443 How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreig...
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Ben Franklin's World
This is a show about early American history. Awarded Best History Podcast by the Academy of Podcasters in 2017, it’s for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the...
Ben Franklin's World Podcast Guide
Listen to Ben Franklin's World, a Society & Culture podcast by Liz Covart. Stream 504 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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BFW Revisited: Reading the Declaration of Independence for Equality
On July 4th, 2026, the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence announced a new nation to the world. But how well...
442 Everyday Military Life in the American Revolution
When we picture the American Revolution, we picture battles. But for the men and women who actually lived and fought in it, the Revolution w...
BFW Revisited: Valley Forge
Most of us learned the same story: During the winter at Valley Forge, George Washington's army suffered and endured. Ragged soldiers huddled...
441 The Escapes of David George
When David George lay sick with smallpox in Savannah during the Revolutionary War, he faced three possible outcomes: death, re-enslavement,...
BFW Revisited: Running from Bondage in the American Revolution
She fled on horseback in the thick of war. Her six-year-old son rode with her. The white tailor at her side would pass, when anyone asked, a...
440 Jefferson's Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy's Role in Slavery
Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence contained 28 grievances against King George III — not 27. The final grievance, t...
BFW Revisited: Whose Fourth of July?
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and asked one of the most searing questions in A...
439 When the Declaration of Independence Was News
The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, but it had absolutely no plan for telling the world about it. Congre...
BFW Revisited: Age of Revolutions
Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions swept across four continents. We tend to remember three of them — the American, the French, and the Haiti...
438 The American Revolution & the Fate of the World
What if the American Revolution didn't just create the United States, but also created Australia? Most of us learned about the Revolution as...
BFW Revisited: British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777–1778
In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new...
437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities
The British Army is at your door. They need a room. What do you do? For thousands of civilians living in cities occupied during the American...
BFW Revisited: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston: driven out by cannon that had traveled 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga. But where did the plan...
436 Fort Ticonderoga & Henry Knox's Noble Train of Artillery
On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, driven out by cannon hauled 300 miles through winter wilderness from a crumbling fort in up...
435 Common Sense at 250: The Unfinished Work of Democracy, A Live Conversation
In January 1776, Thomas Paine told the American colonies to break free from their king. But what was supposed to come next? 250 years later,...
434 Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
What would you fight for if you were free but still not equal? In 1777, brothers William and Benjamin Frank answered that question by enlist...
BFW Revisited: The American Revolution's African American Soldiers
More than 6,000 Black men—free and enslaved—served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Yet their stories remain some of...
433 Entangled Revolutions: Haiti, France, and the American Revolution
What if the American Revolution was never just an American story? Historian Ronald Angelo Johnson helps us uncover the deep connections betw...
BFW Revisited: The Marquis de Lafayette
What does it take to become a revolutionary in more than one revolution? In this revisited conversation with Mike Duncan, we explore the lif...