Ben Franklin's World is a production of the

O'Mohandro Institute.

Welcome to Ben Franklin's World,

Podcasts About Early American History with Liz Covert.

The study of history is key to understanding who we are and how we can affect the better future.

Van Franklin's world will introduce you to historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present day world.

And now here's your host, Liz Kolar.

Hello and welcome to episode 225 of Ben Franklin's World,

the podcast dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people and

events of our early American past have shaped the present day world we live in.

In many ways, we're about to explore an age-old story, a middle-aged man, a much younger wife, a lover, and a murder plot.

Now, the setting for our age-old story is Newport, Rhode Island.

There, in 1738, a Cooper named Benedict Arnold petitioned the General Assembly for

divorce from his wife Mary Ward Arnold.

Now within his petition, Benedict claimed that Mary had taken a lover and attempted to murder him with poison, also that she could run off with her new bow and his land.

So how did the story of loved divorce and murder unfold?

What does it have to say about the larger world of colonial America and the experiences of colonial American men and women?

Elaine Foreman Crane, a distinguished professor of history at Fordham University, will answer these questions.

As she takes us through the Arnold story with details from her book, The Poison Plot, a tale of adultery and murder and colonial Newport.

Now as we wind our way through this plot, Elaine reveals, what we know about Benedict

and Mary Ward Arnold and the circumstances of their marriage.

Why and how Mary may have attempted to poison Benedict, and what the story of Mary and Benedict

...