437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The British Army is at your door. They need a room. What do you do? For thousands of civilians living in cities occupied during the American War for Independence — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston, Savannah — this wasn't a hypothetical. It was a reality that upended daily life and revealed a side of the revolution we rarely talk about. Lauren Duval, author of The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupations, and the Making of American Independence, joins us to explore what the War for Independence actually looked like from inside the household. Women who negotiated quartering terms and held their ground. Men who came to blows over who controlled the parlor. Enslaved people who used the chaos of occupation to reunite families and reach British lines. The revolution didn't just happen on battlefields. It happened at kitchen tables, in back gardens, and on doorsteps.Lauren's Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403 EPISODE OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:38 The Home Front of the American Revolution00:05:24 The Gensis of the Revolutionary Household00:10:49 Why Focus on Urban Port Cities00:19:46 The British Occupation's Impact on City Life00:25:55 Quartering a British Officer: The Drinker Household00:33:38. Quartering Experiences in Male-Headed Households00:39:22 Lower-Class Experiences During British Occupation00:40:55 The Impact of British Hard Currency on Urban Labor Markets00:44:21 Black Experiences During British Occupation00:51:21 The Overall American Experience of the War for Independence00:54:01. The Time Warp00:59:47 ConculsionRECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 050: Betsy Ross & the Making of America🎧 Episode 175: The War in Ben Franklin's House🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tail🎧 Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia🎧 Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Yorktown🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's WifeSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	McGriddles, a new McDonald's breakfast. So it's maple syrup infused. It's sweet, then it's savoury, because the sausage, you know, and the cheese and the egg. Oh, it's got the golden archies stamped on it too. Make that make sense. It's hard to put into words, but... Until 11am, subject to availability, fees apply to delivery orders while stocks last. Now, are all the traitors present? Let's get started, shall we?
0:24.6	From rags to riches. I'm so sick of this. Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:29.2	Yorkshire to New York. Or climbers, you and me. A life dedicated to revenge.
0:34.5	Let's make this an occasion to remember. A woman of substance on Channel 4,
0:39.2	stream now. You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Ben Franklin's World is a production of
0:45.8	Cleo Digital Media. And support for this episode comes from the Massachusetts Historical Society.
0:51.0	The first historical society founded in the United States in 1791.
0:56.3	He brings not only himself, but a number of livestock. He has a handful of servants who
1:03.8	accompany him, including a black servant of uncertain freedom. It's unclear if Damon was
1:08.7	enslaved or not. And so there's suddenly with Kerman's
1:11.8	presence, there's not just an officer in the house, but the drinker household become so much more
1:15.4	porous, right? There are all of these people moving in and out and back and forth to headquarters.
1:19.9	So for the drinkers, it's a real adjustment. But even as they have their separate areas of the house,
1:26.8	slowly they develop a friendship. And really,
1:30.5	their life starts to integrate in a way that not that I think on to ward happens, but they're
1:35.6	living in close proximity, right, and kind of relationships develop. And I think one of the
1:39.3	really interesting things about this relationship is we have Elizabeth's diary telling us what's happening day to day
1:46.1	and how she's interacting with crime events. But her husband's absent and he's really worried
1:50.8	about the fact that there is the Scottish officer living with his wife and his children. And
1:55.2	she's also writing to alleviate Henry's fears. And those things aren't always line up. Right. So for instance, she tells Henry, I try to avoid crime and whenever possible.
2:05.0	It's an inconvenience.
2:06.0	We barely see him.
	...

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