BFW Revisited: Smuggling and the American Revolution

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

British officials had a problem: Their American colonists wouldn't stop smuggling. Even after Parliament slashed tea prices and passed laws to make legal imports cheaper, colonists kept buying Dutch and French goods on the black market. So what was really going on? If it wasn't just about saving money, what drove thousands of merchants and consumers to risk fines, seizure, and worse? In this revisited episode, we follow the illicit trade networks that connected colonial port cities to the "Golden Rock,” Sint Eustatius, a tiny Dutch island that became the Atlantic World's busiest smuggling hub. You'll discover why American merchants risked everything to trade there, how these underground networks shaped revolutionary resistance, and what Britain's crackdown on smuggling reveals about the deeper economic and political tensions that ignited the Revolution. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/161 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 021: Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History🎧 Episode 112: The Tea Crisis of 1773🎧 Episode 121: The Dutch Moment in the 17th-Century Atlantic World🎧 Episode 159: Dangerous Economies🎧 Episode 160: The Politics of Tea🎧 Episode 288: Smugglers & Pirates in the 18th-Century Atlantic WorldSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 [email protected] YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubLISTEN 🎧🍎 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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0:50.2	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
1:07.6	Hello, and welcome to Ben Franklin's World Revisited, a series of classic episodes that bring fresh perspective to our latest episodes and had deeper connections to our understanding
1:11.6	of early American history.
1:13.6	And I'm your host, Liz Covart.
1:15.6	In our most recent episode, Joe Anand took us into the
1:18.6	early American world of coffee,
1:20.6	and how a simple, everyday drink carry political meaning,
1:23.6	economic power, and social change.
1:25.6	But coffee wasn't the only commodity bound up with
1:28.4	protest and power. When early Americans rejected British tea after 1773, they didn't just
1:34.1	stop drinking it. They found new ways to supply their wants and needs. Now, some of those ways
1:39.0	were perfectly legal. Others, let's just say they sailed in the shadows of empire.
	...

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