Historians use a lot of different sources when they research the past. Many rely on primary source documents, documents that were written by official government bodies or those written by the people who witnessed the events or changes historians are studying.

But how do you uncover the voices and stories of people who didn’t know how to write or whose families didn’t preserve much of their writing? 

Maeve Kane, an Associate Professor of History at the University at Albany and author of Shirts Powdered Red: Gender, Trade, and Exchange Across Three Centuries, ran into this very problem as she sought to recover the lives of Haudenosaunee women. Maeve overcame this challenge by researching a different type of historical source—the cloth Haudenosaunee women traded for and the clothing they made and wore.

Maeve’s Website | Book 

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 021: Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History

🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America

🎧 Episode 223: A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region

🎧 Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua

🎧 Episode 353: Women and the Making of Catawba Identity

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When we think of slavery in Early America, we often think about the plantations and economies of the South. But did you know that slavery was also deeply entrenched in New York City?

Did you know that Africans and African Americans helped New York City confront slavery, freedom, and racism in the Early American Republic and Antebellum periods?

Leslie M. Harris, a professor at Northwestern University and author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863, joins us to explore the history of Africans and African Americans in early New York City.

Leslie’s Website | Book 

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/405

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tale

🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland and Slavery

🎧 Episode 351: Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland

🎧 Episode 371: Archive of Indigenous Slavery

🎧 Episode 387: California and Slavery

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Did you know that many of the food traditions that define cuisine in the United States today have roots in African culinary traditions and history?

Diane Spviey, a culinary historian and author of three culinary history books, joins us to uncover the rich and complex legacy of African and African American foodways and how those foodways helped establish the United States.

Diane’s Website | Book |

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/404

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 137: The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

🎧 Episode 170: New England Bound

🎧 Episode 222: Early History of Washington, D.C.

🎧 Episode 226: Making the State of South Carolina

🎧 Episode 250: Virginia, 1619

🎧 Episode 348: Valley Forge

🎧 Episode 395: The Great New York Fire of 1776

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What would you risk for freedom?

Would you risk your safety? You family? Your life?

During the American Revolution, enslaved women faced these impossible choices when the British Army promised freedom to those who dared to escape. In honor of Black History Month, we’re revisiting an extraordinary chapter of resilience and bravery: the stories of enslaved women who seized the chance to chart their own destinies amid the chaos of war.

Join Karen Cook-Bell for an exploration of enslaved women who self-emancipated during the American Revolution.

Karen's Website | Book | Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322   RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 Episode 137: The Washingtons' Runaway Slave, Ona Judge 🎧 Episode 142: A History of Abolition 🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution's African American Soldiers 🎧 Episode 162: Dunmore's New World 🎧 Episode 352: James Forten and the Making of the United States REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 [email protected] WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter  👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community LISTEN 🎧 🍎 Apple Podcasts  💚 Spotify  🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website   SPONSORS 💼 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation   SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify

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Did you know that John Adams, not George Washington, solidified the precedents of the executive branch and the presidency?

Lindsay Chervinsky, an award-winning presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, has written a book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. She joins us to investigate the presidency of the United States’ second president, John Adams.

Lindsay’s Website | Book | Instagram

Show Notes:  https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403 

RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES

🎧 Episode 040: For Fear of an Elected King

🎧 Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson

🎧 Episode 188: The Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798

🎧 Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Adams and Jefferson

🎧 Episode 203: Alexander Hamilton

🎧 Episode 279: The Cabinet: Creation of An American Institution

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January 20th, marked Inauguration Day in the United States, the day a new president and his administration takes office. So it seems a fitting time for us to revisit a conversation we had in 2020 about the creation of the Executive Branch, and more specifically, the creation of the president’s cabinet.

Lindsay Chervinsky is an award-winning presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. In 2020, she published her first book called The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/279 Sponsor Links

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 040: Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elected King
• Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washington’s Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
• Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of John Adams & Thomas Jefferson
• Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Congress
• Episode 203: Joanne Freeman: Alexander Hamilton
• Episode 265: Lindsay Chervinsky, An Early History of the White House

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Do you know what time it is?

In early America, this question wasn’t as simple to answer as it is today. Urban dwellers in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston often wondered about the time—but few owned their own watches or clocks. So, how did they keep track of the hours?

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of early American timekeeping. Bob Frishman, a horologist—a specialist in clocks and watches—and a scholar of horology, joins us to explore how timepieces and their makers shaped community life and craftsmanship in the 18th century. Along the way, we’ll uncover the remarkable story of Edward Duffield, a Philadelphia clockmaker who wasn’t just a master craftsman but also a close friend and neighbor of Benjamin Franklin.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/402

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 149: Benjamin Franklin in London

🎧 Episode 175: The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House

🎧 Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin

🎧 Episode 244: Shoe Stories from Early America

🎧 Episode 292: Craft in Early America

🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 1

🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Pt 2

🎧 Episode 332: Occupied Philadelphia

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To close out our mini-series on Tea in early America, we’re going to revisit Episode 160: The Politics of Tea. This episode was part of our Doing History: To the Revolution series with the Omohundro Institute in 2017.

In this episode, we’ll revisit how early Americans went from attending tea parties to holding the Boston Tea Party. We’ll also explore more in depth information about how tea became a central part of many early Americans’ lives.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/160 Sponsor Links

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 229: The Townshend Moment
• Episode 401: Tea, Boycotts, and Revolution

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During the early days of the American Revolution, British Americans attempted to sway their fellow Britons with consumer politics.

In 1768 and 1769, they organized a non-consumption movement of British goods to protest the Townshend Duties. In 1774, they arranged a non-importation and non-exportation movement to protest the Tea Act and Coercive Acts.

Why did the colonists protest the Tea Act and Coercive Acts? Why did they chose to protest those acts with the consumer politics of a non-importation/non-exportation program?

James Fichter, the author of Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776, joins us to explore the Tea Crisis of 1773 and the resulting non-importation/non-exportation movement the colonists organized after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/401

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In Episode 401, we’ll be exploring the Tea Crisis and how it led to the non-importation/non-exportation movement of 1774-1776.

Our guest historian, James Fichter, references the work of Mary Beth Norton and her “The Seventh Tea Ship” article from The William and Mary Quarterly.

In this BFW Revisited episode, we’ll travel back to December 2016, when we spoke with Mary Beth Norton about her article and the Tea Crisis of 1773.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/112 Sponsor Links

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 135: Moral Commerce: The Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy
• Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
• Episode 228: The Boston Massacre
• Episode 229: The Townshend Moment
• Episode 337: Early America's Trade with China

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How do historians define Ben Franklin’s “world?” What historical event, person, or place in the era of Ben Franklin do they wish you knew about?

In celebration of the 400th episode of Ben Franklin’s World, we posed these questions to more than 20 scholars. What do they think? Join the celebration and discover more about the world Ben Franklin lived in.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/400

Complementary Episodes

🎧 Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of the Genealogy

🎧 Episode 285: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic

🎧 Episode 300: Vast Early America

🎧 Episode 389: Indigenous Justice in Early America

🎧 Episode 393: Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic

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