
What in the first 40 years of his life made Benjamin Franklin the genius he became?
Benjamin Franklin serves as a great window on to the early American past because as a man of “variety” he pursued many interests: literature, poetry, science, business, philosophy, philanthropy, and politics.
But one aspect of Franklin’s life has gone largely unstudied: his childhood and early life.
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History, Nick Bunker, author of Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity (Penguin Random House, 2018), joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s early life and how family, childhood, and youthful experiences shaped him as a scientist and diplomat. You can listen to the podcast here: www.benfranklinsworld.com/207