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Jim Ambuske: This episode of
Worlds Turned Upside Down is

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made possible with support from
a 2024 grant from the National

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Endowment for the Humanities.

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At three minutes past seven in
the evening, on Monday, January

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16, 1775, King George III sat
down at his writing desk in

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Queen’s House in London to
compose a very brief note to

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Lord North, his prime minister.

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Lord North had been so good as
to handle a delicate matter on

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the king’s behalf, that of
informing the Duke of

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Gloucester, the king’s younger
brother, that it would be

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improper for him to request
money from Parliament to support

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his wife and young children.

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The king loved his brother, but
the Duke of Gloucester had

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violated their bond of trust by
marrying in secret nearly ten

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years earlier, a fact concealed
from the king until September

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1774, when the duke's wife,
Maria, was expecting their

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second child. By then, the
scandalous marriage of another

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brother to a common woman had
led to the Royal Marriages Act,

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requiring members of the royal
family to gain the monarch’s

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permission to wed.

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Although the duke had not
technically broken the law, in

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the king’s eyes, he might as
well have. George III’s sense of

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duty and propriety ran deeper
than his love for his brother,

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his abhorrence of rebellion
deeper still, and his fidelity

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to Parliament was as precise as
the timestamps on his letters.

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Lord North broke the news to the
Duke of Gloucester that the king

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would not support his request.
That afternoon, he stopped by

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Queen’s House, what we now call
Buckingham Palace, to tell the

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king of his conversation with
the duke. But, finding that the

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king had gone to dinner, the
prime minister made his way back

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home to Downing Street. At 6 pm,
North sent the king a short

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letter, telling His Majesty that
he had been to see the duke, and

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apologizing for not lingering at
Queen’s House, for he had a

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cabinet meeting that night at
half past seven.

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A grateful king replied with his
short note one hour and three

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minutes later. North hadn’t
mentioned what the cabinet

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intended to discuss, but then
again, he didn’t have to. As

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George III already knew, the
“weighty considerations” under

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discussion at Downing Street
were about “the American

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business.”

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By January 1775, George III had
borne the weight of the British

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crown for nearly fifteen years.
He ascended the throne on

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October 25, 1760 at age 22, one
month and seventeen days after

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Montreal surrendered to British
forces. Like his jubilant

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subjects on both sides of the
Atlantic at the end of the Seven

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Years’ War, George III gloried
“in the Name of Briton.”

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Much had changed in the fifteen
years since that triumph, making

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the discussion of “the American
business” all the more

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necessary. Even as secret talks
were then underway in London to

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avoid all the horrors of civil
war, negotiations done with Lord

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North’s quiet approval, the king
had come to believe that they

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now all stood on the banks of
the Rubicon, that inevitably,

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the die would be cast, that
blows would decide the fate of

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British America.

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The task of orchestrating those
blows would fall to Lord North,

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George III’s seventh, and so far
longest serving, prime minister.

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He had taken office in 1770,
weeks after the massacre in

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Boston. The two men had known
each other since childhood. They

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made an odd pair: the one was a
stout, corpulent fellow born on

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Piccadilly Street who loathed
confrontation and wrote with a

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sloppy scrawl; the other was a
taller, stockier monarch of

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German genealogy born in Norfolk
House, who valued firmness and

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vigor, attributes evident in the
stroke of his pen.

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But in each other they had found
a reliable partner, and a shared

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commitment to defending
Parliament and the British

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constitution. North had brought
stability to the government,

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conciliated the colonies with
the repeal of most of the

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Townshend duties, guided the
reforms of Quebec and India

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through the House of Commons and
remained resolutely in favor of

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coercive action after the
destruction of the tea in

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Boston. The king stood behind
him.

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Three days after he delivered
disappointing news to the Duke

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of Gloucester, North opened the
new session of Parliament on

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January 19th. At the king’s
command, he laid 149 “papers

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relating to the disturbances in
North America” before the House

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of Commons – pages upon pages of
letters and other documents from

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governors, admirals, generals,
and secretaries of state.

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They told a convincing story of
colonies teetering on the edge

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of rebellion, of colonists’
anger at the Coercive Acts;

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evasion of customs laws;
stockpiles of unsold tea; new

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boycott movements; the
confiscation of cannons; the

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spiriting of gunpowder, cannon
balls, and musket rounds to

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secret places; militia drills in
Massachusetts Bay; the coercive

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tyranny of local committees who
intimidated and attacked the

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king’s loyal subjects; the
suspect actions of an extralegal

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Continental Congress; of civil
government and British authority

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nearly at an end.

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Buried among that “great heap”
was Congress’s petition:

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Congress: “To a Sovereign, who
glories in the name of Briton,

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the bare recital of these Acts
must, we presume, justify the

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loyal subjects, who fly to the
foot of his Throne, and implore

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his clemency for protection
against them.”

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Jim Ambuske: From the
perspective of the king and the

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majority of Parliament, the
petition told a less convincing

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story of:

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Congress:  “...this destructive
system of Colony Administration,

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adopted since the conclusion of
the last war, [from which] have

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flowed those distresses,
dangers, fears, and jealousies,

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that overwhelm your Majesty's
dutiful Colonists with

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Congress: be used for our
relief, and that a gracious

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affliction”

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Answer may be given to this
Petition.”

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Jim Ambuske: If Parliament would
not hear the pleas of His

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Majesty’s subjects in British
America, then surely the king

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they thought they knew would.
Yet, as many were only beginning

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to understand, they didn’t
really know the king nor the

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empire at all.

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For despite the best efforts of
some colonial agents and their

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supporters in Parliament, the
petition remained buried under

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that “great heap.” The king
would give it no answer.

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Days later, after hours of
debate that stretched long into

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the night, Parliament presented
the king with an address that

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found Massachusetts Bay in a
state of rebellion. In his

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reply, one drafted by the
cabinet and approved by him,

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George III pledged:

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King George III: “the most
speedy and effectual measures

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for enforcing due obedience to
the laws, and the authority of

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the supreme legislature.”

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Jim Ambuske: At precisely 50
minutes past eleven in the

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morning on February 8, 1775,  
the king privately told his

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prime minister that his answer:

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King George III: “conveys the
sentiments that must be

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harboured by every candid and
rational Mind, this language

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ought to open the eyes of the
deluded Americans but if it does

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not, it must set every delicate
man at liberty to avow the

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propriety of the most coercive
measures.”

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Jim Ambuske: Within hours,
George III once again sat down

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at his desk in Queen’s House to
write letters, and review lists

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of regiments and officers to be
sent to North America. Secret

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orders had already been drawn up
for General Thomas Gage in

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Boston to seize and destroy
gunpowder and ammunition from

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the “rude rabble” in the colony.
Those orders would soon be sent

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west aboard a ship, and with any
luck, a wavering Gage would act

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with vigor to kill off a
rebellion before it became a

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civil war.

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I’m Jim Ambuske, and this is
Worlds Turned Upside Down, a

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podcast about the history of the
American Revolution.

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Episode 20: The Rebellion.

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On December 8, 1774, ships just
then arriving in the colonies

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from London bore troubling news.
Two months earlier, the King had

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issued an order in council
prohibiting the export of arms

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and ammunition out of Great
Britain. The order made no

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mention of the colonies, nor of
British Americans’ resistance to

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Parliament’s laws, but for many
British Americans the

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instructions for provincial
governors sent with the edict

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led to only one unmistakable
conclusion: Britain was

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preparing for war.  

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Sympathetic ship captains sent
copies of the order and the

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instructions to local
newspapers, where colonists soon

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read:

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Newspaper: “That Lord Dartmouth,
Secretary of State…has signified

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to [the Governors] his Majesty’s
Command, that they do take the

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most effectual Measures for
arresting, detaining, and

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securing any Gun Powder or any
Sort of Arms or Ammunition,

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which may be attempted to be
imported into the Province over

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which they respectively
preside.”

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Jim Ambuske: In the weeks that
followed, false rumors spread

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that General Thomas Gage, both
the governor of Massachusetts

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Bay and the commander-in-chief
of British forces in North

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America, had sent soldiers to
reinforce Fort William and Mary

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in Rhode Island.

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Regular militia drills, already
underway in several colonies,

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intensified. Colonists stashed
and stored gunpowder,

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ammunition, and cannonballs
where they hoped Redcoats would

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not find them.  

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In New York city, the Sons of
Liberty seized a shipment of

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gunpowder from a customs
official, before local merchants

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intervened, and the powder was
safely secured in the city’s

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powder house.

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Up the coast in Rhode Island,
colonists commandeered something

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much bigger. Alarmed by the
order in council, and fearing

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that Gage would capture the
cannon in Fort George at

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Newport, the Provincial Assembly
directed some local sailors to

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spirit them out of the fort
before Gage could get there.

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They made off with some 44
cannons in all.  

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When Captain James Wallace of
the Royal Navy demanded to know

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why Rhode Islanders had seized
the cannon, Governor Joseph

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Wanton frankly replied that
“they had done it to prevent

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their falling into the hands of
the King, or any of his

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Servants.”

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Captain Wallace’s report was
included among the “great heap”

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of papers laid before Parliament
in January 1775 as evidence of

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colonists in rebellion. It
traveled more than 3,000 miles

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to reach Westminster Hall, but
in many ways it had traveled

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much further. Twelve years
earlier, British Americans had

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celebrated the end of the Seven
Years’ War by toasting the best

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of kings. But time had taken its
toll, and their attachment to

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the king was weakening.

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Fred Anderson: In the Seven
Years' War, they thought they

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had won a great victory and a
great peace for a crown that

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they believed was the best on
Earth. And in the years that

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followed, inexplicable things
happened as a consequence of the

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Seven Years' War, of that great
victory, utterly inexplicable

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things happened as the British
tried to reform an empire and

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make it coherent and make it pay
for itself. After a long period

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of time when it wasn't paying
for itself, it was just running

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up debts and becoming something
that, to the British, looked

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like it was a monster in the
making. The Americans couldn't

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understand that things had
changed, and that all that war,

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that glorious war that was
behind them, had simply

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transformed their world into a
set of circumstances where the

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Empire wasn't going to work like
it did before, like they liked

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it to I'm Fred Anderson,
professor emeritus University of

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Colorado, at Boulder. What comes
after the Seven Years' War,

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therefore, is the equivalent of
the long decline in Amity

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between a couple who have come
to disagree over what they see

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as the nature of the
relationship, and through a

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lengthening series of arguments
and angry silences and brooding

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find themselves at swords points
and discover that the marriage

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really has come apart when
nobody was paying attention.

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Then they've reached the point
where they can acknowledge that

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there's no answer. The same
thing happens between 1763 and

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1770 and 1775 over the course of
12 years, what had been a really

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pretty happy marriage between
British subjects in North

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America and the king that they
leave they had served

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gloriously. That relationship
there comes apart in the same

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way over that period of 12
years, bit by bit, in crisis

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after crisis, until at the end,
blood is actually being shed on

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Lexington Green and Concord
Bridge.

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Jim Ambuske: Even then, even
before the effusion of blood,

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after all the rioting, protests,
massacres, and misgivings, many

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British Americans continued to
believe in the idea of a king

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who would intervene on their
behalf and set things right.

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They feared that his ministers
had mangled his mind, keeping

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the truth from him. They did not
understand that George III had a

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different sense of duty.

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So, how did George III imagine
his role as sovereign of the

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British Empire? How did British
Americans venerate their king?

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00:14:26,435 --> 00:14:30,215
And why did their violent break
with the king begin in the early

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00:14:30,215 --> 00:14:36,455
morning hours of April 19, 1775
just outside Boston on Lexington

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Green?  

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00:14:37,475 --> 00:14:40,775
To begin answering these
questions, we’ll head first to

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00:14:40,775 --> 00:14:45,200
London, for an education in
kingship. We’ll then sail back

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00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:49,100
to North America, to revel in
the cult of monarchy, before

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00:14:49,100 --> 00:14:52,340
marching out of Boston with
British regulars to seize and

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00:14:52,340 --> 00:14:55,640
destroy gunpowder, and confront
a rebellion.

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00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:00,500
Benjamin Rush: There's a
perception that in the late 18th

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century, Britain was an absolute
monarchy, that George III was

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00:15:04,460 --> 00:15:09,065
this cruel, cruel tyrant, and
that he was hell bent on

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00:15:09,065 --> 00:15:12,965
suppressing the rights of people
everywhere and establishing sort

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00:15:12,965 --> 00:15:16,565
of absolute rule. My name is
Brad Jones. I am a professor of

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00:15:16,565 --> 00:15:19,925
history at California State
University, Fresno. The reality

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00:15:19,925 --> 00:15:22,865
is that in the middle of the
18th century, British society

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00:15:23,105 --> 00:15:26,525
lived under a constitutional
monarchy, a representative

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00:15:26,525 --> 00:15:28,325
monarchy, a system of
government, which they

246
00:15:28,370 --> 00:15:31,970
celebrated as providing them
with a degree of freedom

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00:15:31,970 --> 00:15:36,110
unmatched they thought, at least
in the Western world, and the

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00:15:36,110 --> 00:15:38,330
sense that they actually had a
representative branch of

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00:15:38,330 --> 00:15:41,510
government the king himself
existed post glorious

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00:15:41,510 --> 00:15:44,330
revolution, within this
government, he was not an

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00:15:44,330 --> 00:15:48,530
absolutist. He in many ways,
held very little power, or was

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00:15:48,530 --> 00:15:51,290
able to express very little
power, and that the vast

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00:15:51,290 --> 00:15:54,695
majority of power and authority
came from Parliament, of which a

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00:15:54,695 --> 00:15:57,815
branch was representative. So
they celebrated this as one of

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00:15:57,815 --> 00:16:00,275
the great tenets of being
British is that they lived in a

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00:16:00,275 --> 00:16:01,775
relatively free society.

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00:16:02,260 --> 00:16:05,380
Jim Ambuske: George III came of
age in the aftermath of an

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00:16:05,380 --> 00:16:09,160
earlier revolution that remade
the British Empire, one that

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00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,280
transformed the relationship
between Parliament and the

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00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:12,700
crown.

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00:16:12,700 --> 00:16:15,940
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: The power
of the monarchy had been much

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00:16:15,940 --> 00:16:20,860
reduced by what's known, or used
to be popular, known as the

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00:16:20,860 --> 00:16:27,145
Glorious Revolution 1688, we use
that term less now because it

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00:16:27,145 --> 00:16:30,625
was not so glorious for the
Irish and Scottish, but an

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00:16:30,625 --> 00:16:34,465
important constitutional
landmark in limiting the power

266
00:16:34,465 --> 00:16:38,185
of the monarchy and making
Parliament a permanent part of

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00:16:38,185 --> 00:16:41,845
The system of government and
essentially making monarchs

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00:16:41,905 --> 00:16:47,485
dependent on parliament in order
to govern. My name's Andrew

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00:16:47,605 --> 00:16:50,590
O'Shaughnessy. I'm Professor of
History at the University of

270
00:16:50,590 --> 00:16:55,090
Virginia. George III still
essentially remained the head of

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00:16:55,270 --> 00:17:00,910
government and chose the Prime
Minister, but he was limited to

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00:17:00,910 --> 00:17:04,930
choosing prime ministers who had
popular support in the House of

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00:17:04,930 --> 00:17:09,190
Commons. When Georges heard
tried to appoint someone who was

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00:17:09,190 --> 00:17:12,775
not popular in the House of
Commons, he learnt, to his cost,

275
00:17:12,775 --> 00:17:17,035
that that was not possible, and
he was also important in

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00:17:17,035 --> 00:17:21,235
choosing the ministers of the
government. There are other ways

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00:17:21,235 --> 00:17:25,015
in which his power was more
limited. No monarch had tried to

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00:17:25,015 --> 00:17:28,495
use the veto since the reign of
Queen Anne at the beginning of

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00:17:28,495 --> 00:17:32,275
the century, and no monarch has
ever tried to use it. So you

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00:17:32,275 --> 00:17:37,000
could say that that power had
fallen into dissuadeatude and he

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00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:42,400
was financially dependent on
parliament to vote support for

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00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:44,380
the costs of kingship.

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00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:49,820
Jim Ambuske: As a young boy, the
future king’s mentors instilled

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00:17:49,820 --> 00:17:52,820
in him a sense of duty and
obligation to the national

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00:17:52,820 --> 00:17:57,260
interest that transcended
personal ambition. In the late

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00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,760
1740s, his father, Frederick,
Prince of Wales, drew up a set

287
00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:05,840
of maxims for his 10-year-old
son. He counseled George “to

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00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,825
live with Oeconomy” whenever
“the Crown comes into your

289
00:18:08,945 --> 00:18:13,325
hands,” to reduce the national
debt as quickly as possible, to

290
00:18:13,325 --> 00:18:17,525
“let not Your ambition draw you
into” war, but never “give up

291
00:18:17,525 --> 00:18:21,005
Your Honour nor that of the
Nation,” and to “Convince this

292
00:18:21,005 --> 00:18:24,965
nation that you are not only an
Englishman born and bred, but

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00:18:24,965 --> 00:18:26,705
you are also this by
inclination.”

294
00:18:26,705 --> 00:18:31,505
The German-born Frederick had a
strained relationship with his

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00:18:31,550 --> 00:18:35,690
own father, the equally
German-born King George II, with

296
00:18:35,690 --> 00:18:39,830
whom he quarrelled over
politics. Frederick did not want

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00:18:39,830 --> 00:18:43,610
that for his own English-born
heir, nor did he wish to leave

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00:18:43,610 --> 00:18:47,870
his son without advice on how to
rule wisely when his time came.

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00:18:48,290 --> 00:18:52,910
That time arrived sooner than
anyone expected. Though he did

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00:18:52,910 --> 00:18:58,295
not know it, Frederick would
never wear the crown. In 1751,

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00:18:58,475 --> 00:19:02,315
two years after composing his
maxims, Frederick died at the

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00:19:02,315 --> 00:19:08,015
age of 44. George became heir
apparent as Prince of Wales.  

303
00:19:08,195 --> 00:19:11,555
Frederick’s early death made
George’s education in kingship

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00:19:11,555 --> 00:19:15,335
all the more important. Under
the tutelage of the Earl of

305
00:19:15,335 --> 00:19:18,980
Bute, the future king read
histories of past monarchs,

306
00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:23,420
drawing lessons from their
successes and failures; explored

307
00:19:23,420 --> 00:19:26,960
the origins and foundations of
the British constitution;

308
00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:31,040
studied the economics of trade;
and the politics of foreign

309
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:35,720
powers. Thousands of pages of
the king’s handwritten notes and

310
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:39,605
essays survive in the Royal
Archives, attesting to his

311
00:19:39,605 --> 00:19:40,085
studies.

312
00:19:40,925 --> 00:19:44,645
More than anything, George’s
lessons prepared him to be a

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00:19:44,645 --> 00:19:45,785
Patriot King.

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00:19:45,785 --> 00:19:49,025
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: There was
a work by Lord Bolingbroke

315
00:19:49,025 --> 00:19:54,725
called a patriot King that put
forward these ideas the monarch

316
00:19:54,725 --> 00:20:00,305
who would govern with a view to
the best interests of the. The

317
00:20:00,305 --> 00:20:05,270
people and would be an active
part of government, and

318
00:20:05,270 --> 00:20:10,190
supposedly, George the Third was
introduced to this by his tutor

319
00:20:10,550 --> 00:20:13,250
and eventually Prime Minister,
the Earl of Bute.

320
00:20:13,910 --> 00:20:17,510
Jim Ambuske: Henry Saint John,
1st Viscount Bolingbroke, was a

321
00:20:17,510 --> 00:20:20,390
politician who had been a thorn
in the side of George’s

322
00:20:20,570 --> 00:20:24,350
great-grandfather. Lord
Bolingbroke cavorted with

323
00:20:24,350 --> 00:20:27,875
Jacobites and  opposed the
governments of the first half of

324
00:20:27,875 --> 00:20:31,895
the eighteenth century. His
machinations forced him into

325
00:20:31,895 --> 00:20:35,735
exile in France, but he later
returned to England where he

326
00:20:35,735 --> 00:20:39,095
became a leading propagandist
against his old political

327
00:20:39,095 --> 00:20:39,755
enemies.  

328
00:20:40,415 --> 00:20:43,955
Bolingbroke became enamored with
history and political

329
00:20:43,955 --> 00:20:47,675
philosophy. Believing that
corruption ran rampant in

330
00:20:47,675 --> 00:20:50,780
government, and Parliament’s
independence remained under

331
00:20:50,780 --> 00:20:54,680
threat, Bolingbroke began
writing treatises to lay the

332
00:20:54,680 --> 00:21:00,140
foundations for a new opposition
faction. In the late 1730s, when

333
00:21:00,140 --> 00:21:03,020
he learned that Frederick,
Prince of Wales, was allying

334
00:21:03,020 --> 00:21:06,200
himself with members of
Parliament who opposed George

335
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:10,880
II’s ministers, Bolingbroke
wrote The Idea of a Patriot

336
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:11,240
King.

337
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:14,885
Bolingbroke: “A Patriot King
will neither neglect nor

338
00:21:14,885 --> 00:21:18,725
sacrifice his country's
interest. No other interest,

339
00:21:18,725 --> 00:21:21,785
neither a foreign nor a
domestic, neither a public nor a

340
00:21:21,785 --> 00:21:26,705
private, will influence his
conduct in government.”

341
00:21:26,705 --> 00:21:28,745
Jim Ambuske: Bolingbroke’s
Patriot King would stand above

342
00:21:28,745 --> 00:21:32,765
political factions to rule as a
benevolent father to a united

343
00:21:32,765 --> 00:21:37,010
nation. He would appoint only
the wisest and most capable men

344
00:21:37,010 --> 00:21:40,910
to lead his governments. Private
virtue would govern his public

345
00:21:40,910 --> 00:21:43,850
character. As Bolingbroke
concluded:

346
00:21:44,390 --> 00:21:48,050
Bolingbroke: “Nothing can so
surely and so effectually

347
00:21:48,170 --> 00:21:51,590
restore the virtue and public
spirit essential to the

348
00:21:51,590 --> 00:21:55,670
preservation of liberty and
national prosperity, as the

349
00:21:55,670 --> 00:21:57,890
reign of such a prince.”

350
00:21:57,890 --> 00:22:03,335
Jim Ambuske: George III’s 1751
copy of The Idea of a Patriot

351
00:22:03,335 --> 00:22:08,375
King survives in his personal
library. Lord Bute intended the

352
00:22:08,375 --> 00:22:12,395
treatise to mold the future
king’s mind in a turbulent era

353
00:22:12,395 --> 00:22:16,895
riven with political faction,
but some saw darker portents.

354
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,680
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: It would
be regarded as very sinister at

355
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,160
the time, people thought that
Bute was encouraging him to

356
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:29,560
become essentially a dictator
and to take unauthorized powers.

357
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:34,660
Been huge debate since this
period, and during this period

358
00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:37,660
as to whether he was a
constitutional monarch or not.

359
00:22:37,900 --> 00:22:41,965
He certainly planned to be the
ultimate constitutional monarch,

360
00:22:42,505 --> 00:22:46,345
but this really involved
exercising all of the powers he

361
00:22:46,345 --> 00:22:50,485
had at a time when there was an
increasing tendency to challenge

362
00:22:50,485 --> 00:22:54,205
those powers. Parliament was
making greater and greater

363
00:22:54,205 --> 00:22:57,805
claims, not least in America,
where for the first time, it

364
00:22:57,805 --> 00:23:00,925
claimed the right to be able to
tax America directly.

365
00:23:01,645 --> 00:23:03,850
Jim Ambuske: When the
22-year-old Prince of Wales

366
00:23:03,850 --> 00:23:09,070
ascended to the throne as George
III on October 25, 1760, the

367
00:23:09,070 --> 00:23:11,410
young king brought these lessons
to bear.

368
00:23:11,410 --> 00:23:16,390
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: He wanted
to be a patriot King, and really

369
00:23:16,570 --> 00:23:21,550
he was something of an idealist.
He felt that the politics of his

370
00:23:21,670 --> 00:23:24,910
great grandfather and his
grandfather's reign had been

371
00:23:24,910 --> 00:23:29,395
corrupt, that the same people
had governed for much too long,

372
00:23:29,815 --> 00:23:36,055
and George III wanted to see
change, I think very

373
00:23:36,055 --> 00:23:38,995
importantly, he saw himself as
very much part of The

374
00:23:38,995 --> 00:23:43,195
Constitution of one of the
checks and balances, and was

375
00:23:43,195 --> 00:23:47,275
against the idea that government
was just government by the Prime

376
00:23:47,275 --> 00:23:51,640
Minister and the House of
Commons. He saw it as his job to

377
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:56,320
hold the House of Commons in
check and to really use his

378
00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:03,100
power. He
bring about change, he very

379
00:24:03,100 --> 00:24:06,760
quickly starts sacking
ministers, beginning with the

380
00:24:06,820 --> 00:24:10,840
Duke and Newcastle had been in
power 20 years, then William

381
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,985
Pitt the elder, and this
actually leads to a decade of

382
00:24:16,045 --> 00:24:21,325
instability during the 1760s
while He tries to find a prime

383
00:24:21,325 --> 00:24:25,585
minister as an alternative who
has popular support among

384
00:24:25,825 --> 00:24:28,945
members of the House of Commons,
there are seven different

385
00:24:29,005 --> 00:24:33,865
ministers during the 1760s which
must have implications for

386
00:24:33,865 --> 00:24:34,465
America.

387
00:24:35,065 --> 00:24:37,750
Jim Ambuske: Despite the
instability of seven different

388
00:24:37,750 --> 00:24:41,950
prime ministers, each who had
varying ideas about how best to

389
00:24:41,950 --> 00:24:43,570
reform British America:

390
00:24:44,590 --> 00:24:46,690
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: He saw
himself as a patriot king. He

391
00:24:46,690 --> 00:24:51,490
saw it as his duty to support
the claims of Parliament, and so

392
00:24:51,490 --> 00:24:56,170
he did not doubt the right of
Parliament to govern America or

393
00:24:56,170 --> 00:25:00,955
to tax America. There are few
occasions for. You can see that

394
00:25:00,955 --> 00:25:05,395
he does, in fact, try to draw
back on some of the more

395
00:25:05,395 --> 00:25:10,495
draconian policies being
proposed by ministers, but for

396
00:25:10,495 --> 00:25:13,675
the most part, he's supportive
of what his prime ministers are

397
00:25:13,675 --> 00:25:18,595
doing. He did agree to the
withdrawal of the Stamp Act, and

398
00:25:18,595 --> 00:25:23,260
later saw that as one of the
main errors of his reign, he

399
00:25:23,260 --> 00:25:28,000
felt that the failure to be
consistently firm later had been

400
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:28,660
a big error.

401
00:25:29,860 --> 00:25:33,040
Jim Ambuske: George III’s later
regret at the Stamp Act’s repeal

402
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:36,400
– at the government’s collective
failure to stand firm in the

403
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,580
face of British America’s
resistance to what the king

404
00:25:39,580 --> 00:25:43,000
believed was Parliament’s
constitutional right to tax the

405
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,245
colonies – paled in comparison
at the time to the celebrations

406
00:25:47,245 --> 00:25:51,265
on both sides of the Atlantic at
the act’s demise and the praise

407
00:25:51,265 --> 00:25:53,305
the king received for allowing
it.

408
00:25:53,725 --> 00:25:58,045
Britons paraded their king to
Parliament in 1766 to give his

409
00:25:58,045 --> 00:26:01,705
royal assent to the repeal. The
story of the parade soon

410
00:26:01,705 --> 00:26:05,185
appeared in newspapers across
British America, where it was

411
00:26:05,185 --> 00:26:09,370
paired with a report from France
about Louis XV’s conduct at

412
00:26:09,370 --> 00:26:13,210
precisely the same moment that
crowds were cheering George III

413
00:26:13,270 --> 00:26:16,390
as he rode to Westminster.
Here’s Brad Jones:

414
00:26:16,390 --> 00:26:19,570
Benjamin Rush: Louis the 15th,
the very same moment surrounds

415
00:26:19,570 --> 00:26:23,410
himself with soldiers, marches
to the Paris parliament, the

416
00:26:23,410 --> 00:26:27,070
French court in Paris, and it
reminds these men, I'm in

417
00:26:27,070 --> 00:26:31,555
charge. I run the show. You are
under my power. I am sovereign.

418
00:26:32,035 --> 00:26:35,215
I've located that story in
newspapers across the Atlantic

419
00:26:35,215 --> 00:26:38,875
that was republished everywhere.
That's a very common account of

420
00:26:38,875 --> 00:26:41,995
the repeal the Stamp Act, and
one of which is celebrating

421
00:26:41,995 --> 00:26:44,815
again, the beauty of their
political system, celebrating

422
00:26:44,815 --> 00:26:47,815
George III but they put it in
conversation with the tyranny or

423
00:26:47,815 --> 00:26:49,795
arbitrary nature of the French
monarchy.

424
00:26:50,215 --> 00:26:53,215
Jim Ambuske: Cheering the Stamp
Act’s repeal and the king’s role

425
00:26:51,021 --> 00:26:51,046
Some were deceptively simple,
yet no less meaningful: the

426
00:26:51,047 --> 00:26:51,070
swearing of an oath. For
example, in 1768, amidst the

427
00:26:51,071 --> 00:26:51,097
Regulator crisis in the North
Carolina backcountry, public

428
00:26:51,097 --> 00:26:51,106
officials pledged:

429
00:26:53,260 --> 00:26:56,980
in it was just one of the many
ways that British Americans

430
00:26:56,980 --> 00:26:59,440
celebrated the British monarchy
and strengthened their

431
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,340
connection to it. Although most
British Americans had never been

432
00:27:03,340 --> 00:27:07,120
in a monarch’s presence, to say
nothing of public or private

433
00:27:07,180 --> 00:27:10,600
audiences with the king, they
participated in rituals that

434
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:13,180
bound them to a crown an ocean
away.

435
00:27:24,045 --> 00:27:30,105
Oath Taker: “I do sincerely
promise and swear that I will

436
00:27:30,105 --> 00:27:33,345
bear true allegiance to His
Majesty King George the

437
00:27:34,245 --> 00:27:35,025
Third.—So help me God.”

438
00:27:35,025 --> 00:27:38,910
Jim Ambuske: As Katherine Carté,
professor of history at Southern

439
00:27:38,910 --> 00:27:43,050
Methodist University explains,
oaths were a compact between

440
00:27:43,050 --> 00:27:46,410
subjects and monarchs, backed by
God himself.

441
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:50,560
Katherine Carté: People really
believed that oaths were a

442
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:56,020
sacred declaration of which God
was a part. When you made an

443
00:27:56,020 --> 00:27:59,680
oath, you were declaring
something to be true, and God

444
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,940
was judging you on your truth in
that moment, and so if you

445
00:28:02,940 --> 00:28:06,900
violated it, you were committing
a level of religious sin that

446
00:28:06,900 --> 00:28:11,580
was far beyond simply lying to
the state, but lying to God.

447
00:28:11,580 --> 00:28:12,660
That's a big deal.

448
00:28:13,180 --> 00:28:16,180
Jim Ambuske: Judges, jurors,
governors, sheriffs, lawyers,

449
00:28:16,180 --> 00:28:20,200
and witnesses all swore similar
oaths of allegiance before

450
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,860
entering office or giving
testimony, pledging fealty to

451
00:28:23,860 --> 00:28:27,100
the king, his government, and
the laws of his province.  

452
00:28:27,700 --> 00:28:31,120
In the eighteenth century,
British monarchs swore oaths of

453
00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:34,960
their own to defend the
Protestant faith. They were head

454
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,305
of the Anglican Church and
pledged to protect the rights of

455
00:28:38,305 --> 00:28:42,505
the Church of Scotland. For
Anglicans in colonies like New

456
00:28:42,505 --> 00:28:45,685
York or Virginia, their
connection to the crown took on

457
00:28:45,685 --> 00:28:49,225
a divine dimension, one anointed
by God.

458
00:28:50,245 --> 00:28:53,965
Almanacs kept the monarchy and
British Protestantism ever

459
00:28:53,965 --> 00:28:58,825
present in colonists’ lives by
ordering time itself. As readers

460
00:28:58,825 --> 00:29:03,430
of the 1758 edition of Benjamin
Franklin’s Poor Richard’s

461
00:29:03,490 --> 00:29:07,030
Almanack would have noticed,
November was a busy month on the

462
00:29:07,030 --> 00:29:07,870
British calendar.

463
00:29:08,230 --> 00:29:12,370
Colonists remembered the 5th of
November with Pope’s Day, to

464
00:29:12,370 --> 00:29:15,910
celebrate the defeat of an
English Catholic conspiracy in

465
00:29:15,910 --> 00:29:21,010
1605 to blow up Parliament with
a hidden store of gunpowder. On

466
00:29:21,010 --> 00:29:25,435
the 7th, they could toast to the
1745 birth of Prince Henry,

467
00:29:25,495 --> 00:29:29,275
George III’s younger brother.
Three days later, they would

468
00:29:29,275 --> 00:29:33,175
have heard cannon boom from
forts in Philadelphia, Boston,

469
00:29:33,175 --> 00:29:37,375
New York, or Charleston, in
honor of George II’s birth in

470
00:29:37,435 --> 00:29:43,195
1683. On November 30th, Scots in
the colonies could revel in St.

471
00:29:43,195 --> 00:29:43,795
Andrew’s Day.

472
00:29:43,975 --> 00:29:48,820
To mark the end of the Seven
Years’ War, more than 200

473
00:29:48,820 --> 00:29:53,380
colonists gathered in Faneuil
Hall in the summer of 1763 to

474
00:29:53,380 --> 00:29:53,980
toast:

475
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:57,460
Toast: “The King.--The Queen,
Prince of Wales, and Royal

476
00:29:57,580 --> 00:29:57,760
Family”

477
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,440
Jim Ambuske: The booms of cannon
or the huzzahs of toasts might

478
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,800
have rattled portraits of kings
and queens in public buildings

479
00:30:05,860 --> 00:30:09,280
like provincial assemblies,
courts of justice, and taverns,

480
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,565
or in the private homes of
colonists who could afford them.

481
00:30:12,985 --> 00:30:15,745
Portraits were visual
manifestations of the

482
00:30:15,805 --> 00:30:18,805
sovereign’s presence in
provincial life, watching over

483
00:30:18,805 --> 00:30:22,405
the passage of laws or the
administration of justice done

484
00:30:22,405 --> 00:30:25,405
in the monarch’s name, or
perhaps looking over the

485
00:30:25,405 --> 00:30:29,125
shoulders of colonists sharing a
pint in their local tavern as

486
00:30:29,125 --> 00:30:31,285
they read the latest news from
London.  

487
00:30:33,745 --> 00:30:37,750
In London, one British American
felt the power of the royal

488
00:30:37,750 --> 00:30:43,990
presence more fervently. In
October 1768, the Philadelphian

489
00:30:43,990 --> 00:30:47,230
Benjamin Rush, then a medical
student at the University of

490
00:30:47,230 --> 00:30:50,650
Edinburgh, was visiting London
when he toured the houses of

491
00:30:50,650 --> 00:30:55,030
Parliament. As he told a friend,
when he entered the House of

492
00:30:55,075 --> 00:30:55,795
Lords:

493
00:30:56,140 --> 00:30:59,680
Benjamin Rush: “I felt as if I
walked on sacred ground. I gazed

494
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,400
for some time at the Throne with
emotions that I cannot

495
00:31:03,460 --> 00:31:03,640
describe.”

496
00:31:04,060 --> 00:31:07,060
Jim Ambuske: Rush pestered his
tour guide until he allowed the

497
00:31:07,060 --> 00:31:09,760
aspiring doctor to sit upon the
throne.

498
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,940
Benjamin Rush: “I accordingly
advanced toward it and sat in it

499
00:31:12,940 --> 00:31:14,080
for a considerable time.”

500
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,600
Jim Ambuske: Those moments
overwhelmed him.

501
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:19,705
Benjamin Rush: “I was seized
with a kind of horror which for

502
00:31:19,705 --> 00:31:23,365
some time interrupted my
ordinary train of thinking…I

503
00:31:23,365 --> 00:31:26,185
endeavored to arrange my
thoughts into some order, but

504
00:31:26,185 --> 00:31:29,965
such a crowd of ideas poured in
upon my mind that I can scarcely

505
00:31:29,965 --> 00:31:31,165
recollect one of them.”

506
00:31:31,225 --> 00:31:35,245
Jim Ambuske: Composing himself,
Rush rose from the throne, and

507
00:31:35,245 --> 00:31:39,025
left the House of Lords for the
House of Commons. In the other

508
00:31:39,025 --> 00:31:41,605
place, he felt a darker
presence.

509
00:31:42,625 --> 00:31:45,670
Benjamin Rush: “This, thought I,
is the place where the infernal

510
00:31:45,670 --> 00:31:50,230
scheme for enslaving America was
first broached. Here the

511
00:31:50,230 --> 00:31:53,410
usurping Commons first
endeavored to rob the King of

512
00:31:53,410 --> 00:31:56,830
his supremacy over the colonies
and to divide it among

513
00:31:56,830 --> 00:32:01,750
themselves. O! Cursed haunt of
venality, bribery, and

514
00:32:03,850 --> 00:32:04,030
corruption!”

515
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,400
Jim Ambuske: Rush’s guide
pointed to the seat from whence

516
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:09,760
William Pitt had risen to argue
in favor of the Stamp Act’s

517
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:14,620
repeal. The young colonist sat
on Pitt’s seat, and imagining

518
00:32:14,620 --> 00:32:19,060
himself surrounded by Members of
Parliament, rose to recite part

519
00:32:19,060 --> 00:32:20,680
of Pitt’s speech, crying;

520
00:32:20,860 --> 00:32:24,160
Benjamin Rush: “Americans are
the sons, not the bastards of

521
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:29,080
Englishmen. I rejoice that
America has resisted.

522
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,520
Jim Ambuske: In the years after
the Stamp Act’s repeal, some

523
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,820
colonies chose to honor the
defenders of British American

524
00:32:37,820 --> 00:32:42,440
liberty by building public
monuments to them. These statues

525
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,980
were meant to deepen colonists’
affection for the crown and the

526
00:32:45,980 --> 00:32:46,880
Mother Country.

527
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,160
Wendy Bellion: When the Act is
repealed in 1766, several

528
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:55,060
colonies along the eastern
seaboard decide that the proper

529
00:32:55,060 --> 00:32:58,720
way to honor William Pitt is to
order statues of him and to

530
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:03,180
raise statues of him in central
areas, highly visible areas

531
00:33:03,180 --> 00:33:07,980
within their city. My name is
Wendy Bellion. I am a professor

532
00:33:07,980 --> 00:33:10,680
and the Sewell Biggs Chair of
American Art History at the

533
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,800
University of Delaware, where
I'm also the Associate Dean for

534
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:18,240
the Humanities. There are a
number of colonies that decide

535
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,620
to do this. New York and South
Carolina are the most prominent,

536
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:24,620
and they are the ones who
eventually are able to realize

537
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,200
these statues. These are the
only colonies that end up

538
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,880
commissioning statues of pit and
raising them in public spaces

539
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:34,720
Jim Ambuske: With no sculptor in
the colonies capable of

540
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,020
undertaking these works, New
York and South Carolina

541
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:41,500
instructed their agents in
London to find someone suitable.

542
00:33:41,860 --> 00:33:43,120
New York followed:

543
00:33:43,300 --> 00:33:46,600
Wendy Bellion: The lead of the
South Carolina agent, who says,

544
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:50,140
I found this wonderful sculptor.
He's already working for King

545
00:33:50,140 --> 00:33:53,860
George III he has a large
workshop. He's been trained in

546
00:33:53,860 --> 00:33:57,460
Italy. So he understands
classical traditions, but he's

547
00:33:57,460 --> 00:34:00,640
also a modern sculptor. He also
understands that we don't just

548
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,820
want a reproduction of something
that might have looked like it

549
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:05,898
should have been in ancient
Rome. This should be updated in

550
00:34:05,898 --> 00:34:08,785
some way for the very modern
18th century, which was a very

551
00:34:08,785 --> 00:34:13,525
modern century. His name was
Joseph Wilton. Wilton is

552
00:34:13,525 --> 00:34:17,545
commissioned to send marble
statues of William Pitt to

553
00:34:17,545 --> 00:34:19,405
Charleston and to New York City.

554
00:34:19,799 --> 00:34:22,639
Jim Ambuske: The materials
Wilton chose for the two statues

555
00:34:22,639 --> 00:34:25,639
of Pitt were very specific and
deliberate.

556
00:34:25,060 --> 00:34:27,940
Wendy Bellion: When we look at
sculpture today, we might not

557
00:34:27,940 --> 00:34:31,180
think about the significance of
the materials that are used to

558
00:34:31,180 --> 00:34:34,780
create them. They were very
significant at this time by

559
00:34:34,780 --> 00:34:39,640
carving a marble, Wilton was
signaling his ability to work in

560
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:43,300
the same kind of manner as
ancient classical sculptors

561
00:34:43,300 --> 00:34:47,740
would have worked. When we talk
about style and form in 18th

562
00:34:47,740 --> 00:34:51,145
century, we use the term
neoclassical. This was a period

563
00:34:51,145 --> 00:34:55,705
of neoclassical revival, a
revival of ancient ideas,

564
00:34:55,705 --> 00:34:59,725
philosophies, writings and art
and architecture, and this

565
00:34:59,725 --> 00:35:03,445
helps. To explain why, when
folks in New York and South

566
00:35:03,445 --> 00:35:07,345
Carolina wanted a sculpture of
William Pitt, a man who was

567
00:35:07,345 --> 00:35:12,610
famous as an orator, a man who
was compared in stature and

568
00:35:12,610 --> 00:35:17,170
prowess and persuasion to
ancient orators like Cicero,

569
00:35:17,410 --> 00:35:20,890
they want him, for all intents
and purposes, to look like a

570
00:35:20,890 --> 00:35:25,810
classical individual marble. The
finest quality marble you could

571
00:35:25,810 --> 00:35:30,130
get your hands on was the choice
material for neoclassical

572
00:35:30,130 --> 00:35:33,850
sculpture, and that's what
Wilton was so good at doing.

573
00:35:34,375 --> 00:35:38,215
That meant ordering a large
block of marble, very often

574
00:35:38,215 --> 00:35:41,755
sourced from Italy, from
Carrara, if you were working in

575
00:35:41,755 --> 00:35:46,315
Europe, it meant that the
sculptor would work up the

576
00:35:46,315 --> 00:35:52,075
original idea. Much of the labor
of carving that block of marble

577
00:35:52,135 --> 00:35:56,275
would have been done by very
well practiced assistants in his

578
00:35:56,275 --> 00:36:00,100
workshop. And then toward the
end of the process, is where the

579
00:36:00,100 --> 00:36:03,340
sculptor himself would come in.
He would do all the fine

580
00:36:03,340 --> 00:36:08,080
details. And even though the New
York sculpture doesn't survive

581
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,560
in very good condition today,
the one in Charleston is in much

582
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,740
greater condition. And if you
ever have the chance to see it

583
00:36:14,740 --> 00:36:18,700
in Charleston, try and walk
around it, try and peer around

584
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:22,885
all aspects, all corners of this
sculpture, because that's how

585
00:36:22,885 --> 00:36:25,285
people in the 18th century would
have experienced it. They

586
00:36:25,285 --> 00:36:27,625
wouldn't have looked at it
straight on, like a painting.

587
00:36:27,685 --> 00:36:32,185
They would have walked around it
and Wilton expended his greatest

588
00:36:32,185 --> 00:36:35,665
degree of finesse and energy at
the places that would have been

589
00:36:35,725 --> 00:36:40,105
at eye level, so that you as a
viewer would have been able to

590
00:36:40,105 --> 00:36:43,945
appreciate not just the
political significance of Pitt,

591
00:36:43,945 --> 00:36:48,550
the man pit this accomplished
orator who was extending one

592
00:36:48,550 --> 00:36:52,090
hand as he was speaking, but you
would have noticed all these

593
00:36:52,090 --> 00:36:56,470
fine details, these carvings,
very delicate carvings. It's his

594
00:36:56,470 --> 00:36:59,710
way of demonstrating his
technique and skill as this

595
00:36:59,710 --> 00:37:02,170
incredibly talented carver.

596
00:37:04,630 --> 00:37:07,210
Jim Ambuske: New York, the
headquarters of the British Army

597
00:37:07,255 --> 00:37:11,395
in North America, with a major
imperial city of trade, also

598
00:37:11,395 --> 00:37:12,415
tasked Wilton:

599
00:37:12,655 --> 00:37:16,555
Wendy Bellion: To produce a
large equestrian statue of King

600
00:37:16,555 --> 00:37:21,175
George III the political
landscape of New York is such

601
00:37:21,175 --> 00:37:24,295
that a number of colonists
realize that it's going to be

602
00:37:24,295 --> 00:37:28,255
very bad form if they do not
also request a statue of the

603
00:37:28,255 --> 00:37:28,495
King.

604
00:37:28,495 --> 00:37:30,475
Jim Ambuske: There was only one
problem.

605
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:33,880
Wendy Bellion: Wilton has
absolutely no practice producing

606
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:38,140
large equestrian statues or
statues that have been cast in

607
00:37:38,140 --> 00:37:42,400
metal. He's a beautiful marble
sculptor, but he hasn't really

608
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,760
worked in metal. So Wilton does
what a lot of sculptors did at

609
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,780
that time, they outsourced a
large portion of their work.

610
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,540
Jim Ambuske: Wilton’s
subcontractors cast the king’s

611
00:37:52,540 --> 00:37:53,620
statue in lead.

612
00:37:53,665 --> 00:37:56,185
Wendy Bellion: The way that this
kind of sculpture would have

613
00:37:56,185 --> 00:38:00,865
been created is that a mold
would have been made, probably

614
00:38:00,865 --> 00:38:05,185
in plaster, very hot, molten
lead would have been poured into

615
00:38:05,185 --> 00:38:09,745
this empty shape, and once it
had solidified, the outer pieces

616
00:38:09,745 --> 00:38:13,645
of the mold were removed. So
what you had on the inside was a

617
00:38:13,645 --> 00:38:18,610
solid shape, or more often,
large, ambitious sculptures were

618
00:38:18,610 --> 00:38:22,270
actually cast in pieces. And
it's even possible that this is

619
00:38:22,270 --> 00:38:25,870
how the king statue was cast and
then shipped, potentially in

620
00:38:25,870 --> 00:38:29,290
pieces that could be welded back
together upon arrival.

621
00:38:29,540 --> 00:38:32,240
Jim Ambuske: The sculptors made
George III in the image of

622
00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:36,020
Marcus Aurelius, the ancient
Roman emperor and political

623
00:38:36,020 --> 00:38:39,560
philosopher, whose own writings
stressed self-improvement,

624
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:44,600
service, and duty. He sat upon a
magnificent horse, with his

625
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:47,960
right arm stretched out and his
hand raised in a benevolent

626
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:52,220
gesture toward his subjects. To
complete the statue, the

627
00:38:52,220 --> 00:38:55,205
sculptors covered the lead form
in gilded gold.

628
00:38:55,805 --> 00:38:58,925
It was shipped to New York,
where it was installed on top of

629
00:38:58,925 --> 00:39:03,065
a marble base on Bowling Green
in Lower Manhattan, the seat of

630
00:39:03,065 --> 00:39:04,505
British power in the colony.

631
00:39:04,505 --> 00:39:07,685
Wendy Bellion: But the problem
with lead is that it sags over

632
00:39:07,685 --> 00:39:12,785
time, it loses its structure.
And we know this because we have

633
00:39:12,785 --> 00:39:16,970
accounts of a statue that came
out of wilton's workshop, a

634
00:39:16,970 --> 00:39:19,910
statue of King George that put
up in a London Square at the

635
00:39:19,910 --> 00:39:23,750
exact same time that, several
decades after its creation, is

636
00:39:23,750 --> 00:39:28,190
already starting to fall over.
It has to be propped up. And

637
00:39:28,190 --> 00:39:31,850
this, of course, becomes
wonderful material for satirists

638
00:39:31,850 --> 00:39:35,510
to work with in London at the
time to suggest that, just like

639
00:39:35,510 --> 00:39:38,150
his statue, the king is losing
his power.

640
00:39:40,130 --> 00:39:44,315
Jim Ambuske: By early 1775,
colonists had been protesting a

641
00:39:44,315 --> 00:39:48,695
slew of imperial reforms and new
taxes for more than a decade.

642
00:39:48,935 --> 00:39:52,535
And despite temporary victories
like the Stamp Act’s rescission,

643
00:39:52,715 --> 00:39:56,375
Parliament seemed committed to a
pattern of oppression. Here’s

644
00:39:56,375 --> 00:39:59,435
Frank Cogliano, Professor of
American History at the

645
00:39:59,435 --> 00:40:00,575
University of Edinburgh.

646
00:40:00,575 --> 00:40:04,820
Dutchess County: The people, the
men, primarily, but not only, mn

647
00:40:04,820 --> 00:40:11,000
who lead this movement to resist
British tax policy are doing so

648
00:40:11,300 --> 00:40:13,700
because they believe that that
policy threatens their

649
00:40:13,700 --> 00:40:17,840
liberties. They mean that. They
mean that. And so they begin by

650
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,300
protesting, but they want to
protest in what they see as a

651
00:40:20,300 --> 00:40:24,380
responsible manner to make
Parliament and the king aware

652
00:40:24,380 --> 00:40:27,365
that their liberties are being
threatened. They begin by

653
00:40:27,365 --> 00:40:29,885
appealing to Parliament, and
then they give up on Parliament,

654
00:40:29,885 --> 00:40:32,345
and they are appealing directly
to George III. They say, well,

655
00:40:32,345 --> 00:40:33,785
the king should protect us.

656
00:40:34,385 --> 00:40:37,565
Jim Ambuske: They believed the
king had a duty to check

657
00:40:37,565 --> 00:40:42,485
Parliament’s power over the
colonies. In 1774, Thomas

658
00:40:42,485 --> 00:40:45,365
Jefferson wrote A Summary View
of the Rights of British

659
00:40:45,365 --> 00:40:47,945
America, as a set of
instructions for Virginia’s

660
00:40:47,945 --> 00:40:52,010
delegates to the Continental
Congress. In those instructions,

661
00:40:52,190 --> 00:40:56,390
he called on George III directly
to take action. Here’s Andrew

662
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,840
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: He's won
the first to call on George III

663
00:40:56,390 --> 00:40:56,570
O’Shaughnessy.

664
00:41:00,140 --> 00:41:04,400
to intervene. And Jefferson
really started to think of the

665
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:09,200
federal empire in which all
parts were equal, and that the

666
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,460
central government was really
something of an umpire with very

667
00:41:13,460 --> 00:41:18,680
weak powers, and the monarch
helped to adjudicate between the

668
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:23,285
regions. This was a desperate
last attempt to try and find

669
00:41:23,285 --> 00:41:27,425
some resolution, some way out,
because clearly, Parliament was

670
00:41:27,425 --> 00:41:32,225
not going to back down, and
there was a sense that a monarch

671
00:41:32,225 --> 00:41:36,845
could be a check upon the powers
of Parliament, even though

672
00:41:37,025 --> 00:41:40,205
George Lucert was willing to
check the house commons, the

673
00:41:40,205 --> 00:41:44,570
idea was that he was king. In
parliament, they governed

674
00:41:44,570 --> 00:41:49,490
together. And so to question its
powers and to undermine it would

675
00:41:49,490 --> 00:41:53,090
have been questioning the
premises of the revolution of

676
00:41:53,090 --> 00:41:59,390
1688. and he always regarded
himself as faithful to the

677
00:41:59,390 --> 00:42:03,650
principles of that revolution,
even though he tried to exercise

678
00:42:03,650 --> 00:42:05,090
its powers to a maximum.

679
00:42:05,090 --> 00:42:08,315
Jim Ambuske: Many British
Americans continued to believe

680
00:42:08,315 --> 00:42:12,035
deeply in the British Empire
that revolution created, with

681
00:42:12,035 --> 00:42:15,575
the king at its head. For
colonists suspicious of the

682
00:42:15,575 --> 00:42:18,515
extra-legal committees who
enforced the Continental

683
00:42:18,515 --> 00:42:22,235
Congress’s trade boycott, or the
pretensions to power by the

684
00:42:22,235 --> 00:42:26,135
extralegal Congress itself, for
devote colonists who worshiped

685
00:42:26,135 --> 00:42:29,420
in Anglican churches, and for
colonists who believed that

686
00:42:29,420 --> 00:42:34,700
George III was king by right, by
law, and by God, the monarchy

687
00:42:34,700 --> 00:42:38,360
was a source of strength in a
troubling moment. As some

688
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,360
residents in Dutchess County,
New York proclaimed:

689
00:42:41,900 --> 00:42:44,780
Dutchess County: “our sovereign
lord king George the third, is

690
00:42:44,780 --> 00:42:49,040
the only sovereign to whom the
British American may, can, or

691
00:42:49,100 --> 00:42:52,745
ought to owe and bear true and
faithfull allegiance.”

692
00:42:55,565 --> 00:42:58,565
Jim Ambuske: But as their
profession of loyalty implied in

693
00:42:58,565 --> 00:43:04,025
this moment, expressions of
disloyalty were everywhere. Not

694
00:43:04,025 --> 00:43:07,805
long after the installation of
the King’s equestrian statue in

695
00:43:07,805 --> 00:43:11,645
Lower Manhattan, the city
council erected an iron fence

696
00:43:11,645 --> 00:43:18,290
around it. In 1773, it passed an
anti-graffiti act to protect it

697
00:43:18,350 --> 00:43:22,250
and the Pitt statue from
defacement. As the crisis in

698
00:43:22,250 --> 00:43:25,550
North America accelerated with
the passage of the Coercive Acts

699
00:43:25,550 --> 00:43:30,890
in 1774, some British Americans
began losing faith in the king,

700
00:43:31,190 --> 00:43:33,050
if not the monarchy itself.

701
00:43:33,530 --> 00:43:36,950
And they turned on fellow
colonists who did not share

702
00:43:36,950 --> 00:43:38,270
their sentiments.  

703
00:43:38,930 --> 00:43:42,335
In October of that year, an
Englishman named Nicholas

704
00:43:42,335 --> 00:43:46,595
Cresswell was traveling through
Virginia. While in Alexandria,

705
00:43:46,595 --> 00:43:48,215
he confided in his journal:

706
00:43:48,695 --> 00:43:51,275
Nicholas Cresswell: “Every thing
here is in the utmost confusion,

707
00:43:51,875 --> 00:43:54,995
Committees are appointed to
inspect into the Characters and

708
00:43:54,995 --> 00:43:58,715
Conduct of every tradesman to
prevent them Selling Tea, or

709
00:43:58,715 --> 00:44:02,600
buying British Manufactures.
Some of them has been Tarred and

710
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:05,420
Feathered others had their
property Burned and destroyed by

711
00:44:05,420 --> 00:44:09,020
the populace. Independent
Companies are raising in every

712
00:44:09,020 --> 00:44:12,080
County on the Continent[,]
appointed adjutants and train

713
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,680
their men as if they was on the
Eve of a War…….The King is

714
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:20,660
openly Cursed and his authority
set at defiance. In short every

715
00:44:20,660 --> 00:44:21,920
thing is ripe for Rebellion.”

716
00:44:23,420 --> 00:44:27,965
Jim Ambuske: One evening in
January 1775, two New York Sons

717
00:44:27,965 --> 00:44:31,565
of Liberty threatened John Case
for daring to swear loyalty to

718
00:44:31,565 --> 00:44:36,005
the king. Alexander McDougall
questioned Case on whether he

719
00:44:36,005 --> 00:44:40,205
believed that George III had
violated his coronation oath to

720
00:44:40,205 --> 00:44:43,925
defend the Protestant faith by
agreeing to the Quebec Act and

721
00:44:43,925 --> 00:44:47,945
the protections it afforded
Catholic French Canadians. Case

722
00:44:47,945 --> 00:44:52,970
believed the king had not. Isaac
Sears condemned him as a Tory

723
00:44:52,970 --> 00:44:57,350
and implied that Case ought to
be put to death. When he asked

724
00:44:57,350 --> 00:45:01,070
Case if he would fight for the
king should Bostonians take up

725
00:45:01,070 --> 00:45:05,510
arms against him, Case replied
that he would defend the crown.

726
00:45:06,110 --> 00:45:10,235
For his crime of loyalty,
McDougall and Sears forced Case

727
00:45:10,235 --> 00:45:13,475
to sit, shunned, in the corner
of the tavern for the rest of

728
00:45:13,475 --> 00:45:16,175
the night, guarded by a young
Black man.

729
00:45:16,895 --> 00:45:20,615
In March, a crowd assaulted
William Cunningham for yelling

730
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:22,700
William Cunningham: “God bless
King George.”

731
00:45:22,700 --> 00:45:27,320
Jim Ambuske: Their anger was as
much at Parliament as it was now

732
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:30,860
at a king who possessed a sense
of duty they could not

733
00:45:30,860 --> 00:45:35,840
understand. But it was also
George III’s own failure to

734
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:39,080
comprehend the roots of a
looming rebellion that made

735
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:41,060
disaster all the more likely.

736
00:45:41,060 --> 00:45:46,145
Rick Atkinson: He is committed
to the Empire. He's committed to

737
00:45:46,145 --> 00:45:49,865
the monarchy, and yet he is, in
some ways, an enlightened

738
00:45:49,865 --> 00:45:53,585
monarch. He is not an absolute
ruler. He's not a despot. He

739
00:45:53,585 --> 00:45:56,345
cannot be an absolute ruler
under the rules the British have

740
00:45:56,345 --> 00:45:59,705
set up for the relationship
between Parliament and the

741
00:45:59,705 --> 00:46:04,565
monarchy late in the 17th
century, and so he observes the

742
00:46:04,625 --> 00:46:08,330
requisites of being a British
king, which is the parliament

743
00:46:08,330 --> 00:46:13,250
shares power with him. I'm Rick
Atkinson. I'm an author and

744
00:46:13,250 --> 00:46:17,990
military historian. He is
committed to holding together

745
00:46:17,990 --> 00:46:21,650
the Empire. And so he is
determined that whatever it

746
00:46:21,650 --> 00:46:24,950
takes, including bloodshed
against his own people in

747
00:46:24,950 --> 00:46:27,890
America, he will necessarily do.

748
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:32,940
Andrew O'Shaughnessy: He becomes
obsessed with revolt in America,

749
00:46:33,240 --> 00:46:37,620
and said there'll be lions as
long as we continue to act as

750
00:46:37,620 --> 00:46:43,320
sheep with the Boston Tea Party.
He basically felt that there was

751
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:49,260
now no turning back. This issue
had to be decided militarily,

752
00:46:49,860 --> 00:46:53,385
and he becomes the biggest war
hawk in Britain.

753
00:46:55,605 --> 00:46:59,865
Jim Ambuske: By March 1775,
Boston was a portrait of a die

754
00:46:59,865 --> 00:47:05,445
that had now been cast. It was
an occupied town. Church spires

755
00:47:05,445 --> 00:47:08,265
mingled with the masts of the
Royal Navy warships that

756
00:47:08,265 --> 00:47:12,645
patrolled the harbor to enforce
the Boston Port Act. Thirteen

757
00:47:12,645 --> 00:47:15,390
regiments of the British Army
were quartered in and around

758
00:47:15,390 --> 00:47:20,250
town, amounting to more than
5,000 men. Many also brought

759
00:47:20,250 --> 00:47:23,970
their families. They filled
every available warehouse,

760
00:47:23,970 --> 00:47:27,450
public building, and common
ground, dwarfing the number of

761
00:47:27,450 --> 00:47:31,290
soldiers sent to Boston in the
years before the massacre.  

762
00:47:31,950 --> 00:47:35,670
As in other colonies, an
extralegal Provincial Congress

763
00:47:35,730 --> 00:47:39,435
had all but seized the reins of
government in Massachusetts Bay,

764
00:47:39,675 --> 00:47:42,675
though a Son of
Liberty-turned-British spy named

765
00:47:42,675 --> 00:47:46,995
Benjamin Church assured Governor
Gage that moderate men remained

766
00:47:46,995 --> 00:47:51,195
in control of it. The same could
not be said for the local

767
00:47:51,195 --> 00:47:54,495
Committee of Safety, which
coordinated the secreting of

768
00:47:54,495 --> 00:47:57,435
arms and ammunition to places
unknown.

769
00:47:58,035 --> 00:48:01,260
Knowing full well that colonial
militia were drilling in the

770
00:48:01,260 --> 00:48:05,160
countryside, and that they had
formed rapid response companies

771
00:48:05,160 --> 00:48:09,000
called “minute men,” the British
had fortified Boston Neck, the

772
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,760
narrow strip of land that
connected the town to the rest

773
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:15,960
of the colony, to defend against
an assault. On more than one

774
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:20,340
occasion, the sounds of soldiers
taking target practice or the

775
00:48:20,340 --> 00:48:23,685
sight of Redcoats marching out
of town had led to tense

776
00:48:23,685 --> 00:48:26,685
standoffs, and nearly exchanges
of fire.  

777
00:48:27,945 --> 00:48:32,865
Rhetoric inflamed this new
reality. In early March, Dr.

778
00:48:32,865 --> 00:48:36,345
Joseph Warren was chosen to
deliver the fourth annual

779
00:48:36,345 --> 00:48:41,025
address commemorating the Boston
Massacre. Like Church, Warren

780
00:48:41,025 --> 00:48:44,205
was a member of the Sons of
Liberty and had been active in

781
00:48:44,205 --> 00:48:48,330
the resistance movement. Rising
to the pulpit in the Old South

782
00:48:48,330 --> 00:48:52,410
Meeting House, Warren declaimed
to an audience of farmers,

783
00:48:52,410 --> 00:48:54,810
merchants, and British officers:

784
00:48:55,020 --> 00:48:58,200
Joseph Warren: “Unhappily for
us, unhappily for Britain, the

785
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,260
madness of an avaricious
minister…has brought upon the

786
00:49:01,260 --> 00:49:06,720
stage discord, envy, hatred, and
revenge, with civil war close in

787
00:49:06,720 --> 00:49:10,800
their rear….Our streets are
again filled with armed men. Our

788
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:15,420
harbor is crowded with ships of
war. But these cannot intimidate

789
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:19,845
us. Our liberty must be
preserved. It is far dearer than

790
00:49:19,845 --> 00:49:20,025
life.”

791
00:49:21,500 --> 00:49:23,900
Jim Ambuske: The provincials in
the audience approved of

792
00:49:23,900 --> 00:49:27,020
Warren’s rhetoric; the British
officers did not.

793
00:49:27,020 --> 00:49:32,180
Governor Gage was unsure how
long this broken peace would

794
00:49:32,180 --> 00:49:36,860
last. While on a visit to London
a year earlier to consult with

795
00:49:36,860 --> 00:49:41,360
the king and his ministers, Gage
had confidently asserted that he

796
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:45,305
could control the wayward colony
as its new governor and bring it

797
00:49:45,305 --> 00:49:46,925
back in line.  

798
00:49:47,105 --> 00:49:50,345
But colonists’ reaction to the
Coercive Acts eroded that

799
00:49:50,345 --> 00:49:54,725
conviction and as it did British
authority in North America. Gage

800
00:49:54,725 --> 00:49:58,565
began sending urgent letters
home asking for more soldiers.

801
00:49:58,985 --> 00:50:03,125
Exaggerating to make his point,
he told the Secretary at War

802
00:50:03,125 --> 00:50:07,130
that if the ministry had a mind
to send a million soldiers, it

803
00:50:07,130 --> 00:50:08,570
ought to send a million more.

804
00:50:09,170 --> 00:50:13,970
Gage remained cautious – far too
cautious for the king’s taste –

805
00:50:13,970 --> 00:50:17,750
though it was not without good
reason. Few British officials

806
00:50:17,750 --> 00:50:20,990
could claim to know the
colonists better than him. For

807
00:50:20,990 --> 00:50:24,290
twenty years, he had served in
the colonies, having marched

808
00:50:24,290 --> 00:50:27,770
with General Braddock to his
doom along the Monongahela River

809
00:50:27,890 --> 00:50:33,335
in 1755, governed a defeated
Montreal in 1760, confronted

810
00:50:33,395 --> 00:50:38,135
Pontiac’s Uprising in the Ohio
Country in 1763, dealt with

811
00:50:38,135 --> 00:50:42,695
violence between soldiers and
civilians in New York in 1765,

812
00:50:43,055 --> 00:50:46,115
sent the regiments to Boston
that committed the massacre in

813
00:50:46,235 --> 00:50:50,915
1770, and watched the Coercive
Acts create an intolerable

814
00:50:50,915 --> 00:50:55,640
situation in 1774, all the while
married to a woman from New

815
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:57,320
Jersey named Margaret Kemble.

816
00:50:57,320 --> 00:51:01,880
He knew that the slightest
provocation or accident could

817
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:06,020
have unintended consequences. He
was unwilling to act boldly

818
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:08,780
unless he received direct orders
from home.

819
00:51:08,780 --> 00:51:15,920
Those orders were coming. In
late January 1775, less than a

820
00:51:15,965 --> 00:51:19,265
week after the Continental
Congress’s petition to the king

821
00:51:19,445 --> 00:51:22,985
landed on the clerk’s table in
the House of Commons among the

822
00:51:23,285 --> 00:51:25,865
“great heap” of the other
“papers relating to the

823
00:51:25,865 --> 00:51:30,065
disturbances in North America,”
Lord Dartmouth, the Secretary of

824
00:51:30,065 --> 00:51:33,665
State for the Colonies, wrote a
lengthy letter to Gage, and

825
00:51:33,665 --> 00:51:37,565
marked it “secret.” He had
it in consultation with Lord

826
00:51:37,565 --> 00:51:38,705
North and the king.

827
00:51:39,365 --> 00:51:43,370
Dartmouth delayed sending the
letter for some time, hoping

828
00:51:43,370 --> 00:51:46,550
that the secret talks he had
orchestrated between Benjamin

829
00:51:46,550 --> 00:51:49,670
Franklin and Lord Admiral
Richard Howe would bear fruit,

830
00:51:50,030 --> 00:51:54,470
that a war could be avoided, but
as those negotiations came to

831
00:51:54,470 --> 00:51:57,530
naught, Dartmouth could delay no
further.

832
00:51:58,250 --> 00:52:02,810
The orders arrived in Boston on
board the Nautilus on April 14,

833
00:52:02,855 --> 00:52:06,755
1775, where they were delivered
to Gage in the governor’s

834
00:52:06,755 --> 00:52:09,515
residence. They read, in part:

835
00:52:09,515 --> 00:52:11,975
Lord Dartmouth: “The violences
committed by those who have

836
00:52:11,975 --> 00:52:15,335
taken up arms in Massachusetts
have appeared to me as the acts

837
00:52:15,335 --> 00:52:20,675
of a rude rabble, without
concert, without conduct; and

838
00:52:20,675 --> 00:52:25,040
therefore I think that a small
force now, if put to the test,

839
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:29,000
would be able to conquer
them….It is the opinion of the

840
00:52:29,060 --> 00:52:32,660
King’s servants, in which His
Majesty concurs, that the

841
00:52:32,660 --> 00:52:36,200
essential step to be taken
toward reestablishing government

842
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:39,860
would be to arrest and imprison
the principal actors and

843
00:52:39,860 --> 00:52:43,400
abettors in the provincial
congress, whose proceedings

844
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:48,080
appear in every light to be acts
of treason and rebellion.”

845
00:52:49,020 --> 00:52:59,520
Jim Ambuske: Reinforcements
all could be accomplished

846
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:07,140
without bloodshed, but as he
made

847
00:53:07,140 --> 00:53:08,700
time was running out.

848
00:53:08,940 --> 00:53:11,745
Lord Dartmouth: “The king’s
dignity and the honor and safety

849
00:53:11,745 --> 00:53:16,065
of the empire require that in
such a situation, force should

850
00:53:16,065 --> 00:53:18,105
be repelled by force.”

851
00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:20,700
Jim Ambuske: It was now or
never.

852
00:53:22,860 --> 00:53:26,820
Gage began making preparations
to carry out his orders. Even

853
00:53:26,820 --> 00:53:30,600
then, he advanced with care.
Dartmouth’s letter had been a

854
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:34,020
copy – a security measure in
case the original was lost at

855
00:53:34,020 --> 00:53:37,080
sea – and he waited for the
original to arrive before

856
00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:40,800
pressing on in case it had
additional information. When the

857
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:43,965
packet appeared on April 16th,
he moved swiftly.  

858
00:53:44,625 --> 00:53:47,445
Believing that running down
members of the Provincial

859
00:53:47,445 --> 00:53:51,285
Congress like John Hancock and
Samuel Adams would be a waste of

860
00:53:51,285 --> 00:53:55,425
resources, Gage exercised the
discretion afforded him, and

861
00:53:55,425 --> 00:53:59,865
chose to ignore that part of his
orders for now. Besides, Hancock

862
00:53:59,865 --> 00:54:02,325
and Adams were in hiding,
somewhere in the town of

863
00:54:02,325 --> 00:54:06,810
Lexington. Arms and ammunition
were another matter. Here’s Rick

864
00:54:06,810 --> 00:54:07,530
Atkinson.

865
00:54:07,890 --> 00:54:11,430
Rick Atkinson: The British are
trying to understand what it is

866
00:54:11,430 --> 00:54:15,270
that the Americans have in mind
where they're stashing their

867
00:54:15,270 --> 00:54:18,690
munitions. The British have
pretty good intelligence, and

868
00:54:18,690 --> 00:54:22,830
they learn that there is a
substantial munitions depot,

869
00:54:23,250 --> 00:54:27,495
meaning where bullets and
everything from spoons to extra

870
00:54:27,495 --> 00:54:31,215
muskets are kept in the town of
Concord, 20 miles or so from

871
00:54:31,215 --> 00:54:31,875
Boston.

872
00:54:32,295 --> 00:54:34,695
Jim Ambuske: More recent
intelligence supplied by loyal

873
00:54:34,695 --> 00:54:38,295
British Americans and soldiers
concealed in civilian clothing

874
00:54:38,355 --> 00:54:41,535
suggested that militia had
already removed most of the

875
00:54:41,535 --> 00:54:44,715
military stores from Concord.
But not all of it.

876
00:54:44,775 --> 00:54:48,915
Rick Atkinson: The decision is
made by General Gage that he is

877
00:54:48,915 --> 00:54:52,860
going to send an expeditionary
force, fewer than 1000 soldiers,

878
00:54:52,860 --> 00:54:56,280
and they're going to slip out of
Boston and march to Concord and

879
00:54:56,280 --> 00:55:00,660
seize this depot, and that will
teach the Americans a lesson.

880
00:55:00,660 --> 00:55:03,900
Jim Ambuske: To get to Concord,
the soldiers would have to march

881
00:55:03,900 --> 00:55:07,200
through Lexington. Gage’s orders
to the commanders leading the

882
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,980
force were clear. They were to
“seize and destroy all

883
00:55:10,980 --> 00:55:14,505
artillery, ammunition,
provisions, tents, small arms,

884
00:55:14,685 --> 00:55:18,285
and all military stores
whatever.” But they were

885
00:55:18,285 --> 00:55:20,925
forbidden from plundering
Concord’s inhabitants or

886
00:55:20,925 --> 00:55:22,305
destroying private property.

887
00:55:25,005 --> 00:55:29,025
On the night of April 18th,
three days after the last full

888
00:55:29,025 --> 00:55:33,405
moon, sailors began rowing more
than 800 soldiers across the

889
00:55:33,405 --> 00:55:37,710
Back Bay and the Charles River.
They landed at Cambridge and

890
00:55:37,710 --> 00:55:42,390
began marching up the road west
toward Concord. The officers,

891
00:55:42,450 --> 00:55:45,510
including Lieutenant Colonel
Francis Smith and Major John

892
00:55:45,510 --> 00:55:50,070
Pitcairn, knew of their intended
target. For secrecy, their men

893
00:55:50,070 --> 00:55:52,470
would not be told until hours
later.  

894
00:55:53,250 --> 00:55:56,670
The movement of the British
troops did not go unnoticed.

895
00:55:57,320 --> 00:55:59,720
Rick Atkinson: You don't slip
1000 men out of Boston in the

896
00:55:59,720 --> 00:56:03,080
dark of night without somebody
noticing. And the Americans are

897
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,960
very alert to what's going on.
They also have good

898
00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:09,980
intelligence. There's a
silversmith named Paul Revere

899
00:56:09,980 --> 00:56:14,600
who is on standby to carry the
message out into the countryside

900
00:56:14,600 --> 00:56:18,740
when the British are, in fact,
coming. And that message spreads

901
00:56:18,740 --> 00:56:23,705
quickly that there is this armed
force that has come out through

902
00:56:23,705 --> 00:56:24,545
Cambridge.

903
00:56:24,845 --> 00:56:27,365
Jim Ambuske: Joseph Warren
observed the British mobilizing

904
00:56:27,365 --> 00:56:30,785
and dispatched Paul Revere and
another man named William Dawes

905
00:56:30,845 --> 00:56:33,425
to warn the surrounding
communities that soldiers were

906
00:56:33,425 --> 00:56:37,745
on the march. Mounting his
horse, Dawes rode through town

907
00:56:37,745 --> 00:56:40,805
and across the Boston Neck to
Cambridge, warning the

908
00:56:40,805 --> 00:56:43,085
inhabitants, before heading for
Concord.  

909
00:56:43,745 --> 00:56:46,670
Revere rode first to the Old
North Church, where he

910
00:56:46,670 --> 00:56:50,210
instructed another man to hang
two lanterns in the steeple to

911
00:56:50,210 --> 00:56:53,570
warn colonists across the river
in Charlestown that the British

912
00:56:53,570 --> 00:56:57,230
had gone by water. Revere then
ferried across the river

913
00:56:57,230 --> 00:57:00,710
himself, somehow passing
undetected by the warship

914
00:57:00,710 --> 00:57:04,190
Somerset anchored in the river,
before landing in Charlestown

915
00:57:04,190 --> 00:57:07,295
and riding on toward Lexington,
where he warned Adams and

916
00:57:07,295 --> 00:57:08,315
Hancock to flee.

917
00:57:08,855 --> 00:57:11,255
Rick Atkinson: The British are
coming is not something Paul

918
00:57:11,255 --> 00:57:14,315
Revere bellowed as he was
galloping through the Middlesex

919
00:57:14,315 --> 00:57:18,875
countryside in the early morning
of April 19, 1775 that wouldn't

920
00:57:18,875 --> 00:57:21,215
have made sense to people who at
that moment still thought of

921
00:57:21,215 --> 00:57:24,575
themselves as British. What he's
quoted as shouting over and over

922
00:57:24,575 --> 00:57:28,775
again is the regulars are coming
out, meaning regular British

923
00:57:28,835 --> 00:57:31,160
Army troops coming out of Boston

924
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:34,940
Jim Ambuske: In the dead of
night, in the hour of ghosts,

925
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:39,560
the soldiers marched west down
the road. In the distance, they

926
00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:43,040
could hear church bells ringing
and the sound of gun fire –

927
00:57:43,340 --> 00:57:46,700
warning shots alerting minute
men, militia companies, and

928
00:57:46,700 --> 00:57:49,400
civilians that soldiers were
advancing.  

929
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:54,245
Major Pitcairn was leading the
British vanguard. At 4 am, he

930
00:57:54,245 --> 00:57:57,545
called a halt, and ordered his
men to load their weapons and

931
00:57:57,545 --> 00:58:00,605
fix their bayonets, before
marching on to Lexington.

932
00:58:01,260 --> 00:58:04,140
Rick Atkinson: It's a few miles
on the Boston side of Concord,

933
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:08,220
and there is a militia gathering
there, and they're standing

934
00:58:08,220 --> 00:58:12,120
around. It's very cold. They're
shifting from foot to foot, and

935
00:58:12,180 --> 00:58:15,720
there's no sign of the British.
And they send riders out to look

936
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:18,180
for them, and they come back and
say, we don't see any red coats

937
00:58:18,180 --> 00:58:22,520
coming this way. And so these
men are dismissed, and many of

938
00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:25,520
them go into a tavern right
there near the Lexington green

939
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:28,220
for a little Grog. Some of them
go home.

940
00:58:28,720 --> 00:58:31,180
Jim Ambuske: Captain John
Parker, the militia commander,

941
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:34,960
soon learned that it hadn’t been
a false alarm when another rider

942
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:38,680
came in, warning that Pitcairn’s
men were two miles away.

943
00:58:38,680 --> 00:58:42,340
What was left of the militia
company left their pints and

944
00:58:42,340 --> 00:58:46,240
reformed outside on the green of
the town commons,   for the

945
00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:47,500
Redcoats’ approach.

946
00:58:48,400 --> 00:58:51,925
As the king’s subjects
approached each other, Pitcairn

947
00:58:51,985 --> 00:58:52,645
bellowed:

948
00:58:53,185 --> 00:58:57,625
Pitcairn: “Soldiers, don’t fire.
Keep your ranks. Form up and

949
00:58:57,625 --> 00:58:58,345
surround them”

950
00:58:59,305 --> 00:59:01,285
Jim Ambuske: Captain Parker
commanded his men:

951
00:59:01,285 --> 00:59:03,745
Parker:  “Don’t molest them,
without they being first.”

952
00:59:04,345 --> 00:59:07,105
Jim Ambuske: The king’s subjects
were now dangerously close to

953
00:59:07,105 --> 00:59:10,945
each other. If they meant to
have a war, they had to be.

954
00:59:11,545 --> 00:59:14,185
Rick Atkinson: 18th century
warfare, unlike 21st Century

955
00:59:14,185 --> 00:59:20,350
warfare, is unusually intimate.
Killing is done up close. That's

956
00:59:20,350 --> 00:59:23,830
partly because the musket has
not changed much in two

957
00:59:23,830 --> 00:59:28,990
centuries. By 1775 it's got
great stopping power. It's

958
00:59:28,990 --> 00:59:32,650
really a ferocious weapon. It
fires a one ounce lead slug that

959
00:59:32,650 --> 00:59:36,250
can bring down a charging bull,
but it's horrendously

960
00:59:36,250 --> 00:59:41,635
inaccurate, basically beyond 80
yards when it's fired in volleys

961
00:59:41,635 --> 00:59:44,635
with a group of men standing
together firing at the same time

962
00:59:45,055 --> 00:59:49,795
again, it can be pretty
devastating, but individually,

963
00:59:49,855 --> 00:59:54,475
for the most part, it's a pretty
crude weapon that requires

964
00:59:54,475 --> 00:59:57,535
armies to come in close
proximity to each other, first

965
00:59:57,535 --> 01:00:00,175
of all, to have some
effectiveness with money.

966
01:00:00,175 --> 01:00:03,700
Baskets and secondly, the
British in particular teach

967
01:00:03,700 --> 01:00:07,660
their soldiers that the bayonet
is their primary weapon, that

968
01:00:07,660 --> 01:00:10,660
the attempt is to get close
enough to the enemy to charge

969
01:00:10,660 --> 01:00:15,160
with the bayonet. That's as
intimate and eyeball to eyeball

970
01:00:15,160 --> 01:00:16,060
as you can get.

971
01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:21,580
Jim Ambuske: On that cold
morning of April 19, 1775, as

972
01:00:21,580 --> 01:00:25,045
dawn broke behind the king’s
soldiers in the eastern sky,

973
01:00:25,405 --> 01:00:29,065
with nerves fraying, hearts
pounding, and officers yelling:

974
01:00:29,245 --> 01:00:34,045
Officer 1: “Throw down your
arms, you villains, you rebels!”

975
01:00:35,005 --> 01:00:36,745
Officer 2: “Disperse, you
rebels, immediately!”

976
01:00:37,500 --> 01:00:40,980
Jim Ambuske: Someone. Somewhere.
Fired a shot.  

977
01:00:41,160 --> 01:00:46,020
And then all hell broke loose as
the king’s soldiers fired on the

978
01:00:46,140 --> 01:00:47,160
king’s subjects.

979
01:00:47,640 --> 01:00:49,800
Rick Atkinson: The British are
quite undisciplined at this

980
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:52,980
point in their firing, their
officers cannot control the

981
01:00:52,980 --> 01:00:58,020
firing, and they mow down these
militiamen, ate or killed.

982
01:00:58,320 --> 01:01:02,565
Others are badly wounded. It's
not a firefight, it's a

983
01:01:02,565 --> 01:01:07,065
massacre. British essentially
suffer, nobody killed, nobody

984
01:01:07,065 --> 01:01:11,025
wounded. The British get
together. They are permitted to

985
01:01:11,025 --> 01:01:15,225
go huzzah three times, and they
march down the road, heading

986
01:01:15,405 --> 01:01:18,165
further west toward Concord,
which is six miles away.

987
01:01:19,125 --> 01:01:21,405
Jim Ambuske: The militia in
Concord were waiting for them.

988
01:01:21,825 --> 01:01:25,290
Rick Atkinson: By this point,
and it's early morning on April

989
01:01:25,290 --> 01:01:32,370
19, the alarm has spread far and
wide to 50 villages and towns,

990
01:01:32,550 --> 01:01:37,050
not only in eastern
Massachusetts, but even to New

991
01:01:37,050 --> 01:01:41,730
Hampshire and to Connecticut,
and there are armed men marching

992
01:01:41,730 --> 01:01:43,110
toward Concord.

993
01:01:43,650 --> 01:01:46,755
Jim Ambuske: As the soldiers
approached Concord after 8 am,

994
01:01:46,995 --> 01:01:50,115
militiamen fell back across the
North Bridge spanning the

995
01:01:50,115 --> 01:01:53,475
Concord River, while the
Redcoats began searching farms

996
01:01:53,475 --> 01:01:57,795
and thickets for hidden arms and
ammunition. They found some,

997
01:01:57,795 --> 01:02:02,475
including 500 pounds of musket
balls. They promptly dumped them

998
01:02:02,475 --> 01:02:05,595
into a nearby pond, and
destroyed flour and gun

999
01:02:05,595 --> 01:02:09,660
carriages as well. Then, they
headed for the bridge.

1000
01:02:10,199 --> 01:02:12,719
Rick Atkinson: When the British
get to Concord, they quickly

1001
01:02:12,719 --> 01:02:16,739
realize that they're
overmatched. There is a bridge

1002
01:02:16,799 --> 01:02:21,559
famously over Concord River,
just outside town, and on this

1003
01:02:21,559 --> 01:02:26,419
bridge, as the British are going
looking again for war materiel,

1004
01:02:26,779 --> 01:02:30,319
there is a substantial American
detachment on the far side of

1005
01:02:30,319 --> 01:02:35,479
the bridge. They march down the
hill. There's a small number of

1006
01:02:35,479 --> 01:02:39,139
British relative to the size of
the rebels guarding the bridge.

1007
01:02:39,439 --> 01:02:42,759
Shots again are fired this time,
there's no doubt the British

1008
01:02:42,759 --> 01:02:45,279
fire first, that's a mistake.

1009
01:02:45,580 --> 01:02:47,320
Jim Ambuske: Captain David Brown
yelled,

1010
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:50,300
David Brown: “God damn them,
they are firing balls! Fire,

1011
01:02:50,300 --> 01:02:51,200
men, fire!"

1012
01:02:51,740 --> 01:02:56,300
Jim Ambuske: It was all over in
three minutes. Two militiamen

1013
01:02:56,300 --> 01:03:00,860
lay dead. Two soldiers were
killed in the firefight. A third

1014
01:03:00,860 --> 01:03:04,640
wounded soldier tried to escape
with his fellow Redcoats before

1015
01:03:04,640 --> 01:03:07,340
a militiaman buried a hatchet in
his brains.

1016
01:03:07,760 --> 01:03:10,460
Rick Atkinson: And now they're
on the run. They fall back into

1017
01:03:10,460 --> 01:03:15,125
Concord, and they recognize that
they got a big problem. It's 19

1018
01:03:15,125 --> 01:03:19,025
miles or so back to Boston.
They're already tired from

1019
01:03:19,025 --> 01:03:22,685
having marched out, so it's
going to be a long, long

1020
01:03:22,745 --> 01:03:28,265
afternoon for the British to get
back to Boston as thousands of

1021
01:03:28,265 --> 01:03:32,285
Americans. It's estimated that
roughly 4000 armed Americans

1022
01:03:32,345 --> 01:03:37,010
arrive on the scene and
participate, to one degree or

1023
01:03:37,010 --> 01:03:41,390
another, in this harassment of
British troops falling back to

1024
01:03:41,390 --> 01:03:41,990
Boston.

1025
01:03:41,990 --> 01:03:45,050
Jim Ambuske: As they marched
back from Concord, and back

1026
01:03:45,050 --> 01:03:48,830
through Lexington, with miles of
hostile road ahead of them, more

1027
01:03:48,830 --> 01:03:52,130
soldiers fell as a retreat
became a running firefight.

1028
01:03:52,130 --> 01:03:56,030
Rick Atkinson: The only reason
that column of Red Coats isn't

1029
01:03:56,075 --> 01:04:00,575
utterly obliterated is that a
plea for help has gone back to

1030
01:04:00,575 --> 01:04:05,795
Boston, and reinforcements are
sent out and in Lexington. These

1031
01:04:05,795 --> 01:04:10,235
reinforcements show up just in
time to prevent what probably

1032
01:04:10,235 --> 01:04:15,155
would have been a bloodbath of
British soldiers. They embrace

1033
01:04:15,215 --> 01:04:18,695
these dog tired, bleeding
British soldiers who have fought

1034
01:04:18,695 --> 01:04:21,560
earlier in the day in Lexington
and then in Concord, and have

1035
01:04:21,560 --> 01:04:26,240
been harassed and fired on on
the road all the way back from

1036
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:30,920
Concord, this relief detachment
provides enough firepower,

1037
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:35,300
enough super to allow the whole
force to fall back to Charleston

1038
01:04:35,540 --> 01:04:38,600
and then to get across the
Charles River into Boston.

1039
01:04:39,200 --> 01:04:41,960
Jim Ambuske: Samuel Adams
rejoiced at the news of this

1040
01:04:42,200 --> 01:04:46,985
“glorious morning.” A colonist
who had been at Concord on that

1041
01:04:46,985 --> 01:04:49,685
bloody day knew a harder truth:

1042
01:04:49,985 --> 01:04:52,805
Colonist: “Now the war has begun
and no one knows when it will

1043
01:04:52,805 --> 01:04:52,985
end.”

1044
01:04:53,380 --> 01:04:55,720
Rick Atkinson: It's a terrible
day for everybody concerned.

1045
01:04:56,380 --> 01:04:59,560
It's the beginning of the war.
It's a recognition by the

1046
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:02,280
British. That this is going to
be a lot harder than anybody

1047
01:05:02,280 --> 01:05:06,840
thought. And now not only the
Charles has been crossed, but a

1048
01:05:06,840 --> 01:05:12,480
Rubicon has been crossed, and
once blood is shed and the wolf

1049
01:05:12,480 --> 01:05:15,780
is in the gorge, it's hard to
turn back.

1050
01:05:28,320 --> 01:05:31,860
Jim Ambuske: More than 300 miles
to the southwest of Lexington

1051
01:05:31,860 --> 01:05:35,160
and Concord, an express rider
galloped into Lancaster,

1052
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:44,265
Pennsylvania. It was April 25,
1775 at 5 in the evening. The

1053
01:05:44,265 --> 01:05:47,865
rider bore news that the king’s
subjects had fired on each other

1054
01:05:47,865 --> 01:05:52,065
in Massachusetts Bay. Boston was
now under siege.

1055
01:05:52,065 --> 01:05:56,505
The local printer, Francis
Bailey, immediately published a

1056
01:05:56,505 --> 01:05:59,385
broadside with a collection of
letters from committees of

1057
01:05:59,385 --> 01:06:02,610
correspondence in New England
reporting that provincial

1058
01:06:02,610 --> 01:06:05,610
militia had clashed with the
king’s soldiers in the early

1059
01:06:05,610 --> 01:06:09,390
morning hours of April 19, six
days earlier.

1060
01:06:10,350 --> 01:06:13,230
Bailey’s broadside and other
printed reports quickly

1061
01:06:13,230 --> 01:06:16,770
circulated the news “To all
Friends of American Liberty”

1062
01:06:17,010 --> 01:06:19,770
throughout the Shenandoah
Valley, where it was carried by

1063
01:06:19,770 --> 01:06:23,070
Pennsylvanians and Virginians
who were then streaming over the

1064
01:06:23,070 --> 01:06:25,755
mountains to settle new lands in
the Ohio Country.

1065
01:06:27,195 --> 01:06:31,575
The Ohio Country had only been
at peace now for seven months

1066
01:06:31,875 --> 01:06:36,555
after hard years of a most
intimate war. Pennsylvanians at

1067
01:06:36,555 --> 01:06:40,335
the throats of Virginians;
Shawnee and Delawares defending

1068
01:06:40,335 --> 01:06:43,935
their lands from avaricious
settlers; the Haudenosaunee

1069
01:06:43,935 --> 01:06:47,055
calculating the costs of
protecting their sovereignty;

1070
01:06:47,160 --> 01:06:51,120
British and Indigenous diplomats
struggling to keep their world

1071
01:06:51,180 --> 01:06:52,800
from coming undone.

1072
01:06:54,420 --> 01:06:58,380
Twenty years after the Great War
for Empire had begun at the

1073
01:06:58,380 --> 01:07:02,940
Forks of the Ohio River, the
flames of the smoldering long

1074
01:07:02,940 --> 01:07:06,840
war for the West flickered to
life once more.  

1075
01:07:07,020 --> 01:07:17,865
 Thanks for listening to Worlds
Turned Upside Down. Worlds is a

1076
01:07:17,865 --> 01:07:21,645
production of R2 Studios, part
of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for

1077
01:07:21,645 --> 01:07:24,465
History and New Media at George
Mason University.

1078
01:07:25,005 --> 01:07:27,165
I’m your host, Dr. Jim Ambuske.

1079
01:07:27,225 --> 01:07:33,185
This episode of Worlds Turned
Upside Down is made possible

1080
01:07:33,185 --> 01:07:34,069
with support from a 2024 grant
from the National Endowment for

1081
01:07:34,069 --> 01:07:34,309
the Humanities.  

1082
01:07:34,390 --> 01:07:38,130
Head to r2studios.org to find a
complete transcript of today’s

1083
01:07:38,130 --> 01:07:40,410
episode and suggestions for
further reading.

1084
01:07:40,410 --> 01:07:44,190
Worlds is researched and written
by me with additional research,

1085
01:07:44,190 --> 01:07:46,590
writing, and script editing by
Jeanette Patrick.  

1086
01:07:46,890 --> 01:07:49,830
Jeanette Patrick and I are the
Executive Producers. Grace

1087
01:07:49,830 --> 01:07:52,050
Mallon is our British
Correspondent.

1088
01:07:52,410 --> 01:07:56,010
Our lead audio editor for this
episode is Curt Dahl of cd

1089
01:07:56,010 --> 01:07:56,790
squared.  

1090
01:07:57,150 --> 01:07:59,715
Annabelle Spencer is our
graduate assistant.  

1091
01:07:59,955 --> 01:08:03,135
Special thanks to the Georgian
Papers Programme and the Royal

1092
01:08:03,135 --> 01:08:04,755
Archives at Windsor Castle.

1093
01:08:05,415 --> 01:08:08,955
Our thanks to Rick Atkinson,
Fred Anderson, Wendy Bellion,

1094
01:08:09,015 --> 01:08:12,735
Katherine Carté, Frank Cogliano,
Brad Jones, and Andrew

1095
01:08:12,855 --> 01:08:15,615
O’Shaughnessy for sharing their
expertise with us in this

1096
01:08:15,615 --> 01:08:16,215
episode.

1097
01:08:16,815 --> 01:08:19,815
Thanks also to our voice actors
Anne Fertig, Adam Smith, Evan

1098
01:08:19,815 --> 01:08:22,695
McCormick, John Turner, John
Winters, Grace Mallon, Peter

1099
01:08:22,695 --> 01:08:25,815
Walker, Craig Gallager, Spencer
McBride, Loren Moulds, and John

1100
01:08:25,815 --> 01:08:26,295
Terry.

1101
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:33,120
Subscribe to Worlds on your
favorite podcast app. Thanks,

1102
01:08:33,120 --> 01:08:34,320
and we’ll see you next time.