Ben Franklin's World 437 Civilian Life in America's Occupied Cities
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Mar 24, 2026 Lauren Duvall, assistant professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and author of The Home Front, examines civilian life under British occupation during the Revolution. Short scenes show women negotiating quartering, households coping with officers, disruptions to urban labor, and enslaved people seeking freedom amid chaos. The conversation moves from city routines to how occupation reshaped daily life and memory.
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War Happened Inside Households
- The Revolution unfolded inside households where civilians negotiated daily life under military occupation.
- Lauren Duvall shows women, servants, and enslaved people gained new leverage as male household authority eroded during British occupations.
Quaker Woman Negotiated Quartering Terms
- Phoebe Pemberton, a Philadelphia Quaker, successfully complained about a misbehaving officer and then negotiated quartering terms when another general sought her house.
- She reserved garden use to feed her family, showing female heads set enforceable household terms under occupation.
Elizabeth Drinker Diary Captures Quartering Details
- Elizabeth Drinker kept a daily diary during the Philadelphia occupation that records quartering, household routines, and servants' choices.
- Her diary plus letters to her exiled husband reveal how an officer, James Crammond, slowly integrated into domestic life.
