Ben Franklin's World

• BFW Revisited: Women & the Constitutional Moment of 1787

  Each September, Constitution Day marks the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. But beyond celebration, this commemoration invites deeper reflection: Whose voices helped shape this foundational document? And who was imagined as part of the political community it created? In honor of Constitution Day and Constitution Month, we’re revisiting a pivotal conversation from Episode 339 with constitutional historian Mary Sarah Bilder. Drawing from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution, Mary challenges us to reconsider who influenced the Constitution and how women publicly engaged with its political possibilities. Join us as we explore: Eliza Harriot’s advocacy for “female genius” and intellectual equality. Why the Constitution’s gender-neutral language mattered. And, the debates over representation, education, and citizenship in 1787Mary’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/339 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 107: Madison's Hand🎧 Episode 137: The Washingtons' Runaway Slave, Ona Judge🎧 Episode 255: Birthright Citizens🎧 Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights🎧 Episode 285: Elections & Voting in Early AmericaSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 [email protected] YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 419 The North Carolina Regulator Movement

  What happens when the very people meant to uphold justice become the ones exploiting it? In the 1760s, North Carolina farmers watched sheriffs pocket their tax payments, judges rule in favor of corrupt land speculators, and government officials literally steal their land, all while claiming to represent the Crown’s interests. Nathan Schultz, a public historian and the Site Manager at the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site in North Carolina, joins us to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement. Show Notes:  https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/419 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America🎧 Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's Wife🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775 SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 [email protected] YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• BFW Revisited: The Tory's Wife

  Revolutionary upheaval didn't just reshape governments—it transformed daily life for ordinary families across colonial America.  In this revisited episode, historian Cynthia Kierner reveals the remarkable story of Jane Spurgin, a woman navigating loyalty, survival, and family obligations in Revolutionary-era North Carolina. Through Jane's experience as a Loyalist's wife, we discover how political conflicts reached into homes and communities, forcing women to make difficult choices between personal safety and family loyalty. As we prepare to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement, Jane's story illuminates the human cost of colonial resistance and the often-overlooked voices of women caught in the crossfire of revolution.  Guest: Cynthia Kierner, Professor of History at George Mason University and author of The Tory's Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America Cynthia’s Website | Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 085: American Loyalists in Canada🎧 Episode 126: The Reintegration of American Loyalists🎧 Episode 237: Motherhood in Early America🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic WorldSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 [email protected] YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 418 The Driver's Story

  We often learn about slavery in early America through broad economic or political terms—cotton, sugar, markets, revolutions. But what happens when we turn our focus to the lived experiences of enslaved people themselves? What did slavery feel and look like on the ground? What did survival look like day to day? And what do we make of the enslaved people who were forced into positions of authority over others, like the plantation drivers who were tasked with extracting labor from their fellow enslaved workers? Randy Browne, an award-winning historian and Professor of History at Xavier University, joins us to investigate plantation slavery and its driving system with details from his book The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery. Randy’s Website | Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/418 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery🎧 Episode 282: Tacky's Revolt🎧 Episode 289: Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp🎧 Episode 295: The Whitney Plantation & Museum🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland & Slavery SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World 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 SAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• BFW Revisited: The Business of Slavery

  When we think about slavery in early America, we often rightfully focus on the human toll–the violence, the exploitation, the dehumanization that defined the institution. But slavery wasn’t just a system of forced labor; it was also a business. Next week, in Episode 418, we’ll be investigating a different facet of the business of slavery: the story of slave drivers–enslaved people who were forced or took up positions of authority over others. To better understand the system slave drivers operated within, I thought we should revisit Episode 281 with historian Caitlin Rosenthal. Caitlin is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Her book, Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, won the Simkins Award from the Southern Historical Association and the Economic Historical Society’s First Book Prize. Caitlin’s Website | Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 173: Colonial Port Cities & Slavery🎧 Episode 176: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland and Slavery🎧 Episode 386: Sleeping with the Ancestors🎧 Episode 387: California and SlaverySUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 [email protected] YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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