Notes:
Neil: Welcome to another edition of “Quote Notes”, where I intensely study an important documentary, interview, or speech. Past episodes include my notes on the 2020 documentary The Last Dance about Michael Jordan and the ’90s Bulls, Kanye West’s interview on Charlie Rose in 2005, and Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” (Man in the Arena) speech from 1910.
For each Quote Note, I carefully review, transcribe, and share my favorite quotes and also add my own commentary based on my experience in politics. This years-long practice was extremely valuable to me when writing my new book, Positive Politics, which blends memoir, biography, and history to argue that America is ready for another era of ambitious optimism like we saw around the Revolutionary War.
The only person I know who obsesses over books and other primary sources more than me is David Senra. I listen to his Founders podcast for any book or person I haven’t covered, and also enjoy hearing his take on books I’ve already read. My favorite episodes include Napoleon, Churchill Parts 1 +2, Franklin + Washington, Roosevelt + Morgan, and Franklin again. If you love these notes, you’ll love Founders podcast!
In this note, I focus on Ken Burns’ PBS documentary series titled “The American Revolution“. Burns’ six-part, twelve-hour series was released on November 16, 2025. My goal is to review 1-2 episodes per month until I’m done. I anticipate this will take me 30+ hours of focused work. Well worth it to fully absorb the key ideas and events of the American Revolution!
Skip to a Specific Episode’s Quote Notes here:
- In Order to Be Free (May 1754–May 1775)
- An Asylum for Mankind (May 1775–July 1776)
- The Times That Try Men’s Souls (July 1776–January 1777)
- Conquer by a Drawn Game (January 1777–February 1778)
- The Soul of All America (December 1777–May 1780)
- The Most Sacred Thing (May 1780–Onward)
See my other Quote Notes here: neilthanedar.com/notes
Quotes:
Episode 1: In Order to Be Free (May 1754 – May 1775)
Neil: This whole series starts by acknowledging the funding of billionaires, Bank of America, and “Viewers Like You”, which felt uniquely American, like how Fox would open an NFL game.
“From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished.” — Thomas Paine
“Long before 13 British colonies made themselves into the United States, the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy… had created a union of their own that they called the Haudenosaunee, a democracy that had flourished for centuries.” — Narrator
Neil: America is often called the world’s oldest democracy. Fascinating that democratic governance existed here hundreds of years before America existed. Are there any unique geographical or other qualities about America itself that makes it fertile ground for democracy?
“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.” — Narrator
Neil: “Join, or Die” started over twenty years before the Declaration of Independence! Franklin’s Plan of Union was way ahead of its time and provided a model for America’s government. We have too many people trying to be the next Hamilton. Who else is trying to be the next Franklin?
“It’s our creation myth, our creation story. It tells us who we are, where we came from, what our forebears believed, and what they were willing to die for. That’s the most profound question any people can ask themselves.” — Rick Atkinson
“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.” — Maya Jasanoff
“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
Neil: Ten minutes into this documentary and I’m already ready to run through a wall for Washington!
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Joseph Ellis
Neil: Truly elite talent know their worth. Pay them handsomely, in cash, equity, and most importantly, with your trust and respect. You also want to avoid crossing these people! If the British had just paid Washington the commission he earned, he probably would’ve stayed in Virginia and continued land speculating instead of leading one of the world’s most consequential revolutions.
“But it’s a little bit like the Greek myths. You never wish for something too much because 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… And then it all begins to go to hell in a hand basket.” — Colin Calloway
“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.” — Alan Taylor
Neil: America’s Founding Fathers had a similar idea, with the House as an element of democracy, the Senate as an element of aristocracy, and the presidency as an element of monarchy.
“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… 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.” — Vincent Brown
Neil: There is a strong case for reparations going all the way back to these 26 colonies.
“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…for most free White men in the colonies, North America was a land of opportunity.” — Narrator
“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.” — Alan Taylor
Neil: America is way down that slippery slope again, with the top 1% now owning ~31% of US wealth.
“The colonies were overwhelmingly agricultural… And 2 out of 3 farmers were independent, proud owners of their land.” — Narrator
“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.” — Maggie Blackhawk
(After Pontiac’s War) “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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Colin Calloway
Neil: We tend to think of our Founding Fathers as monk-like demigods, but these were all just real people, and in addition to having their own resentments and petty disputes, they also tried to make money in creative ways and even broke laws!
Washington “directed his land agent to defy the Proclamation and “secure [for him] some of the most valuable Lands” beyond the Appalachians.” — Narrator
“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.” — Philip Deloria
“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.” — Narrator
“The average British subject paid 26 shillings a year in taxes; the average New Englander paid just one.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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?'” — Alan Taylor
“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!” — Narrator
Neil: Patrick Henry was a true revolutionary!
“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.” — Narrator
Neil: It’s funny that Samuel Adams got a beer brand named after himself even as a failed brewer! More importantly, I love his insight that the #1 job of activist writers is to keep citizens focused on the biggest problems (and solutions) so they can be fixed.
“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.” — Alan Taylor
“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.” — Narrator
Neil: Witness again the duality of American ‘liberty’.
“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.” — Stacy Schiff
“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.” — General Thomas Gage, leader of all British troops in North America
“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.” — Alan Taylor
“So, democracy is not the aspiration that creates the Revolution. The Revolution creates the conditions for people to aspire to have a democracy.” — Alan Taylor
“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.” — Benjamin Franklin at the House of Commons
[Eight days after Franklin speaks at the British House of Commons, they voted to repeal the Stamp Act. But less than two years later, facing even more war debt, the British government passed the Townshend Acts, taxing glass, lead, paper, painter’s colors, and tea.]
“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.” — Kathleen DuVal
Neil: Love that homespun cotton, which was central to Gandhi’s idea of ‘swaraj’ (‘self-rule’), is also a key symbol of the original American boycotts and resistance.
“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
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Serena Zabin
Neil: See National Guard + ICE patrolling American cities now!
“Upon the whole, it is the best country in the world for a poor man to go to and do well…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.” — Scotus Americanus
Neil: The original American Dream!
“For 17 months, Boston was an occupied city. The rattle of drums awakened residents every morning. Passersby were routinely stopped and searched.’ — Narrator
“Somebody starts ringing the church bells, which in Boston is a sign for fire… It’s very hard, in fact impossible, to know what happened, which is that somebody yells, ‘Fire’. All we know really is that when the smoke cleared, there are 5 people dead or dying.” — Serena Zabin
“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
Neil: A huge historical example of how both the establishment and rebellion are always fighting to control the public narrative.
“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.’” — Narrator
“In 1772, events beyond Boston gave Adams the ammunition he needed to spread his radical message throughout the colonies… 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.” — Narrator
“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
Neil: An early version of the Declaration of Independence! And a reminder that the original version was “land, liberty, and property”, and that “pursuit of happiness” was added later by Thomas Jefferson!
“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, Essay on Slavery
Neil: America has repeatedly failed to live up to its fundamental ideals. Slavery is the clearest example.
“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, To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth
“The plant of liberty is of so tender a nature that it cannot thrive long in the neighborhood of slavery.” — Benjamin Rush
“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
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Philip Deloria
“Lord North hoped, he said, to make America lie ‘prostrate at his feet.’ They ‘must fear you,’ he added, ‘before they will love you.'” — Narrator
“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… Americans would denounce the new laws as the ‘Intolerable Acts.'” — Narrator
“The British Government is genuinely surprised to see the ways that the other 12 colonies rally to Massachusetts’ cause.” — Christopher Brown
Neil: Unity is forged by a common foe. The British thought they were just attacking Massachussetts, and they already controlled Boston. They didn’t know they were attacking America.
“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… agreed to take part. The Prime Minister’s effort to intimidate the other colonies by punishing Massachusetts had instead begun to unite them.” — Narrator.
“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.'” — Narrator
“Rhode Island ordered all militia officers to make their men ready to “march to the assistance of any Sister Colony” whenever they were needed.” — Narrator
Neil: This is the beginning of a federated system where each state is willing to fight for the other.
“In the autumn of 1774, when 12 colonies sent delegates to the Continental Congress, Philadelphia was the logical place to assemble… 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.” — Narrator
“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?” — Stacy Schiff
“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.” — Narrator
“I am not a Virginian, but an American.” — Patrick Henry
“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.” — Joseph Ellis
“We must change our Habits,” John Adams wrote, “our Prejudices, our Palates, “our Taste in Dress, Furniture, Equipage, Architecture, et cetera.”
Neil: The goal is self-reliance, first by boycotting British goods, and then stopping exports to Britain too. Again, Gandhi followed this example when seeking to rid India of British rule.
“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. They don’t see King George III as a tyrant.” — Alan Taylor
“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.” — General Gage
Neil: A wise but unheeded warning!
“Just after midnight on the morning of April 19, 1775, Revere reached Lexington… Lexington’s militiamen, summoned from their beds, dressed, gathered up whatever weapons they happened to own, and hurried to the town green… A British officer shouted, ‘Throw down your arms, ye villians, ye rebels, and disperse.'” — Narrator
“They begin to disperse. Many of them turn their backs and start to walk away. A shot rings out. No one knows where the shot came from. That leads to promiscuous shooting… mostly by the British. It’s not a battle. It’s not a skirmish. It’s a massacre. Now blood has been shed… 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.” — Rick 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.” — Rick Atkinson
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
Neil: Empires are always underestimating the cost of war!
“General Gage drew the sword; and a war is commenced, which the youngest of us may not see the end of.” — Benjamin Franklin
“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.” — Narrator
“The cancer is too deeply rooted, and too far spread to be cured by anything short of cutting it out entire.” — John Adams
Episode 2: An Asylum for Mankind (May 1775 – July 1776)
“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.'” — William Hogeland
“‘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.'” — Narrator
Neil: Skilled politicians don’t just brand themselves, they brand their enemies too.
“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.” — Alan Taylor
“That we are divorced is to me very clear… But remember you can’t make 13 clocks strike precisely alike at the same second.” — John Adams
“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.” — Alan Taylor
“Wherever you go, we will be by your sides. Our bones shall lie with yours… 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
“Black, White, and Native American soldiers would serve in regiments more integrated than American forces would be again for almost two centuries.” — Narrator
Neil: America failed to live up to both of these promises.
“On May 25th, 1775, a Royal Navy frigate threaded its way into Boston harbor. Aboard were British reinforcements and 3 major generals… The Patriots got wind of the plan, and Colonel William Prescott was ordered to seize and fortify Bunker’s Hill.” — Narrator
“Hit me if you can!” — William Prescott
“The day—perhaps the decisive day—is come… on which the fate of America depends.” — Abigail Adams
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
“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.” — Stephen Conway
“The deluded People”… of America are in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.” — King George III
“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
Neil: Let’s fucking go! This math problem goes unbelievable hard; a giant double bird to the King.
“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
Neil: Sad how often Founding Fathers with slaves, like Washington, used slavery as an analogy against the British without irony or apparent internal conflict.
“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… And to the West, he had amassed tens of thousands of acres of Indian lands.” — Narrator
“What defines his early career is an amazing focus, a ruthless and intense focus, on his own interests” — William Hogeland
“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.” — George Washington
Neil: Read The Genius Myth to learn more about how elite branding is not automatic, it’s purposeful. Washington intentionally wore his soldier’s uniform during the Continental Congress to stand out.
“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… Do not look for gilded statues of marble men. They were not that and neither are we and neither is anybody at all.” — Jane Kamensky
Neil: Our Founding Fathers were no saints. They were real people, with major sins.
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
Neil: If Washington has time and space for books during the Revolutionary War, you do too now!
“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.” — Stephen Conway
“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
George Washington “was no gentleman” — Darby Vassall (a man who Washington enslaved as a boy)
“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.” — Narrator
“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
“Virginia’s Royal Governor Lord Dunmore… issued a Proclamation… It promised freedom to any enslaved man owned by a rebel who was willing to take up arms and help suppress the uprising.” — Narrator
“Whether we suffer or not, if you desert us, you most certainly will.” — Virginia Gazette
Neil: Virginia did live up to this threat.
“The first enslaved person to escape Mount Vernon was named Harry Washington.” — Narrator
“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.” — Erica Dunbar
“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?” — Dr. Samuel Johnson
Neil: The hypocrisy of the Founding Fathers continues to haunt their legacies.
“In December, Washington changed his mind about enlisting African-Americans. ‘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.'” — Narrator
“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?” — Public Advertiser
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
“I’m fighting the war of the legislature.” — King George III
Neil: As fun as it is to make fun of King George’s caricature from stories like Hamilton, that’s just old pro-US propaganda.
“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.” — Narrator
“They had a kind of “Domino” theory: if we lose American colonies, then we lose Canada, then we lose the Caribbean.” — Joseph Ellis
“In a profound way, they are fighting the American climate and geography and topography. This is a difficult place to conduct a war.” — Nathaniel Philbrick
“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.” Everything went wrong.” — 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.” — Narrator
“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
Neil: “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms.” — Winston Churchill
“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” — Alan Taylor
Neil: America begins with a strong social contract specifically promised to patriots to convince them to fight against the mighty British established authority. Any time America stops delivering on these promises, we risk another revolution.
“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, Common Sense
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — William Hogeland
“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.” — Thomas Paine
“‘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
Neil: The incendiary anger had already spread; it just needed a very loud match to ignite it.
“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
“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 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.” — Rick 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.” — Rick Atkinson
Neil: Talent identification is key to any elite endeavor, from startups to politics to art!
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
“I think it surprises everybody that the Patriots are having some successes.” — Serena Zabin
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“The smallpox is 10 times more terrible than Britons, Canadians, and Indians together.” — John Adams
“‘Our affairs are hastening to a crisis…’ and the approaching campaign ‘will in all probability determine forever the fate of America.‘” — John Hancock
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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
Neil: Josiah Bartlett was the second signer of the Declaration of Independence after John Hancock and the fictional ancestor of famous TV president Josiah (“Jed”) Bartlet in The West Wing. I’m sure Jed has some long-winded explanation why his family dropped the last “t” in his last name.
“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.” — Narrator
“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.’” — Narrator
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another… 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, Declaration of Independence
“‘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.” — Gordon Wood
“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” — Narrator
Neil: There’s the social contract again! See Section 10.2, “Fix Our Social Contract” in my book Positive Politics.
“The Declaration of Independence, we remember it, primarily, from its opening preamble… But most of the document is something else. It is a list of crimes allegedly committed by the King… The purpose of the Declaration of Independence is to declare the King is no longer sovereign.” — Alan Taylor
“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.'” — Narrator
“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.”
Neil: Never doubt that a small group of words can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!
“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.’” — Narrator
Neil: ❤️💪
“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… Patriots melted the gilded lead into bullets—42,088 of them.” — Narrator
Neil: No one silver bullet won the American Revolution. It took thousands of lead bullets!
“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.” — “Maggie Blackhawk
“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.” — Rick Atkinson
Episode 3: The Times That Try Men’s Souls (July 1776 – January 1777)
“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… The United States came out of violence.“— Maya Jasanoff
Neil: So much “history” is actually propaganda or hagiography. It’s true that our founding fathers were smart and idealistic politicians. But they were also fierce and shrewd warriors.
“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
Neil: Even in mid-1776, George Washington thought America was unprepared for war.
“Both the British and the Americans had considered New York and the farming communities that bordered it to be Loyalist strongholds… 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.” — Narrator
Neil: Washington was this close to being assassinated in 1776 too!
“In June, British warships had converged on Charleston Harbor… (the Americans) had just 31 guns, but they proved deadly accurate… “We never had such a drubbing in our lives,” one British sailor remembered… The British would not attempt to recapture a southern colony again for 2 1/2 years.” — Narrator
“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
“We think of the Revolution as a war against empire, but it very quickly becomes a war for empire.” — Kathleen DuVal
“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.” — George Washington
“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
Neil: More hypocrisy from Washington.
“That same summer of 1776 in Northwestern Jamaica, enslaved men, women, and children living on 47 different plantations secretly conspired to overthrow their enslavers… 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.” — Narrator
Neil: America was defending itself to the East, attacking to the West, and enslaving in the South. Wild that all three of those battles erupted in the same year/
“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.
“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.“
Neil: Franklin’s mic drop moment ends any hope of compromise between the colonies and the British.
They parted,” Admiral Howe’s secretary said, “and now nothing remains but to fight it out.”
“Are these the men with which I am to defend America?” — George Washington
Neil: Washington is still frustrated by his lack of resources and personally lobbies Congress for more soldiers and weapons.
“New York City becomes the great British stronghold of the American Revolution.” — Maya Jasanoff
“Hundreds of Loyalists would formally reaffirm their allegiance to George III by signing a document they called their Declaration of Dependence.” — Narrator
Neil: What a weak response. Haters really do the best marketing!
“Even Benjamin Franklin’s son William, the deposed Royal Governor of New Jersey, remained faithful to his king and was imprisoned for it.” — Narrator
“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
Neil: Washington was willing to burn NYC to the ground to keep it from the British!
“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.” — Alan Taylor
“We have been sent into life at a time when the greatest lawgivers of antiquity would have wished to have lived.” — John Adams
Neil: Inspiring call-to-action for political activists! This is true again now!
“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.” — Alan Taylor
“There is as much intrigue in Congress as there is at the Vatican, and as little secrecy as there is in a boarding school.“— John Jay to George Washington
“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.”— Narrator
“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.” — Abigail Adams
Neil: Amazed by Abigail Adams’ writing and leadership independent of her president husband and son!
“There will be no end of it. New claims will arise. Women will demand a vote… 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
“It’s a misconception to think of the founders as being pro-democracy… They were very adamantly opposed to democracy.” — William Hogeland
“Worried about his sick wife, Thomas Jefferson returned home to Virginia, the place he still called “my country.‘” — Narrator
Neil: America still wasn’t the highest loyalty of all founding fathers in 1776!
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Colin Calloway
“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.” — Nathaniel Philbrick
Neil: America loses multiple early battles, like in Boston and New York, but makes it expensive for the British every time. Classic underdog strategy!
“Plunder is more or less an accepted part of warfare in the 18th century… Washington worries about that. His men plunder, and he’s like, ‘Can you stop? Please don’t do this. You’re alienating the people.’” — Friederike Baer
“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.” — Narrator
Neil: Washington is still fighting this war by the seat of his pants at the end of 1776!
“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'” — Narrator
“The British essentially let Washington escape once again. Opportunities to just end this war right now are being wasted.” — Friederike Baer
“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.” — Stephen Conway
“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. 3 years later, she would become the first woman to receive a lifetime disability pension.” — Narrator
Neil: Hero!
“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.” — Narrator
Neil: General Howe keeps letting Washington and the Americans get away!
“Your noisy Sons of Liberty are, I find, the quietest in the field.” — Joseph Reed
Neil: Talk is cheap! But many founding fathers really were warriors.
“To compound things, Washington’s second in command—General Charles Lee… was scornful of Washington, hoped someday to replace him as commander in chief, and saw himself as not subject to Washington’s orders.” — 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.” — Narrator
Neil: Britain was absolutely winning the war until General Howe let Washington off the hook. And lack of British control over their own troops eventually gives colonists the motivation to fight back.
“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
“Congress denied what it called the “false and malicious” rumors that it was planning to leave town and then fled to Baltimore.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“Things can hardly look darker than they look for Washington and his army and the hopes of the cause in December of 1776… 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.'” — Rick Atkinson
“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
“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… 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.” — 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.” — Narrator
“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… Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” — Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
Neil: One of the most revolutionary lines in American history! Thomas Paine begins 1776 with Common Sense, a 47-page pamphlet, and ends it with the first edition of The American Crisis, his sixteen-part series from 1776-1783 of what are essentially blog posts by Paine. Crisis No. 1 was just ~2,000 words long! The power of concise, passionate, aspirational writing strikes again!
“The Americans decided very early on to treat German prisoners well. That is a strategic decision, portraying these soldiers as the innocent victims… they are victims of tyranny, kind of like we are.” — Friederike Baer
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — Narrator
“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.” — George Washington
Neil: Even after crossing the Delaware and the incredible win at Trenton, Washington still has to beg his soldiers to stick with him for even one month longer!
Neil: This Note is a work in progress. DM me if you have any questions, comments, or corrections!