Saturday Matinee: Founding Fathers: An American Dream

Summary

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History Daily: Saturday Matinee - Founding Fathers: An American Dream

Date: June 27, 2026
Host: Lindsay Graham
Partner Podcast Featured: Founding an American Dream by Noiser

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Episode Overview

This special "Saturday Matinee" episode of History Daily celebrates America's upcoming 250th birthday by featuring the premiere episode of Founding an American Dream, an epic, multi-part series. The episode dives beyond iconic figures like Washington and Jefferson to present a fuller, more complex story of America’s founding—highlighting the roles of unknown revolutionaries, women, the enslaved, religious leaders, and everyday colonists alongside the famous Founding Fathers.

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Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. Rethinking the Founding Fathers' Mythos

• The episode questions whether the Founding Fathers deserve their legendary status or were simply "plain, honest men facing an extraordinary moment."
• It urges listeners to recognize the wider cast shaping the Revolution: "The founding of the United States features a cast of millions—men and women." (Narrator, 10:39)

2. America in the Mid-1700s

• Paints a vivid picture of colonial New York and Boston before and during the Revolution.
  • [04:09] "It's April 26, 1770. We're in New York City on Bowling Green at the southern end of Broadway. The great and the good are out on show."
• Notes deep colonial loyalty to the British monarchy and the celebrated erection of King George III's statue in New York—only to be violently torn down six years later in an act of Revolution.

3. Benjamin Franklin’s Rise and Roots

• Franklin’s humble origins in Boston (son of a candle maker, one of many siblings).
• Highlights Franklin's self-made success story:
  • [20:07] "He's kind of one of the early self made man stories from that period. Because he was an incredibly smart printer..."
• Franklin's entrepreneurial and diplomatic ventures, from Philadelphia to London.

4. The Great Awakening and Social Change

• Evangelical preacher George Whitefield's impact—fueling new religious fervor and political independence.
  • [26:48] Historian/Expert: "...They don't have to follow community norms if it violates their individual conscience. And you can see how that might be a parallel when people ... are thinking about rejecting the authority of Britain."

5. Colonial-British Tensions and the Tax Crisis

• Outlines how British attempts to tax the colonies, without representation, turned loyalty to outrage:
  • Sugar Act and Stamp Act provoke mass protests (esp. in Boston, led by Samuel Adams).
  • Ensuing riots and the targeting of tax collectors across the colonies.

6. Propaganda, Popular Protest, and Revolutionary Women

• Samuel Adams’ role in stirring public sentiment and creating revolutionary propaganda.
• Describes the politicization of women, especially with the Daughters of Liberty boycotting British goods:
  • [53:14] Historian/Expert: "...one of [the most radical things] was the politicization of women. It happened virtually overnight."

7. Everyday Patriotism and Class Tensions

• Emphasizes that the Revolution was not led by elites alone:
  • [43:27] Historian/Expert: "It's not the wealthiest people who are showing up in this mob. There are a lot of sailors, artisans, shipbuilders. It is the working people of Boston who have been worked up..."

8. The Spread—and Limits—of Revolutionary Ideals

• Acknowledges the paradox that liberty for some depended on the enslavement of others:
  • [11:06] Historian/Expert: "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness didn't exist."
• Points out regional differences, slow adoption of revolutionary fervor in the South (partially due to fewer printing presses).

9. Escalation Leading to Bloodshed

• British troop deployment to Boston and clashes like the Manufactory House standoff.
• Narrates growing mob actions against loyalists and "importers" culminating in violence.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• [05:36] "A giant statue of ... King George III ... for more than 150 years, Britain's colonists in America have prided themselves on their devotion to the crown."
• [07:38] "...the butchery begins ... his head hacked from his neck. Next, the lead is melted down. There's enough for 42,000 musket balls. All will be used to shoot the King's soldiers."
• [09:23] American Express Advertiser: "The concept that a government is by the people, for the people was a radical and revolutionary idea in 1776, and I think it remains a radical and revolutionary idea."
• [11:19] Historian/Expert: "When I hear the term Founding Fathers, I wince. This idea that there's a few very special and very wise men who basically determined who we should be as a country, it so simplifies and it so negates who the American people are."
• [29:40] Historian/Expert: "At that time, Franklin was a die hard British subject... They needed to unite or they would die. But he wasn't claiming they needed to unite against the British government..."
• [41:38] Historian/Expert (re: Sam Adams): "He calls them as he sees them with a plain, clear voice like a bell."
• [49:50] Narrator: "Over four hours, he fields 174 questions...he's asked whether soldiers should be sent to quell the growing rebellion...Franklin rolls his eyes at that one: 'They will not find a rebellion,' he says, 'but they may indeed make one.'"
• [53:14] Historian/Expert: "...the politicization of women. It happened virtually overnight..."
• [65:08] Historian/Narrator: "An indignant neighbor named Ebenezer Richardson...fires off a shot ... he hits Christopher Cider, an 11 year old boy. A protest ... has spiraled to the death of a child..."

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Content | |------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:38 | Host introduces the episode and questions around Founding Fathers | | 04:09 | Set scene: New York City, colonial era, George III statue erected | | 06:56 | Statue of George III torn down by Continental soldiers, lead melted for musket balls | | 12:13 | Benjamin Franklin’s birth and upbringing in Boston | | 19:10 | Franklin’s move to Philadelphia and career beginnings | | 23:09 | Franklin witnesses George Whitefield’s evangelical preaching, beginnings of the Great Awakening | | 27:47 | Franklin the loyal British subject, “Join or Die” cartoon, early British-American unity | | 30:43 | Franklin’s years in London, his rise as an “America whisperer” | | 36:29 | End of French & Indian War, Britain’s mounting debt, introduction of new taxes to the colonies | | 41:38 | Sam Adams and the roots of organized resistance (Sons of Liberty) | | 43:49 | Working-class mob actions in Boston, escalation of protests | | 49:50 | Franklin’s testimony before Parliament, repeal of Stamp Act | | 53:14 | Daughters of Liberty, politicization of women | | 55:44 | Arrival of British troops in Boston, occupation and local resistance | | 60:42 | Samuel Adams’ propaganda campaign, orchestrating anti-British sentiment | | 65:05 | Boycott violence escalates, death of Christopher Cider | | 66:47 | Preview of next episode: Boston Massacre, John Adams, rise of George Washington |

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Tone and Language

The episode balances vivid narrative storytelling with historical analysis, blending straightforward, occasionally wry commentary ("more portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin than you would if you robbed a bank" – Host, 00:38) with personal stories and expert insights. It moves seamlessly from the lived experiences of everyday colonists to the big-picture consequences of their actions.

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Summary

The premiere episode of Founding an American Dream, as featured on History Daily, sets out to enrich our understanding of America’s Revolution. It deftly blends the lives of iconic Founders like Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams with the overlooked contributions of women, the poor, and marginalized groups, illustrating how the drive for independence was far from inevitable and relied on the choices of millions. Through expert commentary and engrossing narrative, the episode reframes both the legendary and ordinary participants in the American Revolution, highlighting the complex, turbulent journey toward nationhood.

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Next episode preview: Boston Massacre, John Adams’s defense of British soldiers, and the rising profile of George Washington ([66:47]).

Transcript

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[Podcast Host]

We Americans are gearing up for a big birthday party. 250 years since the 13 United States declared their independence from Great Britain, there are sure to be plenty of red, white and blue bunting parades and picnics and fireworks galore. There will also be American flags festooning homes, businesses, cars and trucks and fashioned into T shirts, ties, baseball caps and bikinis. We will likely also see more portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin than you would if you robbed a bank. These men have been made into legends. They're on our money, in our classrooms and up on Broadway stages. But who were they really? Were they so extraordinary to deserve this reverence and adulation? Or were they merely plain, honest men facing an extraordinary moment? Another question you might ask is are the names we recognize the only ones responsible for the birth of the world's first and currently oldest modern democracy? On today's Saturday matinee, we are sharing the first episode of Founding an American Dream, an epic new eight part podcast series from Noiser that explores the riveting stories and unfamiliar figures contributing to the birth of the United States of America. This series of course, covers George Washington, Benjamin, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. But it also goes far beyond these figures to uncover stories from some of the millions of people whose lives shaped the American Revolution. The women organizing resistance movements, enslaved families, Native American communities, evangelical preachers and teenage soldiers thrust into the war. I hope you enjoy While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow Founding an American Dream. We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

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Start your free trial on shopify.com it's April 26, 1770. We're in New York City on Bowling Green at the southern end of Broadway. The great and the good are out on show. Pillars of the community make small talk. Clergymen, politicians, entrepreneurs, they're all here, bustling around the park. With an estimated population of 25,000, the city is not yet the Big Apple. No yellow taxis roar up and down Broadway, just carriages, horses and carts. Even so, in the late 18th century, New York is one of the biggest settlements on the continent, a gateway connecting the British colonies of North America with the wide world beyond. Today is a celebration of those global links and a chance to express what is supposedly in the hearts of all true patriots. With the dignitaries in place, the ceremony begins. In the distance, a military band plays,

[Historian/Narrator]

the prelude to a succession of speeches.

[Narrator]

Next, a bone jangling 32 gun salute blasts out.

[Historian/Narrator]

It's all because of a glimmering new

[Narrator]

addition to the New York landscape, a giant statue of the most beloved man in the city, His Majesty King George III of Great Britain. For more than 150 years, Britain's colonists in America have prided themselves on their devotion to the crown. Some say Americans love the monarch more than Those in Great Britain itself. As New Yorkers toast the King's health, the colony's lieutenant governor looks with wonder at the statue. Two tons of gilded lead sparkling in the spring sunshine. It depicts the King as a Roman emperor, sat on horseback. At 15ft high, it towers over everyone in its presence. For the lieutenant governor, its artistic perfection. Nothing could better express America's undying love for King George and the British homeland. Fast forward six years, and New York pulses with a very different energy. On the night of July 9, 1776, dozens of men enter Bowling Green under cover of darkness.

[Historian/Narrator]

These are soldiers, part of a new

[Narrator]

Continental army, a ragtag fighting force taking on the might of the British Empire.

[Historian/Narrator]

Earlier that day, they heard the Declaration

[Narrator]

of Independence read aloud. Forget Long live the King. George III is now public enemy number one. The soldiers clamber on top of the monarch's statue. They tie long, thick ropes around him and pull. Soon the King is unbalanced.

[Historian/Narrator]

The statue comes crashing down.

[Narrator]

Now the butchery begins. His Majesty is cut up limb by limb, his head hacked from his neck. Next, the lead is melted down. There's enough for 42,000 musket balls. All will be used to shoot the King's soldiers. The mightiest of them all has fallen. George III is in the scrapyard, a crook, a traitor, a tyrant. And the new nation is already building its own pantheon of great patriots. In time, they'll be known around the world as the Founding Fathers, the instigators of the American Revolution and the creators of the American Republic. The names of the most famous Founding Fathers echo through Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton. These are men of virtue. Their cause is freedom and justice for all. That, at least, is how the story goes. The truth is more complex. In this series, we'll bring you the epic tale of the birth of the United States of America.

[Historian/Narrator]

Using the Founding Fathers as our guides, we'll travel from the stirrings of revolution to the long and bloody fight for independence.

[Narrator]

This is the heart and soul and guts of the American Revolution.

[Historian/Narrator]

We'll witness the early years of the American Republic, an experiment that changed the world.

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The concept that a government is by the people for the people was a radical and revolutionary idea in 1776, and I think it remains a radical and revolutionary idea.

[Historian/Narrator]

Through the eyes of the Founding Fathers, we'll witness heroism and treachery, virtue and villainy. We'll bring the earliest years of the USA to life and explode historical myths.

[Historian/Expert]

A lot of the beliefs about the British government and British policies were simply

[Narrator]

conspiracy theory experts will lift the lid on the brutal reality of the revolution from which an independent America emerged.

[Historian/Expert]

It wasn't a civil war. It was an uncivil war because it was so hard fought. A vicious local fight that played out for all kinds of reasons. When people hear about the American Revolution, they all think, wait a minute, I didn't know religion mattered in this. I didn't know ethnicity mattered in this.

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But it did. We'll discover the real people behind the legend.

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The Founders were an intensely ambitious bunch. John Adams wanted to be remembered by history. Alexander Hamilton wanted power.

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But this isn't simply their story. The founding of the United States features a cast of millions men and women. This series will bring you descendants of those involved on various sides. There will be tales of high minded idealism that continue to inspire as well as the ugly legacies of America's origin story. Our ancestors were enslaved by Jefferson.

[Historian/Expert]

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness didn't exist.

[Historian/Narrator]

We'll hear from those who think the fame of the Founding Fathers obscures the true genius of the United States.

[Narrator]

We the people.

[Historian/Expert]

When I hear the term Founding Fathers, I wince. This idea that there's a few very

[Narrator]

special and very wise men who basically

[Historian/Expert]

determined who we should be as a

[Narrator]

country, it so simplifies and it so negates who the American people are. I'm clark peters and from the noiser podcast network. This is founding an american dream.

[Historian/Narrator]

Our story begins on a street in Boston in the colony of Massachusetts. The year is 1706. A biting, cold New England winter presses up against the windows of a modest townhouse. In an upstairs room, a baby boy fills his lungs for the first time. The newborn is wrapped in blankets and passed to his mother, a 39 year old woman called Abiyah Franklin. Abiah has a name for the baby, Benjamin. No one can know it yet, but

[Narrator]

this child, the son of a humble soap and candle maker, will grow up

[Historian/Narrator]

to be one of the most consequential figures of his age. Both Abiah and her husband Josiah are old hands at this. Benjamin is her eighth child, his 15th. They'll welcome a further two babies in the coming years. A home overflowing with children is pretty common in early 18th century Boston, a young bustling city where productivity is always encouraged. Like the Massachusetts colony as a whole, Boston is only a few decades old.

[Narrator]

Its founding was dominated by Puritans, austere Protestants who preach moral strictness and embrace a direct relationship with God. Devoid of elaborate ceremony. They are in many ways spiritual kin with other English settlers of the time. The Famous Mayflower pilgrims of Plymouth Rock, for instance. Religious radicals searching for land in which to build their vision of a perfect society. Abaya is Massachusetts born and raised. Her father came here from England when King Charles I began a campaign of anti puritan persecution in the 1630s. Josiah Benjamin's father is also an English immigrant, though like countless others, he came to America more in search of prosperity rather than religious freedom. Faith and finances. The twin engines of the American colonies. The origins of British America date back to English led expeditions in the late 15th century when Europeans first encountered what they called the New World. But it's not until 1607 that English settlers established their first permanent colony. They named it Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the so called Virgin Queen.

[Historian/Narrator]

Over the next century, numerous other colonies, including Massachusetts, are founded along the same Atlantic coastline. They are a magnet for those who dream of a new way of life. Whether it's spiritual fulfillment, material riches, or freedom from the social strictures of Europe,

[Narrator]

white settlers frequently wage war on indigenous peoples. As the colonies thrive, settlers and governments alike take more and more from native populations. Slave labor also plays a key part in these early colonial years. The enslavement of Africans is legal in every colony. In some, especially in the south, it's integral to the economy. The cultivation of crops such as rice, cotton and tobacco proves immensely lucrative. And all are reliant on enslaved people brought over from Africa in the early years of the 18th century. There are roughly 30,000 slaves in British North America, 1 in 10 of the total colonial population. Very often, the freedom the white colonists gain depends upon other people losing theirs. Settlers dream of pursuing their own visions of life. As a result, each colony has a distinct identity. Historian Jane Kamensky is president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

[Historian/Expert]

Britain's American colonies had developed as many different systems of governance as there were colonies. So we need to think about these almost as different countries. The thing that they shared is they had an extraordinary degree of local control and institutions that were accountable to their local populations. So there was a sense that when they reached into your pocket for taxation, they also looked you in the eye.

[Narrator]

Perhaps the only other thing found in every colony is a love for the British Empire. Professor Alan Taylor is the author of American A Continental History.

[Historian/Expert]

The colonists were very proud members of the British Empire. They exulted in the victories of empire over the French and the Spanish. They celebrated the King's birthday with a fervor that matched anything in Britain. So they thought of themselves very much as British people who happened to live in the Americas and They were proud of belonging to an empire that was so militarily powerful, that generated so much prosperity and that offered more civil liberties than did any other empire in the world.

[Narrator]

This is the world in which Benjamin

[Historian/Narrator]

Franklin makes his name.

[Narrator]

The Boston of Franklin's youth is a

[Historian/Narrator]

place that lives to work.

[Narrator]

Ships crowd the harbor and places of worship crowd everywhere else.

[Historian/Expert]

The churches are huge institutions in Boston and throughout New England. And if you look at any engraving of the 18th century Boston waterfront, you see steel rising almost like a forest. It's a fractious and disputatious place in ways that descend from Puritanism. This culture where people expect a direct relationship not only with their preacher, but with God. And I think even for non religious people, that makes it a highly participatory place.

[Historian/Narrator]

The Franklins are not cash rich.

[Narrator]

Benjamin's schooling ends at the age of 10. An apprenticeship in publishing follows.

[Historian/Narrator]

At 17, Benjamin leaves Boston in search of new opportunities.

[Narrator]

He arrives in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania colony. The boy is about to come of age in more ways than one. Peter Castor is professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis.

[Historian/Expert]

He moved to Philadelphia because not only was Philadelphia a bigger city and was more vibrant, Boston was still very much a city under the control of by then the kind of fourth generation descendants of the Puritan aristocracy. And he wanted room to move and grow and succeed. And to him, Philadelphia, even though it had had its own aristocracy, was this city of opportunity.

[Narrator]

Enlightening quick time. Franklin earns a fortune from publishing. At the center of his empire is the Pennsylvania Gazette, which becomes one of the most prominent newspapers in colonial America.

[Historian/Expert]

He's kind of one of the early self made man stories from that period. Because he was an incredibly smart printer, he knew how to print the English language in ways that were captivating and compelling to his fellow countrymen.

[Narrator]

So when a charismatic visitor from England swoops into town, Franklin immediately spots an opportunity. When I scraped my car in that parking garage, I was worried that it

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[Narrator]

It's November 1739. Late in the afternoon in the center of Philadelphia. Market street is heaving.

[Historian/Narrator]

Horse drawn carts and wagons line the road. Pedestrians amble alongside, mothers carrying children on their hips.

[Narrator]

Groups of sauntering teenage boys, the elderly

[Historian/Narrator]

moving slowly but purposefully.

[Narrator]

Among them is 33 year old Benjamin Franklin. Franklin moves in and out of the jungle jumble of bodies. He cranes his neck this way and that.

[Historian/Narrator]

A quick top of head calculation tells him There must be 6,000 people here. This is a city of roughly 15,000 inhabitants.

[Narrator]

It's astounding. Franklin claims a spot outside the wooden courthouse. If there's one thing he loves, it's an occasion.

[Historian/Narrator]

This afternoon promises to be just that.

[Narrator]

Inside the courthouse, a man dressed head

[Historian/Narrator]

to foot in black robes gazes out on the crowd.

[Narrator]

He's 25, but his flowing white wig makes him look strangely old. No doubt when he speaks, he seems

[Historian/Narrator]

as ancient as Methuselah. His powerful voice carries wisdom and authority

[Narrator]

well beyond his years. Around 6pm he walks out onto the balcony.

[Historian/Narrator]

There are gasps, then a reverential silence.

[Narrator]

The young man is George Whitefield.

[Historian/Narrator]

In his native England, Whitfield has a reputation as a dazzling preacher of God's word.

[Narrator]

Now he's the talk of the colonies.

[Historian/Narrator]

This past week, he's been preaching in Philadelphia.

[Narrator]

Every day the crowds have gotten bigger and more enthusiastic. Whitfield gesticulates and darts his arms into the air. In his booming voice, he urges the people of Philadelphia to return to their Maker. The vast audience listens in rapt silence. Whitefield's is a strict Calvinist message. Embrace the righteousness of Christ. Franklin is smitten not so much with the theology as a man of the Enlightenment. Franklin is all about rationality and skepticism. It's Whitfield's showmanship that blows him away. That and his command of other people's attention. The two men form an unlikely friendship. In the coming years, Franklin will publish Whitefield's sermons, making them both a tidy prophet. Whitefield is at the heart of a spiritual movement that sweeps the American colonies. The Great Awakening, as it's known, urges a revival of evangelical passions in ordinary men and women, from Georgia to Massachusetts and beyond. Many Americans feel it as a kind of homecoming, a rediscovery of the religious zeal upon which many of their communities had been founded. But the Great Awakening is not only about the refreshment of individual souls. It's also a challenge to established elites.

[Historian/Expert]

The norm was that every community would have one church, one faith, usually the one favored by the colonial government. In the southern colonies, that meant the Anglican Church. In the New England colonies, it meant the Congregational Church. Now what the evangelicals, starting with Whitefield, do is they say no. Every individual gets to choose his church and the government should not interfere with that. So it encourages people with the notion of they don't have to follow community norms. They don't have to follow government's norms if it violates their individual conscience. And you can see how that might be a parallel then, when people a generation later are thinking about rejecting the authority of Britain.

[Narrator]

Not that Benjamin Franklin is thinking very much about rejecting the authority of Britain.

[Historian/Narrator]

At least not yet.

[Narrator]

Lets jump forward 16 years. In January 1756, Franklin spends his 50th birthday, wet and cold, trudging along A narrow, slippery pass in the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania. In a life of constant reinventions, Franklin's latest incarnation is an unlikely one. A war ties commander leading 170 men on a special mission. Eventually, they reach their destination. What they discover is a scene of utter devastation. Corpses strewn throughout a deserted village. They bury the dead, then build a fortification. They hope this will protect their fellow colonists from the enemy. The conflict Franklin is caught up in is the French and Indian War, part of a broader struggle between Britain and France, also known as the Seven Years War. The two European powers are battling for control of North America. Franklin is firmly on the side of his king on protecting the stability and growth of the British colonial project. Hence his brief stint as a colonel on active duty, in which he spends time trying to repel attacks from native warriors who have sided with the French. In an attempt to shore up support in the colonies, he publishes a cartoon, a snake cut into several portions. Each represents a different colony beneath a simple message. Join or die.

[Historian/Expert]

At that time, Franklin was a die hard British subject, and he claimed that the British colonies needed to unite if they were going to successfully respond to the challenges of this war. They needed to unite or they would die. But he wasn't claiming they needed to unite against the British government, that they needed to unite against their French opponents in this war.

War.

[Narrator]

Professor Andrew o' Shaughnessy of the University of Virginia is the author of the Men who Lost America.

[Historian/Expert]

Today we see him as the quintessential American, but actually like a lot of the later patriots, he was very pro the empire, arguably more than the British. People like Franklin wanted to expand the British Empire. They wanted settlers to move west into Native American territory, which the British were against because they realized it would lead to war and expenditure.

[Narrator]

With the conflict still raging, the ever adaptable Franklin is on the move again, and this time much further from home. In 1757, he's walking the streets of London. Filthy, raucous, crowds upon crowds. After several eventful weeks at sea, during which his ship narrowly avoided colliding with another vessel in thick fog, he arrived here on a diplomatic mission to represent Pennsylvania's interests With the rich and powerful in the heart of the empire, London quickly becomes Franklin's home from home. In the city's numerous coffee houses, he finds his people scientists and merchants, poets and politicians. He even has a brush with royalty. When King George II dies in 1760, he's succeeded by his grandson, George III. The public has high hopes. Though British monarchs only reign with the consent of Parliament, they have the power to appoint governments. Young, energetic George is seen as a vehicle for change. A man who could re energize the nation's leadership. On the morning of the new king's coronation, Franklin stands amidst the London masses. It's a novel experience for someone from the colonies. Not even George Whitfield in Philadelphia can pull an audience like this. At length, King George and his wife, Queen Charlotte, make their way from St James palace to Westminster Abbey. They are carried the whole way on sedan chairs. A vast train of invited people walks behind them. Franklin scans the procession. He's looking for a special person. His adult son William, who is now a law student in London. Benjamin Franklin, child of a Boston craftsman, has landed his family at the epicenter of imperial power. It's a truly astonishing rise.

[Historian/Expert]

Franklin embodies the kind of social mobility and geographic mobility that is quite common for free people in Britain, Western colonies and entirely uncommon in home islands Britain. By the 1760s, he's become the most famous colonial on the face of the globe. He's feted as an American original all over London and France. He is the person whom Parliament calls in to be their America whisperer. What the hell is going on over there? The person you ask is Franklin. And whether someone who was born as he was could have had that steep an ascent anywhere else in the world. I think the answer is no.

[Narrator]

Franklin is delighted with his new king. Most Americans are George iii, when he

[Historian/Expert]

came to power, he was seen as a great breath of fresh air. He wanted to introduce a new type of politics. He felt that government had become incredibly corrupted. The same people had been in power for ages. And what is interesting is that the caricatures and the press were much less deferential to the monarchy in Britain than the Americans. And they reprinted some of this stuff. But you really don't get criticism of the king in America. Until 1774.

[Narrator]

Franklin shares King George's misgivings about the men in government. He's troubled by conversations with certain elder statesmen. One informs Franklin that London calls the shots in the colonies, their little legislatures, their ideas about self government, that's all irrelevant.

[Historian/Narrator]

Franklin is stunned, as he often is when talking to Londoners about America.

[Historian/Expert]

Britain in the 1750s and 60s was becoming much more nationalistic and jingoistic. Franklin complained that the ordinary people in Britain knew nothing about America. And he also said that every Englishman feels themselves to be governor of America.

[Narrator]

Britain's ideas about itself and its empire are crucial to our story.

[Historian/Expert]

We shouldn't just be looking at changes in America, but also In Britain that helped make a clash almost inevitable. One is the rise of Britain as what some people have called a fiscal military state. British finances were Transformed in the 18th century by the creation of the bank of England. And what that allowed Britain to do was to fight wars and to keep a very expensive navy. And it was the navy that really enabled the British to have a far flung empire.

[Narrator]

But superpower status doesn't come cheap. Many Britons are alarmed by the spiraling costs, particularly when the empire is seeing little return on its investments.

[Historian/Expert]

Britain was maintaining this empire at great expense, but it wasn't paying for the cost of its administration. The customs offices in America didn't actually obtain enough revenue even to cover their salaries.

[Narrator]

In 1763, the French and Indian war officially comes to an end. Britain is victorious, but defeating France has only piled on the debt. The people living in Great Britain are already among the most taxed in the world. Attempts to tax them further lead to rioting. In 18th century Britain, the monarch plays an important role in politics. But it's up to Parliament to pass laws. Colonists aren't represented in Parliament. That's for the people of Great Britain only. Yet Parliament now decides it's time for the colonies to cough up. A tax on sugar is introduced. Then the Stamp Act, a duty on various paper goods. When news of the Stamp act reaches America in the spring of 1765, it triggers outrage. The colonies can't stomach being taxed by a body that they have no stake in. They feel their rights as subjects of the British crown are being violated.

[Historian/Narrator]

In Massachusetts, the anger is red hot.

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[Narrator]

we're back in Franklin's hometown of Boston. A 43 year old man stomps his way heavy footed down the street. He's headed for an elm tree that everybody in town is talking about. Rooted at the corner of Essex street and Orange street, the tree was planted by settlers more than a century earlier. A living symbol of the colony's past and present, the man is short, stocky, you might say. He has a look of an English bulldog about him. He's scruffy too, his jacket ill fitting, as though he's wearing someone else's by mistake. This is Samuel Adams, a prominent player in Boston politics. Like Benjamin Franklin, he's also a newspaper man. In the pages of the Boston Gazette, he insists that American colonists have the same rights as all British subjects. 16 years younger than Franklin, Adams is one of many of his generation marked by the Great Awakening. He's powered by an evangelical passion.

[Historian/Narrator]

To him, Parliament's taxes are not only

[Narrator]

unjust, they are ungodly.

[Historian/Expert]

I think Samuel Adams had a kind of almost oracular voice and he was hot headed. He's impious. He's impolitic. He calls them as he sees them with a plain, clear voice like a bell.

[Narrator]

Today, on an August afternoon, 1765, he gazes up into the branches of the elm tree. Directly above him, a figure dangles limply in the sunlight. It's not a dead body, but a dummy. An effigy of the government official responsible for overseeing the Stamp act in Massachusetts. It's been placed there by activists connected to Adams. One of them is Ebenezer McIntosh. Locally, McIntosh is known as a bullish tough guy, often seen leading his South End gang in fights versus the rival North End gang. Dust ups in Boston are no rare thing. As the sun fades, the effigy is cut down from the tree but not laid to rest. Ebenezer Macintosh arrives.

[Historian/Narrator]

A huge crowd gathers around him.

[Narrator]

The effigy of is held aloft and paraded through the streets. They behead it, then burn it.

[Historian/Narrator]

When they reach the official's house, windows are smashed. Some of the crowd break in and raid the wine cellar. The message is pure Boston. A bold, direct statement of resentment and rage.

[Historian/Expert]

It's not the wealthiest people who are showing up in this mob. There are a lot of sailors, artisans, shipbuilders. It is the working people of Boston who have been worked up by Sam Adams's publications against the stamp tags and against any colonist who has spoken out in favor of the stamp tags.

[Narrator]

It's unclear whether or not Samuel Adams has direct involvement in planning this protest. But in the Boston Gazette he later refers to those involved as the sons of Liberty. It's August 26, 1765. Evening in Boston. Daylight slinks away

[Historian/Narrator]

in his elegant three story mansion. The Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts is settling down to dinner at 53. Thomas Hutchison occupies a rarefied position in his hometown. Descended from early settlers, he's part of the Massachusetts elite. Harvard educated, well connected and very wealthy. In Boston, he's a go to man of influence. As it happens, his brother in law is the government official who was recently targeted by Ebenezer McIntosh. Rumor is the man only had his

[Narrator]

job because of Hutchinson.

[Historian/Narrator]

To many in Boston, it seems that far too much power is held by far too few people. Life for Hutchinson is as indulgent as it gets in dower New England.

[Narrator]

There are no theaters there, the puritanical

[Historian/Narrator]

establishment banned those years ago.

[Narrator]

But an Anglo American's home is his castle, and Hutcheson's overflows with oil paintings, exquisite furniture and fine fabrics. Tonight he takes a seat at his highly polished dining table. Surrounding him are Several of his children. From his kitchens, servants deliver trays of rich delicacies. Bottles of delicious French wine are brought from the cellar. But before Hutchinson can fill his belly, a servant hurries in. There's an urgent message. A mob is on its way, led by the pugnacious Ebenezer Macintosh. Hutchinson needs no further explanation. These last few weeks have unleashed a popular fury. From his perspective, it's an outbreak of mass insanity, A hive minded carnival of violence fueled by overheated rhetoric and deranged conspiracy theories. Hutcheson orders his children to get out of the house. Anywhere will do, just as long as it's away from the advancing mob. The house must be secured. Hutchinson tears around the place. Doors are locked, windows shut fast. He flees for the safety of a neighbor's house. Soon, thousands of Bostonians descend, all intent on popular justice. In a chorus of smashing glass and splintering wood, McIntosh's followers break in. Looting and destruction ensues.

[Historian/Narrator]

The antique furniture is tossed into the street and set alight. Wooden paneling is stripped out. Walls are knocked through. Everything that's not nailed down is either ruined or stolen. Even the servants clothes are pilfered. By sunrise, the rioters have made their exit. Hutcheson stands in front of the rubble.

[Narrator]

It is, he says, the rage of

[Historian/Narrator]

devils that has come to Boston.

[Narrator]

The trashing of Hutchinson's house is mimicked throughout the colonies. Tax collectors everywhere are in a state of panic. Many quit their posts in the hope that it'll save them from the mob. To harness and control this energy, the colonies political elites attempt to make common cause. Leaders from nine colonies decide to gather in New York City. At the meeting, delegates draw up a declaration of rights and grievances. It adds an official air to the events. There's no doubt this is not just the bellyaching of a few amped up Bostonians. Across the ocean, Benjamin Franklin grows agitated.

[Historian/Expert]

Initially, he's somewhat detached from the real view of Americans. He opposed the stamp act, but once he thought it was going to go into effect anyway, he arranged for one of his friends to become the stamp collector in Pennsylvania. He was very calculating, but I think it is also a testimony to his fondness for Britain.

[Narrator]

In parliament, a place almost as rowdy as Boston, there's more than a little sympathy for the colonies. In January 1766, Franklin buys a pamphlet. He turns his pages eagerly. Inside is the text of a speech just delivered by William Pitt, a leading figure in the Whig party that pushes the interests of parliament over those of the monarch. Through his round, framed glasses, Franklin reads Pitt's latest speech, a rebuke of the Stamp Act. After a few weeks, Franklin echoes the sentiment when he's called to Parliament himself. It's the closest Americans will ever get to their demand of representation in this body that seeks to tax them. Before a committee of MPs, Franklin puts on a show. Over four hours, he fields 174 questions.

[Historian/Narrator]

Each answer presses the colony's case with wit, knowledge and sound logic.

[Narrator]

He's asked whether soldiers should be sent to quell the growing rebellion, the military patrolling American streets. Franklin rolls his eyes at that one. They will not find a rebellion, he says, but they may indeed make one. A few weeks after Franklin's testimony, the Stamp act is repealed. The colonies rejoice. In New York, the local government commissions the grand equestrian statue of George iii, an expression of loyalty to His Majesty. But a second statue is also commissioned. This one is of William Pitt, the parliamentarian who led British criticism of the new taxes. It will stand on Wall street less than half a mile from the statue of George.

[Historian/Narrator]

It's a telling expression of American sentiments.

[Narrator]

God save the King and don't tread on me in two chunks of gilded lead. But the British haven't learned their lesson. Just a year later, a wave of new taxes are introduced by Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a new government. What began as an effort to balance the books is now a point of principle.

[Historian/Expert]

Only Pitt really denied the right of Britain to tax America. The others argued, you have the right to tax America, but it's not expedient to do so. The government was determined to assert a token authority. The so called Townshend duties were import duties to America. They could easily have just been levied in Britain. There's almost no need to do it. So it's very symbolic.

[Narrator]

Boston rises again. In the Boston Gazette, Samuel Adams hits out against the British government to protest the import duties. Boycotts of British goods begin. Many in Boston refuse to buy or sell any materials shipped in from the mother country. This includes British clothes. The only alternative is to buy American. Difficult when the colonies are virtually untouched by the Industrial revolution. But America's women have the solution. Professor Cal Birkin is the author of Revolutionary Mothers.

[Historian/Expert]

Gender rules were that women were in

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charge of the dairy, the garden, the

[Historian/Expert]

household, and turning raw materials into usable manufactured goods. So now they set up spinning wheels and they spin cloth and they call themselves the Daughters of Liberty. That's a political identity. People often ask me, what were the most radical things in the American Revolution? And I say, well, one of them was the politicization of women. It happened virtually overnight,

[Narrator]

of course, for the hundreds of thousands of enslaved women in the colonies, their lives remain unaffected. But free women now find themselves at the center of public life.

[Historian/Expert]

Suddenly, the newspapers have to address women and say, no, no, no, we were wrong about saying, you don't have political opinions, and we value your political opinions and we need you to produce more cloth. And women start to then express themselves more openly, and some of them start to write in the newspapers to rally other women to this cause of supporting the boycott.

[Narrator]

It's not only city folk who are politically active. Most Americans live in rural communities, and opposition to Parliament's taxes is widespread there, too. Jim Philbrick is a direct descendant of David Howe, whose story we'll follow in later episodes. In 1766, David is only 10 years old and living in rural Massachusetts. But eventually he'll take up arms against the British Empire.

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David was born and raised on a farm in Methuen, Massachusetts. His father was born there, from what I tell, and they had lived there for several generations. That whole part of the family was from New England going back into the 1600s with some of the first groups that came over. David and I both descend from Elizabeth Jackson Howe, who is hanged as one of the witches in Salem in June of 1692. It was rural. It was hilly hardwood forests with open meadows and lots of running streams and water. Very ideal place to set up a homestead. It would take a day to get to Boston from where they were living. Parliament was across the ocean and they started to get a little unhappy with some of the things that were being asked of them to send this money for what reason? I don't understand. You're telling us to do these things. And I could definitely see where the King started to seem much further away

[Narrator]

in the fields and farmlands to the streets and the shipyards. Anger is rising. Protests continue and colonists dig in, as does the British government. A thousand soldiers are sent to Boston.

[Historian/Expert]

Before the Seven Years War, there were almost no British troops troops in North America. So for British troops to be sent into an American seaport city, Boston, in large numbers to occupy the city and essentially to enforce the laws of Parliament in the most militant, radical, resisting city in the colonies, it's a major escalation.

[Narrator]

On October 1, 1768, the first of the soldiers stream off British ships. From his family home near the docks, Samuel Adams is able to see the new arrivals at close quarters. They are far from inconspicuous. Every one of them is decked out in a bright red Coat. If there's any intention of blood into the background, it's not going to happen.

[Historian/Narrator]

Inexplicably, no proper arrangements have been made for housing the redcoats. In Boston, Soldiers are forced to cram themselves into government buildings, attempting to sleep in gaps between the furniture. They even spill onto Boston Common. When Adams takes a walk in the center of town. There they are, an entire regiment camping out in the autumn chill. Eventually, someone has the bright idea of commandeering Manufactory House. It's a large vacant building adequate for billeting soldiers. But Adams and his gang are one step ahead. When the local sheriff arrives, he discovers

[Narrator]

a place where full of people.

[Historian/Narrator]

The doors are triple bolted, the windows barred and boarded. Boston's message is clear. The soldiers are not getting in.

[Narrator]

In the early afternoon of October 20th, the sheriff returns with his deputy and a plan. He's been tipped off that some residents are sneaking in and out of Manufactory House via a small basement window. It's shut tight right now, so he waits.

[Historian/Narrator]

Eventually, the window opens. A young man climbs through it. The sheriff hurries over. As the young man goes to close the window behind him, the sheriff jams his fingers beneath the Sasha. The two wrestle over the frame. At 65, the sheriff would be forgiven for thinking he's too old for this nonsense. Instead, he draws a sword. Sensibly enough, the young man flees. The sheriff pries the window open. He and his deputy clamber inside Manufactory House. In the basement, they encounter another resident. A fight breaks out. What happens next is contested. By one account, the sheriff thrusts and parries like Errol Flynn. According to another, the sheriff and his deputy are overpowered and briefly taken hostage. Either way, the sheriff soon emerges in one piece.

[Narrator]

But the building is still full.

[Historian/Narrator]

Time for a different tactic. Soldiers now gather and surround the building. Nobody and nothing is to enter. The occupants will be starved out. But this new plan proves no more effective than the last one. Standing outside the building, townspeople literally chance their arm and fling loaves of bread at those leaning out of wind. Windows on the upper floors. Chairs go up every time a loaf is caught. The redcoats stand still as mannequins, powerless to intervene. When the Massachusetts governor hears of this, he decides to end the circus. The soldiers give up on Manufactory House. Alternative accommodation is eventually found. With no blood spilled, ordinary Bostonians have defeated the world's most powerful military. Samuel Adams writes a report of the drama. These days, not much of importance happens in Boston without it being captured by his pen.

[Narrator]

At Purchase street, he works late into the night, cocooned in the soft glow of candlelight, he writes and writes. The Protestant work ethic never dims.

[Historian/Narrator]

With the arrival of the Redcoats, Adams publishes a torrent of critical pieces. Each is written under an assumed name. Tonight, as his wife hears the scratching of his pen on the page, he's at work on a new venture. This one is called the Journal of Occurrences. It details the most sickening, hateful abuses committed by the British against the innocents of Boston. Much of the content is exaggerated or simply made up. The Redcoats are accused of every sin imaginable. According to Adams account, sadism comes as naturally to them as breathing.

[Narrator]

But accuracy isn't the point.

[Historian/Narrator]

This is pure propaganda. Adams intends only to underscore the outrage of placing British soldiers on American streets.

[Narrator]

His words spread like lightning through the colonies.

[Historian/Expert]

The revolutionaries were able to mobilize support because they produced all this printed material, and it was totally over the top. It would levy the most extreme accusations against the British government, but it moved very quickly. It also helps to explain how a small series of protests became a national revolution. And one of the things we see is that the northern colonies joined the movement more quickly. The southern colonies joined more slowly. One of the reasons is there are fewer printing presses, so the news didn't circulate as quickly. But these pamphlets were also read aloud, so people didn't just read them, they heard them.

[Historian/Narrator]

Some of Boston's tales travel all the way to London. Benjamin Franklin can barely believe how things have developed in just the last five years. To many Americans, Franklin seems like the colony's best hope of making the British see sense. Already an agent For Pennsylvania in 1768, Georgia recruits him to represent them in London, too. New Jersey and Massachusetts follow soon after. Franklin himself, however, is unsure of where things are heading. In early 1769, he confides to a friend that things daily wear a worse aspect and tend more to a breach and final separation.

[Narrator]

Meanwhile, with his pen, Samuel Adams keeps alive the spirit and the language of protest. The word patriot becomes loaded. Many use it now to describe those who pick a fight with Parliament, not those who celebrate the empire. But Boston is a city where individual thought is prized. When it comes to relations with Britain, there's plenty of disagreement. Not everyone, for instance, aligns with the boycott of British goods.

[Historian/Expert]

Ironically, because they were patriotic. They were British subjects. They felt an attachment to the king. Some of them had been born in the British Isles or their parents had been. They felt a strong connection there. They were worried they knew that the British Empire had done a lot for them. The British Empire was the root of the economy. So that is the political argument. That is the economic argument. All these benefits they'd gotten from the British Empire, why would you give any of that up?

[Historian/Narrator]

Yet the longer the British redcoats roamed the streets of Boston, the less patience there is with the boycott holdouts. In early 1770, the threat of violence feels ever present.

[Narrator]

Protests form outside the homes of local

[Historian/Narrator]

merchants who continue to import British goods. Windows are smashed, walls caked in manure. On February 22, a group of boys and young men arrive outside a merchant's shop. There's a hundred of them, maybe more. They erect a sign.

[Narrator]

It simply says important.

[Historian/Narrator]

An indignant neighbor named Ebenezer Richardson attempts to knock the pole to the ground. He drives a horse and cart straight at it, but it won't budge. The crowd turns. They harass Richardson, who runs to the safety of his house. Insults are hurled that sticks and stones. The windows of Richardson's house are smashed. Through a shattered pane of glass, Richardson pokes the barrel of a gun. He fires off a shot. And in doing so hits Christopher Cider, an 11 year old boy. A protest over unfair taxation has spiraled to the death of a child on the streets he called home.

[Narrator]

But there are no British soldiers involved in this tragedy. This is American versus American, the first

[Historian/Narrator]

shot of a civil war that will become a global conflict and the first casualty of a revolution that even now,

[Narrator]

almost nobody can see coming. Next time on Founding an American Dream.

[Historian/Narrator]

Boston is rocked. Unrest grows. An exchange of insults snowballs into a bloody clash between locals and redcoats. A young lawyer named John Adams steps up to do the least popular job in the city, defending British soldiers accused of perpetrating a massacre. As parliament attempts to reassert its authority, a dispute over tea importance results in one of history's most memorable acts of defiance. And as colonists gather in their first ever Congress, we meet a tall, composed war veteran from Virginia who will go on to become quite possibly the most famous founding father of them all.

[Narrator]

That's next time.

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It feels good to save some hard earned cash. It feels good to geico if you've

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