In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Mark Tabbert, the Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association and the author of Almanac of American Freemasonry and A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry, joins us so we can investigate and better understand Freemasonry and its role in Early America. [Read more…] about Freemasonry in Early America
Early America
Vast Early America: The 300th Episode of Ben Franklin’s World
What do historians wish more people better understood about early American history and why do they wish people had that better understanding?
In celebration of the 300th episode of Ben Franklin’s World, a podcast about early American history, we posed these questions to more than 30 scholars.
What do they think? Join the celebration to learn more about Early America and take a behind-the-scenes tour of the podcast. [Read more…] about Vast Early America: The 300th Episode of Ben Franklin’s World
Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism
The first Europeans to see the Adirondack landscape of Northern New York came to explore, to document important military operations and fortifications, or to create maps and scientifically accurate images of the terrain, flora, and fauna.
These early illustrations filled practical needs rather than aesthetic ones. In 1818, the Adirondacks was still a mysterious “wild, barren tract…covered with almost impenetrable Bogs, Marshes & Ponds, and the uplands with Rocks and evergreens.” [Read more…] about Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism
Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
How do empires come to be? How are empires made and who makes them?
What role do maps play in making empires?
Christian Koot is a Professor of History at Towson University and the author of A Biography of a Map in Motion: Augustine Herrman’s Chesapeake (NYU Press, 2017). Christian has researched and written two books about the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch World go better understand empires and how they are made. He joins us in this episode of Ben Franklin’s World to take us through his research and to share what one specific map, Augustine Herrman’s 1673 map Virginia and Maryland, reveals about empire and empire making. [Read more…] about Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
Birthright Citizenship
Who gets to be a citizen of the United States? How does the United States define who belongs to the nation?
Early Americans asked and grappled with these questions during the earliest days of the early republic. [Read more…] about Birthright Citizenship
The Money Question in Early America
We read and hear a lot about money. We read and hear about fluctuations in the value of the Dollar, Pound, and Euro, interest rates and who can and can’t get access to credit, and we also read and hear about new virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra.
We talk a lot about money. But where did the idea of money come from?
Did early Americans think about money a lot too? [Read more…] about The Money Question in Early America
Life and Revolution in Boston, Grenada
What can a family history tell us about revolutionary and early republic America?
What can the letters of a wife and mother tell us about life in the Caribbean during the Age of Revolutions?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, we join Susan Clair Imbarrato, a Professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead and author of Sarah Gray Cary from Boston to Grenada: Shifting Fortunes of an American Family, 1753-1825 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), to discover more about the letters of Sarah Gray Cart and what they reveal about how she and her family experienced the American Revolution on the island of Grenada. [Read more…] about Life and Revolution in Boston, Grenada
The Highland Soldier in North America
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
Frontiers of Science in Early America
What did early Americans think about science? And how did they pursue and develop their knowledge of it?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Cameron Strang, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno and author of Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850 (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018) joins us to investigate the early American world of science and how early Americans developed their scientific knowledge. [Read more…] about Frontiers of Science in Early America
Virginia In 1619 (Ben Franklin’s World Podcast)
2019 marks the 400th anniversary of two important events in American history: The creation of the first representative assembly in English North America and the arrival of the first African people in English North America.
Why were these Virginia-based events significant and how have they impacted American history?
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a scholar of African American and American History and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Norfolk State University, helps us find answers. [Read more…] about Virginia In 1619 (Ben Franklin’s World Podcast)