American History In Video: Episode 1: Boston, Bloody Boston
Episode 1: Boston, Bloody Boston from The History Channel (A&E Television Networks, 2006) 45:30.
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Edward Herrmann They were undisciplined as soldiers.
We say that there was an army. There wasn't an army. There was a gaggle. These men are ragged, getting drunk on duty. It was a mess.
Edward Herrmann Up against the world's strongest empire.
The British are certain they can swat these militia away like pesky flies.
Edward Herrmann Americans lost battle after battle.
Major John Hall The British make the assumption that a simple show of force will be enough to scare rebels back to their senses.
Christopher Brown The question Britain is asking is why isn't this thing over yet. This should have been an easy victory.
THE REVOLUTION
Edward Herrmann Boston , 1765 . Lately, life in the colonies has been relatively tranquil. Certainly, it has for Thomas Hutchinson . A fifth-generation Bostonian, Hutchinson has enjoyed good fortune and political success. The king has appointed him Chief Justice and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts . For years, Thomas Hutchinson has been one of the colony's most admired citizens until now. Hutchinson's life is about to take a dramatic and ugly turn. An angry mob is surging through Boston . Hutchinson is about to find out that he is the man they're after. He's the man in charge of the intolerable new policies imposed on the colonies by their British rulers, tax policies that have incited an increasingly violent rebellion among the people, a rebellion against the tax imposed not by their own local representatives, but by parliament 3,000 miles away in England . Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson is duty-bound to enforce this controversial new tax. Though he personally opposes it, he is being denounced as a traitor.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann Massachusetts has never seen a mob as violent as this. They're not just angry about the money. They're angry at the assault on their autonomy by English rulers who neither know them nor represent them. The revolt spreads like an epidemic through all 13 colonies. It's hard to imagine that the fallout from this tax will ignite a social revolution unlike any the world has ever seen.
London , 1765
Edward Herrmann Across the Atlantic, England's King George III is losing his patience. His colonies are acting like petulant children. These are his subjects, Englishmen born in America , but Englishmen just the same. He is their ruler, and it's because of them that his empire is going broke. A decade ago, he sent British troops across the ocean to defend the colonies against French settlers and their Indian allies. The war went on for seven years, and it cost England 60 million pounds, money it now desperately needs.
Christopher Brown Historian, Rutgers University
Christopher Brown There's a sense that after the Seven Years' War that America ought to pay its way a little bit, that expenses to protect North America should in part be raised in North America.
Edward Herrmann Parliament's solution is unprecedented. The Stamp Act of 1765 directly taxes colonies by having them pay for stamps that must be affixed to virtually every piece of paper they touch, from official documents to playing cards. It is the first time ever that parliament has levied a tax on the American colonies. It goes badly from the start. The colonists resent not only paying the tax, but also having it imposed by a faraway parliament where no one represents them. Though the Crown appoints colonial governors and high officials, each colony is long accustomed to ruling itself and levying its own taxes.
Bruce Chadwick Author, George Washington's War
Bruce Chadwick The Americans believed that over 150 years of being colonists, they had in a sense created a nation within the British Empire. They had free assemblies democratically elected. They had free and independent and very good newspapers. They had their own tax system.
Ray Raphael Author and Historian
Ray Raphael It wasn't just paying a little bit of money. The notion was that other people were making them pay money, so it's an emotional issue. Who's in control here? We want to control our own lives, which includes, of course, our own pocketbooks.
Edward Herrmann In 1765 , a new generation of colonists is rushing headlong down an uncharted path to an unknown end, and the Stamp Act is what starts it.
Christopher Brown Much of the spirit, if not the exact words, is don't you see what they're up to? Don't you see what's going on? There's a strategy at work here to gradually erode American liberties. If you let them do this, what will they try to do next?
Edward Herrmann For the British, the tax isn't about eroding liberties. It's about money. Stoking the colonial reaction is a powerful underground movement known as the Sons of Liberty. They meet secretly in taverns across the colonies and come up with every tactic they can to keep government officials from collecting England's tax.
Ray Raphael People really started forming alliances between kind of street theatres, street gangs and merchants and artisans and figuring out ways to all work toward the common cause which is to repeal the Stamp Act.
This is the Place to affix the STAMP.
Edward Herrmann Soon enough, things begin to get ugly. Intimidation is a favorite weapon. Those who remained loyal to the king, known as Loyalists or Tories, often find themselves terrorized by these self-anointed patriots.
Ray Raphael They often use very dramatic techniques, tar and feathering for instance. This is a, a great way to humiliate people. First, you're stripped naked. That bucket of tar is heated and you're coated with tar. And then they put these feathers, these goose feathers all over you and you're all hot and you're prancing about like a silly goose. After a display like this, how is this person going to publicly oppose the patriot position.
Gary B. Nash Historian, UCLA
Gary B. Nash A Loyalist printer in New York City publishes a Loyalist newspaper. And they come in and smash his printing press while they are also proclaiming free speech as a principle to fight for. That's the nature of war and the nature of revolution.
Edward Herrmann While the angry rabble takes to the streets, men of property and education used printing presses and politics to denounce the Stamp Act tax. One of the most outspoken is 29-year-old John Adams , a bright, ambitious attorney who brings logic and intellect to this very emotional argument. He drafts anti-tax resolutions for some 40 Massachusetts assemblies.
JOHN ADAMS We have always understood it to be a grand and fundamental principle of the English Constitution that no free man should be subject to any tax to which he has not given his own consent. John Adams .
Edward Herrmann Adams has always envisioned great things for himself and the cause of liberty presents the opportunity of a lifetime. His wife, Abigail , is his trusted confidante and partner in all things, great and small.
Stacy Schiff Author, A Great Improvisation
Stacy Schiff I think it's hard to overestimate the importance of Abigail Adams . I mean not only is she more than an equal partner to her husband, but she comes to this contest with really perfectly formed ideas about what she feels passionately. She's the enormous influence on her husband.
Edward Herrmann One day, these two will be counted among the founders of a new nation. For now, John Adams is one of many voices of protest in a Stamp Act rebellion that engulfs all 13 colonies. Down in Virginia , a fiery young legislator named Patrick Henry ups the ante.
PATRICK HENRY Resolved that the inhabitants of this colony are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance designed to impose any taxation whatsoever other than the laws of their own general assembly. Patrick Henry
Edward Herrmann In other words, no taxation without representation. Henry's Virginia Resolves become a radical touchstone for all the colonies.
London
Edward Herrmann Three thousand miles away in London , another important player in the colonial drama, America's Benjamin Franklin is doing what he does best, playing chess, flirting with a pretty young thing and keeping an eye on developments for his countrymen.
Stacy Schiff Franklin becomes the point man. He is the man in England who is there essentially trying to hammer out some kind of compromise on issues of taxation with the crown.
Edward Herrmann At 59, Franklin is the most famous American in the world. He has spent the better part of two decades in England as a trade representative and the colonies' unofficial ambassador, wooing and wowing a London society with his wit and wisdom. This is the Philadelphia printer and writer who created Poor Richard's Almanack, the colonies' best-selling annual rich with homespun advice. He is the scientist who famously flew a kite to experiment with electricity, who invented the lightning rod and the bifocal. A self-made man who went from lowly apprentice to wealthy entrepreneur, Franklin is the embodiment of what it means to be an American. Yet, he adores England , the mother country and especially London .
Stacy Schiff He's absolutely in his element. This is where the great center of science at this point. It's, it's a -- it's like being in the city as opposed to having been in the country. He's really hit the right group of people, and he's very much -- he, he writes this down as the happiest years of his life.
Edward Herrmann Now the uprising at home has put Franklin at center stage, a place he generally enjoys. London's baffled politicians come pounding on his door, desperate for a solution to the problem hoping he can use his considerable influence to bring the colonists to their senses. But it's business, not politics, that settles the matter. The decisive blow is the blow to the British pocketbook.
Christopher Brown North American merchants said, "Well, okay. While the Stamp Act is in place, we're just not going to trade with you." It's a way of getting merchants in England to say, "If this is going to ruin business, then the Stamp Act is got to go."
Edward Herrmann Now, England's merchants and bankers are feeling the pinch from the loss of business created by colonial boycotts, and they too start railing against the Stamp Act. The tax crisis has become just too big a headache. And in March 1766 , a beleaguered Parliament finally repeals the Stamp Act. Unbelievably, the people of the colonies have forced the world's greatest power to back down. The rebel colonists can celebrate their first sweet taste of victory and of power. But the battles are far from over. England still needs the money and still needs to show who's boss. Over the next four years, Parliament devises new taxes, which trigger renewed upheaval and end up being repealed. As this seemingly endless cycle continues, England dispatches two military regiments to Massachusetts from New York to keep order, adding fuel to the fire. In 1768 , four more regiments sail from England on a collision course with America .
THE REVOLUTION
Edward Herrmann Boston 1770 . One thousand British troops occupy this city of 15,000. It is a volatile brew. Boston is an accident waiting to happen, literally.
Major John Hall Military Historian, West Point
Major John Hall Conditions are ripe. You've got an indigenous population that is very, very sensitive to having British soldiers quartered amongst them. You have all these British regiments in Boston . This is something that, that the Bostonians simply chafe under.
March 5th 1770
Edward Herrmann Resentment grows against the soldiers in Boston streets.
Edward Herrmann On the night of March 5th, a band of local patriots heckles a British sentry standing guard at the customs house. At first they merely hurled insults, but soon they're hurling snowballs and eight more soldiers come to the aid of their comrade.
Christopher Brown Historian, Rutgers University
Christopher Brown You have a group of men who are egging on British soldiers, looking for ways to kind of stir up a fight, and now they've created the antagonism that they've been trying to gin up.
Edward Herrmann Hundreds more colonists pour into the street. They launched a barrage of ice, oyster shells and rocks at the soldiers. The guards panic. Their guns go off. And when it's over, five civilians lay dead on the frozen street.
Major John Hall It was a tragically predictable sort of event. It's one of those situations in which the soldiers that are there to impose order are actually that seed of discontent that's going to produce disorder.
Edward Herrmann Within hours of the deadly shootings, the patriots' spin machine roars into high gear. A tragic accident is recast as a murderous crime against the colonial people and what becomes known as the Boston Massacre.
[sil.]
Major John Hall This was not remotely a massacre. This was a case in which a mob assailed a small detachment of British soldiers, which may have panicked but had very legitimate cause to fear for their well being.
Edward Herrmann But that's not how it was portrayed to the outside world. A local silversmith and artisan named Paul Revere , renders an exaggerated version of the events that makes it look like an unprovoked slaughter by the British soldiers. Boston papers are quick to print and distribute Revere's version.
Ray Raphael Author and Historian
Ray Raphael And this becomes the patriot image of the Boston Massacre, which shows the British lined up in a row, firing their muskets all at once as if they got the command to fire, which didn't happen that way.
Edward Herrmann The first to die in the gunfire is a Black man, a sailor and runaway slave named Crispus Attucks . He is widely viewed as the first martyr of the American Revolution. In this explosive atmosphere, the public outcry pressures the British to pull their troops out of Boston . The soldiers responsible for the so-called massacre are put on trial for murder and they are hard pressed to find an attorney to take their case. Surprisingly, one of Boston's most vocal patriots steps forward, John Adams . Adams is willing to risk everything, his and his family's safety and his reputation as an ardent advocate of colonial rights. But he believes passionately in the right to a fair trial. Without human rights, the patriot cause isn't worth fighting.
JOHN ADAMS It was one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered. Judgment of death against these soldiers would have been as foul a stain upon this country. John Adams .
Edward Herrmann Adams wins an acquittal for seven of the soldiers and light sentences for the other two. Only his unquestioned devotion to the patriot cause keeps him from being branded a traitor. The crisis is resolved for now. Back in England , the colonial rebellion becomes a national preoccupation. Over the next three years, Parliament, keeps trying to impose its authority with new laws and new taxes. As each new law inflames the rebellion, it ends up getting repealed, except for one, a tax on tea.
Christopher Brown The principle involved is that Parliament is sovereign; it can pass laws whenever it wants. So we're going to just keep this one in place just because -- to assert the fact that we can do this.
Edward Herrmann The Tea Act puts only a three-penny tax per pound on the drink of choice for most Americans. It's hardly a burden. But in the current climate, a three-penny tax still equals suppression. It's all that militant patriots need to strike another blow against the empire.
December 16, 1773
Edward Herrmann Feathers and coal dust are their weapons. On December 16, 1773 , the Sons of Liberty enlist 50 men to darken their faces, stick feathers in their hair and arm themselves with hatchets in a bad impersonation of Mohawk Indians. Five thousand people followed them down to Boston Harbor and watch as they climb aboard a merchant ship loaded with tea from England . With British soldiers absent since the Boston Massacre, there is no one to stop them. Three hundred and forty-two crates of tea worth 10 thousand British pounds are cast overboard. This wanton act of sabotage, which becomes known as the Boston Tea Party, will soon push the two sides to the brink of war.
Christopher Brown The British reaction was disgust and outrage. From a British point of view, you had an entire colony running amok and the British government, after the Tea Act, frankly said, "We've had enough. We had enough of Massachusetts , and we're gonna clamp down on them and we're gonna to make Massachusetts an example of what happens if you defy the authority of Parliament."
Edward Herrmann At that very same time, the British discovered yet another outrage committed by an American, someone they thought they could trust, Benjamin Franklin . Over a year ago, Franklin was passed a stolen packet of confidential letters written to a British official by Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson . Ever since Stamp Act rioters tore down Hutchinson's house nine years earlier, he had tried to juggle serving his king with serving his angry fellow citizens. The letters given to Franklin exposed Hutchinson's true Loyalist sympathies.
THOMAS HUTCHINSON There must be an abridgement of what are called English liberties. I wish for the good of the colony to see some further restraint of liberty rather than the connection with the parent state should be broken. Thomas Hutchinson .
Edward Herrmann Franklin sent the incriminating letters to colonial assemblymen in Massachusetts who had recently made them public as irrefutable proof of Hutchinson treachery against the patriot cause. The reaction in the colonies was torrential. Mobs burned Hutchinson's effigy. The press vilified it. By December when the patriot raiders throw the Boston Tea Party, they have destroyed Hutchinson's long career as a public servant. Within six months, Thomas Hutchinson will pack up his family and sail to England . The relentless strife that has set American against American will force this man, long devoted to colonial causes, into exile. Heartbroken, he will never again set foot in his beloved homeland.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann Now, in London , in January 1774 , Benjamin Franklin is summoned to appear before the King's council. On the heels of the recent looting of the tea at Boston Harbor, Franklin's recently revealed role in the Hutchinson fiasco is more than British officials can tolerate. He must answer for his sins and the sins of his countrymen.
Stacy Schiff Author, A Great Improvisation
Stacy Schiff Franklin is dressed down by the Solicitor General of England for a full hour in the strongest possible language, which is really abusive language in front of a crowd that was going wild at this venomous attack. Then Franklin stands, stalks still in this humiliating moment, you know, head erect and doesn't say a word for an hour. Many people have dated that as the moment at which Franklin becomes a revolutionary.
Edward Herrmann Franklin , the Revolutionary, is done with England , and England is done with him. Parliament punishes Massachusetts with a vengeance. It revokes the colony's 80-year-old charter, dissolves its local assemblies and after a four-year absence, sends 3,000 troops to reoccupy Boston . The Crown now runs Massachusetts .
Ray Raphael These people had been meeting in town meetings for 150 years. When they can no longer decide their own fate, they said, "This is the end." People throughout Massachusetts rose up as one and said, "No way."
Edward Herrmann There is no turning back for either side. The tension between the people of Massachusetts and the British troops becomes unbearable. It's only a matter of time before someone fires the shot that will echo around the world.
THE REVOLUTION
Edward Herrmann Boston , August 10th, 1774 . John Adams is donning a new suit, and if he's not careful, the British will bury him in it. The patriot leader is heading for a secret meeting in Philadelphia that will change the course of history and could cost him his life. Adams is one of four men representing Massachusetts at the first Continental Congress, an unprecedented, and as far as the King is concerned, illegal meeting of delegates from up and down the colonies. 55 delegates of Americas best and brightest who gather to come up with a unified strategy to oppose Britain's increasing encroachment on their liberties. If the King had his way, they would all hang for treason.
James O. Horton Historian, George Washington Univ.
James O. Horton That illustrates how strongly they feel that they must take steps to remove themselves from the -- what they saw is the arbitrary power of the British crown.
Edward Herrmann Britain has already suspended Massachusetts's constitution and imposed Martial Law there. The other colonies fear that it's only a matter of time before they all meet the same fate.
Christopher Brown Historian, Rutgers University
Christopher Brown Even though these colonies have different economic interests, they have different political histories, they have different populations, they recognized that in our relationship with Britain , we have much in common.
Ray Raphael Author and Historian
Ray Raphael Not all of these people have met each other. Most have heard about each other, and now they're eager to meet each other, see what's going to happen. People know that there's going to be moderates and not so moderates and there's already kind of little factions forming.
Edward Herrmann Joining John Adams from Massachusetts is another radical, 37-year-old John Hancock , a wealthy Boston merchant who has been using his considerable fortune to fuel the cause. Pennsylvania has sent a moderate lawyer, John Dickinson , 42, whose widely-read essays back in the 60s helped launched the anti tax movement. From Virginia comes Patrick Henry , the volatile young orator whose Virginia Resolves helped stamp out the Stamp Act. And also from Virginia , a wealthy 42-year-old planter and veteran of the Seven Years' War, George Washington .
Gary B. Nash Historian , UCLA
Gary B. Nash One of the problems is, is they all thought of themselves as Pennsylvanians, Rhode Islanders, South Carolinians, much more than they thought of themselves as Americans. Patrick Henry really just electrifies everyone when he says, "I'm no longer a Virginian, I am now an American." John Adams says the trick is to get the 13 clocks to strike all at the same time, 13 ships to sail on the same formation. It's not easy.
Edward Herrmann Thirteen conspirators against the Crown. Finally, after two months of arguing and pontificating, the Congress adjourns with a unified message for England . Until colonial rights are restored, all 13 colonies will halt all trade with Great Britain . Local militias are to arm and stand in readiness. As one might expect, kings don't do well with ultimatums. No one tells the King of England what to do.
KING GEORGE III The die is now a cast. The colonies must either submit or triumph. I do not wish to come to severer measures, but we must not retreat. I trust they will come to submit.
Major John Hall Military Historian, West Point
John Hall He makes the assumption that a simple show of force of military might will be enough to scare the rebels back to their senses.
Edward Herrmann Not likely, certainly not in Boston . The city is a tinderbox waiting to explode. The British have turned in to a virtual police state. They have sealed off Boston Harbor, disbanded the colonial assemblies and forced locals to house British troops. The man in charge is Commanding General Thomas Gage . His orders are to quash the rebellion. While he has the guns, the rebels have the numbers. He repeatedly asks the Crown for a larger army.
Thomas Gage only has 3,000 soldiers in Boston . He's looking at 5,000 in Worcester County , 4,000 in Plymouth all over like this. He's looking at this. He says, "What I'm going to do with my 3,000 people against a force like this?" He's playing a losing hand. He can't do anything for which he is called an old woman.
Christopher Brown He's very much a man in between. He's a military officer who is charged with the political task for which is not really equipped to handle.
Edward Herrmann With Hutchinson's departure, Gage is now Massachusetts Governor and Commander of an occupying army that no longer faces a small rebellion. It is a population in uprising.
Ray Raphael They start smuggling cannons out of Boston . And they start purchasing arms and then militiamen start training and they form the Minutemen. They, they actually sign associations. I will mobilize on minute's notice.
Edward Herrmann This is no longer a skirmish over taxes. The patriots believe their way of life, their liberty and they're property are at stake. Nothing short of war will settle it. In April 1775 , Gage gets orders from England to break the uneasy stalemate. He will send a full force out to the countryside to seize a huge store of rebel ammunition. Unknown to Gage , Parliament, King George or anyone else, the fate of the British Empire hangs on this decision.
THE REVOLUTION
Edward Herrmann April 18, 1775 . British troops are on the march. Colonial militia are arming and stockpiling ammunition for what many fear is an inevitable showdown. British Commander, General Thomas Gage has ordered his soldiers to capture a huge hidden store of gunpowder in Concord , a Massachusetts village 20 miles west of Boston .
Major John Hall Military Historian, West Point
Major John Hall The British detachment that marches out of Boston , roughly 800 soldiers march out knowing that the countryside is on the verge of armed action. Once Gage sends that mission out, he really has set into motion a chain of events that is beyond his ability to control.
April 18th 1775 10:00 PM
Edward Herrmann The British are indeed coming.
Ray Raphael Author and Historian
Ray Raphael The news starts leaking out and people start mobilizing. They're ready.
Edward Herrmann Out into the countryside to spread the word goes Paul Revere , whose engraving of the Boston Massacre fanned the flames of outrage five years earlier. Poems and schoolbooks will one day mythologize Revere's Midnight Ride as if you were the lone heroic messenger. But in fact, he is just one part of a whole system of communication.
Ray Raphael Paul Revere is one of dozens, then scores and literally hundreds of messengers going every which way. Bells are ringing, shots were being fired. So before dawn, hours before dawn, the whole countryside is mobilized and knows what's happening.
Edward Herrmann They arrange a signal. One lantern light in Boston's Old North Church if the British are coming by land and two if by boat.
Edward Herrmann British troops rode to the Cambridge side of the Charles River and wade through reeds and thick marshland to begin their overnight march to Concord .
Edward Herrmann At around one in the morning at Lexington, Massachusetts , farmers, blacksmiths and shopkeepers gather to intercept the British at Lexington Green. One hundred thirty civilians, some too old, some too young, most with no form of military experience, stand ready to risk it all against the world's most feared army.
Caroline Cox Historian, Univ. of the Pacific
Caroline Cox These were men who, who literally felt under attack and in fact they were under attack. The, the British Army were walking out to seize colonial property and they felt compelled to defend it.
Edward Herrmann 2:00 AM. After an hour of waiting, no sign of the British. The night's chill sends many home. Others choose nearby Buckman's Tavern to await another alarm, most hoping it will never come.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann 4:30 AM. Drums announce that the British are on their way.
(inaudible ) The British are here. (inaudible )
Caroline Cox I'm sure the mood on Lexington Green was extremely tense. The best-trained, most professional army in the world is bearing down on them. So even though they were fired up with a great sense of injustice, they were probably nervous. And if they weren't, they should have been.
(inaudible )Okay. Step back, Lads. Step.
[sil.]
Take care. Halt. Right face.
Bruce Chadwick Author, George Washington's War
Bruce Chadwick Both sides eye each other suspiciously. Both sides not wanting to take a misstep. All of a sudden, a single shot is fired. Nobody knows who fired the shot. After the war investigations, nobody ever found out. As soon as that shot was fired, both sides commenced firing at will and the American Revolution was on.
[sil.]
(inaudible ) Fire!
(inaudible ) Fire!
(inaudible ) Treason!
Fire!
(inaudible )
Edward Herrmann In less than two minutes, eight militiamen lay dead, ten wounded.
Bruce Chadwick It really lit up the newspapers everywhere. Blood had been shed and there is really no looking back after that.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann It will take six weeks for the news to reach London . By then, the course is set.
Christopher Brown Historian, Rudgers University
Christopher Brown I think there was a recognition in London after Lexington that the battle has being joined, that the chances for preventing this conflict from degenerating into war has just about passed.
Edward Herrmann The conflict calls Benjamin Franklin home from London . After nearly 20 years in England , he is leaving for good, no longer loyal and no longer welcome. Branded a revolutionary traitor by the British, Franklin will set sail for his Philadelphia home to take a seat in the Continental Congress. A man of peace, he will now have to counsel war as he helps his fellow delegates navigate the new and bloody conflict that threatens to blow America apart.
THE REVOLUTION
Edward Herrmann April 19th, 1775 , Lexington, Massachusetts . For the first time ever, British soldiers and colonial citizens have stood face to face and fired upon each other. Eight colonists lay dead. But it's not over. British continue their advance to get what they came for, the colonial ammunition stored in nearby Concord . Along the way, detachments of Redcoats storm into local homes and ransack for weapons.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann The word spreads and militia from all over the area rush toward Concord to head off the British. This time, it's the Americans who are coming.
Ray Raphael Author and Historian
Ray Raphael They find not just the Concord militiamen but all sorts of other militia men coming and still coming and still coming and still coming.
The British are certain they can swat these militia away like pesky flies and find out they cannot, that they've encountered hard- fighting men.
Edward Herrmann The British are badly outnumbered. They are forced to retreat. Sixteen miles separate them from the safety of Boston , sixteen miles on foot. They are sitting ducks for armed and angry colonials. It is a trauma they won't soon forget.
HENRY All the hills and either of us were covered with rebels so that they get the road always lined and a very hot fire on us without intermission. Henry (inaudible ) , British soldier.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann Twenty hours of constant barrage bring heavy losses to the beleaguered British. Seventy-three dead, 174 wounded, and 26 missing, the Americans suffer 49 killed with 40 wounded and five missing. By the time British soldiers get back to Boston , the colonials have the city surrounded with militia from neighboring colonies on their way. Gage and his troops are trapped with their backs to the sea.
THOMAS GAGE The rebels have added insult to outrage. They have possessed the roads and other communications by which the town of Boston was supplied with provisions, and with the preposterous parade of military arrangement, they have affected to hold the army besieged. Thomas Gage .
Edward Herrmann Three weeks later, on May 10th, 1775 , Benjamin Franklin is back home in Philadelphia just as the Continental Congress is called back into emergency session. The bloodshed in Massachusetts demands a new colonial strategy, assembling a Continental Army and complete independence from England are subjects now on the table. The delegates eagerly await the thoughts of their venerated elder statesman, Benjamin Franklin , only to find him unusually quiet and withdrawn. The long voyage from England has made him ill but it is the short trip he will soon make that troubles Franklin most. Franklin is headed to a confrontation with his only son, 43-year-old, William . The rift in the colonies has brought a terrible split between father and son. William Franklin has been New Jersey's Royal Governor for over a decade, a post granted him by the King, owing in no small part to being Benjamin's son. William is vehemently opposed to the rebellion and unalterably devoted to the King. Now, his father will make one last attempt to win him over to the patriot's side.
[sil.]
Edward Herrmann Once, they were as close as a father and son could be. It was William who held the kite during his father's famous experiment with lightning. It was William who was his father's constant companion in the early days in England . But now, neither the strife in the colonies nor the humiliation heaped upon his father by the British turns William away from the King. Now, father and son must choose between country and family, but neither will bend. Like the growing civil war between patriots and loyalists, reconciliation between father and son is no longer possible.
Stacy Schiff Author, A Great Improvisation
Stacy Schiff There were two sides to this issue. Most people could have seen both sides. Everyone had reasons to see those sides. Franklin isn't buying it and he gives his son, he's absolutely unyielding with his son.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such keen sensation as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son, and not only deserted but to find him taking up arms against me in a cause wherein my good fame, fortune, and life were all at stake.
Willard Sterne Randall Author, Benedict Arnold : Patriot and Traitor
Willard Sterne Randall When I think about Benjamin Franklin , the great revolutionary and his son, the leader of those conservative loyalists, it seems very strange to me that the old man should be the radical and the young man should be the conservative.
Edward Herrmann Once, they were inseparable. Now, the wound between father and son will never heal.
Gary B. Nash Historian, UCLA
Gary B. Nash William Franklin doesn't get very good press in the American textbooks. But do you know, there were many others just like William Franklin . Which side are you on? That became the question.
Edward Herrmann The political argument that tears the Franklins apart will also be replayed in thousands of colonial families. Politics have become intensely personal.
Ray Raphael Every American had to choose. Do I support the patriots? Do I support the loyalists? Is there any neutral ground between them?
Edward Herrmann A bitter time is coming when everyone must choose sides when fathers may have to fight sons, when brother may fight brother. There are twice as many patriots in the colonies as loyalists, but more than half the population just once to be left alone. In the coming months and years, no one can remain on the sidelines. The ship has sailed. The Revolution is on an irreversible course. It will take sturdy leadership from men as different in temperament as the people they represent. Whether they know it or they not, these are the men of destiny who will guide the American people into their uncertain future, and these are the men who will shed their blood and give their lives to make it happen.
THE REVOLUTION Executive Producers PETER SCHNALL HILARY SIO Produced By STEPHEN STEPT Directed By PETER SCHNALL GREGORY HENRY DAVID SHADRACK SMITH Series Producer STEPHEN STEPT Written By LUIS J. DARROW Cinematography PETER SCHNALL DAVID SHADRACK SMITH Edited By MATHIEU BORYSEVICZ Original Music GARY POZNER Production Designer ANNE STUHLER Narrator EDWARD HERRMANN Coordinating Producers WHITNEY JOHNSON TINA VER Production Manager GLENN C, REIMER Associate Producers KRISTINA CAFARELLA MICA McCARTHY JEAN MURPHY ENNEN CATHERINE SHIN JUSTINE SIMONSON Additional Producers ANNE WONG LISE ZUMWALT Archival Research CARRIE McBRIDE Production Coordinator JESSICA LYNE DE VER 1st Assistant Director ETHAN SHRIER Line Producer MELANIE J. ELIN Re-Enactment Production Wardrobe and Props HISTORICAL ENTERTAINMENT, LLC Gaffer DAVE LEVINE Office Coordinator JESSICA APPLEBAUM Production Accountant BRIAN MINAHAN Legal Services KENNETH WEINRIB MATTHEW LEFFERTS FRANKLIN, WEINRIB RUDELL VASSALO P.C. Post Production Supervisor ROBERT WARMFLASH On-line Editor/Colorist BLERTI MURATAJ Digital Animations MECHANISM DIGITAL Photo Animation DAVE COHEN Sound Design Mix BILL MARKLE Assistant Editors BREIT YOUNG OLGA OROS TIM REARDON SCOTT GREENHAW Archival Images ART RESOURCE, INC ATWATER KENT MUSEUM OF PHILADELPHIA BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES CORBIS IMAGES FRANKLIN PAPERS YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GETTY IMAGES THE GRANGER COLLECTION THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY ART COLLECTIONS LAWRENCE STEIGRAD FINE ARTS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON NORMAN ROCKWELL LICENSING NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES THE PICTURE DESK/ ART ARCHIVE SUPERSTOCK, INC. YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART/ PAUL MELLON COLLECTION Stock Footage A TELEVISION NETWORKS Special Thanks COWPENS NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD DRAYTON HALL, CHARLESTON , Supreme Court EASTFIELD VILLAGE DON CARPENTER HERKIMER HOME STATE HISTORIC SITE HISTORIC CAMDEN REVOLUTIONARY WAR SITE MAGNOLIA PLANTATION GARDENS SQUARE SAIL, CORNWALL, UK VAN CORTLANDT HOUSE For The History Channel Programming Coordinator MICHELE WILCOX Executive Producer BETH DIETRICH SEGARRA Produced By PARTISAN PICTURES FOR THE HISTORY CHANNEL COPYRIGHT 2006 A TELEVISION NETWORKS H THE HISTORY CHANNEL © 2006 A Television Networks. All Rights Reserved.
Ben Franklin 00:51
First Continental Congress and the beginning of the war 20:57
Stamp Tax 01:12