1 00:00:01,330 --> 00:00:04,230 Viewers like you make this program possible. 2 00:00:04,230 --> 00:00:05,670 Support your local PBS station. 3 00:00:24,250 --> 00:00:28,090 Before dawn on May 10th, 1775-- 4 00:00:28,290 --> 00:00:31,330 less than a month after Lexington and Concord-- 5 00:00:31,330 --> 00:00:33,660 some 85 New Englanders rowed across 6 00:00:34,060 --> 00:00:36,370 the southern end of Lake Champlain, 7 00:00:36,570 --> 00:00:39,400 keeping silent, muskets primed. 8 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:43,210 Their objective was a dilapidated, 9 00:00:43,410 --> 00:00:46,780 star-shaped fortress called Ticonderoga, 10 00:00:46,780 --> 00:00:49,210 built by the French 20 years earlier 11 00:00:49,410 --> 00:00:52,450 and now occupied by 50 British soldiers 12 00:00:52,650 --> 00:00:54,650 and 24 women and children. 13 00:00:56,350 --> 00:00:59,120 If they could capture it, they might be able to stop 14 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,120 British troops from attacking from the north; 15 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:05,190 to provide American forces with a staging area 16 00:01:05,190 --> 00:01:08,130 should they ever choose to invade Canada; 17 00:01:08,130 --> 00:01:11,370 and to take possession of dozens of artillery pieces 18 00:01:11,570 --> 00:01:15,140 that the rebel forces ringing Boston desperately needed. 19 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:20,310 The men slipped silently onto the shore. 20 00:01:20,510 --> 00:01:23,680 The British surrendered without a shot. 21 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,320 So did the 9 redcoats stationed at Crown Point, 22 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:29,080 a smaller outpost nearby. 23 00:01:30,690 --> 00:01:33,190 The Americans had two commanders. 24 00:01:33,190 --> 00:01:35,290 One was Colonel Ethan Allen, 25 00:01:35,290 --> 00:01:38,560 the hard-drinking leader of the "Green Mountain Boys," 26 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:41,530 a band of vigilantes who had spent years defending 27 00:01:41,730 --> 00:01:43,300 their settlements in the Vermont region 28 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:45,230 of northwestern New England 29 00:01:45,430 --> 00:01:48,400 against New Yorkers who also claimed the land. 30 00:01:49,710 --> 00:01:52,410 The other was a newly promoted 34-year-old 31 00:01:52,410 --> 00:01:54,610 Connecticut militia colonel. 32 00:01:54,610 --> 00:01:56,510 He was descended from a distinguished 33 00:01:56,710 --> 00:01:59,880 New England family that had fallen on hard times. 34 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,150 Able but arrogant, sensitive to slights, 35 00:02:04,150 --> 00:02:06,420 he would become one of the most important commanders 36 00:02:06,620 --> 00:02:09,190 of the American Revolution. 37 00:02:09,190 --> 00:02:11,630 His name was Benedict Arnold. 38 00:02:27,140 --> 00:02:28,580 William Hogeland: Once it's a shooting war, 39 00:02:28,580 --> 00:02:31,410 as with Lexington and Concord, it's a war. 40 00:02:31,410 --> 00:02:33,520 There's no doubt about that. 41 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,650 But independence was not, in any way, officially 42 00:02:36,850 --> 00:02:38,550 on the table as a goal 43 00:02:38,750 --> 00:02:41,690 of the Americans at that point. 44 00:02:41,890 --> 00:02:45,430 The idea of independence was still controversial. 45 00:02:45,430 --> 00:02:48,230 The official position was that the fight was 46 00:02:48,230 --> 00:02:50,530 essentially for redress, for 47 00:02:50,530 --> 00:02:52,640 "Let's get back to the way things used to be. 48 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:56,210 Back when things were good, when you left us alone." 49 00:02:57,940 --> 00:03:00,740 The blood shed at Lexington and Concord 50 00:03:00,940 --> 00:03:03,210 had deepened the divisions among Americans 51 00:03:03,410 --> 00:03:05,250 from Georgia to New Hampshire. 52 00:03:06,650 --> 00:03:10,520 "Loyalists," those who remained faithful to the Crown 53 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,460 and hoped His Majesty's troops would soon restore 54 00:03:13,660 --> 00:03:16,760 law and order, dismissed those whose sympathies 55 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:21,330 lay with the militiamen surrounding Boston as "rebels." 56 00:03:21,530 --> 00:03:24,230 The "rebels" called themselves "Patriots"-- 57 00:03:24,430 --> 00:03:26,970 or "Whigs" after British champions 58 00:03:26,970 --> 00:03:29,940 of constitutionally guaranteed rights-- 59 00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:33,310 and vilified their Loyalist neighbors as "Tories." 60 00:03:35,410 --> 00:03:37,410 Alan Taylor: The term "Patriot" is a very old one 61 00:03:37,410 --> 00:03:39,780 that pre-exists the Revolution. 62 00:03:39,980 --> 00:03:42,320 It applies to people who believe that they are 63 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,290 the defenders of liberty against power. 64 00:03:46,290 --> 00:03:49,520 Now, "rebel" is a term that the British will use, 65 00:03:49,530 --> 00:03:51,790 and the Loyalists will use, to apply to the people 66 00:03:51,990 --> 00:03:54,300 who call themselves the "Patriots." 67 00:03:54,500 --> 00:03:57,000 So, to be a rebel means that you are rejecting 68 00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,900 the legitimate authority of your sovereign, 69 00:03:59,900 --> 00:04:02,370 King George III of the British Empire. 70 00:04:04,540 --> 00:04:08,240 That we are divorced is to me very clear. 71 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:11,310 The only question is concerning the proper time 72 00:04:11,310 --> 00:04:14,280 for making an explicit declaration in words. 73 00:04:15,650 --> 00:04:18,450 Some people must have time to look around them, 74 00:04:18,650 --> 00:04:22,420 before, behind, on the right hand, and on the left, 75 00:04:22,630 --> 00:04:26,630 then to think, and after all this, to resolve. 76 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,000 Others see at one intuitive glance 77 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,400 into the past and the future, 78 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:35,640 and judge with precision at once. 79 00:04:36,970 --> 00:04:40,640 But remember you can't make 13 clocks 80 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:43,850 strike precisely alike at the same second. 81 00:04:45,850 --> 00:04:46,910 John Adams. 82 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,670 I think the greatest misconception 83 00:05:05,670 --> 00:05:08,040 about the American Revolution is that it was 84 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:10,810 something that unified Americans 85 00:05:11,010 --> 00:05:15,440 and that it was just a war of Americans against the British. 86 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,080 It leaves out the reality that it was 87 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:18,810 a civil war among Americans. 88 00:05:21,420 --> 00:05:23,790 I tremble at the thoughts of war; 89 00:05:23,790 --> 00:05:27,560 but of all wars, a civil war! 90 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,530 Our all is at stake. 91 00:05:30,530 --> 00:05:32,960 Sarah Mifflin. 92 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:35,500 In the spring of 1775, 93 00:05:35,500 --> 00:05:38,430 a Philadelphia woman named Sarah Mifflin 94 00:05:38,630 --> 00:05:41,400 wrote to a British officer who had been her friend 95 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:43,940 before the shooting began. 96 00:05:43,940 --> 00:05:45,970 He had suggested that the whole thing 97 00:05:45,970 --> 00:05:47,780 was just a minor disagreement. 98 00:05:49,580 --> 00:05:51,780 It is not a quibble in politics. 99 00:05:51,780 --> 00:05:56,480 It is this plain truth, which the most ignorant peasant knows, 100 00:05:56,490 --> 00:05:58,450 that no man has a right to take their money 101 00:05:58,650 --> 00:06:00,520 without their consent. 102 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:05,130 I know this, that as free I can die but once, 103 00:06:05,530 --> 00:06:08,500 but as a slave I shall not be worthy of life. 104 00:06:08,700 --> 00:06:09,760 Sarah Mifflin. 105 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,970 Some 20,000 militiamen from towns 106 00:06:15,970 --> 00:06:19,540 all over Massachusetts--and from Connecticut, New Hampshire, 107 00:06:19,740 --> 00:06:21,540 and Rhode Island as well-- 108 00:06:21,740 --> 00:06:24,750 had poured into the series of impromptu camps 109 00:06:24,750 --> 00:06:28,950 that kept the British caged in Boston. 110 00:06:28,950 --> 00:06:31,650 They were united in their anger at the redcoats 111 00:06:31,850 --> 00:06:33,960 but very little else. 112 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,830 They were militiamen, not professional soldiers, 113 00:06:37,030 --> 00:06:39,760 expected to meet immediate crises, 114 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,830 not take part in prolonged campaigns. 115 00:06:43,030 --> 00:06:44,800 Few had uniforms. 116 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:49,970 Many had never been more than 50 miles from home. 117 00:06:49,970 --> 00:06:53,410 Their first loyalty was to the towns from which they came 118 00:06:53,610 --> 00:06:57,050 and the neighbors whom they had elected as their officers. 119 00:06:57,450 --> 00:07:00,080 Once the shooting stopped and it became clear 120 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:02,850 that the British were not going to attack them, 121 00:07:02,850 --> 00:07:05,720 they began drifting home to plant their crops. 122 00:07:07,490 --> 00:07:10,990 In overall charge of this dwindling, disorganized force 123 00:07:10,990 --> 00:07:13,130 was General Artemas Ward, 124 00:07:13,130 --> 00:07:16,030 the commander of the Massachusetts militia. 125 00:07:16,430 --> 00:07:19,600 From his headquarters in Cambridge, he understood 126 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,140 that if there were to be any hope of holding their own 127 00:07:22,140 --> 00:07:26,610 against the British, he needed a paid, recruited army-- 128 00:07:26,610 --> 00:07:28,540 and he needed it fast. 129 00:07:31,550 --> 00:07:32,950 Wherever you go, 130 00:07:32,950 --> 00:07:35,020 we will be by your sides. 131 00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:38,550 Our bones shall lie with yours. 132 00:07:38,550 --> 00:07:42,090 We are determined never to be at peace with the redcoats 133 00:07:42,090 --> 00:07:44,760 while they are at variance with you. 134 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,200 If we are conquered, our lands go with yours. 135 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:51,470 But if we are victorious, we hope you will help us 136 00:07:51,670 --> 00:07:55,140 to recover our just rights. 137 00:07:55,140 --> 00:07:57,140 Captain Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut. 138 00:07:59,140 --> 00:08:01,510 Among the troops who arrived in Cambridge 139 00:08:01,710 --> 00:08:03,610 was a company of Native Americans 140 00:08:03,810 --> 00:08:06,820 from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. 141 00:08:07,020 --> 00:08:08,550 Philip Deloria: Stockbridge is a community of 142 00:08:08,750 --> 00:08:10,490 multiple tribes, 143 00:08:10,690 --> 00:08:12,960 which has a long history of surviving colonization, 144 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,560 in part through adopting Christianity 145 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:17,990 and adopting certain kinds of strategic ways of being 146 00:08:17,990 --> 00:08:20,260 in relation with colonists. 147 00:08:20,260 --> 00:08:22,800 They come over from Western Massachusetts 148 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:24,270 and they're part of the Siege of Boston. 149 00:08:26,170 --> 00:08:28,840 Ned Blackhawk: Most Indigenous powers stay relatively 150 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:30,810 on the sidelines of the conflict 151 00:08:31,010 --> 00:08:32,940 during the early years. 152 00:08:32,940 --> 00:08:35,510 But many Native communities, particularly those 153 00:08:35,710 --> 00:08:38,250 who have lived with settlers for generations, 154 00:08:38,650 --> 00:08:41,780 come to share loyalties and sensibilities. 155 00:08:41,980 --> 00:08:43,650 And so, many decide 156 00:08:43,850 --> 00:08:45,120 that it's in their best interest 157 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:48,060 to join the Revolutionary forces 158 00:08:48,260 --> 00:08:52,090 and take up arms against the British Empire. 159 00:08:52,290 --> 00:08:54,230 The presence of the Stockbridge men 160 00:08:54,230 --> 00:08:56,860 among the rebels, General Thomas Gage, 161 00:08:56,870 --> 00:08:58,870 the commander-in-chief of the British Army 162 00:08:59,070 --> 00:09:02,640 in North America, said, freed him to call upon 163 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:05,810 other Native Americans to join his forces 164 00:09:06,010 --> 00:09:07,180 and fight for the Crown. 165 00:09:09,010 --> 00:09:13,080 Enslaved New Englanders were not recruited by either side. 166 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:16,180 The Massachusetts Provincial Congress insisted 167 00:09:16,180 --> 00:09:18,790 it was engaged in a struggle for freedom 168 00:09:18,790 --> 00:09:20,860 from British "slavery." 169 00:09:21,060 --> 00:09:24,230 Enlisting them, it said, would be "inconsistent." 170 00:09:26,060 --> 00:09:29,030 But free African-Americans were welcome-- 171 00:09:29,230 --> 00:09:33,140 and at least 35 and perhaps as many as 50 men of color 172 00:09:33,340 --> 00:09:36,040 had fought at Lexington and Concord 173 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:37,940 and more would soon be engaged 174 00:09:38,140 --> 00:09:40,910 in the next, far bigger battle with the British. 175 00:09:42,340 --> 00:09:45,710 Black, White, and Native American soldiers 176 00:09:45,710 --> 00:09:48,780 would serve in regiments more integrated 177 00:09:48,780 --> 00:09:53,090 than American forces would be again for almost two centuries. 178 00:09:55,660 --> 00:09:58,660 What?! 10,000 peasants keep 179 00:09:58,660 --> 00:10:01,730 5,000 King's troops shut up! 180 00:10:01,930 --> 00:10:06,200 Well, let us get in, and we'll soon find elbow room. 181 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:07,840 General John Burgoyne. 182 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:15,340 On May 25th, 1775, a Royal Navy frigate 183 00:10:15,340 --> 00:10:18,010 threaded its way into Boston harbor. 184 00:10:18,210 --> 00:10:20,850 Aboard were British reinforcements 185 00:10:20,850 --> 00:10:23,990 and 3 major generals. 186 00:10:23,990 --> 00:10:26,050 John Burgoyne was the showiest 187 00:10:26,250 --> 00:10:28,360 and the most self-assured of the three. 188 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:31,030 A playwright as well as a soldier, 189 00:10:31,030 --> 00:10:35,030 eager always for advancement, he was dismissive of the rebels 190 00:10:35,030 --> 00:10:37,800 besieging Boston, whom he called 191 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:41,070 a "rabble in arms, flushed with insolence." 192 00:10:42,700 --> 00:10:46,070 Henry Clinton had spent 6 boyhood years in New York, 193 00:10:46,270 --> 00:10:49,010 where his father had been the Royal Governor. 194 00:10:49,210 --> 00:10:52,810 He was soft-spoken, retiring, insecure. 195 00:10:54,220 --> 00:10:56,420 William Howe had once expressed sympathy 196 00:10:56,820 --> 00:10:58,420 with the American cause, 197 00:10:58,420 --> 00:11:00,160 but he now saw an opportunity 198 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,030 to burnish his reputation as a soldier. 199 00:11:04,690 --> 00:11:07,200 They had been sent to bolster General Gage, 200 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,900 whom the King's Ministers now saw as overly timid. 201 00:11:12,670 --> 00:11:15,340 The commanders all agreed that if they could seize 202 00:11:15,740 --> 00:11:18,270 the heights at Dorchester and Charlestown, 203 00:11:18,670 --> 00:11:20,340 they could break the rebel siege. 204 00:11:22,810 --> 00:11:24,810 Rick Atkinson: There are two pieces of high ground 205 00:11:24,810 --> 00:11:26,750 that the British have to worry about. 206 00:11:26,950 --> 00:11:28,980 One is Dorchester Heights. 207 00:11:28,980 --> 00:11:30,720 And the other is the high ground 208 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:33,820 on the Charlestown Peninsula, 209 00:11:33,820 --> 00:11:37,190 including Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill. 210 00:11:37,390 --> 00:11:40,400 If you put cannon on either the Charlestown Peninsula 211 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:42,400 or on Dorchester Heights, 212 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:44,300 you would be able to bombard 213 00:11:44,300 --> 00:11:46,440 British forces in Boston. 214 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:48,740 The British decide that they are going to 215 00:11:48,940 --> 00:11:51,170 seize Charlestown first. 216 00:11:53,140 --> 00:11:55,440 The Patriots got wind of the plan, 217 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:59,050 and Colonel William Prescott was ordered to seize and fortify 218 00:11:59,250 --> 00:12:01,780 Bunker's Hill, the highest prominence 219 00:12:01,780 --> 00:12:04,290 on the Charlestown peninsula. 220 00:12:04,290 --> 00:12:06,960 As Prescott and his men got there, however, 221 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,090 it was somehow decided that they should instead 222 00:12:10,090 --> 00:12:13,360 build their fort on the crest of another, lower hill 223 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,060 that came to be called Breed's Hill. 224 00:12:17,070 --> 00:12:19,770 But it was within range of both the warships 225 00:12:19,770 --> 00:12:23,310 in the harbor and a British battery in Boston's North End. 226 00:12:25,170 --> 00:12:28,310 Prescott's men went to work with picks and shovels 227 00:12:28,510 --> 00:12:31,050 trying to make as little noise as possible 228 00:12:31,250 --> 00:12:34,420 so as not to alert the British. 229 00:12:34,420 --> 00:12:39,120 But when dawn broke on June 17th, 1775, 230 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:41,460 the redoubt was only half-finished. 231 00:12:44,530 --> 00:12:49,260 A 20-gun British Navy ship opened fire on the hilltop. 232 00:12:49,460 --> 00:12:54,440 A cannonball tore the head off a private named Asa Pollard. 233 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:56,810 To steady his men, Prescott leaped onto 234 00:12:57,010 --> 00:13:00,280 the unfinished parapet and bellowed at the warships, 235 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:02,110 "Hit me if you can!" 236 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:05,550 British General Howe was certain 237 00:13:05,550 --> 00:13:08,150 that the hill would "easily be carried." 238 00:13:08,350 --> 00:13:11,050 As soon as the mid-afternoon tide came in, 239 00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:14,050 Howe would personally accompany a large force 240 00:13:14,060 --> 00:13:16,560 to the eastern tip of the Charlestown Peninsula. 241 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:20,860 The British stepped up their cannonade, 242 00:13:20,860 --> 00:13:24,330 the roar so loud it rattled windows in Braintree, 243 00:13:24,330 --> 00:13:28,200 10 miles away, where Abigail Adams wondered 244 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:32,010 whether "the day--perhaps the decisive day--is come," 245 00:13:32,210 --> 00:13:35,810 she wrote, "on which the fate of America depends." 246 00:13:37,350 --> 00:13:40,120 Prescott rushed to strengthen his left flank, 247 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:42,550 ordering some of his men to dig a ditch 248 00:13:42,550 --> 00:13:46,350 and form a 165-foot breastwork 249 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:48,560 and assigning others to strengthen 250 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:52,530 a rail-and-stone fence that ran all the way down to the bluff 251 00:13:52,930 --> 00:13:54,930 overlooking the Mystic River beach. 252 00:13:57,200 --> 00:13:59,400 Looking up at the American positions, 253 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:02,140 General Howe believed the hill could be taken 254 00:14:02,140 --> 00:14:05,110 by what was called a "turning" movement. 255 00:14:05,310 --> 00:14:08,110 While one column assaulted the redoubt from the left 256 00:14:08,310 --> 00:14:10,440 and another, led by Howe himself, 257 00:14:10,450 --> 00:14:12,980 attacked the rail fence head-on, 258 00:14:13,180 --> 00:14:17,220 a third would slip along the undefended Mystic River beach, 259 00:14:17,220 --> 00:14:21,860 get behind the rebels, turn their line, and destroy them. 260 00:14:21,860 --> 00:14:23,560 Such attacks had worked well 261 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,360 against disciplined armies in Europe. 262 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,530 Stacy Schiff: No one expects that a bunch of 263 00:14:29,530 --> 00:14:32,600 country farmers with muskets are going to hold off 264 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:34,870 a trained army who have orders 265 00:14:34,870 --> 00:14:37,570 from an actual general in Boston. 266 00:14:37,970 --> 00:14:43,040 There is a real disbelief that a bunch of ragtag colonists 267 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:44,880 are going to manage to hold their own 268 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:47,280 against trained soldiers. 269 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:51,520 When the column on the left neared Charlestown 270 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:53,620 and came under fire from Americans 271 00:14:54,020 --> 00:14:56,190 hidden in abandoned buildings, 272 00:14:56,390 --> 00:14:58,530 British ships set the town ablaze 273 00:14:58,930 --> 00:15:01,300 with incendiary shells. 274 00:15:01,500 --> 00:15:04,170 Then, at around half past 3, 275 00:15:04,370 --> 00:15:07,440 Howe's redcoats started up the right side of the hill. 276 00:15:09,070 --> 00:15:12,610 Tall, fearsome grenadiers formed the first rank; 277 00:15:12,610 --> 00:15:14,680 behind them came the Foot Infantry. 278 00:15:16,650 --> 00:15:20,150 But the men had to dismantle wooden fences and stone walls 279 00:15:20,150 --> 00:15:22,280 that blocked their climb. 280 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:26,690 Their uniforms were woolen. The sun was hot. 281 00:15:26,690 --> 00:15:29,260 And, like the anxious New Englanders waiting for them 282 00:15:29,260 --> 00:15:32,430 on the hilltop, some had never been in battle. 283 00:15:34,330 --> 00:15:36,630 The notion that the British Army 284 00:15:36,630 --> 00:15:41,440 is this battle-tested, experienced force, they're good. 285 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:43,540 There's no doubt about it. Their officers are good. 286 00:15:43,540 --> 00:15:46,570 They're very disciplined, for the most part. 287 00:15:46,980 --> 00:15:50,580 But they are as scared and as new to this 288 00:15:50,580 --> 00:15:52,150 as the Americans are. 289 00:15:54,650 --> 00:15:57,520 As Howe's force continued their ascent, 290 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:00,190 British light infantry on the far right 291 00:16:00,390 --> 00:16:04,090 started their flanking maneuver along the narrow beach, 292 00:16:04,090 --> 00:16:07,060 bent on getting behind the American defenses, 293 00:16:07,060 --> 00:16:10,200 sure they could get there unopposed. 294 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:13,100 But Colonel John Stark of New Hampshire 295 00:16:13,100 --> 00:16:16,340 and 60 of his militiamen were waiting for them. 296 00:16:16,340 --> 00:16:20,010 He had seen that the beach was open to a flanking attack 297 00:16:20,010 --> 00:16:23,510 and directed his men to build a barricade. 298 00:16:23,510 --> 00:16:25,750 When the British got within range, 299 00:16:25,750 --> 00:16:27,720 the Patriots opened fire. 300 00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:33,460 The light infantry disintegrated. 301 00:16:33,660 --> 00:16:35,690 The New Hampshire men kept firing 302 00:16:35,690 --> 00:16:37,430 until the stunned survivors 303 00:16:37,630 --> 00:16:40,360 began to retreat toward their boats. 304 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:44,430 Behind them lay nearly 100 dead and wounded, 305 00:16:44,430 --> 00:16:48,240 lying, Stark recalled, "as thick as sheep in a fold." 306 00:16:49,770 --> 00:16:52,340 Meanwhile, at the top of Breed's Hill, 307 00:16:52,340 --> 00:16:55,410 Prescott and his officers reassured their men: 308 00:16:55,410 --> 00:16:57,550 the redcoats could never reach them 309 00:16:57,750 --> 00:17:00,180 if they held their fire till they came close. 310 00:17:01,750 --> 00:17:06,290 90 yards out, a stone wall stopped the Grenadiers. 311 00:17:06,290 --> 00:17:07,620 As they laid down their arms 312 00:17:07,620 --> 00:17:10,060 and worked to tear apart the wall, 313 00:17:10,060 --> 00:17:11,790 the Patriots fired their muskets. 314 00:17:14,500 --> 00:17:18,100 British officers urged their men to keep advancing. 315 00:17:18,300 --> 00:17:20,670 Instead, the soldiers stayed where they were 316 00:17:20,670 --> 00:17:24,070 and tried to shoot back. 317 00:17:24,070 --> 00:17:28,310 The Americans had cover. The British had none. 318 00:17:28,310 --> 00:17:32,110 The redcoats broke and retreated down the slope. 319 00:17:32,110 --> 00:17:34,420 General Howe let his lines regroup, 320 00:17:34,420 --> 00:17:36,620 then ordered them back up the hill, 321 00:17:36,620 --> 00:17:39,050 in hopes of driving through the gap between 322 00:17:39,050 --> 00:17:41,620 the breastwork and the rail fence. 323 00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:43,690 He would go with them. 324 00:17:44,090 --> 00:17:47,090 This time, the Patriots behind the fence 325 00:17:47,100 --> 00:17:50,300 waited till the Grenadiers got within 50 yards 326 00:17:50,500 --> 00:17:51,730 before opening fire. 327 00:17:54,070 --> 00:17:58,540 It was hard to miss. Scores of British soldiers fell, 328 00:17:58,740 --> 00:18:01,740 dead, dying, screaming in pain. 329 00:18:04,410 --> 00:18:06,350 They deliberately target 330 00:18:06,350 --> 00:18:09,180 the British officers and they can recognize them 331 00:18:09,380 --> 00:18:12,650 in part because they're all wearing red coats, right, 332 00:18:12,650 --> 00:18:14,620 but the officers are wearing coats that are almost 333 00:18:14,620 --> 00:18:17,290 vermillion in hue because they can afford 334 00:18:17,490 --> 00:18:20,230 the more expensive dyes that make those coats pop. 335 00:18:22,260 --> 00:18:25,100 The British, frankly, think this is unfair. 336 00:18:25,300 --> 00:18:26,600 Trying to target officers, 337 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,140 there's something unseemly about it. 338 00:18:29,340 --> 00:18:31,270 But the Americans are not going to stop 339 00:18:31,270 --> 00:18:32,440 throughout the whole war. 340 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:35,540 The Americans cheered, 341 00:18:35,740 --> 00:18:37,780 hoping General Howe had had enough. 342 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:43,450 Every one of his staff officers 343 00:18:43,450 --> 00:18:45,490 is killed or wounded. 344 00:18:45,490 --> 00:18:50,830 Howe will come back down the hill, unharmed, remarkably. 345 00:18:51,230 --> 00:18:55,160 But he's got blood all over his stockings 346 00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:57,500 from the men who've been shot on either side of him. 347 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:02,370 The teenage fifer John Greenwood 348 00:19:02,370 --> 00:19:04,570 had been away that day. 349 00:19:04,770 --> 00:19:06,240 When he heard the guns, 350 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:08,810 he hurried back to rejoin his regiment. 351 00:19:11,380 --> 00:19:12,610 Everything seemed to be 352 00:19:12,810 --> 00:19:15,720 in the greatest terror and confusion. 353 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,790 I felt very much frightened and would have given the world 354 00:19:18,790 --> 00:19:21,720 if I had not enlisted for a soldier. 355 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,530 Then, I saw a Negro man, 356 00:19:24,530 --> 00:19:26,830 wounded in the back of his neck. 357 00:19:27,230 --> 00:19:29,200 I saw the wound very plain 358 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,370 and the blood running down his back. 359 00:19:32,370 --> 00:19:34,770 I asked him if it hurt him much 360 00:19:34,770 --> 00:19:36,940 as he did not seem to mind it. 361 00:19:37,340 --> 00:19:39,270 He said no, and that he was only a-going to get 362 00:19:39,470 --> 00:19:41,680 a plaster put on it and meant to return. 363 00:19:43,410 --> 00:19:47,280 Immediately, you cannot conceive what encouragement it gave me. 364 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:51,750 I began to feel from that moment brave and like a soldier. 365 00:19:51,750 --> 00:19:53,290 John Greenwood. 366 00:19:56,360 --> 00:19:58,760 From the Boston waterfront, townspeople, 367 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,600 including John Greenwood's brother Isaac, 368 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:03,670 watched as British soldiers 369 00:20:03,870 --> 00:20:06,930 rowed wounded regulars from Charlestown. 370 00:20:06,940 --> 00:20:08,670 They were "obliged," he said, 371 00:20:08,870 --> 00:20:11,910 "to bail the blood out like water." 372 00:20:11,910 --> 00:20:14,470 And when they started back toward Charlestown again 373 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,310 with fresh troops, 374 00:20:16,310 --> 00:20:18,480 "the soldiers," Isaac remembered, 375 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:22,420 "looked as pale as death when they got into the boats, 376 00:20:22,420 --> 00:20:24,890 "for they could plainly see their brother redcoats 377 00:20:25,290 --> 00:20:27,360 mowed down like grass." 378 00:20:29,790 --> 00:20:32,660 At the bottom of Breed's Hill, General Howe was determined 379 00:20:32,860 --> 00:20:34,960 to come at the Americans one more time. 380 00:20:36,900 --> 00:20:40,300 Up above, Colonel Prescott knew his men had 381 00:20:40,300 --> 00:20:43,370 little powder left and that many of their muskets 382 00:20:43,570 --> 00:20:46,640 were fouled from so much firing. 383 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,640 This time, in order to make each shot count, 384 00:20:50,650 --> 00:20:52,580 he insisted his men wait until 385 00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:55,850 their targets were within 30 yards. 386 00:20:58,550 --> 00:21:01,490 "As fast as the front man was shot down, 387 00:21:01,490 --> 00:21:03,760 the next stepped forward into his place," 388 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,030 one militiaman recalled. 389 00:21:06,430 --> 00:21:08,530 "It was surprising how they would step over 390 00:21:08,530 --> 00:21:11,500 their dead as though they had been logs of wood." 391 00:21:13,940 --> 00:21:16,600 "We fired till our ammunition began to fail," 392 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:19,270 another militiaman remembered, 393 00:21:19,470 --> 00:21:22,640 "then our firing began to slacken-- 394 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:26,610 and at last it went out like an old candle." 395 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,020 British marines with bayonets 396 00:21:30,420 --> 00:21:32,990 began climbing over the parapets. 397 00:21:33,390 --> 00:21:34,920 Some Americans hurled rocks 398 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,460 or swung their muskets like clubs. 399 00:21:38,660 --> 00:21:41,760 Others clawed their way out of the redoubt and ran. 400 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,570 It was all over in a matter of minutes. 401 00:21:47,570 --> 00:21:51,410 The Patriots had been driven from Breed's Hill. 402 00:21:51,410 --> 00:21:57,440 115 Americans had been killed and another 305 wounded. 403 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,620 The British succeed in that they drive 404 00:22:04,620 --> 00:22:07,660 the Americans off of the Charlestown Peninsula. 405 00:22:07,860 --> 00:22:11,430 They take Breed's Hill. They take Bunker Hill. 406 00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:15,700 But it has been a, a pyrrhic victory of the first order. 407 00:22:15,700 --> 00:22:18,970 It's 4 of the most awful hours of combat 408 00:22:18,970 --> 00:22:21,500 in American military history. 409 00:22:21,700 --> 00:22:25,740 There are 1,000 British casualties that day. 410 00:22:25,940 --> 00:22:30,450 There are 220-some British dead. 411 00:22:32,710 --> 00:22:34,680 Stephen Conway: 40% of the attacking force 412 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:36,380 was killed or injured. 413 00:22:36,580 --> 00:22:38,520 40%. 414 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,760 That's horrendously high casualty rate. 415 00:22:42,090 --> 00:22:45,660 It is the highest casualty rate for the British Army 416 00:22:45,860 --> 00:22:49,530 until the first day of the Somme in 1916. 417 00:22:49,530 --> 00:22:51,800 It is unbelievably bloody. 418 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,740 And that has a really profound impact. 419 00:22:55,740 --> 00:22:57,570 "The loss we have sustained," 420 00:22:57,570 --> 00:23:00,910 General Gage admitted, "is greater than we can bear." 421 00:23:02,710 --> 00:23:04,380 During the final struggle, 422 00:23:04,380 --> 00:23:06,010 two prominent men had been killed. 423 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,720 As Major John Pitcairn encouraged his British Marines 424 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:13,590 to climb over the walls, 425 00:23:13,590 --> 00:23:15,390 he'd been shot through the chest 426 00:23:15,390 --> 00:23:18,930 and fell, dying, into the arms of his son. 427 00:23:19,130 --> 00:23:21,500 He was so hated by New Englanders 428 00:23:21,500 --> 00:23:24,870 because he had led the British troops at Lexington Green 429 00:23:24,870 --> 00:23:28,470 that at least 4 different men would subsequently claim 430 00:23:28,470 --> 00:23:29,900 to have fired the fatal shot. 431 00:23:32,140 --> 00:23:34,510 Dr. Joseph Warren, the president 432 00:23:34,710 --> 00:23:37,110 of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 433 00:23:37,110 --> 00:23:39,780 whom the British considered the most "incendiary" 434 00:23:39,780 --> 00:23:41,620 of all the rebel leaders, 435 00:23:41,820 --> 00:23:45,490 had insisted on joining the men defending Breed's Hill 436 00:23:45,490 --> 00:23:47,620 and was shot in the head. 437 00:23:47,820 --> 00:23:50,860 The British officer in charge of the burial detail 438 00:23:50,860 --> 00:23:53,690 boasted that they had "stuffed the scoundrel 439 00:23:53,900 --> 00:23:56,600 "with another Rebel into one hole 440 00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:00,100 and there he and his seditious principles may remain." 441 00:24:02,540 --> 00:24:04,840 Saturday gave us a dreadful specimen 442 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:06,710 of the horrors of civil war. 443 00:24:08,180 --> 00:24:11,010 You may easily judge what distress we were in 444 00:24:11,010 --> 00:24:15,020 to see and hear Englishmen destroying one another. 445 00:24:15,020 --> 00:24:17,920 God grant the blood already spilt may suffice. 446 00:24:19,490 --> 00:24:21,820 But this we cannot reasonably expect. 447 00:24:23,620 --> 00:24:24,960 Reverend Andrew Eliot. 448 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,560 When the news of the battle--remembered as 449 00:24:30,570 --> 00:24:32,230 the Battle of Bunker Hill-- 450 00:24:32,630 --> 00:24:36,500 eventually made its way to London, the King proclaimed 451 00:24:36,500 --> 00:24:38,940 "The deluded People" of America were in a state 452 00:24:39,140 --> 00:24:42,140 of "open and avowed rebellion." 453 00:24:42,140 --> 00:24:46,910 Anyone who now aided their cause was a traitor. 454 00:24:47,110 --> 00:24:50,650 General Gage had been right-- the rebellion would never be 455 00:24:50,850 --> 00:24:53,890 crushed without overwhelming force. 456 00:24:54,090 --> 00:24:58,960 But Gage was soon called home, replaced as commander-in-chief 457 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,560 by General William Howe. 458 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,570 For almost 3 years, Howe would lead the struggle 459 00:25:04,770 --> 00:25:06,900 to try to put down the rebellion-- 460 00:25:07,100 --> 00:25:11,240 and carefully avoid ordering any more frontal assaults 461 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,210 against entrenched Americans. 462 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:18,110 Britain, at the expense of 463 00:25:18,110 --> 00:25:22,250 3 millions, has killed 150 Americans this campaign, 464 00:25:22,250 --> 00:25:25,520 which is 20,000 pounds a head. 465 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,960 And at Bunker's Hill, she gained a mile of ground. 466 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,590 During the same time, 60,000 children 467 00:25:32,590 --> 00:25:34,790 have been born in America. 468 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,230 From these data, calculate the time and expense 469 00:25:37,230 --> 00:25:39,830 necessary to kill us all, 470 00:25:40,030 --> 00:25:41,970 and conquer our whole territory. 471 00:25:43,540 --> 00:25:44,770 Benjamin Franklin. 472 00:25:54,650 --> 00:25:56,780 Unhappy it is to reflect 473 00:25:56,780 --> 00:25:58,890 that a brother's sword has been sheathed 474 00:25:58,890 --> 00:26:00,920 in a brother's breast, 475 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,660 and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America 476 00:26:04,860 --> 00:26:10,030 are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. 477 00:26:10,230 --> 00:26:12,230 Sad alternative! 478 00:26:12,630 --> 00:26:14,970 But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice? 479 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:17,910 George Washington. 480 00:26:20,810 --> 00:26:25,210 On July 2nd, 1775, Private Phineas Ingalls 481 00:26:25,210 --> 00:26:28,750 of Andover, Massachusetts, noted in his diary 482 00:26:28,750 --> 00:26:30,720 that it "rained" and that 483 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:32,690 "a new general from Philadelphia" 484 00:26:32,890 --> 00:26:34,360 had arrived in Cambridge. 485 00:26:36,790 --> 00:26:40,690 That new general was George Washington of Virginia, 486 00:26:40,700 --> 00:26:42,660 the commander of the Continental Army 487 00:26:42,860 --> 00:26:46,600 the Congress in Philadelphia had just created. 488 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,740 His arrival meant that the New England war in which 489 00:26:49,940 --> 00:26:53,240 Phineas Ingalls and his fellow militiamen had joined 490 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,180 was about to become an American war. 491 00:26:57,780 --> 00:27:01,150 Jane Kamensky: Washington is a figure toward whom 492 00:27:01,150 --> 00:27:03,950 people naturally turn for leadership. 493 00:27:04,150 --> 00:27:06,990 It is clear, by the time the Continental Army 494 00:27:07,190 --> 00:27:11,990 is signed into being in the late spring of 1775, 495 00:27:12,190 --> 00:27:15,630 that its commander-in-chief can be nobody else. 496 00:27:15,630 --> 00:27:17,260 There's something about his presence 497 00:27:17,260 --> 00:27:19,970 that makes him the inescapable choice. 498 00:27:21,940 --> 00:27:23,840 The Second Continental Congress 499 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,170 had been meeting since May, 500 00:27:26,370 --> 00:27:28,310 and it was obvious from the first 501 00:27:28,310 --> 00:27:30,910 that 43-year-old George Washington 502 00:27:30,910 --> 00:27:33,350 would command its new army. 503 00:27:33,350 --> 00:27:36,850 He had led troops during the French and Indian War, 504 00:27:36,850 --> 00:27:38,790 and he was from Virginia, 505 00:27:38,790 --> 00:27:42,320 the wealthiest and most populated colony. 506 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,790 New England delegates, eager to ensure 507 00:27:44,990 --> 00:27:47,160 that colony's support for the war, 508 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:48,930 favored naming a Virginian. 509 00:27:50,730 --> 00:27:54,430 Washington was also one of America's richest men, 510 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:58,670 the beneficiary of the work of scores of indentured servants 511 00:27:58,670 --> 00:28:02,240 and more than 100 enslaved people at his plantation 512 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:04,880 on the Potomac River-- Mount Vernon. 513 00:28:06,380 --> 00:28:10,220 They grew tobacco and wheat, corn and flax and hemp, 514 00:28:10,420 --> 00:28:12,950 milled flour, distilled whiskey, 515 00:28:12,950 --> 00:28:15,820 caught, salted, and sold fish. 516 00:28:16,020 --> 00:28:18,060 And to the West, he had amassed 517 00:28:18,260 --> 00:28:23,260 tens of thousands of acres of Indian lands. 518 00:28:23,260 --> 00:28:25,430 Washington has this vision of the future 519 00:28:25,430 --> 00:28:31,270 in which... America's future is not to the East, 520 00:28:31,270 --> 00:28:32,740 not towards Europe. 521 00:28:32,940 --> 00:28:34,940 It's to the West. 522 00:28:35,140 --> 00:28:38,480 He does see the future and the next century 523 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,310 as something in which we should focus on 524 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,090 the consolidation of the continent. 525 00:28:45,090 --> 00:28:47,190 What defines his early career 526 00:28:47,190 --> 00:28:52,130 is an amazing focus, a ruthless and intense focus, 527 00:28:52,130 --> 00:28:54,130 on his own interests, which makes him exactly like 528 00:28:54,330 --> 00:28:55,900 every other member of his class. 529 00:28:56,100 --> 00:28:58,870 It's just that he became George Washington. 530 00:28:59,070 --> 00:29:01,000 Washington considered outward evidence 531 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,370 of ambition unseemly, 532 00:29:03,770 --> 00:29:08,010 but his appearance alone made him stand out in Philadelphia. 533 00:29:08,010 --> 00:29:10,850 He was about 6'3" when the average height 534 00:29:11,050 --> 00:29:15,150 of the men he would lead into battle was around 5'7", 535 00:29:15,350 --> 00:29:17,080 and he alone among the delegates 536 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,220 appeared each day dressed as a soldier. 537 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,460 Washington will remain, I think, endlessly fascinating. 538 00:29:23,860 --> 00:29:25,290 Partly because he was so mysterious, 539 00:29:25,290 --> 00:29:27,390 so reserved in his manner, frequently, 540 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,300 and didn't give up a lot of what was going on in his gut. 541 00:29:33,870 --> 00:29:36,000 He was naturally a person 542 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,770 who created space around himself, 543 00:29:39,970 --> 00:29:44,440 and pity anybody that enters that space that's not invited. 544 00:29:44,450 --> 00:29:46,410 Martha gets into that space. 545 00:29:48,980 --> 00:29:51,020 Lafayette gets into that space. 546 00:29:51,220 --> 00:29:55,020 Maybe Hamilton gets into that space. 547 00:29:55,020 --> 00:29:56,860 He has so much martial dignity 548 00:29:57,060 --> 00:29:59,430 in his deportment that you would distinguish him 549 00:29:59,830 --> 00:30:04,000 to be a general and a soldier from among 10,000 people. 550 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,030 There is not a king in Europe that would not look like 551 00:30:06,230 --> 00:30:09,140 a "valet de chambre" by his side. 552 00:30:09,340 --> 00:30:11,270 Benjamin Rush. 553 00:30:11,270 --> 00:30:14,540 He's got a brain built for executive action. 554 00:30:14,940 --> 00:30:17,010 He's willing to take responsibility. 555 00:30:17,210 --> 00:30:19,910 He's got an adhesive memory. 556 00:30:20,110 --> 00:30:21,980 He is, according to Thomas Jefferson, 557 00:30:21,980 --> 00:30:24,420 the greatest horseman of his age. 558 00:30:24,420 --> 00:30:27,890 He's built to lead other men in the dark of night, 559 00:30:28,090 --> 00:30:32,360 which is a rare and valuable trait in any commander. 560 00:30:34,030 --> 00:30:35,500 I am now embarked 561 00:30:35,900 --> 00:30:39,030 on a tempestuous ocean, from whence, perhaps, 562 00:30:39,230 --> 00:30:41,140 no friendly harbor is to be found. 563 00:30:42,570 --> 00:30:45,240 Washington accepted that he and his army 564 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,240 would be subordinate to the civilian control of Congress, 565 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,150 but he did not yet see himself as a revolutionary. 566 00:30:54,050 --> 00:30:58,250 He still hoped to lead what he called "a loyal protest," 567 00:30:58,250 --> 00:31:02,090 as if George III might somehow overrule Parliament 568 00:31:02,090 --> 00:31:05,930 and restore the rights of British colonists. 569 00:31:06,130 --> 00:31:09,430 On his way to Cambridge, he met a dispatch rider 570 00:31:09,430 --> 00:31:13,100 who carried a letter that told of the terrible bloodletting 571 00:31:13,100 --> 00:31:15,300 that had taken place on Breed's Hill. 572 00:31:17,940 --> 00:31:19,640 He shows up in Cambridge 573 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,540 in early July, 1775, 574 00:31:22,940 --> 00:31:24,950 as a Virginian commanding, 575 00:31:25,150 --> 00:31:28,320 almost exclusively, New England militiamen. 576 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:30,050 He doesn't know what to make of them; 577 00:31:30,250 --> 00:31:32,190 they don't know quite what to make of him. 578 00:31:32,390 --> 00:31:36,460 He has nothing good to say about New Englanders, privately. 579 00:31:36,660 --> 00:31:39,130 They're almost from different countries. 580 00:31:39,130 --> 00:31:42,400 But his job is to take this gaggle, 581 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,970 this cluster of militia forces, 582 00:31:45,170 --> 00:31:47,430 and to form them into a national army. 583 00:31:50,970 --> 00:31:52,570 Washington thought he'd be commanding 584 00:31:52,970 --> 00:31:55,280 a 20,000-man force; 585 00:31:55,480 --> 00:32:00,450 in fact, he had fewer than 14,000 men fit for service. 586 00:32:00,650 --> 00:32:05,150 He was assured he would have 15 tons of precious gunpowder; 587 00:32:05,350 --> 00:32:08,550 there were just 5. 588 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:12,660 On August 6th, a company of 96 riflemen from Virginia 589 00:32:13,060 --> 00:32:16,630 arrived, concrete evidence that Americans 590 00:32:16,630 --> 00:32:20,400 beyond New England would volunteer to fight. 591 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,070 They had marched nearly 500 miles in 3 weeks. 592 00:32:25,570 --> 00:32:28,340 Their leader was Captain Daniel Morgan, 593 00:32:28,340 --> 00:32:32,610 a big, brawling one-time wagoner whose back bore the scars 594 00:32:33,010 --> 00:32:36,550 of a lashing he'd received during the French and Indian War 595 00:32:36,550 --> 00:32:38,480 after he'd knocked unconscious 596 00:32:38,490 --> 00:32:41,020 a British officer who had insulted him. 597 00:32:42,660 --> 00:32:46,660 More riflemen soon followed, from Pennsylvania and Maryland 598 00:32:46,660 --> 00:32:49,200 as well as more Virginians. 599 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,170 Their rifles were far more accurate than the smooth-bore 600 00:32:52,370 --> 00:32:55,340 muskets most Patriots used; 601 00:32:55,540 --> 00:32:58,070 their grooved barrels spun a ball, 602 00:32:58,070 --> 00:33:00,440 making it fly straighter and truer. 603 00:33:02,140 --> 00:33:05,110 A British soldier would call them "the most fatal 604 00:33:05,110 --> 00:33:07,610 widow-and-orphan makers in the world." 605 00:33:09,220 --> 00:33:12,220 But the riflemen were also frontiersmen. 606 00:33:12,420 --> 00:33:14,660 They sounded different from New Englanders, 607 00:33:15,060 --> 00:33:19,030 dressed differently, disliked discipline of any kind. 608 00:33:21,660 --> 00:33:24,600 So what's going to come out of this Revolution 609 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,540 is attempts to create an American national identity. 610 00:33:30,540 --> 00:33:32,540 And somebody like George Washington becomes 611 00:33:32,740 --> 00:33:35,580 quite eloquent in trying to persuade people, 612 00:33:35,580 --> 00:33:38,080 "You're not Carolinians," "You're not New Yorkers," 613 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,250 "You're not New Englanders." "We're all Americans." 614 00:33:41,580 --> 00:33:43,650 Always at Washington's side, 615 00:33:44,050 --> 00:33:47,220 throughout the Revolution, was William Lee, 616 00:33:47,420 --> 00:33:49,020 the enslaved servant he had 617 00:33:49,220 --> 00:33:50,760 brought with him from Mount Vernon. 618 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,500 I think we have to understand Washington 619 00:33:56,500 --> 00:33:59,270 as both the figurehead without whom 620 00:33:59,470 --> 00:34:02,700 American liberty would not have survived. 621 00:34:02,700 --> 00:34:04,800 At the same time, he's an enslaver of 622 00:34:04,810 --> 00:34:08,340 317 men, women, and children. 623 00:34:08,340 --> 00:34:11,650 He acted as an enslaver in the ways that enslavers did. 624 00:34:12,050 --> 00:34:13,450 He bought and sold people. 625 00:34:13,650 --> 00:34:16,720 He broke up families. 626 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,090 Do not look for gilded statues of marble men. 627 00:34:21,290 --> 00:34:23,390 They were not that and neither are we 628 00:34:23,390 --> 00:34:25,430 and neither is anybody at all. 629 00:34:28,460 --> 00:34:30,130 Washington was impatient, 630 00:34:30,330 --> 00:34:31,700 eager to get at the enemy. 631 00:34:33,230 --> 00:34:35,170 In September, he proposed mounting 632 00:34:35,170 --> 00:34:38,070 a water-borne attack on Boston. 633 00:34:38,070 --> 00:34:41,440 His officers talked him out of it. 634 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,610 Washington has got a lot to learn. 635 00:34:43,810 --> 00:34:46,210 Because he's been out of uniform for 16 years, 636 00:34:46,410 --> 00:34:48,710 there's a lot he does not know. 637 00:34:48,720 --> 00:34:50,720 He knows very little about artillery. 638 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:53,750 He knows very little about fortification. 639 00:34:53,750 --> 00:34:56,590 He knows nothing about continental logistics. 640 00:34:56,790 --> 00:34:59,390 So, he brings a stack of books with him. 641 00:35:00,830 --> 00:35:02,200 Nathaniel Philbrick: Typically, Washington, 642 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:04,530 before he would make a big decision, 643 00:35:04,530 --> 00:35:08,300 would canvass his major generals as to what to do. 644 00:35:08,300 --> 00:35:11,200 And inevitably, he would do 645 00:35:11,210 --> 00:35:14,510 whatever Nathanael Greene suggested. 646 00:35:14,710 --> 00:35:17,540 General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, 647 00:35:17,540 --> 00:35:21,350 a Quaker who came to see pacifism as impractical 648 00:35:21,550 --> 00:35:25,520 in the face of what he called "this business of necessity," 649 00:35:25,720 --> 00:35:29,220 hoped the British might make a move so that the Americans, 650 00:35:29,220 --> 00:35:31,860 he said, could "sell them another hill 651 00:35:31,860 --> 00:35:35,430 at the same price" as they had paid taking Breed's Hill. 652 00:35:37,870 --> 00:35:39,830 But the British didn't dare mount an attack 653 00:35:40,230 --> 00:35:42,600 on Washington's forces, either. 654 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:46,310 The memory of the last battle was too fresh. 655 00:35:46,310 --> 00:35:49,180 The standoff would continue for another 6 months. 656 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:55,520 In Boston, soldiers and civilians alike suffered. 657 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,780 There was too little firewood: 658 00:35:58,190 --> 00:36:00,750 regulars ripped pews from churches 659 00:36:01,150 --> 00:36:03,660 and demolished whole houses trying to keep warm. 660 00:36:05,690 --> 00:36:08,300 Of 40 transport vessels dispatched from 661 00:36:08,500 --> 00:36:11,470 England and Ireland to provision the town, 662 00:36:11,670 --> 00:36:16,370 32 never made it--blown off-course by unfavorable winds 663 00:36:16,370 --> 00:36:18,270 all the way to the West Indies 664 00:36:18,470 --> 00:36:20,410 or seized by Patriots. 665 00:36:21,810 --> 00:36:23,440 What, in God's name, 666 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:25,810 are ye all about in England? 667 00:36:25,810 --> 00:36:27,180 Have you forgot us? 668 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,650 For we have not had a vessel for 3 months 669 00:36:30,650 --> 00:36:32,920 with any sort of supplies. 670 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:37,190 And, therefore, our miseries are become manifold. 671 00:36:37,190 --> 00:36:38,620 British Officer. 672 00:36:44,330 --> 00:36:48,230 In 1770, I built a house, dam, 673 00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:52,240 saw, and grist mills on the west side of the Connecticut River. 674 00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,680 Here I was in easy circumstances, 675 00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,280 and as independent as my mind ever wished. 676 00:36:58,280 --> 00:36:59,310 John Peters. 677 00:37:00,650 --> 00:37:04,220 Before the war, Yale-educated John Peters 678 00:37:04,420 --> 00:37:07,450 had been the most respected man in the small settlement 679 00:37:07,450 --> 00:37:10,390 of Moretown in Vermont, where he lived 680 00:37:10,390 --> 00:37:13,390 with his wife Ann and their children. 681 00:37:13,590 --> 00:37:17,530 In 1774, his neighbors had picked him to represent them 682 00:37:17,730 --> 00:37:19,430 in the First Continental Congress. 683 00:37:21,230 --> 00:37:23,500 But when Peters got to Philadelphia 684 00:37:23,500 --> 00:37:25,540 and sensed the other delegates 685 00:37:25,540 --> 00:37:28,380 "meant to have a serious rebellion," 686 00:37:28,580 --> 00:37:31,410 he refused to take part and left for home. 687 00:37:33,610 --> 00:37:37,680 On the way back, suspicious Patriots detained him 4 times-- 688 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,850 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Springfield, 689 00:37:41,860 --> 00:37:44,560 and finally in Moretown itself, 690 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:46,690 where "another mob threatened to execute him," 691 00:37:46,890 --> 00:37:49,660 he remembered, "as an enemy to Congress." 692 00:37:51,470 --> 00:37:55,270 His own father, a colonel in Connecticut's rebel militia, 693 00:37:55,470 --> 00:37:59,810 urged his fellow Patriots to use "severity" on his son 694 00:38:00,010 --> 00:38:02,510 to make him "a friend to America." 695 00:38:04,540 --> 00:38:07,380 The mob again and again visited me. 696 00:38:07,380 --> 00:38:09,980 They confined me to the limits of the town 697 00:38:09,980 --> 00:38:11,650 and threatened me with death 698 00:38:11,850 --> 00:38:14,650 if I transgressed their orders. 699 00:38:14,660 --> 00:38:17,960 Even then, Peters refused to betray 700 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:20,530 his "King and Conscience." 701 00:38:20,530 --> 00:38:23,030 Instead, he put his head down 702 00:38:23,030 --> 00:38:25,030 and hoped to stay out of the fight. 703 00:38:27,330 --> 00:38:28,600 I little thought the troubles would be 704 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:30,670 so great, or if they did, 705 00:38:30,870 --> 00:38:32,940 would last so long. 706 00:38:33,340 --> 00:38:37,440 I endeavored to be quiet, but it would not do. 707 00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,950 The madness of the people was daily growing. 708 00:38:48,090 --> 00:38:51,960 Lake Champlain is this 90-mile-long teardrop 709 00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:54,390 that extends from the Canadian border 710 00:38:54,390 --> 00:38:57,700 down almost to the Hudson River. 711 00:38:57,900 --> 00:39:00,430 If you controlled Lake Champlain, you controlled 712 00:39:00,630 --> 00:39:06,510 the most obvious entry point into New York from the north, 713 00:39:06,710 --> 00:39:09,680 and into Canada from the south. 714 00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:11,880 Everything else is wilderness. 715 00:39:14,720 --> 00:39:17,520 The Americans saw an opportunity. 716 00:39:17,720 --> 00:39:21,520 If they could take Montreal, if they could take Quebec, 717 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:24,360 and have command of the St. Lawrence, 718 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:26,730 they would have the British right where they wanted them. 719 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:31,100 In the late summer of 1775, 720 00:39:31,500 --> 00:39:34,700 some 1,200 New York and New England troops 721 00:39:34,700 --> 00:39:36,670 assembled on the Ile aux Noix, 722 00:39:36,870 --> 00:39:40,370 just inside the Province of Quebec. 723 00:39:40,570 --> 00:39:43,580 Their commander Richard Montgomery had orders 724 00:39:43,580 --> 00:39:46,880 from the Continental Congress to "take immediate possession" 725 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,380 of the British garrison at Montreal 726 00:39:49,580 --> 00:39:52,920 and then keep moving north. 727 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:55,620 The ultimate goal was to eliminate the province 728 00:39:55,820 --> 00:39:59,090 as a military threat and perhaps adopt it 729 00:39:59,490 --> 00:40:02,600 as the 14th American Colony. 730 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:05,100 They did not expect much opposition: 731 00:40:05,100 --> 00:40:09,640 there were just 700 British regulars in the whole province. 732 00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:13,770 Now George Washington called for a complementary expedition 733 00:40:13,770 --> 00:40:17,110 through the forests of the Maine province of Massachusetts 734 00:40:17,510 --> 00:40:19,880 to surprise and capture Quebec City 735 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:22,620 on the St. Lawrence River. 736 00:40:22,620 --> 00:40:25,850 To lead it, Washington chose Benedict Arnold. 737 00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:29,860 Benedict Arnold is the finest 738 00:40:30,060 --> 00:40:32,060 tactical commander on either side 739 00:40:32,460 --> 00:40:34,860 in the first couple of years of the war. 740 00:40:34,860 --> 00:40:40,570 He's conspicuously gifted in being able to motivate men, 741 00:40:40,570 --> 00:40:43,040 tactically, under difficult circumstances, 742 00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:44,770 to do what he wants them to do. 743 00:40:46,970 --> 00:40:48,880 Arnold had emerged from the capture of 744 00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:52,050 Fort Ticonderoga with a mixed reputation: 745 00:40:52,450 --> 00:40:54,820 he had quarreled with rival officers 746 00:40:55,020 --> 00:40:58,850 and become so incensed at having his expenses questioned 747 00:40:59,050 --> 00:41:03,120 that he simply left the militia and went home. 748 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,560 But after his wife died, he left his 3 sons 749 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:11,200 with his sister and joined Washington's Continental Army. 750 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,130 "An idle life under my present circumstances," 751 00:41:14,530 --> 00:41:17,570 he told a friend, "would be but a lingering death." 752 00:41:19,070 --> 00:41:21,940 Quebec, Washington believed, was certain to be 753 00:41:22,140 --> 00:41:24,140 "very easy prey." 754 00:41:24,140 --> 00:41:28,610 But "not a moment's time is to be lost," he added. 755 00:41:28,620 --> 00:41:30,980 The Americans were not hostile 756 00:41:31,180 --> 00:41:32,890 to the concept of empire. 757 00:41:33,050 --> 00:41:36,520 On the contrary, they were great enthusiasts for it. 758 00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:40,060 They called it the "Continental Army" 759 00:41:40,060 --> 00:41:43,500 and the "Continental Congress" for a good reason. 760 00:41:43,700 --> 00:41:47,700 They had ambitions to incorporate Canada, Florida, 761 00:41:47,900 --> 00:41:49,900 and the whole of the continent of North America. 762 00:41:52,270 --> 00:41:55,110 On September 25th, from a boatyard 763 00:41:55,110 --> 00:41:57,740 on the Kennebec River in Maine, 764 00:41:57,940 --> 00:42:01,050 Benedict Arnold and his 1,100-man force 765 00:42:01,250 --> 00:42:02,650 set out for Canada. 766 00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:06,790 Failure to punish the people 767 00:42:06,790 --> 00:42:08,590 of the 4 New England governments 768 00:42:08,790 --> 00:42:11,790 for their many rebellious and piratical acts, 769 00:42:11,790 --> 00:42:15,090 only encouraged them to go to greater lengths. 770 00:42:15,100 --> 00:42:18,830 I determined to destroy some of their towns and shipping. 771 00:42:18,830 --> 00:42:20,830 Vice Admiral Samuel Graves. 772 00:42:22,270 --> 00:42:25,710 In October, Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, 773 00:42:25,910 --> 00:42:27,810 commander-in-chief of His Majesty's 774 00:42:28,010 --> 00:42:30,280 North American Station, 775 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,150 announced he planned to lay waste to the ports 776 00:42:33,550 --> 00:42:37,680 of Marblehead, Salem, Cape Ann, Ipswich, 777 00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:43,890 Newburyport, Portsmouth, Saco, Falmouth, Machias. 778 00:42:44,090 --> 00:42:46,930 All of them were bases from which privateers-- 779 00:42:46,930 --> 00:42:50,930 Patriot raiders--menaced British shipping. 780 00:42:51,130 --> 00:42:54,700 Graves dispatched Lieutenant Henry Mowat and 4 warships 781 00:42:54,900 --> 00:42:57,200 to carry out his orders. 782 00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:01,240 Mowat began with Falmouth-- now Portland, Maine. 783 00:43:02,980 --> 00:43:05,980 Mowat gave the nearly 2,000 townspeople 784 00:43:06,180 --> 00:43:10,920 two hours, he said, to "remove without delay the Human Species" 785 00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:13,650 before the bombardment began, 786 00:43:13,850 --> 00:43:17,620 then agreed to reconsider provided the townspeople 787 00:43:17,820 --> 00:43:20,690 turned over all their arms and gunpowder 788 00:43:20,690 --> 00:43:23,230 by the following morning. 789 00:43:23,230 --> 00:43:26,130 When they didn't, British ships opened fire. 790 00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:33,210 The cannonade went on for more than 7 hours, 791 00:43:33,210 --> 00:43:36,710 firing more than 3,000 rounds of shot 792 00:43:36,910 --> 00:43:40,750 and hollow balls filled with combustible material. 793 00:43:40,750 --> 00:43:45,180 In mid-afternoon, landing parties rowed ashore. 794 00:43:45,190 --> 00:43:47,720 They hurled torches into the doors and windows 795 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,250 of homes and shops. 796 00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:54,630 News of Falmouth's destruction spread fast. 797 00:43:54,830 --> 00:43:58,200 Ports up and down the coast braced for the next attack. 798 00:44:01,300 --> 00:44:04,140 Washington and Congress had both already begun 799 00:44:04,340 --> 00:44:09,040 arming ships to seize enemy cargoes to supply the army. 800 00:44:09,240 --> 00:44:12,850 Now Congress voted to commission 13 frigates 801 00:44:12,850 --> 00:44:14,910 for a new Continental Navy. 802 00:44:17,380 --> 00:44:20,320 To have a navy in the late 18th century 803 00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:23,320 was to have a fleet of ships that were the most 804 00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:27,190 sophisticated machines in the world at that time. 805 00:44:27,190 --> 00:44:30,160 They were very expensive. And they required all sorts of 806 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:35,030 economic power and technology to create. 807 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:39,140 Great Britain had that. The colonies really didn't. 808 00:44:39,140 --> 00:44:42,210 And, so, to go against this huge naval power 809 00:44:42,210 --> 00:44:44,940 was kind of an insane task to even contemplate. 810 00:44:46,750 --> 00:44:49,310 The most successful Patriot commander 811 00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:53,720 was John Manley, a sea captain from Marblehead. 812 00:44:53,720 --> 00:44:55,990 He managed to seize 7 British vessels 813 00:44:56,190 --> 00:44:58,260 before the end of the year, 814 00:44:58,460 --> 00:45:02,030 including an ordnance ship, its hold filled 815 00:45:02,030 --> 00:45:05,860 with 100,000 flints, 2,000 muskets, 816 00:45:05,870 --> 00:45:08,330 and 30,000 cannonballs-- 817 00:45:08,330 --> 00:45:11,340 all of it badly needed by the Continental Army. 818 00:45:14,740 --> 00:45:17,810 British Admiral Graves ultimately decided against 819 00:45:18,010 --> 00:45:19,810 attacking any more ports. 820 00:45:21,050 --> 00:45:22,380 But the damage was done. 821 00:45:24,050 --> 00:45:26,490 The savage and brutal barbarity of our enemies 822 00:45:26,490 --> 00:45:28,220 is a full demonstration that there is not 823 00:45:28,420 --> 00:45:30,220 the least remains of virtue, 824 00:45:30,420 --> 00:45:33,230 wisdom, or humanity in the British. 825 00:45:35,100 --> 00:45:37,430 Therefore, we expect soon to break off 826 00:45:37,430 --> 00:45:40,230 all kind of connection with Britain, 827 00:45:40,230 --> 00:45:44,940 and form into a Grand Republic of the American United colonies. 828 00:45:44,940 --> 00:45:46,110 "The New England Chronicle." 829 00:45:50,110 --> 00:45:52,250 In every human breast, 830 00:45:52,450 --> 00:45:58,050 God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom. 831 00:45:58,250 --> 00:46:04,090 It is impatient of oppression, and pants for deliverance. 832 00:46:04,290 --> 00:46:10,500 I will assert, that the same principle lives in us. 833 00:46:10,900 --> 00:46:11,860 Phillis Wheatley. 834 00:46:14,900 --> 00:46:16,240 George Washington made his 835 00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,070 Cambridge headquarters in the handsome home 836 00:46:19,070 --> 00:46:22,210 of a Loyalist who had fled to England. 837 00:46:22,210 --> 00:46:25,110 One morning, not long after he had moved in, 838 00:46:25,310 --> 00:46:28,050 he noticed a 6-year-old African-American 839 00:46:28,250 --> 00:46:31,780 named Darby Vassall swinging on the gate. 840 00:46:31,780 --> 00:46:34,520 Vassall remembered saying he had been born in the house 841 00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:37,260 and his parents had worked there. 842 00:46:37,460 --> 00:46:39,290 Washington urged him to come inside 843 00:46:39,490 --> 00:46:41,030 and get something to eat; 844 00:46:41,230 --> 00:46:44,460 he had plenty of chores for him to do. 845 00:46:44,460 --> 00:46:48,430 When Darby asked what sort of wages he could expect, 846 00:46:48,430 --> 00:46:50,840 Washington thought the question impertinent 847 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:52,170 and "unreasonable." 848 00:46:54,070 --> 00:46:57,280 Darby Vassall lived to be a very old man 849 00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:01,580 and, when asked, he liked to say that in his experience, 850 00:47:01,580 --> 00:47:04,320 George Washington "was no gentleman," 851 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:07,820 since he'd expected a boy to work for free. 852 00:47:09,890 --> 00:47:13,130 Washington was also shocked to see Black soldiers 853 00:47:13,130 --> 00:47:16,330 encamped alongside their White neighbors. 854 00:47:16,530 --> 00:47:19,530 Unconvinced they could ever make good soldiers, 855 00:47:19,530 --> 00:47:23,000 Washington persuaded the Massachusetts Provincial Congress 856 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:25,470 to enlist no more of them, 857 00:47:25,470 --> 00:47:27,970 though dozens had fought on Breed's Hill. 858 00:47:30,540 --> 00:47:32,010 Christopher Brown: I think that Washington was concerned 859 00:47:32,210 --> 00:47:34,080 about what it might mean 860 00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:36,450 for slavery and slaveholding. 861 00:47:36,450 --> 00:47:39,020 I think he was alert to the ways 862 00:47:39,220 --> 00:47:42,590 that it could end up eroding the institution. 863 00:47:44,420 --> 00:47:47,060 Enslaved African-Americans constituted 864 00:47:47,260 --> 00:47:50,600 just 2% percent of the population of New England, 865 00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:55,130 but 40% of Virginians were held as slaves, 866 00:47:55,130 --> 00:47:58,200 and planters like Washington lived in constant fear 867 00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:00,410 that they would rise up against them-- 868 00:48:00,610 --> 00:48:02,880 as enslaved people had risen up 869 00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:05,110 on the British island of Jamaica 870 00:48:05,110 --> 00:48:08,010 3 times in the last 15 years. 871 00:48:09,980 --> 00:48:11,580 When you make men slaves 872 00:48:11,580 --> 00:48:14,420 you deprive them of half their virtue, 873 00:48:14,420 --> 00:48:19,260 and compel them to live with you in a state of war. 874 00:48:19,260 --> 00:48:23,160 Are there no dangers attending this mode of treatment? 875 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:26,570 Are you not hourly in dread of an insurrection? 876 00:48:28,070 --> 00:48:29,300 Olaudah Equiano. 877 00:48:31,300 --> 00:48:33,170 The growing talk of "liberty" 878 00:48:33,370 --> 00:48:35,680 had appealed to those who had the least of it 879 00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:38,540 and craved it most. 880 00:48:38,950 --> 00:48:42,250 From New England to South Carolina, enslaved people 881 00:48:42,250 --> 00:48:45,350 offered to help the British if they were granted freedom. 882 00:48:48,090 --> 00:48:52,290 In November of 1775, Virginia's Royal Governor 883 00:48:52,290 --> 00:48:55,130 Lord Dunmore, who had been forced to flee 884 00:48:55,330 --> 00:48:59,330 with some 300 soldiers, sailors, and Loyalists 885 00:48:59,330 --> 00:49:02,100 to ships anchored in the Chesapeake Bay, 886 00:49:02,300 --> 00:49:05,370 issued a Proclamation that seemed to confirm 887 00:49:05,370 --> 00:49:09,310 the slaveholders' worst nightmares. 888 00:49:09,310 --> 00:49:13,680 It promised freedom to any enslaved man owned by a rebel 889 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:15,550 who was willing to take up arms 890 00:49:15,950 --> 00:49:17,620 and help suppress the uprising. 891 00:49:19,690 --> 00:49:21,350 Britain is the biggest 892 00:49:21,350 --> 00:49:24,160 slave-trading nation on earth. 893 00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:27,390 Nevertheless, the British believe that if they can 894 00:49:27,390 --> 00:49:30,430 convince enough slaves to abandon their masters 895 00:49:30,630 --> 00:49:35,100 in the South, to take up arms against 896 00:49:35,300 --> 00:49:40,010 the American rebels, that this is a manpower pool 897 00:49:40,210 --> 00:49:42,540 that can also derange the economies 898 00:49:42,740 --> 00:49:44,610 of the Southern states. 899 00:49:45,010 --> 00:49:46,610 It's not that the British are anti-slavery, 900 00:49:46,610 --> 00:49:49,380 by any means, in the 1770s, right? 901 00:49:49,580 --> 00:49:52,020 Their colonies in the Caribbean 902 00:49:52,020 --> 00:49:54,750 are their most profitable colonies in the Americas. 903 00:49:54,750 --> 00:49:57,390 They are firmly committed to slavery. 904 00:49:57,590 --> 00:50:01,560 But, opportunistically, when they think that they can 905 00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:05,370 encourage slaves to rise up against rebelling colonists, 906 00:50:05,570 --> 00:50:07,570 they'll do so. 907 00:50:07,570 --> 00:50:09,430 Annette Gordon-Reed: For enslaved people, 908 00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:12,570 this was a way of getting out of a situation 909 00:50:12,570 --> 00:50:15,170 that seemed intractable. 910 00:50:15,380 --> 00:50:19,580 And it gave them an impetus to get involved in all of this. 911 00:50:19,580 --> 00:50:23,350 In the sort of chaos of war, they found an opportunity, 912 00:50:23,350 --> 00:50:25,350 a way to escape their situation. 913 00:50:27,220 --> 00:50:29,120 "The Virginia Gazette." 914 00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,360 Be not then, ye Negroes, 915 00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:36,430 tempted by this proclamation to ruin yourselves. 916 00:50:36,630 --> 00:50:41,030 Whether you will profit by my advice, I cannot tell. 917 00:50:41,030 --> 00:50:44,800 But this I know, that whether we suffer or not, 918 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:50,210 if you desert us, you most certainly will. 919 00:50:50,210 --> 00:50:52,410 Dunmore's Proclamation helped drive 920 00:50:52,610 --> 00:50:56,680 Southern slaveholders to the side of the revolutionaries. 921 00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,550 Edward Rutledge of South Carolina spoke for many: 922 00:51:00,750 --> 00:51:04,520 Lord Dunmore's proclamation tends "in my judgment, 923 00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:07,760 "more effectually to work an eternal separation 924 00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:10,530 "between Great Britain and the Colonies 925 00:51:10,530 --> 00:51:13,370 than any other expedient." 926 00:51:13,570 --> 00:51:15,670 Dunmore says that he only wants 927 00:51:15,670 --> 00:51:17,740 the slaves of rebels to join him. 928 00:51:20,740 --> 00:51:23,240 Not clear exactly how you can tell them apart, 929 00:51:23,240 --> 00:51:25,410 or whether there's any kind of census going on 930 00:51:25,410 --> 00:51:26,610 of who do you belong to. 931 00:51:28,210 --> 00:51:31,120 Dunmore was not an abolitionist; 932 00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:34,450 he did not free any of the 57 human beings 933 00:51:34,450 --> 00:51:37,290 he held in slavery himself; 934 00:51:37,490 --> 00:51:39,790 the Patriots would capture them all 935 00:51:40,190 --> 00:51:42,430 and sell them to fund their cause. 936 00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:46,100 Wednesday. 937 00:51:46,100 --> 00:51:50,600 Last night after going to bed, Moses, my son's man, 938 00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:53,840 Joe, Billy, Postillion, John, 939 00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:57,480 Mulatto Peter, Tom, Panticore, 940 00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,310 Manuel, and Lancaster Sam 941 00:52:00,310 --> 00:52:03,520 all ran away to Lord Dunmore. 942 00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:04,880 Landon Carter. 943 00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:10,820 Now runaways streamed to the governor's ships, 944 00:52:11,220 --> 00:52:14,360 silently slipping along the rivers and tidal creeks 945 00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,230 that opened into the Chesapeake Bay. 946 00:52:17,530 --> 00:52:20,430 87 men, women, and children 947 00:52:20,430 --> 00:52:24,270 from a single Virginia plantation fled to Dunmore. 948 00:52:27,570 --> 00:52:29,640 Ran off last night from the subscriber: 949 00:52:29,840 --> 00:52:31,910 a Negro man named Charles, 950 00:52:31,910 --> 00:52:34,710 who is a very shrewd, sensible fellow, 951 00:52:34,710 --> 00:52:36,320 and can both read and write. 952 00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:39,650 There is reason to believe he intends an attempt 953 00:52:39,850 --> 00:52:42,190 to get to Lord Dunmore. 954 00:52:42,190 --> 00:52:44,690 His elopement was from no cause of complaint, 955 00:52:44,890 --> 00:52:46,860 or dread of whipping 956 00:52:47,260 --> 00:52:51,460 but from a determined resolution to get liberty, as he conceived. 957 00:52:51,660 --> 00:52:53,600 "The Virginia Gazette." 958 00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:55,600 "There is not a man among them," 959 00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:58,400 George Washington's farm manager warned him, 960 00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,510 "but would leave us if they believed 961 00:53:00,510 --> 00:53:02,510 "they could make their escape. 962 00:53:02,510 --> 00:53:04,810 Liberty is sweet." 963 00:53:05,210 --> 00:53:06,480 He was right. 964 00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,350 The first enslaved person 965 00:53:08,350 --> 00:53:09,850 to escape Mount Vernon 966 00:53:09,850 --> 00:53:12,450 was named Harry Washington. 967 00:53:12,650 --> 00:53:15,850 Born somewhere near the Gambia River in West Africa, 968 00:53:15,860 --> 00:53:18,860 he was captured, carried across the ocean, 969 00:53:19,260 --> 00:53:24,700 and, in 1763, purchased by George Washington. 970 00:53:24,700 --> 00:53:27,700 Freedom was never far from his mind. 971 00:53:27,700 --> 00:53:30,940 In 1771, he had tried to escape 972 00:53:30,940 --> 00:53:34,410 but was caught and brought back. 973 00:53:34,410 --> 00:53:37,340 4 years later, he saw his chance. 974 00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:41,680 Erica Dunbar: Following Lord Dunmore's proclamation, 975 00:53:41,680 --> 00:53:45,920 Harry Washington knew that this would be an opportunity, 976 00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:48,790 and he joined the British 977 00:53:48,990 --> 00:53:51,690 against the people who had once owned him. 978 00:53:54,630 --> 00:53:57,260 George Washington called Lord Dunmore 979 00:53:57,260 --> 00:53:59,630 a "Monster," and an "arch-traitor 980 00:53:59,830 --> 00:54:02,370 to the rights of humanity." 981 00:54:02,570 --> 00:54:04,470 If that man is not crushed 982 00:54:04,470 --> 00:54:06,670 before spring, he will become 983 00:54:06,670 --> 00:54:09,980 the most formidable enemy America has. 984 00:54:09,980 --> 00:54:12,480 His strength will increase, as a snowball, 985 00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:15,710 by rolling, and faster. 986 00:54:15,720 --> 00:54:19,580 Nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty 987 00:54:19,590 --> 00:54:21,650 will secure peace to Virginia. 988 00:54:21,850 --> 00:54:23,860 George Washington. 989 00:54:24,260 --> 00:54:26,260 Scores of runaways were caught 990 00:54:26,460 --> 00:54:28,360 and brutally punished; 991 00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:30,800 some were killed, others sold off 992 00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:33,700 to compensate their enslavers. 993 00:54:33,900 --> 00:54:38,300 But some 800 men would make it to Dunmore's growing fleet, 994 00:54:38,300 --> 00:54:41,340 along with roughly the same number of women and children. 995 00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:46,810 Men found fit for duty were enlisted in a special unit 996 00:54:46,810 --> 00:54:50,350 called "Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment." 997 00:54:50,350 --> 00:54:53,750 They were commanded by White officers but paid a wage 998 00:54:53,950 --> 00:54:55,620 for the first time in their lives. 999 00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:01,430 The proclamation has had a wonderful effect. 1000 00:55:01,430 --> 00:55:04,700 The Negroes are flocking in from all quarters. 1001 00:55:04,900 --> 00:55:07,830 And had I but a few more men here, 1002 00:55:07,830 --> 00:55:10,840 I would march immediately to Williamsburg, 1003 00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:14,740 by which I should soon compel the whole colony to submit. 1004 00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:17,080 Lord Dunmore. 1005 00:55:18,940 --> 00:55:21,050 Bolstered by reinforcements, 1006 00:55:21,050 --> 00:55:24,920 Dunmore occupied Norfolk and ordered a stockade built 1007 00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:27,850 at the Great Bridge over the Elizabeth River 1008 00:55:28,050 --> 00:55:30,660 to block the only road to town from the South. 1009 00:55:31,990 --> 00:55:35,460 Some 700 Patriots dug in across the river, 1010 00:55:35,660 --> 00:55:39,500 and on December 9, 1775, 1011 00:55:39,500 --> 00:55:42,000 when Dunmore's troops charged across the bridge 1012 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:44,340 to dislodge them, 1013 00:55:44,340 --> 00:55:48,070 more than 100 of his men, Black and White, were killed. 1014 00:55:50,340 --> 00:55:52,980 "They fought, bled, and died like Englishmen," 1015 00:55:53,380 --> 00:55:54,450 one man remembered. 1016 00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:59,550 Dunmore's makeshift army-- including what was left 1017 00:55:59,750 --> 00:56:01,420 of the Ethiopian regiment-- 1018 00:56:01,620 --> 00:56:03,660 fled back to sea. 1019 00:56:03,660 --> 00:56:06,420 With them went scores of Loyalist families 1020 00:56:06,430 --> 00:56:08,560 from in and around Norfolk, 1021 00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:13,360 most of them Dunmore's fellow Scots. 1022 00:56:13,370 --> 00:56:17,400 He now commanded a floating city--including rafts 1023 00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:19,870 on which the poorest struggled to survive. 1024 00:56:22,010 --> 00:56:23,880 Dunmore's Proclamation 1025 00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:29,480 turns the conflict, in Virginia, into a genuine crisis. 1026 00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:33,150 But it does help clarify differences, right? 1027 00:56:33,150 --> 00:56:36,890 It establishes that there is one side of this conflict 1028 00:56:36,890 --> 00:56:39,760 that is unevenly committed to slavery. 1029 00:56:41,560 --> 00:56:44,000 And then there's another side, our side, 1030 00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:46,460 which is fully committed to it. 1031 00:56:46,470 --> 00:56:49,900 And for some Patriots, that's all they need to know. 1032 00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:54,140 It creates a sense that this is an existential conflict 1033 00:56:54,140 --> 00:56:55,670 in a way that it had not before. 1034 00:56:57,510 --> 00:57:00,050 These lords of themselves, 1035 00:57:00,450 --> 00:57:05,620 these kings of me, these demigods of independence. 1036 00:57:05,620 --> 00:57:08,890 It has been proposed that the slaves should be set free, 1037 00:57:09,090 --> 00:57:11,190 an act which, surely, the lovers of liberty 1038 00:57:11,590 --> 00:57:13,860 cannot but commend. 1039 00:57:13,860 --> 00:57:17,500 How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty 1040 00:57:17,500 --> 00:57:19,030 among the drivers of Negroes? 1041 00:57:20,870 --> 00:57:22,130 Dr. Samuel Johnson. 1042 00:57:29,780 --> 00:57:33,780 Connecticut wants no Massachusetts man in her corps; 1043 00:57:33,780 --> 00:57:37,220 Massachusetts thinks there is no necessity for a Rhode Islander 1044 00:57:37,220 --> 00:57:39,780 to be introduced into hers. 1045 00:57:39,790 --> 00:57:41,620 Could I have foreseen what I have, 1046 00:57:41,820 --> 00:57:44,060 and am like to experience, 1047 00:57:44,060 --> 00:57:45,990 no consideration upon earth 1048 00:57:46,190 --> 00:57:48,630 should have induced me to accept this command. 1049 00:57:51,830 --> 00:57:53,670 Now George Washington faced 1050 00:57:53,670 --> 00:57:55,570 for the first time the problem 1051 00:57:55,570 --> 00:57:58,740 that would haunt him again and again: 1052 00:57:58,940 --> 00:58:02,010 when enlistments expired at the end of the year, 1053 00:58:02,210 --> 00:58:04,780 most of his army was simply going to melt away. 1054 00:58:06,910 --> 00:58:09,750 To fill out his ranks, Washington persuaded 1055 00:58:09,750 --> 00:58:12,780 the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire 1056 00:58:12,790 --> 00:58:16,260 to send him a total of 5,000 militiamen. 1057 00:58:16,660 --> 00:58:20,490 The newcomers were so sullen, veteran soldiers called them 1058 00:58:20,690 --> 00:58:22,160 the "Long-Faced People." 1059 00:58:24,060 --> 00:58:26,530 Washington asked Congress if Indian units 1060 00:58:26,730 --> 00:58:28,770 could serve in his army. 1061 00:58:28,770 --> 00:58:30,740 While they debated the issue, 1062 00:58:30,740 --> 00:58:33,640 many Native people did join the ranks. 1063 00:58:35,770 --> 00:58:40,250 5 sons of a Mohegan woman named Rebecca Tanner 1064 00:58:40,650 --> 00:58:42,680 would die fighting for the Patriots 1065 00:58:42,680 --> 00:58:44,150 over the course of the war. 1066 00:58:48,690 --> 00:58:51,190 In December, Washington changed his mind 1067 00:58:51,590 --> 00:58:53,960 about enlisting African-Americans. 1068 00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:57,030 His desperate need for men was part of it. 1069 00:58:57,230 --> 00:59:00,770 But there were also appeals from Black veterans themselves 1070 00:59:00,770 --> 00:59:03,130 or from their officers. 1071 00:59:03,140 --> 00:59:05,900 "It has been represented to me," Washington wrote 1072 00:59:05,910 --> 00:59:09,110 to the Continental Congress, "that the free Negroes who have 1073 00:59:09,110 --> 00:59:12,710 "served in this Army are very much dissatisfied 1074 00:59:12,710 --> 00:59:14,850 at being discarded." 1075 00:59:15,050 --> 00:59:16,750 They could now re-enlist. 1076 00:59:19,550 --> 00:59:21,150 Washington brings to Cambridge 1077 00:59:21,550 --> 00:59:24,320 the "hard no" of a Virginia planter. 1078 00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:28,560 But he is also willing to revise himself. 1079 00:59:28,760 --> 00:59:31,930 To think about the whole of the potential fighting force 1080 00:59:32,130 --> 00:59:37,170 and whether Black men can play a role within it. 1081 00:59:37,170 --> 00:59:39,910 I think many people, most people from his station, 1082 00:59:40,110 --> 00:59:41,670 would have started where he started 1083 00:59:41,670 --> 00:59:43,680 and have gone no further. 1084 00:59:45,010 --> 00:59:48,810 So, I think he does have a sort of flexibility 1085 00:59:49,010 --> 00:59:51,220 as a commander, which is the only thing 1086 00:59:51,620 --> 00:59:54,120 that the commander of an insurrectionary force can have. 1087 00:59:55,790 --> 00:59:58,090 Though the decision remained unpopular, 1088 00:59:58,290 --> 01:00:02,690 by the end of the war, some 5,000 African-Americans 1089 01:00:02,700 --> 01:00:04,960 had served in the Continental Army. 1090 01:00:07,070 --> 01:00:11,770 A lot of these decisions about who to fight for, 1091 01:00:11,770 --> 01:00:14,970 who to align with, are deeply, deeply local. 1092 01:00:14,970 --> 01:00:18,880 They're not necessarily about high ideals at all, right? 1093 01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:21,180 So, when people think there's an opportunity 1094 01:00:21,180 --> 01:00:24,250 with the British, they may align with 1095 01:00:24,250 --> 01:00:26,120 and run off to British lines. 1096 01:00:26,320 --> 01:00:30,190 But when the Patriot Army kind of opens its ranks 1097 01:00:30,190 --> 01:00:33,260 to Black people, there are lots of Black people 1098 01:00:33,660 --> 01:00:36,160 who think they can gain advantage, concession, 1099 01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:41,200 and even, one day, some status from fighting for the Patriots. 1100 01:00:41,400 --> 01:00:43,330 It's not a question of who the good guys are 1101 01:00:43,340 --> 01:00:45,370 and who the bad guys are. 1102 01:00:45,370 --> 01:00:48,170 It's what can I get from making this decision, 1103 01:00:48,370 --> 01:00:51,040 right now, in this place, at this time, among these people. 1104 01:00:53,080 --> 01:00:56,080 Washington's new army--an ill-assorted 1105 01:00:56,080 --> 01:01:00,690 mix of soldiers who'd decided to stay on, raw recruits, 1106 01:01:00,890 --> 01:01:06,260 and short-term militiamen-- now numbered around 8,000 men. 1107 01:01:06,260 --> 01:01:08,790 But only 2/3 were fit for duty. 1108 01:01:10,330 --> 01:01:13,770 Those men were still cold, still poorly armed, 1109 01:01:13,970 --> 01:01:17,900 still poorly paid-- but also still able 1110 01:01:17,900 --> 01:01:20,140 to keep the British trapped in Boston. 1111 01:01:22,210 --> 01:01:24,110 It is not in the pages of history 1112 01:01:24,110 --> 01:01:27,710 perhaps to furnish a case like ours. 1113 01:01:27,710 --> 01:01:30,820 To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy 1114 01:01:30,820 --> 01:01:34,390 for 6 months together, without powder, 1115 01:01:34,390 --> 01:01:38,820 and at the same time to disband one Army and recruit another, 1116 01:01:38,820 --> 01:01:43,060 within that distance of 20-odd British regiments, 1117 01:01:43,260 --> 01:01:45,230 is more than probably ever was attempted. 1118 01:01:51,470 --> 01:01:53,010 At the most moderate computation, 1119 01:01:53,210 --> 01:01:55,270 this rebellion will cost Great Britain 1120 01:01:55,270 --> 01:01:59,080 10 millions of treasure and 20,000 lives. 1121 01:02:01,180 --> 01:02:03,720 What then, in the name of wonder, 1122 01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:06,120 is the object of the war? 1123 01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:09,220 Are we to throw away so much treasure and so many lives 1124 01:02:09,420 --> 01:02:12,060 to gain a point which, when gained, 1125 01:02:12,260 --> 01:02:14,830 is not worth 1% on our money? 1126 01:02:15,030 --> 01:02:17,260 The "Public Advertiser." 1127 01:02:17,460 --> 01:02:18,460 Maya Jasanoff: In the British Parliament, there are 1128 01:02:18,460 --> 01:02:20,100 debates taking place. 1129 01:02:20,100 --> 01:02:22,230 There are people lining up on one side 1130 01:02:22,430 --> 01:02:24,470 who say, "You know, we ought to actually 1131 01:02:24,470 --> 01:02:26,970 "grant the colonies more autonomy. 1132 01:02:26,970 --> 01:02:29,840 "We ought to loosen the strictures 1133 01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:30,940 "that we've placed on them. 1134 01:02:30,940 --> 01:02:32,340 "We ought to think about ways 1135 01:02:32,340 --> 01:02:34,180 that they might be represented." 1136 01:02:35,810 --> 01:02:37,120 The war in North America 1137 01:02:37,320 --> 01:02:40,350 was not universally popular in England. 1138 01:02:40,350 --> 01:02:43,450 The colonies were 3,000 miles away. 1139 01:02:43,460 --> 01:02:46,020 The theater of war would be far larger 1140 01:02:46,020 --> 01:02:49,530 than any the British Army had ever encountered before. 1141 01:02:49,530 --> 01:02:52,060 It was sure to be costly and bloody 1142 01:02:52,260 --> 01:02:53,970 and likely to be prolonged. 1143 01:02:55,400 --> 01:02:57,270 The Army chief and England's 1144 01:02:57,470 --> 01:02:59,870 most distinguished naval commander 1145 01:02:59,870 --> 01:03:03,110 would both refuse to take part in the war. 1146 01:03:03,110 --> 01:03:06,080 The Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London 1147 01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:09,250 appealed to the King to reconsider. 1148 01:03:09,450 --> 01:03:11,550 It was far better to give the Americans 1149 01:03:11,950 --> 01:03:14,250 their "rights and liberties," they said, 1150 01:03:14,250 --> 01:03:17,920 than impose "the dreadful operations of your armaments." 1151 01:03:19,890 --> 01:03:22,930 But the new Secretary of State for America, 1152 01:03:23,130 --> 01:03:24,930 Lord George Germain, 1153 01:03:25,130 --> 01:03:27,470 remained determined to crush the rebellion-- 1154 01:03:27,870 --> 01:03:30,800 and to do it with a single, all-out campaign. 1155 01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:35,970 If the war dragged on, King George himself feared 1156 01:03:35,970 --> 01:03:40,280 that Britain's old Catholic enemies, France and Spain, 1157 01:03:40,280 --> 01:03:43,080 might be persuaded to support the rebel cause. 1158 01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:47,450 The rebellious war now levied 1159 01:03:47,850 --> 01:03:50,890 is become more general, and is manifestly 1160 01:03:51,090 --> 01:03:52,890 carried on for the purpose of establishing 1161 01:03:52,890 --> 01:03:55,390 an independent empire. 1162 01:03:55,390 --> 01:03:58,060 The object is too important, 1163 01:03:58,060 --> 01:04:00,830 the spirit of the British nation too high, 1164 01:04:01,030 --> 01:04:04,140 the resources with which God hath blessed her too numerous, 1165 01:04:04,340 --> 01:04:06,570 to give up so many colonies 1166 01:04:06,570 --> 01:04:09,410 which she has planted with great industry, 1167 01:04:09,410 --> 01:04:13,510 nursed with great tenderness, and protected and defended 1168 01:04:13,510 --> 01:04:16,420 at much expense of blood and treasure. 1169 01:04:18,880 --> 01:04:20,180 King George was not an ogre. 1170 01:04:20,190 --> 01:04:22,350 He was not a tyrant. 1171 01:04:22,550 --> 01:04:26,430 Contrary to the stereotype that most Americans have of him, 1172 01:04:26,630 --> 01:04:30,130 he's actually a pretty extraordinary man. 1173 01:04:31,900 --> 01:04:35,230 He was a very great constitutional monarch. 1174 01:04:35,230 --> 01:04:38,400 In fact, in 1775, he declares, 1175 01:04:38,400 --> 01:04:41,570 "I'm fighting the war of the legislature." 1176 01:04:41,970 --> 01:04:44,580 In other words, he's fighting for Parliament's rights 1177 01:04:44,580 --> 01:04:46,250 over the American colonies. 1178 01:04:46,450 --> 01:04:49,080 Not his own rights, Parliament's rights. 1179 01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:51,320 But once the war starts, he sees himself 1180 01:04:51,520 --> 01:04:56,320 as the commander-in-chief with a responsibility to make sure 1181 01:04:56,320 --> 01:04:58,890 the war is run efficiently and effectively. 1182 01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:03,100 The British Navy was the largest on earth, 1183 01:05:03,300 --> 01:05:06,530 but the all-volunteer British Army numbered fewer than 1184 01:05:06,930 --> 01:05:10,130 50,000 officers and men on paper. 1185 01:05:10,140 --> 01:05:12,540 And it was still smaller in reality, 1186 01:05:12,940 --> 01:05:15,970 just 1/3 of the size of the French Army, 1187 01:05:15,970 --> 01:05:19,940 and scattered across the world from Ireland to India, 1188 01:05:19,950 --> 01:05:23,120 the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. 1189 01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:27,220 "Unless it rains men in red coats," one official warned, 1190 01:05:27,220 --> 01:05:30,320 "I know not where we are to get all we shall want." 1191 01:05:31,660 --> 01:05:33,630 The British should have recognized that 1192 01:05:34,030 --> 01:05:35,590 this was going to be extremely difficult 1193 01:05:35,590 --> 01:05:38,000 and perhaps unwinnable conflict. 1194 01:05:38,200 --> 01:05:41,270 They were confident of two things. 1195 01:05:41,470 --> 01:05:44,040 They had invincible military power. 1196 01:05:44,040 --> 01:05:47,270 And, therefore, there was no need for them to compromise. 1197 01:05:47,270 --> 01:05:52,410 And secondly, that any compromise of Sovereignty, 1198 01:05:52,410 --> 01:05:56,420 of Parliament's Sovereignty, was going to encourage 1199 01:05:56,620 --> 01:05:59,580 independence on the part of the Americans. 1200 01:05:59,990 --> 01:06:02,020 They had a kind of "Domino" theory: 1201 01:06:02,020 --> 01:06:04,520 if we lose American colonies, then we lose Canada, 1202 01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:06,990 then we lose the Caribbean. 1203 01:06:06,990 --> 01:06:11,630 So that George III and his Ministers really believe 1204 01:06:11,630 --> 01:06:13,630 that nothing less than the future of the British Empire 1205 01:06:14,030 --> 01:06:15,070 is at stake. 1206 01:06:21,240 --> 01:06:22,740 Our commander, Arnold, 1207 01:06:22,740 --> 01:06:25,010 was of a remarkable character. 1208 01:06:25,210 --> 01:06:27,580 Brave and beloved by the soldiery, 1209 01:06:27,980 --> 01:06:30,180 he possessed great powers of persuasion. 1210 01:06:31,480 --> 01:06:33,080 Private John Joseph Henry. 1211 01:06:35,650 --> 01:06:37,760 Benedict Arnold and his men had made 1212 01:06:38,160 --> 01:06:41,160 slow progress on their way up the Kennebec River 1213 01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:44,560 as part of the American invasion of Canada. 1214 01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:49,000 Their provisions had been packed into 220 flat-bottomed 1215 01:06:49,000 --> 01:06:52,500 "bateaux," built for them at George Washington's orders. 1216 01:06:54,170 --> 01:06:56,270 All Arnold knew about the forests 1217 01:06:56,270 --> 01:06:58,440 his men were about to penetrate 1218 01:06:58,440 --> 01:07:02,710 came from a crude 15-year-old British map 1219 01:07:02,710 --> 01:07:08,220 that seemed to suggest Quebec City was 180 miles away 1220 01:07:08,220 --> 01:07:11,060 and could be reached in just 20 days. 1221 01:07:13,660 --> 01:07:16,800 The real distance turned out to be 270 miles. 1222 01:07:19,030 --> 01:07:22,200 Nothing could have prepared Arnold for the ordeal 1223 01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:24,300 he and his men were about to endure. 1224 01:07:26,340 --> 01:07:28,340 The Kennebec turned out to be punctuated 1225 01:07:28,540 --> 01:07:31,210 by waterfalls and rapids. 1226 01:07:31,210 --> 01:07:34,610 Submerged rocks tore the bottoms of their boats. 1227 01:07:34,810 --> 01:07:38,420 Within 72 hours, 1/4 of their provisions 1228 01:07:38,620 --> 01:07:40,290 were lost or ruined. 1229 01:07:42,090 --> 01:07:45,160 In the mornings, wet clothes were glazed with ice, 1230 01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:48,360 one man wrote, thick as a pane of glass. 1231 01:07:50,430 --> 01:07:54,630 On the 10th day, Arnold began rationing the remaining food-- 1232 01:07:54,830 --> 01:07:57,300 just salt pork and flour. 1233 01:07:59,240 --> 01:08:01,610 It snowed on the 19th day 1234 01:08:01,610 --> 01:08:04,780 and rained relentlessly for days afterwards. 1235 01:08:06,510 --> 01:08:08,410 Then, it snowed again. 1236 01:08:11,080 --> 01:08:13,850 America is this huge continent. 1237 01:08:13,850 --> 01:08:17,320 There's tornadoes, there's hurricanes, 1238 01:08:17,320 --> 01:08:19,190 there's winter storms. 1239 01:08:20,290 --> 01:08:23,830 Turns of weather that we know are coming for weeks on end 1240 01:08:24,230 --> 01:08:26,130 hit the people of the 18th century 1241 01:08:26,330 --> 01:08:27,570 completely by surprise. 1242 01:08:29,700 --> 01:08:33,140 They're not just fighting each other. 1243 01:08:33,140 --> 01:08:35,170 In a profound way, they are fighting 1244 01:08:35,170 --> 01:08:39,740 the American climate and geography and topography. 1245 01:08:39,740 --> 01:08:42,350 This is a difficult place to conduct a war. 1246 01:08:46,350 --> 01:08:48,450 After a month of hardship, 1247 01:08:48,450 --> 01:08:50,720 the officer leading the battalion that had been 1248 01:08:51,120 --> 01:08:54,790 bringing up the rear declared the mission suicidal, 1249 01:08:54,790 --> 01:08:57,260 turned his 300 men around, 1250 01:08:57,460 --> 01:09:01,430 and started for home with many of the remaining provisions. 1251 01:09:04,740 --> 01:09:08,240 Arnold's men were now forced to subsist on candles, 1252 01:09:08,440 --> 01:09:12,640 tree bark, and soup made by boiling rawhide. 1253 01:09:12,840 --> 01:09:14,650 One company killed and ate 1254 01:09:14,650 --> 01:09:16,650 their captain's Newfoundland dog. 1255 01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:21,790 Of the 1,100 men who set out from Cambridge, 1256 01:09:22,190 --> 01:09:26,420 more than 1/3 had turned back, been escorted home as invalids, 1257 01:09:26,630 --> 01:09:28,260 or died along the way. 1258 01:09:31,900 --> 01:09:36,430 Finally, 45 days after setting off--not 20-- 1259 01:09:36,640 --> 01:09:40,510 Arnold's men saw the spires and walls of Quebec City 1260 01:09:40,710 --> 01:09:42,740 looming across the St. Lawrence River. 1261 01:09:44,280 --> 01:09:45,810 No one, particularly the British, 1262 01:09:46,210 --> 01:09:48,950 can believe that suddenly they are there. 1263 01:09:49,350 --> 01:09:52,620 Arnold, because of this, would have a reputation now. 1264 01:09:52,620 --> 01:09:55,520 He would be known as the "American Hannibal" 1265 01:09:55,520 --> 01:09:58,820 for his ability to move men over mountains, 1266 01:09:59,220 --> 01:10:02,630 to achieve seemingly impossible things. 1267 01:10:02,830 --> 01:10:05,460 Meanwhile, American forces led by 1268 01:10:05,460 --> 01:10:09,470 General Montgomery had easily taken Montreal. 1269 01:10:09,470 --> 01:10:11,800 Then, with 300 of his men, 1270 01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:14,370 Montgomery set out along the St. Lawrence 1271 01:10:14,570 --> 01:10:16,710 to meet up with Arnold. 1272 01:10:16,910 --> 01:10:19,950 Together, they planned their assault on Quebec City. 1273 01:10:21,510 --> 01:10:24,850 They realize that they've got a hard decision to make. 1274 01:10:25,250 --> 01:10:29,960 We either attack now, or many of our men are going to leave. 1275 01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:32,990 Their enlistments are up. They're cold. 1276 01:10:32,990 --> 01:10:35,460 It's mid-winter in Canada. 1277 01:10:38,530 --> 01:10:41,430 There were only some 300 British regulars 1278 01:10:41,630 --> 01:10:43,970 stationed in the fortified city. 1279 01:10:43,970 --> 01:10:47,770 So, General Guy Carleton, the royal governor of Canada, 1280 01:10:47,970 --> 01:10:50,980 ordered every able-bodied man within its walls 1281 01:10:50,980 --> 01:10:53,010 to prepare for battle. 1282 01:10:53,410 --> 01:10:57,650 Anyone who refused had to leave or be prosecuted as a spy. 1283 01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:03,390 The city's ramparts were soon guarded by some 1,800 men. 1284 01:11:05,020 --> 01:11:08,430 The American plan called for two small, noisy 1285 01:11:08,630 --> 01:11:11,700 diversionary feints to draw defenders away 1286 01:11:11,900 --> 01:11:13,570 from the attack's real targets. 1287 01:11:14,930 --> 01:11:18,270 Meanwhile, Arnold and his men would circle around 1288 01:11:18,270 --> 01:11:20,470 Quebec City from the north, 1289 01:11:20,670 --> 01:11:24,410 while General Montgomery would approach from the south. 1290 01:11:24,610 --> 01:11:27,910 Together, they would storm the citadel's steep walls. 1291 01:11:30,950 --> 01:11:33,480 Dear Father, if you receive 1292 01:11:33,490 --> 01:11:35,420 this letter, it will be the last 1293 01:11:35,420 --> 01:11:37,620 this hand will ever write you. 1294 01:11:37,820 --> 01:11:40,660 Heaven only knows what will be my fate. 1295 01:11:40,860 --> 01:11:43,760 But whatever it may be, I cannot resist 1296 01:11:43,760 --> 01:11:46,770 the inclination I feel to assure you that in this cause 1297 01:11:46,970 --> 01:11:50,040 I feel no reluctance to venture a life, 1298 01:11:50,440 --> 01:11:52,600 which I consider as only lent to be used 1299 01:11:52,800 --> 01:11:53,840 when my country demands it. 1300 01:11:56,010 --> 01:11:59,710 Your very affectionate son, John Macpherson. 1301 01:12:04,680 --> 01:12:06,750 The storm was outrageous. 1302 01:12:06,950 --> 01:12:09,820 Covering the locks of our guns with the lapels of our coats 1303 01:12:10,020 --> 01:12:12,620 and holding down our heads... 1304 01:12:12,620 --> 01:12:13,930 we ran in single file. 1305 01:12:15,360 --> 01:12:16,360 John Joseph Henry. 1306 01:12:18,060 --> 01:12:20,000 The Americans launched their attack 1307 01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:24,900 at 4 in the morning on December 31st, 1775, 1308 01:12:25,100 --> 01:12:28,010 under the cover of a howling blizzard. 1309 01:12:28,410 --> 01:12:31,040 Many men had pinned to their hats slips of paper 1310 01:12:31,040 --> 01:12:33,910 with the words, "Liberty or Death." 1311 01:12:36,680 --> 01:12:38,520 Everything went wrong. 1312 01:12:39,980 --> 01:12:43,720 The diversionary attacks fooled no one. 1313 01:12:43,720 --> 01:12:45,990 Arnold's men came under merciless fire 1314 01:12:46,390 --> 01:12:49,590 from the ramparts above-- and the enemy had placed 1315 01:12:49,790 --> 01:12:51,930 formidable barricades in their way. 1316 01:12:54,030 --> 01:12:56,530 When a ricocheting bullet fragment tore through 1317 01:12:56,740 --> 01:12:59,970 Arnold's left leg, he had to be carried back to camp. 1318 01:13:01,540 --> 01:13:05,010 Captain Daniel Morgan of Virginia took over. 1319 01:13:05,010 --> 01:13:08,910 He managed to lead his men past one barricade 1320 01:13:08,910 --> 01:13:12,380 only to be blocked by another. 1321 01:13:12,380 --> 01:13:16,750 He tried 4 times to scale it, then decided to wait 1322 01:13:16,760 --> 01:13:19,560 for Montgomery and his men to break through. 1323 01:13:22,390 --> 01:13:23,760 But Montgomery never made it. 1324 01:13:27,730 --> 01:13:30,700 Within moments of making his way into the city, 1325 01:13:30,700 --> 01:13:35,070 he, John Macpherson, and 11 others were killed. 1326 01:13:37,180 --> 01:13:39,180 The enemy, having the advantage 1327 01:13:39,180 --> 01:13:42,750 of the ground in front, a vast superiority of numbers, 1328 01:13:42,750 --> 01:13:45,020 and dry and better arms, 1329 01:13:45,020 --> 01:13:47,890 gave them an irresistible power. 1330 01:13:48,090 --> 01:13:50,690 About 9:00 a.m., it was apparent to all of us 1331 01:13:50,890 --> 01:13:52,060 that we must surrender. 1332 01:13:52,460 --> 01:13:53,660 John Joseph Henry. 1333 01:13:56,190 --> 01:13:59,030 30 Americans lay dead. 1334 01:13:59,430 --> 01:14:03,930 389 were taken prisoner, including Daniel Morgan. 1335 01:14:06,470 --> 01:14:09,810 Arnold, though badly wounded, was not captured 1336 01:14:10,010 --> 01:14:12,840 and vowed to try to take the city again 1337 01:14:12,840 --> 01:14:14,750 before it could be reinforced. 1338 01:14:16,480 --> 01:14:17,820 I have no thoughts of leaving 1339 01:14:17,820 --> 01:14:20,080 this proud town, until I first 1340 01:14:20,490 --> 01:14:23,020 enter it in triumph. 1341 01:14:23,020 --> 01:14:26,620 Providence which has carried me through so many dangers, 1342 01:14:26,830 --> 01:14:28,490 is still my protection. 1343 01:14:29,930 --> 01:14:31,000 Benedict Arnold. 1344 01:14:37,700 --> 01:14:39,100 I am more and more convinced 1345 01:14:39,500 --> 01:14:41,640 that man is a dangerous creature, 1346 01:14:41,640 --> 01:14:44,880 and that power, whether vested in many or a few, 1347 01:14:45,080 --> 01:14:49,850 is ever grasping, and like the grave cries give, give. 1348 01:14:51,780 --> 01:14:54,080 You tell me of degrees of perfection to which 1349 01:14:54,090 --> 01:14:58,820 humane nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, 1350 01:14:58,820 --> 01:15:02,030 but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise 1351 01:15:02,030 --> 01:15:03,960 from the scarcity of the instances. 1352 01:15:05,800 --> 01:15:09,000 When I consider these things, I feel anxious for the fate 1353 01:15:09,000 --> 01:15:13,640 of our monarchy, or democracy, or whatever is to take place. 1354 01:15:14,970 --> 01:15:16,110 Abigail Adams. 1355 01:15:18,980 --> 01:15:22,950 On New Year's Day, 1776, George Washington 1356 01:15:23,150 --> 01:15:26,520 ordered a new "Continental Union" flag 1357 01:15:26,720 --> 01:15:31,690 raised atop Prospect Hill overlooking occupied Boston. 1358 01:15:31,690 --> 01:15:33,730 The British Union Jack still filled 1359 01:15:33,930 --> 01:15:36,190 its upper left-hand corner. 1360 01:15:36,190 --> 01:15:39,630 But its 13 red and white stripes, he said, 1361 01:15:39,630 --> 01:15:43,070 were intended as a "compliment to the United Colonies." 1362 01:15:45,170 --> 01:15:47,870 With the exception of the city of Boston, 1363 01:15:47,870 --> 01:15:52,210 Patriots now controlled each of the 13 colonies. 1364 01:15:52,210 --> 01:15:55,650 Several other royal governors had, like Dunmore, 1365 01:15:55,650 --> 01:15:58,950 fled to ships offshore. 1366 01:15:58,950 --> 01:16:02,950 But people within the colonies remained deeply divided. 1367 01:16:03,150 --> 01:16:07,590 Some of the free population favored independence. 1368 01:16:07,590 --> 01:16:09,130 Others were appalled at the thought of 1369 01:16:09,330 --> 01:16:11,330 breaking with the King. 1370 01:16:11,330 --> 01:16:14,160 Abandoning Britain, one Virginian wrote, 1371 01:16:14,170 --> 01:16:18,800 would "dissolve the bands of religion, of oaths, of laws, 1372 01:16:18,800 --> 01:16:22,910 "of language, of blood, which hold us united 1373 01:16:23,110 --> 01:16:25,810 under the influence of the common parent." 1374 01:16:27,680 --> 01:16:30,720 Still others remained "disaffected," 1375 01:16:30,920 --> 01:16:34,650 favoring neither side, hoping somehow to carry on 1376 01:16:34,850 --> 01:16:38,020 with their lives while their fellow-Americans-- 1377 01:16:38,020 --> 01:16:41,160 suspicious of their neutrality-- fought things out. 1378 01:16:43,230 --> 01:16:45,860 But events were changing minds. 1379 01:16:47,270 --> 01:16:48,900 Gordon-Reed: What happened in the run-up 1380 01:16:49,100 --> 01:16:51,870 to all of this gave people a sense 1381 01:16:51,870 --> 01:16:54,870 that they might be able to make it on their own. 1382 01:16:54,870 --> 01:16:57,140 They were different from the people in Great Britain. 1383 01:16:57,340 --> 01:16:59,280 They realized that they were moving apart. 1384 01:17:01,010 --> 01:17:02,880 If we must erect an independent 1385 01:17:03,080 --> 01:17:04,980 government in America, 1386 01:17:05,180 --> 01:17:08,720 a republic will produce strength, hardiness, activity, 1387 01:17:08,720 --> 01:17:12,860 courage, fortitude, and enterprise. 1388 01:17:13,060 --> 01:17:16,190 But there is so much rascality, so much 1389 01:17:16,190 --> 01:17:20,230 venality and corruption, so much avarice and ambition, 1390 01:17:20,630 --> 01:17:22,770 such a rage for profit and commerce 1391 01:17:22,970 --> 01:17:27,870 among all ranks and degrees of men, even in America, 1392 01:17:28,070 --> 01:17:31,110 that I sometimes doubt whether there is public virtue enough 1393 01:17:31,110 --> 01:17:33,010 to support a republic. 1394 01:17:34,210 --> 01:17:35,280 John Adams. 1395 01:17:37,180 --> 01:17:38,920 The leaders of the American Revolution 1396 01:17:39,120 --> 01:17:41,690 need popular support. 1397 01:17:41,690 --> 01:17:43,290 The leaders of the American Revolution 1398 01:17:43,290 --> 01:17:45,420 are going to have to make promises 1399 01:17:45,420 --> 01:17:47,930 that there's going to be greater social mobility; 1400 01:17:48,130 --> 01:17:51,260 there's going to be greater respect for common people; 1401 01:17:51,660 --> 01:17:54,060 there is going to be broader political participation 1402 01:17:54,070 --> 01:17:57,400 in the future than there has been in the colonial past 1403 01:17:57,800 --> 01:18:00,140 by loosening up structures of authority, 1404 01:18:00,340 --> 01:18:03,670 including structures of religious authority. 1405 01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:07,010 If you're making this Revolution and you need 1406 01:18:07,010 --> 01:18:11,150 the support of thousands of common people, men and women, 1407 01:18:11,150 --> 01:18:12,780 what's in it for them? 1408 01:18:14,390 --> 01:18:16,150 Gordon Wood: Up to the 18th century, people assumed that 1409 01:18:16,350 --> 01:18:18,920 everything will always remain the same. 1410 01:18:18,920 --> 01:18:20,790 But the idea that you could take charge 1411 01:18:20,990 --> 01:18:22,930 and change your culture, 1412 01:18:22,930 --> 01:18:25,230 that's what--that's the fundamental basis 1413 01:18:25,230 --> 01:18:28,330 of the Enlightenment, that man can be changed. 1414 01:18:31,000 --> 01:18:35,010 The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 1415 01:18:35,210 --> 01:18:38,040 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, 1416 01:18:38,240 --> 01:18:43,950 a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent. 1417 01:18:43,950 --> 01:18:48,050 Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. 1418 01:18:49,820 --> 01:18:54,090 Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. 1419 01:18:54,090 --> 01:18:56,260 Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. 1420 01:18:58,160 --> 01:19:02,100 O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time 1421 01:19:02,100 --> 01:19:04,230 an asylum for mankind. 1422 01:19:06,800 --> 01:19:11,040 We have it in our power to begin the world over again. 1423 01:19:11,040 --> 01:19:13,740 A situation similar to the present hath not happened 1424 01:19:13,740 --> 01:19:16,850 since the days of Noah until now. 1425 01:19:17,050 --> 01:19:19,980 The birthday of a new world is at hand. 1426 01:19:20,180 --> 01:19:21,320 Thomas Paine. 1427 01:19:23,450 --> 01:19:29,090 On January 9th, 1776, a slender pamphlet titled 1428 01:19:29,290 --> 01:19:32,430 "Common Sense" was published in Philadelphia-- 1429 01:19:32,830 --> 01:19:36,270 the most important pamphlet in American history. 1430 01:19:36,270 --> 01:19:39,100 It was signed simply "an Englishman." 1431 01:19:40,540 --> 01:19:43,510 Its author, a recent newcomer to America, 1432 01:19:43,510 --> 01:19:46,980 was 38-year-old Thomas Paine. 1433 01:19:46,980 --> 01:19:50,910 The son of a Quaker corset-maker and his Anglican wife, 1434 01:19:50,920 --> 01:19:53,890 Paine had failed at his father's profession, 1435 01:19:54,090 --> 01:19:58,020 lost his first wife and their child in childbirth, 1436 01:19:58,020 --> 01:20:01,060 been fired from his post as tax collector, 1437 01:20:01,260 --> 01:20:04,930 endured the collapse of a second childless marriage, 1438 01:20:05,130 --> 01:20:09,370 and had seen his possessions auctioned off to pay his debts. 1439 01:20:09,570 --> 01:20:12,170 During his 8-week voyage from Britain, 1440 01:20:12,170 --> 01:20:16,810 he'd contracted typhus, and when his ship reached Philadelphia, 1441 01:20:16,810 --> 01:20:18,980 he had to be carried off, half-dead. 1442 01:20:21,010 --> 01:20:24,180 But Paine was a master with words, 1443 01:20:24,180 --> 01:20:27,850 skillfully weaving the latest Enlightenment philosophy 1444 01:20:28,050 --> 01:20:31,020 with biblical references that everyone knew. 1445 01:20:32,460 --> 01:20:36,460 And he was a violent foe of aristocracy and monarchy. 1446 01:20:38,460 --> 01:20:40,160 It's a much more radical document 1447 01:20:40,360 --> 01:20:42,500 than anything that had preceded it. 1448 01:20:42,900 --> 01:20:44,170 "Common Sense" takes off 1449 01:20:44,370 --> 01:20:46,240 like an accelerant through the colonies. 1450 01:20:47,470 --> 01:20:50,010 Everyone reads it. 1451 01:20:50,010 --> 01:20:51,540 Excerpts from "Common Sense" appeared 1452 01:20:51,940 --> 01:20:54,880 in newspapers throughout the colonies. 1453 01:20:55,080 --> 01:20:58,380 The pamphlet would sell tens of thousands of copies. 1454 01:21:00,020 --> 01:21:03,620 It is an unprecedented bestseller. 1455 01:21:04,020 --> 01:21:06,420 With the exception of the Bible in the colonies, 1456 01:21:06,620 --> 01:21:11,290 no book has been read as widely as "Common Sense" is. 1457 01:21:11,300 --> 01:21:14,070 Bernard Bailyn: It was a wholesale attack 1458 01:21:14,270 --> 01:21:19,140 on the entire world of Britain, political, cultural. 1459 01:21:19,140 --> 01:21:22,310 And it's in slam-bang prose. 1460 01:21:22,510 --> 01:21:26,210 No American pamphleteer wrote that kind of 1461 01:21:26,210 --> 01:21:30,010 really tough extreme language. 1462 01:21:30,210 --> 01:21:31,950 It just made people listen 1463 01:21:31,950 --> 01:21:34,450 and made people think at a time when the Congress 1464 01:21:34,650 --> 01:21:37,960 would never have thought of attacking the King, personally, 1465 01:21:38,160 --> 01:21:41,360 King George III, the "Crown of England." 1466 01:21:41,360 --> 01:21:43,430 They were always like, "Oh, he's not really getting it. 1467 01:21:43,630 --> 01:21:44,900 "It's Parliament that's our problem. 1468 01:21:45,100 --> 01:21:47,470 The King needs to help us." 1469 01:21:47,670 --> 01:21:51,300 He just called the King a "beast," in print. 1470 01:21:51,300 --> 01:21:53,370 He was the working-class intellectual. 1471 01:21:53,370 --> 01:21:56,940 His politics were radically democratic, in many ways. 1472 01:21:57,140 --> 01:21:59,540 And that made him different from the other famous Founders. 1473 01:22:01,310 --> 01:22:03,150 Hereditary succession 1474 01:22:03,150 --> 01:22:06,920 is an insult and an imposition on posterity. 1475 01:22:07,120 --> 01:22:10,450 For all men being originally equals, no one by birth 1476 01:22:10,450 --> 01:22:12,420 could have a right to set up his own family 1477 01:22:12,620 --> 01:22:16,460 in perpetual preference to all others forever. 1478 01:22:16,660 --> 01:22:18,500 One of the strongest natural proofs 1479 01:22:18,700 --> 01:22:21,400 of the folly of hereditary right in kings 1480 01:22:21,400 --> 01:22:23,600 is that nature disapproves it, 1481 01:22:24,000 --> 01:22:27,470 otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule 1482 01:22:27,470 --> 01:22:29,570 by giving mankind an ass for a lion. 1483 01:22:29,970 --> 01:22:32,280 Thomas Paine. 1484 01:22:32,280 --> 01:22:36,480 That pamphlet did stir people's minds 1485 01:22:36,480 --> 01:22:39,950 about the possibility of a different kind of world. 1486 01:22:42,090 --> 01:22:43,490 "Common Sense" struck a string 1487 01:22:43,690 --> 01:22:46,560 which required a touch to make it vibrate. 1488 01:22:46,560 --> 01:22:49,360 The country was ripe for independence, and only needed 1489 01:22:49,560 --> 01:22:51,330 somebody to tell the people so. 1490 01:22:52,730 --> 01:22:54,230 Private Ashbel Green. 1491 01:22:56,470 --> 01:22:59,140 Some of the Founders, and others, 1492 01:22:59,140 --> 01:23:01,200 thought this is the moment we can start over again. 1493 01:23:01,210 --> 01:23:04,170 We can actually begin the world anew. 1494 01:23:04,180 --> 01:23:06,640 And it must have been, you know, wildly exciting at the time. 1495 01:23:06,640 --> 01:23:08,280 And I think it still excites us, that we are 1496 01:23:08,280 --> 01:23:11,080 the product of a revolutionary moment 1497 01:23:11,280 --> 01:23:14,180 where the world turned upside down. 1498 01:23:14,190 --> 01:23:15,420 My countrymen will come 1499 01:23:15,620 --> 01:23:17,990 reluctantly into the idea of independency. 1500 01:23:19,390 --> 01:23:22,190 I find "Common Sense" is working a wonderful change 1501 01:23:22,190 --> 01:23:23,390 in the minds of many men. 1502 01:23:25,100 --> 01:23:26,130 George Washington. 1503 01:23:29,100 --> 01:23:31,630 Not all minds were changed. 1504 01:23:31,640 --> 01:23:34,500 Hannah Griffitts, the Philadelphia poet 1505 01:23:34,510 --> 01:23:38,140 who in 1768 had urged American women 1506 01:23:38,140 --> 01:23:40,750 to boycott British goods, was horrified. 1507 01:23:42,650 --> 01:23:45,550 The idea that to reform the Empire 1508 01:23:45,550 --> 01:23:48,720 by not buying tea or imported cloth 1509 01:23:49,120 --> 01:23:52,390 would lead to this crazy question of independence 1510 01:23:52,590 --> 01:23:57,330 was an impossible thing for her to countenance. 1511 01:23:57,330 --> 01:24:00,060 Paine is where a lot of people get on the revolutionary road. 1512 01:24:00,260 --> 01:24:01,800 It's where she gets off. 1513 01:24:03,670 --> 01:24:06,540 For some Americans, "Common Sense" confirmed 1514 01:24:06,740 --> 01:24:09,040 their worst fears. 1515 01:24:09,240 --> 01:24:12,610 Vermont Loyalist John Peters, who continued to receive 1516 01:24:12,810 --> 01:24:15,410 death threats from his Patriot neighbors, 1517 01:24:15,410 --> 01:24:17,050 had reached a breaking point. 1518 01:24:18,720 --> 01:24:20,550 Often mobbed and once imprisoned 1519 01:24:20,550 --> 01:24:22,650 by the malcontents, I quitted 1520 01:24:22,650 --> 01:24:25,260 my family, property, and offices, 1521 01:24:25,260 --> 01:24:28,560 and fled to Canada, to avoid personal danger 1522 01:24:28,760 --> 01:24:31,800 and to support the British cause against its enemies. 1523 01:24:35,330 --> 01:24:38,100 The want of guns is so great 1524 01:24:38,100 --> 01:24:41,210 that no trouble or expense must be spared to obtain them. 1525 01:24:43,370 --> 01:24:46,440 Washington has got Boston surrounded. 1526 01:24:46,640 --> 01:24:50,250 The problem is, he doesn't have the big guns necessary 1527 01:24:50,250 --> 01:24:53,420 to make the British in Boston really feel threatened. 1528 01:24:53,620 --> 01:24:55,720 He's got some artillery, but not enough. 1529 01:24:55,720 --> 01:24:58,120 They tend to be smaller field guns. 1530 01:24:58,320 --> 01:25:00,720 He knows that at Ticonderoga, 1531 01:25:00,720 --> 01:25:03,630 which is several hundred miles away, 1532 01:25:03,630 --> 01:25:08,160 there are more than 80 British guns that have been captured by 1533 01:25:08,170 --> 01:25:09,700 Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen. 1534 01:25:10,100 --> 01:25:12,470 And he tells Henry Knox, "Go to Ticonderoga, 1535 01:25:12,470 --> 01:25:13,670 bring back whatever you can." 1536 01:25:16,370 --> 01:25:19,680 Henry Knox was a big, amiable, 25-year-old 1537 01:25:19,880 --> 01:25:22,750 Boston bookseller who had learned all he knew 1538 01:25:23,150 --> 01:25:25,880 about artillery and military engineering 1539 01:25:25,880 --> 01:25:28,490 from volumes he'd stocked in his shop 1540 01:25:28,690 --> 01:25:31,120 and from his service in the Boston militia. 1541 01:25:32,520 --> 01:25:35,560 He'd earned Washington's admiration for overseeing 1542 01:25:35,560 --> 01:25:38,530 the construction of fortifications at Roxbury. 1543 01:25:40,130 --> 01:25:42,130 Washington, who's got a very good eye 1544 01:25:42,330 --> 01:25:45,670 for subordinate talent, recognizes that this guy, 1545 01:25:45,870 --> 01:25:48,170 he doesn't even have a uniform at the time, 1546 01:25:48,170 --> 01:25:51,580 has something about him that Washington finds appealing, 1547 01:25:51,780 --> 01:25:55,580 and the potential that Henry Knox evinces 1548 01:25:55,780 --> 01:25:58,850 is something that Washington recognizes immediately. 1549 01:25:58,850 --> 01:26:01,420 Before setting out, Knox wrote a letter 1550 01:26:01,420 --> 01:26:05,420 to his pregnant wife Lucy, who had fled Boston, 1551 01:26:05,420 --> 01:26:08,760 leaving her Loyalist parents and siblings behind. 1552 01:26:10,660 --> 01:26:12,860 Keep up your spirits, my dear girl, 1553 01:26:13,260 --> 01:26:16,470 and don't be alarmed when I tell you that the General 1554 01:26:16,470 --> 01:26:18,640 has ordered me to go to the westward 1555 01:26:18,640 --> 01:26:20,170 as far as Ticonderoga. 1556 01:26:22,170 --> 01:26:25,510 Don't be afraid, there is no fighting in the case. 1557 01:26:25,510 --> 01:26:27,480 I am going upon business only. 1558 01:26:27,480 --> 01:26:28,750 Henry Knox. 1559 01:26:30,780 --> 01:26:33,420 Knox made his way to the captured forts 1560 01:26:33,420 --> 01:26:36,850 and found 55 guns worth transporting-- 1561 01:26:37,250 --> 01:26:42,260 39 field pieces, 14 mortars, and two howitzers-- 1562 01:26:42,460 --> 01:26:45,460 all weighing more than 64 tons. 1563 01:26:48,200 --> 01:26:50,830 Knox's task was somehow to move them 1564 01:26:51,240 --> 01:26:54,840 300 miles down into the Hudson Valley, 1565 01:26:55,240 --> 01:26:58,240 across the Berkshires, and all the way to Boston. 1566 01:27:00,240 --> 01:27:04,250 He had horses and ox teams haul the guns overland 1567 01:27:04,450 --> 01:27:07,850 to the northern end of Lake George. 1568 01:27:07,850 --> 01:27:11,590 From there, a small fleet of barges and boats 1569 01:27:11,790 --> 01:27:15,760 ferried them more than 30 miles against howling winds 1570 01:27:15,960 --> 01:27:18,260 to Fort George at the southern end. 1571 01:27:20,800 --> 01:27:23,830 I have made 42 exceeding strong sleds 1572 01:27:23,830 --> 01:27:25,800 and have provided 80 yoke of oxen 1573 01:27:26,000 --> 01:27:28,610 to drag them as far as Springfield, 1574 01:27:28,610 --> 01:27:32,580 where I shall get fresh cattle to carry them to camp. 1575 01:27:32,780 --> 01:27:34,780 We shall have a fine fall of snow, 1576 01:27:34,980 --> 01:27:36,510 which will make the carriage easy. 1577 01:27:36,710 --> 01:27:38,350 Henry Knox. 1578 01:27:40,520 --> 01:27:42,590 The snow for which Knox hoped 1579 01:27:42,590 --> 01:27:46,560 proved unpredictable, sometimes too light 1580 01:27:46,560 --> 01:27:48,590 for his sleds to glide over, 1581 01:27:48,790 --> 01:27:51,360 sometimes too heavy for them to move at all. 1582 01:27:54,330 --> 01:27:57,370 Crossing the Berkshires, oxen hauled the cannon 1583 01:27:57,570 --> 01:28:01,800 up and over mountains so tall that from their summits, 1584 01:28:01,810 --> 01:28:04,980 Knox remembered, "We might almost have seen 1585 01:28:05,380 --> 01:28:06,940 all the kingdoms of the earth." 1586 01:28:10,050 --> 01:28:12,950 Wherever they went, farmers and townspeople 1587 01:28:13,350 --> 01:28:14,450 turned out to see them. 1588 01:28:16,450 --> 01:28:19,060 We reached Westfield, Massachusetts, 1589 01:28:19,060 --> 01:28:22,460 and found that very few, even among the oldest inhabitants, 1590 01:28:22,660 --> 01:28:25,660 had ever seen a cannon. 1591 01:28:25,660 --> 01:28:29,000 We were great gainers by this curiosity. 1592 01:28:29,400 --> 01:28:32,800 For while they were employed in remarking upon our guns, 1593 01:28:33,000 --> 01:28:35,870 we were with equal pleasure discussing the qualities 1594 01:28:35,870 --> 01:28:38,880 of their cider and whiskey. 1595 01:28:39,080 --> 01:28:40,310 John P. Becker. 1596 01:28:41,950 --> 01:28:44,550 As the ox train lumbered on, 1597 01:28:44,550 --> 01:28:47,750 Knox hurried ahead alone to Cambridge. 1598 01:28:47,750 --> 01:28:51,060 He reported to Washington that over the next few weeks, 1599 01:28:51,460 --> 01:28:53,690 all the artillery he'd been promised 1600 01:28:53,690 --> 01:28:55,430 would be at his disposal. 1601 01:29:06,440 --> 01:29:10,040 When the last of Knox's cannon reached Washington's army, 1602 01:29:10,440 --> 01:29:14,780 England's hold on Boston was doomed. 1603 01:29:14,780 --> 01:29:16,810 It's one of the most extraordinary expeditions 1604 01:29:16,810 --> 01:29:18,980 in American military history. 1605 01:29:19,380 --> 01:29:24,620 He appears back in Cambridge, says, "Boss, I'm here. 1606 01:29:24,620 --> 01:29:26,490 "I've brought back 50 guns. 1607 01:29:26,490 --> 01:29:28,490 "They're parked right outside of town. 1608 01:29:28,490 --> 01:29:30,660 They're available whenever you need them." 1609 01:29:30,860 --> 01:29:33,360 Washington says, "You're my man." 1610 01:29:33,560 --> 01:29:36,670 And he puts Knox in charge of Continental Artillery. 1611 01:29:39,500 --> 01:29:42,970 On the night of March 4th, 1776, 1612 01:29:42,970 --> 01:29:46,480 some 3,000 men and 300 teams 1613 01:29:46,680 --> 01:29:48,950 worked to put 20 or more heavy guns 1614 01:29:49,150 --> 01:29:51,580 in place on Dorchester Heights. 1615 01:29:53,620 --> 01:29:55,450 March 5th. 1616 01:29:55,650 --> 01:29:59,120 This morning at daybreak, we discovered two redoubts 1617 01:29:59,120 --> 01:30:01,460 on the hills on Dorchester Point, 1618 01:30:01,660 --> 01:30:04,690 and two smaller works on their flanks. 1619 01:30:04,700 --> 01:30:06,730 They were all raised during the night, 1620 01:30:06,930 --> 01:30:10,100 with an expedition equal to that of the genie 1621 01:30:10,100 --> 01:30:13,470 belonging to Aladdin's wonderful lamp. 1622 01:30:13,670 --> 01:30:16,940 From these hills they commanded the whole town, 1623 01:30:16,940 --> 01:30:19,910 so that we must drive them from their post, 1624 01:30:20,110 --> 01:30:21,540 or desert the place. 1625 01:30:23,950 --> 01:30:26,620 Unwilling to sacrifice any more men, 1626 01:30:26,820 --> 01:30:29,590 General Howe decided to leave Boston 1627 01:30:29,790 --> 01:30:33,060 for Halifax in Nova Scotia, where he hoped to regroup. 1628 01:30:35,630 --> 01:30:39,700 With him went 10,000 soldiers and their dependents 1629 01:30:39,700 --> 01:30:43,870 as well as 1,100 Loyalist men, women, and children 1630 01:30:43,870 --> 01:30:47,870 who would have to build new lives in a new place. 1631 01:30:47,870 --> 01:30:51,740 Among them were Henry Knox's in-laws. 1632 01:30:51,940 --> 01:30:54,580 "I have lost," his wife Lucy wrote, 1633 01:30:54,580 --> 01:30:58,080 "my father, mother, brother, and sisters." 1634 01:31:00,550 --> 01:31:02,790 How horrid is this war? 1635 01:31:02,790 --> 01:31:06,660 Brother against brother and the parent against the child. 1636 01:31:06,660 --> 01:31:09,530 Who were the first promoters of it, I know not. 1637 01:31:09,730 --> 01:31:11,660 But God knows. 1638 01:31:11,660 --> 01:31:14,100 And I fear they will feel the weight of His vengeance. 1639 01:31:16,670 --> 01:31:20,770 Tis pity, the little time we have to spend in this world, 1640 01:31:20,970 --> 01:31:23,840 we cannot enjoy ourselves and our friends, 1641 01:31:24,040 --> 01:31:26,580 but must be devising means to destroy each other. 1642 01:31:27,780 --> 01:31:28,910 Lucy Knox. 1643 01:31:32,250 --> 01:31:36,150 With the evacuation of Boston, no British garrison 1644 01:31:36,150 --> 01:31:39,060 now remained anywhere in the rebellious colonies. 1645 01:31:40,660 --> 01:31:42,730 Serena Zabin: I think it surprises everybody 1646 01:31:42,730 --> 01:31:46,800 that the Patriots are having some successes. 1647 01:31:46,800 --> 01:31:50,670 So much so that everyone's convinced that it's either 1648 01:31:50,870 --> 01:31:53,870 the support of God or the virtue of the cause 1649 01:31:53,870 --> 01:31:56,670 that is helping them win. 1650 01:31:56,870 --> 01:32:00,510 One of their favorite metaphors is the Battle of Jericho. 1651 01:32:01,980 --> 01:32:03,680 They're sure that all it takes 1652 01:32:03,880 --> 01:32:06,850 is for this army that has right on its side 1653 01:32:06,850 --> 01:32:08,690 to show up and blow a trumpet, 1654 01:32:08,890 --> 01:32:10,290 and the walls are just going to fall down. 1655 01:32:11,860 --> 01:32:15,090 Some Americans believed the war was over. 1656 01:32:15,090 --> 01:32:18,260 The Massachusetts legislature thanked George Washington 1657 01:32:18,660 --> 01:32:21,060 for his service and wished him 1658 01:32:21,060 --> 01:32:25,100 "Peace and Satisfaction of Mind" in his retirement. 1659 01:32:25,100 --> 01:32:28,000 But Washington knew better. 1660 01:32:28,010 --> 01:32:30,040 He informed Congress that he would 1661 01:32:30,040 --> 01:32:35,050 "immediately repair to New York, with the remainder of the Army." 1662 01:32:35,250 --> 01:32:38,620 He was sure that Howe's next move would be to attack 1663 01:32:38,820 --> 01:32:40,720 that strategically important port. 1664 01:32:43,720 --> 01:32:48,120 By mid-April, 1776, he and his wife Martha, 1665 01:32:48,130 --> 01:32:50,290 and several members of their household, 1666 01:32:50,290 --> 01:32:51,800 were in residence there. 1667 01:32:54,260 --> 01:32:57,330 Meanwhile, Congress sent a Connecticut businessman 1668 01:32:57,730 --> 01:33:00,100 named Silas Deane to Paris 1669 01:33:00,100 --> 01:33:03,570 to secretly buy munitions and supplies-- 1670 01:33:03,770 --> 01:33:05,580 and to look into the possibility 1671 01:33:05,780 --> 01:33:10,180 of forging an alliance with France. 1672 01:33:10,180 --> 01:33:13,620 Two questions, really, conjoin at this point. 1673 01:33:13,820 --> 01:33:15,350 One question is, if we're going to 1674 01:33:15,350 --> 01:33:16,750 make ourselves independent, 1675 01:33:16,990 --> 01:33:20,190 if we're going to somehow create a nation, 1676 01:33:20,590 --> 01:33:25,590 which is a truly novel and destabilizing concept, 1677 01:33:25,600 --> 01:33:27,330 how are we going to do that? We have absolutely 1678 01:33:27,730 --> 01:33:29,670 no means with which to do so. 1679 01:33:29,870 --> 01:33:33,140 So, we will have to enlist the aid of a foreign power. 1680 01:33:33,340 --> 01:33:36,640 And then comes the question of a Declaration. 1681 01:33:36,640 --> 01:33:38,870 And the question is, which needs to happen first. 1682 01:33:41,850 --> 01:33:43,880 Independence is the only bond 1683 01:33:43,880 --> 01:33:46,320 that can tie and keep us together. 1684 01:33:46,320 --> 01:33:49,190 Every day convinces us of its necessity. 1685 01:33:50,890 --> 01:33:52,320 Instead of gazing at each other 1686 01:33:52,320 --> 01:33:55,390 with suspicious or doubtful curiosity, 1687 01:33:55,790 --> 01:33:57,360 let each of us hold out to his neighbor 1688 01:33:57,360 --> 01:34:00,630 the hearty hand of friendship. 1689 01:34:00,630 --> 01:34:03,770 And let no other name be heard among us, than those of 1690 01:34:03,770 --> 01:34:07,370 a good citizen; an open and resolute friend; 1691 01:34:07,370 --> 01:34:11,640 and a virtuous supporter of the Rights of Mankind, 1692 01:34:11,840 --> 01:34:15,780 and of the Free and Independent States of America. 1693 01:34:15,980 --> 01:34:16,910 Thomas Paine. 1694 01:34:24,390 --> 01:34:26,290 Language cannot describe, 1695 01:34:26,290 --> 01:34:29,190 nor imagination paint, the scenes of misery 1696 01:34:29,390 --> 01:34:31,360 the soldiery endure, 1697 01:34:31,760 --> 01:34:37,330 continually groaning and calling for relief, but in vain. 1698 01:34:37,330 --> 01:34:39,840 The most shocking of all spectacles 1699 01:34:40,040 --> 01:34:44,410 was to see a large barn crowded full of men with this disorder, 1700 01:34:44,410 --> 01:34:47,410 many of which could not see, speak, or walk. 1701 01:34:48,950 --> 01:34:50,210 Dr. Lewis Beebe. 1702 01:34:52,950 --> 01:34:55,750 That spring, colonists on both sides 1703 01:34:55,750 --> 01:34:59,160 of the fighting were ravaged by a common enemy: 1704 01:34:59,160 --> 01:35:02,190 "Variola major"--smallpox. 1705 01:35:04,190 --> 01:35:07,460 Highly infectious, the virus had scarred, 1706 01:35:07,460 --> 01:35:11,440 blinded, or killed hundreds of thousands in North America 1707 01:35:11,840 --> 01:35:13,840 over the past 2 1/2 centuries. 1708 01:35:17,710 --> 01:35:19,280 The American Revolution coincided 1709 01:35:19,280 --> 01:35:23,980 with a continent-wide epidemic that would last for 7 years 1710 01:35:23,980 --> 01:35:28,920 and take some 100,000 more lives--Black, White, 1711 01:35:29,120 --> 01:35:30,720 as well as Native American. 1712 01:35:32,290 --> 01:35:35,290 Colin Calloway: When armies are marching back and forth, 1713 01:35:35,290 --> 01:35:38,960 this is prime environment for the spread of diseases. 1714 01:35:38,960 --> 01:35:41,500 And one of the largest, 1715 01:35:41,900 --> 01:35:45,330 or at least best documented, smallpox epidemics, 1716 01:35:45,340 --> 01:35:47,400 and it may be epidemics, plural, 1717 01:35:47,800 --> 01:35:49,910 happens at the time of the American Revolution. 1718 01:35:51,340 --> 01:35:58,780 Smallpox was the dread disease of humanity. 1719 01:35:58,780 --> 01:36:02,250 There were just two weapons against smallpox: 1720 01:36:02,250 --> 01:36:06,820 isolating its victims to keep them from infecting others 1721 01:36:06,820 --> 01:36:10,330 or inoculating the still unaffected by deliberately 1722 01:36:10,330 --> 01:36:13,530 implanting live virus into an incision 1723 01:36:13,930 --> 01:36:16,430 in hopes that the infection they contracted 1724 01:36:16,430 --> 01:36:19,870 would neither prove fatal nor infect anyone else 1725 01:36:19,870 --> 01:36:23,240 before it conferred immunity. 1726 01:36:23,240 --> 01:36:26,540 George Washington knew the disease firsthand; 1727 01:36:26,940 --> 01:36:30,250 he'd been permanently scarred by it as a young man. 1728 01:36:30,250 --> 01:36:35,150 But he initially rejected inoculation for his soldiers: 1729 01:36:35,150 --> 01:36:38,190 if he imposed it universally, his whole army 1730 01:36:38,190 --> 01:36:41,460 would have been incapacitated for weeks; 1731 01:36:41,460 --> 01:36:43,830 if he employed it piecemeal 1732 01:36:43,830 --> 01:36:47,230 and just one still-infectious inoculated soldier 1733 01:36:47,430 --> 01:36:49,130 was released too early, 1734 01:36:49,330 --> 01:36:51,270 he might infect his whole company. 1735 01:36:53,200 --> 01:36:56,870 Instead, anyone showing smallpox symptoms 1736 01:36:56,870 --> 01:36:59,380 was isolated in a special hospital 1737 01:36:59,580 --> 01:37:02,380 with guards posted to keep visitors out. 1738 01:37:05,480 --> 01:37:07,850 Meanwhile, aboard Lord Dunmore's 1739 01:37:08,050 --> 01:37:10,390 floating city in the Chesapeake Bay, 1740 01:37:10,390 --> 01:37:14,260 the men of his Ethiopian Regiment and their families, 1741 01:37:14,260 --> 01:37:17,330 packed together on small, segregated vessels, 1742 01:37:17,530 --> 01:37:20,500 were without immunity and not inoculated 1743 01:37:20,900 --> 01:37:24,570 until the disease was already raging among them. 1744 01:37:24,970 --> 01:37:26,440 So was typhus. 1745 01:37:28,440 --> 01:37:31,470 The fever has proved a very malignant one 1746 01:37:31,880 --> 01:37:33,940 and has carried off an incredible number 1747 01:37:33,940 --> 01:37:36,610 of our people, especially the Blacks. 1748 01:37:38,850 --> 01:37:41,020 Had it not been for this horrid disorder, 1749 01:37:41,220 --> 01:37:43,890 I am satisfied I should have had 2,000 Blacks 1750 01:37:44,090 --> 01:37:46,190 with whom I should have had no doubt 1751 01:37:46,190 --> 01:37:48,360 of penetrating into the heart of this colony. 1752 01:37:49,930 --> 01:37:50,860 Lord Dunmore. 1753 01:37:53,460 --> 01:37:56,530 In late May, Dunmore moved his ramshackle fleet 1754 01:37:56,930 --> 01:38:00,070 north to Gwynn's Island, lured there by the presence 1755 01:38:00,070 --> 01:38:02,570 of some 400 cows with which he hoped 1756 01:38:02,970 --> 01:38:05,310 to help feed his followers. 1757 01:38:05,310 --> 01:38:09,880 But smallpox and typhus came with him. 1758 01:38:09,880 --> 01:38:12,620 Runaways continued to find their way to Dunmore, 1759 01:38:13,020 --> 01:38:18,620 6 or 8 a day--and died almost as fast. 1760 01:38:20,260 --> 01:38:21,990 Eventually, under fire from 1761 01:38:22,190 --> 01:38:24,430 Virginia militiamen onshore, 1762 01:38:24,430 --> 01:38:26,400 Dunmore and his fleet would be forced 1763 01:38:26,400 --> 01:38:28,130 to sail away from the island. 1764 01:38:29,270 --> 01:38:30,970 They left behind hundreds 1765 01:38:31,170 --> 01:38:36,210 of sick African-American men, women, and children. 1766 01:38:36,410 --> 01:38:40,010 A Virginian who reached the island a day or two later 1767 01:38:40,010 --> 01:38:41,480 never forgot what he saw. 1768 01:38:43,680 --> 01:38:45,020 On our arrival, 1769 01:38:45,220 --> 01:38:46,250 we were struck with horror 1770 01:38:46,450 --> 01:38:48,120 at the number of dead bodies, 1771 01:38:48,320 --> 01:38:50,150 in a state of putrefaction, 1772 01:38:50,150 --> 01:38:52,660 without a shovelful of earth upon them; 1773 01:38:52,660 --> 01:38:54,690 others gasping for life; 1774 01:38:55,090 --> 01:38:57,230 and some had crawled to the water's edge, 1775 01:38:57,430 --> 01:39:01,600 who could only make known their distress by beckoning to us. 1776 01:39:02,000 --> 01:39:05,430 Such a scene of cruelty my eyes never beheld; 1777 01:39:05,440 --> 01:39:08,040 for which the authors never can make atonement in this world. 1778 01:39:12,610 --> 01:39:15,110 Dunmore's experiment in emancipation 1779 01:39:15,310 --> 01:39:16,650 had ended in disaster. 1780 01:39:18,210 --> 01:39:21,150 But over the 7 years of fighting that followed, 1781 01:39:21,150 --> 01:39:23,550 tens of thousands of enslaved people 1782 01:39:23,950 --> 01:39:25,560 would flee to the British, 1783 01:39:25,960 --> 01:39:28,390 believing that the King's representatives 1784 01:39:28,390 --> 01:39:30,960 were more likely than the Revolutionaries 1785 01:39:31,160 --> 01:39:33,160 to fulfill their hopes for liberty. 1786 01:39:35,700 --> 01:39:37,130 Gordon-Reed: Opting for freedom is a gamble. 1787 01:39:38,540 --> 01:39:41,640 And it makes people take all kinds of risks. 1788 01:39:43,970 --> 01:39:46,540 The notion that you would be in a situation 1789 01:39:46,540 --> 01:39:48,650 where your children, and your children's children, 1790 01:39:49,050 --> 01:39:53,450 and your children's children's children would be enslaved, 1791 01:39:53,450 --> 01:39:58,750 I can understand wanting to risk death to prevent that. 1792 01:40:03,390 --> 01:40:06,460 That same spring, smallpox would end 1793 01:40:06,660 --> 01:40:10,000 the American dream of capturing Canada, as well. 1794 01:40:11,600 --> 01:40:13,300 For more than 4 months, 1795 01:40:13,300 --> 01:40:16,310 Benedict Arnold, now promoted to general, 1796 01:40:16,510 --> 01:40:19,340 had continued to blockade Quebec City, 1797 01:40:19,340 --> 01:40:22,580 hoping he could mount a successful second assault 1798 01:40:22,580 --> 01:40:24,780 before spring temperatures thawed the ice 1799 01:40:25,180 --> 01:40:26,750 blocking the St. Lawrence, 1800 01:40:26,750 --> 01:40:30,150 and the British could land reinforcements. 1801 01:40:30,350 --> 01:40:32,790 But by May, nearly half of those Americans 1802 01:40:33,190 --> 01:40:36,490 who remained were sick. 1803 01:40:36,490 --> 01:40:40,260 Then, Royal Navy warships and transports arrived, 1804 01:40:40,460 --> 01:40:43,230 filled with thousands of fresh troops-- 1805 01:40:43,430 --> 01:40:46,600 and thousands more were on the way. 1806 01:40:46,800 --> 01:40:48,470 The Americans took flight. 1807 01:40:50,110 --> 01:40:53,080 British forces, led by General Guy Carleton 1808 01:40:53,280 --> 01:40:56,310 and General John Burgoyne, pursued them-- 1809 01:40:56,310 --> 01:40:59,450 soon supported by Native American allies. 1810 01:41:01,420 --> 01:41:03,050 Darren Bonaparte: For us, my people 1811 01:41:03,250 --> 01:41:04,350 living on the St. Lawrence, 1812 01:41:04,550 --> 01:41:07,520 the British rallied us and said, 1813 01:41:07,520 --> 01:41:09,060 "We've got Americans invading. 1814 01:41:09,060 --> 01:41:10,230 They're going to kill all of you." 1815 01:41:11,530 --> 01:41:16,200 We sent 100 of our warriors to help the British 1816 01:41:16,200 --> 01:41:18,170 drive the Americans out of the Montreal area. 1817 01:41:19,700 --> 01:41:21,770 One by one, the Americans 1818 01:41:21,770 --> 01:41:24,540 abandoned their outposts. 1819 01:41:24,740 --> 01:41:27,340 Reinforcements added to their numbers, 1820 01:41:27,540 --> 01:41:31,410 but 3/4 of the newcomers had no immunity to smallpox. 1821 01:41:32,820 --> 01:41:34,550 The road ran alongside 1822 01:41:34,550 --> 01:41:37,390 of the river opposite the city of Montreal, 1823 01:41:37,390 --> 01:41:39,120 and we could plainly see the red-coated 1824 01:41:39,120 --> 01:41:41,660 British soldiers on the other shore. 1825 01:41:41,660 --> 01:41:44,360 So close were they upon us that if we had not retreated 1826 01:41:44,360 --> 01:41:47,330 as we did, all would have been prisoners, 1827 01:41:47,330 --> 01:41:50,130 for they were in numbers as 6-to-our-one, 1828 01:41:50,330 --> 01:41:53,140 and we, moreover, nearly half-dead 1829 01:41:53,140 --> 01:41:55,640 with sickness and fatigue and lack of clothing. 1830 01:41:57,110 --> 01:41:59,240 John Greenwood. 1831 01:41:59,240 --> 01:42:01,210 The young fifer John Greenwood 1832 01:42:01,210 --> 01:42:03,280 was among those reinforcements 1833 01:42:03,280 --> 01:42:06,150 when Arnold ordered his men to abandon Montreal. 1834 01:42:08,180 --> 01:42:10,850 Nearly 2,000 fell ill. 1835 01:42:11,250 --> 01:42:14,290 Eventually they crowded onto Ile aux Noix, 1836 01:42:14,490 --> 01:42:17,890 waiting their turn to be ferried south on Lake Champlain 1837 01:42:17,890 --> 01:42:20,630 to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. 1838 01:42:23,500 --> 01:42:29,910 20 to 60 men fell ill every day, and 15 to 20 died. 1839 01:42:30,310 --> 01:42:31,910 Two great pits were dug 1840 01:42:31,910 --> 01:42:33,780 in which the dead were heaped each evening, 1841 01:42:34,180 --> 01:42:36,180 one man recalled, 1842 01:42:36,180 --> 01:42:39,520 "with no other covering but the rags in which they died." 1843 01:42:41,350 --> 01:42:43,520 By the end of June, 10 months 1844 01:42:43,720 --> 01:42:46,620 after the American invasion of Canada began, 1845 01:42:46,820 --> 01:42:47,760 it was over. 1846 01:42:49,430 --> 01:42:52,360 12,000 Americans had taken part. 1847 01:42:52,560 --> 01:42:55,630 Some 5,000 of them had been killed, 1848 01:42:55,630 --> 01:42:57,670 wounded, taken prisoner, 1849 01:42:57,670 --> 01:43:01,170 died of disease, or deserted. 1850 01:43:01,370 --> 01:43:03,210 The survivors were now encamped 1851 01:43:03,410 --> 01:43:05,480 back on the shores of Lake Champlain 1852 01:43:05,680 --> 01:43:07,810 where the campaign had started. 1853 01:43:10,410 --> 01:43:11,880 Our army at Crown Point 1854 01:43:12,280 --> 01:43:14,320 is an object of wretchedness 1855 01:43:14,520 --> 01:43:16,590 to fill a human mind with horror. 1856 01:43:17,890 --> 01:43:19,590 Our misfortunes in Canada are enough 1857 01:43:19,790 --> 01:43:22,290 to melt a heart of stone. 1858 01:43:22,290 --> 01:43:24,560 The smallpox is 10 times more terrible 1859 01:43:24,760 --> 01:43:27,200 than Britons, Canadians, and Indians together. 1860 01:43:28,630 --> 01:43:29,600 John Adams. 1861 01:43:31,900 --> 01:43:34,700 "Our affairs are hastening to a crisis," 1862 01:43:34,700 --> 01:43:37,740 John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress 1863 01:43:37,940 --> 01:43:40,680 warned, "and the approaching campaign 1864 01:43:40,680 --> 01:43:42,380 "will in all probability 1865 01:43:42,580 --> 01:43:45,350 determine forever the fate of America." 1866 01:43:47,320 --> 01:43:49,550 France had by now quietly pledged 1867 01:43:49,550 --> 01:43:51,850 to provide some arms and money-- 1868 01:43:52,260 --> 01:43:54,790 but open support would require the Congress 1869 01:43:54,790 --> 01:43:57,390 to cut all ties to Britain. 1870 01:43:57,590 --> 01:44:00,300 "Every day," John Adams wrote to a friend, 1871 01:44:00,500 --> 01:44:05,430 independence "rolls in upon us like a torrent." 1872 01:44:05,440 --> 01:44:09,840 On May 15th, Congress called upon all 13 colonies 1873 01:44:09,840 --> 01:44:12,010 to form their own governments. 1874 01:44:12,410 --> 01:44:15,610 By adopting new constitutions, the colonies would 1875 01:44:15,610 --> 01:44:18,350 turn themselves into sovereign States. 1876 01:44:20,780 --> 01:44:23,820 The next day, delegates learned that the British, 1877 01:44:24,020 --> 01:44:26,660 desperate and without European allies, 1878 01:44:26,660 --> 01:44:29,020 had hired thousands of foreign troops 1879 01:44:29,030 --> 01:44:31,830 to help crush the rebellion. 1880 01:44:32,030 --> 01:44:36,030 Some German princes had agreed to provide them--for a price. 1881 01:44:37,630 --> 01:44:41,540 Most came from Hessen-Kassel and Hessen-Hanau, 1882 01:44:41,540 --> 01:44:45,910 so the Americans would call them all "Hessians." 1883 01:44:45,910 --> 01:44:49,280 "O Britons," one Rhode Islander lamented, 1884 01:44:49,480 --> 01:44:52,280 "how art you fallen that you hire foreigners 1885 01:44:52,480 --> 01:44:54,380 to cut your children's throats." 1886 01:44:56,390 --> 01:44:58,020 The British nation have proceeded 1887 01:44:58,020 --> 01:45:00,060 to the last extremity. 1888 01:45:00,460 --> 01:45:03,560 And we should expect a severe trial this summer, 1889 01:45:03,560 --> 01:45:06,860 with Britons, Hessians, Indians, Negroes, 1890 01:45:07,060 --> 01:45:09,930 and every other butcher the gracious King of Britain 1891 01:45:10,330 --> 01:45:12,470 can hire against us. 1892 01:45:12,670 --> 01:45:14,940 Josiah Bartlett, New Hampshire. 1893 01:45:16,670 --> 01:45:18,910 Friederike Baer: The Americans are using 1894 01:45:19,310 --> 01:45:21,040 the British Government's decision 1895 01:45:21,040 --> 01:45:22,850 to hire foreign soldiers 1896 01:45:23,050 --> 01:45:25,310 in the war against British subjects, 1897 01:45:25,520 --> 01:45:28,020 if they look at this as a civil war to some extent. 1898 01:45:28,020 --> 01:45:30,050 They're using this as a tool 1899 01:45:30,450 --> 01:45:33,360 to rile up resistance against Britain, 1900 01:45:33,560 --> 01:45:35,760 to mobilize men to, basically, 1901 01:45:35,960 --> 01:45:38,760 take up arms against these invaders, 1902 01:45:38,960 --> 01:45:42,100 and ultimately to support independence. 1903 01:45:44,030 --> 01:45:47,840 On June 7th, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia 1904 01:45:48,040 --> 01:45:51,640 introduced resolutions in Congress declaring that 1905 01:45:51,640 --> 01:45:55,340 "these United Colonies are and of right 1906 01:45:55,340 --> 01:45:58,510 "ought to be free and independent States 1907 01:45:58,510 --> 01:46:02,120 absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown." 1908 01:46:05,390 --> 01:46:08,090 Meanwhile, a letter to a Pennsylvania newspaper 1909 01:46:08,090 --> 01:46:11,030 signed only "Republicus" 1910 01:46:11,030 --> 01:46:14,460 declared that it was time for independent Americans 1911 01:46:14,460 --> 01:46:17,630 "to call themselves by some name"-- 1912 01:46:17,630 --> 01:46:20,540 and proposed the "United States of America." 1913 01:46:22,970 --> 01:46:26,070 A 5-man committee was named to produce a document 1914 01:46:26,080 --> 01:46:28,480 setting forth the reasons for making 1915 01:46:28,680 --> 01:46:31,680 such a momentous decision. 1916 01:46:31,880 --> 01:46:34,950 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson of Virginia 1917 01:46:35,150 --> 01:46:37,690 was assigned to write the first draft. 1918 01:46:40,460 --> 01:46:45,030 He would draw from Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, 1919 01:46:45,430 --> 01:46:47,900 and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1920 01:46:47,900 --> 01:46:50,100 written by his friend George Mason. 1921 01:46:51,930 --> 01:46:55,900 But his goal, he said, was to distill what he called 1922 01:46:55,910 --> 01:46:58,170 "an expression of the American mind." 1923 01:47:01,010 --> 01:47:03,910 He worked in a rented room on Market Street, 1924 01:47:04,110 --> 01:47:06,650 fueled by cups of tea brought to him 1925 01:47:06,650 --> 01:47:10,620 by his 14-year-old valet, Robert Hemings-- 1926 01:47:10,620 --> 01:47:14,020 the son of an enslaved servant, Elizabeth Hemings, 1927 01:47:14,020 --> 01:47:15,730 and Jefferson's father-in-law. 1928 01:47:18,730 --> 01:47:21,500 When in the course of human events, 1929 01:47:21,500 --> 01:47:23,570 it becomes necessary for one people 1930 01:47:23,770 --> 01:47:25,470 to dissolve the political bands 1931 01:47:25,670 --> 01:47:27,900 which have connected them with another, 1932 01:47:28,100 --> 01:47:30,640 and to assume among the powers of the earth 1933 01:47:30,640 --> 01:47:32,640 the separate and equal station 1934 01:47:32,840 --> 01:47:34,810 to which the laws of nature 1935 01:47:35,010 --> 01:47:38,080 and of nature's God entitle them, 1936 01:47:38,080 --> 01:47:41,520 a decent respect to the opinions of mankind 1937 01:47:41,520 --> 01:47:44,450 requires that they should declare the causes 1938 01:47:44,650 --> 01:47:46,820 which impel them to the separation. 1939 01:47:49,630 --> 01:47:52,960 We hold these truths to be self-evident: 1940 01:47:52,960 --> 01:47:56,170 that all men are created equal; 1941 01:47:56,570 --> 01:47:58,800 that they are endowed by their Creator 1942 01:47:58,800 --> 01:48:01,870 with certain inalienable rights; 1943 01:48:01,870 --> 01:48:06,210 that among these are life, liberty, 1944 01:48:06,210 --> 01:48:07,980 and the pursuit of happiness. 1945 01:48:10,210 --> 01:48:11,980 Everything that we believe in 1946 01:48:12,180 --> 01:48:13,780 comes out of the Revolution. 1947 01:48:13,980 --> 01:48:16,990 Our ideas of liberty, equality, 1948 01:48:17,190 --> 01:48:21,890 it's the defining event of our history. 1949 01:48:22,090 --> 01:48:24,260 "All men are created equal." 1950 01:48:24,660 --> 01:48:27,260 That is the most famous and important phrase 1951 01:48:27,660 --> 01:48:29,100 in our history. 1952 01:48:29,100 --> 01:48:30,870 If we don't celebrate it, we have 1953 01:48:30,870 --> 01:48:33,870 no reason to be a people. 1954 01:48:33,870 --> 01:48:35,170 And Lincoln knew that. 1955 01:48:35,570 --> 01:48:37,610 And that's why he says, 1956 01:48:37,810 --> 01:48:38,710 "All honor to Jefferson." 1957 01:48:41,710 --> 01:48:44,080 Thomas Jefferson was proposing something 1958 01:48:44,080 --> 01:48:48,120 altogether new and radical in the world. 1959 01:48:48,520 --> 01:48:51,290 It was the American people's "right," he argued, 1960 01:48:51,690 --> 01:48:55,020 it was "their duty"-- to "throw off" tyranny 1961 01:48:55,020 --> 01:48:57,230 and learn to govern themselves. 1962 01:48:59,060 --> 01:49:01,030 That to secure these rights, 1963 01:49:01,230 --> 01:49:04,100 governments are instituted among men, 1964 01:49:04,300 --> 01:49:08,570 deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 1965 01:49:08,770 --> 01:49:10,710 that whenever any form of government 1966 01:49:10,710 --> 01:49:13,180 becomes destructive of these ends, 1967 01:49:13,580 --> 01:49:18,010 it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, 1968 01:49:18,010 --> 01:49:20,280 and to institute new government, 1969 01:49:20,680 --> 01:49:23,720 laying its foundation on such principles 1970 01:49:23,920 --> 01:49:26,920 and organizing its powers in such form, 1971 01:49:27,120 --> 01:49:29,730 as to them shall seem most likely 1972 01:49:29,930 --> 01:49:32,630 to effect their safety and happiness. 1973 01:49:35,730 --> 01:49:38,230 Since no one had authority over anyone else 1974 01:49:38,230 --> 01:49:41,600 by birthright, Jefferson was affirming 1975 01:49:41,800 --> 01:49:46,180 that all legitimate power came from the people themselves-- 1976 01:49:46,580 --> 01:49:50,750 even if he, the owner of hundreds of human beings, 1977 01:49:50,950 --> 01:49:54,350 could never make that truth a reality in his own life. 1978 01:49:55,950 --> 01:49:57,250 Gordon-Reed: His relationship to slavery 1979 01:49:57,250 --> 01:50:00,220 is foundational. 1980 01:50:00,620 --> 01:50:02,820 From the beginning to the end, this institution 1981 01:50:02,830 --> 01:50:06,100 bounded his life, even though he knew it was wrong. 1982 01:50:07,660 --> 01:50:09,970 How could you know something is wrong and still do it? 1983 01:50:10,170 --> 01:50:13,900 Well, that is the human question for all of us. 1984 01:50:16,270 --> 01:50:17,370 The Declaration of Independence, 1985 01:50:17,770 --> 01:50:19,010 we remember it, primarily, 1986 01:50:19,210 --> 01:50:22,240 from its opening preamble, 1987 01:50:22,650 --> 01:50:25,810 the most famous sentences in our history, 1988 01:50:25,820 --> 01:50:28,220 quoted ever since as a mandate 1989 01:50:28,620 --> 01:50:31,890 for expanding liberty for other people. 1990 01:50:31,890 --> 01:50:34,290 But most of the document is something else. 1991 01:50:34,690 --> 01:50:36,330 It is a list of crimes 1992 01:50:36,730 --> 01:50:39,730 allegedly committed by the King. 1993 01:50:39,930 --> 01:50:42,230 That means that when the Patriot leaders 1994 01:50:43,630 --> 01:50:45,200 decide that they want independence, 1995 01:50:45,200 --> 01:50:49,000 then they must persuade their people in the colonies, 1996 01:50:49,010 --> 01:50:54,310 now states, that the King has forfeited his just authority. 1997 01:50:54,310 --> 01:50:56,810 The purpose of the Declaration of Independence 1998 01:50:57,010 --> 01:50:59,780 is to declare the King is no longer sovereign. 1999 01:51:01,880 --> 01:51:04,050 Throughout history, most people 2000 01:51:04,050 --> 01:51:05,420 had been subjects, 2001 01:51:05,420 --> 01:51:08,660 living under authoritarian rule. 2002 01:51:08,860 --> 01:51:11,890 "All experience hath shewn," Jefferson wrote, 2003 01:51:11,890 --> 01:51:14,860 "that mankind are more disposed to suffer, 2004 01:51:15,060 --> 01:51:17,030 while evils are sufferable." 2005 01:51:18,870 --> 01:51:23,810 George III himself, not the Parliament, was now the enemy. 2006 01:51:23,810 --> 01:51:25,910 The Declaration denounced him 2007 01:51:25,910 --> 01:51:29,380 as "unfit to be the ruler of a free people," 2008 01:51:29,780 --> 01:51:33,680 guilty of 18 "injuries and usurpations," 2009 01:51:33,880 --> 01:51:37,850 all meant to establish, it read, "absolute tyranny." 2010 01:51:39,020 --> 01:51:42,690 It charged that he had invaded "the rights of the people," 2011 01:51:42,690 --> 01:51:45,760 sent "swarms of officers to harass" them, 2012 01:51:45,960 --> 01:51:49,160 imposed a standing army in peacetime, 2013 01:51:49,170 --> 01:51:52,700 levied taxes without the colonists' consent, 2014 01:51:52,700 --> 01:51:55,740 and was now waging war against them. 2015 01:51:58,870 --> 01:52:01,440 Dunmore's Proclamation had deepened fears 2016 01:52:01,440 --> 01:52:03,280 of slave uprisings, 2017 01:52:03,480 --> 01:52:06,080 and reports that the governor of Canada 2018 01:52:06,080 --> 01:52:10,090 had enlisted Native people to resist the invasion there 2019 01:52:10,090 --> 01:52:11,820 further inflamed Congress. 2020 01:52:13,260 --> 01:52:16,990 In the 18th and final charge against the King, 2021 01:52:16,990 --> 01:52:20,360 Jefferson did all he could to exploit their fury. 2022 01:52:22,230 --> 01:52:23,770 He has excited 2023 01:52:23,770 --> 01:52:26,330 domestic insurrections amongst us 2024 01:52:26,340 --> 01:52:27,970 and has endeavored to bring on 2025 01:52:28,170 --> 01:52:30,740 the inhabitants of our frontiers, 2026 01:52:30,740 --> 01:52:33,210 the merciless Indian Savages, 2027 01:52:33,210 --> 01:52:35,210 whose known rule of warfare 2028 01:52:35,410 --> 01:52:37,850 is an undistinguished destruction 2029 01:52:37,850 --> 01:52:41,450 of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 2030 01:52:44,020 --> 01:52:46,860 Proclaiming the equality of "all men" 2031 01:52:46,860 --> 01:52:49,990 was a genuinely revolutionary idea, 2032 01:52:50,190 --> 01:52:54,330 but that equality was not yet extended to Native Americans, 2033 01:52:54,330 --> 01:53:00,270 enslaved or free Blacks, the poor, or any woman. 2034 01:53:00,270 --> 01:53:04,340 Jefferson's original list of "injuries" had also included 2035 01:53:04,340 --> 01:53:08,180 the charge that George III was somehow responsible 2036 01:53:08,180 --> 01:53:10,480 for the Atlantic slave trade. 2037 01:53:10,880 --> 01:53:15,950 He called it "cruel war against human nature itself." 2038 01:53:15,950 --> 01:53:19,950 The other delegates refused to adopt that charge. 2039 01:53:23,560 --> 01:53:26,100 The Declaration of Independence was formally 2040 01:53:26,300 --> 01:53:30,530 ratified on July 4th, 1776-- 2041 01:53:30,930 --> 01:53:36,340 just 1,337 words that ended with the phrase, 2042 01:53:36,540 --> 01:53:39,140 "We mutually pledge to each other 2043 01:53:39,140 --> 01:53:43,850 our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." 2044 01:53:46,580 --> 01:53:49,190 When Rhode Island delegate Stephen Hopkins, 2045 01:53:49,390 --> 01:53:52,190 who had palsy, signed the document, 2046 01:53:52,190 --> 01:53:54,160 he is said to have remarked, 2047 01:53:54,360 --> 01:53:58,060 "My hand trembles, but my heart does not." 2048 01:54:01,900 --> 01:54:04,570 It was first read aloud to a cheering crowd 2049 01:54:04,970 --> 01:54:09,270 in the State House yard at Philadelphia on July 8th. 2050 01:54:09,470 --> 01:54:13,010 It was soon published in 29 newspapers, 2051 01:54:13,010 --> 01:54:17,480 and greeted by parades and celebratory volleys of gunfire 2052 01:54:17,480 --> 01:54:20,520 throughout the newly United States. 2053 01:54:22,590 --> 01:54:24,620 Boston, Massachusetts-- 2054 01:54:25,020 --> 01:54:27,860 when Colonel Crafts read the proclamation, 2055 01:54:27,860 --> 01:54:30,460 great attention was given to every word, 2056 01:54:30,860 --> 01:54:34,130 and every face appeared joyful. 2057 01:54:34,330 --> 01:54:37,300 The King's arms were taken down from the State House 2058 01:54:37,300 --> 01:54:40,270 and every vestige of him from every place 2059 01:54:40,270 --> 01:54:44,270 in which it appeared and burned in King Street. 2060 01:54:44,270 --> 01:54:47,380 Thus ends royal authority in this state, 2061 01:54:47,380 --> 01:54:51,210 and all the people shall say, "Amen." 2062 01:54:51,410 --> 01:54:52,880 Abigail Adams. 2063 01:54:55,120 --> 01:54:57,390 On July 9th, in New York, 2064 01:54:57,390 --> 01:55:02,160 General Washington ordered the Declaration read to his troops. 2065 01:55:02,360 --> 01:55:05,660 Hearing the list of George III's alleged crimes 2066 01:55:06,060 --> 01:55:08,660 so angered the men that a number of them 2067 01:55:08,660 --> 01:55:11,600 raced down Broadway to Bowling Green, 2068 01:55:11,600 --> 01:55:14,400 tied ropes to the statue of the King, 2069 01:55:14,400 --> 01:55:16,040 and pulled it to the ground. 2070 01:55:18,570 --> 01:55:22,110 Pieces of the shattered statue were dispatched by wagon 2071 01:55:22,310 --> 01:55:26,050 to Litchfield, Connecticut, where Patriots melted 2072 01:55:26,250 --> 01:55:31,920 the gilded lead into bullets-- 42,088 of them. 2073 01:55:34,420 --> 01:55:37,430 Far to the north at Fort Ticonderoga, 2074 01:55:37,430 --> 01:55:40,560 the battered survivors of the failed invasion of Canada 2075 01:55:40,560 --> 01:55:43,260 were assembled so that the Declaration 2076 01:55:43,270 --> 01:55:45,630 could be read to them. 2077 01:55:45,630 --> 01:55:48,540 When it was over, an eyewitness said, 2078 01:55:48,540 --> 01:55:51,570 "The language of every man's countenance was, 2079 01:55:51,570 --> 01:55:53,680 "Now we are a people; 2080 01:55:53,680 --> 01:55:56,580 we have a name among the states of the world." 2081 01:56:00,220 --> 01:56:02,050 Among those who heard the Declaration 2082 01:56:02,250 --> 01:56:06,350 read at Ticonderoga was private Lemuel Haynes, 2083 01:56:06,360 --> 01:56:10,590 a free African-American from Granville, Massachusetts. 2084 01:56:10,590 --> 01:56:13,330 He understood right away what it might mean 2085 01:56:13,530 --> 01:56:17,530 for people like him--and wrote an essay entitled: 2086 01:56:17,530 --> 01:56:20,000 "Liberty Further Extended." 2087 01:56:22,570 --> 01:56:24,340 Liberty is a jewel 2088 01:56:24,340 --> 01:56:26,280 which was handed down to man 2089 01:56:26,480 --> 01:56:29,040 from the cabinet of heaven. 2090 01:56:29,040 --> 01:56:33,510 It hath pleased God to make "of one blood all nations 2091 01:56:33,520 --> 01:56:38,250 of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth." 2092 01:56:38,250 --> 01:56:41,560 And as all are of one species, therefore, we may 2093 01:56:41,560 --> 01:56:44,460 reasonably conclude that liberty is equally as precious 2094 01:56:44,660 --> 01:56:48,330 to a Black man as it is to a White one, 2095 01:56:48,330 --> 01:56:52,300 and bondage equally as intolerable 2096 01:56:52,500 --> 01:56:54,770 to the one as it is to the other. 2097 01:56:57,210 --> 01:56:58,470 Maggie Blackhawk: The Declaration of Independence 2098 01:56:58,670 --> 01:57:02,310 was deeply significant to people at the margins. 2099 01:57:02,310 --> 01:57:06,280 It gave them a space of moral argument. 2100 01:57:06,280 --> 01:57:08,680 It gave them a space of legal argument 2101 01:57:09,080 --> 01:57:12,120 that could be leveraged to reshape United States democracy 2102 01:57:12,320 --> 01:57:14,260 and become a part of it. 2103 01:57:14,260 --> 01:57:16,760 And we are going to push every lever we had 2104 01:57:17,160 --> 01:57:19,730 to be able to make this democracy real, 2105 01:57:20,130 --> 01:57:22,560 and to make these visions, these values, 2106 01:57:22,560 --> 01:57:25,700 real rather than hypocritical. 2107 01:57:28,800 --> 01:57:31,340 London, "The Gentleman's Magazine." 2108 01:57:32,740 --> 01:57:36,180 The American Declaration reflects no honor 2109 01:57:36,380 --> 01:57:40,820 upon either the erudition or honesty of its authors. 2110 01:57:41,220 --> 01:57:46,050 "We hold," they say, "these truths to be self-evident. 2111 01:57:46,260 --> 01:57:49,060 That all men are created equal"? 2112 01:57:49,260 --> 01:57:53,230 Every plowman knows that they are not created equal. 2113 01:57:53,430 --> 01:57:55,500 It certainly is no reason why the Americans 2114 01:57:55,700 --> 01:57:56,800 should turn rebels. 2115 01:57:58,770 --> 01:58:02,340 King George was determined that the Americans 2116 01:58:02,340 --> 01:58:05,110 not be permitted to break away. 2117 01:58:05,110 --> 01:58:08,540 He believes, and his senior ministers believe, 2118 01:58:08,740 --> 01:58:12,310 that this slippery slope of an American insurrection 2119 01:58:12,310 --> 01:58:14,550 will only lead to 2120 01:58:14,750 --> 01:58:17,090 the dissolution of the British Empire. 2121 01:58:18,750 --> 01:58:21,220 The sun never sets on the British Empire. 2122 01:58:21,420 --> 01:58:25,160 That phrase was coined in 1773. 2123 01:58:25,160 --> 01:58:26,690 And George is determined it's never going to set 2124 01:58:26,700 --> 01:58:27,800 as long as he is the monarch. 2125 01:58:30,630 --> 01:58:32,800 And the King had sent a great fleet 2126 01:58:32,800 --> 01:58:36,200 to New York--with thousands of troops-- 2127 01:58:36,210 --> 01:58:38,670 to prevent that from ever happening.