Introducing: Founding Fathers: An American Dream - Episode 1

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Short History Of… – Introducing: Founding An American Dream, Episode 1" (June 16, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In this preview episode, "Short History Of…" introduces listeners to the new series "Founding An American Dream" (hosted by Clark Peters), a sweeping historical exploration of the United States’ origins. Episode 1 charts the turbulent decades leading up to the American Revolution, focusing on the complex emotional, economic, and ideological ties binding the American colonies to Britain and foreshadowing their eventual break. It highlights key figures like Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams, while also examining how ordinary men and women, diverse communities, and evolving beliefs fueled the march to independence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A City’s Loyalty Turned Upside Down

• Opening Vignettes (01:01–05:49):

  • 1770: New York City celebrates its allegiance to King George III with a towering gilded statue.
  • 1776: Mere years later, Continental soldiers destroy the same statue, melting it for musket balls—symbolizing the colonies’ radical shift.

  “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.” – Clark Peters (04:13)

• Founding Fathers as Myth & Reality:

  • The series promises a nuanced portrayal beyond patriotic myth, tackling both heroism and uncomfortable truths about America’s origins.

2. Colonial Identities & Contradictions

• Diversity and Local Control (13:26):

  • Each colony developed unique governance structures and identities, resembling separate countries more than a unified whole.
  • Local democracy meant that “when they reached into your pocket for taxation, they also looked you in the eye.” – Jane Kamensky (13:43)

• Empire and Racial Reality:

  • British colonists saw themselves as proud empire-builders, yet the expansion relied on both the dispossession of indigenous peoples and the labor of enslaved Africans.
  • One in ten colonial residents was enslaved by the early 1700s (12:08–12:48).

3. The Making of Benjamin Franklin

• Rise of an ‘American Original’ (09:06–28:07):

  • Franklin’s Boston childhood in a bustling Puritan city, early end to formal education, and journey to Philadelphia.
  • Embrace of Enlightenment values, entrepreneurial ambition (16:41).
  • Encounter with preacher George Whitefield and the “Great Awakening”—a spiritual resurgence that also challenged colonial authority (19:07–21:54).

  “As a man of the Enlightenment, Franklin is all about rationality and skepticism. It’s Whitefield’s showmanship that blows him away.” – Clark Peters (19:47)

• Franklin as Loyal British Subject (22:05–24:21):

  • Initially, he advocated unity with Britain—against the French, not the Crown.
  • Used the now-famous “Join or Die” cartoon to rally colonial coordination.

• Life in London (25:01–29:40):

  • Franklin thrives in the heart of the empire, embodying colonial ambition and upward social mobility rarely achievable in Britain itself.

  “Franklin embodies the kind of social and geographic mobility that is quite common for free people in Britain’s western colonies… Whether someone who was born as he was could have had that steep an ascent anywhere else… I think the answer is no.” – Jane Kamensky (27:19)

4. Eroding Bonds:

• Britain’s Fiscal Crisis and Taxation Without Representation (30:17–31:56):
  • After the costly French and Indian War, Britain is heavily in debt; taxing the colonies becomes imperative.
  • Stamp Act (1765) and other levies inflame colonial outrage: “The colonies can’t stomach being taxed by a body that they have no stake in.” (31:46)

5. Birth of Organized Resistance

• Samuel Adams & The Sons of Liberty (32:19–35:57):

  • Adams, infused with evangelical zeal, orchestrates radical protests against tax collectors—culminating in spectacle and violence.

  “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.” – Jane Kamensky (33:39)

• Mob Fury—Destruction of Hutchinson’s Mansion (36:17–39:40):

  • Protesters target elite loyalists viewed as complicit with British oppression, signaling escalating grassroots anger.

• Continental Coordination and Early Rifts (40:28–42:51):

  • The Stamp Act’s backlash prompts early colonial cooperation and growing fissures between American interests and British policy.

6. Women in Revolution: The Daughters of Liberty

• Women Take Center Stage (43:54–45:28):
  • With boycott of British goods, colonial women’s household production becomes overtly political.
  • The birth of the Daughters of Liberty marks a “radical politicization of women… it happened virtually overnight.” – Professor Cal Birkin (44:34)
• **Enslaved women, however, remain excluded from these changes.

7. Escalation: Boycotts, Soldiers, and Propaganda (47:28–54:29)

• British Troop Occupation (47:46):

  • The unprecedented peacetime presence of British soldiers in Boston heightens tensions, provoking civilian resistance (Manufactory House siege).

• Adams’ "Journal of Occurrences" (52:44):

  • Samuel Adams deploys mass media—through exaggeration and fabrication if necessary—to galvanize public sentiment against the Redcoats.

  “Much of the content is exaggerated or simply made up. The Redcoats are accused of every sin imaginable. But accuracy isn’t the point. This is pure propaganda.” – Clark Peters (52:44)

8. The Tipping Point: From Protest to Violence

• Splits Among Colonists (55:21–56:25):

  • Polarity between radical patriots and those loyal (economically or emotionally) to the British Empire.

• First Blood: The Killing of Christopher Cider (57:22–58:30):

  • In February 1770, a colonial loyalist fires into a mob, killing an 11-year-old boy. The episode closes with this omen of escalating violence—American against American—hinting at the coming revolution.

  “A protest over unfair taxation has spiraled to the death of a child on the streets he called home… the first shot of a civil war that will become a global conflict.” – Clark Peters (58:11, 58:21)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “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.”
  – Clark Peters (04:32)

• On the Myth of Founders:

  “When I hear the term Founding Fathers, I wince… It so simplifies and it’s so negative who the American people are.”
  – Commentator/Critic (08:07)

• Printing and Revolution:

  “The revolutionaries were able to mobilize support because they produced all this printed material, and it was totally over the top… It also helps to explain how a small series of protests became a national revolution.”
  – Historian/Expert (53:41)

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Timeline of Key Segments

• 01:01 — New York’s celebration of King George III; colonial loyalty set in stone (and soon to be melted down)
• 09:06 — Birth and upbringing of Benjamin Franklin
• 13:26 — Colonial diversity and local governance, historian Jane Kamensky
• 16:41 — Franklin’s rise as a printer and publisher
• 21:54 — The Great Awakening: shifting religious and social dynamics
• 22:05 — Franklin’s wartime role; his evolution from British loyalist to revolutionary
• 32:19 — Samuel Adams and the effigy protest under Boston’s elm tree
• 43:54 — Daughters of Liberty and the politicization of women
• 47:46 — Arrival and impact of British soldiers in Boston
• 52:44 — Propaganda wars: Samuel Adams’ “Journal of Occurrences”
• 57:22 — Death of Christopher Cider; foreshadowing revolution

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Tone & Style

The episode blends lively storytelling and immersive scene-setting with sharp historical analysis, alternating between dramatizations, expert commentary, and reflections from both descendants and historians. The tone is accessible yet detailed, willing to challenge foundational myths and confront uncomfortable truths.

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Closing & Next Episode Tease

The episode ends with the city of Boston on a knife-edge as violence erupts, setting the stage for future episodes:

• The Boston Massacre
• The Tea Party
• Emergence of George Washington
• The escalation from protest to open rebellion

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For listeners seeking a richly detailed, myth-busting, and humanizing account of early American history—this series promises new perspectives on familiar names and a focus on the overlooked majority whose hopes, fears, and actions shaped the American dream.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

Hi listeners. Today we're bringing you a preview of a brand new show from the Noiser Podcast network. It's called Founding an American Dream. Hosted by Clark Peters, it tells the epic tale of the birth of the United States of America 250 years ago. Across eight episodes. Hear how American patriots overthrew imperial rule and established a radical new nation. Follow George Washington into bloody battles. Travel with Benjamin Franklin on crucial missions. Hear Alexander Hamilton debate the country's future. How was American independence won? Who lost out along the way? And why does it still matter today? Featuring contributions from leading historians and descendants of those involved, as well as original music and immersive sound design. If you enjoy this taster episode search Founding an American Dream in your podcast app and hit follow, you'll find more episodes waiting for you now. We hope you enjoy.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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, the prelude to a succession of speeches. Next, a bone jangling 32 gun salute blasts out. It's all because of a glimmering new addition to the New York landscape. A giant statue of the most beloved man in the city. His Majesty King George III of Great British. 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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

Sat on horseback.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

These are soldiers, part of a new

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Continental army, a ragtag fighting force taking on the might of the British Empire. Earlier that day, they heard the Declaration 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. The statue comes crashing down. 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 history. 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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Commentator/Critic]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Historian/Expert]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 conspiracy theory.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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 placed for all kinds of reasons. When people hear about the American Revolution, they often think, wait a minute, I didn't know religion mattered in this. I didn't know ethnicity mattered in this. But it did.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

We'll discover the real people behind the legends.

[Historian/Expert]

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

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

We the people.

[Commentator/Critic]

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's so negative who the American people are.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

I'm clark peters and from the noiser podcast network. This is founding an american dream. Our story begins on a street in Boston in the colony of Massachusetts.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 Abaya Franklin. Abaya has a name for the baby, Benjamin. No one can know it yet, but

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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. Abiah 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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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 Jane Kamensky]

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, 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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Historian Alan Taylor]

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 (Clark Peters)]

This is the world in which Benjamin

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

Franklin makes his name. The Boston of Franklin's youth is a place that lives to work.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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

[Historian Jane Kamensky]

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 steeples 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.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

The Franklins are not cash rich. Benjamin's schooling ends at the age of 10. An apprenticeship in publishing follows. At 17, Benjamin leaves Boston in search of new opportunities. 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 foreign 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 (Clark Peters)]

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 (Clark Peters)]

So when a charismatic visitor from England swoops into town, Franklin immediately spots an opportunity. It's November 1739, late in the afternoon

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

in the center of Philadelphia.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Market street is heaving.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Groups of sauntering teenage boys, the elderly

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

moving slowly but purposefully.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

This afternoon promises to be just that.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Inside the courthouse, a man dressed head

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

to foot in black robes gazes out on the crowd.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

He's 25, but his flowing white wig makes him look strangely old.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

No doubt when he speaks, he seems as ancient as Methuselah. His powerful voice carries wisdom and authority

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

There are gasps, then a reverential silence.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

The young man is George Whitefield.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Now he's the talk of the colonies.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

This past week, he's been preaching in Philadelphia. Every day the crowds have gotten better,

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

bigger and more enthusiastic. Whitefield gesticulates and darts his arms into the air. In his booming voice, he urges the people of Philadelphia to return to their maker.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

The vast audience listens in rapt silence.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Whitefield's is a strict Calvinist 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 Alan Taylor]

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 and 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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

At least not yet.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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 wartime command leading one hundred and seventy 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. It's that they needed to unite against their French opponents in this war.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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 spot. 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 Jane Kamensky]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Historian/Expert]

When he 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 governments 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 (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

That's all irrelevant. 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 (Clark Peters)]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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 officers in America didn't actually obtain enough revenue even to cover their salaries.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

In Massachusetts, the anger is red hot.

[Podcast Host]

Hi listeners, if you're enjoying this Taster episode, then search Founding an American Dream in your podcast app and hit follow. You can listen to more episodes of Founding Fathers straight after this one.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

To him, Parliament's taxes are not only

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

unjust, they are ungodly.

[Historian Jane Kamensky]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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. A huge crowd gathers around him. The effigy is is held aloft and paraded through the streets.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

They behead it, then burn it. 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 Alan Taylor]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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 26th, 1765. Evening in Boston. Daylight slinks away

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 job because of Hutchinson. 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 (Clark Peters)]

There are no theaters there, the puritanical

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

establishment banned those years ago.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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. Hutchinson stands in front of the rubble.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

It is, he says, the rage of

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

devils that has come to Boston.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

body that seeks to tax them.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

Before a committee of MPs, Franklin puts on a show. Over four hours, he fields 174 questions.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

It's a telling expression of American sentiments.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Professor Cal Birkin]

Gender rules were that women were in charge of the dairy, the garden, the 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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

the center of public life.

[Historian Alan Taylor]

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 (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Descendant Jim Philbrick]

David was born and raised on a farm in Methuen, Massachusetts. His father was born there, from what I could 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 was hanged as one of the witches in Salem in June of 1692. It was rural, it was hilly hardwood for 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 (Clark Peters)]

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 Alan Taylor]

Before the Seven Years War, there were almost no British 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 (Clark Peters)]

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 blaming into the background, it's not going to happen.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 Manufacturing 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 a place for full of people. The doors are triple bolted, the windows barred and boarded. Boston's message is clear. The soldiers are not getting in.

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 sash. The two rush, 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 (Clark Peters)]

But the building is still full.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 windows. On the other. 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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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. But accuracy isn't the point. This is pure propaganda. Adams intends only to underscore the outrage of placing British soldiers on American streets. 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.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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, George 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 (Clark Peters)]

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?

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 (Clark Peters)]

Protests form outside the homes of local

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 (Clark Peters)]

It simply says important.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

An indignant neighbor named Ebenezer Richardson attempts to knock the pole to the ground. He drives a horse and cart straight

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

at it, but it won't budge.

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

The crowd turns. They harass Richardson, who runs to the safety of his house. Insults are hurled, then 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 (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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

[Narrator (Clark Peters)]

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

[Narrator/Scene Setter]

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 imports 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 (Clark Peters)]

That's next time.

[Podcast Host]

Thanks for listening. To hear more episodes of Founding an American Dream right now, find the show in your podcast app and hit follow or [e-mail].