Ben Franklin's World

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 upstate New York. Join Matthew Keagle, Curator at Fort Ticonderoga, as we trace the fort's dramatic history from its French origins in the Seven Years' War, its chaotic capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in May 1775, and Henry Knox's legendary expedition to move nearly 60 tons of artillery to George Washington's army. Discover the logistics, rivalries, and resourcefulness behind one of the Revolution's most remarkable feats. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/436 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00  Introduction00:06:26 British Withdrawl from Boston00:07:55 Fort Ticonderoga's Origins00:25:05 British Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 175600:28:04 British Improvements to Fort Ticonderoga00:32:44 American Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 177500:49:06 Henry Knox's Expedition01:04:46 Cannon on Dorchester Heights01:10:36 British Evacuation of Boston01:13:43 Legacy of Knox's Noble Train of Artillery01:17:36 Visiting Fort Ticonderoga01:24:65 ConclusionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 130: Paul Revere's Ride Through History🎧 Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters, NHS🎧 Episode 238: Benedict Arnold🎧 Episode 296: The Boston Massacre: A Family History🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord🎧 Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker HillSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 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

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, that question still doesn't have a good answer. To mark the anniversary of *Common Sense*, we traveled to Lewes, England, the town where Paine lived before he ever set foot in America, and recorded our first-ever LIVE episode inside Bull House, the building where Paine honed his ideas about citizens and their government. Joseph Adelman chairs a panel with scholars Leanne O'Boyle, Nicole Mahoney, and Jeanne Sheehan Zaino as they dig into the legacy of *Common Sense*: democracy's "day two problem," the women Paine wrote out of his own story, why "the law is king" keeps showing up on protest signs, and what a 15th-century building in a small English town can teach us about where democratic ideas actually take root. Recorded live in partnership with the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona University.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/435 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:06 What Happened After the Revolution?00:02:59 Live from the Bull House in Lewes, England00:04:49 A Template for Common Sense and Civic Life00:07:12 Thomas Paine's Legacy in Lewes, England00:10:24 Thomas Paine's Legacy in New Rochelle, New York00:16:04 Democracy's "Day Two Problem"00:22:50 Local Civic Engagement in Lewes00:27:46 Women and Common Sense00:34:54 Paine's Family Life in Lewes00:35:31 Reconstituting Government00:42:44 Violence and Change00:49:31 "No Kings" Protest and 'The Law is King'00:56:29 Thomas Paine's Legacy00:58:10 Audience Q&A01:18:20 Episode Wrap-UpRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 144: The Common Cause of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 156: The Power of the Press in the American Revolution🎧 Episode 243: Revolutionary Print Networks🎧 Episode 287: Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections & the Electoral College🎧 Episode 431: Thomas Paine's Common Sense at 250SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 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

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 enlisting in the Second Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. Freeborn men of color, they gambled that military service would earn them what freedom alone had not: equality, land, and a better future. Historian Shirley Green, author of Revolutionary Blacks: Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence, joins us to tell their story. Drawing on genealogical research rooted in her own family history, Green reveals what daily life looked like for free Black families in Revolutionary Rhode Island, how the Frank Brothers fought at the Battles of Red Bank, Monmouth, and Rhode Island, and how the Revolution ultimately divided them—one brother serving through Yorktown, the other crossing to the British side and resettling in Nova Scotia as a Black Loyalist. Their story is a window into the full range of Black experiences during the Revolution, and a reminder that for men like William and Benjamin Frank, choosing a side was never simple. It was a calculated gamble, shaped by promises made—and promises broken. Shirley’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/434 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00  Introduction00:01:19 The Frank Brothers' Revolutionary Choices00:05:14 Discovering the Frank Brothers Through Family Oral History00:09:01 Blending Genalogy and Microhistory00:15:22 Life for Free Black Families in Early Rhode Island00:20:50 Why Free Black Men Joined the Continental Army00:24:00 Motivations: Land, Pay, and Equality00:29:15 The Gamble of Military Service Amid Policy Shifts00:41:13 Daily Life and Combat in the Integrated Regiments00:44:46 Ben Frank's Desertion00:52:51 The Book of Negroes01:00:02 Postwar Outcomes: Did Promises of Land, Pay, and Equality Hold?01:02:47 Lessons from Black Soldiers' Experiences01:07:26 ConclusionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island🎧 Episode 157: African American Soldiers in the Continental Army🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1🎧 Episode 333: Disruptions in Yorktown🎧 Episode 348: Valley Forge🎧 Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker Hill🎧 Episode 424: Dunmore's Proclamation & the American Revolution in Virginia🎧 Episode 427: How States Are Planning the 250th of the American RevolutionSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 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

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 the least told of the war. In this revisited episode, we rejoin Judith Van Buskirk, Professor Emerita of History at SUNY Cortland and author of Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution, to explore what motivated African American men to fight for the Revolutionary cause, how the Continental Army's policies toward Black enlistment shifted over the course of the war, and what life and service looked like in units like the First Rhode Island Regiment.Judy's Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 016: The Internal Enemy🎧 Episode 118: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island🎧 Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances🎧 Episode 433: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence 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 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 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

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 between the American and Haitian Revolutions to reveal how both revolutions emerged from the same Atlantic imperial struggle for empire, racialized power, and war. Using details from his book Entangled Alliances, Ron will guide us from the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to the Siege of Savannah in 1779, where hundreds of Black soldiers from French Saint Domingue landed on Georgia’s shores—not as enslaved laborers, but as uniformed volunteers ready to fight for American Independence. Ron's Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/433 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00  Introduction00:01:08  Episode Overview00:04:50 The Treaty of Paris 1763 and its Impact00:09:09 Consequences of the Seven Years' War for Saint Domingue00:18:39 Saint Domingue Society Post-Seven Years' War00:24:32 French Imperial Reaction vs. Local Resentment00:28:36 Circulation of News Between British North America & Saint Domingue00:39:22 France's Strategy to Assist American Revolutionaries00:50:42 Reception of the Chasseurs Volontaires Regiment in Georgia00:54:42 Re-evaluating the American Revolution00:57:32 Time Warp01:05:38 ConclusionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 052: Diplomacy in Black and White🎧 Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution🎧 Episode 228: The Boston Massacre (King Street Riot)🎧 Episode 325: The Everyday People of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 361: The Fourth of July in 2026🎧 Episode 421: Loyalism & Revolution in Georgia🎧 Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Win the American RevolutionSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 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