1 00:00:11,136 --> 00:00:14,180 The Smithsonian is America's collective memory. -=[ Mercikes_Bert ]=- 2 00:00:23,857 --> 00:00:27,402 What these artifacts do is they make real, 3 00:00:27,485 --> 00:00:28,987 they make concrete, 4 00:00:29,070 --> 00:00:32,323 they make accessible the stories of our lives, 5 00:00:32,407 --> 00:00:34,409 the issues that have shaped us. 6 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:41,875 You see people who don't know each other, who come together around an object. 7 00:00:43,710 --> 00:00:46,046 The desk Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on, 8 00:00:46,129 --> 00:00:48,256 that's a powerful icon. 9 00:00:51,342 --> 00:00:53,136 The Star-Spangled Banner. 10 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:57,432 There's nothing more powerful 11 00:00:57,515 --> 00:01:01,895 than watching people go and look at the Star-Spangled Banner… 12 00:01:04,355 --> 00:01:06,691 understand a little more about its history, 13 00:01:06,775 --> 00:01:09,486 and sort of suddenly revel in what it… 14 00:01:09,986 --> 00:01:12,614 what it was and what it means. 15 00:01:16,743 --> 00:01:18,244 There are real debates over 16 00:01:18,328 --> 00:01:20,580 whether you tell history that is complicated, 17 00:01:20,663 --> 00:01:22,874 history that is painful. 18 00:01:24,834 --> 00:01:29,297 Often people say, "You know what? You're only telling negative stories." 19 00:01:29,380 --> 00:01:32,050 Yet I would argue when you go through most museums, 20 00:01:32,133 --> 00:01:35,720 especially the Smithsonian, the stories are overwhelmingly positive. 21 00:01:37,847 --> 00:01:40,183 They're overwhelmingly rife with hope. 22 00:01:40,266 --> 00:01:42,185 They're overwhelmingly rife with a sense of, 23 00:01:42,268 --> 00:01:45,438 "Boy, we are a better nation because we went through that." 24 00:01:47,941 --> 00:01:49,651 How do you understand the nation 25 00:01:49,734 --> 00:01:53,696 if you don't look at all the challenges the nation has faced? 26 00:01:55,949 --> 00:01:59,410 A great nation doesn't run from its past, 27 00:01:59,494 --> 00:02:01,246 doesn't hide from its past, 28 00:02:01,329 --> 00:02:04,958 but looks at it, learns from it, and has been made better by that past. 29 00:02:32,527 --> 00:02:36,072 Following the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill… 30 00:02:38,283 --> 00:02:42,453 I think it's clear for New Englanders that there's no going back now. 31 00:02:44,831 --> 00:02:48,084 Every year brings us fresh evidence 32 00:02:48,168 --> 00:02:52,005 that we have nothing to hope for from our loving mother country 33 00:02:52,088 --> 00:02:53,965 but cruelties. 34 00:02:54,048 --> 00:02:57,427 The war starts to get big very quickly. 35 00:02:57,510 --> 00:03:00,054 It spreads throughout the colonies. 36 00:03:00,138 --> 00:03:06,060 Small battles, but clear, open opposition to the British government. 37 00:03:07,645 --> 00:03:10,940 At the beginning, the British reaction to Lexington and Concord is, 38 00:03:11,024 --> 00:03:13,443 "Well, we're gonna go crush these people." 39 00:03:17,071 --> 00:03:17,989 On the other hand, 40 00:03:18,072 --> 00:03:21,201 the British and the American colonists have a lot in common. 41 00:03:21,993 --> 00:03:25,413 They have a lot of shared interests. They have a lot of shared culture. 42 00:03:25,914 --> 00:03:27,457 At the time of the Revolution, 43 00:03:27,540 --> 00:03:31,669 a reasonably high percentage of people in the colonies had been born in Britain. 44 00:03:32,795 --> 00:03:35,089 So there's a lot of very close ties. 45 00:03:38,593 --> 00:03:39,719 Not all are convinced 46 00:03:39,802 --> 00:03:42,513 this was going to become a war for independence, 47 00:03:42,597 --> 00:03:45,433 but they know that this was going to be a war for their rights, 48 00:03:45,516 --> 00:03:49,437 whether that be as Britons or as something else. 49 00:03:51,689 --> 00:03:56,194 In 1774, the Continental Congress met for the first time 50 00:03:56,277 --> 00:03:58,363 just to agree on a set of policies. 51 00:03:58,446 --> 00:04:00,240 No war had broken out, 52 00:04:00,740 --> 00:04:05,119 but by 1775, we've got a real war on our hands. 53 00:04:05,203 --> 00:04:08,164 It's clear that another Continental Congress is needed. 54 00:04:11,292 --> 00:04:14,295 The Second Continental Congress met in the Pennsylvania Statehouse, 55 00:04:14,379 --> 00:04:15,964 which we call Independence Hall today. 56 00:04:17,131 --> 00:04:20,802 The Second Continental Congress is essentially responding 57 00:04:20,885 --> 00:04:26,766 to the war that has begun at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. 58 00:04:28,726 --> 00:04:31,521 At this time, there wasn't a United States of America. 59 00:04:31,604 --> 00:04:35,024 It was 13 very different colonies. 60 00:04:35,108 --> 00:04:38,027 And when an American talked about their country, 61 00:04:38,111 --> 00:04:40,405 they didn't mean the United States. 62 00:04:40,488 --> 00:04:44,075 They meant Virginia or Massachusetts or from wherever they came from. 63 00:04:46,327 --> 00:04:48,496 When the Continental Congress is formed, 64 00:04:48,579 --> 00:04:51,124 this was a very unusual thing to do. 65 00:04:51,791 --> 00:04:55,753 People coming from all the different provinces, colonies, 66 00:04:55,837 --> 00:05:01,009 to join together to do something was kind of strange. 67 00:05:01,092 --> 00:05:03,928 It was something that they hadn't really done before. 68 00:05:07,348 --> 00:05:09,809 But this is a full-on war now. 69 00:05:09,892 --> 00:05:12,186 We really have to work together 70 00:05:12,270 --> 00:05:14,647 in a way that we've never had to do so before. 71 00:05:16,774 --> 00:05:21,070 An enormous amount of tension in the building, in the room… 72 00:05:21,154 --> 00:05:25,033 I mean, that was a sweaty, smoky room, 73 00:05:25,116 --> 00:05:28,369 full of people getting very angry with one another 74 00:05:28,453 --> 00:05:31,914 and very worried about what the future was gonna hold. 75 00:05:32,749 --> 00:05:35,418 A lot of things on their agenda were very straightforward. 76 00:05:35,501 --> 00:05:37,253 How do we manage an army? 77 00:05:38,296 --> 00:05:41,257 We're fighting a very well-established, 78 00:05:41,341 --> 00:05:44,802 very professional, very coordinated opponent. 79 00:05:45,928 --> 00:05:47,680 We have to raise troops. 80 00:05:47,764 --> 00:05:51,184 We have to feed the troops. We have to get supplies to them. 81 00:05:51,267 --> 00:05:53,644 We have to coordinate the command of them. 82 00:05:53,728 --> 00:05:56,564 These are very difficult problems to solve. 83 00:05:57,106 --> 00:06:00,026 Logistics is vital to military capability. 84 00:06:00,109 --> 00:06:01,986 You know, there's the old saying 85 00:06:02,070 --> 00:06:05,239 that amateurs talk tactics and experts talk logistics. 86 00:06:06,199 --> 00:06:08,159 And there's a lot of truth to that. 87 00:06:08,242 --> 00:06:13,122 If you don't have food, fuel, ammunition, medical care, 88 00:06:13,206 --> 00:06:14,457 then you can't fight. 89 00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:24,008 As will be the case later in his career, 90 00:06:24,092 --> 00:06:26,094 they really only trust one man with the job. 91 00:06:28,513 --> 00:06:31,224 George Washington was a tremendous presence 92 00:06:31,307 --> 00:06:33,559 at the Second Continental Congress. 93 00:06:36,938 --> 00:06:39,857 Dr. Benjamin Rush said that George Washington 94 00:06:39,941 --> 00:06:45,655 had martial dignity of such that in a crowd of 10,000 people 95 00:06:45,738 --> 00:06:50,993 you would immediately pick him out as the soldier and general. 96 00:06:52,912 --> 00:06:55,331 John Adams put forth George Washington 97 00:06:55,415 --> 00:06:58,709 as the nominee for the commander in chief. 98 00:07:00,336 --> 00:07:03,297 George Washington is remarkable in a number of ways. 99 00:07:03,381 --> 00:07:07,051 One of the ways is that he taught himself. He taught himself about military theory 100 00:07:07,135 --> 00:07:08,428 and doctrine and tactics. 101 00:07:09,470 --> 00:07:11,013 Then he had practical experience 102 00:07:11,097 --> 00:07:13,641 to leaven that book knowledge that he had gained. 103 00:07:17,228 --> 00:07:18,729 He was a Virginian. 104 00:07:20,148 --> 00:07:22,900 Maybe his presence would have been an inducement 105 00:07:22,984 --> 00:07:26,737 to the men of the other colonies to enlist, to sign up, 106 00:07:26,821 --> 00:07:29,991 to make this army truly continental in character. 107 00:07:31,784 --> 00:07:37,665 He attended the Continental Congress wearing his blue and buff uniform 108 00:07:37,748 --> 00:07:40,918 from the Fairfax militia in Virginia. 109 00:07:41,002 --> 00:07:43,087 It was a typical Washington move 110 00:07:43,171 --> 00:07:45,840 because he was not being crude or strident 111 00:07:45,923 --> 00:07:50,261 in stating that he wanted to become the general-in-chief of this new army. 112 00:07:50,344 --> 00:07:53,598 At the same time, his uniform was advertising the fact 113 00:07:53,681 --> 00:07:56,350 that he was available. 114 00:07:57,518 --> 00:08:00,605 Even when it is pretty clear that he's the best qualified, 115 00:08:00,688 --> 00:08:06,277 this Virginian, to go up to Massachusetts with these newly formed regiments, 116 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:10,281 he makes this speech in which he indicates that he may not be up to the job. 117 00:08:13,576 --> 00:08:16,245 Though I am truly sensible of the high honor 118 00:08:16,329 --> 00:08:18,247 done me in this appointment, 119 00:08:18,331 --> 00:08:20,249 yet I feel great distress 120 00:08:20,333 --> 00:08:24,545 from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience 121 00:08:24,629 --> 00:08:28,716 may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. 122 00:08:29,383 --> 00:08:32,386 It's a kind of humility that these days we're not used to. 123 00:08:32,929 --> 00:08:34,847 This is one of the most admirable things 124 00:08:34,931 --> 00:08:36,098 about George Washington. 125 00:08:36,182 --> 00:08:39,227 He constantly takes inventory of himself, 126 00:08:39,310 --> 00:08:43,064 is honest with himself, sometimes too hard on himself, 127 00:08:43,606 --> 00:08:46,192 but I think that's the mark of a great leader. 128 00:08:46,692 --> 00:08:49,904 If you have someone who's been given command of an army, 129 00:08:49,987 --> 00:08:53,407 the last guy you want is the one who comes in and says, "I've got this." 130 00:08:56,410 --> 00:09:00,915 The politics of it demanded a Virginian who had experience. 131 00:09:00,998 --> 00:09:04,126 I think he wanted to serve. I think he was ready to serve. 132 00:09:05,545 --> 00:09:09,590 So they appoint him the commander in chief of this basically New England army. 133 00:09:15,888 --> 00:09:18,766 They will very quickly see men joining in 134 00:09:18,849 --> 00:09:21,727 from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New York, 135 00:09:21,811 --> 00:09:26,274 and other states as they try to form a regular standing military force 136 00:09:26,357 --> 00:09:28,609 that will become known as the Continental Army. 137 00:09:28,693 --> 00:09:32,405 The whole continent now became attentive to the call of liberty. 138 00:09:32,488 --> 00:09:34,198 The alarm was universal 139 00:09:34,282 --> 00:09:36,951 and feeling my bosom glow with love for my country, 140 00:09:37,034 --> 00:09:40,246 I turned out on the first alarm with many of my fellow youth 141 00:09:40,329 --> 00:09:42,999 and marched under the command of one Captain Avery 142 00:09:43,082 --> 00:09:44,667 to Cambridge near Boston. 143 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:47,753 The British are in Boston. 144 00:09:47,837 --> 00:09:52,091 The Continental Army's headquartered in Cambridge, near the Harvard campus. 145 00:09:53,301 --> 00:09:57,013 Washington arrives shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill. 146 00:09:59,724 --> 00:10:01,934 When Washington first arrived in Cambridge, 147 00:10:02,018 --> 00:10:04,103 he was horrified by what he found. 148 00:10:11,027 --> 00:10:14,238 He doesn't think very much of New England men at the time. 149 00:10:15,823 --> 00:10:19,869 Washington is a Southerner. He is not used to Northern ways. 150 00:10:19,952 --> 00:10:24,582 And here are these quarrelsome, undisciplined, filthy men, 151 00:10:24,665 --> 00:10:28,085 camped out just outside of the gates of Harvard College. 152 00:10:29,128 --> 00:10:32,173 It was a number of very disorganized militias 153 00:10:32,256 --> 00:10:36,010 who didn't know how to do things like build a proper latrine. 154 00:10:36,093 --> 00:10:40,598 So they were putting their wastewater where their drinking water was 155 00:10:40,681 --> 00:10:42,725 and contaminating the drinking water site. 156 00:10:42,808 --> 00:10:46,020 The youth of the army are not possessed 157 00:10:46,103 --> 00:10:50,149 of the absolute necessity of cleanliness in their dress and lodging, 158 00:10:50,232 --> 00:10:53,611 continual exercise, and strict temperance. 159 00:10:53,694 --> 00:10:56,739 They had been electing people into being officers. 160 00:10:56,822 --> 00:10:59,575 And Washington is like, "You don't elect officers." 161 00:10:59,659 --> 00:11:03,788 Like, who are these people? Like, what is this? It's not a real army. 162 00:11:04,914 --> 00:11:08,918 He realizes the sheer scale of the task before him 163 00:11:09,001 --> 00:11:11,587 to create an army out of this rabble. 164 00:11:12,713 --> 00:11:16,717 Washington almost immediately sets to writing letters to Congress saying, 165 00:11:16,801 --> 00:11:19,428 "I've got this army you asked me to build together." 166 00:11:19,512 --> 00:11:24,183 "Can I have guns or ammunition or food? Or maybe we should even have uniforms." 167 00:11:25,393 --> 00:11:26,727 He had to improvise. 168 00:11:27,436 --> 00:11:30,564 Washington is forming this army without many resources 169 00:11:30,648 --> 00:11:33,859 and with policies in place that were not conducive 170 00:11:33,943 --> 00:11:37,029 to sustained capability against the British. 171 00:11:40,616 --> 00:11:42,743 Washington, he looked out, and he saw 172 00:11:42,827 --> 00:11:45,788 white faces, red faces, brown and Black faces. 173 00:11:47,915 --> 00:11:49,875 As he looked at the brown and Black faces, he said, 174 00:11:49,959 --> 00:11:52,712 "Who are these men? And what are they doing here?" 175 00:11:52,795 --> 00:11:54,797 "I want them out of my army." 176 00:11:57,133 --> 00:12:02,304 George Washington had been a slave owner since about the age of 11. 177 00:12:03,514 --> 00:12:07,518 He inherits the first people that he owned when his father dies. 178 00:12:07,601 --> 00:12:09,311 And as he becomes a planter, 179 00:12:09,395 --> 00:12:13,190 he behaves like most other typical Virginia slave owners. 180 00:12:13,274 --> 00:12:18,612 They are using this labor to try to increase their lands and their profits. 181 00:12:19,113 --> 00:12:22,158 He didn't think much of buying and selling people 182 00:12:22,241 --> 00:12:24,744 like he would any other commodity. 183 00:12:35,129 --> 00:12:39,258 People of African descent arrived in the British colonies, 184 00:12:39,341 --> 00:12:42,052 we think, in 1619. 185 00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:48,225 When the colonial expansion along the Eastern seaboard 186 00:12:48,309 --> 00:12:50,936 of what would become the United States developed, 187 00:12:51,020 --> 00:12:54,648 it was deeply connected to financial interests. 188 00:12:55,524 --> 00:12:59,236 What could be generated here? Those enterprises required labor. 189 00:12:59,820 --> 00:13:02,948 And the solution to that labor question 190 00:13:03,032 --> 00:13:05,451 was the transatlantic slave trade. 191 00:13:09,121 --> 00:13:15,336 We are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain. 192 00:13:16,545 --> 00:13:19,924 The system in the United States was a system of chattel slavery, 193 00:13:20,007 --> 00:13:22,635 where enslaved people were considered a piece of property. 194 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,306 All of the 13 colonies supported slavery. 195 00:13:30,267 --> 00:13:32,311 In the mid-Atlantic and up in New England, 196 00:13:32,394 --> 00:13:35,856 you might find one to two enslaved people in a household, 197 00:13:35,940 --> 00:13:40,903 and they're probably gonna be working pretty closely alongside their enslavers. 198 00:13:42,154 --> 00:13:44,657 In the Southern American colonies, 199 00:13:45,366 --> 00:13:48,202 there is a plantation economy that is completely dependent 200 00:13:48,285 --> 00:13:50,371 on the labor of enslaved Africans. 201 00:13:52,998 --> 00:13:55,668 Once they were enslaved, they were enslaved for life. 202 00:13:58,170 --> 00:14:03,092 Enslaved people were controlled by legislation, by physical force. 203 00:14:03,175 --> 00:14:08,180 They were whipped often, and many times, whipped almost to death. 204 00:14:10,558 --> 00:14:15,896 The fundamental idea of autonomy is stripped away from these human beings. 205 00:14:18,649 --> 00:14:21,944 An enslaved person does not have the right to self-defense. 206 00:14:23,112 --> 00:14:26,699 An enslaved person does not own their own body. 207 00:14:31,412 --> 00:14:34,456 George Washington was born into this world. 208 00:14:34,957 --> 00:14:39,169 He was enveloped in an environment where slavery was okay. 209 00:14:39,253 --> 00:14:40,963 So he's coming up to Massachusetts, 210 00:14:41,046 --> 00:14:44,341 and he's seeing all these armed African Americans. 211 00:14:45,718 --> 00:14:48,178 To a Southern slave owner, that's servile insurrection, 212 00:14:48,262 --> 00:14:49,763 that's extremely dangerous. 213 00:14:51,432 --> 00:14:56,020 The 8,000-pound gorilla in the room for Black men at the time was freedom. 214 00:14:56,854 --> 00:14:59,899 90% of Africans in America were enslaved. 215 00:14:59,982 --> 00:15:02,818 So their motivation is going to be, 216 00:15:02,902 --> 00:15:05,905 how is this going to improve my lot as a human, 217 00:15:05,988 --> 00:15:07,448 as a person within this country? 218 00:15:07,531 --> 00:15:08,991 And if I am enslaved, 219 00:15:09,074 --> 00:15:12,661 how will this improve opportunities for me to be free? 220 00:15:13,996 --> 00:15:15,247 Black men were thinking, 221 00:15:15,331 --> 00:15:19,335 hey, if I can fight, maybe I can earn my place within this society. 222 00:15:20,794 --> 00:15:24,131 Washington comes in and says, "We don't need to be recruiting 223 00:15:24,214 --> 00:15:27,051 all of these Black men with weapons. This is not a good thing." 224 00:15:27,134 --> 00:15:30,304 And tries to prevent Black men from further signing up 225 00:15:30,387 --> 00:15:32,473 to serve in the Continental Army. 226 00:15:33,432 --> 00:15:35,059 It was certainly short-sighted. 227 00:15:35,559 --> 00:15:38,687 And he doesn't realize he needs all the men that he can get. 228 00:15:45,319 --> 00:15:48,572 The Royal Governor of Virginia, a man called Lord Dunmore, 229 00:15:48,656 --> 00:15:52,534 is the embodiment of the Crown and Parliament in Virginia. 230 00:15:53,035 --> 00:15:55,204 And he has this kind of brilliant 231 00:15:55,287 --> 00:16:00,417 and somewhat nefarious strategic insight right at the beginning of the conflict. 232 00:16:01,919 --> 00:16:04,213 He only has about 300 British troops 233 00:16:04,296 --> 00:16:05,714 in the state of Virginia. 234 00:16:07,216 --> 00:16:11,053 It's not a lot to be able to defend and protect an entire state 235 00:16:11,136 --> 00:16:13,263 from Patriots that live down there. 236 00:16:13,806 --> 00:16:14,974 He needs men. 237 00:16:16,183 --> 00:16:18,352 So Lord Dunmore basically puts forth 238 00:16:18,435 --> 00:16:22,272 the first Emancipation Proclamation in the Americas 239 00:16:22,356 --> 00:16:24,775 and offers freedom to male slaves 240 00:16:24,858 --> 00:16:28,487 that are willing to escape their Patriot owners and serve 241 00:16:28,570 --> 00:16:31,991 in what became Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Brigade. 242 00:16:33,367 --> 00:16:36,453 Dunmore offers the enslaved people of Patriots 243 00:16:36,537 --> 00:16:40,249 a deal that is absolutely terrifying to the colonists. 244 00:16:40,332 --> 00:16:42,418 They will have their freedom. 245 00:16:43,252 --> 00:16:47,172 I do hereby further declare all indentured servants, 246 00:16:47,256 --> 00:16:50,843 Negroes or others, appertaining to rebels, 247 00:16:50,926 --> 00:16:54,346 free that are able and willing to bear arms, 248 00:16:54,430 --> 00:16:58,017 they joining His Majesty's troops as soon as may be. 249 00:17:00,644 --> 00:17:02,938 But if you belong to a Loyalist, 250 00:17:03,022 --> 00:17:05,899 because they're a Loyalist, Loyalists are loyal to the king, 251 00:17:06,859 --> 00:17:08,360 you will be returned. 252 00:17:10,696 --> 00:17:14,116 Anywhere from hundreds to thousands of slaves respond. 253 00:17:14,199 --> 00:17:16,493 They leave plantations, and not just Virginia. 254 00:17:16,577 --> 00:17:19,038 They're coming from surrounding states as well. 255 00:17:19,121 --> 00:17:21,331 They are flocking to Virginia. 256 00:17:22,332 --> 00:17:23,542 It's a powerful statement, 257 00:17:23,625 --> 00:17:26,170 saying that we are going to use your slaves against you 258 00:17:26,253 --> 00:17:27,713 and arm them against you. 259 00:17:28,422 --> 00:17:31,592 That changes the calculus on the American side. 260 00:17:36,346 --> 00:17:38,807 Lord Dunmore's letters to General Howe, 261 00:17:38,891 --> 00:17:41,643 which very fortunately fell into my hands 262 00:17:41,727 --> 00:17:43,812 and enclosed by me to Congress, 263 00:17:43,896 --> 00:17:48,233 will let you pretty fully into his diabolical schemes. 264 00:17:48,317 --> 00:17:52,696 He will become the most formidable enemy America has. 265 00:17:54,823 --> 00:17:57,534 The Patriots need to find a way to level that playing field. 266 00:17:57,618 --> 00:18:01,246 And that is what George Washington and Congress decide to do. 267 00:18:01,330 --> 00:18:04,750 They decide that they are going to allow people of African descent 268 00:18:04,833 --> 00:18:06,752 to serve in the Continental Army. 269 00:18:09,755 --> 00:18:13,092 The Dunmore Proclamation really was a turning point 270 00:18:13,175 --> 00:18:16,136 in terms of the African-American freedom movement 271 00:18:16,220 --> 00:18:18,013 during the American Revolution. 272 00:18:19,014 --> 00:18:21,266 It also radicalized the Virginians. 273 00:18:21,350 --> 00:18:24,686 Many considered that a violation of their property rights. 274 00:18:25,187 --> 00:18:27,189 And so from that point on, 275 00:18:27,272 --> 00:18:30,400 they no longer wanted to be part of the British Empire. 276 00:18:32,945 --> 00:18:34,988 By now, the Second Continental Congress 277 00:18:35,072 --> 00:18:38,033 had a massive task just making a decision. 278 00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:42,246 Are we trying to fight for our rights as Englishmen 279 00:18:42,955 --> 00:18:47,126 and simply get the representation and government we want? 280 00:18:50,129 --> 00:18:54,258 Or do we want to actually break from the British government? 281 00:18:57,719 --> 00:18:59,763 We have a war that's being waged, 282 00:18:59,847 --> 00:19:01,390 but what is it a war for? 283 00:19:02,224 --> 00:19:04,685 Is it merely a war of resistance? 284 00:19:05,269 --> 00:19:09,439 Or is it a war for independence? 285 00:19:12,693 --> 00:19:15,696 The question is incredibly divisive in the colonies. 286 00:19:16,780 --> 00:19:20,242 The war was very hard 287 00:19:20,325 --> 00:19:24,746 for so many people because there were loyalties to the king. 288 00:19:26,165 --> 00:19:30,460 There was a lot of ambivalence, negotiation, legitimate concerns 289 00:19:30,544 --> 00:19:36,592 about were these colonies off here across the Atlantic Ocean 290 00:19:36,675 --> 00:19:39,887 really ready to govern themselves, 291 00:19:39,970 --> 00:19:42,222 ready to provide for themselves? 292 00:19:45,142 --> 00:19:50,063 In January of 1776, the momentum really begins to shift 293 00:19:50,981 --> 00:19:53,942 when Tom Paine publishes Common Sense. 294 00:19:54,526 --> 00:19:57,654 Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages 295 00:19:57,738 --> 00:20:02,075 are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor. 296 00:20:02,159 --> 00:20:04,661 A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong 297 00:20:04,745 --> 00:20:07,831 gives it a superficial appearance of being right. 298 00:20:08,790 --> 00:20:12,377 Thomas Paine had experienced his own share of failures. 299 00:20:13,128 --> 00:20:16,381 Here's a man born in England who had a failed marriage. 300 00:20:16,465 --> 00:20:20,219 Here's a man who failed as a tax collector, of all things. 301 00:20:21,220 --> 00:20:23,931 Here's a man who failed as a corset maker. 302 00:20:26,099 --> 00:20:28,393 He went from being one of the most obscure people 303 00:20:28,477 --> 00:20:31,146 to one of the most famous people because of Common Sense, 304 00:20:31,230 --> 00:20:34,775 which takes a very different point of view from the official point of view 305 00:20:34,858 --> 00:20:36,610 of the Continental Congress. 306 00:20:37,945 --> 00:20:42,824 He articulates a lot of Americans' grievances in Common Sense. 307 00:20:43,617 --> 00:20:47,537 Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. 308 00:20:47,621 --> 00:20:50,332 In its worst state, an intolerable one. 309 00:20:52,417 --> 00:20:57,256 He wants to convince Americans that monarchy is actually a bad system. 310 00:21:00,008 --> 00:21:02,594 In England, a king hath little more to do 311 00:21:02,678 --> 00:21:05,806 than to make war and give away places. 312 00:21:05,889 --> 00:21:08,767 Which in plain terms is to impoverish the nation 313 00:21:08,850 --> 00:21:11,436 and set it together by the ears. 314 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:16,984 A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed 800,000 sterling a year for 315 00:21:17,067 --> 00:21:19,027 and worshipped into the bargain. 316 00:21:20,737 --> 00:21:26,410 Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God. 317 00:21:27,995 --> 00:21:31,581 One of the things he does is really tear the king off his pedestal. 318 00:21:31,665 --> 00:21:34,668 He refers to him at one point as the royal brute 319 00:21:35,168 --> 00:21:37,129 and really attacks him 320 00:21:37,212 --> 00:21:41,258 in a way that most colonists probably wouldn't have seen or heard before. 321 00:21:42,217 --> 00:21:46,096 And it changes how people can envision the king. 322 00:21:46,722 --> 00:21:50,350 It opens their eyes to thinking about the king in a different way. 323 00:21:51,810 --> 00:21:54,688 Common Sense is a pro-independence pamphlet. 324 00:21:54,771 --> 00:21:57,607 It's open. It's not pulling any punches. 325 00:21:58,442 --> 00:22:00,235 There is something very absurd 326 00:22:00,319 --> 00:22:04,114 in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. 327 00:22:05,032 --> 00:22:06,825 The utmost stretch of human wisdom 328 00:22:06,908 --> 00:22:11,330 cannot at this time compass a plan short of separation. 329 00:22:12,456 --> 00:22:14,666 One of the radical things about Common Sense 330 00:22:14,750 --> 00:22:16,376 isn't just that it called for independence. 331 00:22:16,460 --> 00:22:19,880 It called for creating a government of the United States 332 00:22:19,963 --> 00:22:23,550 that would be hyper-representative of ordinary people. 333 00:22:24,843 --> 00:22:27,512 The cause of America is in a great measure 334 00:22:27,596 --> 00:22:30,098 the cause of all mankind. 335 00:22:31,058 --> 00:22:36,146 Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth. 336 00:22:37,272 --> 00:22:41,068 Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. 337 00:22:41,151 --> 00:22:43,779 Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. 338 00:22:46,281 --> 00:22:51,036 Common Sense says it is possible to begin the world anew. 339 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:53,747 That's a shocking statement. 340 00:22:53,830 --> 00:22:56,583 There is something new under the sun, 341 00:22:56,666 --> 00:23:01,296 and it's within human capacity to decide what that thing is. 342 00:23:04,091 --> 00:23:06,718 Common Sense was widely regarded 343 00:23:06,802 --> 00:23:09,971 as the second most important publication ever 344 00:23:10,055 --> 00:23:13,100 in the history of America up to that point. 345 00:23:13,183 --> 00:23:15,268 Second only to the Bible. 346 00:23:16,978 --> 00:23:19,689 It's considered to have a strong effect 347 00:23:19,773 --> 00:23:23,402 in leading Americans to embrace the idea of independence. 348 00:23:33,203 --> 00:23:37,624 On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee 349 00:23:37,707 --> 00:23:40,877 rises on the floor of the Continental Congress… 350 00:23:42,712 --> 00:23:44,840 …and issues a resolution 351 00:23:44,923 --> 00:23:48,385 that I think people understood had been a long time coming. 352 00:23:52,639 --> 00:23:56,685 He proposed that these United Colonies are and, of right, ought to be 353 00:23:56,768 --> 00:23:58,895 free and independent states. 354 00:24:05,152 --> 00:24:08,363 The Congress decides that they're going to compose a committee, 355 00:24:08,447 --> 00:24:11,867 that they're going to ask to draft a declaration of independence 356 00:24:11,950 --> 00:24:14,244 if the resolution should pass. 357 00:24:16,496 --> 00:24:20,125 On the committee, they have Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. 358 00:24:21,293 --> 00:24:24,045 There is John Adams of Massachusetts. 359 00:24:26,173 --> 00:24:28,884 Representing New York is Robert Livingston. 360 00:24:28,967 --> 00:24:31,845 Representing Connecticut is Roger Sherman. 361 00:24:35,140 --> 00:24:37,809 The only Southerner on the drafting committee, 362 00:24:37,893 --> 00:24:42,564 a 33-year-old Virginian named Thomas Jefferson. 363 00:24:46,693 --> 00:24:51,364 Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 in Western Virginia 364 00:24:51,448 --> 00:24:53,742 at a time when this would have been 365 00:24:53,825 --> 00:24:56,786 the frontier of British colonial settlement. 366 00:24:58,663 --> 00:25:00,415 He was a fortunate child. 367 00:25:00,499 --> 00:25:03,084 He was born on a plantation called Shadwell. 368 00:25:03,168 --> 00:25:07,088 His father, Peter Jefferson, died when he was a teenager. 369 00:25:10,217 --> 00:25:13,553 One of the things that he had was a large library. 370 00:25:13,637 --> 00:25:18,642 So born on the frontier, but also part of a world of ideas. 371 00:25:19,809 --> 00:25:22,354 Jefferson is elected to the Virginia legislature 372 00:25:22,437 --> 00:25:24,105 in his mid-twenties. 373 00:25:24,189 --> 00:25:29,653 So he's already on track toward being this very prominent peer of Virginia. 374 00:25:30,862 --> 00:25:34,824 And as a leading figure in colonial Virginia, 375 00:25:34,908 --> 00:25:38,411 Jefferson will ultimately voice some of the greatest 376 00:25:38,495 --> 00:25:42,624 and most biting criticisms of the king. 377 00:25:42,707 --> 00:25:46,962 Kings are the servants not the proprietors of the people. 378 00:25:47,045 --> 00:25:51,716 Let not the name of George III be a blot in the page of history. 379 00:25:53,218 --> 00:25:54,886 So the committee meets. 380 00:25:55,679 --> 00:25:59,808 Adams, of course, had been in favor of independence for so long. 381 00:25:59,891 --> 00:26:05,230 Adams had been almost unceasingly urging his fellow delegates 382 00:26:05,313 --> 00:26:09,109 to support the cause of breaking away from Great Britain. 383 00:26:10,151 --> 00:26:12,445 There is something very unnatural and odious 384 00:26:12,529 --> 00:26:15,282 in a government 1,000 leagues off. 385 00:26:15,365 --> 00:26:17,242 A whole government of our own choice 386 00:26:17,325 --> 00:26:19,869 managed by persons whom we love, revere, 387 00:26:19,953 --> 00:26:25,292 and can confide in has charms in it for which men will fight. 388 00:26:26,209 --> 00:26:29,796 Jefferson thought John Adams should be the obvious person 389 00:26:29,879 --> 00:26:32,215 to draft the Declaration of Independence. 390 00:26:33,049 --> 00:26:35,343 And yet Adams turned to Jefferson and says, 391 00:26:35,427 --> 00:26:37,762 "Oh no, it can't be me. You have to do it." 392 00:26:37,846 --> 00:26:40,056 Jefferson said, "Why? Why me?" 393 00:26:40,140 --> 00:26:42,851 "I'm just 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson." 394 00:26:42,934 --> 00:26:45,145 Adams said, "I'll give you three reasons." 395 00:26:45,228 --> 00:26:48,231 "Reason number one, you are a Virginian, 396 00:26:48,315 --> 00:26:51,318 and a Virginian ought to be at the head of this business." 397 00:26:51,401 --> 00:26:56,948 "Reason number two, I, John Adams, am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular." 398 00:26:57,032 --> 00:26:59,117 "You are very much otherwise." 399 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:03,455 "Reason number three, you can write ten times better than I can." 400 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,296 Jefferson began drafting the Declaration of Independence in June. 401 00:27:11,379 --> 00:27:16,676 He was staying on the second floor of the house of a Philadelphia brickmaker. 402 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,220 And he had two rented rooms. 403 00:27:19,304 --> 00:27:23,933 He had the 18th century equivalent of a laptop computer. 404 00:27:24,017 --> 00:27:27,646 It was his lap desk. It contained ink. It contained parchment. 405 00:27:29,939 --> 00:27:32,067 So Jefferson drafts. 406 00:27:33,860 --> 00:27:38,990 The Committee of Five, especially Franklin and Adams, revise. 407 00:27:41,159 --> 00:27:44,454 And then a clean draft is put to Congress. 408 00:27:44,537 --> 00:27:49,668 And Congress slashes the heck out of it, removing what Adams later calls 409 00:27:49,751 --> 00:27:53,755 some of Jefferson's most oratorical paragraphs. 410 00:27:55,090 --> 00:27:58,718 Jefferson actually kept his first draft the rest of his life 411 00:27:58,802 --> 00:28:00,387 and would show it to people to say, 412 00:28:00,470 --> 00:28:04,349 "It was really better before they got their hands on it. Here's my draft." 413 00:28:05,183 --> 00:28:09,270 Everyone gives Jefferson all this credit for making us independent. 414 00:28:09,354 --> 00:28:11,064 But he wasn't alone. 415 00:28:12,774 --> 00:28:15,276 To have colonies declare independence 416 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:18,697 of their empire is a monumental event. 417 00:28:19,989 --> 00:28:23,535 It's a big moment. It's a treasonous act. 418 00:28:24,411 --> 00:28:28,498 Independence is a huge and terrifying step. 419 00:28:28,581 --> 00:28:33,837 Like most big changes, it happens gradually and then all at once. 420 00:28:34,713 --> 00:28:36,506 When in the course of human events 421 00:28:36,589 --> 00:28:38,550 it becomes necessary for one people 422 00:28:38,633 --> 00:28:42,178 to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another… 423 00:28:42,262 --> 00:28:44,347 It was not addressed to the American people, 424 00:28:44,431 --> 00:28:47,350 but to the broader world to explain the American people. 425 00:28:49,561 --> 00:28:51,312 What is it to be an American? 426 00:28:51,396 --> 00:28:55,567 There's no ethnic base to Americanism. 427 00:28:56,234 --> 00:28:58,319 So it has to be created. 428 00:28:58,403 --> 00:29:01,072 And it's created by the Declaration. 429 00:29:01,614 --> 00:29:06,703 The United States was the first country created by documents. 430 00:29:07,704 --> 00:29:10,707 It's the most important document in our history. 431 00:29:11,291 --> 00:29:14,169 …to assume among the powers of the earth 432 00:29:14,252 --> 00:29:15,712 the separate and equal station 433 00:29:15,795 --> 00:29:19,799 to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. 434 00:29:19,883 --> 00:29:22,969 A decent respect to the opinions of mankind 435 00:29:23,052 --> 00:29:25,597 requires that they should declare the causes 436 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:27,891 which impel them to the separation. 437 00:29:29,309 --> 00:29:31,811 It was a candid declaration to the world 438 00:29:31,895 --> 00:29:36,816 that we were now 13 independent states and that the world had to notice that. 439 00:29:38,067 --> 00:29:40,028 The second paragraph of the Declaration 440 00:29:40,111 --> 00:29:45,283 is probably the best known and most brilliant words, 441 00:29:45,366 --> 00:29:48,536 originally rendered in English, outside of Shakespeare. 442 00:29:50,121 --> 00:29:54,876 The most powerful extended sentence in the history of the world. 443 00:29:58,087 --> 00:30:01,841 We hold these truths to be self-evident… 444 00:30:01,925 --> 00:30:04,552 …that all men are created equal… 445 00:30:05,178 --> 00:30:09,224 …that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights… 446 00:30:09,307 --> 00:30:14,395 …that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… 447 00:30:15,522 --> 00:30:19,651 …that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men… 448 00:30:20,193 --> 00:30:23,780 …deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed… 449 00:30:24,447 --> 00:30:26,825 …that whenever any form of government 450 00:30:26,908 --> 00:30:29,994 becomes destructive of these ends… 451 00:30:30,078 --> 00:30:33,665 …it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it 452 00:30:33,748 --> 00:30:35,959 and to institute new government. 453 00:30:39,337 --> 00:30:45,802 That key sentence in the Declaration really distills the essence of equality 454 00:30:45,885 --> 00:30:47,846 and justice for all. 455 00:30:47,929 --> 00:30:52,100 Class, circumstances of one's birth, 456 00:30:52,183 --> 00:30:55,520 wealth, family, lineage… 457 00:30:55,603 --> 00:31:00,608 None of that mattered compared to the essential equality 458 00:31:00,692 --> 00:31:05,238 that comes from being born here in the United States of America 459 00:31:05,321 --> 00:31:09,784 or being a citizen of this great country 460 00:31:09,868 --> 00:31:14,581 that confers equal status under the law. 461 00:31:14,664 --> 00:31:19,210 And that was part of what was brand new. 462 00:31:20,795 --> 00:31:26,676 It's the pithiest, most eloquent expression 463 00:31:26,759 --> 00:31:30,555 of what it means to be a citizen of a democracy 464 00:31:30,638 --> 00:31:32,473 that has ever been written. 465 00:31:37,312 --> 00:31:41,441 Now, when they uttered those words, they were neither truths, 466 00:31:41,524 --> 00:31:43,026 nor were they self-evident. 467 00:31:43,109 --> 00:31:46,446 They had never existed in the history of governance. 468 00:31:49,073 --> 00:31:50,825 What the revolutionaries realized 469 00:31:50,909 --> 00:31:54,203 is that they needed a new theory of authority, 470 00:31:54,287 --> 00:31:57,165 of governance, of popular power 471 00:31:57,749 --> 00:32:01,794 that would allow them to escape the control of Britain. 472 00:32:02,378 --> 00:32:04,172 One of the most important parts is that 473 00:32:04,255 --> 00:32:06,799 whenever a form of government is not serving people, 474 00:32:06,883 --> 00:32:09,844 then the people retain an unalienable right 475 00:32:09,928 --> 00:32:12,096 to alter or abolish it. 476 00:32:13,014 --> 00:32:16,851 If a government ceases to protect and preserve these rights, 477 00:32:16,935 --> 00:32:19,479 then the people have the right to rise up against it 478 00:32:19,562 --> 00:32:21,439 and institute a new government. 479 00:32:21,522 --> 00:32:25,985 And of course, the Declaration was literally a declaration of war. 480 00:32:26,069 --> 00:32:27,779 It was a Declaration of Independence. 481 00:32:27,862 --> 00:32:30,990 It was telling England, we are no longer part of you. 482 00:32:31,074 --> 00:32:35,912 We are on our own because the monarchy has violated our natural rights. 483 00:32:38,414 --> 00:32:40,625 What you begin to see in the Declaration, 484 00:32:40,708 --> 00:32:42,710 is it's such an aspirational document. 485 00:32:42,794 --> 00:32:47,423 It's a document that says, this is who we could be. 486 00:32:47,507 --> 00:32:50,593 And what I think makes the United States so powerful 487 00:32:50,677 --> 00:32:54,681 is it's really one of the few nations in the world that's aspirational. 488 00:32:56,391 --> 00:33:00,186 The Declaration of Independence is a turning point in world history. 489 00:33:00,269 --> 00:33:03,815 It's really the formal beginning of the age of revolution. 490 00:33:04,565 --> 00:33:09,445 It inspired the drive for self-government. 491 00:33:10,321 --> 00:33:11,656 It has taught the whole world 492 00:33:11,739 --> 00:33:14,409 how to think about the project of self-government. 493 00:33:14,492 --> 00:33:16,327 You gotta name your core values. 494 00:33:16,411 --> 00:33:19,205 You gotta figure out how to structure the powers of government 495 00:33:19,288 --> 00:33:20,665 to go with those core values. 496 00:33:20,748 --> 00:33:23,960 And you gotta declare your causes to mankind. 497 00:33:29,882 --> 00:33:33,094 The United States is founded on so many paradoxes. 498 00:33:33,177 --> 00:33:37,223 We only need to look at that resonant phrase, "All men are created equal." 499 00:33:38,391 --> 00:33:42,311 The very man who wrote those words was a slaveholder. 500 00:33:44,647 --> 00:33:46,816 Jefferson drafts the Declaration 501 00:33:46,899 --> 00:33:50,820 with his enslaved and literate valet, Robert Hemmings, at his elbow 502 00:33:50,903 --> 00:33:55,658 doing things that we can only imagine as a supporting player, 503 00:33:55,742 --> 00:33:58,828 keeping Jefferson sort of body and soul. 504 00:33:59,370 --> 00:34:01,831 Ideologically, at least on the face of it, 505 00:34:01,914 --> 00:34:03,833 these nascent revolutionaries 506 00:34:03,916 --> 00:34:09,005 are committed to this bold experiment of self-government 507 00:34:09,505 --> 00:34:12,258 that's rooted in this profound faith 508 00:34:12,341 --> 00:34:15,595 in human beings' ability to act rationally, 509 00:34:15,678 --> 00:34:18,139 to make reasonable judgments, 510 00:34:18,222 --> 00:34:24,062 to participate in the civic rights and rituals that go along with democracy. 511 00:34:25,646 --> 00:34:26,898 And at the same time, 512 00:34:27,815 --> 00:34:30,234 they're buying and selling human beings 513 00:34:30,318 --> 00:34:32,862 and trading human beings 514 00:34:33,821 --> 00:34:36,991 and raping and impregnating human beings. 515 00:34:44,499 --> 00:34:47,710 The Declaration of Independence was used by people 516 00:34:47,794 --> 00:34:50,338 who saw that there was an opportunity 517 00:34:50,421 --> 00:34:54,467 to push back against the practice of chattel slavery, 518 00:34:54,550 --> 00:34:57,053 using the words in that document. 519 00:34:59,889 --> 00:35:01,599 Enslaved and freed Black people 520 00:35:01,682 --> 00:35:04,852 from almost the moment that the ink was dry 521 00:35:04,936 --> 00:35:08,856 are leveraging the Declaration in their own rights struggles. 522 00:35:10,483 --> 00:35:13,277 Women seeking suffrage. 523 00:35:13,361 --> 00:35:17,323 Native peoples seeking to steer their ship 524 00:35:17,406 --> 00:35:21,911 through this incredibly expansive United States. 525 00:35:29,418 --> 00:35:31,629 The importance of the Declaration of Independence 526 00:35:31,712 --> 00:35:34,340 is those principles can evolve over time. 527 00:35:35,466 --> 00:35:37,802 That document has been 528 00:35:37,885 --> 00:35:41,430 one of the most powerful philosophical tools 529 00:35:41,514 --> 00:35:43,015 for people seeking rights 530 00:35:43,099 --> 00:35:45,726 across the United States and around the world. 531 00:35:46,853 --> 00:35:48,896 Much of the rest of the document 532 00:35:48,980 --> 00:35:50,523 is used to list out grievances 533 00:35:50,606 --> 00:35:52,316 against the British. 534 00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,444 He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, 535 00:35:55,528 --> 00:35:58,239 imposing taxes on us without our consent. 536 00:35:58,322 --> 00:36:00,741 He has kept among us in times of peace 537 00:36:00,825 --> 00:36:04,620 standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. 538 00:36:04,704 --> 00:36:08,416 …for depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury. 539 00:36:09,250 --> 00:36:11,794 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coast, 540 00:36:11,878 --> 00:36:14,714 burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 541 00:36:20,386 --> 00:36:23,055 The people who vote for the Declaration of Independence, 542 00:36:23,639 --> 00:36:26,309 those bold-faced names are people who have positions. 543 00:36:27,602 --> 00:36:29,604 They have a lot to lose. 544 00:36:31,314 --> 00:36:33,566 They own the biggest plantations, 545 00:36:33,649 --> 00:36:36,986 the biggest forced labor camps in their colonies. 546 00:36:37,069 --> 00:36:39,488 And they know that if they go against the British, 547 00:36:39,572 --> 00:36:40,531 that's treason. 548 00:36:40,615 --> 00:36:44,160 This is a leap of faith into the unknown. 549 00:36:44,243 --> 00:36:48,748 And you have to admire the gutsiness and the courage 550 00:36:48,831 --> 00:36:53,336 of those who said, "Okay, I'm gonna actually go through with this." 551 00:36:54,795 --> 00:37:00,176 John Adams says, "I sat there and I watched people that day 552 00:37:00,927 --> 00:37:02,929 and I could see their faces." 553 00:37:03,012 --> 00:37:05,348 "And I could see in their faces there were people 554 00:37:05,431 --> 00:37:06,933 not happy about that document." 555 00:37:07,016 --> 00:37:10,937 They were not happy about having to go through with this. 556 00:37:11,020 --> 00:37:14,732 They saw it as dangerous, as traitorous, as treason, which it was. 557 00:37:15,691 --> 00:37:17,818 To say we're gonna overthrow our masters, 558 00:37:17,902 --> 00:37:19,570 or people acting like our masters, 559 00:37:19,654 --> 00:37:21,155 that was significant. 560 00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:25,201 I'm still in awe at what they put on the line 561 00:37:25,284 --> 00:37:28,871 and were willing to give up their lives so they could have this freedom. 562 00:37:29,705 --> 00:37:32,500 It was worth it to them to pursue independence 563 00:37:32,583 --> 00:37:35,127 and that in so doing, 564 00:37:35,211 --> 00:37:37,588 they were affecting human history. 565 00:37:39,006 --> 00:37:44,262 The Declaration of Independence was agreed to in Philadelphia 566 00:37:44,345 --> 00:37:46,305 on July 4, 1776. 567 00:37:50,643 --> 00:37:53,646 One of the most important events in the history of the world. 568 00:37:54,772 --> 00:37:59,318 On July 4th, there's a big reading of the text outside 569 00:37:59,402 --> 00:38:02,321 of what we would now call Independence Hall. 570 00:38:02,405 --> 00:38:05,992 And the word just spreads really fast, like wildfire. 571 00:38:06,867 --> 00:38:08,953 The Declaration of Independence was read 572 00:38:09,036 --> 00:38:12,331 at the head of each brigade of the Continental Army, 573 00:38:12,415 --> 00:38:17,420 posted at and near New York and everywhere received with loud huzzahs 574 00:38:17,503 --> 00:38:19,964 and the utmost demonstrations of joy. 575 00:38:24,010 --> 00:38:26,304 When George Washington got a copy, 576 00:38:27,013 --> 00:38:29,640 he is with his troops in Manhattan, 577 00:38:29,724 --> 00:38:33,185 and he orders that it be read aloud before his soldiers. 578 00:38:34,270 --> 00:38:37,231 Who then proceed to go down to the Bowery, 579 00:38:38,691 --> 00:38:41,986 where there has been a statue of George III. 580 00:38:43,112 --> 00:38:47,158 New Yorkers had it erected just six years earlier. 581 00:38:49,201 --> 00:38:52,288 And yet in July of 1776, 582 00:38:52,371 --> 00:38:53,748 Americans are going to, 583 00:38:53,831 --> 00:38:56,876 after hearing the news of the Declaration of Independence, 584 00:38:56,959 --> 00:38:58,169 pull it down… 585 00:38:59,211 --> 00:39:00,463 …chop it to pieces, 586 00:39:01,630 --> 00:39:03,924 send the pieces to Litchfield, Connecticut, 587 00:39:04,884 --> 00:39:07,511 where the lead of the statue will be melted down 588 00:39:07,595 --> 00:39:10,097 into musket balls for the Continental Army. 589 00:39:14,602 --> 00:39:17,688 By this point, the Americans have secured this high ground 590 00:39:17,772 --> 00:39:20,191 in Dorchester Heights over Boston. 591 00:39:21,859 --> 00:39:24,820 They put in cannons to fire on the British, 592 00:39:24,904 --> 00:39:28,032 and William Howe sees what they have done, 593 00:39:28,115 --> 00:39:30,242 but remembers what happened at Bunker Hill 594 00:39:30,326 --> 00:39:33,913 and says, "It's time for us to get out of here." 595 00:39:36,832 --> 00:39:38,250 They go to Nova Scotia, 596 00:39:38,334 --> 00:39:41,837 and over the summer, he puts together a huge fleet 597 00:39:41,921 --> 00:39:44,924 with the help of the ministers in England, 598 00:39:45,007 --> 00:39:50,846 and soon they are heading towards New York Harbor in the summer of 1776. 599 00:39:51,347 --> 00:39:54,809 It will be in New York where the empire will strike back. 600 00:39:56,936 --> 00:39:59,188 Washington has to try to defend all of New York. 601 00:39:59,271 --> 00:40:02,650 The Continental Congress says, "You must defend New York." 602 00:40:02,733 --> 00:40:04,819 But it's impossible to defend it without a Navy 603 00:40:04,902 --> 00:40:06,904 because Manhattan, as we know, is an island. 604 00:40:08,072 --> 00:40:11,242 He actually sends someone down to take a look at the battleground 605 00:40:11,325 --> 00:40:13,327 and he says, "This is indefensible." 606 00:40:14,203 --> 00:40:17,748 Nevertheless, Washington commits the army. 607 00:40:17,832 --> 00:40:20,709 And the question is, why does he do that? 608 00:40:21,293 --> 00:40:26,590 One reason is because he is told by the civilian government to do it. 609 00:40:28,384 --> 00:40:30,803 Washington is unique in a lot of ways, 610 00:40:31,303 --> 00:40:34,432 and I think one of them is his understanding of his relationship 611 00:40:34,515 --> 00:40:35,724 to the Continental Congress, 612 00:40:35,808 --> 00:40:37,977 essentially civil control over the military. 613 00:40:39,395 --> 00:40:41,772 He continues to respect civilian authority, 614 00:40:42,857 --> 00:40:45,067 but defending New York was an impossible mission. 615 00:40:46,610 --> 00:40:47,987 Long Island's an island, 616 00:40:48,070 --> 00:40:50,072 and there's huge waterways in between. 617 00:40:50,156 --> 00:40:51,532 If you can't control them, 618 00:40:51,615 --> 00:40:54,243 you can't control where the troops can be landed. 619 00:40:55,327 --> 00:40:57,872 The British sent the largest expeditionary force 620 00:40:57,955 --> 00:41:00,875 in recorded modern history to New York. 621 00:41:03,461 --> 00:41:06,589 The British government has come to the realization, 622 00:41:06,672 --> 00:41:08,382 "We have to win the war quickly, 623 00:41:09,300 --> 00:41:11,760 and so we're gonna send a massive blow." 624 00:41:12,344 --> 00:41:15,723 The largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic 625 00:41:16,223 --> 00:41:18,100 with 32,000 troops. 626 00:41:22,146 --> 00:41:25,316 Amphibious operations are one of the areas where the British shine. 627 00:41:25,399 --> 00:41:28,903 It's where they're able to use their advantage in naval power. 628 00:41:30,029 --> 00:41:33,073 They're gonna use it in order to crush this rebellion in its cradle 629 00:41:33,157 --> 00:41:35,993 before it can get even more widespread. 630 00:41:36,494 --> 00:41:40,748 Their commander, Howe, by this point has trained his men well. 631 00:41:41,916 --> 00:41:45,544 They land in Long Island. 632 00:41:45,628 --> 00:41:49,757 The fear around New York was intense. There's no question about that. 633 00:41:50,966 --> 00:41:54,220 If the Continental Army did not make it through this battle, 634 00:41:54,303 --> 00:41:57,973 there wasn't gonna be a Continental Army, and there wasn't gonna be a revolution. 635 00:41:58,057 --> 00:41:59,517 Or I should say, 636 00:42:00,017 --> 00:42:02,394 there was a revolution, and it was over. 637 00:42:03,229 --> 00:42:06,023 Washington blunders at the Battle of Long Island 638 00:42:06,106 --> 00:42:08,192 because he doesn't protect his flanks. 639 00:42:11,153 --> 00:42:17,326 Jamaica Pass is a pathway on Long Island to the extreme east. 640 00:42:17,409 --> 00:42:20,579 For whatever reason, Washington doesn't defend. 641 00:42:20,663 --> 00:42:22,248 He thinks it's too far away. 642 00:42:22,331 --> 00:42:24,833 The British would never go that far around. 643 00:42:27,044 --> 00:42:31,715 And they use that pathway to circle behind the American force. 644 00:42:32,508 --> 00:42:34,927 They flanked the heck out of the Continental Army. 645 00:42:38,847 --> 00:42:41,976 The battle was really up close and personal killing 646 00:42:42,059 --> 00:42:43,561 in significant numbers. 647 00:42:44,937 --> 00:42:46,272 It's brutal. 648 00:42:46,355 --> 00:42:48,941 It's face to face. 649 00:42:52,278 --> 00:42:54,029 It's a very bloody battle. 650 00:42:58,158 --> 00:43:00,786 Washington's forces start to crack. 651 00:43:04,081 --> 00:43:06,834 There's panic. There's retreat. 652 00:43:17,219 --> 00:43:19,346 It's a horrendous defeat. 653 00:43:23,767 --> 00:43:25,603 By the end of the day, 654 00:43:25,686 --> 00:43:28,856 in August 27th, in 1776, 655 00:43:28,939 --> 00:43:33,068 the British have demolished a large portion of the army. 656 00:43:33,819 --> 00:43:35,904 Hundreds dead or wounded. 657 00:43:37,281 --> 00:43:38,824 The Continental Army holds 658 00:43:38,907 --> 00:43:41,327 at Brooklyn Heights at the end of the first day's battle. 659 00:43:41,410 --> 00:43:44,788 And the British Army is planning to attack. 660 00:43:47,249 --> 00:43:49,835 Washington's trapped as the British noose is slowly 661 00:43:49,918 --> 00:43:51,795 closing around his forces. 662 00:43:54,089 --> 00:43:57,176 But the British are unable to capture Washington. 663 00:43:59,553 --> 00:44:03,474 The Continental Army got lucky. Weather was in their favor. 664 00:44:06,685 --> 00:44:09,813 What he does at the Battle of Long Island 665 00:44:09,897 --> 00:44:13,859 is achieve one of the great retreats of all time. 666 00:44:19,156 --> 00:44:22,326 At night, with a group of tiny boats, 667 00:44:22,409 --> 00:44:28,123 he shuttles his men in the fog across the East River into New York. 668 00:44:31,460 --> 00:44:33,337 And when dawn comes, 669 00:44:33,921 --> 00:44:35,798 the American Army has left. 670 00:44:36,799 --> 00:44:38,509 They are now in New York City. 671 00:44:39,843 --> 00:44:42,471 By the time the fog had cleared up later that morning, 672 00:44:42,554 --> 00:44:45,307 the British just saw an empty encampment. 673 00:44:45,391 --> 00:44:49,186 It was kind of miraculous that he was able to evacuate as much of the forces he did. 674 00:44:50,896 --> 00:44:54,024 It's the beginning of a game of cat and mouse. 675 00:44:57,403 --> 00:44:59,446 What follows is a sequence of disasters 676 00:44:59,530 --> 00:45:01,865 essentially like that all throughout Manhattan 677 00:45:01,949 --> 00:45:06,036 where Washington's army fights. They get beaten. They keep moving back. 678 00:45:06,870 --> 00:45:09,373 Because of their naval control of the waterways 679 00:45:09,456 --> 00:45:11,291 and the cooperation between the army 680 00:45:11,375 --> 00:45:13,961 and the Navy that is happening on the British side, 681 00:45:14,044 --> 00:45:16,964 the British can, to a certain extent, go where they please. 682 00:45:18,590 --> 00:45:24,471 And so the retreat up Manhattan Island is an incredibly haphazard, 683 00:45:24,555 --> 00:45:26,432 demoralizing affair for the Americans. 684 00:45:26,515 --> 00:45:28,559 I mean, we get the accounts of Americans. 685 00:45:28,642 --> 00:45:32,771 And to read their reminiscences of this, like Joseph Plum Martin, 686 00:45:32,855 --> 00:45:37,359 Every man that I saw was endeavoring by all sober means 687 00:45:37,443 --> 00:45:40,028 to escape from death or captivity, 688 00:45:40,112 --> 00:45:44,366 which at that period of the war, was almost certain death. 689 00:45:45,492 --> 00:45:50,164 His account is scattered. It's haphazard. It's confusing. It's frightening. 690 00:45:50,247 --> 00:45:52,875 He's hiding here and there, so the British won't find him 691 00:45:52,958 --> 00:45:54,710 and then trying to rejoin forces, 692 00:45:54,793 --> 00:45:57,963 being caught by these guys, trying to skirt around them in the night. 693 00:45:58,046 --> 00:46:00,090 I mean, it's absolutely chaotic. 694 00:46:00,174 --> 00:46:04,219 And there is a great amount of disorder as Washington continues to retreat 695 00:46:04,303 --> 00:46:06,013 as the British have their success. 696 00:46:09,516 --> 00:46:12,561 Washington is consistently being outflanked, outfought 697 00:46:12,644 --> 00:46:14,646 at each one of these engagements. 698 00:46:18,567 --> 00:46:21,320 Near Fort Washington in the far northern part of the island, 699 00:46:21,403 --> 00:46:25,866 the British are scaling some pretty remarkable fortifications. 700 00:46:27,367 --> 00:46:28,577 And having great success, 701 00:46:28,660 --> 00:46:31,246 forcing all of Fort Washington to surrender, 702 00:46:31,330 --> 00:46:33,749 giving them control of Manhattan Island. 703 00:46:35,876 --> 00:46:39,797 This is a demoralizing failure for Washington, 704 00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:41,131 and I think personally, 705 00:46:41,215 --> 00:46:44,009 as much as it was for the broader Continental Army's efforts. 706 00:46:45,886 --> 00:46:50,390 This is the most unfortunate affair and has given me great mortification 707 00:46:50,474 --> 00:46:54,353 as we have lost not only 2,000 men that were there 708 00:46:54,436 --> 00:46:58,649 but a good deal of artillery and some of the best arms we had. 709 00:47:01,151 --> 00:47:03,487 The British will reclaim New York, 710 00:47:03,570 --> 00:47:07,282 and the Americans lose an important strategic hub on the East Coast. 711 00:47:08,242 --> 00:47:11,370 The British capture thousands of American troops, 712 00:47:11,453 --> 00:47:12,996 and those American troops, 713 00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:15,332 for the most part, are being prisoners of war 714 00:47:15,415 --> 00:47:18,043 on these prisoner ships here in the New York City area. 715 00:47:18,126 --> 00:47:20,420 And those were just terrible places to be. 716 00:47:20,504 --> 00:47:23,632 Thousands of American troops died of sickness there. 717 00:47:28,303 --> 00:47:32,516 General Howe drove the American Army out of that region. 718 00:47:33,433 --> 00:47:37,312 As they are being harassed and chased through New Jersey, 719 00:47:37,396 --> 00:47:39,731 it couldn't get much worse for them. 720 00:47:40,899 --> 00:47:43,318 I cannot express the hardship and fatigue 721 00:47:43,402 --> 00:47:46,238 we have undergone on our march from place to place. 722 00:47:46,321 --> 00:47:48,282 I hope God will still preserve us 723 00:47:48,365 --> 00:47:52,870 and give us an opportunity of meeting together again in this world. 724 00:47:52,953 --> 00:47:56,081 That retreat is one of the most harrowing for the Americans 725 00:47:56,164 --> 00:47:58,792 because it's unclear where it will end. 726 00:47:58,876 --> 00:48:00,210 You have men unprepared 727 00:48:00,294 --> 00:48:03,714 for the change in weather when you get to a cold, wet fall. 728 00:48:07,801 --> 00:48:08,927 And then the winter. 729 00:48:12,806 --> 00:48:14,433 You get militiamen from Connecticut 730 00:48:14,516 --> 00:48:18,103 who are called up and who go on what they see will be a summer campaign 731 00:48:18,186 --> 00:48:19,855 wearing summer clothing. 732 00:48:21,648 --> 00:48:23,984 But you get to the middle of winter in a snowstorm, 733 00:48:24,067 --> 00:48:26,945 and the clothing they have is unsuited for those conditions. 734 00:48:27,654 --> 00:48:30,991 This march on the account of the severity of the weather 735 00:48:31,074 --> 00:48:34,912 and the bad state of the soldiers, particularly with respect to the shoes, 736 00:48:34,995 --> 00:48:38,999 there being many nearly barefooted, and the whole very ill clad 737 00:48:39,082 --> 00:48:41,043 became a very tedious business. 738 00:48:41,126 --> 00:48:43,795 And numbers of our brave fellows cried like children 739 00:48:43,879 --> 00:48:45,380 with the severity of the cold 740 00:48:45,464 --> 00:48:50,093 and the pain of traveling, their footsteps often leaving traces of blood. 741 00:48:51,386 --> 00:48:54,431 A lot don't have proper shoes, and they're walking barefoot, 742 00:48:54,514 --> 00:48:57,309 and your feet are getting cut up and infected, 743 00:48:57,392 --> 00:48:59,394 and many of them are wounded. 744 00:49:01,229 --> 00:49:03,899 Their distresses are extremely great. 745 00:49:03,982 --> 00:49:08,278 Many of them being entirely naked, and most so thinly clad 746 00:49:08,362 --> 00:49:10,155 as to be unfit for service. 747 00:49:11,949 --> 00:49:14,618 I must entreat Congress to write to the agents 748 00:49:14,701 --> 00:49:17,287 and contractors upon this subject. 749 00:49:18,121 --> 00:49:21,333 Washington desperately needs them to hang on. 750 00:49:22,459 --> 00:49:27,297 Ten days more will put an end to the existence of our army. 751 00:49:27,381 --> 00:49:31,343 Short enlistments and a mistaken dependence upon militia 752 00:49:31,426 --> 00:49:34,930 have been the origin of all our misfortunes. 753 00:49:39,977 --> 00:49:42,521 By December of 1776, 754 00:49:42,604 --> 00:49:45,983 the Continental Army had its back against the wall. 755 00:49:47,025 --> 00:49:50,862 The British have this large army in America 756 00:49:50,946 --> 00:49:54,157 that is going to begin to view the Americans 757 00:49:54,241 --> 00:49:57,744 as an inferior and separate people, 758 00:49:57,828 --> 00:50:01,498 and they treat them, frankly, with a great deal of disregard. 759 00:50:03,542 --> 00:50:07,838 There are a number of reports of sexual assaults. 760 00:50:12,467 --> 00:50:14,344 There are a number of reports 761 00:50:14,428 --> 00:50:18,098 of British soldiers looting Americans' property. 762 00:50:19,349 --> 00:50:21,977 They demanded her ring from her finger. 763 00:50:22,060 --> 00:50:25,188 She pleaded for it, told them it was her wedding ring 764 00:50:25,272 --> 00:50:27,524 and begged they let her keep it, 765 00:50:27,607 --> 00:50:31,611 but they still demanded it and, presenting a pistol at her, 766 00:50:31,695 --> 00:50:35,615 swore if she did not deliver it immediately, they'd fire. 767 00:50:36,366 --> 00:50:38,827 Wherever the British soldiers go, 768 00:50:38,910 --> 00:50:42,289 they can occupy a city, but as soon as they leave, 769 00:50:42,372 --> 00:50:45,167 people will stop saying "God save the king," 770 00:50:45,250 --> 00:50:48,170 and they start saying, you know, "God save George Washington." 771 00:50:49,504 --> 00:50:52,132 Because they see in front of their own eyes 772 00:50:52,215 --> 00:50:56,053 the tyrannical nature of British occupation. 773 00:50:58,388 --> 00:51:02,726 To the outrage of the Americans, the British have also hired mercenaries. 774 00:51:02,809 --> 00:51:04,603 Hessian soldiers from Germany. 775 00:51:06,313 --> 00:51:09,107 The Hessians are a group of German auxiliaries 776 00:51:09,191 --> 00:51:14,029 that are hired by the British government to serve in their wars. 777 00:51:15,739 --> 00:51:17,824 Americans took that as a huge insult. 778 00:51:17,908 --> 00:51:21,536 They've hired "foreigners" to fight us. 779 00:51:22,537 --> 00:51:25,248 These were very well-disciplined soldiers 780 00:51:25,332 --> 00:51:29,252 with fearsome reputations for battle and carnage. 781 00:51:31,046 --> 00:51:34,549 According to the Americans, they are raping and pillaging their way 782 00:51:34,633 --> 00:51:37,552 through Westchester County, down into New Jersey. 783 00:51:39,638 --> 00:51:43,058 The Hessians have truly enraged the American people. 784 00:51:50,774 --> 00:51:53,443 After the Battle of New York, it looks like the Americans 785 00:51:53,527 --> 00:51:56,655 are losing and on their last legs. 786 00:51:57,322 --> 00:52:00,742 Congress and the states do not sufficiently fund the army, 787 00:52:00,826 --> 00:52:03,578 and most of Washington's men's enlistment 788 00:52:03,662 --> 00:52:06,832 is going to expire at the end of 1776, 789 00:52:06,915 --> 00:52:09,918 and he's gonna have to recruit an entire new army. 790 00:52:10,627 --> 00:52:14,089 They didn't have enough food, they didn't have enough supplies, 791 00:52:14,172 --> 00:52:15,632 and they weren't sure 792 00:52:15,715 --> 00:52:17,801 if the American people were still with them. 793 00:52:32,816 --> 00:52:35,402 This is the context in which Thomas Paine 794 00:52:35,485 --> 00:52:38,238 wrote his second most famous American pamphlet. 795 00:52:44,369 --> 00:52:47,706 Thomas Paine was marching down with George Washington 796 00:52:47,789 --> 00:52:49,833 through New Jersey as they're getting beaten. 797 00:52:51,168 --> 00:52:54,087 According to one story, he writes his pamphlet, 798 00:52:54,171 --> 00:52:56,715 The Crisis, on the head of a drum. 799 00:52:58,925 --> 00:53:03,054 He is trying to boost the morale of these soldiers. 800 00:53:04,681 --> 00:53:08,476 Thomas Paine wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls." 801 00:53:10,478 --> 00:53:12,981 The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot 802 00:53:13,064 --> 00:53:17,277 will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country, 803 00:53:18,069 --> 00:53:22,866 but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. 804 00:53:22,949 --> 00:53:27,078 Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. 805 00:53:28,830 --> 00:53:31,583 It provides a kind of psychological ammunition 806 00:53:31,666 --> 00:53:35,337 to the American forces to hang on for that much longer. 807 00:53:36,504 --> 00:53:38,924 I love the man that can smile in trouble, 808 00:53:39,007 --> 00:53:43,845 that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 809 00:53:44,971 --> 00:53:47,599 It is the business of little minds to shrink, 810 00:53:48,099 --> 00:53:49,935 but he whose heart is firm 811 00:53:50,018 --> 00:53:52,229 and whose conscience proves his conduct, 812 00:53:52,312 --> 00:53:55,482 will pursue his principles unto death. 813 00:53:57,734 --> 00:54:00,070 This moment comes after some of Washington's 814 00:54:00,153 --> 00:54:02,364 worst decision-making during the war. 815 00:54:02,447 --> 00:54:04,532 His command was being questioned. 816 00:54:05,617 --> 00:54:10,413 There were a number of congressmen and a number of supporters of the army 817 00:54:10,497 --> 00:54:13,667 who started to question whether or not Washington was the right person 818 00:54:13,750 --> 00:54:15,043 to lead the forces. 819 00:54:15,126 --> 00:54:16,962 Was he too inexperienced? 820 00:54:17,045 --> 00:54:19,214 Did he demonstrate poor judgment? 821 00:54:20,632 --> 00:54:23,176 Washington needs to do something not only to change 822 00:54:23,260 --> 00:54:27,055 the momentum of the war, but save his own job. 823 00:54:29,724 --> 00:54:32,394 He's losing men left and right. 824 00:54:34,980 --> 00:54:40,735 The 3,000 men that he has left, these are strong, good soldiers. 825 00:54:40,819 --> 00:54:43,196 These are fighters, but they're tired. 826 00:54:44,364 --> 00:54:48,285 You know, they're in the fourth quarter and they're losing, you know, 35 to seven. 827 00:54:48,368 --> 00:54:50,662 They're a bit dejected, but they're tough. 828 00:54:50,745 --> 00:54:52,789 They're some of the best that he has, 829 00:54:52,872 --> 00:54:57,043 and you see how during ten crucial days, they step up. 830 00:55:03,300 --> 00:55:07,429 What Washington realizes is that Howe has left his Hessians 831 00:55:07,512 --> 00:55:10,098 in a very precarious situation. 832 00:55:12,851 --> 00:55:19,524 Washington realizes if he can make some kind of motion against the Hessians 833 00:55:19,607 --> 00:55:21,818 stationed in New Jersey, 834 00:55:21,901 --> 00:55:24,446 maybe he can change the momentum of the war. 835 00:55:29,159 --> 00:55:32,329 And so he hatches the plan to attack Trenton. 836 00:55:36,583 --> 00:55:39,210 He made the decision to lead his army 837 00:55:39,294 --> 00:55:42,839 as they rode across the icy Delaware River 838 00:55:44,341 --> 00:55:46,926 to conduct a surprise Christmas attack 839 00:55:47,010 --> 00:55:50,221 at a time when traditionally people never fought. 840 00:55:53,099 --> 00:55:56,102 It's a desperate last attempt to stop 841 00:55:56,186 --> 00:55:58,521 what seems like the British juggernaut. 842 00:56:00,482 --> 00:56:02,567 He's doing a Hail Mary. 843 00:56:04,152 --> 00:56:05,236 Washington says, 844 00:56:06,529 --> 00:56:08,365 "It's either victory or death." 845 00:56:14,579 --> 00:56:17,499 There's a famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. 846 00:56:18,375 --> 00:56:21,252 It's daylight and, you know, the sunshine is breaking. 847 00:56:21,753 --> 00:56:23,546 That's completely a fiction. 848 00:56:24,464 --> 00:56:28,635 This was a miserable business done in the dead of night. 849 00:56:29,886 --> 00:56:32,055 Two men actually freeze to death. 850 00:56:32,138 --> 00:56:36,267 One guy says that, "I sat down on a log, and I just felt myself getting tired." 851 00:56:36,351 --> 00:56:40,188 And if his friends hadn't woke him up, he probably would have been number three. 852 00:56:42,899 --> 00:56:47,737 They rode across the Delaware, pushing aside the ice. 853 00:56:48,947 --> 00:56:52,200 Through a blizzard, they march towards Trenton. 854 00:57:03,253 --> 00:57:05,880 Washington launches the attack. 855 00:57:06,589 --> 00:57:08,216 Fire! 856 00:57:12,345 --> 00:57:16,933 And it's almost a psychedelic experience for the men. 857 00:57:19,227 --> 00:57:22,856 There are rumors that the Hessians were drunk celebrating Christmas, 858 00:57:22,939 --> 00:57:24,899 but they don't seem to have been. 859 00:57:25,775 --> 00:57:28,403 It's just that the Hessian troops are not ready. 860 00:57:28,486 --> 00:57:30,155 They have no reason to fear 861 00:57:30,238 --> 00:57:32,657 that Washington's gonna do something so bold. 862 00:57:34,659 --> 00:57:37,912 The Americans are charging through the wide streets of Trenton 863 00:57:37,996 --> 00:57:39,664 towards the Hessians. 864 00:57:39,747 --> 00:57:41,666 They can't see very well. 865 00:57:44,502 --> 00:57:47,672 Washington has appointed a commander of artillery, 866 00:57:47,755 --> 00:57:52,177 a former bookstore owner named Henry Knox. 867 00:57:52,260 --> 00:57:56,097 He has succeeded a scene of war of which I had often conceived 868 00:57:56,181 --> 00:57:57,974 but never saw before. 869 00:57:58,057 --> 00:58:00,435 The troops behaved like men 870 00:58:00,518 --> 00:58:04,522 contending for everything that was dear and valuable. 871 00:58:06,816 --> 00:58:09,986 The Continental Army engaging in very close quarters 872 00:58:10,069 --> 00:58:12,322 fighting as they push the Hessians 873 00:58:12,405 --> 00:58:16,784 through the town of Trenton, street by street, building by building. 874 00:58:16,868 --> 00:58:19,913 Those who aren't killed or wounded surrender. 875 00:58:19,996 --> 00:58:23,374 Finding from our deposition that they were surrounded 876 00:58:23,458 --> 00:58:26,044 and they must inevitably be cut to pieces 877 00:58:26,127 --> 00:58:31,883 if they made any further resistance, they agreed to lay down their arms. 878 00:58:31,966 --> 00:58:35,762 Washington has won the Battle of Trenton. 879 00:58:39,474 --> 00:58:43,603 Psychologically, it's a really important win for the Continental Army. 880 00:58:47,774 --> 00:58:50,235 It caused many of those soldiers 881 00:58:50,318 --> 00:58:52,695 to have a sudden burst of confidence. 882 00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:56,616 The Continental Army is Rocky Balboa. 883 00:58:56,699 --> 00:58:57,992 We may not be the fastest 884 00:58:58,076 --> 00:59:00,203 and the strongest, but we're not gonna quit. 885 00:59:00,286 --> 00:59:02,163 You're gonna have to fight us to the end. 886 00:59:03,873 --> 00:59:07,001 Morale is really having a sense that you can win, 887 00:59:07,085 --> 00:59:08,503 that you can make a difference. 888 00:59:08,586 --> 00:59:10,547 And of course, you're always worried and caring 889 00:59:10,630 --> 00:59:12,882 about the welfare of your troopers. 890 00:59:12,966 --> 00:59:15,635 But the best thing you can provide soldiers with 891 00:59:15,718 --> 00:59:18,763 is the knowledge that the risk that they may take 892 00:59:18,846 --> 00:59:22,850 and the sacrifices they may make will contribute to an outcome 893 00:59:22,934 --> 00:59:26,646 worthy of those risks and worthy of those sacrifices. 894 00:59:26,729 --> 00:59:31,442 These bonds of mutual trust, respect, and common purpose. 895 00:59:40,410 --> 00:59:42,662 Because of Washington's leadership, 896 00:59:42,745 --> 00:59:46,332 a large number of them were willing to gut it out 897 00:59:46,416 --> 00:59:49,752 and continue this campaign into the year 1777. 898 00:59:52,755 --> 00:59:56,509 I think that they felt like they had a real chance 899 00:59:56,593 --> 00:59:58,886 to create something brand new. 900 00:59:59,679 --> 01:00:03,182 They were hopeful. They thought that it could be done. 901 01:00:03,766 --> 01:00:07,478 George Washington believed in what he was fighting for, 902 01:00:08,104 --> 01:00:12,358 which was not precisely just achieving a victory in a war. 903 01:00:12,442 --> 01:00:15,987 It wasn't repelling the tyranny of the king, 904 01:00:16,654 --> 01:00:18,031 but it was winning liberty 905 01:00:18,781 --> 01:00:20,199 for the American people. 906 01:00:24,829 --> 01:00:27,540 And earning the right for self-government. 907 01:00:33,379 --> 01:00:36,382 Washington's now on the board with a serious win, 908 01:00:37,759 --> 01:00:41,179 but he still is faced with the reality 909 01:00:41,262 --> 01:00:43,097 that significant British forces 910 01:00:43,181 --> 01:00:45,975 are concentrated around New York and New Jersey. 911 01:00:47,935 --> 01:00:50,980 And America still has no allies. 912 01:00:52,482 --> 01:00:55,693 So although we think of crossing the Delaware 913 01:00:55,777 --> 01:00:59,113 and the battle at Trenton as a great moment, 914 01:00:59,197 --> 01:01:02,158 it's a respite, not a turning point. 915 01:01:05,036 --> 01:01:06,788 And yet there's so much hope. 916 01:01:12,502 --> 01:01:15,505 As long as the Continental Army survived, 917 01:01:18,675 --> 01:01:21,302 the American Revolution survived. 918 01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:25,000 {\an8}