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 War for Independence — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, Savannah — this wasn't a hypothetical. It was a reality that upended daily life and revealed a side of the revolution we rarely talk about.
Lauren Duval, author of The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupations, and the Making of American Independence, joins us to explore what the War for Independence actually looked like from inside the household. Women who negotiated quartering terms and held their ground. Men who came to blows over who controlled the parlor. Enslaved people who used the chaos of occupation to reunite families and reach British lines.
The revolution didn't just happen on battlefields. It happened at kitchen tables, in back gardens, and on doorsteps.
Lauren's Website | Book |
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403

EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:38 The Home Front of the American Revolution
00:05:24 The Gensis of the Revolutionary Household
00:10:49 Why Focus on Urban Port Cities
00:19:46 The British Occupation's Impact on City Life
00:25:55 Quartering a British Officer: The Drinker Household
00:33:38. Quartering Experiences in Male-Headed Households
00:39:22 Lower-Class Experiences During British Occupation
00:40:55 The Impact of British Hard Currency on Urban Labor Markets
00:44:21 Black Experiences During British Occupation
00:51:21 The Overall American Experience of the War for Independence
00:54:01. The Time Warp
00:59:47 Conculsion
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🎧 Episode 175: The War in Ben Franklin's House
🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tail
🎧 Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia
🎧 Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Yorktown
🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's Wife
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437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities