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00:00:00Major funding for the American Revolution was provided by the Better Angels Society and its members,
00:00:05Jeannie and Jonathan Levine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
00:00:11Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation,
00:00:17the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members Eric and Wendy Schmidt,
00:00:22Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst.
00:00:26Additional support was provided by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts,
00:00:31Gilbert S. Oman and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members Gilchrist and Amy Berg,
00:00:38Perry and Donna Golkin, the Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation,
00:00:44Diane and Hal Briarley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs,
00:00:50the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members.
00:00:53The American Revolution was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
00:00:59and viewers like you. Thank you.
00:01:02The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world.
00:01:08The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow
00:01:14to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion.
00:01:20What would you like the power to do?
00:01:28The Bank of America.
00:01:34The plan laid down for our education was entirely broken in upon by the war.
00:01:40Instead of morning lessons, we were to knit stockings.
00:01:45Instead of embroidering, to make homespun garments.
00:01:49And in place of the music of the harpsichord, to listen to the loud clanging trumpet and never-ceasing drum.
00:01:55For in every direction that we traveled, and heaven knows we left but little of Virginia unexplored,
00:02:03we heard naught but the din of war.
00:02:06Our late peaceful country now became a scene of terror and confusion.
00:02:13Betsy Ambler.
00:02:13Our images of the American Revolution tend to be images of men in wigs in wood-paneled rooms.
00:02:26And that helps to reinforce an image of the American Revolution as just a war about ideals.
00:02:31I think that we really do a disservice to history and to the experiences of the people who lived through it
00:02:42when we paper over the violence of the American Revolution
00:02:48with the set of very idealized images that we have of the Founding Fathers signing documents in Philadelphia.
00:02:57The United States came out of violence.
00:03:06I peeped out at the bay and saw something resembling a wood of pine trees, trimmed.
00:03:13I declare at my noticing this that I could not believe my eyes.
00:03:18But judge you of my surprise when in about ten minutes the whole bay was full of shipping, as ever it could be.
00:03:25I do declare that I thought all London was afloat.
00:03:31Private Daniel McCurton.
00:03:34On Saturday morning, June 29th, 1776,
00:03:39Colonel Henry Knox, whose artillery had convinced the British to flee Boston,
00:03:44was breakfasting with his wife Lucy on the second floor of a commandeered mansion at Number One Broadway.
00:03:50When he, too, spotted the British ships that Private McCurton had seen as they approached New York Harbor unopposed.
00:04:00My God, you can scarcely conceive of the distress and anxiety.
00:04:05The city in an uproar.
00:04:07The alarm guns firing.
00:04:08The troops preparing to their posts.
00:04:10Martha Washington and other officers' wives, including Lucy Knox and her infant daughter,
00:04:18were sent away from the city for their safety.
00:04:21The Royal Navy anchored off Staten Island and began to disembark some 10,000 British regulars.
00:04:30Crowds of local loyalists cheered them as they stepped ashore.
00:04:33The Royal Navy, as one contemporary put it, was the canvas wings of the British state.
00:04:41It enabled the British to appear off the coastline almost anywhere, unhindered.
00:04:49We expect a very bloody summer at New York.
00:04:53As it is here, I presume, the grand efforts of the enemy will be aimed.
00:04:57And I am sorry to say that we are not, either in men or arms, prepared for it.
00:05:05George Washington
00:05:06By the summer of 1776, the revolution, which began as a quarrel over the rights of British subjects,
00:05:24had become a war for American independence.
00:05:27And as that revolution spread throughout the colonies,
00:05:31thousands of Americans, patriots and loyalists alike, would be driven from their homes.
00:05:3911-year-old Betsy Ambler of Yorktown, Virginia, and her family had been among the earliest refugees.
00:05:47Her mother suffered from what Betsy called a nervous malady.
00:05:51In 1775, the constant talk of war and Yorktown's vulnerability to an attack by water had so terrified her mother that her father decided to move the family, Betsy said, and seek a safe retreat for her.
00:06:08The Amblers were more fortunate than most displaced families.
00:06:12They and their relatives owned farms and plantations worked by enslaved people scattered across the state.
00:06:20They settled first in a small house in the tiny village of Newcastle, in Hanover County.
00:06:28It was there that Betsy's mother gave birth to another daughter, Lucy.
00:06:33Since Lucy made her appearance just after the declaration, Betsy recalled, their father called her his only independent child.
00:06:43Now a fully committed patriot, Betsy's father had lost his paid position as collector of royal customs,
00:06:51and a Royal Navy blockade would soon choke off the shipping on which his profits as a merchant had been made.
00:07:01The war, though it was to involve my immediate family in poverty and perplexity of every kind,
00:07:09was for the foundation of independence and prosperity for my country.
00:07:13And what sacrifice would not an American, a Virginian, at the earliest age have made for so desirable an end?
00:07:24Betsy Ambler
00:07:40What to do with this city puzzles me.
00:07:42It is so encircled with deep navigable water that whoever commands the sea must command the town.
00:07:51General Charles Lee
00:07:52George Washington had assigned a former British officer, General Charles Lee, to fortify New York City and its surroundings.
00:08:03The patriot commanders feared they could not hold the town for long, but hoped to make the British pay the highest possible price for its capture.
00:08:12Since no one could say where or when British attacks would come, Washington had been forced to scatter his army and its 121 cannon all around the harbor.
00:08:24New York is an archipelago.
00:08:25New York is an archipelago. It's a confluence of islands. It's a problem. If you don't control the naval approaches in and around New York, you cannot properly defend New York.
00:08:42New York was one of the best natural harbors on the Atlantic seaboard, and although the town still occupied just a single square mile at Manhattan's southern tip,
00:08:53It was the second largest city in the newly created United States and the gateway to the Hudson River.
00:09:00If the British commander, General William Howe, could capture it, his forces would be free to ascend the river and divide rebellious New England from the rest of the states.
00:09:12This whole war, in many ways, is a water campaign. It's who controls the coast, but it's also who controls the rivers and the lakes.
00:09:23This is where the fighting would be, wherever water provided you with a way to get into the interior of the country.
00:09:30Both the British and the Americans had considered New York and the farming communities that bordered it to be loyalist strongholds.
00:09:41For weeks, patriots had prowled the streets, roughing up loyalists.
00:09:46Thousands fled with what belongings they could carry. Hundreds more were arrested.
00:09:52Several dozen were hauled away to Simsbury, Connecticut, and imprisoned in an abandoned copper mine 70 feet below the earth that the patriots called the Catacomb of Loyalty.
00:10:06A committee for detecting and defeating conspiracies, chaired by the attorney John Jay, held daily inquisitions.
00:10:15Forty men, including the mayor of New York City, were jailed for plotting to assassinate George Washington.
00:10:23A member of Washington's own personal guard was found to be involved and hanged while four brigades of troops looked on.
00:10:33The city had been home to 25,000 people.
00:10:38By the summer of 1776, just 5,000 of them would remain, and those loyalists left behind had learned to keep their opinions to themselves.
00:10:49To see the vast number of houses shut up, one would think the city almost evacuated.
00:10:57Troops are daily coming in. They break open the houses they find shut up to quarter themselves. Necessity knows no law.
00:11:07Continental soldiers and militiamen from 10 states continued to stream into town.
00:11:14Eventually, there would be more than 20,000 of them in and around New York.
00:11:19They moved into abandoned houses, tore up parquet floors for firewood, and hurled refuse from the windows.
00:11:29Despite a 10 p.m. curfew, troops flocked to a warren of west side brothels built on land owned by Trinity Church.
00:11:38Customers called it the Holy Ground.
00:11:41On the afternoon of July 12th, two British warships slipped their anchors off Staten Island, moved into the harbor past the tip of Manhattan, and began sailing up the Hudson.
00:11:55The cannon from the city did but very little execution, as not more than half the number of the men belonging to them were present.
00:12:06The others were at their cups, and at their usual place of abode, on the holy ground.
00:12:14Lieutenant Isaac Banks
00:12:15Later that same evening, a still larger British fleet, more than 100 vessels,
00:12:23began streaming through the narrows and into New York Harbor.
00:12:28Its commander was General William Howe's elder brother, Vice Admiral Richard Howe.
00:12:34Both had once expressed sympathy for the colonists,
00:12:37and both had been empowered to negotiate with rebel leaders and issue pardons in hopes of avoiding further bloodshed.
00:12:45But while the admiral was crossing the Atlantic, Congress had declared American independence.
00:12:53We learned the deplorable situation of His Majesty's faithful subjects,
00:12:57that they were hunted after and shot at in the woods and swamps to which they had fled,
00:13:02to avoid the savage fury of the rebels.
00:13:05We also heard that the Congress had now announced the colonies to be independent states.
00:13:09That proclaims the villainy and madness of these deluded people.
00:13:18To my dear Betsy, my wife,
00:13:21It is hard to be quite happy when one full half at least of both body and soul is left at home.
00:13:28But believe it, I am not more mortal here in the neighborhood of the British canon
00:13:33than I should be was I happy in your peaceful, loving arms.
00:13:38Till my God calls me, I am immortal.
00:13:43Philip Vickers Vithian
00:13:44Philip Vickers Vithian of Cohancy, New Jersey,
00:13:49was a newly married 28-year-old Presbyterian clergyman,
00:13:54recently appointed chaplain of a militia brigade.
00:13:56He was a graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton,
00:14:01where his classmates had included Aaron Burr and James Madison.
00:14:07After college, he spent a year as a tutor on a Virginia plantation,
00:14:12where, seeing the inhuman cruelty of slavery up close,
00:14:16he introduced the owner's children to the work of the enslaved poet Phyllis Wheatley.
00:14:22In New York, Vithian found himself sleeping on the floor of a Loyalist's abandoned home,
00:14:29conducting prayer meetings twice a day,
00:14:33and afterwards visiting the hospitals filled with men dying from dysentery.
00:14:38Here I must daily visit among many in a contagious disorder,
00:14:44but I am not discouraged nor dispirited.
00:14:47I am willing to hazard and suffer equally with my countrymen,
00:14:51since I have a firm conviction that I am in my duty.
00:14:55When we really take a look at what these regiments were like,
00:15:00we see a lot of individuals who are not carrying arms,
00:15:04including women, including children, including servants,
00:15:09medical personnel, chaplains,
00:15:10and there are all kinds of individuals there that are essential parts of these armies,
00:15:15that are doing essential labor,
00:15:17without whom I think the army couldn't operate.
00:15:19August 1st, there is a report pretty well confirmed
00:15:24that near 40 sail of the enemy came in this afternoon and are joining the fleet.
00:15:30We are all uncertain.
00:15:32The ships that came in that day
00:15:35were straggling in from a failed British expedition in South Carolina.
00:15:40The royal governors of the southern colonies,
00:15:44who had all been driven to ships anchored off their coasts,
00:15:48continued to insist that the rebellion had been stirred up
00:15:51by only a tiny minority of radicals,
00:15:54that the overwhelmingly loyal populace of their colonies
00:15:58would take up arms in support of the crown,
00:16:01provided help was sent.
00:16:04In June, British warships had converged on Charleston Harbor,
00:16:09where their 262 guns opened fire on a rebel fort on Sullivan's Island.
00:16:18More than 7,000 cannonballs were fired.
00:16:22Most that hit their target were absorbed by the fort's sturdy palmetto walls.
00:16:28Within the fort, Patriot Colonel William Moultrie
00:16:31ordered his men to distress the enemy in every shape to the utmost of your powers.
00:16:37They did.
00:16:40They had just 31 guns, but they proved deadly accurate.
00:16:45Toppling masts, riddling hulls, blowing sailors and sea captains apart.
00:16:51In New York, the British flagship alone was hit 70 times,
00:16:55and 111 crewmen were killed or maimed.
00:17:01By evening, the battered fleet pulled away.
00:17:04We never had such a drubbing in our lives, one British sailor remembered.
00:17:09It took three weeks to repair the damage to their ships before they made their way back north
00:17:16to join the forces threatening New York.
00:17:20The British would not attempt to recapture a southern colony again for two and a half years.
00:17:26It seems to be the intention of the white people to destroy us as a people.
00:17:37But I have a great many young fellows that would support me,
00:17:42and we are determined to have our land.
00:17:45Chiou Gonsini.
00:17:46In the summer of 1776, Cherokee warriors, led by Chiou Gonsini, dragging canoe in English,
00:17:56began attacking frontier settlements west of the Appalachians,
00:18:01on land now claimed by Virginia and the Carolinas.
00:18:05The Royal Proclamation of 1763 had expressly barred colonists from purchasing
00:18:12or moving onto Indian lands west of the Appalachians.
00:18:17But British officials had been powerless to enforce it,
00:18:21or to keep some Native Americans, including dragging canoe's own father,
00:18:26from leasing or selling land to settlers and speculators.
00:18:30We think of the Revolution as a war against empire,
00:18:36but it very quickly becomes a war for empire.
00:18:40One war aim of the American Revolution is to take the Ohio Valley and the South.
00:18:46That's what Americans wanted.
00:18:49The British government had kept them from taking Native lands.
00:18:53So for the Shawnees and the Delawares, Cherokees, and many other people,
00:18:59the American Revolution was a war to protect these places against an enemy they already knew quite well.
00:19:07Our Shawnee nation, from being a great people, are now reduced to a handful.
00:19:13The Red People, who were once masters of the whole country,
00:19:17hardly possessed ground enough to stand on.
00:19:19In May 1776, the delegation of Shawnees, Delawares, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee
00:19:40came to the Cherokee town of Chota.
00:19:43They said, enough is enough.
00:19:47We've had year after year of illegal settlement coming onto our lands.
00:19:52Now a war has come that has divided those settlers from their government.
00:19:59This is the time to strike.
00:20:01It is better to die like men than to diminish away by inches.
00:20:07The Cherokees have a hatchet.
00:20:10Take it up and use it immediately.
00:20:15British agents, still in Indian country,
00:20:18who had armed the Cherokees to fight the rebels,
00:20:21now urged them to be patient and wait until British troops could join them.
00:20:26Dragging Canoe would not listen to the British
00:20:29or to the elders of his father's generation who had urged diplomacy.
00:20:35He rallied the young men and went to war.
00:20:40They killed and scalped settlers in the Carolina and Virginia backcountry,
00:20:45burned their cabins and crops, and drove off their livestock.
00:20:49The result is, as the older chiefs feared it would be,
00:20:55that those American colonies immediately send armies into Cherokee country.
00:21:02Some of the American leaders actually say in as many words,
00:21:05this is just what we were waiting for.
00:21:08Now we have justification for launching full-scale assault on the Cherokees
00:21:14and to drive them out and take their land.
00:21:19Nothing will reduce those wretches so soon
00:21:22as pushing the war into the heart of their country.
00:21:26But I would not stop there.
00:21:28I would never cease pursuing them
00:21:30while one of them remained on this side of the Mississippi.
00:21:34Thomas Jefferson.
00:21:35There are thousands of militiamen in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia,
00:21:45ready to join the revolution, ready to fight Britain.
00:21:48But the British aren't there.
00:21:49There are no British there to fight.
00:21:51Who's there to fight?
00:21:52The Cherokees.
00:21:54Some 6,000 militiamen stormed through Cherokee country.
00:21:58They destroyed 36 towns, including Dragging Canoe's own village.
00:22:05This is meant to be instructive to other tribes.
00:22:09If you think you're going to keep a British alliance,
00:22:11guess what we're going to do?
00:22:12We're going to come and burn everything.
00:22:14We're going to destroy your fields.
00:22:15We're going to destroy your corn.
00:22:17We're going to destroy all your stored-up food.
00:22:19We're going to wage total war on those people.
00:22:22Let's teach all Native people a lesson about what's coming.
00:22:27In the end, older Cherokee leaders would sue for peace
00:22:32and be forced to cede another 5 million acres.
00:22:37The colonists wanted to possess that land exclusively,
00:22:42and it's a vision that is Western, as contrasted to Native people
00:22:47who had a more spiritual or more engaged relationship to land.
00:22:53Unlike his elders, Dragging Canoe would not surrender.
00:22:57With hundreds of men and their families,
00:23:00he managed to escape westward to settle along the Chickamauga Creek
00:23:04in what is now Tennessee, where he remained defiant.
00:23:09I could not hear their talks of peace, Dragging Canoe said.
00:23:14My thoughts and my heart are for war.
00:23:17Imperial powers were advancing all across North America in 1776.
00:23:29Russia along the Alaska coast.
00:23:32Spain in what became San Francisco Bay.
00:23:36The Lakota in the Black Hills.
00:23:38And the Comanches on the Southern Plains.
00:23:41On August 12th, off Staten Island in New York,
00:23:46Britain, the world's greatest naval power,
00:23:49landed 107 more ships.
00:23:53Aboard them were 8,600 hired Hessian troops.
00:23:58Everything about the German soldiers was intended to intimidate.
00:24:04Their tightly fitted uniforms that made the wearers seem bigger than they were.
00:24:08The whiskers many grew when most men were clean-shaven.
00:24:13The helmets worn by their grenadiers and fusiliers
00:24:16that added a foot to their height.
00:24:19And the reputation for ferocity so widespread
00:24:22that some Americans believed them cannibals
00:24:25with a special taste for babies.
00:24:29I think it is an effective propaganda tool.
00:24:32They will plunder our homes.
00:24:34They will burn our village.
00:24:35They will rape our women.
00:24:36These kind of portrayals really show up frequently,
00:24:40especially in the spring of 76,
00:24:43before the first Germans even set foot on American soil.
00:24:48Peace will not be restored in America
00:24:50until the rebel army is defeated.
00:24:53Should the enemy offer battle in the open field,
00:24:56we must not decline it.
00:24:58General William Howe.
00:25:00General William Howe and his brother Richard
00:25:04were in joint command of the largest seaborne assault force
00:25:08Britain had ever assembled.
00:25:1124,000 soldiers, including the 8,600 Hessians
00:25:15and 400 ships,
00:25:18manned by some 10,000 sailors and Marines.
00:25:21At dawn on August 22nd,
00:25:254,000 British and Hessian troops crossed the Narrows
00:25:29and came ashore at Graves End
00:25:32on the southeastern edge of Long Island.
00:25:35Boatloads of assault troops.
00:25:37The enemy have now landed on Long Island.
00:25:41The hour is fast approaching
00:25:43on which the honor and success of this army
00:25:46and the safety of our bleeding country depend.
00:25:51George Washington.
00:25:54More troops continued to land.
00:25:57Soon, more than 20,000 British, Hessian
00:26:01and Loyalist soldiers
00:26:02occupied a tent city that sprawled for eight miles
00:26:06just beyond the beach.
00:26:09General Washington reminded his men
00:26:11of the dismissive things
00:26:13British officers had said of them.
00:26:15Now they would have a chance to prove them wrong,
00:26:18provided they remained cool but determined.
00:26:22Remember that you are free men
00:26:25fighting for the blessings of liberty
00:26:27that slavery will be your portion
00:26:30and that of your posterity
00:26:32if you do not acquit yourselves like men.
00:26:38Washington knew an attack was coming somewhere,
00:26:41but he worried that the British landing on Long Island
00:26:44was merely a diversion,
00:26:46and so he divided his army.
00:26:49Most would stay in Manhattan,
00:26:52while some 8,000 men,
00:26:53many of them ill-trained militia,
00:26:56were posted on Long Island,
00:26:58where Washington's most trusted general,
00:27:01Nathaniel Green of Rhode Island,
00:27:03had strengthened the series of forts and earthworks
00:27:06that ran from Red Hook to Wallabout Bay.
00:27:10Most of the defenses were concentrated
00:27:12near the lofty cliffs closest to Manhattan
00:27:15called Brooklyn Heights,
00:27:17after the tiny village of Brooklyn
00:27:19that stood just behind them.
00:27:23Washington and his generals believed
00:27:25that if the British were to seize that high ground,
00:27:28their guns would command the city,
00:27:30much as rebel guns had commanded Boston
00:27:33and its harbor earlier that year.
00:27:36But Nathaniel Green had fallen ill
00:27:39and was soon replaced
00:27:41by Major General Israel Putnam of Connecticut,
00:27:44whose fighting spirit was not matched
00:27:47by strategic sense or knowledge of the terrain.
00:27:51Between the Brooklyn Heights fortifications
00:27:54and the British encampment
00:27:56ran a rugged forested ridge
00:27:58called the Gowanus Heights.
00:28:01Four passes cut in or around it.
00:28:04Gowanus, Flatbush, Bedford, and Jamaica.
00:28:09With Washington's approval,
00:28:12Putnam ordered 3,000 of his men
00:28:14to dig in and hold the ridge
00:28:16and three of the passes.
00:28:20Unaccountably, the Jamaica pass
00:28:22remained virtually unguarded.
00:28:24Washington makes a number
00:28:28of serious tactical mistakes
00:28:30when he's commander
00:28:31of the American military
00:28:32and none more serious
00:28:33than at Long Island.
00:28:36He'd been a surveyor.
00:28:37He should have known
00:28:38the value of completely understanding
00:28:43the ground that you're trying to defend.
00:28:46He doesn't.
00:28:46He doesn't go and explore the ground
00:28:49toward Jamaica,
00:28:50which is the far end
00:28:51of this glacial feature,
00:28:53and doesn't recognize
00:28:55that he can be outflanked
00:28:57by the British.
00:28:59The Battle of Long Island
00:29:01began in the early morning hours
00:29:03of August 27, 1776,
00:29:06and it started with a skirmish
00:29:09over watermelons.
00:29:12Around midnight,
00:29:14Pennsylvania pickets
00:29:15at the Red Lion Inn
00:29:17on the far right
00:29:18of the American lines
00:29:19had dimly glimpsed
00:29:21two shadowy figures
00:29:23in a melon patch.
00:29:25There were British foragers
00:29:27out in front
00:29:28of a large force of redcoats
00:29:29and hoping for a treat
00:29:31before they were sent
00:29:32against the enemy.
00:29:35The Pennsylvanians opened fire.
00:29:38A few minutes later,
00:29:39a British musket volley
00:29:41from the woods
00:29:41sent the Americans
00:29:43running back to camp.
00:29:44With the British attack
00:29:46underway,
00:29:48General William Alexander
00:29:49was ordered
00:29:50to organize a force
00:29:52to try and stop it.
00:29:54Alexander and 1,600 men
00:29:57took up positions
00:29:58south of a salt marsh
00:30:00and mill pond
00:30:01next to Gowanus Creek
00:30:03as 5,000 British troops
00:30:05advanced toward them.
00:30:07With no trees
00:30:09or stone walls
00:30:10for cover,
00:30:10American and British forces
00:30:14stood in line,
00:30:15European style,
00:30:17and fired musket volleys
00:30:18and artillery
00:30:19at one another.
00:30:21Both the balls
00:30:22and shells
00:30:23flew very fast,
00:30:24a Maryland soldier
00:30:25remembered.
00:30:26Now and then,
00:30:28taking off ahead.
00:30:32Meanwhile,
00:30:33in the center
00:30:34of the American lines,
00:30:35British cannon fire
00:30:37ripped through the trees
00:30:38above the ridge line
00:30:39where several hundred troops
00:30:41under New Hampshire
00:30:42General John Sullivan
00:30:44guarded the Flatbush
00:30:45and Bedford passes.
00:30:48Hessian and Highland regiments
00:30:49advanced toward them
00:30:51with fixed bayonets,
00:30:53retreating several times
00:30:54under furious American fire.
00:30:57Watching from a fort
00:30:59on Cobble Hill,
00:31:01Washington was pleased
00:31:02with the way the fighting
00:31:03was going so far.
00:31:05Both fronts
00:31:06seemed to be holding,
00:31:07but he also
00:31:09sent for reinforcements
00:31:10from Manhattan.
00:31:14Our sergeant major
00:31:15informed us
00:31:16that the regiment
00:31:16was ordered to Long Island.
00:31:18It gave me
00:31:19a rather disagreeable feeling
00:31:21as I was pretty well assured
00:31:22I should have to sniff
00:31:23a little gunpowder.
00:31:25The horrors of battle
00:31:26then presented themselves
00:31:27to my mind
00:31:28in all their hideousness.
00:31:29I must come to it now,
00:31:32thought I.
00:31:33Joseph Plum Martin.
00:31:36Private Joseph Plum Martin
00:31:38of the Connecticut militia
00:31:39was just 15 years old
00:31:41that summer.
00:31:42One of seven children
00:31:44of a small town minister
00:31:45so quarrelsome
00:31:46he could not hold on
00:31:48to a congregation.
00:31:50Martin had wanted to enlist
00:31:51since Lexington and Concord.
00:31:53on July 6th, 1776
00:31:57he remembered
00:31:58he'd taken up the pen,
00:32:00loaded it
00:32:01with the fatal charge
00:32:02of ink
00:32:02and wrote my name.
00:32:05Now I was a soldier
00:32:06in name at least
00:32:08if not in practice.
00:32:11Before the boats
00:32:13carrying Martin
00:32:14and his fellow soldiers
00:32:15could cross
00:32:16the East River
00:32:16to Brooklyn
00:32:17the tide of battle
00:32:19had begun to turn.
00:32:21The British attacks
00:32:22on the American right
00:32:24and center
00:32:24which Washington's army
00:32:26seemed to have thwarted
00:32:27had turned out
00:32:28to be mere demonstrations
00:32:30meant to occupy troops
00:32:32who might otherwise
00:32:33have defended
00:32:34against the main
00:32:35British assault.
00:32:37That would soon begin
00:32:39on the American left.
00:32:41The British had slipped
00:32:43through the undefended
00:32:44Jamaica Pass.
00:32:47Twelve hours earlier
00:32:48leaving their campfires
00:32:50burning to confuse
00:32:51the patriots
00:32:52General Henry Clinton
00:32:54had led some 10,000
00:32:56British and German soldiers
00:32:58north along a dirt road
00:33:00grandly called
00:33:01the King's Highway.
00:33:03They moved in silence
00:33:06guided by three
00:33:07Loyalist volunteers.
00:33:10This is Clinton's idea.
00:33:12He's persuaded how
00:33:13that this is the right way
00:33:14to do it.
00:33:15Don't attack frontally.
00:33:17You don't want another
00:33:18bunker hill.
00:33:19Go around them.
00:33:20So he leads the better part
00:33:22of 10,000 men
00:33:24in the dark of night
00:33:25very quietly,
00:33:27as quiet as 10,000 men
00:33:29pulling artillery guns
00:33:31with horses can be.
00:33:33The plan worked perfectly.
00:33:36The British column,
00:33:38nearly two miles long,
00:33:39made it through the pass
00:33:41and reached the village
00:33:42of Bedford,
00:33:43well behind American lines
00:33:45and just two miles
00:33:46from the main fortifications
00:33:48on and around Brooklyn Heights.
00:33:52General Clinton ordered
00:33:54two guns fired in quick succession,
00:33:57a signal for British troops
00:33:58besieging the American right and center
00:34:01to move forward simultaneously,
00:34:04trapping John Sullivan's men
00:34:06in between.
00:34:07Sullivan ordered his gunners
00:34:09to turn their field pieces around,
00:34:11to fire at the enemy
00:34:13now rushing at them
00:34:14from behind.
00:34:16But as they struggled
00:34:18to do so,
00:34:19Hessian grenadiers
00:34:20and Highland Scots
00:34:21swarmed up and over
00:34:23the Gowanus Heights,
00:34:25firing and bayonetting
00:34:26as they came.
00:34:28It was a rout.
00:34:30Blood,
00:34:32carnage,
00:34:33fire.
00:34:34Many,
00:34:34many,
00:34:35we fear are lost.
00:34:37Such a dreadful din
00:34:38my ears never before heard.
00:34:41Philip Fithian.
00:34:44Muskets are mostly inaccurate
00:34:46beyond 80 yards
00:34:47and hopeless beyond 120 yards.
00:34:51So a lot of the killing
00:34:52is done with a bayonet.
00:34:54And a bayonet is a nasty way to kill,
00:34:56it's a nasty way to die.
00:34:58This is really eyeball to eyeball,
00:35:01nose to nose.
00:35:02It's very intimate.
00:35:04And that kind of intimacy
00:35:06is horrifying.
00:35:09Hundreds of Americans
00:35:11surrendered,
00:35:12including General Sullivan.
00:35:15Their fear of the Hessian troops
00:35:17was indescribable,
00:35:19the German commander,
00:35:20General Heister, remembered.
00:35:22When they caught only a glimpse of us,
00:35:24they surrendered immediately
00:35:25and begged on their knees
00:35:26for their lives.
00:35:28I am surprised
00:35:29that the British troops
00:35:30have achieved so little
00:35:31against these people.
00:35:34We soon landed at Brooklyn.
00:35:36We now began to meet
00:35:38the wounded men,
00:35:39another side I was unacquainted with,
00:35:41some with broken arms,
00:35:43some with broken legs,
00:35:45and some with broken heads.
00:35:48The fighting
00:35:49Joseph Plum Martin
00:35:50was about to witness
00:35:52would prove the last
00:35:54and bloodiest of the day.
00:36:01Three British columns
00:36:02were now converging
00:36:03on General Alexander
00:36:05and his men
00:36:05on the American right.
00:36:07He did his best
00:36:09to rally them,
00:36:10but the number of attackers
00:36:11steadily grew.
00:36:14Alexander fell back,
00:36:16and finally,
00:36:17rather than see
00:36:18his command destroyed,
00:36:19he urged his men
00:36:21to retreat
00:36:21to the village of Brooklyn
00:36:23across the tidal marshes
00:36:25that flanked
00:36:26Gowanus Creek.
00:36:28Such as could swim
00:36:29got across.
00:36:31Those that could not swim
00:36:32sunk.
00:36:34The British were pouring
00:36:35the canister and grapeshot
00:36:36upon the Americans
00:36:37like a shower of hail.
00:36:40Many of them
00:36:40were killed in the pond,
00:36:42and more were drowned.
00:36:43To provide cover
00:36:47for his desperate men
00:36:48and to occupy
00:36:49the British troops
00:36:50firing at them
00:36:51from inside
00:36:52and around
00:36:53an old stone house,
00:36:55Alexander led
00:36:56some 400 soldiers
00:36:58from Maryland
00:36:59into the enemy guns
00:37:00again and again.
00:37:03Fewer than a dozen of them
00:37:05made it safely back
00:37:06to the American lines.
00:37:09Alexander himself
00:37:10was forced to surrender.
00:37:12The slaughter was horrible,
00:37:15a Hessian chaplain wrote.
00:37:17I went over the battlefield
00:37:18among the dead,
00:37:19who mostly had been hacked
00:37:21and shot all to pieces.
00:37:24At least 200 Americans
00:37:26had been killed,
00:37:27and perhaps a thousand more
00:37:29were captured.
00:37:31Washington watched
00:37:33this final carnage
00:37:34through his spyglass.
00:37:37By noon,
00:37:38it was all over.
00:37:39The British believed
00:37:42they had won
00:37:43what one general called
00:37:44a cheap and complete victory.
00:37:48Washington is heartbroken
00:37:49because he recognizes instantly
00:37:52what a catastrophe
00:37:53this has been.
00:37:55The only saving grace
00:37:56is that enough of them
00:37:58pull back
00:37:59to form
00:38:00sort of an inner defense
00:38:01around Brooklyn
00:38:02that gives the British pause.
00:38:05They pull back
00:38:06within those defenses.
00:38:07Now they've got their backs
00:38:09to the East River.
00:38:11Things are about as dire
00:38:12as they could possibly be.
00:38:15Washington
00:38:15and the bulk
00:38:16of his battered army,
00:38:18crowded now
00:38:18inside the defenses
00:38:20on Brooklyn Heights,
00:38:21expected that at any moment
00:38:23the British would mount
00:38:24an all-out assault
00:38:25aimed at destroying them.
00:38:27General William Howe's
00:38:30officers urged him
00:38:31to finish
00:38:32what he had begun.
00:38:34But instead of ordering
00:38:35an assault,
00:38:36Howe stood down.
00:38:38He knew his brother
00:38:39Richard's fleet
00:38:40was about to enter
00:38:41the East River
00:38:42and prevent the rebels
00:38:43from escaping
00:38:44by water.
00:38:46The Americans
00:38:47were astonished.
00:38:49General Howe
00:38:50is either our friend
00:38:51or no general,
00:38:52Israel Putnam said.
00:38:54He had our whole army
00:38:56in his power.
00:38:57Meanwhile,
00:39:00a storm blew in
00:39:01and continued
00:39:03off and on
00:39:04for the next two days.
00:39:05It kept Admiral Howe's fleet
00:39:08from entering
00:39:09the East River.
00:39:10By the middle
00:39:11of the second day,
00:39:13Washington decided
00:39:14to try to withdraw
00:39:15his army
00:39:16to Manhattan.
00:39:18Washington sends out
00:39:20orders that
00:39:21every boat,
00:39:22every fishing smack,
00:39:23every canoe,
00:39:24everything that floats
00:39:25that can be found
00:39:26be brought
00:39:27very secretly,
00:39:29very quietly
00:39:29to the landing
00:39:31very close
00:39:31to where Brooklyn Bridge
00:39:32now is
00:39:33on the Brooklyn side.
00:39:35To man
00:39:37his mismatched flotilla,
00:39:39he would call
00:39:39on two regiments
00:39:40of seasoned mariners
00:39:42and fishermen,
00:39:43black and white
00:39:44and Native American
00:39:46from Massachusetts
00:39:47coastal towns.
00:39:49Colonel John Glover
00:39:50of Marblehead
00:39:51led one of the regiments.
00:39:54As darkness fell,
00:39:56Washington ordered
00:39:57his men
00:39:58to begin moving silently
00:39:59down from the heights
00:40:00to the ferry landing,
00:40:02regiment by regiment.
00:40:04I seized my musket
00:40:06and fell into the ranks.
00:40:08We were strictly enjoined
00:40:10not to speak
00:40:11or even cough.
00:40:12All orders were communicated
00:40:14in whispers.
00:40:16Joseph Plum Martin.
00:40:19A providential breeze
00:40:21comes up
00:40:22that allows them
00:40:23to raise sails
00:40:25and get across
00:40:25the East River
00:40:26and then an even more
00:40:28providential fog rolls in
00:40:29and it obscures
00:40:31what's happening.
00:40:32All through the night,
00:40:36John Glover
00:40:36and his men
00:40:37from Marblehead
00:40:38sailed or rode
00:40:40or paddled
00:40:40back and forth
00:40:41undetected,
00:40:43ferrying
00:40:44more than 9,000 men
00:40:46as well as horses,
00:40:48artillery
00:40:48and baggage wagons
00:40:49to safety
00:40:51in Manhattan.
00:40:53When dawn breaks,
00:40:56the British
00:40:56realize
00:40:57everyone's gone.
00:41:00They see the last
00:41:01of the boats
00:41:02disappearing
00:41:03across the river
00:41:04in the traces of fog.
00:41:06They fire a few shots
00:41:08pointlessly
00:41:09at this retreating gaggle,
00:41:11including Washington
00:41:12in one of the last boats.
00:41:15And the Americans
00:41:16escape to Manhattan Island
00:41:18and get away
00:41:19to fight another day.
00:41:22The Battle of Long Island
00:41:24was the largest battle
00:41:25of the American Revolution.
00:41:27It had been a devastating defeat
00:41:29for George Washington
00:41:31and the Patriot cause.
00:41:34But his army
00:41:35was still alive.
00:41:42Braintree, Massachusetts.
00:41:44The best accounts
00:41:45we can collect from New York
00:41:46assure us
00:41:47that our men
00:41:47fought valiantly.
00:41:48we are no ways
00:41:50dispirited here.
00:41:52If our men
00:41:53are all drawn off
00:41:54and we should be attacked,
00:41:56you would find
00:41:57a race of Amazons
00:41:58in America.
00:42:00Abigail Adams.
00:42:01Every army engaged
00:42:06on either side
00:42:07in the Revolution
00:42:08would be accompanied
00:42:09by a moving village
00:42:11of civilians,
00:42:12men, women,
00:42:13and children.
00:42:15Most of the women
00:42:16were soldiers' wives
00:42:17who cared for the wounded
00:42:19and washed and cooked
00:42:21and mended for the troops.
00:42:24Some sold provisions,
00:42:26including rum.
00:42:28George Washington
00:42:29often resented
00:42:30feeding all the women
00:42:31and children.
00:42:33But he also understood,
00:42:34he said,
00:42:35that he had somehow
00:42:36to provide for them
00:42:37or lose by desertion,
00:42:40perhaps to the enemy,
00:42:41some of the oldest
00:42:42and best soldiers
00:42:43in the service.
00:42:46Women acted as spies
00:42:47and a handful
00:42:49disguised themselves
00:42:50and fought as men
00:42:52until they were found out.
00:42:55But most made
00:42:56their contributions
00:42:57to the war effort
00:42:59away from the battlefield.
00:43:01Preston, Connecticut.
00:43:04Dear husband,
00:43:06I hope that I shall have
00:43:07the pleasure of your company
00:43:08at home this winter.
00:43:10The anxieties of the mind
00:43:11cannot be accounted for,
00:43:13especially when ties of flesh
00:43:15and blood bind them.
00:43:16My only comfort now
00:43:18is at present in the dear little
00:43:20pledges of our love,
00:43:22our children.
00:43:22When I see them,
00:43:25I see my dear
00:43:26when so glorious a cause
00:43:27calls him from my arms.
00:43:30My country,
00:43:31oh, my country,
00:43:33your affectionate wife
00:43:35till death,
00:43:37Lois.
00:43:37With sons and husbands
00:43:41and fathers away,
00:43:43some women turned their homes
00:43:44into boarding houses
00:43:45to pay the bills.
00:43:48On farms,
00:43:49women already caring
00:43:50for children and households
00:43:52now slaughtered hogs,
00:43:54cut in stacked firewood,
00:43:56harvested wheat,
00:43:57and brought it to market.
00:43:58The men say we have no business
00:44:02with political matters.
00:44:04It is not in our sphere.
00:44:06But I won't have it thought
00:44:08that we are capable
00:44:08of nothing more
00:44:09than minding the dairy,
00:44:11visiting the poultry house,
00:44:12and all such domestic concerns.
00:44:15Our thoughts can soar aloft.
00:44:18We can form conceptions of things
00:44:20of higher nature.
00:44:23Eliza Wilkinson.
00:44:28Can you be surprised
00:44:34that the Negroes
00:44:35should endeavor
00:44:35to recover their freedom
00:44:37when they daily hear
00:44:39at the tables of their masters
00:44:40how much the Americans
00:44:42are applauded
00:44:43for the stand
00:44:44they are making for theirs?
00:44:51The liberty talk
00:44:53that proliferates
00:44:54through British America
00:44:56originates in coffeehouses
00:44:58and across dining tables.
00:45:01It surfaces in letters
00:45:03and in pamphlets.
00:45:05Those pamphlets are
00:45:07excerpted in newspapers
00:45:08and travel up and down the coast.
00:45:12Even letters like newspapers
00:45:14are read aloud.
00:45:16So we know that the language
00:45:17of liberty is contagious
00:45:19and is leaky.
00:45:22Leaky in that
00:45:24there are planter class people
00:45:26in Jamaica saying
00:45:27you know this stuff
00:45:29is kind of hot
00:45:30so watch it
00:45:31when you're talking
00:45:32because you know
00:45:34all those black and brown people
00:45:35who are standing
00:45:36serving around
00:45:37the edges of your room
00:45:38they have ears.
00:45:42The signal was to be given
00:45:44first by discharging a gun
00:45:46at Bachelors Hall plantation.
00:45:48They were then
00:45:49to rise in general rebellion
00:45:50and attack the several estates
00:45:53and put to death
00:45:54all the white people
00:45:55they could.
00:45:57Sam.
00:46:00That same summer of 1776
00:46:03in northwestern Jamaica
00:46:05enslaved men, women and children
00:46:08living on 47 different plantations
00:46:11secretly conspired
00:46:13to overthrow their enslavers
00:46:15hoping their rebellion
00:46:16would spread across the whole island
00:46:18and unite the people
00:46:20of African descent living there
00:46:21including Igbos, Creoles
00:46:24and Coromantis.
00:46:27The planned revolt
00:46:28was an unintended consequence
00:46:30of the American Revolution.
00:46:32The American ban on trade
00:46:34with the British
00:46:35had denied enslaved Jamaicans
00:46:37the food they needed to survive.
00:46:41Then London ordered
00:46:43almost half the soldiers
00:46:44who policed the island
00:46:45to sail northward
00:46:46to strengthen General Howe's
00:46:49forces in New York.
00:46:51Their departure
00:46:52was supposed to be the signal
00:46:54for enslaved people
00:46:55to rise up.
00:46:58But before the plot
00:46:59could get underway
00:47:00a child was discovered
00:47:03emptying his overseer's pistol
00:47:05and was made to reveal
00:47:07what he knew of the conspiracy.
00:47:10The royal governor declared
00:47:12martial law.
00:47:14The revolt was crushed.
00:47:15one hundred and thirty-five people
00:47:18were put on trial
00:47:19seventeen were executed
00:47:22eleven were beaten
00:47:23and forty-five were torn
00:47:26from their families
00:47:26and deported to other islands.
00:47:32But that summer and fall
00:47:34there were other sporadic uprisings
00:47:37or rumors of uprisings
00:47:39among enslaved workers
00:47:41on other British islands.
00:47:42St. Kitts, Montserrat,
00:47:45Montserrat, Antigua, Barbados
00:47:47all of them striking fear
00:47:50in American slaveholders.
00:47:53Slave rebellions
00:47:54were usually unsuccessful.
00:47:56So you wonder
00:47:57why would you fight?
00:47:59Slavery was so incredibly horrifying.
00:48:03It was a regime of terror
00:48:05that was very, very difficult
00:48:08to withstand.
00:48:10People can abuse, rape, torture,
00:48:14murder enslaved persons
00:48:16without consequences.
00:48:18So if you just imagine
00:48:20that situation
00:48:20and that kind of desperation
00:48:22it becomes clearer
00:48:24why when given an opportunity
00:48:26you would fight against that.
00:48:28On September 11th, 1776
00:48:37three delegates
00:48:38of the Continental Congress
00:48:40John Adams of Massachusetts
00:48:42Edward Rutledge of South Carolina
00:48:44and Benjamin Franklin
00:48:46of Pennsylvania
00:48:47made their way
00:48:49to a loyalist's house
00:48:50on Staten Island
00:48:51for a meeting
00:48:52with Admiral Howe
00:48:53who was hoping
00:48:55to persuade the Congress
00:48:56to negotiate a peace.
00:49:00Howe did what he could
00:49:01to reassure the delegates
00:49:03that all could still be forgiven
00:49:05if only the Americans
00:49:07would abandon independence.
00:49:10If America should fall
00:49:11he told the delegates
00:49:13I should feel and lament it
00:49:15like the loss of a brother.
00:49:18We will do our utmost
00:49:19Franklin answered
00:49:20to save your lordship
00:49:22that mortification.
00:49:23They met, they talked,
00:49:27they parted
00:49:27Admiral Howe's secretary said
00:49:29and now
00:49:30nothing remains
00:49:32but to fight it out.
00:49:34There was no going back.
00:49:37Howe apologized
00:49:37to his visitors
00:49:38for wasting their time.
00:49:42The British government
00:49:44throughout the first few years
00:49:46of the war
00:49:47really thought
00:49:48that a show of force
00:49:49would bring the majority
00:49:51of Americans
00:49:52to their senses
00:49:53and that the instigators
00:49:56the provocateurs
00:49:57the ones who were responsible
00:49:59for the uprising
00:50:00would be captured
00:50:03killed
00:50:04or their neighbors
00:50:05would just say
00:50:06enough
00:50:07we don't actually want
00:50:09to go to war
00:50:10with our own nation.
00:50:13On our side
00:50:15the war should be defensive.
00:50:17we should on all occasions
00:50:20avoid a general action
00:50:22or put anything
00:50:23to the risk
00:50:23unless compelled
00:50:25by a necessity
00:50:26into which we ought
00:50:27never to be drawn.
00:50:29George Washington
00:50:31Back in New York City
00:50:34Washington again expected
00:50:36another British attack
00:50:37and again
00:50:38didn't know where
00:50:40or when it was likely
00:50:41to come.
00:50:42So again
00:50:43he divided
00:50:44what was left
00:50:45of his forces.
00:50:47Leaving behind
00:50:47General Putnam
00:50:48and some 3,500 men
00:50:50to hold the city itself
00:50:52General Washington
00:50:53led most of his troops
00:50:54north
00:50:55toward the tiny village
00:50:57of Harlem.
00:50:58Militiamen
00:50:59were posted
00:50:59along the East River
00:51:01opposite Long Island.
00:51:03Joseph Plum Martin
00:51:04found himself
00:51:05with 500 Connecticut troops
00:51:08at Kipps Bay.
00:51:10At the same time
00:51:11five British frigates
00:51:13sailed up the river
00:51:14and anchored
00:51:15on the opposite shore.
00:51:17At 11 o'clock
00:51:19in the morning
00:51:19on September 15th
00:51:21they opened fire.
00:51:26I thought my head
00:51:27would go with the sound.
00:51:29I made a frog's leap
00:51:30for the ditch
00:51:31and lay still
00:51:32as I possibly could
00:51:33and began to consider
00:51:34which part of my carcass
00:51:36was to go first.
00:51:37We kept the lines
00:51:38till they were almost
00:51:39leveled upon us
00:51:40when our officers
00:51:41gave the order to leave.
00:51:43As Martin
00:51:44and his comrades
00:51:45ran
00:51:464,000 enemy troops
00:51:48began coming ashore
00:51:49at Kipps Bay
00:51:50among them
00:51:52Hessians
00:51:53who bayoneted
00:51:54several wounded Americans
00:51:55and mutilated
00:51:57the dead.
00:51:58Our people
00:51:59were all militia
00:52:00and the demons
00:52:01of fear and disorder
00:52:03seemed to take
00:52:03full possession
00:52:04of all and everything
00:52:05that day.
00:52:06then General Washington
00:52:09seemed to appear
00:52:11out of nowhere
00:52:11ordering his stampeding
00:52:13men to form
00:52:14a defensive line.
00:52:17Take the walls
00:52:17he bellowed.
00:52:18Take the cornfield.
00:52:20They kept running.
00:52:22Are these the men
00:52:23with which I am
00:52:24to defend America?
00:52:26Washington was known
00:52:28for being aloof,
00:52:29terse, stoical.
00:52:30But those
00:52:32who have seen him
00:52:32strongly moved
00:52:33a friend remembered
00:52:34could bear witness
00:52:36that his wrath
00:52:37was terrible.
00:52:39He seemed stunned
00:52:41and urged his horse
00:52:42forward
00:52:43toward the oncoming
00:52:44Hessians.
00:52:45An aide
00:52:45snatched his horse's
00:52:47bridle
00:52:47and led his commander
00:52:49out of harm's way.
00:52:51Colonel John Glover
00:52:53and his regiment
00:52:54from Marblehead, Massachusetts
00:52:56which had just made
00:52:57Washington's escape
00:52:58from Long Island possible,
00:53:01rushed up
00:53:01and were able
00:53:02to slow the British advance.
00:53:06But many patriots
00:53:08did not stop running
00:53:09until they reached
00:53:10the safety
00:53:11of strongly fortified
00:53:12American positions
00:53:14on the plateau
00:53:15known as Harlem Heights.
00:53:17The British were slow
00:53:19to follow
00:53:19the fleeing rebels.
00:53:21General Howe
00:53:22wanted to wait
00:53:23until thousands more troops
00:53:24were ashore
00:53:25on Manhattan Island.
00:53:27The delay
00:53:28gave General Putnam
00:53:29time to lead
00:53:30his men north
00:53:31out of New York City
00:53:33to join Washington
00:53:34in Harlem.
00:53:36The British
00:53:37entered the abandoned city
00:53:38in triumph.
00:53:41The king's forces
00:53:42took possession
00:53:42of the place
00:53:43incredible as it may seem
00:53:45without the loss
00:53:46of a man.
00:53:47A woman pulled down
00:53:48the rebel standard
00:53:49upon the fort
00:53:50and after trampling
00:53:52it underfoot
00:53:52with the most
00:53:53contemptuous indignation
00:53:54hoisted up in its stead
00:53:56his majesty's flag.
00:53:59Ambrose Searle
00:54:00secretary to Admiral Howe.
00:54:04New York City
00:54:05becomes the great
00:54:06British stronghold
00:54:07of the American Revolution.
00:54:09Once the Continental Army
00:54:10is driven out
00:54:11the patriots
00:54:12don't want to stick around
00:54:13and they tend to go too.
00:54:14Meanwhile
00:54:15the loyalists
00:54:15come into the city.
00:54:17People stream in
00:54:19from the countryside
00:54:20to take shelter
00:54:21and the city
00:54:23becomes this kind
00:54:24of garrison town.
00:54:26Hundreds of loyalists
00:54:28would formally reaffirm
00:54:30their allegiance
00:54:30to George III
00:54:31by signing a document
00:54:33they called
00:54:34their Declaration
00:54:36of Dependence.
00:54:38Over the coming weeks
00:54:39more loyalists
00:54:40poured into the city
00:54:41now eager to take up
00:54:44arms in the king's cause.
00:54:48It is the cause
00:54:48of truth against falsehood
00:54:50of loyalty
00:54:51against rebellion
00:54:53of legal government
00:54:55against usurpation.
00:54:57In short
00:54:57it is the cause
00:54:59of human happiness.
00:55:02Charles Inglis
00:55:03Over the course
00:55:05of the war
00:55:06as many as
00:55:0750,000 Americans
00:55:09volunteered to serve
00:55:10in loyalist militia companies
00:55:12or in provincial units
00:55:14attached to the British army.
00:55:16the king's
00:55:17American regiment
00:55:18the queen's
00:55:20American rangers
00:55:21the prince of Wales
00:55:22American volunteers
00:55:24the royal highland emigrants
00:55:26and the British legion.
00:55:29Everyone knew someone
00:55:30who fought
00:55:31for the other side.
00:55:33Even Benjamin Franklin's
00:55:35son William
00:55:36the deposed
00:55:37royal governor
00:55:38of New Jersey
00:55:39remained faithful
00:55:40to his king
00:55:41and was imprisoned
00:55:42for it.
00:55:43Had I been left
00:55:47to the dictates
00:55:48of my own judgment
00:55:49New York
00:55:50should have been
00:55:51lain in ashes.
00:55:53To this end
00:55:53I applied to congress
00:55:55but was absolutely
00:55:56forbid.
00:55:58Providence
00:55:59or some good
00:56:00honest fellow
00:56:01has done more
00:56:03for us
00:56:03than we were disposed
00:56:04to do for ourselves.
00:56:06George Washington
00:56:07September 21st
00:56:121776
00:56:14We are a good deal
00:56:16alarmed at a fire
00:56:16that must have spread
00:56:17amazingly
00:56:18for though we are
00:56:20six and a half miles
00:56:21from the town
00:56:22we could see a pin
00:56:23on the ground
00:56:24by the light
00:56:25of the blaze.
00:56:27Loftus Cliff
00:56:28who had already
00:56:36survived three battles
00:56:38went for a walk
00:56:39through the still
00:56:40smoldering streets.
00:56:43I cannot paint
00:56:44the misery
00:56:45of a very pretty town
00:56:46near as large as Cork
00:56:48now reduced.
00:56:50Two churches
00:56:51the governor's house
00:56:52and several other
00:56:53fine buildings
00:56:54are in ruins
00:56:55being set afire
00:56:56in different places
00:56:57at once
00:56:58in the dead
00:56:59of last night.
00:57:01Their design
00:57:01was to destroy
00:57:02the town.
00:57:04Oh Washington
00:57:05what have you
00:57:06to answer for?
00:57:08The origins
00:57:09of the fire
00:57:10remained a mystery
00:57:11but General Howe
00:57:13was convinced
00:57:13it had been set
00:57:14by rebels
00:57:15and the next day
00:57:17when soldiers
00:57:18brought before him
00:57:19an American spy
00:57:20captured behind
00:57:21British lines
00:57:22he showed
00:57:24no mercy.
00:57:25Howe ordered
00:57:26Captain Nathan Hale
00:57:27a member
00:57:28of an elite
00:57:29espionage unit
00:57:30organized by
00:57:31George Washington
00:57:32to be hanged
00:57:34the following morning.
00:57:36As he went
00:57:37to the gallows
00:57:38a British officer
00:57:39remembered
00:57:39Hale behaved
00:57:41with great composure
00:57:42and resolution.
00:57:45Above his body
00:57:46British soldiers
00:57:47hung a sign
00:57:48labeled
00:57:48George Washington
00:57:49the man
00:57:51they all blamed
00:57:52for setting fire
00:57:53to New York City.
00:57:55a lot is riding
00:57:59on George Washington's
00:58:00performance
00:58:00not only in the
00:58:01battlefield
00:58:01but in his
00:58:03relationship with
00:58:04Congress
00:58:04and his relationship
00:58:05with the states
00:58:06and his relationship
00:58:07with his soldiers.
00:58:10George Washington
00:58:10understands that his
00:58:12role is not just
00:58:12military
00:58:13it's also political.
00:58:15He has to project
00:58:16dignity.
00:58:18He has to project
00:58:20authority.
00:58:21He has to also
00:58:23do this
00:58:24while projecting
00:58:25deference
00:58:26to Congress.
00:58:27He cannot become
00:58:28a dictator.
00:58:32We have been sent
00:58:33into life
00:58:34at a time
00:58:35when the greatest
00:58:36lawgivers of antiquity
00:58:38would have wished
00:58:38to have lived.
00:58:40When,
00:58:41before the present
00:58:42epoca,
00:58:43had three millions
00:58:44of people
00:58:45full power
00:58:46and a fair
00:58:46opportunity
00:58:47to form
00:58:48and establish
00:58:49the wisest
00:58:50and happiest
00:58:51government
00:58:51that human
00:58:53wisdom
00:58:53can contrive.
00:58:56John Adams.
00:58:57As Washington
00:59:00and Howe
00:59:01faced off
00:59:02against one
00:59:02another
00:59:03in New York,
00:59:04in Philadelphia,
00:59:05the Continental Congress
00:59:07had been laboring
00:59:08to adopt
00:59:08Articles of Confederation
00:59:10meant to formally
00:59:12bind all 13 states
00:59:14together
00:59:14while also guaranteeing
00:59:16the independence
00:59:17of each.
00:59:18A first tentative
00:59:20step toward
00:59:21a permanent government
00:59:22for the new
00:59:23United States.
00:59:24When we think
00:59:27about our
00:59:27American Revolution,
00:59:28we of course
00:59:29think about
00:59:29independence
00:59:29from Britain,
00:59:31and that's
00:59:31a big deal.
00:59:33But we also
00:59:33need to think
00:59:34about this
00:59:34is the formation
00:59:35of Republican
00:59:36government,
00:59:37and it's also
00:59:38the formation
00:59:39of our union
00:59:39of our states.
00:59:41And all three
00:59:42of those
00:59:42were enormous
00:59:43gambles.
00:59:44They were
00:59:44unprecedented.
00:59:45There had never
00:59:46been the foundation
00:59:47of a republic
00:59:48out of a revolution,
00:59:49and these 13 colonies
00:59:52had had bitter
00:59:52rivalries
00:59:53with one another.
00:59:54And so forming
00:59:55a union
00:59:56out of these states
00:59:57was going to be
00:59:57as difficult
00:59:58as achieving
00:59:59independence
01:00:00from Britain.
01:00:01Congress debated
01:00:03draft articles
01:00:04for weeks
01:00:05on the first floor
01:00:06of the Pennsylvania
01:00:07State House,
01:00:08where they had
01:00:08just declared
01:00:09independence
01:00:10in July.
01:00:12They were held up
01:00:14over a host
01:00:14of issues,
01:00:15including
01:00:16apportionment,
01:00:18boundary disputes,
01:00:19taxation,
01:00:20and autonomy
01:00:21of the individual
01:00:22states.
01:00:24Congress was
01:00:25a disputatious
01:00:26assembly,
01:00:27and not necessarily
01:00:28an efficient
01:00:29assembly through
01:00:30these years.
01:00:31Yes, they are
01:00:32running a war.
01:00:33Yes, they are
01:00:33founding a nation.
01:00:34But there's also
01:00:35a tremendous amount
01:00:36of infighting.
01:00:37There's a tremendous
01:00:37amount of inertia.
01:00:39There are more
01:00:40committees than anyone
01:00:40could count.
01:00:42And there were
01:00:42secret committees.
01:00:44For example,
01:00:44the first person
01:00:45sent
01:00:45theils
01:00:46to the
01:00:50the
01:00:51one
01:00:51to the
01:00:52s
01:00:56and
01:00:57the
01:00:58the
01:01:00the
01:01:08the
01:01:09the
01:01:10the
01:01:10the
01:01:10the
01:01:10the
01:01:11the
Recommended
1:58:16
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