1. The Great Awakening and the Growing Rebellion

European superpowers battle for control of North America. A charismatic preacher takes the American colonies by storm. And the rabblerouser Samuel Adams leads protests over unfair taxation, ending in tragedy on the streets of Boston. These are the early stages of the American Revolution. The first steps on a path that will lead to all-out war with Great Britain. Heroes and villains will emerge. But our story begins in a simple townhouse in New England in 1706...as a baby boy named Benjamin Franklin is born... A Noiser Podcast Production. Narrated by Clarke Peters. Featuring Carol Berkin, Lindsay Chervinsky, Julius Jefferson, Jane Kamensky, Peter Kastor, Andrew O'Shaughnessy, Jim Philbrick, Ray Raphael, Alan Taylor.  Written and Produced by Edward White | Series Producer: Ed Baranski | Executive Producer: Joel Duddell | Head of Production: Natalie Brook-Reynolds | Script Consultant: Peter Kastor | Sound Supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Tom Pink | Assembly editing by Dorry Macaulay & Tony Onuchukwu | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering by Cian Ryan-Morgan |  Recording Engineer: Charlotte Sewter at The Soundhouse Studios.  Get every episode of Founding Fathers: An American Dream two weeks early and ad-free by joining Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices