Ben Franklin's World

In the late winter of 1775, colonists in a village outside of New York City hoisted the royal standard of King George III 75 feet into the air.
The standard raisers signed their names to a proclamation pledging to defend the king and his government. For them, defending the British crown did not mean surrender; it served as a clear statement of what it still meant to be British.
In Episode 451, we explored a court-martial trial that allowed us to see how early Americans thought about what it would mean to be an American after independence.
In this revisited episode, historian Brad Jones helps us take up the other half of that question: what did it mean to be British during the age of the American Revolution? And why did answers to this question take different forms around the Atlantic World?
Brad’s Book
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American history is in the news a lot these days. We see and hear about fights over monuments, textbooks, and the stories we should include or exclude from our museums and historic markers.
What these stories overshadow is the great demand for more history in the United States. A coalition of historians and history organizations noticed this demand and decided to feed it by organizing a new initiative: A We Want More History weekend, which takes place September 25-27.
In this bonus episode, we’re joined by Beth English, the Executive Director of the Organization of American Historians, and Kate Masur, the John D. MacArthur Professor of History at Northwestern University. The guest historians share more about the origins of the national, coordinated weekend of history programs, how we can get involved, and where to find more information.
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In December 1777, Continental Army Colonel David Henley climbed off his horse to discipline a drunk British prisoner of war who was screaming epithets about Americans and vowing to fight for his king. Henley struck the prisoner, one of 6,000 in his care, with his sword.
The wound was minor, but Major General John Burgoyne cited this incident when he accused Henley of plotting to murder British prisoners of war. Burgoyne demanded a formal court-martial.
Professor Timothy Breen joins us to examine Henley’s trial with details from his new book, The American Revolution on Trial. Timothy asks a question most grand narratives of the American Revolution skip past: What did it actually feel like, in real towns among real people, to stop being British? What did it mean to be American?
Timothy’s Book
Show notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/451
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:43 The 250th Anniversary and the Limits of Grand Narratives
00:09:31 How Timothy Found the Henley Court-Martial Transcript
00:13:26 Major General John Burgoyne and Aristocratic Privilege
00:23:00 Competing Ideas of Honor During the Revolution
00:29:53 Inside the Cambridge Prisoner of War Camps
00:36:23 The Two Incidents that Led to the Court-Martial
00:45:25 The Verdict and What Happened Next for Henley and Burgoyne
00:48:37 How Early Americans Judged the Revolution and the New Nation
00:53:41 What Happened to the British and German POWs in Cambridge
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence
🎧 Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America
🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West
🎧 Episode 414: Robert Newburgh’s Trials: Queerness & Reputation in Revolutionary America
🎧 Episode 434: The Frank Brothers: Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
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What caused the American Revolution?
Taxation without representation? Colonies that had outgrown their dependence on the British Empire? Or something harder to see: a quarrel about power itself and about what a government may rightly do to the people it governs?
In 1967, Bernard Bailyn published The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, a book he built out of more than 400 pamphlets, and one historians have been arguing with ever since.
In this revisited conversation from Episode 152, Professor Bailyn explains why he never accepted a purely economic explanation for the Revolution, where the revolutionaries' ideas actually came from, and why colonists rationally concluded that the British government was concealing a conspiracy against their liberties.
Bernard Bailyn’s Wikipedia Page | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/152
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 294: 1774: The Long Year of American Revolution
🎧 Episode 311: Religion and the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 307: History and the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 407: Patrick Henry
🎧 Episode 434: The Frank Borthers: Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.

In December 1776, a Delaware Chief named White Eyes stood before the Second Continental Congress. He had not come to declare himself a revolutionary, nor had he come to pledge his loyalty to King George III. White Eyes came to test a promise.
What does the American Revolution look like to people for whom independence was never a question? For the Delaware, also known as the Lenape, the War for Independence raised older and harder questions:
Whose word could be trusted? What choices can we make about whether to fight, stay neutral, or flee that might let our community remain itself on the land we know?
Jeremy Johnson, Cultural Education Director for the Delaware Tribe of Indians, traces Lenape and Delaware history from long before European contact through the American Revolution. He also introduces us to the September 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt, the first treaty the United States made with a Native Nation and which promised a 14th Native state.
Delaware Tribe of Indians’ Website
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/450
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:35 The Lenape Experience of the American Revolution
00:07:56 Lenape History and Indigenous Origin Stories
00:10:52 Diplomacy in Lenape Traditions
00:15:32 Evolution of Lenape Diplomacy Through European Contact
00:20:00 The Walking Purchase of 1737
00:24:55 Lenape Experiences of the Seven Years' War
00:32:13 Lenape Participation in Pontiac's Rebellion
00:37:17 The Delaware and the American Revolution
00:46:32 Negotiating the Treaty of Fort Pitt
00:50:16 The Hope for Delaware Sovereignty
00:52:53 The Delaware People & America's 250th
01:00:02 Time Warp
01:02:41 Resources
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
🎧 Episode 264: The Treaty of Canandaigua
🎧 Episode 286: Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty
🎧 Episode 323: American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder
🎧 Episode 397: Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
🎧 Episode 449: Stealing America: Indigenous Enslavement & the American Revolution
SUPPORT OUR WORK
🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World
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WHEN YOU'RE READY
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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast.