New York Almanack

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Podcast

World of the Wampanoag: 1620 and Beyond

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ben_franklins_worldWhen the English colonists arrived at Patuxet 400 years ago, they arrived at a confusing time. The World of the Wampanoag people had changed in the wake of a destabilizing epidemic.

This episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History is part of a two-episode series about the World of the Wampanoag. In Episode 290, we investigated the life, cultures, and trade of the Wampanoag and their neighbors, the Narragansett, up to December 16, 1620, the day the Mayflower made its way into Plymouth Harbor. [Read more…] about World of the Wampanoag: 1620 and Beyond

Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty

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ben_franklins_worldWho is American democracy for and who could participate in early American democracy?

Women and African Americans were often barred from voting in colonial and early republic elections. But what about Native Americans? Could Native Americans participate in early American democracy?

[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty

Origins of the Eleventh Amendment (Podcast)

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ben_franklins_worldWhat do you know about the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution?

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Caitlin Galante-DeAngelis Hopkins, a Lecturer in the History Department at Harvard University and a former research associate for the Harvard and Slavery Project, joins us to explore the origins of the Eleventh Amendment and why the United States added it to its Constitution. [Read more…] about Origins of the Eleventh Amendment (Podcast)

John Dickinson, Life, Religion, & Politics

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ben_franklins_worldThe Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776 with 12 colonies and one abstention. The delegation from New York abstained from the vote. And Pennsylvania voted in favor of independence because two of its delegates were persuaded not to attend the vote given their opposition. [Read more…] about John Dickinson, Life, Religion, & Politics

Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family

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ben_franklins_worldWho do we count as family? It a relative was born in a foreign place and one of their parents was of a different race? Would they count as family?

Eighteenth-century Britons asked themselves these questions. As we might suspect, their answers varied by time and whether they lived in Great Britain, North America, or the Caribbean. [Read more…] about Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family

A 17th-Century Native American Life

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ben_franklins_worldWhat does early America look like if we view it through Native American eyes?

Jenny Hale Pulsipher, author of Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England (Yale University Press, 2018) and Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University, is a scholar who enjoys investigating the many answers to this question. In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History, she introduces us to a Nipmuc Indian named John Wompas and how he experienced a critical time in early American history, the period between the 1650s and 1680s. [Read more…] about A 17th-Century Native American Life