richardmurray

The American Revolution A Film By Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt The Times That Try Men’s Souls (July 1776 – January 1777) VIDEO TRANSCRIPT Announcer: Major funding for "The American Revolution" was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, The Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Brierley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members. "The American Revolution" was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You. Thank You. Announcer: The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world. The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. Voice: The plan laid down for our education was entirely broken in upon by the war. Instead of morning lessons, we were to knit stockings; instead of embroidering, to make homespun garments; and in place of the music of the harpsichord, to listen to the loud, clanging trumpet and never-ceasing drum, for in every direction that we traveled-- and heaven knows we left but little of Virginia unexplored-- we heard naught but the din of war. Our late peaceful country now became a scene of terror and confusion. Betsy Ambler. [Men shouting] ♪ Maya Jasanoff: Our images of the American Revolution tend to be images of men in wigs in wood-paneled rooms, and that helps to reinforce an image of the American Revolution as just a war about ideals. I think that we really do a disservice to...history and to the experiences of the people who lived through it when we paper over the violence of the American Revolution with this set of very idealized images that we have of the Founding Fathers signing documents in Philadelphia. The United States came out of violence. ♪ [Sea gulls crying] Voice: I peeped out at the bay and saw something resembling a wood of pine trees trimmed. I declare at my noticing this that I could not believe my eyes, but judge you of my surprise when, in about 10 minutes, the whole bay was full of shipping as ever it could be. I do declare that I thought all London was afloat. Private Daniel McCurtin. ♪ Narrator: On Saturday morning, June 29, 1776, Colonel Henry Knox, whose artillery had convinced the British to flee Boston, was breakfasting with his wife Lucy on the second floor of a commandeered mansion at Number 1 Broadway when he, too, spotted the British ships that Private McCurtin had seen as they approached New York Harbor unopposed. [Bell ringing] Voice: My God, you can scarcely conceive of the distress and anxiety-- the city in an uproar, the alarm guns firing, the troops repairing to their posts. [Henry Knox] Narrator: Martha Washington and other officers' wives, including Lucy Knox and her infant daughter, were sent away from the city for their safety. The Royal Navy anchored off Staten Island and began to disembark some 10,000 British regulars. Crowds of local Loyalists cheered them as they stepped ashore. Stephen Conway: The Royal Navy, as one contemporary put it, was the "Canvas Wings of the British State." It enabled the British to appear off the coastline almost anywhere unhindered. ♪ Voice: We expect a very bloody summer at New York, as it is here, I presume, the grand efforts of the enemy will be aimed, and I am sorry to say that we are not, either in men or arms, prepared for it. George Washington. ♪ ♪ Narrator: By the summer of 1776, the Revolution, which began as a quarrel over the rights of British subjects, had become a war for American independence, and as that revolution spread throughout the colonies, thousands of Americans, patriots and Loyalists alike, would be driven from their homes. 11-year-old Betsy Ambler of Yorktown, Virginia, and her family had been among the earliest refugees. Her mother suffered from what Betsy called "a nervous malady." In 1775, the constant talk of war and Yorktown's vulnerability to an attack by water had so terrified her mother that her father decided to move the family, Betsy said, "and seek a safe retreat for her." The Amblers were more fortunate than most displaced families. They and their relatives owned farms and plantations worked by enslaved people scattered across the state. They settled first in a small house in the tiny village of New Castle in Hanover County. It was there that Betsy's mother gave birth to another daughter--Lucy. Since Lucy "made her appearance just after the declaration," Betsy recalled, their father called her "his only independent child." Now a fully committed patriot, Betsy's father had lost his paid position as Collector of Royal Customs, and a Royal Navy blockade would soon choke off the shipping on which his profits as a merchant had been made. Voice: The war, though it was to involve my immediate family in poverty and perplexity of every kind, was for the foundation of independence and prosperity for my country, and what sacrifice would not an American, a Virginian, at the earliest age, have made for so desirable an end? Betsy Ambler. ♪ Voice: What to do with this city puzzles me. It is so encircled with deep, navigable water that whoever commands the sea must command the town. General Charles Lee. Narrator: George Washington had assigned a former British officer, General Charles Lee, to fortify New York City and its surroundings. The Patriot commanders feared they could not hold the town for long but hoped to make the British pay the highest possible price for its capture. Since no one could say where or when British attacks would come, Washington had been forced to scatter his army and its 121 cannon all around the harbor. Rick Atkinson: New York is an archipelago. It's a confluence of islands. It's a problem. If you don't control the naval approaches in and around New York, you cannot properly defend New York. Narrator: New York was one of the best natural harbors on the Atlantic seaboard, and although the town still occupied just a single square mile at Manhattan's southern tip, it was the second-largest city in the newly created United States and the gateway to the Hudson River. If the British commander, General William Howe, could capture it, his forces would be free to ascend the river and divide rebellious New England from the rest of the states. Nathaniel Philbrick: This whole war, in many ways, is a water campaign. It's who controls the coast, but it's also who controls the rivers and the lakes. This is where the fighting would be, wherever water provided you with a way to get into the interior of the country. [Splash] Narrator: Both the British and the Americans had considered New York and the farming communities that bordered it to be Loyalist strongholds. For weeks, Patriots had prowled the streets, roughing up Loyalists. Thousands fled with what belongings they could carry. Hundreds more were arrested. Several dozen were hauled away to Simsbury, Connecticut, and imprisoned in an abandoned copper mine 70 feet below the Earth that the Patriots called the Catacomb of Loyalty. [Gavel bangs] A Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies, chaired by the attorney John Jay, held daily inquisitions. 40 men, including the Mayor of New York City, were jailed for plotting to assassinate George Washington. A member of Washington's own personal guard was found to be involved and hanged while 4 brigades of troops looked on. [Sandbag thumps, rope creaks] The city had been home to 25,000 people. By the summer of 1776, just 5,000 of them would remain, and those Loyalists left behind had learned to keep their opinions to themselves. Voice: To see the vast number of houses shut up, one would think the city almost evacuated. Troops are daily coming in. They break open the houses they find shut up to quarter themselves. Necessity knows no law. [Unidentified Loyalist] Narrator: Continental soldiers and militiamen from 10 states continued to stream into town. Eventually, there would be more than 20,000 of them in and around New York. They moved into abandoned houses, tore up parquet floors for firewood, and hurled refuse from the windows. Despite a 10 P.M. curfew, troops flocked to a warren of West Side brothels built on land owned by Trinity Church. Customers called it the Holy Ground. ♪ On the afternoon of July 12th, 2 British warships slipped their anchors off Staten Island, moved into the harbor past the tip of Manhattan, and began sailing up the Hudson. [Cannonfire] Voice: The cannon from the city did but very little execution, as not more than half the number of the men belonging to them were present. The others were at their cups, and at their usual place of abode on the Holy Ground. Lieutenant Isaac Banks. Narrator: Later that same evening, a still-larger British fleet, more than 100 vessels, began streaming through the narrows and into New York Harbor. Its commander was General William Howe's elder brother Vice Admiral Richard Howe. Both had once expressed sympathy for the colonists, and both had been empowered to negotiate with rebel leaders and issue pardons in hopes of avoiding further bloodshed, but while the Admiral was crossing the Atlantic, Congress had declared American independence. [Men shouting] Voice: We learned the deplorable situation of His Majesty's faithful subjects, that they were hunted after and shot at in the woods and swamps to which they had fled to avoid the savage fury of the rebels. We also heard that the Congress had now announced the colonies to be independent states. That proclaims the villainy and madness of these deluded people. [Ambrose Serle] ♪ Voice: To my dear Betsey, my wife-- It is hard to be quite happy when one full half, at least, of both body and soul is left at home, but, believe it, I am not more mortal here in the neighborhood of the British cannon than I should be was I happy in your peaceful, loving arms. Till my God calls me, I am immortal. Philip Vickers Fithian. Narrator: Philip Vickers Fithian of Cohansey, New Jersey, was a newly married 28-year-old Presbyterian clergyman, recently appointed chaplain of a militia brigade. He was a graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, where his classmates had included Aaron Burr and James Madison. After college, he spent a year as a tutor on a Virginia plantation, where, seeing the inhuman cruelty of slavery up close, he introduced the owner's children to the work of the enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley. In New York, Fithian found himself sleeping on the floor of a Loyalist's abandoned home, conducting prayer meetings twice a day and afterwards visiting the hospitals filled with men dying from dysentery. Amen. Amen. Voice: Here I must daily visit among many in a contagious disorder, but I am not discouraged nor dispirited. I am willing to hazard and suffer equally with my countrymen since I have a firm conviction that I am in my duty. [Fithian] Friederike Baer: When we really take a look at what these regiments were like, we see a lot of individuals who are not carrying arms-- including women, including children, including servants, medical personnel, chaplains-- and there are all kinds of individuals there that are essential parts of these armies that are doing essential labor, without whom, I think, the army couldn't operate. Voice: August 1st-- There is a report pretty well confirmed that near 40 sail of the enemy came in this afternoon and are joining the fleet. We are all uncertain. [Fithian] Narrator: The ships that came in that day were straggling in from a failed British expedition in South Carolina. The Royal governors of the southern colonies, who had all been driven to ships anchored off their coasts, continued to insist that the rebellion had been stirred up by only a tiny minority of radicals, that the overwhelmingly loyal populace of their colonies would take up arms in support of the Crown, provided help was sent. In June, British warships had converged on Charleston Harbor, where their 262 guns opened fire on a rebel fort on Sullivan's Island. [Cannonfire] More than 7,000 cannonballs were fired. Most that hit their target were absorbed by the fort's sturdy palmetto walls. Within the fort, Patriot Colonel William Moultrie ordered his men to "distress [the enemy] in every shape to the utmost of your powers." They did. They had just 31 guns, but they proved deadly accurate, toppling masts, riddling hulls, blowing sailors and sea captains apart. The British flagship alone was hit 70 times, and 111 crewmen were killed or maimed. By evening, the battered fleet pulled away. "We never had such a drubbing in our lives," one British sailor remembered. It took 3 weeks to repair the damage to their ships before they made their way back north to join the forces threatening New York. The British would not attempt to recapture a southern colony again for 2 1/2 years. ♪ [Insects chirping] Voice: It seems to be the intention of the White people to destroy us as a people, but I have a great many young fellows that would support me, and we are determined to have our land. Tsi'yu-gunsini. ♪ Narrator: In the summer of 1776, Cherokee warriors led by Tsi'yu-gunsini, "Dragging Canoe" in English, began attacking frontier settlements west of the Appalachians on land now claimed by Virginia and the Carolinas. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 had expressly barred colonists from purchasing or moving onto Indian lands west of the Appalachians, but British officials had been powerless to enforce it or to keep some Native Americans, including Dragging Canoe's own father, from leasing or selling land to settlers and speculators. Kathleen DuVal: We think of the Revolution as a war against empire, but it very quickly becomes a war for empire. One war aim of the American Revolution is to take the Ohio Valley and the South. That's what Americans wanted. The British government had kept them from taking Native lands, so for the Shawnees and the Delawares, Cherokees, and many other people, the American Revolution was a war to protect these places against an enemy they already knew quite well. Voice: Our Shawnee nation, from being a great people, are now reduced to a handful. The red people, who were once masters of the whole country, hardly possess ground enough to stand on. The lands where but lately we hunted are now thickly inhabited and covered with forts and armed men, and wherever a fort appears, there will soon be towns and settlements. [Shawnee Delegate] DuVal: In May 1776, a delegation of Shawnees, Delawares, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee came to the Cherokee town of Chote. They said, "Enough is enough. "We've had year after year "of illegal settlement coming onto our lands. "Now a war has come "that has divided those settlers from their government. This is the time to strike." Voice: It is better to die like men than to diminish away by inches. The Cherokees have a hatchet. Take it up and use it immediately. [Shawnee Delegate] Narrator: British agents still in Indian country, who had armed the Cherokees to fight the rebels, now urged them to be patient and wait until British troops could join them. Dragging Canoe would not listen to the British or to the elders of his father's generation, who had urged diplomacy. He rallied the young men and went to war. [Flames crackling] They killed and scalped settlers in the Carolina and Virginia backcountry, burned their cabins and crops, and drove off their livestock. Colin Calloway: The result is, as the older chiefs feared it would be, that those American colonies immediately send armies into Cherokee country. Some of the American leaders actually say in as many words, "This is just what we were waiting for. "Now we have justification "for launching a full-scale assault on the Cherokees and to drive them out and take their land." ♪ Voice: Nothing will reduce those wretches so soon as pushing the war into the heart of their country, but I would not stop there. I would never cease pursuing them while one of them remained on this side of the Mississippi. Thomas Jefferson. ♪ DuVal: There are thousands of militiamen in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia ready to join the Revolution, ready to fight Britain, but the British aren't there. There are no British there to fight. Who's there to fight? The Cherokees. Narrator: Some 6,000 militiamen stormed through Cherokee country. They destroyed 36 towns, including Dragging Canoe's own village. Philip Deloria: This is meant to be instructive to other tribes. "If you think you're gonna keep a British alliance, "guess what we're gonna do? "We're gonna come and burn everything. "We're gonna destroy your fields. "We're gonna destroy your corn. "We're gonna destroy all your stored-up food. "We're gonna wage total war on those people. Let's teach all Native people a lesson about what's coming." ♪ Narrator: In the end, older Cherokee leaders would sue for peace and be forced to cede another 5 million acres. Maggie Blackhawk: The colonists wanted to possess that land exclusively, and it's a vision that is Western, as contrasted to Native people, who had a more spiritual or more engaged relationship to land. Narrator: Unlike his elders, Dragging Canoe would not surrender. With hundreds of men and their families, he managed to escape westward to settle along the Chickamauga Creek in what is now Tennessee, where he remained defiant. "I could not hear their talks of peace," Dragging Canoe said. "My thoughts and my heart are for war." ♪ Imperial powers were advancing all across North America in 1776-- Russia along the Alaska coast, Spain in what became San Francisco Bay, the Lakota in the Black Hills, and the Comanches on the Southern Plains. On August 12th off Staten Island in New York, Britain, the world's greatest naval power, landed 107 more ships. Aboard them were 8,600 hired Hessian troops. Everything about the German soldiers was intended to intimidate-- their tightly fitted uniforms that made the wearers seem bigger than they were, the whiskers many grew when most men were clean-shaven, the helmets worn by their grenadiers and fusiliers that added a foot to their height, and the reputation for ferocity so widespread that some Americans believed them cannibals with a special taste for babies. Baer: I think it is an effective propaganda tool. "They will plunder our homes. They will burn our village. They will rape our women." These kind of portrayals really show up frequently, especially in the spring of '76 before the first Germans even set foot on American soil. [Sea gulls crying] Voice: Peace will not be restored in America until the rebel army is defeated. Should the enemy offer battle in the open field, we must not decline it. General William Howe. Narrator: General William Howe and his brother Richard were in joint command of the largest seaborne assault force Britain had ever assembled-- 24,000 soldiers, including the 8,600 Hessians, and 400 ships manned by some 10,000 sailors and marines. ♪ At dawn on August 22nd, 4,000 British and Hessian troops crossed the narrows and came ashore at Gravesend on the southeastern edge of Long Island, boatloads of assault troops. Voice: The enemy have now landed on Long Island. The hour is fast approaching on which the honor and success of this army and the safety of our bleeding country depend. George Washington. ♪ Narrator: More troops continued to land. Soon, more than 20,000 British, Hessian, and Loyalist soldiers occupied a tent city that sprawled for 8 miles just beyond the beach. General Washington reminded his men of the dismissive things British officers had said of them. Now they would have a chance to prove them wrong, provided they remained cool but determined. Voice: Remember that you are free men fighting for the blessings of liberty, that slavery will be your portion and that of your posterity if you do not acquit yourselves like men. [Washington] ♪ Narrator: Washington knew an attack was coming somewhere, but he worried that the British landing on Long Island was merely a diversion, and so he divided his army. Most would stay in Manhattan, while some 8,000 men, many of them ill-trained militia, were posted on Long Island, where Washington's most trusted general, Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, had strengthened the series of forts and earthworks that ran from Red Hook to Wallabout Bay. Most of the defenses were concentrated near the lofty cliffs closest to Manhattan called Brooklyn Heights after the tiny village of Brooklyn that stood just behind them. Washington and his generals believed that if the British were to seize that high ground, their guns would command the city, much as rebel guns had commanded Boston and its harbor earlier that year, but Nathanael Greene had fallen ill and was soon replaced by Major General Israel Putnam of Connecticut, whose fighting spirit was not matched by strategic sense or knowledge of the terrain. Between the Brooklyn Heights fortifications and the British encampment ran a rugged, forested ridge called the Gowanus Heights. 4 passes cut in or around it-- Gowanus, Flatbush, Bedford, and Jamaica. With Washington's approval, Putnam ordered 3,000 of his men to dig in and hold the ridge and 3 of the passes. Unaccountably, the Jamaica Pass remained virtually unguarded. Washington makes a number of serious tactical mistakes when he's commander of the American military and none more serious than at Long Island. He'd been a surveyor. He should have known the value of completely understanding the ground that you're trying to defend. He doesn't. He doesn't go and explore the ground toward Jamaica, which is the far end of this glacial feature, and doesn't recognize that he can be outflanked by the British. Narrator: The Battle of Long Island began in the early-morning hours of August 27, 1776, and it started with a skirmish over watermelons. ♪ Around midnight, Pennsylvania pickets at the Red Lion Inn on the far right of the American lines had dimly glimpsed two shadowy figures in a melon patch. They were British foragers out in front of a large force of redcoats and hoping for a treat before they were sent against the enemy. [Gunfire] The Pennsylvanians opened fire. A few minutes later, a British musket volley from the woods sent the Americans running back to camp. With the British attack underway, General William Alexander was ordered to organize a force to try and stop it. Alexander and 1,600 men took up positions south of a salt marsh and mill pond next to Gowanus Creek as 5,000 British troops advanced toward them. With no trees or stone walls for cover, American and British forces stood in line, European style, and fired musket volleys and artillery at one another. "Both the balls and shells flew very fast," a Maryland soldier remembered, "now and then taking off a head." ♪ Meanwhile, in the center of the American lines, British cannonfire ripped through the trees above the ridgeline, where several hundred troops under New Hampshire General John Sullivan guarded the Flatbush and Bedford passes. Hessian and Highland regiments advanced toward them with fixed bayonets, retreating several times under furious American fire. Watching from a fort on Cobble Hill, Washington was pleased with the way the fighting was going so far. Both fronts seemed to be holding, but he also sent for reinforcements from Manhattan. [Fife playing] Voice: Our sergeant major informed us that the regiment was ordered to Long Island. It gave me a rather disagreeable feeling, as I was pretty well-assured I should have to sniff a little gunpowder. [Gunfire] The horrors of battle then presented themselves to my mind in all their hideousness. "I must come to it now," thought I. Joseph Plumb Martin. Narrator: Private Joseph Plumb Martin of the Connecticut militia was just 15 years old that summer, 1 of 7 children of a small-town minister so quarrelsome, he could not hold on to a congregation. Martin had wanted to enlist since Lexington and Concord. On July 6, 1776, he remembered, he'd taken "up the pen, "loaded it with the fatal charge [of ink], "[and] wrote my name. [N]ow I was a soldier in name at least, if not in practice." Before the boats carrying Martin and his fellow soldiers could cross the East River to Brooklyn, the tide of battle had begun to turn. The British attacks on the American right and center, which Washington's army seemed to have thwarted, had turned out to be mere demonstrations meant to occupy troops who might otherwise have defended against the main British assault. That would soon begin on the American left. The British had slipped through the undefended Jamaica Pass. 12 hours earlier, leaving their campfires burning to confuse the Patriots, General Henry Clinton had led some 10,000 British and German soldiers north along a dirt road grandly called the King's Highway. They moved in silence, guided by 3 Loyalist volunteers. ♪ Atkinson: This is Clinton's idea. He's persuaded Howe that this is the right way to do it. "Don't attack frontally. "You don't want another Bunker Hill. Go around them," so he leads-- it's a better part of 10,000 men in the dark of night very quietly, as quiet as 10,000 men pulling artillery guns with horses can be. Narrator: The plan worked perfectly. The British column, nearly 2 miles long, made it through the pass and reached the village of Bedford, well behind American lines and just 2 miles from the main fortifications on and around Brooklyn Heights. [2 cannon shots] General Clinton ordered 2 guns fired in quick succession, the signal for British troops besieging the American right and center to move forward simultaneously, trapping John Sullivan's men in between. Sullivan ordered his gunners to turn their field pieces around to fire at the enemy, now rushing at them from behind, but as they struggled to do so, Hessian grenadiers and Highland Scots swarmed up and over the Gowanus Heights, firing and bayoneting as they came. It was a rout. Voice: Blood, carnage, fire. Many, many, we fear, are lost. Such a dreadful din my ears never before heard. Philip Fithian. [Gunfire] Atkinson: Muskets are mostly inaccurate beyond 80 yards and hopeless beyond 120 yards, so a lot of the killing is done with a bayonet, and the bayonet is a nasty way to kill. It's a nasty way to die. This is really eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose. It's very intimate, and that kind of intimacy is horrifying. Narrator: Hundreds of Americans surrendered, including General Sullivan. "Their fear of the Hessian troops was indescribable," the German commander General Heister remembered. Voice: When they caught only a glimpse of us, they surrendered immediately and begged on their knees for their lives. I am surprised that the British troops have achieved so little against these people. [Heister] ♪ Voice: We soon landed at Brooklyn. We now began to meet the wounded men, another sight I was unacquainted with, some with broken arms, some with broken legs, and some with broken heads. [Martin] Narrator: The fighting Joseph Plumb Martin was about to witness would prove the last and bloodiest of the day. [Gunfire and shouting] ♪ 3 British columns were now converging on General Alexander and his men on the American right. He did his best to rally them, but the number of attackers steadily grew. Alexander fell back, and finally, rather than see his command destroyed, he urged his men to retreat to the village of Brooklyn across the tidal marshes that flanked Gowanus Creek. Voice: Such as could swim got across. Those that could not swim sunk. The British were pouring the canister and grapeshot upon the Americans like a shower of hail. Many of them were killed in the pond and more were drowned. [Martin] Narrator: To provide cover for his desperate men and to occupy the British troops firing at them from inside and around an old stone house, Alexander led some 400 soldiers from Maryland into the enemy guns again and again. Fewer than a dozen of them made it safely back to the American lines. Alexander himself was forced to surrender. "The slaughter was horrible," a Hessian chaplain wrote. "I went over the battlefield among the dead, who mostly had been hacked and shot all to pieces." At least 200 Americans had been killed, and perhaps a thousand more were captured. Washington watched this final carnage through his spyglass. By noon, it was all over. The British believed they had won what one general called a "cheap and complete victory." Atkinson: Washington's heartbroken because he recognizes instantly what a catastrophe this has been. The only saving grace is that enough of them pull back to form sort of an inner defense around Brooklyn that gives the British pause. They pull back within those defenses. Now they've got their backs to the East River. Things are about as dire as they could possibly be. Narrator: Washington and the bulk of his battered army, crowded now inside the defenses on Brooklyn Heights, expected that at any moment, the British would mount an all-out assault aimed at destroying them. General William Howe's officers urged him to finish what he had begun, but instead of ordering an assault, Howe stood down. He knew his brother Richard's fleet was about to enter the East River and prevent the rebels from escaping by water. The Americans were astonished. "General Howe is either our friend or no general," Israel Putnam said. "He had our whole army in his power." [Thunder, raining] Meanwhile, a storm blew in and continued off and on for the next 2 days. It kept Admiral Howe's fleet from entering the East River. By the middle of the second day, Washington decided to try to withdraw his army to Manhattan. Washington sends out orders that every boat, every fishing smack, every canoe, everything that floats that can be found be brought very secretly and very quietly to the landing, very close to where Brooklyn Bridge now is on the Brooklyn side. Narrator: To man his mismatched flotilla, he would call on 2 regiments of seasoned mariners and fishermen, Black and White and Native American, from Massachusetts coastal towns. Colonel John Glover of Marblehead led one of the regiments. As darkness fell, Washington ordered his men to begin moving silently down from the Heights to the ferry landing regiment by regiment. Voice: I seized my musket and fell into the ranks. We were strictly enjoined not to speak or even cough. All orders were communicated in whispers. Joseph Plumb Martin. ♪ Atkinson: A providential breeze comes up that allows them to raise sails and get across the East River, and then an even more providential fog rolls in, and it obscures what's happening. ♪ Narrator: All through the night, John Glover and his men from Marblehead sailed or rowed or paddled back and forth undetected, ferrying more than 9,000 men as well as horses, artillery, and baggage wagons to safety in Manhattan. Atkinson: When dawn breaks, the British realize everyone's gone. They see the last of the boats disappearing across the river in the traces of fog. [Cannonfire] And they fire a few shots pointlessly at this retreating gaggle, including Washington in one of the last boats, and the Americans escape to Manhattan Island and get away to fight another day. ♪ Narrator: The Battle of Long Island was the largest battle of the American Revolution. It had been a devastating defeat for George Washington and the Patriot cause, but his army was still alive. ♪ [Birds chirping] Voice: Braintree, Massachusetts-- The best accounts we can collect from New York assure us that our men fought valiantly. We are no ways dispirited here. If our men are all drawn off and we should be attacked, you would find a race of Amazons in America. Abigail Adams. ♪ Narrator: Every army engaged on either side in the Revolution would be accompanied by a moving village of civilians-- men, women, and children. Most of the women were soldiers' wives who cared for the wounded and washed and cooked and mended for the troops. Some sold provisions, including rum. George Washington often resented feeding all the women and children, but he also understood, he said, that he had somehow to provide for them "or lose by Desertion-- perhaps to the Enemy-- some of the oldest and best Soldiers in the Service." Women acted as spies, and a handful disguised themselves and fought as men until they were found out, but most made their contributions to the war effort away from the battlefield. Voice: Preston, Connecticut-- Dear husband, I hope that I shall have the pleasure of your company at home this winter. The anxieties of the mind cannot be accounted for, especially when ties of flesh and blood bind them. My only comfort now is at present in the dear, little pledges of our love--our children. When I see them, I see my dear when so glorious a cause calls him from my arms. My country, o my country. Your affectionate wife till death, Lois. ♪ Narrator: With sons and husbands and fathers away, some women turned their homes into boarding houses to pay the bills. On farms, women already caring for children and households now slaughtered hogs, cut and stacked firewood, harvested wheat, and brought it to market. Voice: The men say we have no business with political matters, it is not in our sphere, but I won't have it thought that we are capable of nothing more than minding the dairy, visiting the poultry house, and all such domestic concerns. Our thoughts can soar aloft. We can form conceptions of things of higher nature. Eliza Wilkinson. ♪ Voice: Can you be surprised that the Negroes should endeavor to recover their freedom when they daily hear at the tables of their masters how much the Americans are applauded for the stand they are making for theirs? [John Purrier] [Rhiannon Giddens singing "Dean Cadalan Samhach"] ♪ Jane Kamensky: The liberty talk that proliferates through British America originates in coffee houses and across dining tables. It surfaces in letters and in pamphlets. Those pamphlets are excerpted in newspapers and travel up and down the coast. Even letters, like newspapers, are read aloud, so we know that the language of liberty is contagious and is leaky, leaky in that there are planter-class people in Jamaica saying, "You know, this stuff is kind of hot, "so watch it when you're talking "because you know all those Black and Brown people "who are standing, serving around the edges of your room, they have ears." [Giddens continues singing "Dean Cadalan Samhach"] Voice: The signal was to be given first by discharging a gun at Batchelors Hall Plantation. They were then to rise in general rebellion and attack the several estates, and put to death all the White people they could. Sam. ♪ Narrator: That same summer of 1776 in Northwestern Jamaica, enslaved men, women, and children living on 47 different plantations secretly conspired to overthrow their enslavers, hoping their rebellion would spread across the whole island and unite the people of African descent living there, including Igbos, Creoles, and Coromantees. The planned revolt was an unintended consequence of the American Revolution. The American ban on trade with the British had denied enslaved Jamaicans the food they needed to survive. Then London ordered almost half the soldiers who policed the island to sail northward to strengthen General Howe's forces in New York. Their departure was supposed to be the signal for enslaved people to rise up, but before the plot could get underway, a child was discovered emptying his overseer's pistol and was made to reveal what he knew of the conspiracy. The Royal governor declared martial law. The revolt was crushed. 135 people were put on trial. 17 were executed. 11 were beaten, and 45 were torn from their families and deported to other islands... [Giddens singing "Angola"] Narrator: but that summer and fall, there were other sporadic uprisings or rumors of uprisings among enslaved workers on other British islands-- Saint Kitts, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbados-- all of them striking fear in American slaveholders. Vincent Brown: Slave rebellions were usually unsuccessful, so you wonder, why would you fight? Slavery was so incredibly horrifying. It was a regime of terror, right, that was very, very difficult to withstand. People can abuse, rape, torture, murder enslaved persons without consequences, so if you just imagine that situation and that kind of desperation, it becomes clearer why, when given an opportunity, you would fight against that. ♪ [Birds chirping] Narrator: On September 11, 1776, 3 delegates of the Continental Congress-- John Adams of Massachusetts, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania-- made their way to a Loyalist's house on Staten Island for a meeting with Admiral Howe, who was hoping to persuade the Congress to negotiate a peace. ♪ Howe did what he could to reassure the delegates that all could still be forgiven if only the Americans would abandon independence. "If America should fall," he told the delegates, "[I] should feel and lament it like the loss of a brother." "[W]e will do our utmost," Franklin answered, "to save Your Lordship that mortification." "They met. They talked. They parted," Admiral Howe's secretary said, "and now nothing remains but to fight it out." There was no going back. Howe apologized to his visitors for wasting their time. Christopher Brown: The British government throughout the first few years of the war really thought that a show of force would bring the majority of Americans to their senses and that the instigators, the provocateurs, the ones who were responsible for the uprising would be captured, killed, or their neighbors would just say, "Enough. We don't actually want to go to war with our own nation." ♪ Voice: On our side, the war should be defensive. We should on all occasions avoid a general action or put anything to the risk unless compelled by a necessity into which we ought never to be drawn. George Washington. Narrator: Back in New York City, Washington again expected another British attack and again didn't know where or when it was likely to come, so again he divided what was left of his forces. Leaving behind General Putnam and some 3,500 men to hold the city itself, General Washington led most of his troops north toward the tiny village of Harlem. Militiamen were posted along the East River opposite Long Island. Joseph Plumb Martin found himself with 500 Connecticut troops at Kips Bay. At the same time, 5 British frigates sailed up the river and anchored on the opposite shore. At 11:00 in the morning on September 15th, they opened fire. [Cannonfire] Voice: I thought my head would go with the sound. I made a frog's leap for the ditch and lay as still as I possibly could and began to consider which part of my carcass was to go first. We kept the lines till they were almost leveled upon us, when our officers gave the order to leave. [Martin] Narrator: As Martin and his comrades ran, 4,000 enemy troops began coming ashore at Kips Bay, among them Hessians who bayoneted several wounded Americans and mutilated the dead. Voice: Our people were all militia, and the demons of fear and disorder seemed to take full possession of all and everything that day. [Martin] [Gunfire] Narrator: Then General Washington seemed to appear out of nowhere, ordering his stampeding men to form a defensive line. "Take the walls," he bellowed. "Take the cornfield." They kept running. "Are these the men with which I am to defend America?" Washington was known for being aloof, terse, stoical, but, "Those who have seen him strongly moved," a friend remembered, could "bear witness that his wrath was terrible." He seemed stunned and urged his horse forward toward the oncoming Hessians. An aide snatched his horse's bridle and led his commander out of harm's way. Colonel John Glover and his regiment from Marblehead, Massachusetts, which had just made Washington's escape from Long Island possible, rushed up and were able to slow the British advance... [Gunfire] but many Patriots did not stop running until they reached the safety of strongly fortified American positions on the plateau known as Harlem Heights. The British were slow to follow the fleeing rebels. General Howe wanted to wait until thousands more troops were ashore on Manhattan Island. The delay gave General Putnam time to lead his men north out of New York City to join Washington in Harlem. The British entered the abandoned city in triumph. Voice: The King's forces took possession of the place, incredible as it may seem, without the loss of a man. A woman pulled down the rebel standard upon the fort and, after trampling it underfoot with the most contemptuous indignation, hoisted up in its stead His Majesty's flag. Ambrose Searle, Secretary to Admiral Howe. Jasanoff: New York City becomes the great British stronghold of the American Revolution. Once the Continental Army is driven out, the Patriots don't want to stick around, and they tend to go, too. Meanwhile, the Loyalists come into the city. People stream in from the countryside to take shelter, and the city becomes this kind of garrison town. Narrator: Hundreds of Loyalists would formally reaffirm their allegiance to George III by signing a document they called their Declaration of Dependence. Over the coming weeks, more Loyalists poured into the city, now eager to take up arms in the King's cause. [Fifes and drums playing] Voice: It is the cause of truth against falsehood, of loyalty against rebellion, of legal government against usurpation. In short, it is the cause of human happiness. Charles Inglis. Narrator: Over the course of the war, as many as 50,000 Americans volunteered to serve in Loyalist militia companies or in provincial units attached to the British Army-- the King's American Regiment, the Queen's American Rangers, the Prince of Wales' American Volunteers, the Royal Highland Emigrants, and the British Legion. Everyone knew someone who fought for the other side. Even Benjamin Franklin's son William, the deposed Royal Governor of New Jersey, remained faithful to his king and was imprisoned for it. [Distant cannonfire] Voice: Had I been left to the dictates of my own judgment, New York should have been lain in ashes. To this end, I applied to Congress but was absolutely forbid. Providence--or some good, honest fellow-- has done more for us than we were disposed to do for ourselves. George Washington. [Flames crackling] Voice: September 21, 1776. We are a good deal alarmed at a fire that must have spread amazingly, for though we are 6 1/2 miles from the town, we could see a pin on the ground by the light of the blaze. Loftus Cliffe. Narrator: New York City was on fire. The next morning, Irish-born Lieutenant Loftus Cliffe, who had already survived 3 battles, went for a walk through the still-smoldering streets. Voice: I cannot paint the misery of a very pretty town near as large as Cork now reduced. Two churches, the governor's house, and several other fine buildings are in ruins, being set afire in different places at once in the dead of last night. Their design was to destroy the town. O Washington, what have you to answer for? [Cliffe] Narrator: The origins of the fire remained a mystery, but General Howe was convinced it had been set by rebels, and the next day when soldiers brought before him an American spy captured behind British lines, he showed no mercy. Howe ordered Captain Nathan Hale, a member of an elite espionage unit organized by George Washington, to be hanged the following morning. As he went to the gallows, a British officer remembered, Hale "behaved with great composure and resolution." Above his body, British soldiers hung a sign labeled, "George Washington," the man they all blamed for setting fire to New York City. ♪ Alan Taylor: A lot is riding on George Washington's performance not only in the battlefield, but in his relationship with Congress and his relationship with the states, his relationship with his soldiers. George Washington understands that his role is not just military. It's also political. He has to project dignity. He has to project authority. He has to also do this while projecting deference to Congress. He cannot become a dictator. ♪ Voice: We have been sent into life at a time when the greatest lawgivers of antiquity would have wished to have lived, when, before the present epocha, had 3 millions of people full power and a fair opportunity to form and establish the wisest and happiest government that human wisdom can contrive. [Gavel bangs] John Adams. ♪ Narrator: As Washington and Howe faced off against one another in New York, in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress had been laboring to adopt Articles of Confederation, meant to formally bind all 13 states together while also guaranteeing the independence of each, a first tentative step toward a permanent government for the new United States. ♪ Taylor: When we think about our American Revolution, we, of course, think about independence from Britain, and that's a big deal, but we also need to think about this is the formation of republican government, and it's also the formation of our union of our states, and all 3 of those were enormous gambles. They were unprecedented. There had never been the foundation of a republic out of a revolution... [Gavel bangs] and these 13 colonies had had bitter rivalries with one another, and so forming a union out of these states was gonna be as difficult as achieving independence from Britain. [Gavel banging rapidly] Narrator: Congress debated draft articles for weeks on the first floor of the Pennsylvania State House, where they had just declared independence in July. They were held up over a host of issues, including apportionment, boundary disputes, taxation, and autonomy of the individual states. Congress was a disputatious assembly and not necessarily an efficient assembly through these years. Yes, they are running a war. Yes, they are founding a nation, but there's also a tremendous amount of infighting. There's a tremendous amount of inertia. There are more committees than anyone could count, and there were secret committees. For example, the first person sent to France to solicit aid from the French for the Revolution is sent without the knowledge of the rest of Congress. As John Jay will later say to George Washington, "There is as much intrigue in Congress "as there is at the Vatican, and as little secrecy as there is in a boarding school." ♪ Narrator: Meanwhile, upstairs in the same building, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania held a convention of its own to establish its government. Similar meetings were being held in other states. All of the new constitutions would guarantee freedom of the press, fair trials, and due process under law and made sure power rested not with autocratic governors, but with legislators elected by propertied men. Pennsylvania took things a step further. They created the most egalitarian constitution in the new United States with a Bill of Rights and a one-house legislature elected by taxpaying workingmen as well as property owners, all of which worried many of the delegates downstairs. William Hogeland: Pennsylvania had a radical constitution where almost any White, free man could vote and stand for office, which had never happened before pretty much anywhere. People were committed to using the revolution to make it a real social revolution, a real economic revolution, and get free, working people-- men, White men-- a say in government, which was a radical idea at the time. John Adams wasn't for that. Samuel Adams wasn't for that. Richard Henry Lee wasn't for that. When John Adams read that constitution, his response was, quote, "Good God!" ♪ Voice: In the new code of laws, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. Abigail Adams. Voice: There will be no end of it. New claims will arise. Women will demand a vote. Lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to, and every man who has not a farthing will demand an equal voice with any other in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions and prostrate all ranks to one common level. John Adams. Hogeland: It's a misconception to think of the founders as being pro-democracy, but I think it's also a misconception to think that their failure to be democratic is some sort of flaw or error or something they just kind of missed. They were very adamantly opposed to democracy. Democracy came to America, with all of the problems that came with it, not as a direct purpose of the American Revolution, really, but as an unintended consequence. Narrator: By the time Pennsylvania had ratified its constitution, the debates over the Articles of Confederation downstairs in Congress had become so heated, the prospect of compromise seemed so remote that the delegates agreed to table the subject. Frustrated and worried about his sick wife, Thomas Jefferson returned home to Virginia, the place he still called "my country." [Birds chirping] ♪ Voice: Camp near Kingsbridge-- Amidst all the distress and ruins of this dreadful war, I am yet alive and yours. Our enemies pursue us close from place to place. I pray God daily that you, my dear wife, forever may you be happy. Philip. Narrator: Days after writing to his wife, Chaplain Fithian fell victim to dysentery, the disease that had killed so many of the men whose last moments he'd filled with prayer. He was carried to a hospital tent. There was nothing anyone could do. ♪ Voice: October 8th-- This morning about 10:00, Mr. Fithian closed his eyes upon the things of time and is gone to a spiritual world. Andrew Hunter. ♪ [Bells tolling] Narrator: News of the American defeat on Long Island at the end of August did not reach London till October 10th. It was greeted with what one courtier called "an extravagance of joy." The King promised General Howe a knighthood. Now that the Americans had seen how futile it was to defy British regulars, they would surely come to their senses and sue for peace. Not all Englishmen shared that view. ♪ Voice: London. To the printer of the "Public Advertiser"-- Sir, I find that the late action at Long Island has made a considerable impression upon the Public; the Friends of Ministry thinking everything gained, the Friends of America everything lost. Because the last action was in our favor, we think we are to succeed in the next, but liberty takes a great deal of killing, and the courage of freemen is the same thing on both sides of the Atlantic. The Americans are daily improving in Arms and in Hatred. We see only the Beginning of Sorrows;-- Benefit to neither-- Misery to both. [The Public Advertiser] Voice: Ticonderoga appears to be the last part of the world that God made, and I have some ground to believe it was finished in the dark, that it was never intended that man should live in it is clear, for the people who have attempted to make any stay have, for the most part, perished by pestilence or the sword. General Anthony Wayne. Narrator: By the fall of 1776, only half of the 11,000 Americans who manned Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain were fit for duty. The smallpox threat was lifting, but thousands still suffered from other diseases. Morale was further weakened by antagonism among men from the supposedly United States. New Englanders brawled with Pennsylvanians so often that they had been sent to the opposite shore to set up a separate fortification on a hilltop called Mount Independence. After the American retreat from Quebec City in early 1776, a British drive down the Hudson seemed inevitable. Before British General Guy Carleton's army could even reach the Hudson, he had to sail south and seize the two American forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and before he could do that, he had to put together a fleet at the lake's northern end. That had taken months. Calloway: This water route is a corridor. It's been called the Warpath of Nations, where Indian warriors from Canada had raided down the Champlain Valley, down the Hudson River, and so this was-- this was like an open door. Narrator: The Americans had just 4 ships with which to oppose the British fleet. Many more were needed. Ticonderoga's commander, a former British major named Horatio Gates, appointed his most enterprising officer to get the job done. Benedict Arnold was still limping from the wound he'd received at Quebec and was still angry at having been accused of stealing supplies during the retreat from Montreal. Gates had dismissed Arnold's detractors. "Men of little merit are ever jealous of those who have a great deal." Voice: The enemy will soon have a considerable naval force. I make no doubt of their soon paying us a visit. I beg that at least 100 good seamen may be sent to me as soon as possible. Benedict Arnold. Narrator: Arnold transformed the tiny settlement of Skenesborough, 20 miles below Ticonderoga, into a bustling shipyard. He had hoped for a fleet of at least 30 vessels but had to settle for just 15. Voice: I intend to come up as high as Isle Valcour, where is a good harbor and where we shall have the advantage of attacking the enemy in the open lake. [Arnold] Narrator: When the British flotilla finally started south on Lake Champlain, Carleton commanded nearly twice as many vessels as Arnold did, armed with more than twice as many guns, manned by 700 seasoned crewmen, and carrying 10,000 British and German troops and 400 Native allies. Arnold and his fleet were waiting for them in a cove hidden behind Valcour Island. [Cannonfire] As Carleton's fleet slid past, 4 American ships moved out onto the lake to engage the British, Arnold personally directing the guns of his flagship-- the "Congress." [Gunfire] By evening, the fleets had fought to a standoff. The Americans had lost 2 vessels but succeeded in blowing up a British gunboat. As darkness fell, Carleton ordered his fleet to keep the Americans trapped so that he could destroy them the following day... ♪ but at 7:00, while fog covered the lake and Carleton and his officers were dining below deck, Arnold formed his battered ships into a single line and then ordered them with muffled oars and in complete silence to glide slowly past the British squadron. ♪ When Carleton finally caught up with them, they began a running battle that went on for 2 days. British firepower took a steady toll. Arnold eventually ordered his flagship and 4 other vessels run aground in Button Mould Bay and set on fire. He and his men escaped into the forest. When they reached Crown Point, Arnold realized the fortifications there could not withstand a serious British attack and ordered them burned to the ground. [Flames crackling] "At 4:00 [in the] morning, I reached [Ticonderoga]," Arnold recalled, "exceedingly fatigued and unwell, having been without sleep or refreshment for near 3 days." Voice: It has pleased Providence to preserve General Arnold. Few men ever met with so many hairbreadth escapes in so short a space of time. Horatio Gates. Philbrick: The battle was not a victory for the Americans, but it is one of the great slugfests of naval warfare, and it happens on a lake. It convinced the British that it was gonna be much more difficult to take Ticonderoga than they thought. Narrator: The American force at Ticonderoga had grown to 15,000, and its fortifications had been strengthened. Carleton now believed a long siege would be needed to take it. Then it began to snow. Once the lake froze, provisioning his forces would be difficult, and a retreat would be impossible. Carleton turned around and withdrew, eventually going into winter quarters at Quebec City far to the north. The British began to plan a second, more significant invasion for the next spring. [Digging] [Man grunts] Voice: The rebels have taken positions upon amazing, strong hills and works they have all the way to Kingsbridge. Their soldiers would rather work than fight. Ours would rather fight than work, but General Howe was determined to not run our heads against their works. Loftus Cliffe. Narrator: For the better part of a month, Washington's and Howe's armies warily faced one another at Harlem Heights, "as quiet," an American lieutenant recalled, "as if they were a thousand miles apart." With little to do, soldiers on both sides went into the surrounding countryside, where they plundered homes, terrified civilians, and then burned their houses to cover up their crimes. Baer: Plunder is more or less an accepted part of warfare in the 18th century. The British, the Hessian, and the American generals all worry about that. Washington worries about that. His men plunder, and he's like, "Can you stop? Please don't do this. You're alienating the people." Narrator: "Militiamen," Washington complained to Congress, "were undisciplined, disobedient, "liable to run instead of fight, 'hurtful' to the cause." To make matters worse, the 12-month enlistments in the Continental Army, begun in Boston the previous winter, would soon be running out. At the end of the year, Washington would again have to raise and train a whole new army. He understood that appeals to patriotism alone would no longer work. [Shouting] Voice: When men are irritated and the passions inflamed, they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms, but after the first emotions are over, to expect that they are influenced by any other principle than those of interest is to look for what never did and, I fear, never will happen. [Washington] Narrator: Congress agreed to authorize 88 new battalions. The number each state was to provide depended on their free populations. The states would never come close to meeting those goals. Voice: The policy of Congress has been the most absurd and ridiculous imaginable, pouring in militiamen who come and go every month. People coming from home with all the tender feelings of domestic life are not sufficiently fortified with natural courage to stand the shocking scenes of war, to march over dead men, to hear without concern the groanings of the wounded. I say few men can stand such scenes unless steeled by habit or fortified by military pride. Nathanael Greene. ♪ Narrator: On October 11th, 150 vessels threaded their way up the East River and into Long Island Sound with 4,000 British and Hessian troops. Their objective was to get behind Washington's forces in Northern Manhattan. To avoid that, Washington began a full-scale retreat, following the west bank of the Bronx River for 18 miles north toward the seat of Westchester County-- White Plains. [Cannonfire] By the time the British forces got there on October 28th, the American line stretched for 3 miles through the village, anchored on the right by the lightly defended Chatterton Hill. [Gunfire] General Howe sent 2 columns up the slope. Patriot militiamen predictably scattered, but the Continentals held. As the British approached, a Connecticut colonel told his men, "Fire at their legs. "One man wounded is better than a dead one, "for it takes two more to carry him off, and there is 3 gone," but British artillery took a fearful toll. Voice: A cannonball cut down Lieutenant Young's Platoon, which was next to that of mine. The ball first took the head of Smith--a stout, heavy man-- and dashed it open. Then it took off Chilson's arm. It then took Taylor across the bowels. What a sight that was to see. There was men with their legs and arms and guns and packs all in a heap. Private Elijah Bostwick. Narrator: At day's end, Washington retreated east of White Plains. Again General Howe made only a halfhearted effort to follow. Baer: The British essentially let Washington escape once again. Opportunities to just end this war right now are being wasted. Voice: Is it through incapacity or by design of our commander that so many great opportunities are let slip? I am inclined to adopt the latter. Captain William Bamford. ♪ Conway: There are moments when General Howe in particular seems to hold back from delivering the final knockout blow. There's that feeling, the very torn and conflicted feeling, about whether the Americans are truly enemies or misguided subjects who need to be encouraged to come back into the fold. [Horse neighs] Narrator: As Howe headed back towards Manhattan, Washington crossed the Hudson and headed south. He thought it most likely that Howe planned to race across New Jersey and capture Philadelphia before winter set in. He had again misjudged his adversary. Howe actually wanted to take 2 forts on opposite sides of the Hudson that blocked British ships from going upriver-- Fort Lee in New Jersey and Fort Washington on Manhattan Island, a crude, star-shaped earthwork 265 feet above the river. Fort Washington would come first. [Cannonfire] British guns pounded the fort and the long line of trenches and redoubts that surrounded it. The British troops who attacked from the south and east had comparatively little trouble driving the defenders back behind the fort's walls, but Hessian troops under the command of General Wilhelm von Knyphausen coming at them from the north had a much tougher task, climbing a rocky hillside covered by the tangled branches of felled trees and so steep that they had to grab at bushes to pull themselves up, all under steady fire from above. Voice: Before us, beside, and upon one another, we saw our unfortunate comrades shattered, dead on the Earth in their own blood. Even the air seemed filled with fear. Lieutenant Johann Friedrich von Bardeleben. Narrator: Margaret Corbin, a Pennsylvania artilleryman's wife, was standing near her husband when he was mortally wounded. She stepped in and kept up such deadly fire that her position became a target for Hessian guns. Grapeshot eventually hit her jaw and breast and rendered her left arm useless. 3 years later, she would become the first woman to receive a lifetime disability pension but at half the rate wounded men received. American muskets eventually clogged from overuse. The defenders fell back and were forced to surrender, nearly 3,000 men. The British renamed Fort Washington Fort Knyphausen after the victorious German general. As the battered captives made their 12-mile march south to New York City, British soldiers and Loyalists lined the road, jeering and cursing. Officers were often paroled after pledging not to take up arms again, but enlisted men were given no such option. Instead, they were prodded into makeshift prisons already overcrowded with hundreds of prisoners taken at Quebec, Long Island, and Kips Bay. ♪ There were no blankets, little firewood, and sometimes no food. Rats scuttled over the muddy straw that covered the floors. Voice: The men's appearance in general resembled dead corpses more than living men. Indeed, great numbers had already arrived at their long home, and the remainder appeared far advanced on the same journey. Captain Jabez Fitch. Narrator: Thousands of American prisoners would die by the end of 1776. By then, the British had begun packing the prisoners into disused transport ships anchored in the East River. Conditions there would prove worse than those on land. Atkinson: They die of exposure. They die of malnutrition. They die of disease-- smallpox, typhus, typhoid, dysentery. We have our own prison ships near Albany, where British soldiers and Loyalists are kept in very awful conditions. It's a deplorable part of the story of the American Revolution. ♪ Narrator: Early on November 20, 1776, some 5,000 British and Hessian troops crossed the Hudson and began struggling up the slippery, 440-foot rock face of the New Jersey Palisades, so steep the Patriots had not believed anyone could climb it. The British commander was General Charles Cornwallis, who then ordered his men to start marching south toward Fort Lee, 6 miles away. General Nathanael Greene had already begun to evacuate it when the enemy took Fort Washington. Now he ordered everyone remaining to leave immediately. ♪ Voice: The rebels fled like scared rabbits. Not a rascal of them could be seen. They have left some poor pork, a few greasy proclamations, and some of that scoundrel "Common Sense" man's letters, which we can read at our leisure. [British officer] ♪ Narrator: By evening, Greene and most of his 2,000 men managed to link up with Washington's force at New Bridge on the Hackensack River. Voice: They marched 2 abreast, looked ragged, some without a shoe to their feet and most of them wrapped in their blankets. The next evening, the British encamped on the other side of the Hackensack. We could see their fires about 100 yards apart gleaming brilliantly in the gloom of the night, extending for more than a mile along the river. Reverend Theodore Roneyn. Narrator: As his army retreated across the state, followed by Cornwallis with a far larger force, Washington hoped somehow, somewhere to offer battle, but Cornwallis had orders from General Howe to avoid confrontation. From Howe's vantage point, there was no need for another major battle. The rebel army was shrinking daily. What one officer called "the devil of desertion" had infected Washington's ranks. Men were simply drifting away into the countryside. When Washington called upon the states for 5,000 more troops, he was met mostly by silence. His aide-de-camp Joseph Reed expressed the General's continued frustrations. Voice: When I look round and see how few of the numbers who talked so largely of death and honor are around me, I am lost in wonder. Your noisy Sons of Liberty are, I find, the quietest in the field. [Joseph Reed] ♪ Narrator: To compound things, Washington's second in command-- General Charles Lee, who had been stationed in Westchester County with a sizable force-- responded to Washington's repeated requests to hurry to his aid with one excuse after another. Lee was scornful of Washington, hoped someday to replace him as commander in chief, and saw himself as not subject to Washington's orders. On November 30th, the British issued a proclamation aimed at restoring their rule in New Jersey. Anyone willing to swear "peaceable obedience to His Majesty" within 60 days would receive "a free and General Pardon." More than 3,000 New Jersey residents took them up on the offer, and hundreds answered the call for Loyalists to fight alongside the British regulars. New Jersey's Patriot government fled, but while General Howe was offering pardons, his soldiers were demanding provisions from civilians. [Pounding on door] Edward Lengel: The people who were really at the sharp end of the sword were the civilians, and if you think from the point of view of somebody, say, a mother of a family-- who's on her farm, you know that the very little that you have to survive can be destroyed in an instant. [Glass shattering] Voice: Tories lead the relentless foreigners to the houses of their neighbors and strip poor women and children of everything they have to eat or wear, and after plundering them in this sort, the brutes often ravish the mothers and daughters and compel the fathers and sons to behold their brutality. Nathanael Greene. Conway: As an army is advancing and occupying new territories, dreadful things happen. We see lots of instances of rape and sexual assault of women. Sadly, this is not unusual in all wars. Narrator: Mary Campbell of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, told a judge what British troops had done to her. Voice: Mary Campbell, wife of Daniel Campbell, sayeth that sometime in December, a number of soldiers belonging to the King of Great Britain's army came to the house of her father. Two of them seized hold of her arms and dragged her out of the house to an old shop near the dwelling house, broke open the door, and pulled her in against all her cries and entreaties and swore if she did not hold her tongue, they would run her through with a bayonet. 3 of said soldiers successively had knowledge of the body of this deponent, she being 5 months and upwards advanced in her pregnancy at that time. Her mark, Mary M. Campbell. ♪ Narrator: At Pennington, 16 women fled into the woods to escape British soldiers, only to be dragged back and repeatedly assaulted. Such behavior, one British officer admitted, was "calculated to lose you friends and gain you enemies." It did, and people soon began taking revenge. New Jersey militiamen took up arms again less out of devotion to the revolutionary cause than out of anger at what was being done to them and their families. [Gunshot] Voice: It is now very unsafe for us to travel in New Jersey. The peasants meet our men alone or in small unarmed groups. They have their rifles hidden in the bushes or ditches and the like. When they see one or several men belonging to our army, they shoot them in the head, then quickly hide their rifles and pretend they know nothing. Captain Friedrich von Munchhausen. ♪ ♪ Voice: No lads ever show greater activity in retreating than we have. Our soldiers are the best fellows in the world at this business. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Webb. Narrator: Hackensack, Acquackanonk, Newark, Spanktown, New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton. In 12 days, the Americans fell back some 70 miles. On December 2nd, Washington began to take his army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The news continued to be bad for the Patriot cause. General Henry Clinton landed 7,000 British and Hessian regulars at Newport, Rhode Island, without firing a shot. Like New York City and New Jersey, Rhode Island seemed likely lost. British forces were now just 60 miles from Philadelphia, and the roads leading out of the city were choked with frightened refugees. Congress denied what it called the "false and malicious" rumors that it was planning to leave town and then fled to Baltimore. General Charles Lee had finally given in to Washington's entreaties and had been slowly leading his force across New Jersey. On the evening of December 12th, he slipped away from his encampment to an isolated tavern in Basking Ridge. A Loyalist tipped off the British. Dragoons surrounded the building and seized the Continental Army's second in command. One Hessian captain was exultant-- "We have captured... the only rebel general whom we had cause to fear"-- but then General Howe abruptly called off his campaign. Winter was coming. The Continental Congress was on the run. There would be plenty of time the following year, he was certain, to destroy what was left of Washington's army and permanently end the rebellion. ♪ While Howe and most of his army withdrew to New York, he left behind a chain of 17 garrisons stretching from the Hudson to the Delaware. Atkinson: Things can hardly look darker than they look for Washington and his army and the hopes of the cause in December of 1776. As he gets into Pennsylvania and he's looking back across the Delaware River, his options are very, very limited. He's been evicted from New York. His army is down to maybe 3,000 men. He writes his brother at one point and says, "I think the game is pretty near up." He doesn't let his men know that he's feeling that despondent, but he's feeling pretty glum. ♪ Narrator: But now his army had begun to grow again. General William Alexander, who had been freed from British captivity, arrived with a thousand ragged reinforcements. A thousand Philadelphia militia appeared. General John Sullivan, also exchanged, brought in 2,000 more men who had served under the captured General Lee. On December 22nd, the 16-year-old fifer John Greenwood and some 600 other New Englanders also staggered into camp. Washington's appeals for help had reached all the way to Ticonderoga, and these men had been on their way for nearly a month. Washington now had about 6,000 men fit for duty. The question was what he might do with them in the 10 days remaining before their enlistments ran out and most of his best-trained soldiers went home. Voice: Our cause is desperate and hopeless if we do not take the opportunity of the collection of troops at present to strike some stroke. Delay with us is now equal to total defeat. Joseph Reed. Narrator: Washington decided to strike the garrison at Trenton, New Jersey, manned by some 1,500 Hessians under the command of Colonel Johann Rall. Most of the little town's inhabitants had fled, and their homes had been turned into barracks. Washington outlined a bold and ambitious plan of attack that called for 3 simultaneous crossings of the ice-choked Delaware, all to be launched on Christmas night. [Drums beating rhythmically] 1,800 Pennsylvanians and Rhode Islanders were to cross downriver near Bristol and march toward a second Hessian outpost at Burlington. 800 Pennsylvania militia were to cross and hold the bridge over Assunpink Creek and keep the Hessians from escaping once the battle began. In the main attack, Washington himself would lead 2,400 Continentals across the river at McConkey's Ferry and then begin the 9-mile march south toward their target. Voice: None knew but the first officers where we were a-going. I never heard a soldier say anything nor ever saw him trouble himself about where they led him or where he was. It was enough to know that he must go wherever the officer commanded him. Through fire and water, it was all the same, for it was impossible to be in a worse condition than what they were in. John Greenwood. ♪ Narrator: Thomas Paine, who had been with Washington's army as it retreated across New Jersey, had just published a new essay meant to restore sagging morale called "The American Crisis." By the time Washington's army got underway on Christmas, patriots up and down the river had read and been inspired by it. Voice: These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. [Paine] Narrator: A freezing rain began to fall at dusk as the Americans clambered into the ferry boats and cargo vessels that made up Washington's hastily assembled fleet. ♪ The river was fast-running and filled with swirling, jagged pieces of floe ice. Somehow, Colonel John Glover and his Massachusetts sailors from Marblehead, the same men who had rescued Washington's army after the Battle of Long Island and stopped the British advance following Kips Bay, now managed to get all 2,400 men, some 50 horses, and 18 field pieces across safely. John Greenwood was among the first to step ashore. Voice: We had to wait for the rest to cross, so we began to pull down the fences and make fires to warm ourselves, for the storm came on so fast that it rained, hailed, and snowed and froze and blew a hurricane, so much so, when I turned my face toward the fire, my back was a-freezing. By turning round and round, I kept myself from perishing. [Greenwood] Narrator: Washington hoped that the landing would be completed by midnight so that his men could reach Trenton before dawn, but the last boat did not scrape ashore till 3:00 in the morning. And though Washington did not know it yet, ice had prevented the two other forces from getting across the river. If Trenton were to be taken, it would be up to Washington's force alone. As he and his men finally started toward the town, the driving snow, fierce cold, and hardship of hauling 18 guns along a frozen, rutted road slowed the advance. Voice: When we halted in the road, I sat down on a stump of a tree and was so benumbed with cold, I wanted to go to sleep. And if I had, unnoticed, I should have been frozen to death without knowing it, but, as good luck always attended me, Sergeant Madden came to me and aroused me up and made me walk about. [Greenwood] Narrator: Two other soldiers did fall asleep and froze to death. At a crossroads, the column split in two. Washington went with Nathanael Greene and turned left for the Pennington Road. John Sullivan and his men, including John Greenwood, continued to the right along the River Road. Each column reached its assigned position outside the still-dozing town just before 8:00. [Men shouting] Nathanael Greene's men began the attack, charging out of the snow-filled woods. "The storm continued with great violence," one officer recalled, "but was in our backs and consequently in the faces of the enemy." [Gunfire] Hessian pickets spotted them through the snow, opened fire, then fell back as remaining townspeople watched in terror. Voice: In the gray dawn came the beating of drums and the sound of firing. The Hessian soldiers quartered in our house hastily decamped. All was uproar and confusion. Martha Reed. ♪ Narrator: The German soldiers formed up as best they could, prepared to fight, but Henry Knox had positioned cannon and howitzers at the upper end of King and Queen Streets that ran through the heart of the town, and when the German commander Johann Rall mounted his horse and ordered his men to charge into them, Knox remembered, "these [guns], in the twinkling of an eye, cleared the streets." Some Hessians scattered. Brief, fierce firefights followed. Voice: My mother and we children hid in the cellar to escape the shots that fell about the house. Our next-door neighbor was killed on his doorstep, and a bullet struck the blacksmith as he was in the act of closing himself in his cellar, and many other townspeople were injured by chance shots. [Martha Reed] [Gunshot] Narrator: As Nathanael Greene's column drove through town from the north, John Sullivan's column moved in from the south. Voice: They made a full fire right at us, but I did not see that they killed anyone. Orders were given to charge bayonets and rush on. As we came within pistol shot, they fired again point blank at us. We dodged, and they did not hit a man. Before they had time to load again, we were within 3 feet of them. They broke in an instant and ran like so many frightened devils. [Greenwood] Narrator: Colonel Rall was shot from his horse, mortally wounded. Voice: Finally, they were driven through the town into an orchard beyond. The poor fellows saw themselves completely surrounded. Henry Knox. ♪ Narrator: It was all over in less than 45 minutes. ♪ 22 Hessians lay dead or dying in the snow. 83 more were wounded. 900 were captured. Just 2 Americans had died-- those frozen before the battle began, and only 5 were wounded, including an artilleryman from Virginia named James Monroe, whose life was saved when a local doctor managed to stop the bleeding. ♪ As the Hessian prisoners were marched to Philadelphia, Washington issued a broadside declaring that since they were not volunteers, but forced into this war, they should be seen not as enemies, but as innocent people. ♪ Baer: The Americans decided very early on to treat German prisoners well. That is a strategic decision, portraying these soldiers as the innocent victims of the contract of two despots. They are being sent, sold by their rulers for money to fight in the war that does not concern them. In other words, they are victims of tyranny, kind of like we are. Narrator: Perhaps 1/4 of the 23,000 Hessian soldiers who survived the war would choose to stay on afterwards and become citizens of the new nation they'd fought against creating, and many of those who returned home would come back again, this time with their families. ♪ Voice: The small scale of our maps deceived us. As the word "America" takes up no more room than the word "Yorkshire," we seem to think the territories they represent are much of the same bigness, though Charleston is as far from Boston as London from Venice. We have undertaken a war against farmers and farmhouses scattered through a wild waste of continent. [British commentator] [Bells ringing] Voice: Philadelphia-- This affair has given new life and spirits to the cause and has lowered the crests of the Tories in this place, who looked upon the matter as settled and were hourly expecting the King's troops to arrive without molestation. Things begin to wear a better aspect. General Washington's army has now become respectable. Reverend David Griffith. Narrator: Washington's army may have become respectable, but it was still about to disintegrate. The Continental regiments from New England-- his most disciplined, most seasoned soldiers-- were all planning to go home in just 5 days, leaving him with 1,400 men with which to face what he feared would be a swift reprisal from the enemy. He now had to persuade as many of them as he could to remain with him at least a little longer. ♪ On New Year's Eve at Trenton, Washington asked that all his depleted regiments assemble so that he could speak to them. He praised his men for their courage, one sergeant recalled, and "in the most affectionate manner entreated us to stay," but when he finished, and the drums beat for volunteers, not a single man stepped forward. Washington spoke again. ♪ Voice: My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do and more than can reasonably be expected, but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses, and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigue and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty and to your country, which you probably never can do under any other circumstances. The present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny. [Washington] ♪ Narrator: "This time," the sergeant remembered, "the soldiers felt the force of the appeal. "One said to another, 'I will remain if you will.' "A few stepped forward, "and their example was immediately followed by nearly all who were fit for duty." In the end, more than half the New England troops agreed to fight on for 6 weeks. On New Year's Day 1777, supplemented by scattered militia and 4 fresh regiments of Continentals from Pennsylvania, George Washington again commanded some 6,500 men. John Greenwood was not among them. ♪ Voice: I had the itch then so bad that my breeches stuck to my thighs, and I had a hundred lice on me. I told my lieutenant I was going home. Says he, "My God, you are not, I hope, going to leave us, "as you are the life and soul of us. You are to be promoted." I told him I would not stay to be a colonel. [Greenwood] Narrator: 20 months earlier, 14-year-old John Greenwood had walked all the way from Maine to Massachusetts and joined the American cause, hoping it would somehow help him get back to his parents in British-occupied Boston. Now he would tramp more than 300 miles back home, where his father saw to it that the boy's clothes were baked in the oven, and he himself was fumigated with sulfur before he could re-enter the home he'd yearned for for so long. For now, the Revolution would have to go on without him, but it would go on, thanks to the sacrifices he and his fellow soldiers had made and the victory they had won when no victory had seemed possible. ♪ [Drum beating rhythmically] [Rhiannon Giddens humming "Amazing Grace"] ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Hmm ♪ ♪ Mm-hmm ♪ ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm mm mm ♪ ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ Announcer: Next time on "The American Revolution." Brandywine... Nathaniel Philbrick: Brandywine was a hellscape in so many ways. Announcer: Germantown... and the pivotal battle of Saratoga. [Gunfire and shouting] Native peoples are divided. Darren Bonaparte: We're killing each other. For what? So somebody else can claim our land? Announcer: and the strategy of a general. Joseph Ellis: Washington reaches the insight-- he doesn't have to win. He only has not to lose. Announcer: When "The American Revolution" continues next time. ♪ Announcer: Scan this QR code with your smart device to dive deeper into the story of "The American Revolution" with interactives, games, classroom materials, and more. ♪ Announcer: "The American Revolution" DVD and Blu-ray, as well as the companion book and soundtrack, are available online and in stores. The series is also available with PBS Passport and on am*zon Prime Video. ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ ♪ ♪ Mm ♪ [Bagpipes stop, drums continue] ♪ ♪ Announcer: The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world. The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. Announcer: Major funding for "The American Revolution" was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, The Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Brierley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members. "The American Revolution" was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You. Thank You. URL https://www.pbs.org/video/the-american-revolution-episode-3-the-times-that-try-mens-souls/

The American Revolution A Film By Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt An Asylum for Mankind (May 1775 – July 1776) VIDEO TRANSCRIPT Announcer: Major funding for "The American Revolution" was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, The Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Brierley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members. "The American Revolution" was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You. Thank You. Announcer: The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world. The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. [Insects chirping, loon calling] [Splashing] Narrator: Before dawn on May 10th, 1775-- less than a month after Lexington and Concord-- some 85 New Englanders rowed across the southern end of Lake Champlain, keeping silent, muskets primed. Their objective was a dilapidated, star-shaped fortress called Ticonderoga, built by the French 20 years earlier and now occupied by 50 British soldiers and 24 women and children. If they could capture it, they might be able to stop British troops from attacking from the north; to provide American forces with a staging area should they ever choose to invade Canada; and to take possession of dozens of artillery pieces that the rebel forces ringing Boston desperately needed. The men slipped silently onto the shore. The British surrendered without a shot. So did the 9 redcoats stationed at Crown Point, a smaller outpost nearby. The Americans had two commanders. One was Colonel Ethan Allen, the hard-drinking leader of the "Green Mountain Boys," a band of vigilantes who had spent years defending their settlements in the Vermont region of northwestern New England against New Yorkers who also claimed the land. The other was a newly promoted 34-year-old Connecticut militia colonel. He was descended from a distinguished New England family that had fallen on hard times. Able but arrogant, sensitive to slights, he would become one of the most important commanders of the American Revolution. His name was Benedict Arnold. ♪ William Hogeland: Once it's a shooting war, as with Lexington and Concord, it's a war. There's no doubt about that. But independence was not, in any way, officially on the table as a goal of the Americans at that point. The idea of independence was still controversial. The official position was that the fight was essentially for redress, for "Let's get back to the way things used to be. Back when things were good, when you left us alone." Narrator: The blood shed at Lexington and Concord had deepened the divisions among Americans from Georgia to New Hampshire. "Loyalists," those who remained faithful to the Crown and hoped His Majesty's troops would soon restore law and order, dismissed those whose sympathies lay with the militiamen surrounding Boston as "rebels." The "rebels" called themselves "Patriots"-- or "Whigs" after British champions of constitutionally guaranteed rights-- and vilified their Loyalist neighbors as "Tories." Alan Taylor: The term "Patriot" is a very old one that pre-exists the Revolution. It applies to people who believe that they are the defenders of liberty against power. Now, "rebel" is a term that the British will use, and the Loyalists will use, to apply to the people who call themselves the "Patriots." So, to be a rebel means that you are rejecting the legitimate authority of your sovereign, King George III of the British Empire. Voice: That we are divorced is to me very clear. The only question is concerning the proper time for making an explicit declaration in words. Some people must have time to look around them, before, behind, on the right hand, and on the left, then to think, and after all this, to resolve. Others see at one intuitive glance into the past and the future, and judge with precision at once. But remember you can't make 13 clocks strike precisely alike at the same second. [Ticking] John Adams. ♪ Taylor: I think the greatest misconception about the American Revolution is that it was something that unified Americans and that it was just a war of Americans against the British. It leaves out the reality that it was a civil war among Americans. Voice: I tremble at the thoughts of war; but of all wars, a civil war! Our all is at stake. Sarah Mifflin. Narrator: In the spring of 1775, a Philadelphia woman named Sarah Mifflin wrote to a British officer who had been her friend before the shooting began. He had suggested that the whole thing was just a minor disagreement. Voice: It is not a quibble in politics. It is this plain truth, which the most ignorant peasant knows, that no man has a right to take their money without their consent. I know this, that as free I can die but once, but as a slave I shall not be worthy of life. Sarah Mifflin. ♪ Narrator: Some 20,000 militiamen from towns all over Massachusetts--and from Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island as well-- had poured into the series of impromptu camps that kept the British caged in Boston. They were united in their anger at the redcoats but very little else. They were militiamen, not professional soldiers, expected to meet immediate crises, not take part in prolonged campaigns. Few had uniforms. Many had never been more than 50 miles from home. Their first loyalty was to the towns from which they came and the neighbors whom they had elected as their officers. Once the shooting stopped and it became clear that the British were not going to attack them, they began drifting home to plant their crops. In overall charge of this dwindling, disorganized force was General Artemas Ward, the commander of the Massachusetts militia. From his headquarters in Cambridge, he understood that if there were to be any hope of holding their own against the British, he needed a paid, recruited army-- and he needed it fast. ♪ Voice: Wherever you go, we will be by your sides. Our bones shall lie with yours. We are determined never to be at peace with the redcoats while they are at variance with you. If we are conquered, our lands go with yours. But if we are victorious, we hope you will help us to recover our just rights. Captain Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut. Narrator: Among the troops who arrived in Cambridge was a company of Native Americans from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Philip Deloria: Stockbridge is a community of multiple tribes, which has a long history of surviving colonization, in part through adopting Christianity and adopting certain kinds of strategic ways of being in relation with colonists. They come over from Western Massachusetts and they're part of the Siege of Boston. Ned Blackhawk: Most Indigenous powers stay relatively on the sidelines of the conflict during the early years. But many Native communities, particularly those who have lived with settlers for generations, come to share loyalties and sensibilities. And so, many decide that it's in their best interest to join the Revolutionary forces and take up arms against the British Empire. Narrator: The presence of the Stockbridge men among the rebels, General Thomas Gage, the commander-in-chief of the British Army in North America, said, freed him to call upon other Native Americans to join his forces and fight for the Crown. Enslaved New Englanders were not recruited by either side. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress insisted it was engaged in a struggle for freedom from British "slavery." Enlisting them, it said, would be "inconsistent." But free African-Americans were welcome-- and at least 35 and perhaps as many as 50 men of color had fought at Lexington and Concord and more would soon be engaged in the next, far bigger battle with the British. Black, White, and Native American soldiers would serve in regiments more integrated than American forces would be again for almost two centuries. Voice: What?! 10,000 peasants keep 5,000 King's troops shut up! Well, let us get in, and we'll soon find elbow room. General John Burgoyne. ♪ Narrator: On May 25th, 1775, a Royal Navy frigate threaded its way into Boston harbor. Aboard were British reinforcements and 3 major generals. John Burgoyne was the showiest and the most self-assured of the three. A playwright as well as a soldier, eager always for advancement, he was dismissive of the rebels besieging Boston, whom he called a "rabble in arms, flushed with insolence." Henry Clinton had spent 6 boyhood years in New York, where his father had been the Royal Governor. He was soft-spoken, retiring, insecure. William Howe had once expressed sympathy with the American cause, but he now saw an opportunity to burnish his reputation as a soldier. They had been sent to bolster General Gage, whom the King's Ministers now saw as overly timid. The commanders all agreed that if they could seize the heights at Dorchester and Charlestown, they could break the rebel siege. Rick Atkinson: There are two pieces of high ground that the British have to worry about. One is Dorchester Heights. And the other is the high ground on the Charlestown Peninsula, including Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill. If you put cannon on either the Charlestown Peninsula or on Dorchester Heights, you would be able to bombard British forces in Boston. The British decide that they are going to seize Charlestown first. Narrator: The Patriots got wind of the plan, and Colonel William Prescott was ordered to seize and fortify Bunker's Hill, the highest prominence on the Charlestown peninsula. As Prescott and his men got there, however, it was somehow decided that they should instead build their fort on the crest of another, lower hill that came to be called Breed's Hill. But it was within range of both the warships in the harbor and a British battery in Boston's North End. Prescott's men went to work with picks and shovels trying to make as little noise as possible so as not to alert the British. But when dawn broke on June 17th, 1775, the redoubt was only half-finished. ♪ A 20-gun British Navy ship opened fire on the hilltop. A cannonball tore the head off a private named Asa Pollard. To steady his men, Prescott leaped onto the unfinished parapet and bellowed at the warships, "Hit me if you can!" British General Howe was certain that the hill would "easily be carried." As soon as the mid-afternoon tide came in, Howe would personally accompany a large force to the eastern tip of the Charlestown Peninsula. [Explosions] The British stepped up their cannonade, the roar so loud it rattled windows in Braintree, 10 miles away, where Abigail Adams wondered whether "the day--perhaps the decisive day--is come," she wrote, "on which the fate of America depends." Prescott rushed to strengthen his left flank, ordering some of his men to dig a ditch and form a 165-foot breastwork and assigning others to strengthen a rail-and-stone fence that ran all the way down to the bluff overlooking the Mystic River beach. Looking up at the American positions, General Howe believed the hill could be taken by what was called a "turning" movement. While one column assaulted the redoubt from the left and another, led by Howe himself, attacked the rail fence head-on, a third would slip along the undefended Mystic River beach, get behind the rebels, turn their line, and destroy them. Such attacks had worked well against disciplined armies in Europe. Stacy Schiff: No one expects that a bunch of country farmers with muskets are going to hold off a trained army who have orders from an actual general in Boston. There is a real disbelief that a bunch of ragtag colonists are going to manage to hold their own against trained soldiers. [Explosions] Narrator: When the column on the left neared Charlestown and came under fire from Americans hidden in abandoned buildings, British ships set the town ablaze with incendiary shells. Then, at around half past 3, Howe's redcoats started up the right side of the hill. Tall, fearsome grenadiers formed the first rank; behind them came the Foot Infantry. But the men had to dismantle wooden fences and stone walls that blocked their climb. Their uniforms were woolen. The sun was hot. And, like the anxious New Englanders waiting for them on the hilltop, some had never been in battle. Atkinson: The notion that the British Army is this battle-tested, experienced force, they're good. There's no doubt about it. Their officers are good. They're very disciplined, for the most part. But they are as scared and as new to this as the Americans are. [Indistinct shouting, explosion] Narrator: As Howe's force continued their ascent, British light infantry on the far right started their flanking maneuver along the narrow beach, bent on getting behind the American defenses, sure they could get there unopposed. But Colonel John Stark of New Hampshire and 60 of his militiamen were waiting for them. He had seen that the beach was open to a flanking attack and directed his men to build a barricade. When the British got within range, the Patriots opened fire. [Gunfire] The light infantry disintegrated. The New Hampshire men kept firing until the stunned survivors began to retreat toward their boats. Behind them lay nearly 100 dead and wounded, lying, Stark recalled, "as thick as sheep in a fold." Meanwhile, at the top of Breed's Hill, Prescott and his officers reassured their men: the redcoats could never reach them if they held their fire till they came close. 90 yards out, a stone wall stopped the Grenadiers. As they laid down their arms and worked to tear apart the wall, the Patriots fired their muskets. [Gunfire] British officers urged their men to keep advancing. Instead, the soldiers stayed where they were and tried to shoot back. The Americans had cover. The British had none. The redcoats broke and retreated down the slope. General Howe let his lines regroup, then ordered them back up the hill, in hopes of driving through the gap between the breastwork and the rail fence. He would go with them. This time, the Patriots behind the fence waited till the Grenadiers got within 50 yards before opening fire. [Gunfire] It was hard to miss. Scores of British soldiers fell, dead, dying, screaming in pain. [Gunfire] Atkinson: They deliberately target the British officers and they can recognize them in part because they're all wearing red coats, right, but the officers are wearing coats that are almost vermillion in hue because they can afford the more expensive dyes that make those coats pop. [Gunfire] The British, frankly, think this is unfair. Trying to target officers, there's something unseemly about it. But the Americans are not going to stop throughout the whole war. [Indistinct shouting, gunfire] Narrator: The Americans cheered, hoping General Howe had had enough. [Gunfire] Atkinson: Every one of his staff officers is killed or wounded. Howe will come back down the hill, unharmed, remarkably. But he's got blood all over his stockings from the men who've been shot on either side of him. Narrator: The teenage fifer John Greenwood had been away that day. When he heard the guns, he hurried back to rejoin his regiment. ♪ Voice: Everything seemed to be in the greatest terror and confusion. I felt very much frightened and would have given the world if I had not enlisted for a soldier. Then, I saw a Negro man, wounded in the back of his neck. I saw the wound very plain and the blood running down his back. I asked him if it hurt him much as he did not seem to mind it. He said no, and that he was only a-going to get a plaster put on it and meant to return. Immediately, you cannot conceive what encouragement it gave me. I began to feel from that moment brave and like a soldier. John Greenwood. ♪ Narrator: From the Boston waterfront, townspeople, including John Greenwood's brother Isaac, watched as British soldiers rowed wounded regulars from Charlestown. They were "obliged," he said, "to bail the blood out like water." And when they started back toward Charlestown again with fresh troops, "the soldiers," Isaac remembered, "looked as pale as death when they got into the boats, "for they could plainly see their brother redcoats mowed down like grass." At the bottom of Breed's Hill, General Howe was determined to come at the Americans one more time. Up above, Colonel Prescott knew his men had little powder left and that many of their muskets were fouled from so much firing. This time, in order to make each shot count, he insisted his men wait until their targets were within 30 yards. [Indistinct shouting, gunfire] "As fast as the front man was shot down, the next stepped forward into his place," one militiaman recalled. "It was surprising how they would step over their dead as though they had been logs of wood." [Gunfire] "We fired till our ammunition began to fail," another militiaman remembered, "then our firing began to slacken-- and at last it went out like an old candle." British marines with bayonets began climbing over the parapets. Some Americans hurled rocks or swung their muskets like clubs. Others clawed their way out of the redoubt and ran. It was all over in a matter of minutes. The Patriots had been driven from Breed's Hill. 115 Americans had been killed and another 305 wounded. ♪ Atkinson: The British succeed in that they drive the Americans off of the Charlestown Peninsula. They take Breed's Hill. They take Bunker Hill. But it has been a, a pyrrhic victory of the first order. It's 4 of the most awful hours of combat in American military history. There are 1,000 British casualties that day. There are 220-some British dead. Stephen Conway: 40% of the attacking force was killed or injured. 40%. That's horrendously high casualty rate. It is the highest casualty rate for the British Army until the first day of the Somme in 1916. It is unbelievably bloody. And that has a really profound impact. Narrator: "The loss we have sustained," General Gage admitted, "is greater than we can bear." During the final struggle, two prominent men had been killed. As Major John Pitcairn encouraged his British Marines to climb over the walls, he'd been shot through the chest and fell, dying, into the arms of his son. He was so hated by New Englanders because he had led the British troops at Lexington Green that at least 4 different men would subsequently claim to have fired the fatal shot. Dr. Joseph Warren, the president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, whom the British considered the most "incendiary" of all the rebel leaders, had insisted on joining the men defending Breed's Hill and was shot in the head. The British officer in charge of the burial detail boasted that they had "stuffed the scoundrel "with another Rebel into one hole and there he and his seditious principles may remain." Voice: Saturday gave us a dreadful specimen of the horrors of civil war. You may easily judge what distress we were in to see and hear Englishmen destroying one another. God grant the blood already spilt may suffice. But this we cannot reasonably expect. Reverend Andrew Eliot. ♪ Narrator: When the news of the battle--remembered as the Battle of Bunker Hill-- eventually made its way to London, the King proclaimed "The deluded People" of America were in a state of "open and avowed rebellion." Anyone who now aided their cause was a traitor. General Gage had been right-- the rebellion would never be crushed without overwhelming force. But Gage was soon called home, replaced as commander-in-chief by General William Howe. For almost 3 years, Howe would lead the struggle to try to put down the rebellion-- and carefully avoid ordering any more frontal assaults against entrenched Americans. ♪ Britain, at the expense of 3 millions, has killed 150 Americans this campaign, which is 20,000 pounds a head. And at Bunker's Hill, she gained a mile of ground. During the same time, 60,000 children have been born in America. From these data, calculate the time and expense necessary to kill us all, and conquer our whole territory. Benjamin Franklin. ♪ [Thunder] Voice: Unhappy it is to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice? George Washington. Narrator: On July 2nd, 1775, Private Phineas Ingalls of Andover, Massachusetts, noted in his diary that it "rained" and that "a new general from Philadelphia" had arrived in Cambridge. That new general was George Washington of Virginia, the commander of the Continental Army the Congress in Philadelphia had just created. His arrival meant that the New England war in which Phineas Ingalls and his fellow militiamen had joined was about to become an American war. Jane Kamensky: Washington is a figure toward whom people naturally turn for leadership. It is clear, by the time the Continental Army is signed into being in the late spring of 1775, that its commander-in-chief can be nobody else. There's something about his presence that makes him the inescapable choice. Narrator: The Second Continental Congress had been meeting since May, and it was obvious from the first that 43-year-old George Washington would command its new army. He had led troops during the French and Indian War, and he was from Virginia, the wealthiest and most populated colony. New England delegates, eager to ensure that colony's support for the war, favored naming a Virginian. Washington was also one of America's richest men, the beneficiary of the work of scores of indentured servants and more than 100 enslaved people at his plantation on the Potomac River-- Mount Vernon. They grew tobacco and wheat, corn and flax and hemp, milled flour, distilled whiskey, caught, salted, and sold fish. And to the West, he had amassed tens of thousands of acres of Indian lands. Washington has this vision of the future in which...America's future is not to the East, not towards Europe. It's to the West. He does see the future and the next century as something in which we should focus on the consolidation of the continent. Hogeland: What defines his early career is an amazing focus, a ruthless and intense focus, on his own interests, which makes him exactly like every other member of his class. It's just that he became George Washington. Narrator: Washington considered outward evidence of ambition unseemly, but his appearance alone made him stand out in Philadelphia. He was about 6'3" when the average height of the men he would lead into battle was around 5'7", and he alone among the delegates appeared each day dressed as a soldier. Washington will remain, I think, endlessly fascinating. Partly because he was so mysterious, so reserved in his manner, frequently, and didn't give up a lot of what was going on in his gut. ♪ Ellis: He was naturally a person who created space around himself, and pity anybody that enters that space that's not invited. Martha gets into that space. Lafayette gets into that space. Maybe Hamilton gets into that space. Voice: He has so much martial dignity in his deportment that you would distinguish him to be a general and a soldier from among 10,000 people. There is not a king in Europe that would not look like a "valet de chambre" by his side. Benjamin Rush. He's got a brain built for executive action. He's willing to take responsibility. He's got an adhesive memory. He is, according to Thomas Jefferson, the greatest horseman of his age. He's built to lead other men in the dark of night, which is a rare and valuable trait in any commander. Voice: I am now embarked on a tempestuous ocean, from whence, perhaps, no friendly harbor is to be found. Narrator: Washington accepted that he and his army would be subordinate to the civilian control of Congress, but he did not yet see himself as a revolutionary. He still hoped to lead what he called "a loyal protest," as if George III might somehow overrule Parliament and restore the rights of British colonists. On his way to Cambridge, he met a dispatch rider who carried a letter that told of the terrible bloodletting that had taken place on Breed's Hill. ♪ Atkinson: He shows up in Cambridge in early July, 1775, as a Virginian commanding, almost exclusively, New England militiamen. He doesn't know what to make of them; they don't know quite what to make of him. He has nothing good to say about New Englanders, privately. They're almost from different countries. But his job is to take this gaggle, this cluster of militia forces, and to form them into a national army. Narrator: Washington thought he'd be commanding a 20,000-man force; in fact, he had fewer than 14,000 men fit for service. He was assured he would have 15 tons of precious gunpowder; there were just 5. On August 6th, a company of 96 riflemen from Virginia arrived, concrete evidence that Americans beyond New England would volunteer to fight. They had marched nearly 500 miles in 3 weeks. Their leader was Captain Daniel Morgan, a big, brawling one-time wagoner whose back bore the scars of a lashing he'd received during the French and Indian War after he'd knocked unconscious a British officer who had insulted him. More riflemen soon followed, from Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as more Virginians. Their rifles were far more accurate than the smooth-bore muskets most Patriots used; their grooved barrels spun a ball, making it fly straighter and truer. A British soldier would call them "the most fatal widow-and-orphan makers in the world." But the riflemen were also frontiersmen. They sounded different from New Englanders, dressed differently, disliked discipline of any kind. Taylor: So what's going to come out of this Revolution is attempts to create an American national identity. And somebody like George Washington becomes quite eloquent in trying to persuade people, "You're not Carolinians," "You're not New Yorkers," "You're not New Englanders." "We're all Americans." Narrator: Always at Washington's side, throughout the Revolution, was William Lee, the enslaved servant he had brought with him from Mount Vernon. Kamensky: I think we have to understand Washington as both the figurehead without whom American liberty would not have survived. At the same time, he's an enslaver of 317 men, women, and children. He acted as an enslaver in the ways that enslavers did. He bought and sold people. He broke up families. Do not look for gilded statues of marble men. They were not that and neither are we and neither is anybody at all. ♪ Narrator: Washington was impatient, eager to get at the enemy. In September, he proposed mounting a water-borne attack on Boston. His officers talked him out of it. Atkinson: Washington has got a lot to learn. Because he's been out of uniform for 16 years, there's a lot he does not know. He knows very little about artillery. He knows very little about fortification. He knows nothing about continental logistics. So, he brings a stack of books with him. Nathaniel Philbrick: Typically, Washington, before he would make a big decision, would canvass his major generals as to what to do. And inevitably, he would do whatever Nathanael Greene suggested. Narrator: General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, a Quaker who came to see pacifism as impractical in the face of what he called "this business of necessity," hoped the British might make a move so that the Americans, he said, could "sell them another hill at the same price" as they had paid taking Breed's Hill. ♪ But the British didn't dare mount an attack on Washington's forces, either. The memory of the last battle was too fresh. The standoff would continue for another 6 months. ♪ In Boston, soldiers and civilians alike suffered. There was too little firewood: regulars ripped pews from churches and demolished whole houses trying to keep warm. Of 40 transport vessels dispatched from England and Ireland to provision the town, 32 never made it--blown off-course by unfavorable winds all the way to the West Indies or seized by Patriots. Voice: What, in God's name, are ye all about in England? Have you forgot us? For we have not had a vessel for 3 months with any sort of supplies. And, therefore, our miseries are become manifold. British Officer. ♪ Voice: In 1770, I built a house, dam, saw, and grist mills on the west side of the Connecticut River. Here I was in easy circumstances, and as independent as my mind ever wished. John Peters. Narrator: Before the war, Yale-educated John Peters had been the most respected man in the small settlement of Moretown in Vermont, where he lived with his wife Ann and their children. In 1774, his neighbors had picked him to represent them in the First Continental Congress. But when Peters got to Philadelphia and sensed the other delegates "meant to have a serious rebellion," he refused to take part and left for home. On the way back, suspicious Patriots detained him 4 times-- in Wethersfield, Hartford, Springfield, and finally in Moretown itself, where "another mob threatened to execute him," he remembered, "as an enemy to Congress." His own father, a colonel in Connecticut's rebel militia, urged his fellow Patriots to use "severity" on his son to make him "a friend to America." [Indistinct shouting] Voice: The mob again and again visited me. They confined me to the limits of the town and threatened me with death if I transgressed their orders. [John Peters] Narrator: Even then, Peters refused to betray his "King and Conscience." Instead, he put his head down and hoped to stay out of the fight. Voice: I little thought the troubles would be so great, or if they did, would last so long. I endeavored to be quiet, but it would not do. The madness of the people was daily growing. [John Peters] ♪ Atkinson: Lake Champlain is this 90-mile-long teardrop that extends from the Canadian border down almost to the Hudson River. If you controlled Lake Champlain, you controlled the most obvious entry point into New York from the north, and into Canada from the south. Everything else is wilderness. ♪ Philbrick: The Americans saw an opportunity. If they could take Montreal, if they could take Quebec, and have command of the St. Lawrence, they would have the British right where they wanted them. Narrator: In the late summer of 1775, some 1,200 New York and New England troops assembled on the Ile aux Noix, just inside the Province of Quebec. Their commander Richard Montgomery had orders from the Continental Congress to "take immediate possession" of the British garrison at Montreal and then keep moving north. The ultimate goal was to eliminate the province as a military threat and perhaps adopt it as the 14th American Colony. They did not expect much opposition: there were just 700 British regulars in the whole province. Now George Washington called for a complementary expedition through the forests of the Maine province of Massachusetts to surprise and capture Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River. To lead it, Washington chose Benedict Arnold. Atkinson: Benedict Arnold is the finest tactical commander on either side in the first couple of years of the war. He's conspicuously gifted in being able to motivate men, tactically, under difficult circumstances, to do what he wants them to do. Narrator: Arnold had emerged from the capture of Fort Ticonderoga with a mixed reputation: he had quarreled with rival officers and become so incensed at having his expenses questioned that he simply left the militia and went home. But after his wife died, he left his 3 sons with his sister and joined Washington's Continental Army. "An idle life under my present circumstances," he told a friend, "would be but a lingering death." Quebec, Washington believed, was certain to be "very easy prey." But "not a moment's time is to be lost," he added. Conway: The Americans were not hostile to the concept of empire. On the contrary, they were great enthusiasts for it. They called it the "Continental Army" and the "Continental Congress" for a good reason. They had ambitions to incorporate Canada, Florida, and the whole of the continent of North America. Narrator: On September 25th, from a boatyard on the Kennebec River in Maine, Benedict Arnold and his 1,100-man force set out for Canada. ♪ Voice: Failure to punish the people of the 4 New England governments for their many rebellious and piratical acts, only encouraged them to go to greater lengths. I determined to destroy some of their towns and shipping. Vice Admiral Samuel Graves. Narrator: In October, Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, commander-in-chief of His Majesty's North American Station, announced he planned to lay waste to the ports of Marblehead, Salem, Cape Ann, Ipswich, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Saco, Falmouth, Machias. All of them were bases from which privateers-- Patriot raiders--menaced British shipping. Graves dispatched Lieutenant Henry Mowat and 4 warships to carry out his orders. Mowat began with Falmouth-- now Portland, Maine. [Bells tolling] Mowat gave the nearly 2,000 townspeople two hours, he said, to "remove without delay the Human Species" before the bombardment began, then agreed to reconsider provided the townspeople turned over all their arms and gunpowder by the following morning. When they didn't, British ships opened fire. [Cannon fire] The cannonade went on for more than 7 hours, firing more than 3,000 rounds of shot and hollow balls filled with combustible material. In mid-afternoon, landing parties rowed ashore. They hurled torches into the doors and windows of homes and shops. [Clatter] News of Falmouth's destruction spread fast. Ports up and down the coast braced for the next attack. Washington and Congress had both already begun arming ships to seize enemy cargoes to supply the army. Now Congress voted to commission 13 frigates for a new Continental Navy. Philbrick: To have a navy in the late 18th century was to have a fleet of ships that were the most sophisticated machines in the world at that time. They were very expensive. And they required all sorts of economic power and technology to create. Great Britain had that. The colonies really didn't. And, so, to go against this huge naval power was kind of an insane task to even contemplate. Narrator: The most successful Patriot commander was John Manley, a sea captain from Marblehead. He managed to seize 7 British vessels before the end of the year, including an ordnance ship, its hold filled with 100,000 flints, 2,000 muskets, and 30,000 cannonballs-- all of it badly needed by the Continental Army. ♪ British Admiral Graves ultimately decided against attacking any more ports. But the damage was done. Voice: The savage and brutal barbarity of our enemies is a full demonstration that there is not the least remains of virtue, wisdom, or humanity in the British. Therefore, we expect soon to break off all kind of connection with Britain, and form into a Grand Republic of the American United colonies. "The New England Chronicle." ♪ Voice: In every human breast, God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom. It is impatient of oppression, and pants for deliverance. I will assert, that the same principle lives in us. Phillis Wheatley. ♪ Narrator: George Washington made his Cambridge headquarters in the handsome home of a Loyalist who had fled to England. One morning, not long after he had moved in, he noticed a 6-year-old African-American named Darby Vassall swinging on the gate. Vassall remembered saying he had been born in the house and his parents had worked there. Washington urged him to come inside and get something to eat; he had plenty of chores for him to do. When Darby asked what sort of wages he could expect, Washington thought the question impertinent and "unreasonable." Darby Vassall lived to be a very old man and, when asked, he liked to say that in his experience, George Washington "was no gentleman," since he'd expected a boy to work for free. Washington was also shocked to see Black soldiers encamped alongside their White neighbors. Unconvinced they could ever make good soldiers, Washington persuaded the Massachusetts Provincial Congress to enlist no more of them, though dozens had fought on Breed's Hill. Christopher Brown: I think that Washington was concerned about what it might mean for slavery and slaveholding. I think he was alert to the ways that it could end up eroding the institution. Narrator: Enslaved African-Americans constituted just 2% percent of the population of New England, but 40% of Virginians were held as slaves, and planters like Washington lived in constant fear that they would rise up against them-- as enslaved people had risen up on the British island of Jamaica 3 times in the last 15 years. Voice: When you make men slaves you deprive them of half their virtue, and compel them to live with you in a state of war. Are there no dangers attending this mode of treatment? Are you not hourly in dread of an insurrection? Olaudah Equiano. Narrator: The growing talk of "liberty" had appealed to those who had the least of it and craved it most. From New England to South Carolina, enslaved people offered to help the British if they were granted freedom. In November of 1775, Virginia's Royal Governor Lord Dunmore, who had been forced to flee with some 300 soldiers, sailors, and Loyalists to ships anchored in the Chesapeake Bay, issued a Proclamation that seemed to confirm the slaveholders' worst nightmares. It promised freedom to any enslaved man owned by a rebel who was willing to take up arms and help suppress the uprising. Atkinson: Britain is the biggest slave-trading nation on earth. Nevertheless, the British believe that if they can convince enough slaves to abandon their masters in the South, to take up arms against the American rebels, that this is a manpower pool that can also derange the economies of the Southern states. It's not that the British are anti-slavery, by any means, in the 1770s, right? Their colonies in the Caribbean are their most profitable colonies in the Americas. They are firmly committed to slavery. But, opportunistically, when they think that they can encourage slaves to rise up against rebelling colonists, they'll do so. Annette Gordon-Reed: For enslaved people, this was a way of getting out of a situation that seemed intractable. And it gave them an impetus to get involved in all of this. In the sort of chaos of war, they found an opportunity, a way to escape their situation. Voice: "The Virginia Gazette." Be not then, ye Negroes, tempted by this proclamation to ruin yourselves. Whether you will profit by my advice, I cannot tell. But this I know, that whether we suffer or not, if you desert us, you most certainly will. Narrator: Dunmore's Proclamation helped drive Southern slaveholders to the side of the revolutionaries. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina spoke for many: Lord Dunmore's proclamation tends "in my judgment, "more effectually to work an eternal separation "between Great Britain and the Colonies than any other expedient." Dunmore says that he only wants the slaves of rebels to join him. Not clear exactly how you can tell them apart, or whether there's any kind of census going on of who do you belong to. Narrator: Dunmore was not an abolitionist; he did not free any of the 57 human beings he held in slavery himself; the Patriots would capture them all and sell them to fund their cause. Voice: Wednesday. Last night after going to bed, Moses, my son's man, Joe, Billy, Postillion, John, Mulatto Peter, Tom, Panticore, Manuel, and Lancaster Sam all ran away to Lord Dunmore. Landon Carter. Narrator: Now runaways streamed to the governor's ships, silently slipping along the rivers and tidal creeks that opened into the Chesapeake Bay. 87 men, women, and children from a single Virginia plantation fled to Dunmore. [Dogs barking] Voice: Ran off last night from the subscriber: a Negro man named Charles, who is a very shrewd, sensible fellow, and can both read and write. There is reason to believe he intends an attempt to get to Lord Dunmore. His elopement was from no cause of complaint, or dread of whipping but from a determined resolution to get liberty, as he conceived. "The Virginia Gazette." Narrator: "There is not a man among them," George Washington's farm manager warned him, "but would leave us if they believed "they could make their escape. Liberty is sweet." He was right. The first enslaved person to escape Mount Vernon was named Harry Washington. Born somewhere near the Gambia River in West Africa, he was captured, carried across the ocean, and, in 1763, purchased by George Washington. Freedom was never far from his mind. In 1771, he had tried to escape but was caught and brought back. 4 years later, he saw his chance. Erica Dunbar: Following Lord Dunmore's proclamation, Harry Washington knew that this would be an opportunity, and he joined the British against the people who had once owned him. Narrator: George Washington called Lord Dunmore a "Monster," and an "arch-traitor to the rights of humanity." Voice: If that man is not crushed before spring, he will become the most formidable enemy America has. His strength will increase, as a snowball, by rolling, and faster. Nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty will secure peace to Virginia. George Washington. Narrator: Scores of runaways were caught and brutally punished; some were killed, others sold off to compensate their enslavers. But some 800 men would make it to Dunmore's growing fleet, along with roughly the same number of women and children. Men found fit for duty were enlisted in a special unit called "Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment." They were commanded by White officers but paid a wage for the first time in their lives. Voice: The proclamation has had a wonderful effect. The Negroes are flocking in from all quarters. And had I but a few more men here, I would march immediately to Williamsburg, by which I should soon compel the whole colony to submit. Lord Dunmore. Narrator: Bolstered by reinforcements, Dunmore occupied Norfolk and ordered a stockade built at the Great Bridge over the Elizabeth River to block the only road to town from the South. Some 700 Patriots dug in across the river, and on December 9, 1775, when Dunmore's troops charged across the bridge to dislodge them, more than 100 of his men, Black and White, were killed. "They fought, bled, and died like Englishmen," one man remembered. Dunmore's makeshift army-- including what was left of the Ethiopian regiment-- fled back to sea. With them went scores of Loyalist families from in and around Norfolk, most of them Dunmore's fellow Scots. He now commanded a floating city--including rafts on which the poorest struggled to survive. Brown: Dunmore's Proclamation turns the conflict, in Virginia, into a genuine crisis. But it does help clarify differences, right? It establishes that there is one side of this conflict that is unevenly committed to slavery. And then there's another side, our side, which is fully committed to it. And for some Patriots, that's all they need to know. It creates a sense that this is an existential conflict in a way that it had not before. Voice: These lords of themselves, these kings of me, these demigods of independence. It has been proposed that the slaves should be set free, an act which, surely, the lovers of liberty cannot but commend. How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes? Dr. Samuel Johnson. ♪ [Indistinct shouting] Voice: Connecticut wants no Massachusetts man in her corps; Massachusetts thinks there is no necessity for a Rhode Islander to be introduced into hers. Could I have foreseen what I have, and am like to experience, no consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept this command. [George Washington] [Indistinct shouting] Narrator: Now George Washington faced for the first time the problem that would haunt him again and again: when enlistments expired at the end of the year, most of his army was simply going to melt away. ♪ To fill out his ranks, Washington persuaded the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to send him a total of 5,000 militiamen. The newcomers were so sullen, veteran soldiers called them the "Long-Faced People." Washington asked Congress if Indian units could serve in his army. While they debated the issue, many Native people did join the ranks. 5 sons of a Mohegan woman named Rebecca Tanner would die fighting for the Patriots over the course of the war. ♪ In December, Washington changed his mind about enlisting African-Americans. His desperate need for men was part of it. But there were also appeals from Black veterans themselves or from their officers. "It has been represented to me," Washington wrote to the Continental Congress, "that the free Negroes who have "served in this Army are very much dissatisfied at being discarded." They could now re-enlist. Kamensky: Washington brings to Cambridge the "hard no" of a Virginia planter. But he is also willing to revise himself. To think about the whole of the potential fighting force and whether Black men can play a role within it. I think many people, most people from his station, would have started where he started and have gone no further. So, I think he does have a sort of flexibility as a commander, which is the only thing that the commander of an insurrectionary force can have. Narrator: Though the decision remained unpopular, by the end of the war, some 5,000 African-Americans had served in the Continental Army. A lot of these decisions about who to fight for, who to align with, are deeply, deeply local. They're not necessarily about high ideals at all, right? So, when people think there's an opportunity with the British, they may align with and run off to British lines. But when the Patriot Army kind of opens its ranks to Black people, there are lots of Black people who think they can gain advantage, concession, and even, one day, some status from fighting for the Patriots. It's not a question of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It's what can I get from making this decision, right now, in this place, at this time, among these people. Narrator: Washington's new army--an ill-assorted mix of soldiers who'd decided to stay on, raw recruits, and short-term militiamen-- now numbered around 8,000 men. But only 2/3 were fit for duty. Those men were still cold, still poorly armed, still poorly paid-- but also still able to keep the British trapped in Boston. Voice: It is not in the pages of history perhaps to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy for 6 months together, without powder, and at the same time to disband one Army and recruit another, within that distance of 20-odd British regiments, is more than probably ever was attempted. ♪ [Thunder] Voice: At the most moderate computation, this rebellion will cost Great Britain 10 millions of treasure and 20,000 lives. What then, in the name of wonder, is the object of the war? Are we to throw away so much treasure and so many lives to gain a point which, when gained, is not worth 1% on our money? The "Public Advertiser." Maya Jasanoff: In the British Parliament, there are debates taking place. There are people lining up on one side who say, "You know, we ought to actually "grant the colonies more autonomy. "We ought to loosen the strictures "that we've placed on them. "We ought to think about ways that they might be represented." Narrator: The war in North America was not universally popular in England. The colonies were 3,000 miles away. The theater of war would be far larger than any the British Army had ever encountered before. It was sure to be costly and bloody and likely to be prolonged. The Army chief and England's most distinguished naval commander would both refuse to take part in the war. The Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London appealed to the King to reconsider. It was far better to give the Americans their "rights and liberties," they said, than impose "the dreadful operations of your armaments." But the new Secretary of State for America, Lord George Germain, remained determined to crush the rebellion-- and to do it with a single, all-out campaign. If the war dragged on, King George himself feared that Britain's old Catholic enemies, France and Spain, might be persuaded to support the rebel cause. Voice: The rebellious war now levied is become more general, and is manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire. The object is too important, the spirit of the British nation too high, the resources with which God hath blessed her too numerous, to give up so many colonies which she has planted with great industry, nursed with great tenderness, and protected and defended at much expense of blood and treasure. [King George III] Atkinson: King George was not an ogre. He was not a tyrant. Contrary to the stereotype that most Americans have of him, he's actually a pretty extraordinary man. Conway: He was a very great constitutional monarch. In fact, in 1775, he declares, "I'm fighting the war of the legislature." In other words, he's fighting for Parliament's rights over the American colonies. Not his own rights, Parliament's rights. But once the war starts, he sees himself as the commander-in-chief with a responsibility to make sure the war is run efficiently and effectively. Narrator: The British Navy was the largest on earth, but the all-volunteer British Army numbered fewer than 50,000 officers and men on paper. And it was still smaller in reality, just 1/3 of the size of the French Army, and scattered across the world from Ireland to India, the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. "Unless it rains men in red coats," one official warned, "I know not where we are to get all we shall want." Ellis: The British should have recognized that this was going to be extremely difficult and perhaps unwinnable conflict. They were confident of two things. They had invincible military power. And, therefore, there was no need for them to compromise. And secondly, that any compromise of Sovereignty, of Parliament's Sovereignty, was going to encourage independence on the part of the Americans. They had a kind of "Domino" theory: if we lose American colonies, then we lose Canada, then we lose the Caribbean. So that George III and his Ministers really believe that nothing less than the future of the British Empire is at stake. [Bird cawing] Voice: Our commander, Arnold, was of a remarkable character. Brave and beloved by the soldiery, he possessed great powers of persuasion. Private John Joseph Henry. ♪ Narrator: Benedict Arnold and his men had made slow progress on their way up the Kennebec River as part of the American invasion of Canada. Their provisions had been packed into 220 flat-bottomed "bateaux," built for them at George Washington's orders. All Arnold knew about the forests his men were about to penetrate came from a crude 15-year-old British map that seemed to suggest Quebec City was 180 miles away and could be reached in just 20 days. ♪ The real distance turned out to be 270 miles. [Wind blowing] Nothing could have prepared Arnold for the ordeal he and his men were about to endure. [Water spraying] The Kennebec turned out to be punctuated by waterfalls and rapids. Submerged rocks tore the bottoms of their boats. Within 72 hours, 1/4 of their provisions were lost or ruined. In the mornings, wet clothes were glazed with ice, one man wrote, thick as a pane of glass. On the 10th day, Arnold began rationing the remaining food-- just salt pork and flour. It snowed on the 19th day and rained relentlessly for days afterwards. Then, it snowed again. Philbrick: America is this huge continent. There's tornadoes, there's hurricanes, there's winter storms. Turns of weather that we know are coming for weeks on end hit the people of the 18th century completely by surprise. They're not just fighting each other. In a profound way, they are fighting the American climate and geography and topography. This is a difficult place to conduct a war. ♪ Narrator: After a month of hardship, the officer leading the battalion that had been bringing up the rear declared the mission suicidal, turned his 300 men around, and started for home with many of the remaining provisions. ♪ Arnold's men were now forced to subsist on candles, tree bark, and soup made by boiling rawhide. One company killed and ate their captain's Newfoundland dog. ♪ Of the 1,100 men who set out from Cambridge, more than 1/3 had turned back, been escorted home as invalids, or died along the way. [Bell rings] Finally, 45 days after setting off--not 20-- Arnold's men saw the spires and walls of Quebec City looming across the St. Lawrence River. Philbrick: No one, particularly the British, can believe that suddenly they are there. Arnold, because of this, would have a reputation now. He would be known as the "American Hannibal" for his ability to move men over mountains, to achieve seemingly impossible things. Narrator: Meanwhile, American forces led by General Montgomery had easily taken Montreal. Then, with 300 of his men, Montgomery set out along the St. Lawrence to meet up with Arnold. Together, they planned their assault on Quebec City. They realize that they've got a hard decision to make. We either attack now, or many of our men are going to leave. Their enlistments are up. They're cold. It's mid-winter in Canada. ♪ Narrator: There were only some 300 British regulars stationed in the fortified city. So, General Guy Carleton, the royal governor of Canada, ordered every able-bodied man within its walls to prepare for battle. Anyone who refused had to leave or be prosecuted as a spy. The city's ramparts were soon guarded by some 1,800 men. The American plan called for two small, noisy diversionary feints to draw defenders away from the attack's real targets. Meanwhile, Arnold and his men would circle around Quebec City from the north, while General Montgomery would approach from the south. Together, they would storm the citadel's steep walls. ♪ Voice: Dear Father, if you receive this letter, it will be the last this hand will ever write you. Heaven only knows what will be my fate. But whatever it may be, I cannot resist the inclination I feel to assure you that in this cause I feel no reluctance to venture a life, which I consider as only lent to be used when my country demands it. Your very affectionate son, John Macpherson. [Wind blowing] Voice: The storm was outrageous. Covering the locks of our guns with the lapels of our coats and holding down our heads... [Gunshot] we ran in single file. John Joseph Henry. Narrator: The Americans launched their attack at 4 in the morning on December 31st, 1775, under the cover of a howling blizzard. Many men had pinned to their hats slips of paper with the words, "Liberty or Death." [Gunfire] Everything went wrong. [Gunfire] The diversionary attacks fooled no one. Arnold's men came under merciless fire from the ramparts above-- and the enemy had placed formidable barricades in their way. [Gunfire] When a ricocheting bullet fragment tore through Arnold's left leg, he had to be carried back to camp. Captain Daniel Morgan of Virginia took over. He managed to lead his men past one barricade only to be blocked by another. He tried 4 times to scale it, then decided to wait for Montgomery and his men to break through. ♪ But Montgomery never made it. [Gunshot] Within moments of making his way into the city, he, John Macpherson, and 11 others were killed. [Gunfire] Voice: The enemy, having the advantage of the ground in front, a vast superiority of numbers, and dry and better arms, gave them an irresistible power. About 9:00 a.m., it was apparent to all of us that we must surrender. John Joseph Henry. ♪ Narrator: 30 Americans lay dead. 389 were taken prisoner, including Daniel Morgan. ♪ Arnold, though badly wounded, was not captured and vowed to try to take the city again before it could be reinforced. Voice: I have no thoughts of leaving this proud town, until I first enter it in triumph. Providence which has carried me through so many dangers, is still my protection. Benedict Arnold. ♪ Voice: I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave cries give, give. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which humane nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances. When I consider these things, I feel anxious for the fate of our monarchy, or democracy, or whatever is to take place. Abigail Adams. Narrator: On New Year's Day, 1776, George Washington ordered a new "Continental Union" flag raised atop Prospect Hill overlooking occupied Boston. The British Union Jack still filled its upper left-hand corner. But its 13 red and white stripes, he said, were intended as a "compliment to the United Colonies." With the exception of the city of Boston, Patriots now controlled each of the 13 colonies. Several other royal governors had, like Dunmore, fled to ships offshore. But people within the colonies remained deeply divided. Some of the free population favored independence. Others were appalled at the thought of breaking with the King. Abandoning Britain, one Virginian wrote, would "dissolve the bands of religion, of oaths, of laws, "of language, of blood, which hold us united under the influence of the common parent." Still others remained "disaffected," favoring neither side, hoping somehow to carry on with their lives while their fellow-Americans-- suspicious of their neutrality-- fought things out. But events were changing minds. Gordon-Reed: What happened in the run-up to all of this gave people a sense that they might be able to make it on their own. They were different from the people in Great Britain. They realized that they were moving apart. Voice: If we must erect an independent government in America, a republic will produce strength, hardiness, activity, courage, fortitude, and enterprise. But there is so much rascality, so much venality and corruption, so much avarice and ambition, such a rage for profit and commerce among all ranks and degrees of men, even in America, that I sometimes doubt whether there is public virtue enough to support a republic. John Adams. Taylor: The leaders of the American Revolution need popular support. The leaders of the American Revolution are going to have to make promises that there's going to be greater social mobility; there's going to be greater respect for common people; there is going to be broader political participation in the future than there has been in the colonial past by loosening up structures of authority, including structures of religious authority. If you're making this Revolution and you need the support of thousands of common people, men and women, what's in it for them? Gordon Wood: Up to the 18th century, people assumed that everything will always remain the same. But the idea that you could take charge and change your culture, that's what--that's the fundamental basis of the Enlightenment, that man can be changed. ♪ Voice: The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent. Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind. ♪ We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand. Thomas Paine. ♪ Narrator: On January 9th, 1776, a slender pamphlet titled "Common Sense" was published in Philadelphia-- the most important pamphlet in American history. It was signed simply "an Englishman." Its author, a recent newcomer to America, was 38-year-old Thomas Paine. The son of a Quaker corset-maker and his Anglican wife, Paine had failed at his father's profession, lost his first wife and their child in childbirth, been fired from his post as tax collector, endured the collapse of a second childless marriage, and had seen his possessions auctioned off to pay his debts. During his 8-week voyage from Britain, he'd contracted typhus, and when his ship reached Philadelphia, he had to be carried off, half-dead. But Paine was a master with words, skillfully weaving the latest Enlightenment philosophy with biblical references that everyone knew. And he was a violent foe of aristocracy and monarchy. Schiff: It's a much more radical document than anything that had preceded it. "Common Sense" takes off like an accelerant through the colonies. Everyone reads it. Narrator: Excerpts from "Common Sense" appeared in newspapers throughout the colonies. The pamphlet would sell tens of thousands of copies. Taylor: It is an unprecedented bestseller. With the exception of the Bible in the colonies, no book has been read as widely as "Common Sense" is. Bernard Bailyn: It was a wholesale attack on the entire world of Britain, political, cultural. And it's in slam-bang prose. No American pamphleteer wrote that kind of really tough extreme language. Hogeland: It just made people listen and made people think at a time when the Congress would never have thought of attacking the King, personally, King George III, the "Crown of England." They were always like, "Oh, he's not really getting it. "It's Parliament that's our problem. The King needs to help us." He just called the King a "beast," in print. He was the working-class intellectual. His politics were radically democratic, in many ways. And that made him different from the other famous Founders. Voice: Hereditary succession is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion. Thomas Paine. Bailyn: That pamphlet did stir people's minds about the possibility of a different kind of world. Voice: "Common Sense" struck a string which required a touch to make it vibrate. The country was ripe for independence, and only needed somebody to tell the people so. Private Ashbel Green. Hogeland: Some of the Founders, and others, thought this is the moment we can start over again. We can actually begin the world anew. And it must have been, you know, wildly exciting at the time. And I think it still excites us, that we are the product of a revolutionary moment where the world turned upside down. Voice: My countrymen will come reluctantly into the idea of independency. I find "Common Sense" is working a wonderful change in the minds of many men. George Washington. ♪ Narrator: Not all minds were changed. Hannah Griffitts, the Philadelphia poet who in 1768 had urged American women to boycott British goods, was horrified. Kamensky: The idea that to reform the Empire by not buying tea or imported cloth would lead to this crazy question of independence was an impossible thing for her to countenance. Paine is where a lot of people get on the revolutionary road. It's where she gets off. Narrator: For some Americans, "Common Sense" confirmed their worst fears. Vermont Loyalist John Peters, who continued to receive death threats from his Patriot neighbors, had reached a breaking point. Voice: Often mobbed and once imprisoned by the malcontents, I quitted my family, property, and offices, and fled to Canada, to avoid personal danger and to support the British cause against its enemies. [John Peters] Voice: The want of guns is so great that no trouble or expense must be spared to obtain them. [George Washington] Atkinson: Washington has got Boston surrounded. The problem is, he doesn't have the big guns necessary to make the British in Boston really feel threatened. He's got some artillery, but not enough. They tend to be smaller field guns. He knows that at Ticonderoga, which is several hundred miles away, there are more than 80 British guns that have been captured by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen. And he tells Henry Knox, "Go to Ticonderoga, bring back whatever you can." ♪ Narrator: Henry Knox was a big, amiable, 25-year-old Boston bookseller who had learned all he knew about artillery and military engineering from volumes he'd stocked in his shop and from his service in the Boston militia. He'd earned Washington's admiration for overseeing the construction of fortifications at Roxbury. Atkinson: Washington, who's got a very good eye for subordinate talent, recognizes that this guy, he doesn't even have a uniform at the time, has something about him that Washington finds appealing, and the potential that Henry Knox evinces is something that Washington recognizes immediately. Narrator: Before setting out, Knox wrote a letter to his pregnant wife Lucy, who had fled Boston, leaving her Loyalist parents and siblings behind. Voice: Keep up your spirits, my dear girl, and don't be alarmed when I tell you that the General has ordered me to go to the westward as far as Ticonderoga. Don't be afraid, there is no fighting in the case. I am going upon business only. Henry Knox. Narrator: Knox made his way to the captured forts and found 55 guns worth transporting-- 39 field pieces, 14 mortars, and two howitzers-- all weighing more than 64 tons. ♪ Knox's task was somehow to move them 300 miles down into the Hudson Valley, across the Berkshires, and all the way to Boston. He had horses and ox teams haul the guns overland to the northern end of Lake George. From there, a small fleet of barges and boats ferried them more than 30 miles against howling winds to Fort George at the southern end. ♪ Voice: I have made 42 exceeding strong sleds and have provided 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield, where I shall get fresh cattle to carry them to camp. We shall have a fine fall of snow, which will make the carriage easy. Henry Knox. ♪ Narrator: The snow for which Knox hoped proved unpredictable, sometimes too light for his sleds to glide over, sometimes too heavy for them to move at all. ♪ Crossing the Berkshires, oxen hauled the cannon up and over mountains so tall that from their summits, Knox remembered, "We might almost have seen all the kingdoms of the earth." ♪ Wherever they went, farmers and townspeople turned out to see them. Voice: We reached Westfield, Massachusetts, and found that very few, even among the oldest inhabitants, had ever seen a cannon. We were great gainers by this curiosity. For while they were employed in remarking upon our guns, we were with equal pleasure discussing the qualities of their cider and whiskey. John P. Becker. Narrator: As the ox train lumbered on, Knox hurried ahead alone to Cambridge. He reported to Washington that over the next few weeks, all the artillery he'd been promised would be at his disposal. ♪ When the last of Knox's cannon reached Washington's army, England's hold on Boston was doomed. Atkinson: It's one of the most extraordinary expeditions in American military history. He appears back in Cambridge, says, "Boss, I'm here. "I've brought back 50 guns. "They're parked right outside of town. They're available whenever you need them." Washington says, "You're my man." And he puts Knox in charge of Continental Artillery. [Drumbeat] Narrator: On the night of March 4th, 1776, some 3,000 men and 300 teams worked to put 20 or more heavy guns in place on Dorchester Heights. [Drumbeat] Voice: March 5th. This morning at daybreak, we discovered two redoubts on the hills on Dorchester Point, and two smaller works on their flanks. They were all raised during the night, with an expedition equal to that of the genie belonging to Aladdin's wonderful lamp. From these hills they commanded the whole town, so that we must drive them from their post, or desert the place. [British Officer] Narrator: Unwilling to sacrifice any more men, General Howe decided to leave Boston for Halifax in Nova Scotia, where he hoped to regroup. ♪ With him went 10,000 soldiers and their dependents as well as 1,100 Loyalist men, women, and children who would have to build new lives in a new place. Among them were Henry Knox's in-laws. "I have lost," his wife Lucy wrote, "my father, mother, brother, and sisters." ♪ Voice: How horrid is this war? Brother against brother and the parent against the child. Who were the first promoters of it, I know not. But God knows. And I fear they will feel the weight of His vengeance. ♪ Tis pity, the little time we have to spend in this world, we cannot enjoy ourselves and our friends, but must be devising means to destroy each other. Lucy Knox. ♪ Narrator: With the evacuation of Boston, no British garrison now remained anywhere in the rebellious colonies. Serena Zabin: I think it surprises everybody that the Patriots are having some successes. So much so that everyone's convinced that it's either the support of God or the virtue of the cause that is helping them win. One of their favorite metaphors is the Battle of Jericho. They're sure that all it takes is for this army that has right on its side to show up and blow a trumpet, and the walls are just going to fall down. Narrator: Some Americans believed the war was over. The Massachusetts legislature thanked George Washington for his service and wished him "Peace and Satisfaction of Mind" in his retirement. But Washington knew better. He informed Congress that he would "immediately repair to New York, with the remainder of the Army." He was sure that Howe's next move would be to attack that strategically important port. By mid-April, 1776, he and his wife Martha, and several members of their household, were in residence there. Meanwhile, Congress sent a Connecticut businessman named Silas Deane to Paris to secretly buy munitions and supplies-- and to look into the possibility of forging an alliance with France. Schiff: Two questions, really, conjoin at this point. One question is, if we're going to make ourselves independent, if we're going to somehow create a nation, which is a truly novel and destabilizing concept, how are we going to do that? We have absolutely no means with which to do so. So, we will have to enlist the aid of a foreign power. And then comes the question of a Declaration. And the question is, which needs to happen first. ♪ Voice: Independence is the only bond that can tie and keep us together. Every day convinces us of its necessity. Instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let each of us hold out to his neighbor the hearty hand of friendship. And let no other name be heard among us, than those of a good citizen; an open and resolute friend; and a virtuous supporter of the Rights of Mankind, and of the Free and Independent States of America. Thomas Paine. ♪ [Thunder] Voice: Language cannot describe, nor imagination paint, the scenes of misery the soldiery endure, continually groaning and calling for relief, but in vain. The most shocking of all spectacles was to see a large barn crowded full of men with this disorder, many of which could not see, speak, or walk. Dr. Lewis Beebe. Narrator: That spring, colonists on both sides of the fighting were ravaged by a common enemy: "Variola major"--smallpox. Highly infectious, the virus had scarred, blinded, or killed hundreds of thousands in North America over the past 2 1/2 centuries. ♪ The American Revolution coincided with a continent-wide epidemic that would last for 7 years and take some 100,000 more lives--Black, White, as well as Native American. Colin Calloway: When armies are marching back and forth, this is prime environment for the spread of diseases. And one of the largest, or at least best documented, smallpox epidemics, and it may be epidemics, plural, happens at the time of the American Revolution. Smallpox was the dread disease of humanity. Narrator: There were just two weapons against smallpox: isolating its victims to keep them from infecting others or inoculating the still unaffected by deliberately implanting live virus into an incision in hopes that the infection they contracted would neither prove fatal nor infect anyone else before it conferred immunity. George Washington knew the disease firsthand; he'd been permanently scarred by it as a young man. But he initially rejected inoculation for his soldiers: if he imposed it universally, his whole army would have been incapacitated for weeks; if he employed it piecemeal and just one still-infectious inoculated soldier was released too early, he might infect his whole company. Instead, anyone showing smallpox symptoms was isolated in a special hospital with guards posted to keep visitors out. [Seagulls crying] Meanwhile, aboard Lord Dunmore's floating city in the Chesapeake Bay, the men of his Ethiopian Regiment and their families, packed together on small, segregated vessels, were without immunity and not inoculated until the disease was already raging among them. So was typhus. Voice: The fever has proved a very malignant one and has carried off an incredible number of our people, especially the Blacks. Had it not been for this horrid disorder, I am satisfied I should have had 2,000 Blacks with whom I should have had no doubt of penetrating into the heart of this colony. Lord Dunmore. ♪ Narrator: In late May, Dunmore moved his ramshackle fleet north to Gwynn's Island, lured there by the presence of some 400 cows with which he hoped to help feed his followers. But smallpox and typhus came with him. Runaways continued to find their way to Dunmore, 6 or 8 a day--and died almost as fast. [Gunshot] Eventually, under fire from Virginia militiamen onshore, Dunmore and his fleet would be forced to sail away from the island. [Gunshot] They left behind hundreds of sick African-American men, women, and children. A Virginian who reached the island a day or two later never forgot what he saw. Voice: On our arrival, we were struck with horror at the number of dead bodies, in a state of putrefaction, without a shovelful of earth upon them; others gasping for life; and some had crawled to the water's edge, who could only make known their distress by beckoning to us. Such a scene of cruelty my eyes never beheld; for which the authors never can make atonement in this world. [Virginia Militiaman] ♪ Narrator: Dunmore's experiment in emancipation had ended in disaster. But over the 7 years of fighting that followed, tens of thousands of enslaved people would flee to the British, believing that the King's representatives were more likely than the Revolutionaries to fulfill their hopes for liberty. ♪ Gordon-Reed: Opting for freedom is a gamble. And it makes people take all kinds of risks. The notion that you would be in a situation where your children, and your children's children, and your children's children's children would be enslaved, I can understand wanting to risk death to prevent that. ♪ Narrator: That same spring, smallpox would end the American dream of capturing Canada, as well. For more than 4 months, Benedict Arnold, now promoted to general, had continued to blockade Quebec City, hoping he could mount a successful second assault before spring temperatures thawed the ice blocking the St. Lawrence, and the British could land reinforcements. But by May, nearly half of those Americans who remained were sick. Then, Royal Navy warships and transports arrived, filled with thousands of fresh troops-- and thousands more were on the way. The Americans took flight. British forces, led by General Guy Carleton and General John Burgoyne, pursued them-- soon supported by Native American allies. Darren Bonaparte: For us, my people living on the St. Lawrence, the British rallied us and said, "We've got Americans invading. They're going to kill all of you." We sent 100 of our warriors to help the British drive the Americans out of the Montreal area. Narrator: One by one, the Americans abandoned their outposts. Reinforcements added to their numbers, but 3/4 of the newcomers had no immunity to smallpox. Voice: The road ran alongside of the river opposite the city of Montreal, and we could plainly see the red-coated British soldiers on the other shore. So close were they upon us that if we had not retreated as we did, all would have been prisoners, for they were in numbers as 6-to-our-one, and we, moreover, nearly half-dead with sickness and fatigue and lack of clothing. John Greenwood. Narrator: The young fifer John Greenwood was among those reinforcements when Arnold ordered his men to abandon Montreal. Nearly 2,000 fell ill. Eventually they crowded onto Ile aux Noix, waiting their turn to be ferried south on Lake Champlain to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. ♪ 20 to 60 men fell ill every day, and 15 to 20 died. Two great pits were dug in which the dead were heaped each evening, one man recalled, "with no other covering but the rags in which they died." By the end of June, 10 months after the American invasion of Canada began, it was over. 12,000 Americans had taken part. Some 5,000 of them had been killed, wounded, taken prisoner, died of disease, or deserted. The survivors were now encamped back on the shores of Lake Champlain where the campaign had started. ♪ Voice: Our army at Crown Point is an object of wretchedness to fill a human mind with horror. Our misfortunes in Canada are enough to melt a heart of stone. The smallpox is 10 times more terrible than Britons, Canadians, and Indians together. John Adams. ♪ Narrator: "Our affairs are hastening to a crisis," John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress. warned, "and the approaching campaign "will in all probability determine forever the fate of America." France had by now quietly pledged to provide some arms and money-- but open support would require the Congress to cut all ties to Britain. "Every day," John Adams wrote to a friend, independence "rolls in upon us like a torrent." On May 15th, Congress called upon all 13 colonies to form their own governments. By adopting new constitutions, the colonies would turn themselves into sovereign States. ♪ The next day, delegates learned that the British, desperate and without European allies, had hired thousands of foreign troops to help crush the rebellion. Some German princes had agreed to provide them--for a price. Most came from Hessen-Kassel and Hessen-Hanau, so the Americans would call them all "Hessians." "O Britons," one Rhode Islander lamented, "how art you fallen that you hire foreigners to cut your children's throats." Voice: The British nation have proceeded to the last extremity. And we should expect a severe trial this summer, with Britons, Hessians, Indians, Negroes, and every other butcher the gracious King of Britain can hire against us. Josiah Bartlett, New Hampshire. Friederike Baer: The Americans are using the British Government's decision to hire foreign soldiers in the war against British subjects, if they look at this as a civil war to some extent. They're using this as a tool to rile up resistance against Britain, to mobilize men to, basically, take up arms against these invaders, and ultimately to support independence. [Gavel banging] Narrator: On June 7th, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced resolutions in Congress declaring that "these United Colonies are & of right "ought to be free & independent States absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown." ♪ Meanwhile, a letter to a Pennsylvania newspaper signed only "Republicus" declared that it was time for independent Americans "to call themselves by some name"-- and proposed the "United States of America." ♪ A 5-man committee was named to produce a document setting forth the reasons for making such a momentous decision. 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson of Virginia was assigned to write the first draft. ♪ He would draw from Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by his friend George Mason. But his goal, he said, was to distill what he called "an expression of the American mind." ♪ He worked in a rented room on Market Street, fueled by cups of tea brought to him by his 14-year-old valet, Robert Hemings-- the son of an enslaved servant, Elizabeth Hemings, and Jefferson's father-in-law. Voice: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ♪ We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [Thomas Jefferson] Wood: Everything that we believe in comes out of the Revolution. Our ideas of liberty, equality, it's the defining event of our history. "All men are created equal." That is the most famous and important phrase in our history. If we don't celebrate it, we have no reason to be a people. And Lincoln knew that. And that's why he says, "All honor to Jefferson." ♪ Narrator: Thomas Jefferson was proposing something altogether new and radical in the world. It was the American people's "right," he argued, it was "their duty"-- to "throw off" tyranny and learn to govern themselves. Voice: That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. [Thomas Jefferson] Narrator: Since no one had authority over anyone else by birthright, Jefferson was affirming that all legitimate power came from the people themselves-- even if he, the owner of hundreds of human beings, could never make that truth a reality in his own life. Gordon-Reed: His relationship to slavery is foundational. From the beginning to the end, this institution bounded his life, even though he knew it was wrong. How could you know something is wrong and still do it? Well, that is the human question for all of us. ♪ Taylor: The Declaration of Independence, we remember it, primarily, from its opening preamble, the most famous sentences in our history, quoted ever since as a mandate for expanding liberty for other people. But most of the document is something else. It is a list of crimes allegedly committed by the King. That means that when the Patriot leaders decide that they want independence, then they must persuade their people in the colonies, now states, that the King has forfeited his just authority. The purpose of the Declaration of Independence is to declare the King is no longer sovereign. Narrator: Throughout history, most people had been subjects, living under authoritarian rule. "All experience hath shewn," Jefferson wrote, "that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable." George III himself, not the Parliament, was now the enemy. The Declaration denounced him as "unfit to be the ruler of a free people," guilty of 18 "injuries and usurpations," all meant to establish, it read, "absolute tyranny." It charged that he had invaded "the rights of the people," sent "swarms of officers to harass" them, imposed a standing army in peacetime, levied taxes without the colonists' consent, and was now waging war against them. ♪ Dunmore's Proclamation had deepened fears of slave uprisings, and reports that the governor of Canada had enlisted Native people to resist the invasion there further inflamed Congress. In the 18th and final charge against the King, Jefferson did all he could to exploit their fury. Voice: He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. [Thomas Jefferson] Narrator: Proclaiming the equality of "all men" was a genuinely revolutionary idea, but that equality was not yet extended to Native Americans, enslaved or free Blacks, the poor, or any woman. Jefferson's original list of "injuries" had also included the charge that George III was somehow responsible for the Atlantic slave trade. He called it "cruel war against human nature itself." The other delegates refused to adopt that charge. ♪ The Declaration of Independence was formally ratified on July 4th, 1776-- just 1,337 words that ended with the phrase, "We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." ♪ When Rhode Island delegate Stephen Hopkins, who had palsy, signed the document, he is said to have remarked, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not." [Crowd cheering] It was first read aloud to a cheering crowd in the State House yard at Philadelphia on July 8th. It was soon published in 29 newspapers, and greeted by parades and celebratory volleys of gunfire throughout the newly United States. [Gunfire] Voice: Boston, Massachusetts-- when Colonel Crafts read the proclamation, great attention was given to every word, and every face appeared joyful. The King's arms were taken down from the State House and every vestige of him from every place in which it appeared and burned in King Street. Thus ends royal authority in this state, and all the people shall say, "Amen." Abigail Adams. [Crowd cheering] Narrator: On July 9th, in New York, General Washington ordered the Declaration read to his troops. Hearing the list of George III's alleged crimes so angered the men that a number of them raced down Broadway to Bowling Green, tied ropes to the statue of the King, and pulled it to the ground. ♪ Pieces of the shattered statue were dispatched by wagon to Litchfield, Connecticut, where Patriots melted the gilded lead into bullets-- 42,088 of them. ♪ Far to the north at Fort Ticonderoga, the battered survivors of the failed invasion of Canada were assembled so that the Declaration could be read to them. When it was over, an eyewitness said, "The language of every man's countenance was, "Now we are a people; we have a name among the states of the world." ♪ Among those who heard the Declaration read at Ticonderoga was private Lemuel Haynes, a free African-American from Granville, Massachusetts. He understood right away what it might mean for people like him--and wrote an essay entitled: "Liberty Further Extended." ♪ Voice: Liberty is a jewel which was handed down to man from the cabinet of heaven. It hath pleased God to make "of one blood all nations of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth." And as all are of one species, therefore, we may reasonably conclude that liberty is equally as precious to a Black man as it is to a White one, and bondage equally as intolerable to the one as it is to the other. [Lemuel Haynes] Maggie Blackhawk: The Declaration of Independence was deeply significant to people at the margins. It gave them a space of moral argument. It gave them a space of legal argument that could be leveraged to reshape United States democracy and become a part of it. And we are going to push every lever we had to be able to make this democracy real, and to make these visions, these values, real rather than hypocritical. ♪ Voice: London, "The Gentleman's Magazine." The American Declaration reflects no honor upon either the erudition or honesty of its authors. "We hold," they say, "these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal"? Every plowman knows that they are not created equal. It certainly is no reason why the Americans should turn rebels. Atkinson: King George was determined that the Americans not be permitted to break away. He believes, and his senior ministers believe, that this slippery slope of an American insurrection will only lead to the dissolution of the British Empire. The sun never sets on the British Empire. That phrase was coined in 1773. And George is determined it's never going to set as long as he is the monarch. ♪ Narrator: And the King had sent a great fleet to New York--with thousands of troops-- to prevent that from ever happening. ♪ ♪ ♪ Announcer: Next time on "The American Revolution"... Battleground: New York. Rick Atkinson: Washington makes a number of tactical mistakes, none more serious than at Long Island. Announcer: Women continue to be at the heart of the resistance. Voice: If our men are all drawn off and we should be attacked, you would find a race of Amazons in America. [Abigail Adams] Announcer: And the reality of war. Maya Jasanoff: The United States came out of violence. Announcer: When "The American Revolution" continues next time. ♪ Announcer: Scan this QR code with your smart device to dive deeper into the story of "The American Revolution" with interactives, games, classroom materials, and more. ♪ Announcer: "The American Revolution" DVD and Blu-ray, as well as the companion book and soundtrack, are available online and in stores. The series is also available with PBS Passport and on am*zon Prime Video. ♪ Announcer: The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world. The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. Announcer: Major funding for "The American Revolution" was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, The Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Brierley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members. "The American Revolution" was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You. Thank You. URL https://www.pbs.org/video/the-american-revolution-episode-2-an-asylum-for-mankind/

The American Revolution A Film By Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt In Order to Be Free (May 1754 – May 1775) VIDEO - ends ability to view 12/15/2025 TRANSCRIPT Announcer: Major funding for "The American Revolution" was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, The Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Brierley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members. "The American Revolution" was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You. Thank You. Announcer: The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world. The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. ♪ Voice: From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Without consuming, it winds its progress from nation to nation, and conquers by a silent operation. Man finds himself changed and discovers that the strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that, in order to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it. Thomas Paine. [Explosion] [Drum beating slow rhythm] Voice: We know our lands are now become more valuable. The White people think we do not know their value, but we are sensible that the land is everlasting. Canasatego, Spokesman for the Six Nations. [Woman singing in Native American language] Narrator: Long before 13 British colonies made themselves into the United States, the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy-- Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida, and Mohawk-- had created a union of their own that they called the Haudenosaunee-- a democracy that had flourished for centuries. Voice: We heartily recommend union. We are a powerful confederacy. And by your observing the same methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out one with another. [Canasatego] ♪ Narrator: In the spring of 1754, the celebrated scientist and writer Benjamin Franklin proposed that the British colonies form a similar union. He printed a cartoon of a snake cut into pieces above the dire warning "Join, or Die." A few weeks later at Albany, New York, Franklin and other delegates from 7 colonies agreed to his Plan of Union-- and then went home to try and sell it. But when the plan was presented at the colonial capitals, each of the individual legislatures rejected it because they did not want to give up their autonomy. [Cannonfire] The plan died, but the idea would survive. 20 years later, "Join, or Die" would be a rallying cry in the most consequential revolution in history. ♪ Voice: We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of nations. Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measures in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. John Adams. [Explosion] Narrator: The American Revolution was not just a clash between Englishmen over Indian land, taxes, and representation, but a bloody struggle that would engage more than 2 dozen nations, European as well as Native American, that also somehow came to be about the noblest aspirations of humankind. It was fought in hundreds of places, from the forests of Quebec to the backcountry of Georgia and the Carolinas; from the rough seas off England, France and in the Caribbean, to the towns and orchards of Indian Country. [Gunshots] The fighting would take place on roads and in villages and cities; by woods and fields, and along waterways with old American names: the Susquehanna, the Tennessee, and the Ohio; the Oriskany, the Catawba, and the Chesapeake; and along waters with newer names: the Charles, the Hudson, and the Schuylkill; the Brandywine, the Cooper, and the Ashley; and finally the York. The war grew out of a multitude of grievances lodged against the British Parliament by British subjects living an ocean away in 13 otherwise disunited colonies. It was also a savage civil war that pitted brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, American against American, killing tens of thousands of them. [Gunfire] Voice: However great the blessings to be derived from a revolution in government, the scenes of anarchy, cruelty, and blood, which usually precede it, and the difficulty of uniting a majority in favor of any system, are sufficient to make every person who has been an eyewitness recoil at the prospect of overturning empires. Abigail Adams. Narrator: The American Revolution was the first war ever fought proclaiming the unalienable rights of all people. It would change the course of human events. ♪ Man: It's our creation myth, our creation story. It tells us who we are, where we came from, uh, what our forebears believed, and, and, and what they were willing to die for. That's the most profound question any people can ask themselves. Woman: What the American Revolution gave the United States was an actual idea of a moment of origin, which many other countries in the world don't have. And it has invested these particular years of these particular people with a set of stakes that are so far beyond what any set of events and any set of people can plausibly carry that it has made the way that Americans think about this period very unreal and detached. Man: One of the most remarkable aspects of the Revolutionary War is that you had such different places come together as one nation. I'm not sure there is a state, anywhere in the world, in the late 18th century, that has as wide variety of people who inhabit it, um, and so, it really is actually kind of remarkable, the way that that nation ends up cohering, not around culture, not around religion, not around ancient history. It was coming together around a set of purposes and ideals for one common cause. [Soldier shouting orders] Voice: Events like these have seldom, if ever before, taken place on the stage of human action. For who has before seen a disciplined army formed from such raw materials? Who that was not a witness could imagine that men who came from the different parts of the continent, strongly disposed to despise and quarrel with each other, would become but one patriotic band of brothers? George Washington. ♪ [Gunfire] Voice: We have great reason to believe you intend to drive us away. Why do you come to fight in the land that God has given us? Why don't you fight in the old country and on the sea? Why do you come to fight on our land? Shingas, Lenape Nation. ♪ Narrator: For several generations, violent conquest and Old-World diseases had decimated Native populations between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains, where, by the middle of the 18th century, 13 distinct British colonies were established south of French Canada and north of Spanish Florida. Now, as land speculators and settlers eyed the Ohio River Valley beyond the Appalachians, the paramount question became who would control the North American interior. Both Protestant Britain and Catholic France-- ancient enemies that had already fought 3 wars in North America-- claimed the region. So did a host of Indian nations who had lived and farmed and hunted there for hundreds of generations. In 1754, to solidify Britain's claim, the Royal Colony of Virginia dispatched militia to protect their interests in the Ohio Country. The small force of militiamen and a handful of Native allies surrounded a group of unsuspecting French soldiers... Man: Fire! [Gunfire] and fired into them. Nearly half of the Frenchmen were killed or wounded. The rest surrendered. According to one of the Indians with the Virginians, the militia's 22-year-old commander had been the first to shoot into the enemy's encampment. If so, George Washington fired the very first shot of a global conflict that would come to be called the Seven Years' War and set the stage for the American Revolution. Soon after his surprise attack, a French and Indian force surrounded Washington and his men, forcing him, for the first and only time in his life, to surrender. A less prominent young man's military career might have ended there, but Washington was given a second chance the following year as aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, the British commander sent to dislodge the French at Fort Duquesne. Braddock was confident his red-coated British regulars could easily defeat anyone who stood between him and the fort. [Gunfire] But on July 9, 1755, a much smaller French and Indian force overwhelmed them. The British panicked. Braddock was mortally wounded. The Command fell to Washington. Two horses were shot from under him. Musket balls ripped through his hat and jacket. He ordered a retreat and managed to get most of his men safely off the battlefield. Washington learned two valuable lessons: British troops were not invincible, and there was no shame in retreating if you could live to fight another day. He was hailed as a hero and given overall command of Virginia's militia. But after his appeal for a Royal commission in the British Army was rejected, he retired from military service in 1758 and returned to his plantation at Mount Vernon, filled with resentment at how the British had treated him. Man: And he comes to view the people in London as people who have a condescending view of Americans. They think of him as inferior. They didn't give him a commission. I mean, when Washington is told that he didn't get a commission, he doesn't think that means he's inferior. He thinks that means the British are really stupid. Voice: There can be no sufficient reason given why we, who spend our blood and treasure in defense of the King's Dominions, are not entitled to equal preferment. We can't conceive that being Americans should deprive us of the benefits of British subjects. [Washington] [Cannonfire] Man: The Seven Years' War, against Britain's imperial rivals, France and Spain, is fought not only in North America. It's fought in the Caribbean, it's fought in Africa, it's fought in India, it's fought in the Philippines. So, even though it starts in the Ohio backcountry, with a dispute between colonists and the French and their Indian allies, it mushrooms into a global campaign that touches Europe and all parts of the world. The American colonies are just one piece on a broad, global Imperial chessboard as far as British policymakers are concerned. Narrator: Remembered in North America as the French and Indian War, the fighting went on for years until a series of British victories, won by regulars and colonial troops, ended the French Empire's presence on the continent, gave Britain Spanish Florida, and more than tripled the lands claimed by England's King. Man: France transfers to Britain all of its territory in North America. But it's a little bit like the Greek myths, you know, never wish for something too much 'cause you might get what you wished for. The British, in North America, have been hoping and praying for the defeat of the French for 80 years. And now they're victorious. Church bells are ringing. This is the moment we've all hoped for. And then it all begins to go to hell in a hand basket. ♪ Woman: Britishness in America is just everywhere. In Boston, the Town House sits at the center of Queen and King Streets. The London Bookshop was around the corner. The Crown Coffee House. The sort of ideal of, uh, fashion, of political currency, of the basis of one's rights and that sense of home. They talk about Britain even when they have never been there as home. Narrator: On Saturday, December 27, 1760, a British frigate anchored in Boston harbor. It brought with it big news. King George II had died in October. His 22-year-old grandson now reigned as George III. Crowds cheered. Bostonians were proud to be part of what had become the most far-flung empire on Earth. Man: In the 18th century, the belief was, who in the world has got it right? Only one people on Earth-- the British. They have a mixed constitution, constitutional monarch, House of Lords, an elected House of Commons. You got an element of democracy, element of aristocracy, element of monarchy. The 3 of them will check and balance each other and produce the perfect combination. Vincent Brown: We tend to think of the British Empire in America as the 13 North American colonies that became the United States. But Great Britain actually had 26 colonies in America. And, by far, the most important of those, the most profitable, the most militarily significant, and the best politically connected of those colonies were those colonies in the Caribbean. The territories that tended to have the most slaves, and exploit enslaved labor most intensively, tended to be the most profitable colonies. So, if you look at North America, for example, Massachusetts is the least profitable colony in North America and it's got the smallest percentage of slaves in its territory. The most profitable colony in North America is South Carolina. Then, when you get to a place like Jamaica or Barbados, where 90% of the population is enslaved, then you're really talking. That's where the money is being made and that's also why that's where the Royal Navy warships are concentrated. Narrator: But the 13 contiguous colonies that clung to the Atlantic seaboard were the most populous. The colonists' numbers had doubled every 25 years. By 1763, the population-- Black and White-- had reached almost 2 million. Christopher Brown: And those settlers produce for the Empire, but they also consume. They provide markets. They purchase goods that are manufactured in Britain. It's the fastest-growing part of the British economy, is the trades with North America. Man: The British Empire expanded enormously as a result of the Seven Years' War. There's real anxiety that unless this empire is tied together more tightly, by central control and direction, it will start to fragment, in much the same way as the Roman Empire was assumed to have collapsed. Narrator: For more than 150 years, London had treated its North American colonies with what one British politician would call "salutary neglect." Each colony was part of the King's dominions, but in most of them, legislatures, elected by propertied White men, made laws, levied taxes, and decided how they'd be spent. Slavery was legal everywhere, from New Hampshire to Georgia. Many of the Black people living in the colonies had been born there or in the Caribbean. But tens of thousands were from West Africa-- captured from what is now Senegal, Gambia, and Gabon; Angola, Congo, and the Ivory Coast; Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ghana. Christopher Brown: I think it's easy to underestimate the sheer diversity and variety, um, in the colonies. Close to the majority of the population in the southern colonies are African. There are French Huguenots; there are Germans. There's Scots. There's Scots-Irish. There are Native people, not just on the frontiers, but actually living in the heart of the 13 colonies. Man: Most of the population of North America is Indigenous. 70%, 80% of the continent is still controlled by Indigenous people, politically, economically, and militarily. It's not a separate place, it's not this timeless space where Native people are sort of existing in harmony with nature and that they have no interest in the outside world. Native people want the good stuff that Europeans are bringing. Europeans want the wealth that they can get from Native people. Native powers are as important to the global market economy as a place like Virginia or a place like New York. Voice: If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up as it is of people from different nations, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable. Thomas Paine. Narrator: In Britain, 2% of the population-- lords and lesser gentry-- owned 2/3 of all the land, and most people had for centuries lived "dependent" lives, either as tenant farmers, working land belonging to aristocrats, or as landless laborers working for an employer. For most free White men in the colonies, North America was a land of opportunity. Taylor: The people who are coming from Northern Britain, as well as a lot of Scots-Irish, often are bringing the resentments that they'd been pushed off their lands by landlords. And so, there's a great sensitivity about any kind of financial exaction that could be a slippery slope leading to the kinds of dependence that they had escaped from. Narrator: The colonies were overwhelmingly agricultural. Just 3 seaport towns-- Philadelphia, Boston, and New York-- were home to more than 10,000 people. And 2 out of 3 farmers were independent, proud owners of their land. Others were indentured servants, hoping that once they fulfilled their contract, that they, too, could prosper on their own. Woman: For Americans, land and liberty are completely intertwined. White Americans see their liberty as being founded on not being a peasant on somebody's else's land. Preserving, promoting that liberty for White Americans, to them, means taking Native land. There is no other answer. Calloway: American colonists had been looking forward to the glorious day when the French and their Indian allies would be defeated, and British subjects would sweep over the Appalachian Mountains, looking for land. Woman: Maps at the time show the colonies extending well into the interior. We often see maps as benign, as descriptive, as without argument. But they're aspirational, in many ways. They're an argument rather than a conclusion. DuVal: Hundreds of Native nations still are completely intact, completely independent. In the north, is the powerful Haudenosaunee League, the Six Nations, including the Mohawks and the Senecas. To their south are the Shawnees, who have retaken the Ohio Valley in recent years and formed a huge confederacy that stretches from the Delawares, or the Lenapes, in the east to the powerful nations, including the Anishinaabe of the Great Lakes. South of there are the Chickasaws, the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Creek Confederacy, or the Muscogees, and hundreds of other smaller nations. These are nations that fight against each other, but also that increasingly, by the late 18th century, are making some larger confederacies, in part to try to fight against settlers who have been moving onto their land in recent years. [Thunder] Narrator: Beginning in the spring of 1763, in what was called Pontiac's War, warriors from at least a dozen Native nations overran many of the British forts along the Great Lakes and in the Ohio Valley and raided settlements, killing or capturing 2,000 colonists and driving out some 4,000 more. Many colonists responded by killing any Indian they encountered. Calloway: The Brits look at this situation and say, "OK, we've just inherited all of this empire. "How on earth are we gonna stop this kind of thing happening again and again, and again?" Narrator: The British concluded that Native Americans and colonists needed to be separated, at least for a time, and so, in 1763, a Royal Proclamation declared all the territory beyond the Appalachians off-limits to settlement or speculation. Man: That prohibits White settlers from moving into these interior worlds, the same interior worlds that many colonists felt like they had just fought for. And many settlers become outraged that, uh, the British Crown has any form of imperial, um, recognition of these Indigenous populations. A kind of racial animus has formed in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, in which many British settlers come to resent all Indians. Christopher Brown: It's not because the British Government is especially concerned about Native Americans. It's because they don't want Americans spreading out, where they'll be even more difficult to control. Part of British policy is British settlers will stay near the coast. And part of the colonists' answer is, "No. Sorry, we're not doing that." Narrator: London hoped the Proclamation would pacify the frontier. Instead, it infuriated those would-be settlers poised to move west and frustrated land speculators who saw fortunes to be made there. Calloway: And that is a huge slap in the face and a blow to those elite colonial Americans who've been indulging in this investment. Who are these people? Household names: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Washington. Narrator: After abandoning his dream of serving as an officer in the British Army, George Washington had married an enormously wealthy widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, and had made himself still wealthier speculating in western lands. He saw no reason to stop. The law was only a temporary measure to "quiet the minds of the Indians," he said, and he directed his land agent to defy the Proclamation and "secure [for him] some of the most valuable Lands" beyond the Appalachians. Man: I think the American Revolution was all about land. It's easy to make the political kinds of arguments, but I think underpinning all of that was the possibility of expansion, um, was the conflict with Indian people. Narrator: Now to enforce the hated law and to police the frontier, the British government resolved to station an army of 10,000 men in North America. The cost would be enormous-- some 360,000 British pounds a year. London did not have the money. Years of war on 4 continents had doubled the national debt. Britain was in the midst of a postwar depression, and British consumers were already burdened with higher taxes than were the subjects of any other European monarch. The average British subject paid 26 shillings a year in taxes; the average New Englander paid just one. So, some bright spark has the idea, "Well, let's tax the American colonists." Right? They should pay their share because, after all, we fought the war for them, and this is to defend them. Narrator: In 1764, the Prime Minister, George Grenville, proposed a series of 3 parliamentary statutes, all meant to make the colonies help pay for their own defense. The Currency Act, which forbade the colonists from issuing their own money, angered the tobacco-growing gentry of Virginia, who were especially hard-hit. The Sugar Act imposed taxes on imports from the Caribbean, and to enforce it, the British Navy dispatched 44 ships to stop smuggling, enraging New Englanders, whose economy had long profited from it. The rest of the colonies were largely unaffected. London assumed Americans were too disunited, too divided by self-interest, to ever be able to present a united front. But now, Grenville introduced a third tax-- the Stamp Act. It would affect nearly every colonist in every colony. No one would be able to obtain a license or a loan, transfer land or draft a will, earn a diploma, purchase a newspaper, or even buy a deck of cards unless it was printed or written on English-made paper that bore a stamp embossed by the Royal Treasury, for which they would have to pay. For the very first time, Parliament planned to tax the 13 colonies directly. The Stamp Act was scheduled to go into effect on November 1, 1765. Taylor: Colonists said, "No taxation without representation." What they meant was, no taxation except by our elected Legislature, here in our particular colony. These taxes were very small, but the fear was, "If we give into this precedent, "if we pay the small Stamp Tax now, what will they do in the future?" [Gavel banging] Narrator: In the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry introduced a series of resolutions asserting that only the General Assembly of that colony had the "right and power to lay taxes" on its people. Henry went on to declare that just as Julius Caesar had his assassin Brutus, George III should understand that some American resister was sure "to stand up in favor of his country." When some delegates shouted "Treason!" others who were present remembered he responded, "If this be treason, make the most of it!" [Gavel banging rapidly] In Boston, 42-year-old Samuel Adams helped rally the opposition against implementation of the Stamp Act. A failure as a brewer and as a collector of local taxes, Adams was a master of propaganda. His mission, he once explained, was to "keep the attention of [my] fellow-citizens awake to their grievances." Voice: If our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands and everything we possess or make use of? If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are paid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves? [Samuel Adams] Woman: In terms of masters of communication, Samuel Adams was really up there. He has an amazing ability to translate a concept into easily digested words. And, therefore, to make, um, what seem--what could seem like fairly abstract ideas very vital and very urgent, and he's tireless. So, he's able to produce page after page after page, new offenses, new crimes, new injustices. Narrator: Pamphleteers took up the cause, declaring the Stamp Act illegitimate. Most of the colonies' 24 weekly newspapers-- the businesses that would be hit hardest--followed suit. Those that didn't faced being shut down by their journeymen and apprentices. Taylor: Newspapers are very important. The colonial public is more literate than any other people in the world outside of Scandinavia. There's also word of mouth, conversation, absolutely essential. Man: It became very common to discuss how you govern people and how people are free. These ideas had filtered into the general population. Narrator: Those ideas now led to protests in the streets. In Boston, in August of 1765, a crowd formed-- made up of men and a handful of women, free Blacks and runaway slaves, poorly paid or unemployed workers who resented the rich, and apprentices in their off-hours, just looking for trouble. They hanged in effigy the local man designated to become distributor of stamps and went on to invade the home of the lieutenant governor, destroying everything in sight and carrying off all of his furniture and 900 British pounds in cash. In Newport, Rhode Island, another mob surrounded the stamp distributor, forced him to resign, and to lead them in chants of "Property and Liberty." In Charleston, South Carolina, White anti-Stamp Act protestors marched through the streets chanting, "Liberty!" But when enslaved South Carolinians echoed their cries, frightened enslavers called out the militia to patrol the street. The Maryland appointee was driven from Annapolis with only the clothes on his back. By the time the Stamp Act was supposed to go into effect, none of the 13 colonies had an official in place willing to enforce it. Schiff: Part of our Revolution I think we have largely sanitized. I think we've forgotten much of the street warfare, of the anarchy, of the provocations that took place. Voice: A black cloud seems to hang over us. It appears to me that there will be an end to all government here, for the people are all running mad. James Parker. Narrator: When a crowd surrounded the British Army headquarters in New York City, General Thomas Gage made sure his men held their fire, for fear, he said, that 50,000 angry colonists would swarm into the city and start a civil war. General Gage was in charge of all British soldiers in North America. He had been sent to maintain peace on the frontier. Instead, he had found himself at loggerheads with colonists convinced they were being denied their rights as Englishmen. Gage understood what was happening. Voice: The spirit of democracy is strong amongst them. The question is not of the inexpediency of the Stamp Act or the inability of the colonies to pay the tax, but that it is contrary to their rights and not subject to the legislative power of Great Britain. [Gage] Conway: Thomas Gage was married to an American. He owned land in the colonies. He was, in many ways, embedded within colonial society. So, he was particularly reluctant, I think, to engage in conflict. Taylor: In the colonial world and the European world, democracy had a bad name. It was a synonym for "anarchy." It had a reputation as being turbulent, as a system exploited by ruthless politicians called "demagogues"-- people who pandered to the passions of common people in order to whip them up and get them to do passionate things, and to get government to serve them and to prey upon the property of more wealthy people. So, democracy is not the aspiration that creates the Revolution. The Revolution creates the conditions for people to aspire to have a democracy. Narrator: Meanwhile, hundreds of merchants in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia pledged to boycott British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. To keep up the opposition, some lawyers, merchants, and skilled craftsmen established an association, the Sons of Liberty, and soon had chapters from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Charleston, South Carolina working together. Voice: The colonies until now were ever at variance and foolishly jealous of each other; they are now united for their common defense against what they believe to be oppression; nor will they soon forget the weight which this close union gives them. Dr. Joseph Warren. Narrator: The colonies now accounted for 1/3 of Britain's trade. With the boycott, some manufacturers were forced to close their doors. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. The town councils of 27 English trading and manufacturing towns pleaded for repeal. By mid-February 1766, the British cabinet was looking for a way out of the impasse. It asked Benjamin Franklin, then living in London as a lobbyist for Pennsylvania, to appear before the House of Commons, hoping that hearing from the best-known American on Earth would help. Franklin patiently answered 174 questions. What had been the colonists' attitude toward Great Britain before the Stamp Act was enacted? Voice: The best in the world. They had not only a respect but an affection for Great Britain; for its laws, its customs, its manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, which greatly increased the commerce. [Franklin] Narrator: "Would the colonies now accept a compromise?" he was asked. "No," he answered. "It was a matter of principle." "Might a military force compel the colonists to pay the tax?" "No," Franklin said. Voice: Suppose a military force is sent into America. They will find nobody in arms. What are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion. They may indeed make one. [Franklin] ["Rule Britannia" playing] Narrator: 8 days after Franklin's testimony, the House of Commons voted to repeal the Stamp Act. British workers would return to their factories. Merchant vessels set sail again for the colonies. When the news reached America in April, the Sons of Liberty disbanded; their rights as Englishmen seemed to have been restored. New York commissioned a statue of King George, wearing a Roman toga, to be placed on the Bowling Green at the tip of Manhattan. But beginning in the summer of 1767, the British government, still struggling with war debt, would win passage of 5 new laws--the Townshend Acts. One of them especially angered colonists. It imposed new taxes on 4 items manufactured in England-- glass, lead, paper, and painter's colors-- and on a fifth item, tea, grown in China but re-exported from Britain and loved by the colonists, rich and poor alike. Newspaper editors and pamphleteers denounced the new taxes. A revived and more militant Sons of Liberty called for a new boycott of British goods. Women, who normally played a subordinate role in public life and had almost no legal rights, joined the resistance by the thousands as "Daughters of Liberty." Woman: Crisis changes people. And it gave women different ideas about what they should be doing. DuVal: Women were the main consumers in colonial society and they were the ones who made sure the boycotts worked. Women stopped drinking tea. Women started making their own fabric. Women started making toys for their children. And they didn't just stop buying British things and start making their own things; they publicized it. Taylor: One of the key forms of political theater during the Resistance Movement would be for a local minister to invite the women of the community to come down to the church and to spend the day spinning and weaving cloth. And it would be a competition to see which community could produce the most homespun. It would be published in the newspaper. And these women would be praised as great American Patriots for having produced so much homespun cloth. DuVal: And reporters would report, "The ladies of Boston, "The ladies of New York "are the most patriotic. They are at the forefront of this protest movement." If women hadn't done that, the protest movement and eventually the Revolution would have gone nowhere. Voice: Let the Daughters of Liberty nobly arise, And though we've no voice but a negative here, Stand firmly resolved and bid them to see, That rather than freedom, we'll part with our tea. Hannah Griffitts. Voice: I wish to see America boast of Empire-- of Empire not established in the thralldom of nations but on a more equitable base. Though such a happy state, such an equal government, may be considered by some as a Utopian dream; yet, you and I can easily conceive of nations and states under more liberal plans. Mercy Otis Warren. Narrator: The political philosopher and historian Mercy Otis Warren would publish plays and poems that satirized Royal officials with names like Judge Meagre and Sir Spendall. No woman played a more important role in promoting resistance. Tensions with England continued to grow. In Boston, in June of 1768, a ship called the "Liberty" was seized by the Royal Navy. Its owner, John Hancock, was the richest merchant in the city, a prominent member of the Sons of Liberty-- and a practiced smuggler. A big, angry crowd formed at the wharf. Voice: The mobs here are very different from those in Old England. These Sons of Violence are attacking houses, breaking windows, beating, stoning, and bruising several gentlemen belonging to the Customs. Ann Hulton. Voice: The town has been under a kind of democratical despotism for a considerable time. And it has not been safe for people to act or speak contrary to the sentiments of the ruling demagogues. Thomas Gage. Narrator: On orders from London, General Gage sent two regiments of regulars from Nova Scotia, not to defend Boston, but to police it. Most Bostonians were appalled. Woman: An army during wartime makes sense. Of course, you need that. But an army during peacetime is a standing army. And if you have an army during peacetime, the thinking is that its only use is to turn on poor, innocent subjects. Voice: To have a standing army! Good God! What can be worse to a people who have tasted the sweets of liberty? Things are come to an unhappy crisis. All confidence is at an end. And the moment there is any bloodshed, all affection will cease. Reverend Andrew Eliot. Voice: The spirit of emigration to America, which seems to be epidemic through Great Britain, is likely to depopulate the Mother Country, and leave our ancient kingdom the resort of owls and dragons, and other solitary animals, who shun the light, and seem displeased at the human race. "The Edinburgh Amusement." [Bell tolling] Narrator: The steadily rising tensions between England and its North American colonies did not slow the steady stream of English, Scots-Irish, German, and a small number of Jewish immigrants eager to carve out new lives within the North American interior. Christopher Brown: Part of what really sets the North American experience apart is just how many European settlers are coming to North America. [Horse nickers] And they keep coming. 15,000 a year. A kind of empire was already in view. Narrator: Thousands of new arrivals and American-born colonists poured down the Great Wagon Road that ran all the way from Philadelphia to the Carolinas. The backcountry there was already the home of Native peoples, including the Catawbas and Cherokees. Voice: Upon the whole, it is the best country in the world for a poor man to go to and do well. And the farther they go back in the country, the land turns richer and better. Here, a man of small substance, if upon a precarious footing at home, can, at once, secure to himself a handsome, independent living, and do well for himself and posterity. All modes of Christian worship are here tolerated. "Scotus Americanus." Taylor: Colonial America is a very Protestant place. And it's founded when the norm in Europe was that whoever your sovereign was got to set what the religion should be. Narrator: Congregationalism was the established church in nearly all New England colonies. The official religion in much of the South was the Church of England. But those who belonged to other faiths resented being forced by colonial legislatures to pay the salaries of clergymen who did not minister to them. None were more resentful than the backcountry settlers in the Carolinas-- Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists. Taylor: And what they hear from their ministers about whether resisting their sovereign or supporting their sovereign is the right thing to do as a Christian duty, that will matter a lot. [Drum beating rhythmically] Voice: I was born in Boston in America in the year 1760. In the time I was at school, the troubles began to come on. And I was told the day of judgment was near at hand, and the moon would turn into blood, and the world would be set on fire. John Greenwood. Narrator: Shortly before noon on Saturday, October 1, 1768, 8-year-old John Greenwood left his home in Boston's North End and hurried toward the waterfront. There, riding at anchor in a great arc, he saw 14 British warships, their cannon trained upon the city. Boats swarmed between the ships and the end of Long Wharf, ferrying hundreds of British red-coated regulars. General Gage's occupying army had arrived. The crowds that lined the street were for the most part silent and sullen. But it was not the history being made that impressed young John Greenwood that day. It was the irresistible music played by Afro-Caribbean men and boys in colorful uniforms. Voice: I was so fond of hearing the fife and drum played by the British that somehow or another, I got an old split fife, and fixed it by puttying up the crack to make it sound, and then learned to play several tunes. I believe it was the sole cause of all my travails and disasters. [Greenwood] [Fife playing upbeat tune] Narrator: Before long, the boy was playing well enough to become a fifer for a local militia. "The flag of our company," he remembered, "was an English flag." They would not be English forever. Half the newly arrived troops were housed in barracks on Castle Island, but orders from London had been clear. It was "His Majesty's pleasure," they said, that the rest of the troops "be quartered in that town." [Man shouting orders] For 17 months, Boston was an occupied city. The rattle of drums awakened residents every morning. Passersby were routinely stopped and searched. Many soldiers had brought their wives and children; others courted Boston girls, or were pursued by them. 40 troops were married during the occupation, and more than 100 of their offspring were baptized. But some soldiers got drunk, robbed people, insulted women, profaned the Sabbath. There were brawls, stabbings, suits and countersuits. From London, Benjamin Franklin was concerned. Voice: Some indiscretion on the part of Boston's warmer people, or of the soldiery, may occasion a tumult. And if blood is once drawn, there is no foreseeing how far the mischief may spread. [Franklin] Narrator: On the evening of March 5, 1770, there were tussles between Bostonians and British soldiers all across the city. At the Royal Customs House, a crowd of young men surrounded a lone sentry and pelted him with snowballs and chunks of ice. Convinced a city-wide uprising was underway, Captain Thomas Preston raced several armed grenadiers to the scene. More snowballs and rocks and oyster shells greeted them. They fixed bayonets. [Bells tolling] Zabin: Somebody starts ringing the church bells, which in Boston is a sign for fire. Some people are bringing buckets to be part of a bucket brigade. Some people are drawn by the noise. It's very hard, in fact impossible, to know what happened, which is that somebody yells, "Fire." [Gunfire] All we know really is that when the smoke cleared, there are 5 people dead or dying. Narrator: The first was a tall dock-worker-- part Native-American, part African-American-- named Crispus Attucks. The second was a ropemaker named Samuel Gray, who was standing next to Attucks. The third was James Caldwell, a sailor who was in town, it was said, to call upon the girl he hoped to marry. The terrified crowd began to scatter. John Greenwood's older brother Isaac was there, too, and escaped unharmed, but a ricocheting ball hit their friend Samuel Maverick in the back. He died in agony the following morning. Maverick, an apprentice, had shared a bed in the Greenwood home with the now 9-year-old John, who recalled that after his friend's death, he deliberately slept in pitch-black darkness, hoping "to see his spirit." Zabin: People start arguing, already, even before they go to bed, about what happened. Paul Revere creates probably the most famous engraving of the 18th century, which he titles the "Bloody Massacre." The British Army is very anxious to try to spin this as a story of self-defense... but the language of massacre is the one that holds. Narrator: A fifth man, a leathermaker named Patrick Carr, would die several days later. 10,000 mourners accompanied the coffins of the dead to the Old Granary Cemetery. Voice: The Fatal Fifth of March can never be forgotten. The horrors of that dreadful night are but too deeply impressed on our hearts-- when our streets were stained with the blood of our brethren; and our eyes were tormented with the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead. Joseph Warren. Narrator: Not everyone was grieving. An Anglican clergyman, Mather Byles, asked a fellow cleric, "Which is better, "to be ruled by one tyrant 3,000 miles away or by 3,000 tyrants not a mile away." [Gavel banging rapidly] Captain Preston was found not guilty of ordering his men to fire. The other 8 soldiers were put on trial separately. Samuel Adams' younger cousin, John Adams, risking his reputation, served as the soldiers' attorney. Most of his clients were acquitted as well. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. They were branded on their right thumbs so that if they were ever charged with another crime, they could not make a claim of innocence again. The British government was relieved by the outcome of the trials. Most of the regulars were withdrawn to Castle William-- their harbor fortress. Once again, American colonists had forced the British to back down and Parliament had already repealed all but one of the Townshend Acts. Only the duty on tea remained. ♪ Voice: Yorktown stood unrivaled in Virginia; its commanding view, its vast expanse of water, its excellent harbor. It was the seat of wealth and elegance, one of the most delightful situations in America, at least, my infantine imagination painted it so. Betsy Ambler. Narrator: Betsy Ambler was 6 years old in 1771-- the oldest child in a prominent Yorktown, Virginia family. A young Thomas Jefferson had once hoped to marry her mother, Rebecca, but she had married Jacquelin Ambler instead. He insisted that all his daughters get a proper education. He was a planter and merchant in Yorktown, the bustling deepwater port near Virginia's colonial capital at Williamsburg. On Yorktown docks, enslaved Africans entered America, and the tobacco they harvested went out to the world. Though Betsy's father was the Royal Collector of Customs, he and his family had grown more and more sympathetic to their neighbors' calls for liberty. Voice: Young as I was, the word "liberty" so constantly sounding in my ears seemed to convey an idea of everything that was desirable on Earth. True, that in attaining it, I was to see every comfort abandoned. [Ambler] Voice: Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts: There is now a disposition in all the colonies to let the controversy with the kingdom subside. Hancock and most of the party are quiet and all of them abate of their virulence, except Samuel Adams. [Hutchinson] Narrator: For 2 years, Samuel Adams kept up a steady stream of essays, in which he warned again and again that the lull was only temporary, that Parliament remained bent on imposing tyranny. ♪ Kamensky: Those who have interests in keeping the political story alive and growing, have to really work to keep it front and center, to define the problem as something present in the minds of ordinary people. Why would I care about this as a--as a woman? Why would I care about this as a small farmer? [Sawing] Narrator: In 1772, events beyond Boston gave Adams the ammunition he needed to spread his radical message throughout the colonies. In April, when a sawmill owner in New Hampshire was charged with commandeering pine trees earmarked for the masts of royal warships, a mob drove the British officials who came to arrest him out of town. [Fireball] In June, when the "Gaspée," a British customs schooner, ran aground while chasing smugglers, angry Rhode Islanders set it afire. And that fall, Adams learned that beginning the following year, the British Treasury would use the revenue from tea to pay the salaries of the most important Massachusetts officials, including all the colony's judges. The judges' first loyalty would now be to the Crown, not the colonists. There would be no way to ensure impartial justice. Adams drafted a fiery response. Voice: Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. [Samuel Adams] ♪ Narrator: Printed copies of his writings were sent to town meetings throughout the colony. So-called Committees of Correspondence soon linked advocates of resistance in more than 100 Massachusetts towns and districts. Eventually, their network would spread into other colonies. Schiff: "Committees of Correspondence" is an effort to try to bring all of the colonies onto the same page, to make them feel as if they have a common cause, words which had really not been used before. And it's through those committees that, essentially, the Revolutionary spirit diffuses itself throughout the colonies. Voice: Let not the iron hand of tyranny ravish our laws and seize the badge of freedom. Is it not high time for the people of this country explicitly to declare whether they will be freemen or slaves? Samuel Adams. Voice: I need not point out the absurdity of your exertions for liberty, while you have slaves in your houses. If you are sensible that slavery is, in itself, and in its consequences, a great evil, why will you not pity and relieve the poor, distressed, enslaved Africans? Caesar Sarter. Kamensky: Slavery as a metaphor is in the conversation from the beginning. Everywhere there's slavery, there are people thinking about freedom. Nothing shows the desire for freedom like the struggles of subject peoples. Voice: I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my parent's breast? Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway? Phillis Wheatley. Narrator: Phillis Wheatley, who was stolen from Senegambia in West Africa and taken to Massachusetts as a young girl, was renamed for the slave ship the "Phillis" that brought her and the Wheatley family that bought her. In Boston, the Wheatleys saw to her education, and as a teenager, still enslaved, her "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" won favor on both sides of the Atlantic. It was the first published book by an African-American writer. Voice: How well the cry for liberty, and the reverse disposition for the exercise of oppressive power over others agree, I humbly think it does not require the penetration of a philosopher to determine. [Wheatley] Voice: I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in the province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me-- fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. You know my mind upon this subject. Abigail Adams. Voice: Ye men of sense and virtue-- Ye advocates for American liberty-- Bear a testimony against a vice which degrades human nature and dissolves that universal tie of benevolence which should connect all the children of men together in one great family. The plant of liberty is of so tender a nature that it cannot thrive long in the neighborhood of slavery. Benjamin Rush. Christopher Brown: Part of what happens in the years before the American War is that liberties are kind of broken out of a national context. These are not English liberties. These are transcendent liberties. These are liberties that all individuals have by the nature of being human. [Waves crashing] Man: Heave away! Voice: The Americans have made a discovery, or think they have made one, that we mean to oppress them. We have made a discovery, or think we have made one, that they intend to rise in rebellion. Our severity has increased their ill behavior. We know not how to advance. They know not how to retreat. Some party must give way. Edmund Burke. Narrator: In October of 1773, 7 ships set out from Plymouth, England for North American ports. The cargo hold of each was filled with crates of tea. It all belonged to the Crown- chartered East India Company, which was on the brink of bankruptcy. To save the company, Lord North, the Prime Minister, had won passage of a new Tea Act, designed to undercut smuggling and reduce the cost of tea. Kamensky: It seemed to Parliament like a "Win-Win-Win." Shore up the East India Company, take it more in-house as a governmental organization, and give Americans cheaper, non-smuggled tea at the same time. Narrator: But colonial merchants who had profited handsomely from smuggling portrayed the new law as yet another assault on American rights. John Adams wrote that immediate resistance was necessary because of its "attack upon a fundamental principle of the [British] constitution." No American had consented to the tea tax; therefore, no American need pay it. Government-appointed tea agents were to be persuaded-- or coerced--into refusing to receive any tea. In Charleston, South Carolina, the Sons of Liberty "convinced" an agent not to accept the shipment meant for him. In Philadelphia, the Governor of Pennsylvania talked a ship's captain into sailing back to Britain. In Boston, when 3 of the ships loaded with tea arrived, thousands of Bostonians and supporters from outlying towns gathered at the Old South Meeting House and declared that the tea should remain on board and be sent back to Britain. On December 16, 1773, hundreds looked on from shore as between 50 and 60 men-- rich as well as poor-- all crudely disguised as Native Americans, climbed into boats and headed for the ships. Deloria: They dress like Indians, kinda. It's an expression of what it is to be American. When you claim to be Indian, you're claiming to be here, aboriginal, part of this continent. And you're drawing a really bright line between yourself and the Mother Country. [Crates smashing; people shouting] Narrator: The men banged open 342 crates and poured more than 46 tons of tea into the harbor. [Splashing] No other property was disturbed. And when one of the boarders was seen filling his coat pockets with fistfuls of tea, he received a "severe bruising." Taylor: This is an assault on the property of the East India Company, and it's an assault upon the pride and the power of Parliament. So, it's a very big deal. Protesting taxes is one thing. Destroying private property worth thousands of pounds sterling, that's something else. Narrator: In Manhattan, the King had grown so unpopular in some quarters that royal officials thought it prudent to surround his statue with an iron fence. A law warning of the dire consequences for anyone who dared deface the statue... [Gunshot] did not prevent one New Yorker from firing a musket ball through its cheek... [Gunshot] and another one through its neck. ♪ Voice: The study of the human character opens at once a beautiful and a deformed picture of the soul. We there find a noble principle implanted in the nature of man. But when the checks of conscience are thrown aside, or the moral sense weakened, humanity is obscured. Mercy Otis Warren. Voice: The most shocking cruelty was exercised a few nights ago upon a poor old man named Malcolm. There's no law that knows a punishment for the greatest crimes beyond what this is, of cruel torture. Ann Hulton. Narrator: In Boston, in January of 1774, a small boy on a sled accidentally ran into a minor customs official named John Malcolm, who cursed and threatened to beat him. When George Hewes, who had helped dump the tea into Boston harbor, tried to intervene, Malcolm knocked him unconscious with his cane. [People shouting] Malcolm was hauled from his house. He was stripped nearly naked, hot tar was poured over him, scalding his flesh, and then he was covered with feathers. ♪ Jasanoff: Tarring and feathering is something that has come down to us as an almost kind of comical thing because you see these people with chicken feathers on them, but this is hideous stuff. Boiling pitch is poured onto somebody's skin. The burns are unbelievable. And it's all part, also, of a kind of spectacle of violence that is a really important part of this. And this is why the feathers are put on, in part. It's that you are trying to humiliate and shame the victim. [Shouting continues] Narrator: Hundreds jeered as Malcolm was pulled through the freezing streets for 5 hours. His assailants stopped here and there to whip him. It would be 8 weeks before he was able to leave his bed. ♪ Voice: Boston has been the ringleader of all violence and opposition to the execution of the laws of this country. Boston has not only therefore to answer for its own violence but for having incited other places to tumults. Lord North, Prime Minister. Narrator: Lord North hoped, he said, to make America lie "prostrate at his feet." They "must fear you," he added, "before they will love you." Now that they had destroyed Crown property, it was clear that much of America was not afraid. North would do his best to change that. In the process, he would try to end every vestige of self-rule prized by the people of Massachusetts. First, the Prime Minister convinced the Parliament to repeal that colony's long-standing charter, then dissolved the elected assembly again and limited each town and village to just one town meeting a year. The port of Boston would be closed until all its residents had paid in full for the tea just 60 of them had destroyed. That came to nearly 5 British pounds per taxpayer-- more than a craftsman made in a month. It means no ships going in, no ships going out, no work for sailors, no work for merchants. It means hunger in Boston. Narrator: British officers were also now empowered to commandeer vacant homes and barns to quarter their troops. Americans would denounce the new laws as the "Intolerable Acts." ♪ In England on leave, General Gage was summoned by George III. He told the King what he wanted to hear. The people of Massachusetts pretended to be "lyons," he said. But if England sent in enough troops, they would undoubtedly "prove very meek." General Gage was given a new title-- Governor of Massachusetts in addition to Commander-in-Chief-- and a new mission: to enforce the new Acts, end Boston's resistance, and demonstrate to all the colonies the folly of defying their King and Parliament. Gage and 4 fresh regiments set sail for Boston in mid-April, 1774. [Sheet flapping] Christopher Brown: The British Government sees this as a police action, that if they can punish Boston and shut down Massachusetts, contain the rebellion, that the other colonies would get the message and that order could be restored with some grumbling. I think the British Government is genuinely surprised, um, to see the ways that the other 12 colonies rally to Massachusetts' cause. Taylor: You are not gonna have an American Revolution unless you have Virginia onboard. And the leaders of Massachusetts understood this. It was not going to be easy. There were deep prejudices between the two regions because of the differences in their ethnic mix and in the nature of their cultures. And they hadn't previously had any kind of trust for one another. Narrator: But in Virginia, the House of Burgesses declared a day of "fasting, humiliation and prayer" in solidarity with the people of Massachusetts. And when the royal governor Lord Dunmore declared the very idea an insult to the King and dissolved the assembly, its members reconvened in Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern. The Virginians warned that "an attack made "on one of our sister colonies is an attack made on all British America" and called for a "Continental Congress" to meet in Philadelphia in September to see how the colonies might resist together. All the 13 colonies except Georgia-- where people were afraid to lose British protection in the event of an Indian war-- agreed to take part. The Prime Minister's effort to intimidate the other colonies by punishing Massachusetts had instead begun to unite them. [Bell tolling] Voice: Lebanon, Connecticut. Yesterday, the bells of the town early began to toll a solemn peal, and continued the whole day. The shops in town were all shut and silent. Our brethren in Boston are suffering for their noble exertions in the cause of liberty-- the common cause of all America-- and we are heartily willing to unite our little powers for the just rights and privileges of our country. [Lebanon Town Meeting] ♪ Narrator: Now news of a new offense by the King's ministers-- The Quebec Act-- would bind them still more tightly together. Jasanoff: The British decide that it would make sense to grant a degree of civil liberties to those French-speaking Catholics in Quebec in order to integrate them into British governance and make sure that they have a population that can sort of live with British authority. Narrator: Protestants, who equated the Papacy with despotism, were outraged. The Act also extended Quebec's borders west and south, adding to the fury of land speculators and would-be settlers. DuVal: To British colonists, the Quebec Act was another slap in the face. The British Government is looking more and more, with each of these acts, like the problem, instead of the protector that it's supposed to be. ♪ Narrator: That summer, beginning in Western Massachusetts, in town after town, crowds of angry armed men forced the resignations of the councilors, judges, and magistrates appointed by General Gage. Juries refused to serve. Courts closed down. When Gage learned that rebels in the towns surrounding Boston had quietly begun to remove some of the precious gunpowder every town was allotted for its defense, he sent 250 soldiers to the stone powder-house in Charles Town to confiscate it. Angry colonists saw the raid as yet another provocation. [Horse nickers] The Massachusetts Assembly defiantly reconstituted itself and soon set about creating a clandestine provincial fighting force, tens of thousands strong. Man: March! There had been organized town militias in New England since the earliest days in case of trouble with Indians. Every man between the ages of 16 and 60 was expected to arm himself and take part. [Horse nickers] It was also now suggested that each town assign a quarter of its militiamen to a special company, ready to act, they said, at "a minute's warning." Neighboring colonies followed the Massachusetts example. [Tapping] The Connecticut Assembly urged every town to double its supply of gunpowder, ball, and flints. Rhode Island ordered all militia officers to make their men ready to "march to the assistance of any Sister Colony" whenever they were needed. Voice: The line of conduct seems now chalked out. The New England governments are in a state of rebellion. Blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent. King George III. ♪ Voice: Philadelphia-- The regularity and elegance of this city are very striking. It is situated upon a neck of land about 2 miles wide between the River Delaware and the River Schuylkill. And the uniformity of this city is disagreeable to some. I like it. Front Street is near the river, then 2nd Street, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th. The cross streets are named for forest and fruit trees-- Pear Street, Apple Street, Walnut Street, Chestnut Street, et cetera. John Adams. [Bell tolling] Narrator: In the autumn of 1774, when 12 colonies sent delegates to the Continental Congress, Philadelphia was the logical place to assemble. It was home to some 40,000 people and was the most populous city in British America-- larger than New York, more than twice the size of Boston. The delegates met in the newly constructed Carpenters' Hall, hoping to develop a common means of resistance while still somehow remaining within the Empire. It would not be easy. Adjacent colonies quarreled over borders. Small ones feared domination by large ones. And half the delegates were lawyers, fond of arguing. Voice: This assembly is like no other that ever existed. Every man in it is a "great man"-- an orator, a critic, a statesman--and therefore every man upon every question must show his oratory, his criticism, and his political abilities. [John Adams] [Men arguing] Schiff: You have a group of men who have hailed from essentially different countries, who observe different religions, who conform to different habits, who are really meeting each other for the first time. No one is really sure what to do, at first. Is this meant to be a negotiation? Is this meant to be another boycott effort? Is this meant to be some kind of serious rupture with the Mother Country? Voice: Their plan is to frighten and intimidate. But supposing the worst, you have nothing to fear from anyone but the New England provinces. As for the Southern people, they talk very high, but it's nothing more than words. Their numerous slaves in the bowels of their country and the Indians at their backs will always keep them quiet. Thomas Gage. Narrator: General Gage assured London the Congress was a "motley crew," unlikely to achieve anything. The "motley crew" included some of the colonies' leading political figures-- Samuel and John Adams from Massachusetts; John Jay, a young attorney from New York, convinced some solution short of war with the Mother Country must still be found; and Patrick Henry, who argued that ties with Britain had already been severed. "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders, are no more," Henry said. "I am not a Virginian, but an American." But a fellow delegate from Virginia spoke for many. "Independency" was not the wish of any "thinking man in all North America." Voice: I shall not undertake to say where the line between Great Britain and the colonies should be drawn, but I am clearly of opinion that one ought to be drawn. The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights or submit to every imposition that can be heaped upon us; till custom and use will make us as tame and abject slaves as the Blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway. George Washington. Ellis: Most people in 1774 would say they're British. They wouldn't say they're Americans. The change happens in '75, '76, and the major source of it is a thing that's created called the "Continental Association." The Association is an engine for creating revolution. Narrator: The Continental Association was not a committee, but a phased program that forbade Americans from importing British goods as of December 1, 1774, from consuming British goods as of March 1, 1775, and barred them from exporting American goods to Britain beginning on September 10th-- if London still had not given in to their demands. Among the so-called "British goods" the delegates intended to boycott were enslaved Africans-- whom they agreed not to import after December 1, 1775. The delegates made plans to hold a second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 6 months. "We must change our Habits," John Adams wrote, "our Prejudices, our Palates, "our Taste in Dress, Furniture, Equipage, Architecture, et cetera." To make sure Americans did so, every community was expected to establish its own Committee of Safety in order to "attentively observe the conduct of all persons." By the spring of 1775, some 7,000 men had been elected to serve on such committees throughout the colonies, tasked with spying on their neighbors, opening their mail, poring over merchants' records in search of suspicious transactions. Most of those suspected of failing to observe the boycott or who were overheard criticizing resistance were ostracized, their names and supposed crimes printed in the local newspaper, their neighbors forbidden even to speak with them. [Men shouting] Ellis: Every town, every hamlet, every village has a Committee of Safety and Inspection. And they go house to house. You have to take a "Loyalty Oath." There's millions of conversations. And that's when the change happens. Voice: If we must be enslaved, let it be by a King at least, not by a parcel of upstart, lawless committeemen. If I must be devoured, let me be devoured by the jaws of a lion, and not gnawed to death by rats and vermin. Reverend Samuel Seabury. Narrator: Harassed, shamed, shunned, censored, sometimes attacked, opponents of resistance-- called "Loyalists"-- saw the Committees of Safety as more tyrannical than Parliament could ever be. Nathaniel Philbrick: There was a sense of brutality that went with the Patriot cause that said, "No, you are wrong, and we are right." To be a Loyalist didn't mean that you were evil. It just meant that you felt a great sense of loyalty to the country that had made the prosperity that was the American colonies at this point possible. Taylor: The Loyalists are essentially the conservatives. They're the people who believe in law and order. They don't like mobs. They don't like committees telling them what to do. [Thunder] They don't see King George III as a tyrant. Voice: We are preparing for war. To fight with whom? Not with France and Spain, whom we have been used to think our natural enemies-- but with Great Britain, our parent country. My heart recoils at the thought. Andrew Eliot. [Sea gulls crying] Voice: If a civil war commences between Great Britain and her colonies, either the Mother Country, by one great exertion, may ruin both herself and America, or the Americans, by a lingering contest, will gain an independency. And in this case and whilst a new, a flourishing, and an extensive empire of freemen is established on the other side of the Atlantic, you will be left to the bare possession of your foggy islands. Catharine Macaulay. Narrator: General Gage now warned London: "The whole Continent has embraced the cause of the town of Boston." Voice: If you think 10,000 men sufficient, send 20,000. You will save both blood and treasure in the end. A large force will terrify and engage many to join you. A middling one will encourage resistance and gain no friends. [Gage] Narrator: But General Gage was sent far fewer men than he'd hoped for. And he was ordered to move decisively against the rebels and arrest their leaders. Samuel Adams and John Hancock had fled Boston and found refuge with friends in Lexington, a small town-- just 750 people and 400 cows-- on the road to the larger town of Concord, some 18 miles northwest of Boston. [Drums beating rhythmically] Gage planned to send troops through Lexington to Concord, where he had been told arms and provisions meant for a sizeable rebel army were hidden. Success would depend on the strictest secrecy. [Dog barking] Late on the evening of April 18, 1775, 700 British regulars were awakened, not told where they were going, and silently marched through the dark empty streets of Boston. A fleet of boats was waiting to row them across the Charles River to the Cambridge marshes. For all the care the British had taken to keep their plans secret, Dr. Joseph Warren, one of Boston's leading rebels, got wind of it. You don't move 1,000 men out of Boston in the middle of the night without arousing a response. American rebel leaders send warning. Two men, William Dawes and a silversmith named Paul Revere, are sent in different routes to alert Samuel Adams and others in Lexington that the British, in fact, are coming. Narrator: Before the two men left, Revere saw to it that 2 lanterns appeared in the belfry of the Old North Church just long enough to alert sympathizers on the mainland that the regulars were crossing by water to Cambridge, not marching overland through Roxbury. [Racing hoofbeats] Voice: Time will never erase the horrors of that midnight cry, when we were roused from the benign slumbers of the season with the dire alarm, that 1,000 of the troops of George III were gone forth to murder the peaceful inhabitants of the surrounding villages. Hannah Winthrop. ♪ Narrator: Just after midnight on the morning of April 19, 1775, Revere reached Lexington and the house where Adams and Hancock were hiding. "The Regulars are coming out!" he shouted. The two rebel leaders fled into the night. [Bell tolling] Lexington's militiamen, summoned from their beds, dressed, gathered up whatever weapons they happened to own, and hurried to the town green. Their commander was Captain John Parker, a farmer, who, like many of his 70 men, had fought alongside the British in the French and Indian War. ♪ Then, shortly before dawn, someone spotted 6 companies of redcoats-- about 250 men--approaching at a rapid clip. On horseback in the lead was Major John Pitcairn, a Scottish veteran with nothing but scorn for colonists. Captain Parker knew he could not stop the British, but he wanted to impress them with his men's resolve. Parker told them not to fire first. A British officer shouted, "Throw down your arms, ye villians, ye rebels, and disperse." Atkinson: They begin to disperse. Many of them turn their backs and start to walk away. [Click, gunshot] A shot rings out. No one knows where the shot came from. Man: Fire! [Gunshots] That leads to promiscuous shooting... mostly by the British. [Heavy gunfire] It's not a battle. It's not a skirmish. It's a massacre. Now blood has been shed. Now the man on your left has been shot through the head. Your neighbor on the right has been badly wounded. You can't put that genie back in the bottle. Narrator: 8 militiamen died on the Lexington Green. 9 more were wounded. The rest fled. Atkinson: The fact that the British have fired on their own people, which is how it's viewed by the Americans, causes an outrage that takes it to a new level in terms of resistance, a feeling that, um... "They're killing us, and the only thing "that we can do in response is to kill them as quickly as we can in numbers as profound as we can." [Gunfire] Man: Charge! Narrator: The British resumed their march toward Concord, now just 6 1/2 miles away. [Bell tolling] Meanwhile, other riders fanned out across the countryside to spread word of what had happened. Militiamen from nearby towns rushed toward Concord. "It seemed as if men came down from the clouds," one man said. It was not memories of the Stamp Act or the tax on tea that rallied them. "We always had governed ourselves," one man remembered, "and we always meant to." In Acton, 6 miles to the west of Concord, 40 Minutemen gathered at the home of their commander, Captain Isaac Davis, a 30-year-old gunsmith. Voice: My husband said but little that morning. He seemed serious and thoughtful. As he led the company from the house, he turned himself round and seemed to have something to communicate. He only said, "Take good care of the children," and was soon out of sight. Hannah Davis. [Gunfire] Narrator: The British seized 2 bridges spanning the Concord River and spread throughout the town. [Glass breaks] They entered houses, broke into barns and outbuildings. Most of the arms and provisions they'd hoped to find had either been shifted elsewhere or successfully hidden. But they did smash open 60 barrels of flour and destroyed several wooden gun carriages before setting it all ablaze. Atkinson: The decision is made by the American commanders on the scene that we're not gonna fight in Concord. We will retreat across the Concord River, across the North Bridge, and we will wait for them on the other side. Narrator: By then, some 450 militiamen were clustered together on a hillside overlooking the North Bridge, still under strict orders not to fire upon the King's troops unless fired upon. But when they saw smoke rising from town, they concluded that Concord itself was burning. At North Bridge, the American soldiers, the militiamen, see this and they say to each other, "They're burning down our town. Are we gonna let them burn down our town?" And that's when they march to the bridge. Narrator: 3 companies of British regulars now guarded the bridge. Isaac Davis, the gunsmith from Acton, was picked to head the column sent towards it. Suddenly, without orders, a redcoat fired his musket. The front line of British troops followed with a ragged volley. A musket ball tore through Isaac Davis' chest, severing an artery and spraying blood on two men coming up behind him. Abner Hosmer, another member of his company, was shot through the head. "God damn them," a militia captain shouted. "Fire men, fire!" [Rapid gunfire] At least 8 redcoats were hit, including 4 officers. The British began to back away, then to run. When one wounded soldier struggled to his feet and tried to follow, a militiaman split his skull with a hatchet. The British regulars regrouped and began the long march back to Boston. Voice: Before the whole had quitted the town, we were fired on from houses and behind trees. And before we had gone half a mile, we were fired on from all sides, but mostly from the rear, where people had hid themselves in houses till we had passed and then fired. [John Barker] [Gunfire continues] Atkinson: Every step of the way becomes more intense. [Click, gunshot] The sound of bullets winging around them. The sound of bullets hitting soldiers, this deep thud, as if you're beating a rug... [Gunfire continues] screams of men who've been wounded in the British column. [Horse nickers] And it's beginning to look as though the column could be destroyed. Narrator: The British were in complete disarray as they staggered into Lexington. But now filling the road ahead of them were more than 1,000 much-needed reinforcements. [Cannonfire] Two British cannon swept the Lexington Green, and one ball smashed through the wall of the meetinghouse. Several houses were set on fire, but the redcoats were still outnumbered and under relentless attack. They resumed their retreat to Boston. [Gunshot] Voice: We retired for 15 miles under an incessant fire, which like a moving circle surrounded us and followed us wherever we went. It was impossible not to lose a good many men. General Hugh Percy. Conway: The retreat from Concord was a truly horrifying event for many British soldiers. It would have been a fairly traumatic experience, to put it mildly, to be shot at from all sides by people you didn't believe were going to shoot at you. Narrator: In the village of Monatomy, the fighting was house-to-house. A militiaman named Amos Farnsworth remembered entering a home to find a pool of blood that half-covered his shoes. Voice: The bloody field at Monatomy was strewed with mangled bodies. We met one affectionate father with a cart, looking for his murderd son, and picking up his neighbors who had fallen in battle. Hannah Winthrop. Narrator: In Boston, crowds watched as the redcoats straggled back. The British had suffered 273 casualties, including 73 dead. ♪ 95 Americans had been hit over the course of the day, 49 of them fatally. Family members moved along the road looking for missing sons and brothers and fathers. In Acton that evening, Hannah Davis and her 4 children looked on as men of her husband Isaac's militia company carried his corpse through her door. Voice: He was placed in my bedroom till the funeral. The bodies of Abner Hosmer, one of the company, and of James Hayward, who was killed in Lexington in the afternoon, were brought by their friends to the house, where the funeral of the three was attended together. [Davis] ♪ Narrator: As April 19th drew to a close, some 14,000 armed men from 58 Massachusetts towns and villages were converging on Boston. And as the news of the bloodshed spread, they would soon be joined by more men from Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, until a 10-mile semicircle of hundreds of campfires stretched from Roxbury to Chelsea, cutting off Boston. General Gage ordered his men to dig in and prepare for a siege. Atkinson: The British are pretty secure in Boston because they have enough firepower, they have enough manpower to prevent the Americans from pushing them out of Boston. And they have the Royal Navy. But they are, essentially, surrounded. It's not a true siege because they've got passage in and out of Boston Harbor. They can bring in supplies. They can bring in reinforcements, as need be. But they can't get outside of Boston proper. So, the British Empire, in New England, at this point, consists of about 1 square mile of Boston itself. ♪ Voice: When I reflect and consider that the fight was between those whose parents but a few generations ago were brothers, I shudder at the thought. And there's no knowing where our calamities will end. John Andrews. Atkinson: War never follows the script that you have written for it when you set out to make war. The British objective is, first and foremost, to suppress the rebellion. It's to teach the rascals a lesson. It's to force them to acknowledge the primacy of Parliament and the authority of the King. And so, now the decision has been made that we will use force. And there's a presumption that it won't take much... but it's gonna go on for 8 years-- 8 years, blood, treasure, catastrophe, really, for the British Empire. So, uh, those initial shots on Lexington Green, on the morning of April 19, 1775, are going to have profound repercussions. [Birds chirping] Voice: The whole country was in a commotion, and nothing was talked of but war, liberty, or death. [Greenwood] [Scraping] Narrator: John Greenwood was 14 that April. His father had sent him away 2 years earlier to Falmouth-- now Portland--Maine to learn cabinet-making as an apprentice to an uncle. But when news of Lexington and Concord reached him, he asked to be allowed to return to Boston to make sure his parents and siblings were safe. He was worried that they "would all be killed by the British." It would take him 4 1/2 days to walk the 100 miles to Boston. [Men talking and laughing] Voice: As I stopped at the taverns, out came my fife, and I played them a tune or two. They used to ask me where I came from and where I was a-going to. I told them I was a-going to fight for my country. They were astonished such a little boy and alone should have such courage. [Greenwood] Narrator: When John reached Charles Town, he hoped to take a ferry to Boston, but a sentry stopped him. No one was allowed into the besieged city. Zabin: It's terrifying to be a civilian in Boston, regardless of your political affiliation. Especially women and children are just looking for any way out. Something like 12,000 people of a town of about 16,000 manage to leave. Narrator: Unable to find his parents among the refugees, Greenwood was invited by 2 young militiamen to share their quarters in Cambridge--the empty, looted home of a Loyalist clergyman who'd fled to the British. His friends urged him to enlist in their company as a fifer, and he agreed. Voice: They told me it was only for eight months, and that I would have eight dollars a month, and that they would quick drive the British from Boston, and then I could have an opportunity of seeing my parents. [Greenwood] [Waves crashing] Voice: Britain has found means to unite us. General Gage drew the sword; and a war is commenced, which the youngest of us may not see the end of. [Franklin] Narrator: Benjamin Franklin returned home from London in time to attend the Second Continental Congress that began meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia just 3 weeks after Lexington and Concord. Delegates from all 13 colonies now attended, but they remained split between those still hoping for reconciliation and those, like John Adams, convinced a revolution was now inevitable. Voice: The cancer is too deeply rooted, and too far spread to be cured by anything short of cutting it out entire. [John Adams] [Flames crackling] Narrator: From Boston, British General Hugh Percy sent a warning to his superiors in London. Voice: Whoever looks upon the Americans as an irregular mob will find himself much mistaken. They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about. You may depend upon it, that as the rebels have now had time to prepare, they are determined to go through with it. [Percy] [Hammer striking metal] Voice: What a scene has opened upon us. If we look back, we are amazed at what is past. If we look forward, we must shudder at the view. Our only comfort lies in the justice of our cause. All our worldly comforts are now at stake-- our nearest and dearest connections are hazarding their lives and properties. God give them wisdom and integrity sufficient to the great cause in which they are engaged. Abigail Adams. ♪ [Theme music playing] [Theme music playing] ♪ Announcer: Next time on "The American Revolution"... [Gunfire] Bunker Hill... Stephen Conway: 40%. That's horrendously high casualty rate for the British Army. Announcer: a rare opportunity... Annette Gordon-Reed: In the chaos of war, they found a way to escape their situation. Announcer: and the most important words in American history. Voice: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. [Thomas Jefferson] Announcer: when "The American Revolution" continues next time. ♪ Announcer: Scan this QR code with your smart device to dive deeper into the story of "The American Revolution" with interactives, games, classroom materials, and more. ♪ Announcer: "The American Revolution" DVD and Blu-ray, as well as the companion book and soundtrack, are available online and in stores. The series is also available with PBS Passport and on am*zon Prime Video. ♪ Announcer: The American Revolution caused an impact felt around the world. The fight would take ingenuity, determination, and hope for a new tomorrow to turn the tide of history and set the American story in motion. What would you like the power to do? Bank of America. Announcer: Major funding for "The American Revolution" was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine with the Crimson Lion Foundation and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Major funding was also provided by David M. Rubenstein, the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Family Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and by Better Angels Society members: Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Kenneth C. Griffin with Griffin Catalyst. Additional support was provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling, the Park Foundation, and by Better Angels Society members: Gilchrist and Amy Berg, Perry and Donna Golkin, The Michelson Foundation, Jacqueline B. Mars, the Kissick Family Foundation, Diane and Hal Brierley, John H.N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell, John and Catherine Debs, The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, and these additional members. "The American Revolution" was made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You. Thank You. URL https://www.pbs.org/video/the-american-revolution-episode-1-in-order-to-be-free/ CONSTITUTION Note: The following text is a transcription of the Constitution as it was inscribed by Jacob Shallus on parchment (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflect the original. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Article. I. Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States. The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law. Section. 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day. Section. 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal. Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Section. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place. No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office. Section. 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law. Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. Section. 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Article. II. Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President. The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. Section. 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. Article. III. Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. Section. 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;— between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects. In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. Section. 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. Article. IV. Section. 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. Section. 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. Section. 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. Section. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. Article. V. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. Article. VI. All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. Article. VII. The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same. The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first Page, The Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried" being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page. Attest William Jackson Secretary done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, G°. Washington Presidt and deputy from Virginia URL https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

Economic Corner 27 The New York City businessman in SChrumpft The office of the president has a statistical arm whose sole purpose is to keep the president , whomever it is, informed on the numbers. Now I have always said Schrumpft isn't elephant or donkey and this interview is the proof. He is an independent. Financially, if Schrumpft is independent than both parties have misplayed him. The elephants have been waiting on him to fall on his face, but his original premise that he had in the elephant primary still holds true. In said primary he said, everyone else is a liar and he will shake things up. He never promised to bring back the agrarian society or make job markets of gold. The donkeys have been waiting on him to fold, but they keep miscalculating they are the more engaged party when it comes to overall voting or multiracial participation so waiting for schrumpft to flinch or fall exposes the weakness in the donkeys collective which is its huge size. ala https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/584-the-shutdown-ends-potentially/ . Schrumpft has in his blurting way exposed problems in the USA that go to not only its heritage but how its heritage is perceived, by most. Points Party of Governance He used the phrase "The Republicans" so Schrumpft didn't place himself with the republicans. The Elephants Schrumpft is correct, the Elephants have become like the Black One Percent or the Black Self Haters and only have quality complaining about others but never themselves. Ala why Schrumpft is the only elected official in my lifetime I ever heard say the following truth: Black Elected Leaders failed the Black populace in the USA. Schrumpft was 100% correct, I said it countless times. Black elected officials are full of shit. What Schrumpft didn't say is the problem in the Black populace is, the solution requires Black people to pull away. Some suggest black elected officials need to be taken to task but the usa system has never had any elected official be controlled by a voting mass, that is a USA myth. The problem is the approach Black people in the USA had since 1865 to the USA or the Non Blacks in it is dysfunctional Labor Quality He said, "You don't" concerning having talented people, he didn't say we but said you. As a black person who has heard or read many black person chagrin black people's education which I have always contested, because education doesn't equal influence or power, Schrumpft just outed the educational quality of the white populace in the usa. Being comfortable living about others, not liking others, living about others. Schrumpft is no fan of non whites but he was raised in New York City and like anyone who was raised in NYC, your relationship to integration is more complex than those raised outside NYC in the USA. Georgia made six hundred Koreans seem like a takeover and Schrumpft thought and thinks that is silly. NYC has over a million Asians and is still dominated by white Europeans. Why couldn't the white populace in the state of Georgia handle six hundred Koreans. best fiscal point Schrumpft suggest people have been waiting on unemployment lines for five years. Five years. The private sector in the USA is worthless. The private sector can talk about what it needs but when people have been on an unemployment line looking for paid labor and the firms of the usa can't provide anything, I think the private sector has to be looked at. I told people Schrumpft is not crazy... greedy, crude, full of biases, liar, wild gambler, uncaring risk taker, mob starter ... yeah to all of those, but crazy, no, Craziness is a rarer commodity than most humans thinks, disagreement/Discordia is not craziness. The Incorrect Transcript There is never going to be a country like what we have right now. The republicans have to talk about it Laura. Does that mean the h-1b visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration? If you want to raise wages for American workers , you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers I agree but we also have to bring in talent we have plenty of talented people no you don't, no you don't we don't have talented people here No, you don't have certain talents and people have to learn, you can't take people off an employment line and say, I am going to put you into a factory and we're gonna make missiles. Why didn't we ever do it before? When you and I were growing up. Let me give you an example. In Georgia, they waited cause they wanted illegal immigrants out. They had people from south korea that made batteries all their lives. Making batteries isn't an easy thing, it is very complicated, it is very dangerous, alot of explosions , alot of problems. They had like 500 600 people, early stages. To make batteries and teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You are going to need that Laura. I know you and I disagree on this. You can't just say a country is coming in and is going to invest ten billion dollars to build a plant and take people off an unemployment line who haven't worked in five years , and then they are going to start making missiles. It doesn't work that way SOURCES https://x.com/AFpost/status/1988416554984497358 https://x.com/Acyn/status/1988407251078680651 Prior Edition https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/583-economic-corner-26/ POST URL None PRIOR EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/583-economic-corner-26-11082025/ NEXT EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/600-economic-corner-28-11232025/ COMMENTARIES CONTENT

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) https://youtu.be/GxlrRyUDXxY?si=ZAwP2qBUWZLWmBMA my thoughts 6:37 right, hope and hustle are together especially as black people were never supported. before 1865 we were over 90% enslaved to other human beings. Then after 1865 we were never given focused assistance from the government. Black people post 1865 have never been given any assistance beyond what can be obtained as a citizen of the USA. so this created the hope/hustle balance. 9:16 Interesting that heat of the night was three years earlier. 10:03 The problem with merit in the united states of America is that merit has never been the basis of worth. The NYPD wasn't started by citizens trying to get rid of criminal activity in their community. The NYPD was started by Boss Tweed for the purpose of gaining votes + an allegiant arm of New York City government. He achieved it by giving the Irish gangs badges. We Blacks talk about merit a lot, as if we don't live in the USA or know the USA. And I comprehend the country you are fighting to make happen argument. The USA has a system that allows for systemic change over time and from 1776 to 2025 the USA has changed in various ways. But, Ossie Davis is making the old argument that Black people should approach the USA as the country they want it to be, and I argue, that has cost black people. 10:57 Yes, the 1970s was the end of what I call the enslavement era. The 1980s was the beginning of what I call the integration era, and cotton is the symbol of that. 12:37 The proof in my historical measure is the role of women who needed the 1980s to have the ability to truly financially standalone. 14:36 I think both. She had to do both, fight to gain something for herself, autonomy, while also be attache to this guy, through the system she lives in. O'Malley can't hate the player, has to embrae the game. This is the reality of women at that time. Remember Ruby Dee is Ossie Davis's wife and I think Ruby Dee would make Ossie Davis have an idea of how a woman living with a man thinks of some things. 15:03 love Purlie Victorious and you mentioned it. I saw the play with Leslie Odom. Ossie Davis did write the play. Didn't know about the film, gone are the days. Ossie Davis eulogy concerning Malcolm. 16:23 Didn't know it was in the 30s in the original text. That is interesting plus valid, wise by Davis. 17:17 Cotton comes to Harlem isn't relevant to Harlem but is relevant to the Black experience still. Because the core issue is getting to a functional multiphenotypical community. It is one thing to have a city of people who look every which way, it is another for all of those peoples to not only have individual allowance but also have growth within their communities. NYC's problem in the 1930s/1970s/today is the ability of individuals to grow has strengthened, the black populace in NYC has more wealthy individuals in it than ever before, more black owned businesses than ever before. BUT, the black community is arguably weaker than ever before. Weaker in that the mechanics of collective power are farther away. And so black individuals still have to go through hurdles with the non black every which way and the black community has to deal with constant attacks from the agenda of the non black. 17:21 Blaxploitation was simultaneously with the mob movie that had complaints from many Italians and yet, the godfather and et cetera are some of the best films. Italians never said their community had problems even though the movies involving characterizations of the Italian mob [godfather/scarface/] showed a cruel violent crime culture. 20:18 I can't think of a film with a black cop taking charge outside an Oscar Micheaux film , but I can't think of the scene directly. But I know in one of his, a black cop is helping a black woman do something. 22:00 Blaxploitation's influence is huge in soundtracks. Hollywood had the musicals but from 1970s onward the placement and use of Black music in films/television/commercials has been on a constant rise. And every decade you see jester films of Black people whether produced or written by black people or not. My Comment Was O’Malley exposing the system — or just gaming it? hope and hustle, I think are inevitably intertwined when one seeks growth noncriminally against a group that historically or modernly uses criminal activity whether legal or not for their own agenda. Merit, at the end of the day, many black people physically live in the current usa but philosophically live in the usa they want to be tomorrow. women's empowerment, I think most female characters in fiction are both, trying to empower self while also living in a man's world. Women today in the USA are unlike any women in recent history anywhere when it comes to individual rights/protections/abilities Ossie Davis did write the play, Purlie Victorious Cotton comes to Harlem is relevant in that minority populaces will always have in any fiscal capitalistic setting those among them looking to make money regardless of the detriment to said minority populace. Minority populaces will always have in any bureaucratic environment made by a majority those among them trying to be bridges into the bureaucracy. Blaxploitation - eddie murphy once said no one wants to see that today, but i argue whenever films have one of the two following elements: the joyous black jester-formerly jim crow(norbit/dont drink juice in south central/baps) , or the black communal plight films(juice/do the right thing/boyz in the hood) these are no different than most of the films of the 1970s involving black thespians that were mortly,written/directed/produced by whites commonly called blaxploitation Black Cops in film, i can only think of a black cop in an oscar micheaux film. i think he was a ranger or mountie or a role in that field, but your right it was uncommon. I wonder how many black people wanted to be cops through these films. To O'Malley, he cheated the village but overall, it is both, let's be blunt, the usa wasn't born by legal fiscal operation and great ledgerwork. The usa was born from thieves/killers/cheaters not really hustlers but people far far worse. To my knowledge omalley killed no one, in the very city harlem sits in, rockefeller who is known to have killed white oilmen has a whole center to his name. Carnegie who is known to have stolen land and murdered competition has various buildings with this name and an endowment with it. The roosevelts is the name of an old dutch family when new york was enw amsterdam who was part of a land owning caste upstate new york , that had a sharecropping system for white farmrs for the purpose of keeping them as lifelong tenants. If white people who murdered entire indigenous peoples and enslaved as many as possible have their names lauded why is OMalley a great sinner, for his wee hustle. comment referral https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxlrRyUDXxY&lc=UgzkjnVo7IPWs1g6xyh4AaABAg

@pioneer1 had a post in the forum about the shutdown when I read eight donkeys joined the elephants to sign the elephant plan to continue running the government. https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12033-playing-games-with-snap-benefits/ my comment the eight donkeys did it, i said this was a game of chicken and the donkeys flinched. the eight are aleady being crminalze so we will see coment referral https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12033-playing-games-with-snap-benefits/#findComment-77524 another comment @ProfD yeah he senate have confirmed so it is up to the house and the republican was made in the house so case closed. I do think the focus should be schumer's leadership. Regardless of what one thinks of the donkey's or elephants, schumer is supposed to be the leader of the donkeys in the senate and some broke ranks, technically only seven broke ranks. Angus King is an independent from maine, not a donkey. but Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. ,Dick Durbin of Illinois; John Fetterman of Pennsylvania are all northeasters while Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada are not. https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/584-the-shutdown-ends-potentially/ comment refferal https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12033-playing-games-with-snap-benefits/#findComment-77536 The Senate deal with the elephants was struck by Independent Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Donkeys Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. Joining them to support the measure were Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada; Dick Durbin of Illinois; John Fetterman of Pennsylvania; Tim Kaine of Virginia. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky an elephant voted against. url Senate passes bill to reopen the government, as 8 Democrats break with their party https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-passes-bill-to-reopen-the-government-as-8-democrats-break-with-their-party/ar-AA1Qbm4P?ocid=BingNewsSerp Democrats rebel after 8 senators cut a deal to end the shutdown without ACA funds https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-rebel-8-senators-cut-deal-end-shutdown-aca-funds-rcna242994 Eight Senate Democrats break ranks with party leadership to end historic government shutdown https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/eight-senate-democrats-break-ranks-with-party-leadership-to-end-historic-government-shutdown/ar-AA1Q9fNn?ocid=BingNewsSerp The Donkeys who voted for the bill in the House Jared Golden - Maine Adam Gray - California Marie Gluesenkamp Perez - Washington Don Davis - North Carolina Henry Cuellar - Texas Tom Suozzi - New York The Elephants who voted against the bill in the House Thomas Massie- Kentucky Greg Steube- Florida referral https://x.com/Warriortotruth/status/1988785089883566299 MAssie did it cause he always votes to go against increased spending, while Steube did it to block the profiteering of lawsuits for artic freeze https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/why-thomas-massie-greg-steube-voted-against-ending-government-shutdown-explained-101762999217799.html

Economic Corner 26 Mamdani's affordability plans After the Two thousand and twenty five New York City mayoral election, I suggested one idea for Mamdani My Preface I made a suggestion when Obama became president, that he should had spent his time improving the efficiency of the federal bureaucracy, as president he could do that with no input from anyone else. PResidents can't control the economy of the world, they can't protect peoples in states, they can't make laws that are everlasting. Presidents legal parameters allow them to manipulate the executive branch bureaucracy, and mold the war machine with no input from any other. That didn't happen. Obama meddled in finance and healthcare and made the bureaucracy worse and made the war machine worse. My Idea for Mamdani The mayor of NYC can't control or manipulate the price of food[private industry]. the cost of utilities[private industry]. the global real estate industries interwoven system[private industry]. the employers reaction to modern computing power[that is private industry], get money to finance the city[that is the governor]. The reality is the modern global fiscal capitalistic structure NYC was placed firmly in through decades of actions that can not be undone in four years or eight years or twelve years. The mayor of NYC can improve the bureaucracy of NYC, for example manipulating the NYPD into another organization. But the mayor can also pass laws, unlike the president who has been given legal powers by the congress. the mayor has the greater power in NYC, and so to the affordability push, I say make an affordability scale law. What do I mean? Butter cost eight dollars for four sticks. Which means two sticks cost four dollars. One stick costs two dollars. A half of a stick cost one dollar. But most stores only sell packs of four or two. So, the affordability law is needed to get customers the ability to scale down what is sold to them. For example, for butter, why can't customers have a half a stick of butter available for one dollar? Literally have the stores, the delis + supermarkets , be within a legal right to sell goods when applicable in a more affordable way. The mayor can't lower the cost of butter, but in NYC with so many relying on EBT/Snap/Food pantries including federal workers who haven't been paid, forcing businesses to sell products more affordably i think is something he could had said he was going to do during the campaign. Maybe I am too serious or to honest, but I have never comprehended why anyone in government in a post or applying for a post provides pie in the sky or hopes or possibilities. All government post in human history have rules, even kings or queens. The rules dictate what you can do. So, just tell people with what you will be able to do in a position what you will do. Well that is it, my one idea to push. BAsed on Obama+AOC + Ohlan+.. Adams plus many others, the odds are mamdani's agenda will be nothing as I suggest. But, I gave a functional idea. referral https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/578-nyc-election-day-2025/ Mamdani seems determined to implement city owned stores, after my thoughts are a series of articles with information or other opinions concerning the topic. MY THOUGHTS The problem Mamdani's plan has is the one the Soviet Union had. The Soviet Union tried to convince a humanity that had spent four hundred and fifty years watching white europeans exit europe and dominate all other human beings with a system of fiscal capitalism making haves and have nots everywhere, including in europe that sharing wealth is good, fiscal equality is safe. But human history has taught quite the opposite. Greed is good, fiscal inequality is safe. Most in humanity speak french or english or spanish or arabic or portuguese not because the empires of france/england/spain/portugal/caliph were sharing peoples going throughout humanity making they neighbor better. It is because said empires, murdered/killed/eliminated/enslaved all others to leech off of them, so that the few at the top of each empire in their european country could live a life of luxury and guarantee said luxury to their children. The American Continent is the culmination of the fiscal capitalism of said empires , including the caliphates, with the USA as the crown jewel. A country started on fiscal capitalistic crimes and generating fiscal capitalistic crimes and welcoming fiscal capitalistic criminals every year of its existence. Based on 2025, mission accomplished. Government owned stores Mamdani likes because it disallows private industries greed or market manipulations if they are not greedy but merely adhere to market flows from influencing the cost of items in a store into being unaffordable, which is what is happening right now. But, when the government competes with the private sector it always has insurmountable advantages and fiscal capitalistic owners react by deleting private owned stores. But for the record the alternative some suggest will not work either. A walmart in a region in NYC will definitely kill the small grocers too. While fiscal capitalists are correct that government owned entities tax advantages or market exemptions are beyond most privately owned enterprises to handle, said fiscal capitalist are incorrect to suggest a large publicly traded firm that owns a global chain of stores will not blow away small businesses. This is why I suggested a law. Get the deli/grocers/supermarkets to sell their goods in a leaner way. And you can use the sixty million as a tax balance for each store, allowing the market time to adjust to the leaner way goods are sold in nyc to match the affordability needs. And part of Mamdani's support for his government owned stores comes from the culture, what is grown, of socialism in New York City in modernity. Quietly in New York City you have a multiphenotypical , multiracial mulatto, group of people who all look at socialism neutral to positive. And I comprehend the logic. Socialism says two things that the individualism in the places like NYC in the USA needs. One, socialism says each individual is of equal value across all measures. Fiscal capitalism treats each individual based on their wealth. Two, socialism allows for identity to be fluid, the identity is human, the religion of the state. The white european imperial heritage the usa and its european colonial predecessors was founded on for all the legal changes from 1492 through 1776 to 2025 hasn't died and doesn't have space for the multiracial populace places like NYC in the USA has in it today. But Mamdani has to comprehend a simple truth. While he had a huge multiracial voting melting pot of people under forty who embrace socialism, he has to be very careful how he implements it. Cause the USA is fully embedded into fiscal capitalism, not merely heritagewise, what is carries, but also in the larger global financial context and NYC as the biggest city in the USA with any financial failure will be judged harshly by its peers in New York State or elsewhere in NYC. I don't know whom he considers the best and the brightest, cause anyone can fail anything , even with a computers help, but if he wants to do his stores, and not a law which I suggested, he has to figure out how to make a store compete while also boosting the larger economy of stores? He has suggested his stores will not do lotto or liquor or other items and I think that is interesting. Basically he take the market that the stores are failing in and give them what they succeed in. Stores will have to get smaller and some will be eliminated but not destroyed. It is rough but , you only have four years and in truth, only one year to do what you want so... Zohran Mamdani wants to build government supermarkets. America already has them By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Published 6:00 AM EDT, Mon June 30, 2025 New York CNN — Zohran Mamdani, the favorite to become New York City’s next mayor after winning the Democratic primary, has a contentious plan to create a network of city-owned grocery stores. But it’s less radical than critics portray, some food policy and grocery industry experts say. Mamdani has proposed five municipally owned stores, one in each New York City borough, to offer groceries at lower prices to customers with limited access to supermarkets. In some New York City neighborhoods, more than 30% of people are food insecure. The proposal has been blasted as a “‘Soviet’ style disaster-in-waiting,” “farcical” and “economically delusional.” John Catsimatidis, the owner of New York City-based supermarket chain Gristedes, threatened to close stores if Mamdani is elected. (Catsimatidis is a two-time Republican candidate for mayor.) But Mamdani is drawing on government-owned and subsidized models that already exist in the United States, such as the Defense Department’s commissaries for military personnel, public retail markets that lease space to farmers and chefs, and city-owned stores in rural areas such as St. Paul, Kansas. Atlanta is opening two municipal grocery stores later this year after struggling to draw a private grocery chain. Madison, Wisconsin, and rural Venice, Illinois, also plan to open municipally owned stores. “This is more common than people are aware of,” said Nevin Cohen, director of the City University of New York’s Urban Food Policy Institute. “There’s a wide spectrum of food retail establishments that could be created by or with the support of city government.” Mamdani has not released all the details of his plan yet, and it’s not clear what role New York City would play in the opening or operation of grocery stores. Would it build stores? Lease them out to a private company or a non-profit? Would the employees be on the city’s payroll? Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to CNN’s requests for more details of the proposal. But a government-owned supermarket “concept is sound” and can take a “variety of formats,” Cohen said. “Rather than giving incentives to private supermarkets without the assurance of low prices, a city-focused program that puts affordability front and center is a better approach.” Yet municipal-owned stores have recently closed in several towns, such as in Baldwin, Florida. Chicago also shifted its effort from building city-owned stores to a city-run public food market, despite a study showing stores were “necessary, feasible and implementable.” These cities’ struggles underscore the challenges of government stepping into the grocery business amid fierce resistance from the private sector. Industry representatives say government-owned stores will compete with private businesses and unfairly disadvantage grocers, local bodegas and other stores in New York. If government stores drive out other food retailers, it would also hurt the problem it’s trying to solve. “This proposal seemingly could use taxes paid by business, and use that money to compete against said business, which is an alarming precedent to set,” said Michael Durant, the CEO of Food Industry Alliance, a trade association. ‘Policy experimentation’ Privately owned grocery stores already run on slim 1% to 3% margins, according to industry estimates. Government stores would be able to offer low-cost groceries because they would not have to pay rent or property taxes, according to Mamdani. “They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing,” the campaign said on its website. Many companies already buy from wholesalers, have centralized warehouses and partner with local communities, however. His proposal would cost $60 million, Mamdani said in an interview on the podcast “Plain English” released last week. Mamdani argued his proposal would be cheaper than an existing city program that provides tax breaks and subsidies for supermarkets to open in underserved areas, but does not include any requirements for food to be below certain prices. In many cities, grocers and other retailers governments recruited have closed in low-income areas after their tax incentives expired or they struggled to make a profit. “This is a proposal of reasonable policy experimentation,” Mamdani said. “If it is not effective at a pilot level, it does not deserve to be scaled up. But I believe it can be effective. I think that there’s far more efficiency to be had in our public sector.” Advocates for independent grocers and small chains say that stronger antitrust enforcement would be a better solution to help lower food prices and spur competition. But Errol Schweizer, a veteran of the grocery industry who publishes the newsletter “The Checkout Grocery Update” and has written in support of a public grocery sector, said Mamdani’s proposal would address a failing in the market. Government-owned grocery stores would not compete directly with bodegas and convenience stores, which typically do not sell fresh produce and meat. “New York has a great grocery sector,” he said. “It could be a backstop for cash-strapped New Yorkers.” Other experts, however, say that for government stores in New York City to be successful, they must draw from customers with a wider range of incomes. This would help them maintain broader political support and offset bigger losses from lower-performing stores. “A network of stores can be really effective if you’re placing them in different areas. You’re creating a chain of stores to support one another,” said Erion Malasi, the Illinois director of policy and advocacy at the non-profit Economic Security Project. He is working with Venice, Illinois, a historically Black community that received a $2.4 million grant from the state to open a municipally owned store. Public option for groceries Rural areas have often been the site of government-owned grocery stores in the past. It’s harder for sparsely populated towns to draw a private chain, find a distributor to service the store and labor to operate it, and have a large enough customer base to sustain it. But more cities are trying to open stores in neighborhoods with limited access. Cities can leverage their scale to buy from suppliers and city-owned land. Atlanta recently approved $8.2 million in incentives to a small grocer to operate two stores on city land in low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods. Azalea Market is set to open this year and also offer cooking demonstrations, nutrition workshops and other resources for families. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens told CNN that the city created tax incentives and low-cost land to draw national chains, but it couldn’t find a taker. “We said that if they’re not going to help us build it, we’ll build it ourselves,” he said. Dickens believes government taking a role in offering affordable groceries is similar to investing in other public goods, such as housing, education and health care. “We should be investing in the public good, from the urban farmer all the way to the independent grocer. People need to eat.” referral https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/06/30/business/zohran-mamdani-grocery-stores?utm_source=chatgpt.com Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) The Department of City Planning is proposing to update and expand the FRESH food stores program, which supports convenient, accessible grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods. The update would bring the FRESH program to more communities across the city, among other changes to ensure FRESH stores are evenly distributed and financially viable. Update: June 2025 As part of City of Yes for Families, NYC is launching FRESH III, an initiative to improve and expand the FRESH program to bring fresh food to even more New Yorkers. If you are interested in learning more, please contact FRESH_info@planning.nyc.gov Overview The FRESH food stores program supports convenient, accessible grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods. FRESH has brought healthy food options within walking distance of 1.2 million New Yorkers and counting since the program launched in 2009. What is FRESH? The Food Retail Expansion to Support Health Program (FRESH) was created in 2009 in response to a citywide study, Going to Market. This study highlighted the lack of neighborhood grocery stores providing fresh food options in several New York City communities. Its goal is to encourage stores in these communities that provide a full range of grocery products including fresh meat, fruit and vegetables. Get FRESH facts and figures in our February 2023 report here The FRESH zoning incentives program gives property owners the right to construct slightly larger buildings in mixed residential and commercial districts if they include a FRESH supermarket. A separate FRESH tax benefits program is administered by the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Read more about FRESH tax benefits here. Get Involved FRESH encourages partnerships with organizations that want to provide fresh food to their communities, including traditional grocery stores, food co-ops, food hubs, pantries, and others. Community advocates, property owners, supermarket operators, and anyone interested in food equity can get in touch with FRESH_Info@planning.nyc.gov to learn more about the FRESH zoning incentive program. For more information on the FRESH tax benefits program please complete this form. 2021 FRESH Expansion FRESH eligibility expanded in December 2021 to encourage supermarkets in even more areas of New York City that are still underserved. Encouraging the development of full-sized supermarkets empowers consumers, increases access, and may provide additional food options through increased competition. Since 2009, the FRESH zoning program has applied to: Bronx Community Districts 1 through 7 Brooklyn Community Districts 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 16 and 17 Manhattan Community Districts 9 through 12 Queens Community Districts 12 In 2021 FRESH expanded to: Bronx Community Districts 8 and 9 Brooklyn Community Districts 1, 2, 12 and 13 Queens Community Districts 1, 3, 4 and 14 Staten Island Community District 1 IMAGE LINKED BELOW The expansion areas are based on City Planning’s Supermarket Needs Index, which shows neighborhoods that are still underserved by high-quality grocery stores. Note: These expansion areas applied only to the FRESH zoning incentives program. The tax benefits program did not expand to the areas indicated above. Prevent Clustering of FRESH Supermarkets Some communities have seen clustering of FRESH supermarket applications, which may exceed the intent of FRESH to fill gaps in the local grocery environment. This may make it difficult for stores to prosper. The FRESH update adds specific criteria an applicant must follow to create a new FRESH store near an existing location. These new criteria would limit the potential for oversaturation. Changes to Window Installation Requirements Currently, FRESH food stores are required to have windows on half of any wall that faces the street. This requirement, however, has proven to be impractical and difficult for existing buildings that are trying to renovate to be a FRESH supermarket. Therefore, for renovations to an existing building to construct a FRESH supermarket, building owners will no longer have to replace existing walls with windows – removing a potentially expensive step in the process. Changes to Parking Rules Since the FRESH update proposes to expand the program into more lower density residential zoning districts, it is important to propose new rules that are appropriate for the characteristics of these neighborhoods. The FRESH update provides a waiver from required parking for up to 10,000 square feet of FRESH retail area in lower density residential districts. referral https://www.nyc.gov/content/planning/pages/our-work/plans/citywide/food-retail-expansion-support-health-fresh Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Access to affordable, quality food is critical to building strong neighborhoods. The Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program brings healthy and affordable food options to communities by lowering the costs of owning, leasing, developing, and renovating supermarket retail space. Since launching in 2009, 32 projects have received FRESH tax incentives across five boroughs. 30 projects have completed construction and are open to the public. These supermarkets represent over 1.1 million square feet of new or renovated space, an investment of $177 million private capital into New York City's economy, and have created over 1,400 new jobs, and retained more than 600 jobs. Tax Benefits 32 Projects received benefits to date FRESH provides tax breaks for supermarket operators and developers seeking to build or renovate new retail space to be owned or leased by a full-line supermarket operator. Building Taxes: May be stabilized at pre-improvement real estate tax amounts for up to 25 years (with benefits phasing out at not more than 20 percent per year, starting in year 21). Land Taxes: May be fully abated for up to 25 years (with benefits phasing out at not more than 20 percent per year, starting in year 21). Sales Taxes: City and state sales taxes may be waived on materials used to construct, renovate, or equip facilities. Mortgage Recording Taxes: May be reduced from 2.8 percent to 0.3 percent for project mortgages. Application Considerations 1.1M Square feet of new or renovated space expected to be provided by these supermarkets All benefits, including FRESH, are discretionary. NYCIDA will assess the need for financial assistance and the economic impact of the proposed project. From application deadline until benefit closing, expected timeline is 6 months. Stores that benefit from the program must be located in an eligible area (see below map) and provide: A minimum of 5,000 square feet of retail space for a general line of food and nonfood grocery products intended for home preparation, consumption, and utilization. A minimum of 30 percent of retail space dedicated to perishable goods that may include dairy, fresh produce, fresh meats, poultry, fish, and frozen foods. At least 500 square feet of retail space for fresh produce. 2,049 Jobs retained or created through FRESH Additional factors considered by NYCIDA include (without limitation): Size of capital investment. Jobs retained and/or created, average wages and benefits. Neighborhood. Overall financial picture of applicant(s). For developer projects, tenanting strategy and timeline. Environmental review. $177M The amount of private capital invested into NYC's economy through FRESH The FRESH program tax incentive program is administered by the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA) and the FRESH zoning benefit program is administered by the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP). All NYCIDA benefits are discretionary and companies must request NYCIDA assistance prior to entering into any property lease, acquisition, or renovation contract unless such contracts are contingent upon NYCIDA assistance. FRESH Focus AreasEmpty heading Certain neighborhoods around the city can benefit even more from investment in supermarket construction and renovation. The areas listed below are most in need of food retail investment, based on how much currently exists and the surrounding population. The BronxEmpty heading Co-Op City/Wakefield Grand Concourse Hunts Point Van Cortlandt Village BrooklynEmpty heading Borough Park/Bensonhurst Brownsville Coney Island Flatbush ManhattanEmpty heading Inwood Washington Heights QueensEmpty heading Astoria/LIC Far Rockaway Jamaica Staten IslandEmpty heading Stapleton https://edc.nyc/program/food-retail-expansion-support-health-fresh Zohran Mamdani is pushing for New York City-run grocery stores. Here's what he envisions. Story by Jeff Capellini Zohran Mamdani championed the idea of New York City-run grocery stores throughout his successful campaign for mayor. He has said he views it as an opportunity to address affordability and to give the public a choice. But in a city where capitalism reigns supreme, Mamdani's proposal has faced significant opposition. The democratic socialist's road to having it adopted will hinge on a variety of factors, including City Council and state support. Mamdani has said his plan "is part of a vision of a public option for produce, an understanding that for far too many New Yorkers, groceries are out of reach, and the importance in city government of reasonable policy experimentation." Mamdani's city-run grocery store plan The initiative, which Mamdani says will cost $60 million, would put at least one city-run store in each borough, focusing on food deserts, or areas with limited access to full-service supermarkets, and is not about making a profit. It counts on the city covering rent and property taxes to pass savings to consumers. "The job of city government is not to tinker around the edges while 1 in 4 children across our city go hungry," Mamdani said. As outlined on his campaign website, Mamdani says the city would buy and sell goods at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and collaborate with local neighborhoods on product selection and sourcing. As for how he would pay for the program, New York City already subsidizes private grocery store owners to the tune of millions of dollars per year. Mamdani has said he would redirect that money to stores the city controls. Mamdani has also stated that further funding of the plan, along with his other democratic socialist policies, would be generated by increasing the corporate tax rate to 11.5% and instituting a flat 2% tax rate for individuals earning $1 million or more. Potential roadblocks Mamdani will almost certainly need to use the power and influence of his office to help the city-run grocery stores plan gain traction, but that likely won't be enough to get it across the finish line. Political expert J.C. Polanco, a professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, says convincing members of the City Council to go along with it could prove to be difficult. "The problem will be here is that you have supermarkets, delis and bodegas that are part of the fabric of the community. In order for a city councilmember to vote for this to happen, they would have to look at their deli, bodega and supermarket in their districts and say I know this store will compete with you and it doesn't need to worry about profits, but I'm going to vote for it anyway," Polanco said. Polanco said the odds of having City Council support for city-run grocery stores is "very little, considering that these city councilmembers have dozens of bodegas in their districts." Some owners of private grocery stores have spoken out against Mamdani's proposal. Billionaire supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, for example, has said it is incompatible with New York City's market economy. "New York City is a capitalist city -- look what happened in Kansas City?" Catsimatidis said, referring to the recent closure of that city's government-owned grocery store. "These types of grocery stores just don't work." Mamdani has turned some opponents into allies Mamdani was asked back in August if he's concerned about the hefty criticism his plan has generated. He said he is in no way trying to trample on private supermarket, delicatessen and bodega owners. "I am interested in working with each and every New Yorker, and I've actually spoken with a number of grocery store owners and made clear to them that I both recognize and I appreciate the work that they have done. The fact is that they are a critical part of our communities," Mamdani replied. It's important to note that some members of the opposition have changed their tune about Mamdani, if not his grocery stores proposal. Just a few months before the election, the United Bodegas of America blasted his plan, calling the idea foolish and saying it will be harmful to private businesses. However, less than a week before Mamdani won the election, the president of the group stood behind the then-Democratic nominee, saying he wants to make the city affordable for everyone. "We are proud to stand by Zohran Mamdani, a candidate who understands the struggle of everyday New Yorkers," UBA President Radahmes Rodriguez said. In addition, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has often spoken out about free enterprise, did end up endorsing Mamdani for mayor, which opens the door to her perhaps being amenable to the idea of city-run grocery stores down the road. referral https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/zohran-mamdani-is-pushing-for-new-york-city-run-grocery-stores-here-s-what-he-envisions/ar-AA1PXbbi Economist torches Mamdani's city-run grocery plan as doomed experiment that will cost taxpayers Story by Kristine Parks As New Yorkers head to the polls, one economist is raising the alrarm about Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani's plan for city-run groceries, calling it a feel-good fix that flouts basic economics. "It sounds very good on paper – ‘free’ always does," Dr. Anne Rathbone Bradley, an economics professor and vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist who is the frontrunner in Tuesday's mayoral race, argues these stores are needed to address food deserts and give working-class New Yorkers more access to affordable groceries. The pilot program, which would launch five stores in the city – one in each borough – is a key part of his progressive platform to lower costs for New Yorkers, that also includes freezing the rent and higher corporate taxes. Bradley predicts that Mamdani’s plan, while well-intentioned, won't work because it replaces market signals, like prices, property rights and profit motive, with "bureaucratic decision-making." MAMDANI APPEALS TO NON-DEMOCRATS WITH GENERAL ELECTION PUSH, VOWS GOVERNMENT CAN MEET VOTERS' 'MATERIAL NEEDS' "The problem is believing that the economy is an engineering project," she explained. "That when we put smart, well-intentioned people in charge of that project, we can kind of redirect things in certain ways and get the outcomes that we want." The results of this plan, she says, have already been seen in other U.S. cities who've tried it. Similar programs in Kansas City, Missouri, and Florida collapsed, despite millions in taxpayer funding. "These stores have failed to remain open," she said, referring to a Kansas City store that closed its doors in August after struggling with empty shelves and crime. According to Bradley, the issue is built into the system itself: if stores sell their products at below market prices, customers rush to buy everything and stores can't keep shelves stocked. "So you might be able to stock it and open it on day one, but these stores have failed to remain open," she argued. "Not only that, but they're plagued by theft because the grocery stores don't have the same incentives that a Walmart has for loss prevention." Bradley said history offers even starker warnings. Central planners who tried to control prices and supply in the collapsed Soviet Union and Venezuela resulted in people waiting in long lines and empty shelves. "All these types of problems are a feature of this type of system. It's not a bug, right? It's baked in," she said. The economist praised the candidate for trying to address the huge problem of high costs of living for New Yorkers. She said there are better ways to lower food costs, suggesting one way would be allowing a big box store like Walmart to open in New York City, which would provide more access to cheaper groceries. Mamdani's campaign says the stores will not pay rent or property tax, and he will redirect some of the $140 million in private grocery store tax breaks to finance the pilot program. "Food prices are out of control. Nearly 9 in 10 New Yorkers say the cost of groceries is rising faster than their income. Only the very wealthiest aren’t feeling squeezed at the register," his campaign website states. "With New York City already spending millions of dollars to subsidize private grocery store operators (which are not even required to take SNAP/WIC!), we should redirect public money to a real 'public option.'" Mamdani defended the plan when confronted about the failed Kansas City experiment in a September interview. "[W]e have to prove not only the efficacy but the excellence of this idea," he told CNN. "Because for every one example that you can point to, there’s another of another municipality today considering opening a city-run grocery store. But to me, the most important thing is the outcome. This is something I believe will work. We will bring the best and the brightest to deliver it, and it will be five stores at the cost of $60 million, which is less than half the city’s already spending on subsidizing corporate supermarkets." Bradley countered that the proposal is still a costly experiment that could burden taxpayers and divert funds from more effective projects. The economist noted the candidate's rise in popularity comes at a time when younger Americans have more favorable attitudes towards socialism than previous generations. She believes that economic realities need to be taught to Americans early on. "We're not doing a great job of teaching economics," she said. "We need to do a better job of that, of at early ages, showing people that economics in some ways presents laws that are just as real as the laws of physics. So I could say I don't like gravity, I don't believe in gravity, but gravity is my reality. And economics presents us with realities that are just as important to obey." "There's no such thing as a free lunch," she said. "We need to advocate for policies that make things more accessible and more affordable. I think what economics shows is that markets do a really good job [at that]," she said, pointing to the array and volume of goods offered in the average grocery store in the U.S. Ultimately, Bradley said, affordability comes not from government control but from more competition in the marketplace. "What we want people to be able to do is just stretch their budgets further, she added. "And I think the way we do that is more competition in the market for groceries rather than less." Mamdani's campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Fox Business' Amanda Macias contributed to this report. referral https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/economist-torches-mamdanis-city-run-grocery-plan-as-doomed-experiment-that-will-cost-taxpayers/ar-AA1PNLDj Forum post https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12031-economiccorner26/ Prior Corner https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/569-economic-corner-25/ POST URL https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12031-economiccorner26/ PRIOR EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/569-economic-corner-25-10272025/ NEXT EDITION https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/586-economic-corner-27/ COMMENTARIES COMMENTS @Pioneer1 I notice one thing in your comment, one great absence, a positive suggestion. Your comment is full of complaint and judgement, but lacks any ideas to solve anything, now the reason is one of two things. You don't have one, for whatever reason. You can't share one, for whatever reason. The only thing I dislike in your comment is the lack of positive suggestion. Not unexpected but still I dislike it. Now, to your comment... I thought my writing was clear, unfortunate that it engendered such a poor reading from you or that you misread it so poorly. To aid in clarity, My suggestion is a law that allows stores to sell food in more affordable quantities . Mamdani's plan is government owned stores to sell food affordably. Your right, people without money don't care for expensive food. If all you have is fifty cents, i imagine two dollar foods will be problematic to acquire, unless of course one is able to steal but then of course, some people in this forum COUGH Pioneer1 talk so much about the existence of those who break the law, i guess the people who can't afford food can't break the law to get it, so I guess, they should starve, I mean who would have a problem with starving. Please learn to read better, the articles in the post clearly state in Mamdani's plan they will be government owned stores, not subsidized. Your first question that wasn't answered in the economic corner post. Well done, I don't know, if I was in mamdani's inner circle I would know. But Mamdani is still fleshing out this idea. As the Economic Corner stated, his plan has many detractors of various types for various reasons. I will assume no merely because ensuring no discrimination exists has never happened anywhere in the entire usa, your asking NYC to do what has never happened in the USA before in its circa 250 year history or before in the european colonial era. Well in NYC is a different demographic makeup in terms of business ownership. NYC is more complex. remember, NYC is the only city in the usa with a populace from every government. I have seen so many mixed couples: jew/muslim ; south american/african; chinese/mexican and their various mixed babies, NYC is going through a mulattozation. I have never seen a 7-11 in this part of the city. And around here, corner stores are owned by a variance: africans/arabs/latinos for the most part. What may surprise you is around here, most of the non corporate eating entities are owned by black folk: DOS/cAribbean/Continental combined. And around here, black folk have been interbreeding longer than elsewhere in the USA, meaning you see alot of Black couples that are mixes from within a black perspective. Corporate eatery is defined as Mcdonlads and the like. Indians aren't the biggest populace in this part of NYC , when you see them they tend to work in stores. I don't think I have been to a store an indian owns around here, in this section of harlem for a long while. I recall one 99 cent store but the location became closed and has been closed ever since. The property owner probably wants to much and so it isn't worth it. NYC is really a hard place for a corner store. People like you assume alot of habits that at least in nyc aren't the truth. Most people go to the supermarket or have their food shipped. Fresh direct is making a killing. The people who have money just get the grocery to them and the rest of us shop at the supermarket. The local store... got it rough. I argue if it wasn't for the larger real estate market, not wanting nyc to have a huge mound of vacant areas, the local stores in NYC would be mostly gone. PEople shop at the supermarket. The only real money local stores get is kids, who want their candies, and the late shift people, when the supermarket is closed and they may want something and after a long day of work too tired for home cooking. But even then the local store is not the option most get, the place that gets the most late night money is a franchise , owned by a black woman , from the islands, she does make some lovely beef stew. but she is open all day. i have seen lines of the late shift outside her stores. And , i repeat, Mamdani didn't get the asian vote as a block, many indians didn't vote for him. He did only get 50% of the cities vote. It wasn't by accident. When he was in the ny state assembly he never had one law that truly aided indians https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/363-zohran-mamdani-legislation/ as you suggest this will. and to be blunt, repeating what is in the economic corner post, the business owning community in nyc is in majority against this plan of Mamdani's. And as I said in the post I comprehend why Mamdani is going this way. After Obama+ AOC , Mamdani knows to be successful he cant' court his community, which Obama showed is vital in seats like Mayor. But,Mamdani also knows that Obama + OAC have many detractors in their own community who feel they didn't do or haven't done enough for "their people" even though the Obama type candidates don't view themselves as part of a hyphenated group in the usa, they view themselves as Frederick Douglass stated in the 1800s, as part of a composite nation of individuals, overcoming heritage based rigidities, while culturally fluid. Emphasizing individualism bound in the idea of individual rights+freedoms alongside others under the law. Mamdani , taking Obama's stylism, doesn't want to be the mayor of the indians or asians in NYC but the mayor of the city. But Mamdani needs results so he is being more forceful than obama or fellow obamite elected officials in trying to get something done. comment referral https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12031-economiccorner26/#findComment-77503 Posted just now @Pioneer1 9 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: However what law is STOPPING them from doing this already? If a supermarket wants to only sell ONE stick of butter or even HALF a stick of butter at a time, as long as it's properly handled and packaged...are they not allowed to? Pioneer, where are you from? You do realize that supermarket chain owners sign contracts with stipulations? Legal agreements are sometimes signed for certain food items with stipulations on how to care. Let alone that city/state/federal laws may state what can or can not happen? The FDA doesn't allow the interstate sale of butter so... what other laws are there. Where are you from? Do you own a business? 9 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: It's not a matter of better READING because I didn't bother reading the entire thing in the first place....lol. so that is why you ask questions answered in the post, well thank you, i now fully comprehend the quality of your statements in the forum. 9 hours ago, Pioneer1 said: -Will suppliers get their contracts through bidding with the city, like construction contractors do? -We know there are Black farmers. Who will ensure THEY get their fair share of the contracts as suppliers? -Again, who ensures that AfroAmericans get our fair share of jobs....including management positions....in these stores? Expand Mamdani hasn't even got his plan accepted. and like before all you offer is judgement, no ideas, no positive quality. You are like one of those rush limbaugh style podcasters just through text. comment referral https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12031-economiccorner26/#findComment-77523 COMMENT @Pioneer1 this made me laugh, even enough. I will only add the following... so often online humans chime in on affairs of governance or complex communal human relation , but, the lack of effort in the details , in the wordy thesis , only supports the internets overall poor quality in discourse. I was taught that each individual in humanity is unique and you can only know what one will do when they do it. But, to your question, he is no different than AOC, the one from the central park five representing harlem in the city council, the brooklyn or queens borough presidents, a bunch of people who got elected on platforms of bloated promises who are gambling the voting population will be willing to support their continual bids. I argue, Deblasio + Adams were the end of an era for mayor of NYC. from Lindsey to Adams NYC mayors overall have been variations of centrism. trying to be a kind of middle, each favoring different things so a tilt but overall central. Mamdani in my gamble to the future will legally/functionally be a centrist but his rhetoric will be left. Although a key part to Mamdani is the governor and president, what either of them do has a huge role to play. Hochul is a centrist. She doesn't hate expanded government welfare but she wants to keep the fiscal capitalistic dream alive, the idea that fiscal capitalism can work even in a usa unlike at any time before, where the populace has the most universal rights, even the native american has rights, where the populace has the most variance of fiscal wealth, more non whites or more non males or more non christians have money, significant sums than any time before in New York State. So fiscal capitalism in the usa has never had to deal with the environment it has now. So I think Mamdani is different in important ways but will not act different largely because his superiros, governor+president will not let him.

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