All language subtitles for independence.dawn.s01e02.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

(intense music)

- [Narrator] 1776,
America is a land divided
against itself,

torn between dreams
of independence and
loyalty to a king.

In the midst of this
struggle, a single document

transforms a rebellion
into a revolution.

- Every soldier who
picks up a musket,

every member of the
family back home

keeping the farm
going is, in effect,

signing their own
declaration of independence.

- [Narrator]
250 years after

the Declaration
of Independence,

the stories of
revolutionary veterans,

some recently transcribed
from pension applications

in the National Archives,

reveal what fighting
for the cause meant

to the common soldier.
(muskets fire)

- Black Americans
like Prince Griswold

are caught between the
cruel reality of slavery

and the high-minded rhetoric
of liberty and freedom.

(musket fires)

- Deborah Sampson takes
the name Robert Shirtliff.

She is a model soldier.

(muskets firing)
(soldiers yelling)

- In many ways,
the war in the South
becomes a civil war.

- [Soldier] We
were a set of men

acting entirely on
our own footing,

what might be called
the harum scarum boys

- [Narrator] Traitors
to some, revolutionaries
to others,

but what does independence
mean to those fighting

to bring about a new dawn for
the country and its people?

(foreboding music)

Successes at Trenton
and Princeton

have temporarily
saved the revolution,

and the Declaration
of Independence

has given Americans a
country to fight for,

but only if people
believe in its promises.

23-year-old Prince
Griswold is born

into perpetual hereditary
slavery in Connecticut.

His enslaver is
Matthew Griswold,

the colony's chief justice
and deputy governor.

- Now, we think of the
American Revolution

as being about
freedom, and it is,

but that means different
things to different people.

(birds chirping)

- Black Americans like
Prince really are caught

between the cruel
reality of slavery

and the high-minded
rhetoric

of the Declaration
of Independence,

with its focus on
liberty and freedom.

(inkwell clinking)

- [Narrator]
Jefferson's first draft
of the declaration

actually contains an
explicit condemnation

of King George's
role in slavery

and the transatlantic
slave trade.

- "He has waged cruel war
against human nature itself,

violating its most sacred
rights of life and liberty

in the persons of
a distant people who
never offended him,

captivating and carrying
them into slavery

in another hemisphere or
to incur miserable death

in a transportation
hither."

This is an astonishing
statement for Jefferson

to include in the
Declaration of Independence.

All of the colonies at
this time have slavery.

Jefferson himself
is a slave holder.

He will be for the
rest of his life.

- The South
Carolina delegation

at the Second Continental
Congress says that line,

"Can't stay."

Says the Declaration
of Independence cannot
have a claim

that the slave
trade is wrong.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] Even with
the explicit reference

to slavery removed
from the declaration,

the revolution creates
new possibilities

and difficult choices
for enslaved people,

and the choices are different
in the North and the South.

In the southern
colonies of Virginia,

the Carolinas,
and Georgia,

where the economies are
built on enslaved labor,

the British dangle the
prospect of freedom

to entice enslaved
people to escape

and join the
loyalist cause.

- Now, that offer is
not done really kind

of out of the goodness
of their hearts.

It's really very specifically
done to swell the ranks

of the British army
and to undermine the
American colonies,

to have enslaved populations
on these plantations leave.

- What they're
trying to do

is disrupt the
Southern economic system
built on slavery

in hopes that this will drive
the planters to make peace.

- In huge numbers,
enslaved men,

women carrying their children
find the British army.

- And those who do risk their
life leaving the plantation,

and in some cases, walking
miles and miles and miles

so they can get to
the British Army,

where they are greeted
not as loyal Britains,

they're greeted
as laborers.

- [Narrator]
In the North,

where enslavement was still
legal but less common,

free Black militia
men fight on the side

of the colonists
at Lexington, Concord,
and Bunker Hill.

But revolutionary
leaders are reluctant

to allow Black men,
free or enslaved,

to enlist in the American
Continental Army.

- The revolution
is being fought

over all this
rhetoric of freedom, this
rhetoric of liberty,

and so the optics don't
look particularly good

when you're enlisting
enslaved people

to fight for your
white liberty.

- [Narrator] But the
American losses during 1776

forced congressional
leadership to rethink
this policy,

- They need
more soldiers,

so some of the
Northern colonies,

like Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, Connecticut,

produced these limited
pathways to freedom

for enslaved people who
were willing to sort

of swell the ranks of
the Continental Army.

- [Narrator] In 1777,
Connecticut legislature
passes a law,

that states, "White
patriots who've been drafted

can send enslaved men
to serve in their place

so long as they
offer them freedom."

- This appears to be
the case for Prince,

but Prince is not alone.

He has a brother, Jim,
who enlists as well.

- [Narrator] He is literally
fighting for his freedom.

It comes at a steep cost.

Terms of enlistment have been
increased to three years,

and Prince is about to
join what still appears

to be the losing side.

- The Founding Fathers
signed a Declaration
of Independence,

but Prince in enlisting
the fight is, in effect,

signing his own declaration
of independence.

So, for someone
like Prince,

the revolution's
literally a choice

between liberty
and death.

(tense marching music)

- [Narrator] In
August, 1777,

only a few weeks
after enlisting,

Prince's unit, the
7th Connecticut Regiment
is on the march.

Washington has learned
his British opponent,

General William Howe,
has landed his army

on the northernmost
point of Chesapeake Bay.

If the Americans can't
turn back the British,

there will be
nothing to stop Howe

from capturing the new
capital of Philadelphia

and possibly dealing a fatal
blow to the revolution.

- The 11th of September,
1777 is humid and foggy.

Under these conditions,
the British army sets out

to attack Washington.

- [Narrator] Washington's
forces are lined up

along the Brandywine,
a shallow but fast
flowing creek

about 10 miles west
of Philadelphia.

(soldiers yelling)

Barely one month
into his service,
Prince finds himself

in the largest
single-day field battle
of the entire war

as 14,000 Americans
prepare to clash with
16,000 British.

When Washington sees the
British army advancing

against his front,

he believes that
Howe is going to attack
him straight on.

- During the fight,
though, he gradually learns

that there are British
forces to his north.

It's at that moment
that Washington realizes

he's being outflanked.

- [Narrator] Prince and
his comrades are ordered

to shore up the
right flank.

In some of the heaviest
fighting of the war,

they hold off the British
until darkness falls,

covering the main
army's retreat.

After 11 hours
of fighting,

1300 Americans are
killed or wounded,

twice the number
of British forces,

but the organized retreat

spares the Americans
from disaster.

- Howe was hoping
to destroy

the American army
at Brandywine.

Instead, all he's
done is bloody it.

- [Narrator] Prince has
survived his first battle.

- The pension
applications tell us

a lot about
these soldiers.

In the case of Prince,

you have white soldiers
that served with him

that testified that he
was a good soldier,

and one of the things
that was brought up was,

"We always carried
a fiddle with him."

And this is not to
be understated.

Someone that could
play the fiddle

could bring some much
needed entertainment

to the drudgery
of camp life.

- [Narrator] As Prince
settles into the army,

Washington must make
an impossible choice,

protect Philadelphia and
risk another bloody defeat

or abandon it.

- Washington does
the right thing

by allowing the British
to take Philadelphia,

and lives to fight
another day.

(footsteps stomping)

- [Narrator] On
September 26th, 1777,

General Howe marches
the British army into
Philadelphia.

The American
capitol has fallen.

Its supposed government,
the Congress, has fled.

More than ever,

the American cause appears
on the brink of defeat.

Washington needs a win.

Not only does he need to
show congressional leaders

he's still the right
man for the job,

he needs to prove to
potential allies like France

that the Americans
are worth backing.

Starting in 1775,

the French have been
secretly sending money

and weapons to
the colonists.

They are motivated less by a
desire to aid the Americans

than the chance
to score a blow

against their arch
rival, the British.

(rhythmic
classical music)

They have also
sent volunteers

like 19-year-old
Gilbert du Mutier,

the Marquis de Lafayette,

who arrives in
America in 1777,

driven by idealism and
a thirst for adventure.

- He becomes quite close
to people like Washington,

Hamilton, and the
people that are kind

of leading the
revolution.

They know that he
is a potentially very
important ally

in convincing the right
people in the French court

to whisper in the
ear of Louis XVI.

- [Narrator] But
to convince France

to declare war
on the British,

Washington has to
deliver a victory.

When Howe splits his
forces between Philadelphia

and the nearby Mennonite
community of Germantown,

Washington sees
an opportunity.

(finger tapping)

On October 4th, 1777,

11,000 American regulars and
militia, including Prince,

prepare to face 9,000
of Howe's best troops.

Washington plans to
attack at 5:00 AM.

Just like at Brandywine,
a thick fog rolls in.

Washington's carefully
planned offensive

quickly begins
to unravel.

- In the fog, two American
units come into contact.

Neither one realizes that
the other one is American.

A friendly fire
incident ensues.

American casualties
are produced by
American soldiers.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] The
attack's momentum stalls

and the British gain
the upper hand,

but Prince and his
regiment keep their heads

and make a fighting
withdrawal.

- Germantown
isn't the success

that Washington
is hoping for,

but it impresses the
French observers who
are with the army.

They see an army that is
willing to stand and fight.

- [Narrator] But Germantown
alone will not be enough

to convince the French
to join the war.

Fortunately,
events in New York

are about to change the
course of the conflict.

While Washington and Howe
face off in Pennsylvania,

a second threat
is being fought

400 miles north
near Saratoga.

There, American
General Horatio Gates
engages in a series

of battles against a British
force invading from Canada.

(muskets fire)

- The British General
Burgoyne, known as
Gentleman Johnny,

his army is trapped
at Saratoga.

The Americans then seize
on that opportunity.

- [Narrator] At two battles
spread three weeks apart,

Gates' 15,000
Americans kill

or capture Burgoyne's entire
army of 7,500 soldiers.

- This is a devastating
defeat for the British

and an enormous victory
for the Americans

and one of the most
consequential moments
of the entire war.

It convinces the French
to join the cause.

- [Narrator] Even still,
it will be months

before French
aid arrives.

The Americans will be
on their own until then.

With the approach
of winter,

the campaign season of
1777 draws to a close.

- Armies typically didn't
fight in the winter.

It was too difficult.

It seems silly to us today,
but they'd basically say,

"Timeout, we'll see
you in the spring."

- [Narrator] Washington
withdraws the main army

one day's march northwest
of Philadelphia.

12,000 men, including Prince,
arrive at an ironworks

in a hilly region
called Valley Forge.

They begin constructing
their winter camp.

- With so many men building
so many cabins there,

Valley Forge becomes
what would be the
fourth largest city

in the country
at the time.

- [Narrator] As the
cold winter sets in,

living conditions
deteriorate.

Temperatures drop as
low as six Fahrenheit.

Most of the soldiers have
only their summer clothes,

up to one third
have no shoes.

Blankets are in short supply
and food is running out.

- Soldiers are going
many days without eating,

often resorting
to eating things

like tree bark or
their shoe leather.

The situation at Valley
Forge is growing desperate.

(low music)

- [Narrator] Even more
deadly than the cold

or starvation is illness.

With so many people in
such close quarters,

diseases like
smallpox run rampant

- Smallpox is incredibly
debilitating,

causes a number
of symptoms,

things like headache,
fever, rash, body pains.

Causes death in
about 30% of cases,

so it's a very
serious disease.

(dark music)

- [Narrator] During
the course of the war,

it is estimated
that more than 100,000
American soldiers

and civilians die
from smallpox,

far outnumbering
deaths from battle.

- The thing about smallpox
is that once you've had it,

typically, you are immune
from that point on.

British soldiers typically
have a greater immunity

to smallpox as
smallpox had spread more
widely in Europe.

- [Narrator] But the
age of enlightenment,

whose ideals underpin
the declaration,

also puts an
emphasis on science.

And European doctors
have begun looking

at ways to stop
the disease.

- Inoculation is done
by making an incision

on the person who's
being inoculated,

at which point,
pus through scabs

from a person
who has smallpox

would be inserted into that
wound with the idea being

that the person would
contract hopefully

a mild form of smallpox,

which they would recover
from relatively quickly

and then be immune to
smallpox from that point on.

- [Narrator] The practice
was controversial,

but Washington decides
to inoculate troops
starting in 1777.

His decision drops the
smallpox infection rate

from 20% down to 1%.

Still, over the six
months the army spends
at Valley Forge,

an estimated 2,000
soldiers die.

(water rushing)
(bright music)

As spring
finally arrives,

American forces
start to regroup

from the hard months of
sickness and starvation.

The nearly 400 women in
the camp are essential

to getting the army
back on its feet.

- In both the British army
and the Continental Army,

there are women who travel
with the men in the army.

Some of the women
with armies are there

because their own homes
have been destroyed

or there's no way to
feed themselves at home.

They're not in a
great position,

but the army
provides them

at least a little
bit of security.

- The women are gathering
firewood, nursing the sick,

and they're doing
the laundry.

And they're not just
doing the laundry for
their husbands,

they're doing laundry
for the whole regiment.

And so, ultimately,
they are a vital part

of these military
encampments.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Some of
the women in the camp

have even secretly come
to the front lines,

disguising their
identities by dressing
in men's clothes.

- We don't really know
how many women enlist

because if they
get away with it,

then they'll be recorded
in the army records
by a male name.

- [Narrator] Any
woman who is caught in
a soldier's uniform

risks public humiliation.

- They treat her
like she's a whore

and they march her out
of the military setting,

stripped to the waist behind
a cart with her hands tied,

and the fife and drum corps
(lively marching music)

are playing what came to be
known as the whores march.

- [Narrator] But these
risks don't stop women

like Deborah Sampson
from enlisting.

- Deborah Sampson is
a Massachusetts woman

from a very poor family.

She's a domestic servant,

and she's gonna be a
servant all of her life.

She would never have a dowry,
so it's a gloomy prospect.

- [Narrator] A
soldier's pay

is an opportunity
for a better life.

- The recruiters come
through town for the
Continental Army,

and she joins up.

Now, women aren't supposed
to join up, right,

so she has to disguise
herself as a man.

- She takes the name
Robert Shirtliff.

She's tall and she has the
appearance of manliness

when she cuts her hair
and puts on a uniform.

As far as we can tell,
she's one of the guys.

She goes to the tavern,

she's drinking with
the other soldiers,

she's flirting
with the barmaids,

and I don't think
anybody challenged her.

- [Narrator] Deborah
Sampson is emblematic

of the new possibilities
created by the revolution

and the revolutionary
ideas underpinning it.

- One of the
things with ideas

is that it's very hard
to control how they flow.

In this context of the
American Revolution,

American women start
to think freedom

and liberty sound like
good ideas to us.

- [Narrator] In 1776, 3
months before the signing

of the Declaration
of Independence,

Abigail Adams writes a
letter to her husband,

Congressional
Delegate John Adams.

- "I long to hear
that you have declared
an independency.

I desire that you would
remember the ladies.

If particular care and
attention is not paid,

we are determined to
foment a rebellion

and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws

in which we have no
voice or representation."

- [Narrator] But as with
the issue of slavery,

rights for women
are excluded

from specific mention
in the declaration.

- Stating the fact that
all men are created equal

is, it itself at the
time, a radical position.

This is a world in
which all men are not
considered equal,

but we need to see that
the Founding Fathers

could have pushed this
thing further than they did.

- [Narrator] What
the revolutionary
ideal of liberty

will truly mean for people
like Deborah Sampson

and Prince Griswold is
still an open question.

Washington uses the
time at Valley Forge

to train his troops.

Enlisting oppression
army officer

named Baron Friedrich
Wilhelm August von Steuben.

- Von Steuben shows the army
how to fight with bayonets,

how to resist a
bayonet charge.

The soldiers see
themselves coming together.

They're learning
new tactics.

So, when the army marches
out of Valley Forge,

they are a European-style
fighting force.

- [Narrator] As Washington
prepares to face the British

in the summer of
1778, he does so with
the promise of help

soon to arrive from
America's new ally, France,

but he also
faces a new foe.

- General Howe
has had a number

of remarkable successes
against George Washington,

but he hasn't delivered
the decisive victory yet,

and the British cannot
understand, the King,
the Parliament,

how is Howe not
ending this war?

And their patience
has grown thin.

Yet another British
commander is sent over

to try to win this war.

- [Narrator] General
Sir Henry Clinton

is a respected strategist
and tactician.

He recognizes
that the strategic
situation of the war

has changed with the
entrance of France.

Concerned that he
will be trapped

between Washington's
army and the French Navy,

Clinton decides to
abandon Philadelphia

and to march north,
back to New York City.

On June 24th, 1778,

the Continental Congress
returns to the capital.

(low tense music)

Meanwhile, Washington
shadows Clinton's forces

into New Jersey,
harassing them.

Although the British
army is bigger,

they're strung out
along a 12-mile column.

Seeing an opportunity,
Washington orders
General Charles Lee

to attack the rear guard
on June 28th near Monmouth.

Clinton dispatches his
second-in-command,

general Lord
Charles Cornwallis, to
engage Washington,

hoping to provoke a
large-scale battle.

- Lee encounters
the British army

and sees that he's up
against a bigger force

than they'd reckoned.

- Charles Lee
cuts and runs,

doesn't follow
Washington's orders

and almost risks the entire
army in a rout at Monmouth.

- [Narrator]
Washington arrives

to find his newly
trained army on the
brink of collapse.

He turns his temper
on General Lee.

- George Washington was known
for his stoic demeanor.

In truth, he had a
volcanic temper.

Well, that temper
came out at Monmouth.

It was said by the
soldiers that Washington

was so volcanically
explosive

that the leaves on the
trees nearby quake

when he chewed out Lee and
removed him from command.

(soldiers yelling)

- [Narrator] 10,000
British troops form up

against less than half
that number of Americans,

but these aren't the
rabble the British derided

in previous years.

Drawing on Von
Steuben's training,

the Americans make
a heroic stand

against the superior

- What seems like a
disaster for Washington

actually turns into
a pretty good day.

Eventually, the fight
becomes a stalemate.

Both sides exchanging
artillery fire, musketry.

Washington pulls
the battlefield at the
end of the day,

his army did not
have to fall back.

It held the ground.

- [Narrator] In his
autobiography, written
after the war,

soldier Joseph Plumb
Martin describes a woman

working alongside men
at an artillery crew

during the battle.

- Martin recounts that while
helping her husband reload

an artillery piece,

an enemy cannonball passed
right between her legs,

tearing away the lower
part of her dress.

He writes, "Looking at it
with apparent unconcern,

she observed that
it was lucky

it did not pass a little
higher, or in that case,

it might have carried
away something else."

- After the battle,
soldiers nicknamed the woman

Sergeant Molly or
Molly Pitcher.

- Molly was a common
nickname for Mary,

so we believe it might
have been Mary Ludwig Hays.

She gained a lot of fame

and is an iconic part
of the revolution.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Fighting
at Monmouth rages

for 12 grueling hours.

For Prince, this will
be his final battle.

- Prince is shot
in the leg.

He's one of an estimated

at least 25,000
Revolutionary War soldiers

who are wounded or
disabled from the fight.

- [Narrator]
Prince is also one

of 5,000 African
American men who serve

on the side of the patriots
during the revolution.

He's honorably discharged
in August, 1780.

He leaves the army and
returns to Connecticut
a free man.

But his great
achievement is tempered
by loss and sadness.

- Prince learns that
his brother Jim

is killed during the war.

So, for one,
it is liberty,

and for the other,
it is death.

(intense music)

- [Narrator] In the aftermath
of the Battle of Monmouth,

Clinton retreats
to New York City

while Washington positions
himself north of Manhattan.

With their closely
matched armies,

neither side wants to
make a fatal move.

As the war in
the North grinds

to an inconclusive
standstill,

British strategy shifts
to the Southern colonies

of Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina,
and Virginia.

Here, opinion on the
revolutionary cause

is much more divided.

- There were far more
loyalists in the South

because the South was very
rural, it was very agrarian,

and the prime product,
which was based on slavery,

was producing things
like rice and indigo

and cotton and tobacco,

and one of the
biggest consumers

of these products,
the British.

The British therefore
realized if they went
into the South,

they could take advantage
of all these loyalists

to do the fighting
for them.

(slow foreboding music)

- [Narrator] On
December, 29, 1778,

the British captured the
strategically important

deep water port
of Savannah.

But as the Southern
campaign begins in earnest,

it takes on a
different character

than in the
Northern colonies,

with patriots and
loyalists squaring off
against each other.

- In many ways the war in the
south becomes a civil war.

The two sides are neighbors,
sometimes family members,

they fight against
each other, and so towns
are split apart.

Individual men sometimes
will serve on one side

and then later on
the other side.

- James Potter Collins
from Tryon County,
North Carolina,

describes the
division between patriots
and loyalists

in his memoir composed
after the war.

- [Reader] "Times began
to be troublesome

and people began to
divide into parties.

Those that had
been good friends

in times past
became enemies.

They began to watch each
other with jealous eyes."

(energetic
classical music)

- [Narrator] Along with his
father and older brother,

Collins joins the patriot
militia in 1780 at age 17.

They are fully
committed to the cause.

- When Collins' father
enlists, he says,

"We must submit and
become slaves or fight."

For Collins' family
and for many

other American
revolutionaries
at this time,

the idea of
liberty or death

has become much more
than just rhetoric.

It is really
kind of central

to their belief
system at this point.

- [Narrator] For the British,
the Southern strategy

initially starts
to pay off.

While Washington watches
helplessly from New York,

the British, under
commander-in-chief
Sir Henry Clinton,

capture Charleston,
South Carolina.

- Clinton takes
Charleston,

and not only captures
the wealthiest city
in North America,

he also captures some
5,000 American soldiers.

He takes the American
army off the chessboard
in the South.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Two
weeks later,

British Colonel
Banastre Tarleton

routs the remaining American
forces in South Carolina

at the Battle of Waxhaws.

More than 100
Americans are killed

compared to only
five British,

sparking rumors that
Tarleton ordered

a massacre of prisoners.

(muskets fire)

True or not, the event
enrages Americans

and earns Tarleton a
bloodthirsty reputation.

He did not allow
them to surrender.

He gave them no quarter,
as the expression was.

Therefore, a term called
Banastre Tarleton's Quarter

or Tarleton Quarter became
popular during the war.

- [Narrator] As the conflict
in the South turns uglier,

(cannon booms)

British momentum
seems unstoppable.

- Horatio Gates, the
hero of Saratoga,

takes command of the
Southern department.

Charles Cornwallis
faces him in battle

at Camden,
South Carolina.

- [Narrator] On
August 16th, 1780,

Gates tries to turn
the tide of the war

in the American's favor.

2,200 British soldiers
(muskets booming)

rout 3,700 colonial troops
under Gates' command.

(muskets booming)

It's the worst
tactical loss

for the Americans
of the entire war,

and it gives the British
control of South Carolina.

Cornwallis reports to
his commander-in-chief

General Clinton that
resistance in the South

has been crushed,
except in his words,

for a few
scattering militia.

But those militia do
not give up the fight.

- [Soldier] We were a set
of men acting entirely

on our own footing
without the promise

or expectation
of any pay.

We depended on
what chance

or kind providence
might cast in our way,

and were always ready to
decamp in a short time

so that we were what
might be called

the harum scarum boys,
the ranting squad.

- Militia men like
Collins fight a different
kind of war.

They will strike from
hidden locations,

trying to hit the British
where their weakest,

attacking small outposts,
attacking loyalist militia,

always trying to keep
the British wondering
what's next.

(musket fires)

- [Narrator] On
October 7th, 1780,

900 patriot militiamen
and backwoods fighters

assemble at King's
Mountain, South Carolina

to directly confront
a force of over 1,000
loyalist militia.

The result is the
first major victory

for the Americans
in the South.

(muskets firing)

More than 1,000 loyalists
are killed or captured

while the patriots suffer
only 90 casualties.

After the loyalists
surrender,

the patriots take revenge
for Tarleton's Quarter.

Dozens of prisoners are
shot and nine are hanged.

- [Soldier] After
the fight was over,

the situation of the
poor Tories appears

to be really pitiable.

The dead laying
heaps on all sides

while the groans of
the wounded were heard

in every direction.

I could not help
turning away

from the scene before
me with horror,

and though exalting
in victory,

could not refrain
from shedding tears.

- [Narrator] The patriot
victory at King's Mountain

marks a turning
point in the South.

- The victory at
King's Mountain raises

the morale of
the Americans.

It helps convince
perhaps some

who were wavering that
maybe it's a good thing

to back the Americans
fighting for independence.

- [Narrator] Inspired by the
success at King's Mountain,

the Americans go
on the offensive.

At the Battle of Cowpens
on January 17th, 1781,

American Army soldiers
and militiamen

win another
stunning victory,

with the British
losing nearly eight
times the number

of soldiers as
the Americans.

Two months later, American
General Nathaniel Greene

grinds down Cornwallis's
numbers even further

at the Battle of
Guilford Courthouse.

With his army diminished,

Cornwallis is forced to
rethink his strategy.

- He goes to Yorktown on
the coast of Virginia.

He expects that the British
Navy is going to sail down

and either reinforce
and resupply him

or transport his army
back to New York City.

- [Narrator] But
the Americans now
have the support

of the French Navy.

Washington sees a chance to
trap Cornwallis at Yorktown.

He consults with
the French General,

the Comte de Rochambeau,
and orders Lafayette

to block Cornwallis's
escape from Yorktown.

Next, he decides to
trick General Clinton

into thinking he plans
to attack New York City.

- Washington builds
a fake camp.

He lights campfires.

He has information
spread around,

knowing that loose lips will
sink ships, so to speak.

(escalating music)

- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
he secretly leads a
combined force

of American and recently
arrived French troops south.

At the same time, the French
Navy arrives from Haiti

and prepares to engage
British ships off the
Virginia Coast.

- The French Navy
is deployed.

It blockades and intercepts
the British Navy,

and in a stunning
victory,

defeats the all-powerful
British Navy.

Now, Cornwallis
is trapped.

(soft music)

- [Narrator] Marching
with the Continental Army

towards Yorktown is
25-year-old John Bodine
of Pennsylvania.

- John Bodine's
story is remarkable.

According to his
pension application, he
enlisted in 1776.

He's been with
George Washington

while crossing the
Delaware River.

He suffered through
Valley Forge.

He fought at
Brandywine, where he was
shot and wounded.

By this point, he's in
the war for five years.

He thought he had only
signed up for three years.

Bodine mentions this
misunderstanding, not
once, but twice

in his pension application
where he says,

"And this Declarant
again repeats

at the expiration of
that period three years."

He was told by
his colonel

that he had not enlisted
for three years,

but for the war, to
which he yielded

and accordingly served the
United States faithfully.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] The
British Navy is gone,

but Cornwallis
and his troops

are still protected
by Yorktown's strong
fortifications.

Just like at Boston
six years earlier,

Washington prepares
for a siege,

but now France
fights beside him.

- The French army, when
it comes to Yorktown,

demonstrates its skill
at siege warfare.

- French General
Rochambeau directs

the nearly 20,000
American troops,
including John Bodine,

to begin constructing
European-style
siege trenches.

- The idea is to bring
in your artillery

as close as possible
in order to fire

at the enemy
fortifications.

It's dirty, dangerous,
and exhausting work.

- [Narrator] Defending
Cornwallis's 9,000 men

inside Yorktown
are 10 redoubts,

small fortresses
made of earth

and surrounded by
sharpened stakes.

The redoubts prevent the
American and French soldiers

from getting close enough
to use their cannons.

- Anytime the Continental
and French armies try

to dig a little closer, they
come under withering fire.

- From these positions,
Cornwallis hopes

to delay the Americans
and French long enough

for General Clinton to
arrive with a relief force,

but George Washington
has a plan.

- There's one redoubt,
redoubt number 10,

which is on the end.

If they can annihilate
their redoubt,

they can come in
through the corner

and hit the main
British army.

- [Narrator] Colonel
Alexander Hamilton
takes 400 men

and prepares to
assault the redoubt.

- The fire of the muskets

will alert the British
that this is happening,

so in a secretive
night attack,

they go in with
only swords, bayonets,
hand-to-hand combat.

- [Narrator] John Bodine
is one of these men

assigned to
Hamilton's unit.

- In his pension
application, he writes,

"George Washington
ordered us

to storm the breastworks
of the enemy,

which were galling
us very much."

And this applicant
was in the division

under Colonel
Hamilton that stormed

and took one of
those redoubts.

And they overrun
redoubt 10,

they kill the British,
they capture the cannons.

In the morning,
Cornwallis awakens

to see his own cannons
aimed down at him.

- [Narrator] With the
siege line so close

and no sign of
reinforcements,

Cornwallis realizes he
has run out of options.

On the morning of
October 19th, 1781,

a British officer approaches
the American camp,

waving a white
handkerchief.

- Cornwallis
refuses to come out

and surrender
to Washington.

He says that he doesn't
deem Washington to be worthy

of being on the
same battlefield,

so he sends a
second-in-command out.

Washington sends
a message back,

"If Cornwallis comes out and
surrenders like a gentleman,

I'll give him
favorable terms.

If he does not, we'll
open up the cannons."

So, Cornwallis is
forced, tail between his
legs, sheepishly,

to come out in an
embarrassing surrender,

and that's it.

That's the end.

(lively music)

- [Narrator] When the news
of Cornwallis's surrender

reaches Britain, Prime
Minister Lord North

is said to cry out,

"Oh God, it's all over."

The American victory
at Yorktown leads
to the collapse

of the British government
in March, 1782.

The new government
opens peace negotiations

with the Americans and
their French allies.

But as those negotiations
drag on, fighting continues.

Soldiers who have signed
up for the duration

of the war remain in
uniform and at risk.

In July, 1782, Deborah
Sampson's troop is ambushed

by British and
loyalist troops near East
Chester, New York.

Sampson is shot
twice in the leg.

Rather than risk
her identity

being discovered
in a hospital,

she removes one of the musket
balls with a pen knife

and stitches up the wound
with a sewing needle.

The other ball
stays in her leg

and causes pain for
the rest of her life.

One year later, while
on duty in Philadelphia,

Sampson falls seriously
ill with a fever.

This time, she can't avoid
being taken to a hospital

where her identity
is discovered.

- And then an interesting
thing happens.

They look at her record,
and she is a model soldier,

and they don't
dismiss her in shame.

She goes back to
Massachusetts, she
gets married,

and now she's Deborah
Sampson Gannett.

And when she dies, her
husband, Samuel Gannett,

applies for a widow's
pension, and he gets it.

(soft music)

- [Narrator] The American
Revolutionary War ends

with the signing of
the Treaty of Paris

on September 3rd, 1783.

Britain formally recognizes
the United States of America

as an independent and
sovereign nation,

but this independence
means different things

to different people.

- In fact, after the
American Revolution,

the life of enslaved
people in the South
became much worse.

There was much
tighter regulation on
their movements

because they had proved
that, if given a chance,

they would try to
get out of slavery.

- Of course, the unfilled
promises to people of color,

to women, to the
Indigenous population,

that would take
blood and decades

to really fill
those purposes.

- The revolution led to
two centuries of struggle

to make real the preamble

to the Declaration
of Independence.

- Benjamin Rush,
another signer

of the Declaration of
Independence, says,

"The American
War is over,

but this is far
from being the case

with the American
Revolution.

On the contrary,

nothing but the first act of
the great trauma is closed."

(musket fires)

- [Narrator] Although at
times imperfectly realized,

the ideals of the
declaration, (musket fires)

equality, liberty, the
freedom to pursue happiness,

and a government by
consent of the governed

reverberate far
beyond the shores

of the newly independent
United States of America.

In 1789, Thomas Jefferson
helps Lafayette

to author the first
draft of the Declaration

of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen,

a document
directly inspired

by the Declaration
of Independence,

and which provides one of
the ideological foundations

for the French
Revolution.

Like a forest fire leaping
from branch to branch,

the desire for
independence spreads.

- You see an entire
revolutionary period emerge

that is not just concentrated
in the United States.

Fundamentally, Western
civilization is changed.

- [Narrator] The
Haitian Revolution, the
Irish Rebellion,

and the Colombian
War of Independence

all take inspiration
from the success

of the American
Revolution,

as do anti-colonial movements
of the 20th century.

- The legacy of the
American Revolution

was felt throughout
the world

and is still an aspirational
example to people

who want to live free and
unencumbered with tyranny.

- But for those who
participated in the war,

the cause was personal.

Some fought for noble
and high-minded beliefs,

others for their
families and neighbors,

still others to
obtain liberty,

not only for America,
but for themselves.

(calm music)

Deborah Sampson
became the only woman

to receive a
veteran's pension

for her Revolutionary
War service.

Prince changed his last
name from Griswold,

the name of his former
enslaver, to Crosley.

In 2024, the
Connecticut Society

of the Sons of the American
Revolution honored him

with a veteran's
memorial headstone.

(musket fires)

James Potter Collins
moved across the growing
United States.

He finally settled in
the new state of Texas

and died at age 81.

John Bodine
lived in poverty

as a result of pain
from his war injuries.

He finally received his
veteran's pension in 1834.

He died two years
later at age 80.

(lively music)

(lively music continues)