360 Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts

When we think of the American Revolution, we often focus on the patriots who fought for independence. But what about the Loyalists—those who chose to remain faithful to the British crown? In this episode, we revisit a thought-provoking conversation with historian Brad Jones of Fresno State University, author of Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic. Brad challenges the long-held view of Loyalists as passive or fearful, instead revealing Loyalism as a vibrant political identity shaped by faith, governance, and a broader sense of British belonging.  Listen as we explore: Why the Revolution was also a civil war among neighbors. How Protestantism influenced Loyalist thought. What loyalty meant across the diverse communities of the British Atlantic.  This episode offers a deeper, more nuanced view of the Revolution—and the people who resisted it.Brad’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/330 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 119: The Heart of the Declaration🎧 Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America🎧 Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution🎧 Episode 232: The Acadian Diaspora🎧 Episode 238: Benedict Arnold🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tail SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World 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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Sep 20251h 10min

When we think about the founding of the United States, we often focus on the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and those first landmark elections. But how did the United States actually build its federal government, the entire apparatus of state that could collect revenue, manage international diplomacy, provide law and order, and extend its reach across a rapidly expanding nation? Who were the people who made that government work? And how did their service to the nation shape what it meant to be an American citizen? Peter Kastor, a Professor of History and American Cultural Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and the Founder of the Creating a Federal Government, 1789-1829 digital project, joins us to explore the remarkable and often overlooked story of how the United States built its federal government between 1789 and 1829. Peter’s Website | Digital Project |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/420 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man🎧 Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Senate🎧 Episode 279: The Cabinet: Creation of an American Institution🎧 Episode 259: American Legal History🎧 Episode 315: History and American Democracy🎧 Episode 338: The Early History of the United States Senate  🎧 Episode  393: Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World 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*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Sep 20251h 20min

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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club LISTEN 🎧🍎 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

2 Sep 20251h 16min

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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club LISTEN 🎧🍎 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

26 Aug 20251h 4min

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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club LISTEN 🎧🍎 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

19 Aug 20251h 5min

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📫 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 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Aug 20251h 2min

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📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club LISTEN 🎧🍎 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

5 Aug 202552min

When we think of early American champions of religious liberty, one name often rises above the rest: Roger Williams. Best known as the founder of Rhode Island and a fierce advocate for the separation of church and state, Williams was a man who defied convention at every turn. He turned down a prestigious post in Boston, challenged Puritan orthodoxy, and was ultimately banished—only to build a new colony rooted in his radical ideas of liberty of conscience and religious toleration. In this episode, we explore the life and legacy of this “nonconformist among nonconformists” with the co-editors of Reading Roger Williams: Rogue Puritans, Indigenous Nations, and the Founding of America:  Linford Fisher, Associate Professor of History at Brown University Sheila McIntyre, Professor of History at SUNY Potsdam Julie Fisher, scholar of Native American history Together, they help us uncover: How Williams challenged both church and colonial authority His relationships with Indigenous communities and his work as a translator And why his ideas still matter for understanding religious freedom in America today. Guests' Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/417 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 1🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Pt. 2🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America🎧 Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair🎧 Episode 392: Religion and Race in Early America SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World 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 *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

29 Jul 20251h 13min