359 Trans-ing Gender in Early America

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most iconic documents in United States history. But what do we really know about how it came to be? In our most recent episode, historian Emily Sneff helped us explore the Declaration through your questions–questions that revealed just how complex, living, and contested this document still is. So in today’s Revisited episode, we take a listen to the podcast that Emily helped to produce back in 2017: Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft. Originally part of the Omohundro Institute’s Doing History: To the Revolution! Series, this episode features three distinguished scholars: Danielle Allen, Patrick Spero, and Peter Onuf, Together, these scholars reveal that many hands and minds shaped the Declaration of Independence. They also help us dive into some of the document’s contradictions around slavery and equality. Emily’s Website  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/415 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?🎧 Episode 388: John Hancock🎧 Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness🎧 Episode 415: The Many Declarations of Independence REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Heinä 1h 18min

Preview of Karin Wulf’s book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America. In eighteenth-century America, genealogy was more than a simple record of family ties--it was a powerful force that shaped society. Lineage delves into an era where individuals, families, and institutions meticulously documented their connections. Whether driven by personal passion or mandated by churches, local governments, and courts, these records appeared in diverse forms-from handwritten notes and account books to intricate silk threads and enduring stone carvings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3 Heinä 2min

When you picture the Declaration of Independence, what comes to mind? Most people envision a single, iconic document–parchment, signatures, maybe even a scene from National Treasure. But what if I told you, the Declaration of Independence isn’t just one document, but many documents? And that each version of the Declaration tells a different story–a story not just about American independence, but about the people who printed, read, preserved, and even re-wrote the Declaration? Emily Sneff is one of the leading experts on the Declaration of Independence. She has spent more than a decade researching the Declaration’s origins, and its different copies. She’s the former research manager of the Declaration Resources Project at Harvard, a consulting curator for Revolution 250 exhibits at the Museum of the American Revolution and the American Philosophical Society, and I’m proud to say, she’s is one of our former interns here at Ben Franklin’s World. Emily’s Website  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/415 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 018: Our Declaration🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft 🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth of July🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July?🎧 Episode 388: John Hancock🎧 Episode 394: The Pursuit of Happiness REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1 Heinä 1h 3min

How do we uncover queer lives from the distant past, especially in an era when language and records often erased or obscured them? What did queerness look like in early America, and how might it have intersected with power, religion, and empire on the eve of the American Revolution?  John McCurdy, a Professor of History and Philosophy at Eastern Michigan University and the author of Vicious and Immoral: Homosexuality, the American Revolution, and the Trials of Robert Newburgh, joins us to explore these questions through the remarkable story of British Army Chaplain Robert Newburgh. John's EMU Webpage | Book  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/414  RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 002: "That's So Gay" Exhibit, Library Company🎧 Episode 004: Sex and the Founding Fathers🎧 Episode 013: Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America🎧 Episode 278: Polygamy: An Early American History🎧 Episode 354: The Sewing Girl's Tale🎧 Episode 359: Transing Gender in Early America REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 Kesä 1h

June 17, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first full-scale battle of what would become the American War for Independence. Although technically a British victory, Bunker Hill proved that colonial soldiers could hold their own against the might of the British Empire. New England militiamen inflicted 1,054 casualties on the British, 50 percent of the British force. The New Englanders sustained 411 casualties that day, including the man who stood at the heart of this battle: Dr. Joseph Warren. Who was Dr. Joseph Warren, and why did he risk his life in the first major battle of the Revolutionary War? What drove this physician, political thinker, and revolutionary leader to become the face of the American Revolution in Boston? Christian Di Spigna, Executive Director of the Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation, joins us to explore these questions and commemorate this important anniversary with details from his book, Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero. Christian’s Foundation | Book  Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/413 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 130: Paul Revere's Ride Through History🎧 Episode 301: From Innoculation to Vaccination, Part 1🎧 Episode 350: The Revolutionary Samuel Adams🎧 Episode 388: John Hancock🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Kesä 1h 13min

Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, is nearly upon us, and it offers us the perfect moment for reflection. What do we know about Juneteenth? Where did this holiday begin? And how has it grown from a regional commemoration into a national conversation about freedom, equality, and memory? In this episode, we return to our conversation with Annette Gordon-Reed in Episode 304. A native Texan and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Annette brings both personal insight and deep historical knowledge to her book On Juneteenth, which is a rich meditation on Texas history, African American identity, and the long arc of emancipation. Annette’s Website | Book | Bluesky Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/304 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 067: Cattle Colonialism🎧 Episode 115: The Early History of Texas🎧 Episode 117: The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson🎧 Episode 139: The Other Slavery🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery🎧 Episode 282: Tacky's Revolt REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 Kesä 53min

It might surprise you, but in the 18th century, people across the globe were reckoning with colder-than-usual weather brought on by the Little Ice Age—a centuries-long chill that made heating homes more urgent than ever. At the same time, early Americans were cutting down trees at an unsustainable pace to stay warm. Enter Benjamin Franklin. In this episode, Harvard historian Joyce Chaplin joins us to explore how Franklin tackled this problem by designing five different stove models, and what these innovations reveal about early American science, sustainability, and life with fire. Joyce’s Website | Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/412 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 015: Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit🎧 Episode 086: Benjamin Franklin in London🎧 Episode 169: The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin🎧 Episode 189: The Little Ice Age🎧 Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin🎧 Episode 397: Native Nations REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3 Kesä 56min

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress, this episode revisits the origins of the United States Congress and how early Americans built a representative government from revolutionary ideals. Historians Matt Wasniewski and Terrence Ruckner of the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives join us to explore how Congress evolved from its colonial and revolutionary predecessors into the bicameral legislature established by the Constitution. House History Office Website Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/202 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 040: For Fear of an Elected King🎧 Episode 078: Washington Brotherhood🎧 Episode 153: Governments of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 179: Governance During the Critical Period🎧 Episode 338: The Early History of the United States Senate REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Touko 1h 7min