Over the past few years, we’ve steadily grown our collection of readings related to U.S. Independence Day as well as Ben Franklin’s World episodes detailing the early American history of the Fourth of July. It’s time we put it all in one place. Frederick Douglass famously questioned Americans in 1852, “What to a Slave is… Read More »
By Derrick R. Spires For Black citizens of the early United States, the Fourth of July was a yearly reminder of a revolution deferred—the always-not-yet nature of Black freedom in a “pseudo-republic.”[1] Such was the case even at the moment the Declaration of Independence was circulating. The July 15, 1776, issue of the New-York Gazette and the… Read More »
by Liz Covart On November 29, 1773, a group of concerned Bostonians met in Boston’s Old South Meeting House to discuss how to deal with the ships just arrived from London laden with tea to be sold by the East India Company under the terms of Great Britain’s Tea Act. The act sought to accomplish three objectives.… Read More »
Bibliography for Doing History 4: Understanding the Fourth Amendment Want to learn more about the Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment? We’ve compiled a list of suggested books, articles, popular blog posts, and online resources that you might find helpful. We either used these works ourselves for production research or they were suggested by… Read More »
“Doing History 4 Legal Lexicon; or A Useful List of Terms You Might Not Know” We are pleased to announce the release of “Doing History, Season 4: Understanding the Fourth Amendment.” Law is all around us. This 4-part Doing History series explains the early American origins and importance of the fourth amendment. Although it doesn’t… Read More »
This post accompanies “Virginia, 1619,” episode 250 of Ben Franklin’s World. In this week’s special episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Liz Covart talks with Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Norfolk State University and an expert in African-American and American history, about the lasting impact of the events of… Read More »
This post accompanies “Celebrating the Fourth,” episode 245 of Ben Franklin’s World. At the bottom of the post you can find suggested readings on celebrating independence in the early United States and a special bonus clip from Shira Lurie. by Emily Sneff The Fourth of July is a noisy holiday. From morning parades featuring marching… Read More »