384 Making Maine: A Journey to Statehood

Ben Franklin's World

Article IV, Section 3 of the United States Constitution establishes guidelines by which the United States Congress can admit new states to the American Union. It clearly states that “no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State…without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

Five states have been formed from pre-existing states: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maine. How did the process of forming a state from a pre-existing state work? Why would territories within a state want to declare their independence from their home state?

Joshua Smith, the interim director of the American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point, New York, and author of the book Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812, leads us on an exploration of Maine’s journey to statehood.

Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/384 Sponsor Links

• Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
• Juneteenth at Colonial Williamsburg

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 030: Northern New England’s Religious Geography
• Episode 057: Money and the American State
• Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man
• Episode 103, James Monroe and & His Estate Highland
• Episode 134: Pulpit and Nation
• Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century

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