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00:00:00Connecticut to discuss where the fleet might in fact do the most good, at New York or in
00:00:06Virginia, where Cornwallis was now headed. Washington still favored New York. Rochambeau
00:00:14told him that he preferred to leave the decision to the Comte de Grasse, the admiral now commanding
00:00:20the French fleet in the Caribbean. But in private letters to de Grasse, Rochambeau argued that
00:00:27blockading the Chesapeake should take precedence. In the meantime, Rochambeau marched his more than
00:00:344,000 men from Newport to join Washington's army in Westchester County, New York. The French were
00:00:42stunned by what they saw. I cannot too often repeat how astonished I have been at the American army.
00:00:51It is inconceivable that troops nearly naked, badly paid, and composed of old men,
00:00:59Negroes, and children should march so well. The Rhode Island regiment includes many Negroes,
00:01:07and that regiment is the most neatly dressed, the best under arms, and the most precise in its
00:01:13maneuvers. As American and French soldiers probed British defenses around New York, Washington waited
00:01:22for Admiral de Grasse to pick his target, New York or Virginia. On May 20th, 1781, Lord Cornwallis
00:01:32arrived at Petersburg, Virginia. He commanded some 7,000 British, German, and Loyalist troops.
00:01:39Benedict Arnold was not among them. He had been recalled to New York and would eventually sail
00:01:47for England, never to see his country again. Cornwallis first tried to hunt down the Marquis
00:01:56de Lafayette, who had been harassing British forces in Virginia, but Lafayette managed to slip away.
00:02:03You can be entirely calm with regard to the rapid marches of Lord Cornwallis. Let him march from
00:02:12St. Augustine to Boston. What he wins in his front, he loses in his rear. His army will bury itself
00:02:21without requiring us to fight him. Cornwallis unleashed two raiding parties into the heart of
00:02:31Virginia. 250 horsemen, commanded by Bannister Tarleton, were ordered to try to capture Thomas
00:02:38Jefferson and the Virginia Assembly, now meeting at Charlottesville, where Tarleton managed to seize
00:02:45several legislators, including Daniel Boone from Kentucky County. But with only moments to spare,
00:02:53Jefferson escaped his would-be captors on horseback.
00:02:57Such terror and confusion. What an alarming crisis is this. We were off in a twinkling. The nearer the
00:03:08mountains, the greater the safety was the conclusion. So on we traveled, through byways and brambles.
00:03:14Betsy Ambler's family was on the run, too, eventually finding temporary sanctuary on a friend's
00:03:23backcountry plantation. After three mostly fruitless weeks spent marching through the backcountry,
00:03:31Cornwallis and his men started southeast towards Williamsburg. Some 4,500 ex-slaves now trailed along
00:03:40behind. By bringing the war into Virginia, Cornwallis had provided the largest body of black people in
00:03:48North America, the possibility of freedom. Among those who threw in their lot with the British were 23 from
00:03:57Thomas Jefferson's estates, and 16 from George Washington's Mount Vernon.
00:04:04What do you do? Do you stay? Or do you take a chance at your freedom and leave your family? How many people can go with
00:04:12you? Sometimes whole families left together. I would imagine it being frightened, but also a sense of hope,
00:04:21because the system that they were in may be destroyed, and that they may have an opportunity for freedom.
00:04:33Has the god who made the white man and the black left any record declaring us a different species?
00:04:42Are we not sustained by the same power, supported by the same food, hurt by the same wounds?
00:04:51Pleased with the same delights and propagated by the same means?
00:04:57And should we not then enjoy the same liberty and be protected by the same laws?
00:05:06Some consider us as much property as a house or a ship, and think how anxious we must be to raise
00:05:15ourselves from this degrading state. James Fortin. James Fortin was born free in Philadelphia.
00:05:27At nine, he had been in the crowd at the Pennsylvania State House that heard the Declaration of Independence
00:05:33read to the public for the very first time. Fortin took the promise of the Declaration
00:05:39to heart and never questioned whether its self-evident truths applied to him.
00:05:49Now in the summer of 1781, Fortin was 14, old enough to fight for his country.
00:05:57With his mother's permission, he went down to the docks, signed onto a privateer, and set out to sea.
00:06:04Fortin was one of 20 men and boys of color in a crew of 200. For privateers eager to attract volunteers,
00:06:14race was no barrier.
00:06:15His first voyage was a triumph, but the second was a disaster. His ship was overtaken and captured
00:06:26by a British warship. Once aboard, the captain's son befriended him, and the captain offered to
00:06:34release him if he were willing to sail with the boy to England. Fortin refused. He could not turn his
00:06:42back on his country. Instead, he joined hundreds of American prisoners huddled below decks aboard the
00:06:51notorious British prison ship, the Jersey, moored in the East River off Brooklyn. Dark, fetid, rife with disease.
00:07:01Meanwhile, starting in June 1781, Cornwallis began to receive a series of contradictory communications
00:07:15from General Clinton back in New York City. First, Cornwallis was to send nearly half his forces north
00:07:23to New York, which Clinton still believed Washington's most likely target.
00:07:28Then Clinton changed his mind. Cornwallis was now to send those same troops to the Delaware Bay,
00:07:36where they might sail north and threaten Philadelphia. Finally, with his men aboard boats in Portsmouth
00:07:44and ready to sail, Cornwallis was to forget moving them north at all. Instead, he was to locate and
00:07:51fortify a deep-water, year-round port in Virginia, suitable for the Royal Navy's largest warships.
00:07:59Cornwallis' engineers recommended Yorktown. He arrived there on August 2nd, 1781.
00:08:08On August 14th, Washington learned that the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse
00:08:16was on its way to the Chesapeake, not New York.
00:08:21Matters having now come to a crisis and a decisive plan to be determined on,
00:08:27I was obliged to give up all idea of attacking New York.
00:08:30George Washington is a realistic military man who knows when to not attack. And so with the advice
00:08:40of the French that had much more experience in warfare, he listens to them and decides to march
00:08:45through the south. Then word arrived from Lafayette that Cornwallis was establishing his army
00:08:53at Yorktown. If the French navy could command the Chesapeake and keep the British fleet out,
00:08:59Lafayette wrote, the British army would, I think, be ours. But before Washington could move his army south,
00:09:08some way had to be found to pay his men. Congress was broke.
00:09:16My personal credit, which thank heaven I have preserved through all the tempests of the war,
00:09:22has been substituted for that which the country has lost. I am now striving to transfer that credit
00:09:28to the public. Robert Morris. Washington turned to an old friend, the richest man in America,
00:09:38Robert Morris. Morris had again and again used his own money to supply the Continental Army. He had also
00:09:46used public funds for personal speculations and made millions in government contracts.
00:09:53Robert Morris was a war profiteer and mingled public and private funds with unabashed abandon.
00:09:59And without him, it's not clear at all that the revolution would have been won or even would have
00:10:04been fought very long. Because he did front his own money to keep the army in the field, people said he
00:10:10financed the American Revolution. That's largely true. Critics of Morris said that the revolution
00:10:17financed him. And that's true too.
00:10:23Now, Morris combined his own funds with borrowed Spanish gold and silver to pay the men.
00:10:30Each of us received a month's pay. This was the first that could be called money,
00:10:37which we had received as wages since the year 76.
00:10:41Joseph Plum Martin. Leaving 4,000 continentals behind, the French and American
00:10:49armies began to make their way south in three great columns on August 18th.
00:10:57The campaign was an enormous undertaking and a great gamble.
00:11:04In order to keep Cornwallis from escaping by sea,
00:11:07French naval forces from both the Caribbean and Newport, Rhode Island would have to elude
00:11:13British warships patrolling the Atlantic coast and enter the Chesapeake Bay.
00:11:20At the same time, thousands of French and American troops who could not speak one another's language
00:11:27would have to continue to make their way together some 450 miles from Westchester County to Virginia
00:11:35in the heat of summer.
00:11:39It's hot and humid and, as the French write, infested by mosquitoes. And so this is a very
00:11:44complicated march. You have to think of thousands of men marching through these little roads. They have
00:11:51to create bridges. They have to get obstacles out of the way. And we're not talking just about men
00:11:57marching. We have a lot of animals behind them.
00:12:02In order to not walk in the middle of the day, they start in the middle of the night.
00:12:06So it's pitch dark. You're walking on little paths, probably quite muddy, and you just walk.
00:12:12And then for a few hours later, you have to stop because you have to create your new encampment.
00:12:16You get some food, which often arrived way too late.
00:12:19To deceive the British into thinking that he was planning an amphibious assault on Staten Island,
00:12:26or Sandy Hook, Washington had made sure that false documents suggesting an imminent attack
00:12:33fell into British hands.
00:12:35Washington is able to convince Clinton that he is going to attack New York. It's a brilliant series
00:12:44of deceptive maneuvers that Washington is able to pull off. By the time Clinton realizes that Washington
00:12:51is not going after him, but is on his way south, Washington is in Philadelphia.
00:12:56At Yorktown, Cornwallis hated the kind of defensive war he was being asked to oversee,
00:13:06and considered the port and Gloucester across the river dangerous posts, since neither commanded
00:13:12the surrounding countryside. He'd started by fortifying Gloucester. The work had gone slowly.
00:13:20He and his men expected a British fleet to arrive in the York River any day.
00:13:26But they now heard upsetting rumors that a French fleet had left the West Indies,
00:13:32and was approaching the coast of North America.
00:13:37By late summer, work had begun on the fortifications at Yorktown itself.
00:13:43Meanwhile, at Portsmouth, where some of Cornwallis' men remained,
00:13:48smallpox was ravaging the former slaves who had followed the British army there.
00:13:52What should be done, the commander at Portsmouth wrote Cornwallis, with the
00:13:58hundreds that are dying by scores every day.
00:14:01It is shocking to think of the state of the Negroes, but we cannot bring a number of sick
00:14:09and useless ones to this place. I leave it to your humanity to do the best you can for them.
00:14:16But on your arrival here, we must adopt some plan to prevent an evil,
00:14:19which will certainly produce some fatal distemper in the army.
00:14:25Lord Cornwallis.
00:14:28Portsmouth was evacuated, and the troops joined Cornwallis' army at Yorktown.
00:14:34It was from there on the morning of August 30th that Captain Johann Ewald looked out toward the Chesapeake Bay.
00:14:44I could detect three heavy vessels in the distance.
00:14:48We soon had news that the three vessels which lay before our noses were French.
00:14:53Admiral de Grasse was now lying at anchor, just inside the narrow entrance to the Chesapeake Bay,
00:15:02between Cape Charles and Cape Henry.
00:15:04The Chesapeake is a huge bay, but its point of access is the two capes. It's very narrow,
00:15:13and anyone who can control that controls this huge body of water.
00:15:18On the morning of September 5th, a dispatch rider caught up with George Washington,
00:15:25near Head of Elk, Maryland, with the good news that the French fleet had arrived.
00:15:33That same day though, sailors aboard de Grasse's flagship spotted sails approaching from the north.
00:15:41They were 19 British ships sent from New York with orders to find and destroy the French fleet.
00:15:49De Grasse might have stayed where he was, blocking entrance to the bay.
00:15:54But if he had done so, the eight French ships loaded with heavy siege guns that were on their way from Newport,
00:16:01would have been kept out of the Chesapeake.
00:16:04De Grasse moved out into the open sea to confront his enemy.
00:16:10The two fleets maneuvered for six hours.
00:16:13Commanders scattered sand across their decks to absorb the sailors' blood they knew was about to be shed.
00:16:22At four in the afternoon, they opened fire.
00:16:25The broadsides continued until dark.
00:16:38The result was a standoff.
00:16:40But the British vessels got the worst of it and were forced to limp back to New York.
00:16:48Meanwhile, the French squadron from Newport carrying the heavy siege guns had slipped unnoticed into the bay.
00:16:56And avoiding Cornwallis' defenses at Yorktown sailed up the James River.
00:17:02And Washington and Rochambeau's armies were arriving at Williamsburg.
00:17:06Cornwallis was trapped.
00:17:11From the very beginning, Washington recognized that this war was going to end when the stars aligned.
00:17:19He's been waiting for this.
00:17:21And he snatches at it.
00:17:23We prepared to move down and pay our old acquaintance, the British, a visit.
00:17:30I doubt not that their wish was not to have so many of us come at once, as their accommodations were rather scanty.
00:17:36They thought the fewer the better.
00:17:39We thought the more the merrier.
00:17:42Joseph Plon Martin
00:17:46On September 28th, 1781, at 5 a.m., the French and American armies, now 18,000 strong, started toward Yorktown.
00:17:57The Allies established a crescent-shaped encampment around the town, the French on the left, the Americans on the right.
00:18:06Washington and Rochambeau set up headquarters just a few hundred yards apart.
00:18:13The two commanders rode forward to reconnoiter.
00:18:17Washington had long understood Yorktown's strategic limitations and the hole the British had dug for themselves.
00:18:26800 to 1,000 yards from Yorktown stood an outer line of trenches and redoubts,
00:18:32their bases bristling with abati, sharpened logs meant to repel invaders.
00:18:40Black laborers could be seen struggling to complete an inner ring around the town.
00:18:45Black laborers could be seen struggling to complete an inner ring around the town.
00:18:50Swamps and marshy creeks made a direct assault impractical.
00:18:55The Allies didn't have time to starve the defenders either.
00:18:59The French fleet was due to return to the Caribbean within weeks.
00:19:02A traditional European-style siege seemed to be the answer.
00:19:08Washington left its planning to the French.
00:19:11The Americans were totally ignorant of the operations of the siege, Rochambeau said.
00:19:16He had taken part in 14 of them.
00:19:24At dawn on September 30th, French and American troops edged cautiously toward the outermost British defenses,
00:19:32expecting stiff resistance.
00:19:34Instead, they found them empty.
00:19:37Cornwallis, outnumbered three to one, had pulled his men back into town.
00:19:42Cornwallis makes a fatal mistake.
00:19:46He's exhausted, he's depressed.
00:19:49A commander who otherwise is very effective is just not at his best.
00:19:55For five days and nights, Allied soldiers worked to transform the abandoned British positions
00:20:02into their own strongholds.
00:20:04And to bring up the artillery, equipment and entrenching tools needed to dig their first parallel trench
00:20:11and begin the siege.
00:20:15British artillery hurled shot and shells at the Americans and Frenchmen as they worked.
00:20:23Sarah Osborne, the wife of a New Jersey corporal, was one of the women who carried beef,
00:20:29bread and hot coffee to the men as they dug.
00:20:33One day she remembered George Washington happened by
00:20:37and asked her if she wasn't afraid of the British cannonballs.
00:20:41No, she said.
00:20:43It would not do for the men to fight and starve too.
00:20:49When the parallel was complete, it stretched for more than a mile.
00:20:53A trench ten feet wide and nearly four feet deep.
00:21:02At three in the afternoon on October 9th, the French opened fire.
00:21:09Two hours later, Washington was given the honor of touching off the first American cannon.
00:21:15All along the Allied lines, cannon and mortars began firing into Yorktown.
00:21:30The remainder of the night passed in a dreadful slaughter.
00:21:33Several parts of the garrison were in flames on this night,
00:21:38and the whole discovered a view awful and tremendous.
00:21:42Bartholomew James.
00:21:45It was as if one witnessed the shock of an earthquake.
00:21:49Thirty-six hundred shot by the enemy were counted in this twenty-four hours.
00:21:54These were fired at the city, into our lines and against the ships in the harbor.
00:21:58Private Johann Konrad Döhler.
00:22:05By the night of October 11th, the Allies had begun digging a second parallel.
00:22:10But before the noose could be tightened completely, two enemy redoubts, numbers 9 and 10, had to be taken.
00:22:20The American target was redoubt number 10.
00:22:23The men were from Lafayette's force.
00:22:25Alexander Hamilton was in command.
00:22:30Joseph Plum Martin and his company led the way.
00:22:35We advanced beyond the trenches and lay down on the ground to await the signal.
00:22:40Our watchword was Rochambeau.
00:22:42A good watchword for being pronounced Rochambeau, it sounded when pronounced quick.
00:22:47Like rush on, boys.
00:22:48When the signal was given, Martin and his fellow soldiers rushed forward.
00:22:57Right behind them came Rhode Islanders, including free black men or former slaves.
00:23:02The moment they reached the Abatee, the redoubt's defenders began firing down into them.
00:23:10But there was no stopping us.
00:23:14I forced a passage at a place where I saw our shot had cut away some of the Abatee.
00:23:19While passing, a man at my side received a ball in his head and fell under my feet, crying out bitterly.
00:23:24Lafayette sent a dispatch to a French officer in the column assigned to capture redoubt number nine, saying his men were in his redoubt.
00:23:40There was no mercy that night. Complaints and groans could be heard everywhere.
00:23:57Someone called out here, another there, begging to be killed for the love of God, as the redoubt was strewn with the dead and wounded.
00:24:07So much so that we had to walk on them.
00:24:10Georg Daniel Flohr.
00:24:13The Allies lost no time in rolling their big guns into both redoubts and opening fire on Yorktown.
00:24:22It was absolutely horrific.
00:24:25There was no moment to rest. There was no place to hide.
00:24:31For this, there was continuous bombardment.
00:24:40Cornwallis knew his cause was hopeless, but he could not seem to bear what Bannister Tarleton called the mortification of a surrender.
00:24:56At about 10 o'clock in the morning, on October 17th, 1781, a drummer appeared on a British parapet, beating his drum, the signal that Cornwallis wished to negotiate.
00:25:14When the thunder of the guns drowned out the drumming, an officer climbed up next to the soldier and waved a white handkerchief.
00:25:23He might have beat away till doomsday if he had not been sighted by men on the front lines.
00:25:31But when the firing ceased, I thought I had never heard a drum equal to it.
00:25:37The most delightful music to us all, Ebenezer Denny.
00:25:46The battle of Yorktown was over.
00:25:51The patriots and their French allies had won.
00:25:57The world would never be the same.
00:26:00Surrender negotiations went on for a day and a half.
00:26:10Cornwallis wanted his British and German soldiers free to sail home.
00:26:16Washington refused.
00:26:18He recalled the disrespectful way Patriot General Benjamin Lincoln and his men had been treated after the fall of Charleston.
00:26:25Until a formal peace was reached, the surrendering soldiers were to remain in the United States as prisoners of war.
00:26:35Cornwallis had little choice but to agree.
00:26:40As the British and Germans marched out of what was left of Yorktown,
00:26:45their flags cased, their numbers reduced by wounds and disease,
00:26:50they had orders to avoid even looking at the victorious Americans.
00:26:55Only the French, they'd been told, were worthy opponents.
00:27:00Washington and Rochambeau waited on horseback.
00:27:04Lord Cornwallis was nowhere to be seen.
00:27:07He claimed to be ill.
00:27:09But as a professional soldier, he may simply have been too humiliated
00:27:14at having to surrender his army to a group of rebels to make an appearance.
00:27:18Cornwallis' second-in-command, General Charles O'Hara, stood in for him and tried to surrender his sword to General Rochambeau.
00:27:30Rochambeau refused to accept it.
00:27:33We are subordinate to the Americans, he said.
00:27:36General Washington will give you orders.
00:27:40Washington wouldn't accept it either.
00:27:42He passed O'Hara on to his second-in-command, Benjamin Lincoln,
00:27:47who formally accepted the sword and then handed it back, as custom dictated.
00:27:55To the ultimate humiliation, not only having to surrender to the Americans,
00:28:00but having to surrender to the second-in-command of the Americans.
00:28:03With what soldiers in the world could one do what was done by these men?
00:28:11One can perceive what an enthusiasm, which these poor fellows call liberty, can do.
00:28:18Who would have thought a hundred years ago that out of this multitude of rebels
00:28:22would arise a people who could defy kings?
00:28:27Johann Ewald.
00:28:28This is a blow, my lord, which gives me the most serious concern,
00:28:37as it will in its consequences be exceedingly detrimental to the king's interest in this country.
00:28:44Henry Clinton.
00:28:46When the Prime Minister, Lord North, finally heard about the surrender at Yorktown,
00:28:51five weeks after it happened, he staggered around as if he'd been hit by a musket ball,
00:28:57waving his arms and crying out again and again,
00:29:01O God, it is all over.
00:29:05In a speech to Parliament, King George III said that while recent events in Virginia had been unfortunate,
00:29:13he remained determined to fight on,
00:29:16to restore my deluded subjects to that happy and prosperous condition
00:29:20which they formerly derived from obedience to the laws.
00:29:25But Britain had grown weary of the war.
00:29:31More than 30,000 British, German, and Loyalist troops had lost their lives in North America.
00:29:38The British national debt had doubled.
00:29:42Other battlefields seemed more important.
00:29:45In the Caribbean, where they would soon destroy Admiral de Grasse's fleet.
00:29:49In the Mediterranean, where they still held Gibraltar.
00:29:55And in India, where they continued to expand their empire.
00:30:02On February 27, 1782, Parliament voted to halt all offensive activity in North America.
00:30:12Lord North's government fell.
00:30:14Could they have kept the war going from a purely military perspective?
00:30:20Sure.
00:30:21But politically, the will to fight vanishes.
00:30:25So the pro-war administration is toppled.
00:30:29And the king is forced to accept a new government with a new political coalition
00:30:34that is committed to negotiating a peace settlement with the American rebels.
00:30:40Alas, what remains of Yorktown now.
00:30:51What had given it its high privilege,
00:30:54that of being accessible from every quarter,
00:30:57proved its greatest misfortune.
00:31:00Its excellent harbor rendered it the port of all others most favorable for an invading enemy.
00:31:05Too soon did they avail themselves of it,
00:31:09and this Eden became desolate.
00:31:13Betsy Ambler.
00:31:15Betsy Ambler and her family never returned to Yorktown,
00:31:19settling permanently in Richmond.
00:31:23Not long after the surrender,
00:31:26slaveholders began turning up at Yorktown,
00:31:29eager to reclaim the surviving runaways who had fled to the British.
00:31:33Washington set up two fortified posts
00:31:37where slaves were to be kept under guard
00:31:40until their owner came to claim them.
00:31:43Patriot troops were encouraged to help track them down.
00:31:49The Negroes looked condemned, one militiaman remembered,
00:31:52for the British had promised them their freedom.
00:31:57Five enslaved people captured at Yorktown
00:32:00were returned to Thomas Jefferson.
00:32:03Two more, both women,
00:32:06were returned to George Washington's Mount Vernon.
00:32:12Washington's army soon moved north.
00:32:17Rochambeau's men marched up to Boston the following year
00:32:20and sailed away.
00:32:23Cornwallis' defeated men were marched to prison camps in the interior.
00:32:27Eager to get them back,
00:32:30Parliament finally recognized captured Americans
00:32:33as prisoners of war.
00:32:36Redcoats and rebels alike could expect to be exchanged.
00:32:39After seven months of suffering aboard the prison ship The Jersey,
00:32:47James Fortin was released,
00:32:50emaciated but lucky to be alive.
00:32:54He walked all the way home to Philadelphia from New York,
00:32:58most of the way barefoot.
00:33:00He astonished his mother on arrival.
00:33:04She had long since given him up for dead.
00:33:10After the war, Fortin would build a great fortune making sales for the American merchant fleet
00:33:16and use part of those earnings to fund the abolitionist movement.
00:33:22When decades later,
00:33:24a friend urged him to apply for one of the pensions being granted to war veterans,
00:33:29Fortin refused.
00:33:31I was a volunteer, sir, he said.
00:33:34He didn't want money.
00:33:36He wanted citizenship.
00:33:41Our country asserts for itself the glory of being the freest upon the surface of the globe.
00:33:48She proclaimed freedom to all mankind.
00:33:52The brightness of her glory was radiant.
00:33:56But one dark spot still dimmed its luster.
00:34:01So much is doing in the world to ameliorate the condition of mankind,
00:34:06and the spirit of freedom is marching with rapid strides
00:34:10and causing tyrants to tremble.
00:34:14May America awake from the apathy in which she has long slumbered.
00:34:20She must, sooner or later,
00:34:23fall in with the irresistible current in the cause of liberty.
00:34:29James Fortin
00:34:30Loyalists knew the war was lost,
00:34:39and the question for them became,
00:34:42what's going to happen to us next?
00:34:45And given the violence,
00:34:49this insurgency, counterinsurgency, back and forth,
00:34:52down and dirty fighting in the countryside,
00:34:55Loyalists had every reason to fear that now that the patriots were in charge,
00:35:02they were going to find themselves on the rough end of recriminations.
00:35:09Everywhere, patriots were seeking revenge on men and women
00:35:13who had once been their neighbors and fellow subjects of the king.
00:35:17The mob, one Loyalist wrote, now reigns, fully and uncontrolled.
00:35:23In Georgia, patriots hunted down and killed Loyalists who had sought sanctuary in the swamps.
00:35:33Other Loyalists were exiled and their property confiscated.
00:35:37I cannot say I look back with regret at the part I took from motives of loyalty,
00:35:44from love to my country, as well as duty to my sovereign.
00:35:48And notwithstanding my sufferings, I would do it again if there was occasion.
00:35:54John Peters
00:35:55John Peters and his wife Anne settled in Nova Scotia.
00:36:02Most Loyalists would choose to stay despite the danger and take their chances,
00:36:08hoping to resume their old lives in the new country.
00:36:12But thousands decided to leave.
00:36:15They huddled together in the last British strongholds of New York City,
00:36:20Charleston, and Savannah, waiting for ships to be found to take them away.
00:36:27In an incredible gesture at the end of the American Revolution,
00:36:31the British government offers continuing protection to American Loyalists.
00:36:36And I don't know of any other precedent for this kind of mass evacuation of civilians
00:36:43organized by a government and particularly by the military
00:36:48with a view to helping these refugees get started with a new life
00:36:53somewhere else outside the place that they had always called home.
00:36:57General Guy Carlton, who had replaced Henry Clinton as commander of British forces,
00:37:04was expected to move more than 30,000 troops with their mountains of supplies,
00:37:09as well as 60,000 Loyalists and 15,000 enslaved people out of the United States.
00:37:18Carlton began that summer with Savannah.
00:37:20Some 3,000 whites and perhaps 5,000 blacks sailed to other British colonies.
00:37:28Charleston was next.
00:37:30Almost 11,000 people, black and white.
00:37:35Most of them ended up in Jamaica and the Bahamas.
00:37:40Only New York remained in British hands.
00:37:42Meanwhile, in Paris, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens
00:37:51were trying to work out a permanent peace.
00:37:55Ignoring their instructions to include the French,
00:37:58whose assistance had ensured their astonishing victory,
00:38:02the American envoys decided to negotiate alone with British emissaries.
00:38:07Let us be honest and grateful to France, John Jay said,
00:38:12but let us think for ourselves.
00:38:16They had a draft treaty within a week.
00:38:20Its terms were generous to the Americans.
00:38:24So generous, they would cause the new British government to fall as well.
00:38:28It declared the 13 former colonies to be free, sovereign, and independent states
00:38:37and set expansive boundaries stretching all the way from the Great Lakes to Florida
00:38:42and from the Appalachians westward to the Mississippi,
00:38:47a territory larger than England, France, and Spain put together.
00:38:52British troops were to be withdrawn with all convenient speed
00:38:57and were barred, the agreement said,
00:39:00from carrying away any Negroes or other property of the American inhabitants.
00:39:07This provisional treaty was signed by the American and British negotiators
00:39:11on November 30th, 1782.
00:39:16A final, comprehensive treaty would not come for another nine months.
00:39:22There is a consensus at the end among the negotiators, including the Brits,
00:39:29that we're witnessing the creation of an American empire.
00:39:34Some people would say the British lost the war, but then they won the aftermath.
00:39:40And France lost that period.
00:39:41They could not reinvent themselves in order to prevent their collapse.
00:39:46The promise of the American Revolution was, of course, a promise of democracy,
00:39:50of equality, of liberties, of all these new concepts at a time
00:39:54where in Europe there were only monarchies.
00:39:57A republic had won against a monarchy.
00:40:01It inspired many.
00:40:03The American Revolution would be the opening signal
00:40:06for more than two centuries of revolution.
00:40:09First in Europe,
00:40:10Then, in the Caribbean, South America, Asia, and Africa.
00:40:18The ideas are very powerful.
00:40:21When they're talking about liberty,
00:40:22when they're talking about equality,
00:40:24when they're talking about opportunity,
00:40:25freedom from oppression.
00:40:27The American Revolutionary Movement
00:40:29served as a model for other societies and communities around the world.
00:40:35But in early 1783,
00:40:40at the Continental Army's winter encampment at Newburgh, New York,
00:40:44things were not going well.
00:40:46An unsigned manifesto began circulating among Washington's officers,
00:40:51openly calling for a mutiny.
00:40:54If peace really came,
00:40:56they would refuse to disarm
00:40:57and be free to use the army
00:40:59to force Congress and the states
00:41:02into providing the back pay they were owed.
00:41:06On March 15th,
00:41:08at a meeting to hear more about the conspiracy,
00:41:11officers heard horses' hooves.
00:41:14The door flew open.
00:41:17Washington and his aides entered.
00:41:20The general stepped to the lectern.
00:41:23He spoke for 20 minutes,
00:41:25urging his officers to resist
00:41:27drowning our rising empire in blood.
00:41:32Most shifted in their seats, unconvinced.
00:41:37Then Washington asked if he could read a letter
00:41:40from a Virginia congressman
00:41:42who had pledged support for the army.
00:41:46He stumbled over the first words,
00:41:49paused,
00:41:50and pulled a pair of spectacles from his coat.
00:41:53The rest of the letter didn't matter.
00:42:09Many officers,
00:42:11hard men made harder still by battle,
00:42:14were openly weeping.
00:42:15The mutiny was over before it could begin.
00:42:25The unparalleled perseverance
00:42:27of the armies of the United States
00:42:29through almost every possible suffering
00:42:32and discouragement
00:42:33for the space of eight long years
00:42:36was little short of a standing miracle.
00:42:40George Washington
00:42:42As the Continental Army began to disband,
00:42:47Washington tried again
00:42:49to persuade Congress
00:42:50to provide his men
00:42:51with at least three months' back pay in cash.
00:42:56But the best they could do
00:42:57was issue a blizzard of paper certificates,
00:43:00vaguely promising to redeem them one day.
00:43:03Some of the soldiers went off for home
00:43:08the same day their fetters were knocked off.
00:43:11Others stayed and got their final settlement certificates,
00:43:15which they sold to procure decent clothing and money
00:43:17sufficient to enable them to pass
00:43:19with decency through the country
00:43:20and to appear something like themselves
00:43:23when they arrived among their friends.
00:43:26I was among those.
00:43:27When the country had drained
00:43:30the last drop of service
00:43:32it could screw out of the poor soldiers,
00:43:35we returned adrift
00:43:36like old worn-out horses.
00:43:39Joseph Plum Martin
00:43:40That group of people
00:43:44are ordinary Americans
00:43:46below the level of ordinary.
00:43:48And they won the war
00:43:50because they'd never left.
00:43:53They stayed.
00:43:54That was it.
00:43:55They refused to leave.
00:43:57And, um, um,
00:43:59you can sound pretty patriotic,
00:44:03but I don't think you can be
00:44:04patriotic enough about them.
00:44:06We had lived together
00:44:08as a family of brothers
00:44:09for several years,
00:44:11had shared with each other
00:44:12the hardships, dangers,
00:44:14and sufferings incident
00:44:15to a soldier's life,
00:44:16had sympathized with each other
00:44:19in trouble and sickness.
00:44:20And now we were to be parted forever,
00:44:23as unconditionally separated
00:44:26as though the grave lay between us.
00:44:33By the spring of 1783,
00:44:37more than 30,000 Loyalists
00:44:39and almost as many British
00:44:40and German troops
00:44:42still remained in New York City,
00:44:44all waiting for ships
00:44:45to take them away.
00:44:47So many people
00:44:48that General Carlton
00:44:50could not tell George Washington
00:44:52precisely when they would all be gone.
00:44:56Soldiers shipped out for home
00:44:57or the West Indies.
00:44:59Some Loyalists planned to sail
00:45:01to Quebec or the Bahamas.
00:45:03But the overwhelming majority,
00:45:06nearly 30,000 American men,
00:45:08women, and children,
00:45:09resolved to begin their new lives,
00:45:11like John and Ann Peters had,
00:45:13to the north in Nova Scotia.
00:45:17Of the more than 3,000 black people
00:45:20who had also found sanctuary in New York,
00:45:23half were considered the property of Loyalists,
00:45:26and so would have to accompany their owners
00:45:28wherever they chose to go.
00:45:30But most of the rest were runaways,
00:45:35like Harry Washington,
00:45:37who had been the property of George Washington,
00:45:39and Boston King,
00:45:41who had been promised
00:45:42that if they fled their patriot owners,
00:45:44they would be free.
00:45:45That freedom now seemed in peril.
00:45:51Peace was restored
00:45:53between America and Great Britain,
00:45:55which issued universal joy
00:45:57among all parties,
00:45:59except us,
00:46:00who had escaped from slavery
00:46:01and taken refuge in the English Army.
00:46:05For a report prevailed at New York
00:46:07that all slaves
00:46:09were to be delivered up to their masters.
00:46:12This dreadful rumor
00:46:13filled us all with inexpressible anguish and terror,
00:46:18especially when we saw our masters
00:46:19coming and seizing upon their slaves
00:46:22in the streets of New York,
00:46:24or even dragging them out of their beds.
00:46:27Many of the slaves
00:46:28had very cruel masters,
00:46:31so that the thoughts
00:46:32of returning home with them
00:46:33embittered life to us.
00:46:36For some days,
00:46:37we lost our appetite for food,
00:46:40and sleep
00:46:41departed from our eyes.
00:46:44Boston Cay.
00:46:48From his headquarters
00:46:49up the Hudson,
00:46:51George Washington
00:46:51continued to insist
00:46:53every runaway be returned
00:46:55to his or her owner.
00:46:58General Carlton refused.
00:47:01National honor,
00:47:02he told Washington,
00:47:04required him to make good
00:47:05on official British pledges
00:47:07made to persons
00:47:08of any complexion.
00:47:11The English had compassion upon us
00:47:14in the day of distress.
00:47:17In consequence of this,
00:47:18each of us received a certificate
00:47:20from the commanding officer
00:47:22at New York,
00:47:24which dispelled
00:47:25all our fears.
00:47:26Carlton decreed that
00:47:30any enslaved person
00:47:31who had left
00:47:32a patriot owner
00:47:33and served behind
00:47:34the British lines
00:47:35for 12 months
00:47:36was free.
00:47:39Disputes between
00:47:40runaways and owners,
00:47:42or slave catchers
00:47:43determined to return
00:47:44them to slavery,
00:47:46were adjudicated
00:47:47by a committee
00:47:47of four British officers
00:47:49and three Americans,
00:47:51who met weekly
00:47:51at Francis Tavern
00:47:53on Pearl Street.
00:47:55I came from Virginia.
00:47:58I was with Lord Dunmore,
00:48:00washing and ironing
00:48:01in his service.
00:48:03I came with him
00:48:04to New York
00:48:05and was in service
00:48:06with him
00:48:06till he went away.
00:48:08My master came for me.
00:48:11I told him
00:48:12I would not go with him.
00:48:14He took my money
00:48:15and stole my child
00:48:17from me
00:48:17and sent it to Virginia.
00:48:20Judith Jackson.
00:48:21Judith Jackson
00:48:26won the right
00:48:27to go to Nova Scotia,
00:48:28but she stayed on
00:48:29in New York,
00:48:30frantically trying
00:48:31to recover her daughter
00:48:33until she was forced
00:48:34to sail without her.
00:48:39There were more tense
00:48:40moments at Dockside.
00:48:42Before any vessel
00:48:43carrying black passengers,
00:48:45slave or free,
00:48:46could leave New York,
00:48:48British and American
00:48:49inspectors
00:48:50demanded to see
00:48:51their certificates
00:48:52and entered their names
00:48:54and descriptions
00:48:55in separate ledgers.
00:49:01But once underway,
00:49:03Boston King,
00:49:04Harry Washington,
00:49:05and all the hundreds
00:49:06of other free persons
00:49:08the British allowed
00:49:08to sail north
00:49:10were filled,
00:49:11as King wrote,
00:49:12with joy and gratitude.
00:49:18In the end,
00:49:19Nova Scotia proved
00:49:20cold and unforgiving.
00:49:23Black refugees
00:49:24were not made welcome.
00:49:25both men would eventually
00:49:30join nearly 1,200 other
00:49:32African Americans
00:49:33who emigrated again,
00:49:36this time to Sierra Leone
00:49:38in West Africa,
00:49:39where they founded
00:49:40a new British colony
00:49:42with a new capital city
00:49:44they called Freetown.
00:49:45If we had the means
00:49:50of publishing to the world
00:49:52the many acts
00:49:53of treachery
00:49:53and cruelty
00:49:54committed by them
00:49:56on our women
00:49:57and children,
00:49:58it would appear
00:49:59that the title
00:50:00of savages
00:50:01would with much
00:50:02greater justice
00:50:03be applied to them
00:50:05than to us.
00:50:07Old Smoke.
00:50:08The 150,000
00:50:11Native Americans
00:50:12who lived
00:50:13in the vast territory
00:50:14that was now
00:50:15the United States
00:50:16were not so much
00:50:17as mentioned
00:50:18in the treaty.
00:50:22We were struck
00:50:23with astonishment
00:50:24at hearing
00:50:24we were forgot.
00:50:25We could not believe
00:50:27it possible
00:50:27such firm friends
00:50:29and allies
00:50:30could be so neglected
00:50:31by England,
00:50:32whom we had served
00:50:33with so much zeal
00:50:35and fidelity.
00:50:36Teyendenego.
00:50:39Joseph Brandt.
00:50:42The losers
00:50:43in the negotiation
00:50:45to Paris
00:50:45are the Native Americans.
00:50:47I mean,
00:50:48it would be hard-pressed
00:50:49to say that
00:50:49they'd be better off
00:50:50if the British had won,
00:50:52but they probably
00:50:53would have.
00:50:56The contributions
00:50:57Native Americans
00:50:58had made
00:50:59to winning
00:51:00American independence
00:51:01would soon
00:51:02be forgotten too,
00:51:04including Oneida's,
00:51:06Tuscarora's,
00:51:07Delaware's,
00:51:08Catawba's,
00:51:09and the Indian community
00:51:10at Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
00:51:15In this late war,
00:51:17we have suffered much.
00:51:18Our blood has been spilled
00:51:20with yours,
00:51:21and many of our young men
00:51:23have fallen
00:51:24by the side
00:51:25of your warriors.
00:51:27Almost all those places
00:51:30where your warriors
00:51:31have left their bones,
00:51:33there our bones
00:51:34are seen also.
00:51:36The Stockbridge Indians,
00:51:38their home,
00:51:39their land,
00:51:40is going to go away.
00:51:42They're not going to be able
00:51:43to hold on to that.
00:51:45And they are moved
00:51:46to New York,
00:51:47and they end up
00:51:48in Wisconsin.
00:51:49Like so many tribes,
00:51:51right,
00:51:52they end up being kicked around
00:51:53and moved from place to place.
00:51:55This is, of course,
00:51:56the story of Native people
00:51:58relative to the United States.
00:51:59Beloved men and warriors
00:52:04of the United States,
00:52:06we, the women
00:52:08of the Cherokee Nation,
00:52:10now speak to you.
00:52:12We are mothers
00:52:13and have many sons,
00:52:16some of them warriors
00:52:17and beloved men.
00:52:20Our cry is all for peace.
00:52:23This peace must last forever.
00:52:29Let your women
00:52:30hear our words.
00:52:34There would be no peace.
00:52:36As the United States
00:52:38moved inexorably westward,
00:52:40Native nations
00:52:41would continue to fight
00:52:42for their independence
00:52:44for another century.
00:52:47Native Americans
00:52:48would not become citizens
00:52:50of the United States
00:52:51until 1924.
00:52:54And their struggle
00:52:55to remain sovereign
00:52:56would never end.
00:53:05At one o'clock
00:53:07in the afternoon
00:53:08on November 25th, 1783,
00:53:11George Washington,
00:53:12straight as a dart
00:53:13an eyewitness recalled,
00:53:15and as noble as he could be,
00:53:17led a procession
00:53:18of soldiers and civilians
00:53:20down Bowery Lane
00:53:22and Queen Street,
00:53:23west across Wall Street,
00:53:25and then down Broadway.
00:53:27The British were finally gone.
00:53:31Washington was back
00:53:32in the city
00:53:32he had been forced
00:53:33to abandon in 1776.
00:53:37New Yorkers celebrated
00:53:39for days
00:53:39with illuminations,
00:53:41bonfires,
00:53:42and fireworks.
00:53:45And now,
00:53:46George Washington
00:53:47had one more duty
00:53:48to perform.
00:53:50He would ride
00:53:52to Annapolis, Maryland,
00:53:53where the Confederation Congress
00:53:55was now meeting,
00:53:56and formally resign
00:53:58his commission.
00:54:00He knew what he was doing.
00:54:03He walks away from power.
00:54:06He's not going to be
00:54:07a Cromwell.
00:54:08He's not going to be
00:54:09a Caesar.
00:54:09He's not going to be
00:54:10what Napoleon
00:54:11is going to become.
00:54:13He could have easily
00:54:14become dictator head,
00:54:16and he had no interest
00:54:17in that whatsoever.
00:54:21Accompanied by two military aides
00:54:23and his enslaved companion,
00:54:26William Lee,
00:54:27Washington set out
00:54:28right away
00:54:29for Mount Vernon,
00:54:30hoping to be home
00:54:31for Christmas Eve.
00:54:33These are the times
00:54:38that tried men's souls,
00:54:40and they are over,
00:54:42and the greatest
00:54:43and completest revolution
00:54:45the world ever knew
00:54:46gloriously and happily
00:54:47accomplished.
00:54:49As United States,
00:54:51we are equal
00:54:52to the importance
00:54:52of the title,
00:54:54but otherwise,
00:54:55we are not.
00:54:57Our union
00:54:58is the most sacred thing,
00:54:59and that which
00:55:01every man
00:55:02should be most proud
00:55:03and tender of.
00:55:05Our great title
00:55:06is Americans.
00:55:09Thomas Paine
00:55:10The war had brought
00:55:15the states together,
00:55:16but peace
00:55:17soon threatened
00:55:18to tear them apart.
00:55:20Small states
00:55:21continued to fear
00:55:23large ones.
00:55:24Northern and southern states
00:55:26jockeyed for dominance
00:55:27and quarreled over borders.
00:55:31Vermonters had already
00:55:32declared themselves
00:55:33a separate republic.
00:55:36North Carolina's
00:55:37overmountain settlers
00:55:38were seeking to secede
00:55:40and form their own state
00:55:41called Franklin.
00:55:45Elsewhere,
00:55:46farmers turned to violence
00:55:48to protest state taxes
00:55:50they considered unreasonable.
00:55:53In Massachusetts,
00:55:55protest became insurrection.
00:55:57Shays' rebellion
00:55:58put down only after
00:56:00former comrades-in-arms
00:56:02fired on each other.
00:56:05A cloud of evils,
00:56:06George Washington wrote,
00:56:08was threatening
00:56:08the tranquility
00:56:09of the union.
00:56:12Our situation
00:56:13is truly delicate
00:56:15and critical.
00:56:17On the one hand,
00:56:19we stand in need
00:56:20of a strong federal government
00:56:22founded on principles
00:56:23that will support
00:56:25the prosperity
00:56:25and union
00:56:26of the states.
00:56:28On the other,
00:56:30we have struggled
00:56:31for liberty
00:56:32and made lofty sacrifices
00:56:34at her shrine.
00:56:35and there are still
00:56:37many among us
00:56:38who revere her name
00:56:40too much
00:56:41to relinquish
00:56:41the rights of man
00:56:43for the dignity
00:56:44of government.
00:56:47Mercy,
00:56:47Otis Warren.
00:56:49The new Congress,
00:56:51created by the Articles
00:56:52of Confederation,
00:56:54was toothless,
00:56:55saddled with colossal debts,
00:56:57and incapable
00:56:58of collecting taxes
00:57:00with which
00:57:00to pay them off.
00:57:02It's not hard
00:57:03to imagine at all
00:57:04Britain, France,
00:57:06and Spain
00:57:06picking off
00:57:07individual states
00:57:09to create
00:57:10sort of commercial alliances
00:57:11or political alliances
00:57:12and military alliances
00:57:13as client states
00:57:14and all kinds of things.
00:57:16Sounds crazy,
00:57:17but it's no more crazy
00:57:19to have actually created
00:57:20a federal government
00:57:21that would actually work
00:57:22and famously
00:57:23a lot of British observers
00:57:25throughout the 1780s.
00:57:26to just give them a few years,
00:57:27they're all going to fall apart.
00:57:29One of the lessons
00:57:31Washington learned
00:57:31during the American Revolution
00:57:33is that without
00:57:34a powerful central government,
00:57:37nothing effective
00:57:38could happen.
00:57:40The frustrations
00:57:40he experienced
00:57:41trying to get
00:57:43these 13 colonies
00:57:44to work in unison
00:57:46and failing every time
00:57:48in the Continental Congress
00:57:50taught him
00:57:51that something
00:57:52had to change.
00:57:53In late May 1787,
00:57:5955 delegates
00:58:00met in Philadelphia
00:58:01to draw up
00:58:03a constitution.
00:58:04Nearly half
00:58:05owned slaves.
00:58:0730 had served
00:58:09in the war.
00:58:11George Washington
00:58:12lent his prestige
00:58:13by agreeing
00:58:14to preside
00:58:15over the convention.
00:58:16four months later,
00:58:20they had hammered out
00:58:21a four-page document.
00:58:24To devise
00:58:25a government
00:58:26that the American people
00:58:27could agree
00:58:28to live under
00:58:29demanded
00:58:30historic compromises,
00:58:32some creative,
00:58:34some tragic.
00:58:35The Constitution
00:58:38delineated
00:58:39which powers
00:58:40fell to the central government
00:58:42and which remained
00:58:43with the states,
00:58:45a system of shared sovereignty
00:58:46they called
00:58:48federalism.
00:58:49The architects
00:58:51of the Constitution
00:58:52divided the federal government
00:58:54into three branches,
00:58:56the legislative,
00:58:57executive,
00:58:58and judicial,
00:59:00in a delicate balance
00:59:01by which each was meant
00:59:03to check the others
00:59:04to ensure against overreach
00:59:06that could result
00:59:08in tyranny.
00:59:10They feared
00:59:11that a demagogue
00:59:12might incite citizens
00:59:14into betraying
00:59:15the American experiment.
00:59:18Alexander Hamilton
00:59:19was concerned
00:59:20that an unprincipled man
00:59:22would mount
00:59:23the hobby horse
00:59:23of popularity
00:59:24and throw things
00:59:26into confusion.
00:59:28In a government
00:59:28like ours,
00:59:29he would write,
00:59:30no one
00:59:31is above the law.
00:59:33I wish
00:59:36the Constitution
00:59:37which is offered
00:59:38had been made
00:59:39more perfect,
00:59:41but I sincerely believe
00:59:42it is the best
00:59:43that could be obtained
00:59:44at this time.
00:59:45And as a constitutional
00:59:47door is opened
00:59:48for amendment
00:59:49hereafter,
00:59:50the adoption of it
00:59:52is, in my opinion,
00:59:54desirable.
00:59:57And they were trying
00:59:58to create a system
01:00:00in which you could have
01:00:01a sufficiently powerful
01:00:03government
01:00:03that could work
01:00:05properly
01:00:06for its own people
01:00:07and the great powers
01:00:09of the world
01:00:10and still retain
01:00:12the freedoms
01:00:13of the individual.
01:00:15And that is
01:00:16the great issue
01:00:16that runs
01:00:17all the way
01:00:18through the revolution.
01:00:19It's a struggle
01:00:21between the possibilities
01:00:23of power
01:00:24and of liberty.
01:00:26In order for the Constitution
01:00:28to take effect,
01:00:30the individual states
01:00:31had to ratify it.
01:00:34That would foster
01:00:35one of the most extensive
01:00:36public debates
01:00:37in history.
01:00:38The people who created
01:00:41the American Revolution
01:00:42and created
01:00:42the American nation
01:00:43assumed that Americans
01:00:46would be involved,
01:00:47that they would be
01:00:47active citizens,
01:00:48not subjects.
01:00:50Being a citizen
01:00:51requires the kind
01:00:53of participation
01:00:53in the democracy
01:00:55that keeps it vibrant.
01:00:58In the end,
01:01:00all 13 states
01:01:01did ratify
01:01:02the Constitution.
01:01:04But before consenting
01:01:05to live under
01:01:06the new federal government,
01:01:08the American people
01:01:09wanted to enshrine
01:01:10the liberties
01:01:11they had won
01:01:12in the revolution.
01:01:14The Constitution
01:01:15was almost immediately
01:01:17amended
01:01:17with a Bill of Rights
01:01:19guaranteeing
01:01:20freedom of worship
01:01:21and the separation
01:01:23of church and state,
01:01:25freedom of speech
01:01:26and assembly,
01:01:28the right to keep
01:01:29and bear arms,
01:01:30trial by jury,
01:01:32and a ban
01:01:33on cruel
01:01:33and unusual punishment.
01:01:36James Madison,
01:01:38who wrote
01:01:38the Bill of Rights,
01:01:39called the Constitution
01:01:41nothing more
01:01:42than the draft
01:01:42of a plan,
01:01:44nothing but a dead letter,
01:01:46until life
01:01:47and validity
01:01:48were breathed into it
01:01:49by the voice
01:01:50of the people.
01:01:53The idea
01:01:54that government
01:01:55derives its authority
01:01:56from the consent
01:01:57of the governed
01:01:58was pretty radical.
01:02:00It's still pretty radical.
01:02:02If we take the words
01:02:04of the Declaration
01:02:04of Independence
01:02:05written by Thomas Jefferson,
01:02:07all men,
01:02:09let's say men and women,
01:02:10are created free
01:02:12and equal, right?
01:02:13Jefferson clearly
01:02:14didn't take that seriously
01:02:16as a slaveholder,
01:02:17but I do.
01:02:19And I think it's incumbent
01:02:20on all of us
01:02:21to take those words
01:02:22from Jefferson
01:02:23and make them real
01:02:25in our own lives,
01:02:26even if they weren't real
01:02:27in his.
01:02:28When the time came
01:02:33to choose
01:02:34the first president
01:02:35under the Constitution,
01:02:37George Washington
01:02:38was the only choice
01:02:39and won the vote
01:02:41of every single elector.
01:02:44He was inaugurated
01:02:45in New York City
01:02:46on April 30th, 1789.
01:02:51John Adams,
01:02:52the first vice president,
01:02:54thought the chief executive
01:02:55should have a royal
01:02:56or at least
01:02:57a princely title.
01:02:59But for Washington,
01:03:01president of the United States
01:03:02was honor enough.
01:03:06And when he left
01:03:08the presidency in 1797,
01:03:11King George himself
01:03:12paid tribute.
01:03:14By surrendering first
01:03:15his military
01:03:16and then his political power,
01:03:18he said,
01:03:19George Washington
01:03:20had made himself
01:03:21the greatest character
01:03:23of the age.
01:03:24Our government
01:03:30daily acquires
01:03:31strength and stability.
01:03:34The union is complete.
01:03:37Nothing hinders
01:03:38our being a very happy
01:03:39and prosperous people,
01:03:41provided we have wisdom
01:03:42rightly to estimate
01:03:44our blessings
01:03:44and hearts
01:03:47to improve them.
01:03:48Abigail Adams
01:03:50I will not believe
01:03:56our labors are lost.
01:03:58I shall not die
01:04:00without a hope
01:04:01that light and liberty
01:04:03are on steady advance.
01:04:04And even should the cloud
01:04:08of barbarism
01:04:09and despotism
01:04:10again obscure
01:04:11the science
01:04:12and liberties
01:04:13of Europe,
01:04:14this country
01:04:15remains to preserve
01:04:16and restore light
01:04:18and liberty to them.
01:04:19In short,
01:04:22the flames kindled
01:04:24on the 4th of July 1776
01:04:26have spread over
01:04:28too much of the globe
01:04:29to be extinguished
01:04:31by the feeble engines
01:04:32of despotism.
01:04:35Thomas Jefferson
01:04:36America is predicated
01:04:42on an idea
01:04:42that should act
01:04:45as a pole star
01:04:46for us
01:04:47to provide true north
01:04:49of telling us
01:04:50what it is
01:04:52that we think
01:04:52we can do
01:04:54as a people.
01:04:57The perpetual challenge
01:05:00of the American experiment
01:05:02is to draw on
01:05:04those aspirational ideals,
01:05:08make them our own,
01:05:10hand them off
01:05:11to our children
01:05:12and our grandchildren,
01:05:13and to use that
01:05:15as a propulsion system
01:05:16for being the nation
01:05:18that those forebears
01:05:20thought we could become.
01:05:26The American war
01:05:27is over,
01:05:29but this is far
01:05:30from being the case
01:05:31with the American Revolution.
01:05:34On the contrary,
01:05:36nothing but the first act
01:05:38of the great drama
01:05:38is closed.
01:05:40It remains yet
01:05:41to establish
01:05:42and perfect
01:05:43our new forms
01:05:44of government.
01:05:47Patriots,
01:05:48come forward.
01:05:50Your country
01:05:50demands your services.
01:05:53Hear her proclaiming
01:05:54in sighs and groans.
01:05:57In her governments,
01:05:59in her finances,
01:06:00in her trade,
01:06:02in her manufactures,
01:06:03in her morals
01:06:06and in her manners,
01:06:08the revolution
01:06:09is not over.
01:06:13Benjamin Rush.
01:06:15Benjamin Rush.
01:06:16An
01:06:29.
01:06:32.
01:06:42.
01:06:42ORGAN PLAYS
01:07:12Scan this QR code with your smart device to dive deeper into the story of the American Revolution
01:07:37with interactives, games, classroom materials, and more.
01:07:42The American Revolution DVD and Blu-ray, as well as the companion book and soundtrack,
01:07:55are available online and in stores.
01:07:57The series is also available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video.
01:08:02¶¶
01:08:12¶¶
01:08:22¶¶
01:08:32¶¶
01:08:42¶¶
01:08:44The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world.
01:09:11¶¶
01:09:12The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow
01:09:18to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion.
01:09:24¶¶
01:09:25What would you like the power to do?
01:09:32The Bank of America
01:09:33Major funding for the American Revolution was provided by the Better Angels Society and
01:09:40its members, Jeannie and Jonathan Levine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik
01:09:45Family Foundation.
01:09:47Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern
01:09:52Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members Eric and Wendy
01:09:57Schmidt Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst.
01:10:02Additional support was provided by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable
01:10:07Trusts, Gilbert S. Oman and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society
01:10:12members Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, the Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline
01:10:18B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Briarley, John H. N. Fisher and Jennifer
01:10:24Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional
01:10:29members.
01:10:30The American Revolution was made possible with support from the Corporation for
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