BFW Revisited: British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777–1778
From Ben Franklin's World by Liz Covart
March 31, 2026 · 1h 10m
About this episode
The episode explores the impact of British occupation on ordinary Philadelphians during 1777-1778.
In September 1777, just fourteen months after declaring independence, Philadelphia fell to the British Army. For nearly nine months, the new nation's capital was occupied territory. But what did that actually mean for the people who lived there? Not the generals, not the Congress: ordinary Philadelphians who had to decide whether to flee or stay, share their homes with British officers, watch their fences get chopped up for firewood, and figure out which neighbors to trust when it was all over. In this episode, Aaron Sullivan, a professor of History at Rider University, George Boudreau, a public historian and Executive Director of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Museum in Germantown, PA, and historical interpreter Kalela Williams, now the Director of the Virginia Center for the Book, take us inside occupied Philadelphia. Together, they reveal how a city that was never fully committed to independence experienced nine months of British rule, and what the occupation cost everyone who lived through it: Quaker women negotiating with soldiers at their back gates, merchants whose fortunes rose on British hard currency while their neighbors went hungry, and Black Philadelphians who looked…
People in this episode
Host: Liz Covart
Guests: Aaron Sullivan, George Boudreau, Kalela Williams
Topics covered
- British occupation
- Philadelphia
- American Revolution
- ordinary people
- Quaker women
- Black Philadelphians
- historical interpretation
Keywords
- British Army
- independence
- occupation
- Quaker women
- Black Philadelphians
- eighteenth-century America
- historical interpretation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Rider University, Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Museum
Places: Philadelphia, Germantown, PA
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