Liz Covart (00:00:00): 

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute, and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Voice Actor as Elizabeth Drinker (00:00:07):

 (Pen Scratching) “September 12, 1777, this has been a day of Great Confusion to many in this City [of Philadelphia]; which I have in great measure been kept out of by my constant attention on my sick Child. [P]art of Washington[‘]s Army has been routed, and have been seen coming into Town in Great Numbers; the particulars of the Battle, I have not attended to, the slain is said to be very numerous–hundreds of their muskets laying in the road, which those that made off have thrown down…the Wounded have been brought in this Afternoon, to what amount I have not learnt…”

(00:00:38)  (Pen Scratching) “September 26 [1777]…Well, here are the English in earnest, about 2 or 3000, came in, through [S]econd [S]treet, without opposition or interruption, no plundering on the one side or the other, what a satisfaction would it be to our dear Absent Friends, could they but be inform’d of it…” (Pen Scratching)

Andrew Sullivan (00:00:58) 

The British occupation is a very important moment in our study of the American Revolution because it reveals the extent to which people, at least in that region, were not strongly committed either to the Revolution or to the Empire. And it’s because we see the power structure changed so drastically, the revolutionaries are in complete control, and then the British are in control and the revolutionaries are back in control, that we can see these people, who for the most part were taking the path of least resistance. They would mouth revolutionary slogans if the revolutionaries were in control and they would stop doing that when the British were in control. It helps us realize in this crucial vulnerable moment, the extent to which these people were just trying to get along. They were not partisans for independence. They certainly were not loyalists. And I think that opens our eyes and makes us reconsider the American Revolution generally.

Liz Covart (00:01:49) :

In September 1777, just 14 months after the Continental Congress had declared the United States’ independence from Great Britain, the British Army captured and occupied Philadelphia, the new nation’s capital.

In the days between the Continental Army’s defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777 and before the British Army marched into Philadelphia on September 26, Philadelphians experienced fear, chaos, and sometimes hope. Many steadfast revolutionaries fled the city. Including members of the Second Continental Congress. While many others who considered themselves to be loyalists began to speak openly and publicly of their disapproval of the war and of independence.

(00:02:30) The British capture of Philadelphia bolstered the confidence of loyalists while at the same time weighed heavily on American revolutionaries. The loss of Philadelphia was such a blow to the revolutionaries’ morale that many began to wonder: could the Continental Army and Congress actually see the United States through to victory and independence?

In honor of the Fourth of July, the day we Americans celebrate and commemorate the United States’ birth and founding, we’re going to take a couple of episodes to reflect upon how everyday Americans experienced the American Revolution and its War for Independence.

We’ll investigate these experiences by exploring the histories of British occupied Philadelphia and Revolutionary occupied Yorktown, and how civilians, those left on the homefront in both of those areas, experienced the war and its armies.

Not only will these two episodes allow us see how the war impacted those who remained at home, they will also allow us to better understand the messy confusion and uncertainty many Americans experienced in between the big battles and events that we see so cleanly plotted out on our timeline of the American Revolution. 

(00:03:36) So let us begin with Philadelphia and its people and what the city looked and sounded like by September 1777.

Andrew Sullivan (00:03:43) 

So if we’re going back to Philadelphia in the 1770s…I think we’re gonna be struck both by how familiar and how different it is. Philadelphia even then is a real city. It’s not just a village or a town. It is the largest city in British America, one of the largest cities in the entirety of the British Empire.

I am Aaron Sullivan. I’m a historian of the American Revolution and I teach history at Ryder University. My book is The Disaffected: Britain’s Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution and it is the story of the occupation.

Andrew Sullivan (00:04:16) We’ve got paved sidewalks, broad streets, lamps to light the streets at night. A particularly interesting thing about Philadelphia is if you have a modern map, it’s gonna be remarkably useful to you even back in the 1770s.  The basic grid layout is the same, a real testament to William Penn’s planning. Those east-west streets, mostly named after trees, all the same. The north-south streets numbered by their distance from the water, mostly the same again.

George Boudreau (00:04:48): 

Philadelphia was from the beginning, a center of trade in the region. As we all know, as early Americanists, New Jersey never really worked out that well but it is incredibly good garden land. And so Philadelphia becomes the market hub for East and West Jersey. And so there is an area of Market Street in Philadelphia called the Jersey Market where they will bring barges and flatboats over with produce to sell to the people of Philadelphia.

Liz Covart (00:05:15):

This is George Boudreau. George is a historian of 18th-century British America and a Senior Research Associate at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s also the author and an editor of a few books including Independence: A Guide to Historic Philadelphia, and a collection of essays called Women in George Washington’s World, which he co-edited with Charlene Boyer Lewis.

George Boudreau (00:05:39): 

I always think of the level of diversity you would have encountered if you arrived in Philadelphia. You would’ve heard a cacophony of voices, the level of diversity in the accents you would’ve heard.

Kalela Williams (00:05:53)

You would’ve heard many different languages…Algonquian-based languages, German, French, West African, Dutch, among, of course, the English that might have been primarily spoken. 

(00:06:06) My name is Kalelea Williams. My primary occupation is I’m the director of Writing at Mighty Writers, which is a Philadelphia-based organization that teaches kids to write with clarity. I also work as a historical interpreter. I lead tours around Philadelphia, I lead black history tours, women’s history tours, and other historical tours. And I also am the founder of a gathering community called Black History Maven through which I do a lot of my tours and some other historically oriented programs.

(00:06:36): You would’ve heard different regions reflected in dialects, reflected in accents, Caribbean dialects and accents. You would hear people yelling, people would be hawking fruit or oysters or pepper pot soup. You’d hear voices spilling out from taverns, arguments, prophecies, whatever.

George Boudreau (00:06:57):

As you got closer down to the river, the Delaware River, you would have heard the sounds of wooden ships or a chorus of wooden ships make when at dock. Boats straining their ropes. The gear above banging and clanging into ships’ masts. You would have heard a lot of sailors with a lot of accents and probably a lot of naughty language, screaming at one another.

Kalela Williams (00:07:20)

I think you would recognize that you are in a large cosmopolitan city. You would see very handsome brick buildings. Again, you’d see a lot of different people. Population estimates vary, of course, that was before a federal census took place but you would see about 35,000 people. And the numbers of 35,000, these are based on contemporary estimates that were themselves based on the amount of dwellings in Philadelphia. So you’d count the dwellings, you’d think “okay there’s going to be a dozen of people living in each dwelling and then you extrapolate from there. But you’d see a good amount of people out on the streets, engaging in commerce, taverns, you’d see people dressed beautifully and then, of course, you’d see poverty like you would in any large city. So you’d see this big scale of humanity here in Philadelphia.

Liz Covart (00:08:09)

Even in the 1770s, Philadelphia would appear to us as a big cosmopolitan city with a very diverse population. It was a city that relied on trade. People from New Jersey, western Pennsylvania, and northern Delaware would bring their farm produce to market in Philadelphia. Ships from England, the Caribbean, and other North American colonies brought Philadelphians the latest goods from around the Atlantic World. As did ships from Africa, which carried enslaved people specifically to sell in Philadelphia’s busy marketplace.

Kalela Williams (00:08:40)

Slavery was a part of this city probably as early as 1540 with Swedish settlers. The first so-called slave ship that arrived in 1684, so only two years after the city’s official founding in 1682. It’s hard to know estimates without a census and without getting a sense of property but you have maybe around 600, 700 enslaved people in 1775 and you might have around 2,000 enslaved black folks within the surrounding counties. So you have a small black community around that time. Philly, founded as a Quaker City, Quakers in the 1600s had no problem with slavery for the most part. In 1688, you have a few German Quakers who are like, no, we don’t wanna do this who are living in Philadelphia and who issue a statement to that effect but there was a growing discontent within Quakers about slavery; a growing belief that it was inconsistent with their beliefs and by 1777 Quakers would have had to choose. By that time the faith had said we don’t enslave people anymore. We don’t want to do this, its inconsistent with our beliefs.

Liz Covart(00:09:49):

By design, Philadelphia was a city with a conscience. William Penn, the founder and original proprietor of Pennsylvania, wanted Pennsylvania and its most prominent city, Philadelphia, to be welcoming and tolerant of different religions and religious beliefs. So he founded both Pennsylvania and Philadelphia as Quaker communities and  welcomed others from outside the Quaker faith to join them in North America.

George Boudreau (00:10:14):

From William Penn’s founding of the town there was of course a thriving and growing Quaker community with meeting houses doting the landscape of the colony. There were numerous church of England parishes. I don’t think Penn ever quite envisioned that, but very early on the first of these churches, Christ Church, Philadelphia, which still exists in an early 18th-century building. As the community grows, particularly south, there are other chapels created. With George Whitefield’s cultural revolution starting in the late 1730s. There are Whitefielding buildings. There are Lutherans, many Presbyterians. So diverse by the 1730s there was a Roman Catholic church to which one of the government leaders takes this before the council and says, “oh my God, do you know what’s going on on Fourth Street, there are Catholics!” And the Quaker leadership goes, yep, sure are. And then literally gets out William Penn’s charter privileges and said they have the right to be here. And as I like to point out, Benjamin Franklin is the only founding father who has a rabbi marching behind his coffin when he dies in 1790. We have a thriving and growing Jewish community. Some physical remnants of that still exist.

Liz Covart(00:11:27):

Philadelphia was indeed a diverse place by 1777. It was even diverse in terms of its political opinions about the American Revolution. Now, although we tend to think of Philadelphia as a stronghold of revolutionary support and sentiment, that’s mostly a reflection of the First and Second Continental Congresses deciding to meet and conduct the business of revolution in Philadelphia. 

If we were able to go back in time and go out and speak with everyday Philadelphians in the mid-to-late 1770s, we’d find that their sentiments were more complicated and less than enthusiastic about the Revolution. Here’s Aaron Sullivan.

Andrew Sullivan (00:12:03):

Pennsylvania is not reactionary or revolutionary in the way that New England is, but it’s a vital site for the continentals. It’s right there in the middle of the colonies, it splits them in half north to south the same way Virginia or New York would.  Pennsylvania is very disaffected, very slow to take up arms against Britain. And the Continental Congress knows they need Pennsylvania on their side so setting themselves up in Philadelphia gives them a way to kind of keep an eye on things in this maybe shaky state that doesn’t have a great deal of loyalty toward the revolution at the beginning of the conflict.

Liz Covart(00:12:38):

As Aaron mentioned, geography played an important role in the Continental Congress’ choice to conduct its business in Philadelphia. So did the city’s size.

George Boudreau (00:12:48): 

Pennsylvania is in the middle of the Eastern seaboard and it’s the largest city and its the city that, of course, could take a big gathering. I ponder walking Duke of Gloucester Street what if they’d chosen Williamsburg instead and would there have been enough housing for everybody. We were a city with a lot of taverns and where delegates could stay and it was widely known, and I would imagine that most, and I can’t prove this, but I would imagine that most of the people who gathered for the First Continental Congress had some connection already. When they got to Philadelphia, they knew how to make it to so and so Tavern or make it to so and so place. And there were a variety of buildings that could house a gathering of all these delegates.

Andrew Sullivan (00:13:31):

Philadelphia is in an interesting spot. It is going to be the de facto capital of the United States because that’s where Congress is going to meet. There are definite political advantages to having the seat of revolutionary power in this Keystone State. It’s a place where all sorts of people can come and express their opinions and be heard. And in many ways it is a barometer for the country. If you can convince Pennsylvania to go one way or the other, that a good sign, that you can get more people to follow you as well. But Pennsylvania is fractured politicall. Western Pennsylvania tends to be more politically radical and more Presbyterian, the counties around Philadelphia tend to be more Quaker and very conservative, and then Philadelphia itself is a study in contrast, a mixture of these things. You have politically radical elements, often among the working class men and women, and that’s true of most cities. You have some very conservative elements among the merchants who are tied to the rest of the empire. People who value stability over change, and like most cities, it’s a major site of debate. But really even in Philadelphia, it’s easy to overstate people’s commitment to these different political ideas.

Liz Covart(00:14:42):

On the ground and away from the work of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia was a disaffected city. To be disaffected meant you didn’t support one side or another. So while there were certainly revolutionaries and loyalists in Philadelphia, it seems a majority of Philadelphians supported neither side. In part, Philadelphians’ disaffection stemmed from Philadelphia’s Quaker origins.

Andrew Sullivan (00:15:06)

There are lots of pacificts in the state, people who don’t want to see war for one thing, you’ve got lots of merchants, they’re in Philadelphia, their income is based on continued connections with the British Atlantic world. They don’t wanna sacrifice that. Unlike many colonies. Pennsylvania has done relatively well economically in the 1760s, 1770s, lots of people don’t want to rock that boat.

George Boudreau (00:15:29): 

Philadelphia was, the word that comes to mind is lackluster. Many, many people didn’t see the point. There wasn’t as much of a point of breaking with Britain in Pennsylvania. Everybody screamed about their liberties, but there wasn’t an overwhelming sense of fear of enslaved people and insurrection so a lot of Philadelphians didn’t pursue the idea, they didn’t join the band. They were among the disaffected. The constant fear was that we might be attacked from the water and now a group of guys show up at our state house and declare independency and there certainly was a third of the population who were saying great, what a fabulous idea, we’re gonna be an independent nation now. And there were a lot of people, including our substantial number of pacifistic Quakers, and other pacifist sects, who said, what on earth are you thinking?

Andrew Sullivan (00:16:27):

The Pennsylvania colonial assembly will never vote to support independence. The closest they come is that they let their delegates to congress make the decision for themselves. There is never a majority of delegates from Pennsylvania to Congress that votes for independence. It takes the abstention of a couple of moderate delegates to let their pro revolutionary side, come up with a plurality of votes for Pennsylvania. So it’s very late in the process and only just barely that Pennsylvania moves into the independence column. And even then it’s questionable if there really was a majority of the population behind that decision.

Liz Covart(00:17:03):

As Pennsylvanians considered their political stance on the Revolution, the War for Independence raged. On Christmas Day 1776, George Washington and his Continental Army crossed the Delaware River and attacked the British-German outpost at Trenton, New Jersey. On January 2nd, 1777, Washington and his men fought and won a battle at Princeton. These surprise victories energized the revolutionaries’, while at the same time prompted British military commander-in-chief General Sir William Howe to consider how he could draw Washington and his Continental army out on to the battlefield for a traditional 18th-century-style military engagement.

Now during the 1777 campaign season, British military strategy was twofold: British General John Burgoyne was tasked with marching an army south from Canada in an effort to cut off troublesome New England from the rest of the colonies while Howe took his army south to Philadelphia.

Andrew Sullivan (00:18:00):

By 1777, Sir William Howe comes up with his own plan of taking Philadelphia. He believes the British have to destroy George Washington’s Army. Capturing cities is great, but as long as the Continental Army is still alive, it’s going to inspire Americans to resist. George Washington proves very good at running away. Howe’s army never really loses a battle to Washignton but he can’t get a complete victory against them. So Howe was looking for something that will make George Washington stand and fight, something that he thinks Washington will risk his entire army in order to defend. And Howe decides Philadelphia is that something, the American capital.

Liz Covart(00:18:41):

Major General Nathaniel Greene of the Continental Army once described Philadelphia and its military importance as thus:

Voice Actor as Nathaniel Greene (00:18:49)

(Pen Scratching) “Philadelphia is an object of such magnitude, the prejudices of the people in the surrounding States so strong in its favor as to its importance and consequence, the manufactories and supplies for the Army so numerous in that city, that the loss of it, would so effect the country and the army, that very great injury would arise, to the common cause of America.” (Pen Scratching)

Liz Covart(00:19:17):

Howe believed that given the importance of Philadelphia to the American war effort, that George Washington would commit a majority of his forces to defending the city. Howe also believed that by taking the new United States capital, he would be able to deliver a knockout blow to American morale and perhaps even capture the Continental Congress. 

Howe hoped Philadelphia would deliver a great victory, and perhaps final victory, over the revolutionaries, so Howe kept his plans for invading Philadelphia a secret. 

Andrew Sullivan (00:19:46):

The British invasion of Philadelphia happens in a very roundabout way. The British could have just marched overland across New Jersey from New York. That would’ve been the quickest way to get there, but it would also make it fairly obvious what they were trying to do. It would’ve given Washington a great opportunity to draw a line at the Delaware River and try to hold the British off there. So instead, General Howe decides to send the British army out to sea and to come around by water in July for about a week nobody knows where he’s gone. It’s a very stressful moment for Washington as he’s marching back and forth trying to figure out where are the British gonna show up next.

Liz Covart(00:20:23):

Howe and his army of about 15,000 men set sail for the Chesapeake Bay on July 23, 1777. On August 25, they began to make landfall south of Philadelphia near present-day Elkton, Maryland. 

Andrew Sullivan (00:20:37):

This was maybe a mistake on his part. It takes him a month to make that roundabout trip into the Chesapeake. His ships don’t have air conditioning. The men are miserable and sick on board. Nearly all the horses die. It was a horrible experience for them. The army ends up landing in Maryland. They have to catch their breath for a while and then they can finally start marching to Philadelphia.

Liz Covart (00:20:59):

As Howe’s Army marched north and east through Maryland, Washington drew his line of defense at Brandywine Creek. The Brandywine runs across southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Delaware and is about 26 miles south of Philadelphia. Washington placed his army of about 15,000 men along the north side of the Brandywine to guard the different fords or areas of shallow waters that Howe’s army would need to cross on a march towards Philadelphia. 

Washington’s men centered on Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania. They built batteries but they failed to send scouts west of their position. British scouts surveyed Washington’s position and opted to split its army in two. Howe sent one half of his army directly at Washington while the other half moved north and west to flank Washington on his right. Aaron Sullivan describes what happened next.

Andrew Sullivan (00:21:49):

The Continentals are very surprised to suddenly find a British army on their right hand side. They repeatedly fallback. As they’re dealing with that surprise, the main British force takes advantage of their opportunity to rush across the river and now Washington’s being hit by two forces at once. Some people absolutely panic. You have Continental soldiers who throw down their guns, they run, they don’t stop running till they’re in Philadelphia. And it could have been a total rout, but there is some very fierce rear guard fighting by select units of Continentals who kind a hold it together, delay the British long enough for the Continental Army to survive.

Liz Covart (00:22:23):

Prior to the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Washington had mostly employed Fabian military tactics. Named after the Roman general Fabius, the goal of these tactics was to wear out the British Army by delaying and evading a formal confrontation. Up until the Battle of Brandywine, Washington had successfully executed this strategy of delaying and evasion. But the Battle of Brandywine was a full-on confrontation and battle between Washington and Howe.

Thanks to the courageous rearguard fighting by the men under the commands of Nathaniel Greene, Lord Stirling, and the Marquis de Lafayette, Washington and a majority of his army were able to retreat and escape with just 200 killed, 700-800 wounded, and 400 men taken as prisoners.

George Boudreau (00:23:10): 

We always wanna tell the story of the brave Patriots, lining the streets and shooting at the Redcoats, but that didn’t happen. After the Battle of Brandywine, Washington made probably the strategically wise decision to not do an urban battle. It would’ve been a battle of going house to house and that would’ve been pretty devastating. 

Liz Covart(00:23:31):

As George Boudreau mentioned, the Continental Army’s defeat at the Battle of Brandywine left Philadelphia in a panic. One of the best descriptions we have of this panic comes from a devout Quaker woman named Elizabeth Drinker, who kept a diary for many years before, during, and after the American Revolution. 

Voice Actor as Elizabeth Drinker (00:23:51):

(Pen Scratching) “September 12 [1777]…this has been a day of Great Confusion to many in this City [of Philadelphia]; which I have in great measure been kept out of by my constant attention on my sick Child. [P]art of Washington[‘]s Army has been routed, and have been seen coming into Town in Great Numbers; the particulars of the Battle, I have not attended to, the slain is said to be very numerous–hundreds of their muskets laying in the road, which those that made off have thrown down…the Wounded have been brought in this Afternoon, to what amount I have not learnt…” (Pen Scratching)

Andrew Sullivan (00:24:23):

There’s just total chaos in the streets of Philadelphia. They think the British are just about to March into town. Men run up and down the city streets, banging on doors, telling everyone they need to evacuate. Congressmen, Pennsylvania assembly men, you know rush out into the streets on their horses and carriages trying to get out of the city. Unfortunately in an effort to slow the British down, Continentals have cut ferry lines, they’ve destroyed bridges, so that just adds to the chaos as people try to find a way out of the city. And by the next day they figure out the British aren’t right on the doorstep, as they feared, you see some embarrassed congressmen come slowly back into town to do business for another few days. Then it’s about a week later that the British are actually on the verge of invading the city. And Congress has a more orderly retreat first out to Lancaster and then ultimately to York where they settle for most of the occupation.

Liz Covart (00:25:13):

Confusion reigned in Philadelphia in the days following the battle. Although the British did not attack Philadelphia straight away, everyone knew they would march into the city, so Philadelphians had to make the very personal decision of whether to flee the city or whether to remain under a military occupation by the British.

(00:25:33) What did Philadelphians need to think about and consider as they made this decision? Our investigation of this subject will continue after we take a quick moment to thank our Fourth of July series partner, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

Are you looking for a unique way to further your exploration of early American history? Would you like to take a journey of historic proportions?

You should make a trip to Virginia’s historic peninsula where the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation can help you discover the real people and events of two crucial moments in early American history: The English settlement at Jamestown and the American Revolution.

(00:26:06) The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation has 2 living-history museums where you can explore a re-creation of the Jamestown settlement and a re-creation of a 1770s Yorktown farm and military encampment. And while you are walking around these historic areas, you and your family can interact with historical interpreters who can show you what it was like to live as one of the first English settlers in North America or what it was like to live and work as a soldier or civilian at Yorktown. 

And if you arrive in time to commemorate the Fourth of July at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, you can take part in its annual Liberty Celebration. 

(00:26:42) The Liberty Celebration salutes the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a full day of activities. Activities that include artillery demonstrations, seeing a rare July 1776 broadside of the Declaration of Independence, and programs where you can investigate the challenges faced by the United States’ founders and by those for whom the new nation’s rights of freedom and liberty did not yet apply.

For more information about the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, its Museums, and the Liberty Celebration visit benfranklinsworld.com/liberty. That’s benfranklinsworld.com/liberty. 

(00:27:19) How did Philadelphians make the decision to stay or flee ahead of the British occupation of their city?

Andrew Sullivan (00:27:27):

When it comes to deciding if you want to be in Philadelphia or be somewhere else during the occupation, there’s really two issues at stake. It’s do you want to leave? And if you do want to, do you have the practical ability to do so? Anyone closely involved with the revolutionary government obviously had good reason to leave. They don’t wanna be arrested for treason by the British. Now the British army is, at first, very generous in saying that they’re gonna forgive all sorts of revolutionary slights. General Howe offers what he calls a free and general pardon to Americans, even soldiers who have been fighting the British, everyone really, but the upper echelons of the Revolution, Howe offers to pardon them and really the only restriction he says is put down your guns, go back home. Not everyone is willing to take that at face value.

Kalela Williams (00:28:14):

There’s not any evidence that I know of that there were any mass efforts to flee. You know fleeing is for people with resources, you need money. You need a place to go. You need family members or friends or somebody who can support you while you know you’re couch surfing, if you will. African Americans, whether free or enslaved, stayed put. If they were enslaved, they might have accompanied their enslavers out of town, or their enslavers might have left them. And actually there is evidence that some enslavers left their human property.

George Boudreau (00:28:42): 

Sally Franklin Bache had just given birth days earlier and had stationed herself inside the Market Street house that her parents had built and what she had lived in with her mother  while her father was away. Sally later described riding out of town on horseback at a gallup to escape the occupying British forces. To think of the suffering of this young woman, storming out of the city after trying to just protect her Dad’s stuff must have been physically painful as well as emotionally draining.

Liz Covart (00:29:16):

Continental congressmen and Pennsylvania’s revolutionary government officials fled Philadelphia, as did family members of prominent revolutionaries. But not everyone could leave the city and not everyone wanted to leave.

Kalela Williams (00:29:30):

I think for black folks in particular, it was okay, what is happening, but also, can I be liberated? My wife is enslaved. Can this free her? Can this free my kids? Can this somehow be a way for me to find my family members again who’ve been separated by enslavement? So I think that there must have been fear, but among African Americans there also must have been how can I improve my lot in life?

Andrew Sullivan (00:29:56):

Curiously, I think from our perspective today, families often left women and children behind to look over the property. We see many instances where it’s the men who leave, who evacuate the city before the British Army gets there and their wives and children are the people who stay behind to live through the occupation. This you know sounds very odd to us but really what it tells us is that many families thought that staying behind in the city would be safer for women and children than evacuating. They’ve got a home there. They often have resources there, they have access to supplies they may not have access to out in the countryside.  If you’ve got loyalist leanings, there is some comfort for you in the British taking the city. So the primary benefit you as loyalists are gonna see is that you have some more freedom to talk about the revolution, you don’t constantly have to look over your shoulder for revolutionaries who might be judging you for not being enthusiastic enough about independence much less than doing something like singing God Save the King, which got people arrested in Philadelphia before the British arrived. 

Liz Covart (00:31:01):

By the Fall of 1777, the British Army had occupied several American port cities, including Boston, New York City, and Newport, Rhode Island. Those experiences taught General Sir William Howe that the way an Army entered the city, and engaged the population, could make a huge difference in the reception that awaited them.

Andrew Sullivan (00:31:22):

The British are careful with the first impressions they make in Philadelphia. Howe splits his army in half, he takes most of it up to Germantown. With that section he brings all the baggage, all the animals, all the camp followers, anything that looks dirty and smelly. Basically, he wants to move it all up to Germantown away from Philadelphia proper.

So they try to make a good impression on the people of Philadelphia. And to some extent they do. Even people in the city who, if anything, lean toward the Revolution and their sentiments can come away impressed by the fact that these British men aren’t looting things. They aren’t destroying things. They aren’t harassing the citizens. It’s very carefully staged to make a good impression.

Liz Covart (00:32:07):

General Howe marched into Philadelphia with only a few thousand soldiers. He left the rest of his army north of the city in Germantown until winter descended upon the region. Now despite these signs of a calm, orderly, and phased occupation, the presence of nearly 15,000 soldiers and numerous camp followers, created a number of problems and dangers for Philadelphians.

Even though many Philadelphians had fled the city and lowered the number of residents, the British Army used up lots of resources. It consumed food, burned wood for heat and cooking, took up lodgings in people’s homes, and commandeered animals, carts, and other tools.

While, common soldiers set up camp on the outskirts of town or in various barracks. Officers sought better lodgings by taking over rooms or entire buildings from Philadelphia’s elite families.

(00:32:55) For example, Major John André–the man who later assisted Benedict Arnold with his defection to the British–André took over the home of Benjamin Franklin because he was drawn to Franklin’s collection of scientific instruments, music, and art.

Officers also quartered themselves in houses occupied by the disaffected and Loyalists. These soldiers lived side-by-side with Philadelphians. And these close quarters posed logistical challenges and dangers for the families who lived inside these homes.  

George Boudreau (00:33:26):

I don’t think the British restricted themselves too much. They seemed very into finding American girls who were pretty and willing, or maybe more so just willing, looking to party and have fun. So it wasn’t like they shut down the pleasure centers of the town. So the bars were open. They were still performing theater. They were certainly having parties most infamously the Meschianza and I don’t think Americans and particularly the Presbyterians and the Quakers were necessarily thrilled with this. That we have a bunch of drunken, randy military men who moved into our town, taken over houses, and now their going after young women.

Andrew Sullivan (00:34:08):

Your situation, if you had a British officer living in your house, depended entirely on who that British officer was. Very different experiences for different families, depending on the nature of their house guest. Sometimes they could be very destructive. We know they destroyed property. They often drank a lot. They would gamble late into the night. This bothered the women of Philadelphia considerably, especially Quaker women who are more devout who were just scandalized by this behavior. Some of these officers would take over entire floors of the house, parlors, bedrooms, everything just to make it their own. Loyalists complain that the British are more destructive to loyalist property than they are to revolutionary property because they’re not really taking into account the political affiliations of the population. We know some families were in the awkward position of they couldn’t use their own front door, the British controlled the front of the house so if they wanted to get into their own house, these families would have to come in the back door, it was very hard for them.

Liz Covart (00:35:04):

In addition to taking over Philadelphians’ private homes, the British Army also needed lots of food and fuel to feed their force of 15,000 and to keep it warm through the cold winter months. So the army requisitioned and used up supplies. Supplies that Philadelphians needed and often couldn’t afford.

Even in a normal year, without an army occupying their city, poor Philadelphians would have found it difficult to earn enough money to buy the food and wood they needed to survive. By one estimate, prices rose nearly 50 percent in Philadelphia during the War for Independence. And the occupying British force made these prices rise even higher during the winter of 1777/1778. This made survival even more of a challenge for poor Philadelphians who needed flour, wood, clothing, and housing. 

Andrew Sullivan (00:35:51):

Philadelphia suffers considerably during the occupation because the army is there and it is a very large army that needs places to sleep. It needs food to eat, it needs fuel to burn, and they will get some of that through the Royal Navy and the forms of supplies delivered from Britain. But quite a bit of it is gonna come from the city of Philadelphia and the area around.

George Boudreau (00:36:13): 

There simply wasn’t enough fuel to go around. No one was bringing buckboards full of firewood into town and the British had solved that problem by chopping up what was nearby. So that included fences around cemeteries, which were there primarily to keep hogs out. It involved in some cases the furnishings of churches and the Presbyterian Church, what we now call Old Pine, which was the third Presbyterian church in what is now the Society Hill area was stripped of its woodwork and its pews, which were chopped up and used for firewood. The Anglican churches, the Churches of England still, tended to suffer less. Christ Church and St. Peter’s maintained their pews but lost their fences.

Voice Actor as Elizabeth Drinker (00:36:59):

(Pen Scratching) “December 23, 1777: The Soldiers Wife who lives in our House in Water Street came to me this Morning to inform that some were taring down the Shed &c. Sister went down after Meeting and desir’d ‘em to desist, they said they would not for it was a Rebels House, she assur’d ‘em it was not, and after more talk, promis’d if she would let ‘em take the large Gate they would desist, she agreed thereto, and came [away].” (Pen Scratching)

Andrew Sullivan (00:37:26):

When we get to the winter and the ground is frozen, it’s very cold. You’ve got very bored men in the city. Common soldiers engage in all sorts of things. They play cards, they gamble, they drink, they fight. You know the things you would expect from soldiers who are bored in a city. The elite officers of the army make a real effort to develop more sophisticated entertainments I guess we could say. They put together a system of theatrical performances in Philadelphia. This is something they did in New York the year before as well.

Liz Covart(00:37:59):

Some Philadelphians found benefits in the British presence. Under American control, people had bought and sold items using a paper currency known as Continental dollars, which suffered from massive inflation and lost value by the day. So traders and shopkeepers, along with others who produced and sold goods, had difficulty collecting payments and getting the full value for what they sold.

However, the British paid in hard currency, gold and silver coin. The gold and silver the British introduced into the Philadelphia economy replenished the coffers of dozens of merchants.

The British also brought a significant number of free Black soldiers to Philadelphia. Many of these soldiers had escaped slavery in the American South to join the British Army. These soldiers stood as living examples for Black Philadelphians of what might be possible for them under British rule. Here’s Kalela Williams with more.

Kalela Williams (00:38:51):

If you live in Philadelphia, you would see people who already had cast their lot with the British and you’re gonna ask them questions. You’re gonna be like “ hey, why’d you do that? What do you feel like you’re gaining? And many of them might have said, I worked on a tobacco plantation or I was enslaved here or what not, so this was my opportunity to get away from that and this could be yours too. Even people who are free, anything to weaken the cause of slavery. Anything that as long as there is slavery, your lot as a citizen is affected.

Liz Covart (00:39:27):

When the British marched into Philadelphia in September 1777, General Sir William Howe and other military leaders saw its conquest as part of a grand strategy to defeat the Continental Army and end the American rebellion. But by early 1778, elements of the war had shifted causing the British to reconsider their strategy.

A few weeks after Howe captured Philadelphia in September 1777, General John Burgoyne lost to the Continental Army at the Battle of Saratoga in New York. The Americans took Burgoyne and 6,000 of his soldiers as prisoners of war.

Victory at the Battle of Saratoga gave a boost to the diplomatic efforts of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin in France. And in February 1778, the French agreed to enter the war on behalf of the Americans.

Andrew Sullivan (00:40:16):

Britain was in an awkward situation in 1778. France has signed an alliance with the United States, which means that France is going to be entering the war against Great Britain. And from a British perspective, this is the important turn of events in the war. I think it’s hard for us as Americans to realize that from that moment forward, our whole rebellion was no longer the top British priority. France represented a much more powerful opponent and a global threat to British interests.

Liz Covart (00:40:47):

New York City had long been the center of Great Britain’s empire in North America. The British Army had used New York as its continental headquarters during and after the Seven Years’ War and many major imperial officials responsible for the colonies lived and worked in New York City. With France’s entry into the war and with its supplies, reinforcements, and administrative officers in New York City, holding Philadelphia seemed to make much less sense to the British.

Andrew Sullivan (00:41:12):

There is just no way Britain can defend New York and Philadelphia and maintain its strength in the West Indies and elsewhere. They decide New York is more strategically important, it’s much more defensible, so Philadelphia gets abandoned.

Liz Covart (00:41:27):

With the British Army wintering in both New York City and Philadelphia in the winter of 1777 and 1778, the main part of the Continental Army spent its winter at Valley Forge, located just 20 miles west of Philadelphia. The Continentals’ winter at Valley Forge proved very challenging. Given eastern Pennsylvania’s disaffected leanings and the British Army’s ability to pay for goods with hard cash, the American Army had trouble acquiring the food, firewood, and other essential supplies it needed.

By Spring 1778, the Continental Army posed little immediate threat to the British occupation of Philadelphia, this gave General Howe time to plan the British retreat from the city.

As Howe made his plans, a letter arrived from London, Howe had been relieved of his command.

Howe was so beloved by his fellow officers so they decided that before they all quit Philadelphia for good, they would throw Sir William Howe a massive goodbye party–the Meschianza, a formal ball that took place on May 18, 1778.

George Boudreau (00:42:30): 

The British Press and the British government grow weary of Howe not finishing this war. So they recall him and then his brother, Admiral Howe says, well, I’ll go too. So officers gather about, I think it’s estimated as over 2000 pounds sterling to throw a massive goodbye celebration for the Howe Brothers at a country estate that was owned by one of the members of the Wharton Family, a patriot who had fled when the occupation started.

The party planner was no less than  John Andre. Andre was a bonvivant, a painter, a wooer of young maidens, very romantic visions of what the world used to be like and he creates this medieval pageant of soldiers and their ladies…He breaks the officers into two teams, they are divided by the color of their costumes.

Andrew Sullivan (00:43:28):

The Meschianza was the most opulent party thrown in America during the war, maybe during the whole of the 18th century. So there is a regatta down the river, there’s a 17-gun salute from warships. They have multiple bands playing music throughout the city. There is dancing, they have fireworks, they have a truly enormous feast. Hundreds of people attend this party, a mixture of army officers and the more well-to-do members of Philadelphia society. It’s a rare opportunity for some people in Philadelphia to live the sort of high life they would not live under the revolutionaries, who are much more strict about this sort of thing. And you know, here’s your chance to go dancing with a British Lord or a British Knight, people who might never have come to the America’s under normal circumstances. Most memorably, in the Meschianza, is that you have these officers of the army who dress up as Knights and they joust with one another, as if they’re at a medieval tournament and it’s a major show. There’s trumpeters, there’s squires in matching uniforms, the whole thing. 

Liz Covart (00:44:30):

John Andre also sought out one more crucial element for the party: a group of young women for the British officers to socialize with.

Andrew Sullivan (00:44:39):

He goes through the city in advance seeking out these young Philadelphia women who he thinks are the brightest and the most beautiful and inviting them to take part in this production. To his credit, as best as I can tell, this is a sincere invitation and he does get turned down sometimes and he accepts that. But he does bring in these elite young women of Philadelphia, he dresses them up in robes and in turbans and silk, as if they’re his view of a sort of exotic Oriental woman, someone from Turkey or the Holy land, so to present this view of these Knights who are British officers are on crusade and they’re jousting each other whilst they’re on crusade.

Liz Covart (00:45:18):

The British officers and their Loyalist allies enjoyed the spectacle. But the Meschianza also alienated many Philadelphians because of its over-the-top display of luxury.

Philadelphians, whatever their politics, had suffered a great deal during the winter. And in May, when the party was held, crops had only just been planted, so there was very little fresh produce or food available in the city. So many Philadelphians criticized the Meschianza.

George Boudreau (00:45:43): 

They’re doing this, you know, as the neighborhood is worried about starvation. It’s May so the crops aren’t up. You’re not gonna be seeing corn for months. The other stuff is just maybe starting to sprout

And Andre, he’s incredibly tone deaf to the feelings of this Quaker city where people may be starving and their alms houses are full, but he really wants to throw a big party for some departing British nobleman. 

Andrew Sullivan (00:46:11):

A lot of people questioned if this was the kind of celebration that was appropriate in the middle of war time given the hardships and the suffering going on all around them. Maybe especially given the fact that Britain was, at least in Philadelphia, about to be on the retreat, throwing this party seems kind of inappropriate.

The British are really blind to their actual situation in America and are extremely tone deaf to the attitudes of the people who were suffering around them. And that was probably the majority view of citizens in Philadelphia. Even some of the British officers write that this is very awkward for them and they are highly embarrassed to see the army behaving in this way. Most of them are very fond of Howe, happy to sort of celebrate his legacy as he leaves, but they wish they had found a more respectful way to do it.

Liz Covart (00:47:02):

A few weeks after the Meschianza, on June 18, 1778, the British began to march out of Philadelphia. They marched with almost no ceremony. Washington and the Continental Army did not attack them as they departed and this allowed the entire British force to return to its headquarters in New York City, just 9 months after they had begun their occupation of Philadelphia.

George Boudreau (00:47:27): 

It came to an end in June of 1778 and the military history answer to that is with Franklin securing French support, it was clear that General Clinton could not maintain occupation of the colonial capital and marched his men overland–well crossing the river of course—but overland into fortress New York, which the British continued to hold until the end of the war. I think Clinton completely understood that they had met an embarrassing end and a complete failure. And while the British were very loud in marching into Philadelphia and bringing in their horses and their cannon and such, that morning they were gone, they’re just gone. How you march 15,000 men out of a city that is almost in its entirety is four blocks from the same river. It’s a village, they were in essence sneaking out of town.

Andrew Sullivan (00:48:23):

There is no running battle in the streets to drive them out. The citizens are spared that. They will ship as much baggage as they can, via boat, down the Delaware River and back up to New York which is where they’re headed.  Then they will sort of march out in phases. They wanna stage it a little bit so that they can cover their flanks, make sure they don’t get attacked along the way, but they don’t wanna drag it out. They would rather Washington not have any advanced notice than he has to about what their plans are, so they will march out. It’s worth noting they will mostly leave this city intact, not clean, but intact, they don’t burn it down.

Liz Covart (00:48:59):

As Aaron Sullivan related, the British left Philadelphia intact, but not clean. The British made a conscious decision not to set fire to the city on their way out, but it would take Philadelphians months to restore their city to the level of order and cleanliness they had enjoyed before the occupation.

Kalela Williams (00:49:18):

When I say trashed, of course, we don’t just mean like, cigars left on the street. We mean doors torn off hinges. We mean roofs shattered. We mean walls torn down, windows broken. So it’s not just somebody with pinchers–not that they had those back then–somebody with pinchers picking up trash. It’s: no, we need to rebuild this house. This house is a trash pit, the British left as a calling card, they burned vessels in the Harbor. They burned stockpiles of ship building materials. So you need more, so you then have this need for labor. And, of course, families who are returning are just returning to houses that have been commandeered,  they need more domestic help than they ever had.

Andrew Sullivan (00:50:03:):

Philadelphia is in rough shape. It’s been extremely crowded there, both humans and animals, for many months. The British have been using these buildings for things they weren’t supposed to use them for, putting horses inside churches, turning all sorts of buildings into barracks for their men. So there’s a great deal of damage, a huge amount of wear and tear that’s been done. All sorts of things have been chopped down to be used for fuel. Orchards have been leveled. Fences are pretty much completely gone, warehouses have been torn down. Again, it’s not an attempt to destroy the city. It’s just they needed fuel, they needed supplies, they needed a place to sleep.

George Boudreau (00:50:38): 

And of course they’ve gone in and taken what they wanted out of people’s store cupboards, out of their firewood storage, out of their animals. So all that was missing. And they made what I perceived to be a very public damning desecration of public spaces. The State House now called Independence Hall, of course, had a massive pit dug by the south door where they had thrown corpses and garbage, and one assumes fecal matter. They had used the upstairs of the tower of the State House, where for a time the Liberty Bell had hung, as a POW space, and at least one man who had been held there recalled having to lie on the floor, literally choking because the British had build a bonfire downstairs on the brick floor at the base of the tower and we’re almost smoking the men to death.

Kalela Williams (00:51:30):

We know that there were about a hundred black pioneers, which was a sort of regiment of people, men and women who were charged with cleaning up the city. And some of them had been left behind by their enslavers. 

Liz Covart(00:51:42):

The severe and substantial damage to public buildings that Kalela Williams, George Boudreau, and Aaron Sullivan mentioned took months to repair. In the meantime, those who had evacuated from Philadelphia ahead of the occupation began  to return and take stock of what property had been damaged or even taken by the British.

Major John André, for example, that mastermind behind the Meschianza, famously took a number of items from Benjamin Franklin’s house on Market Street. Among the items André pilfered was a portrait of Franklin that remained in the family of the Earl Grey until the early 20th century, when it was returned to the White House.

Voice Actor as John Dunlap (00:52:23):

(Newspaper moving) John Dunlap, The Pennsylvania Packet, July 4, 1778: On Thursday the 18th ultimo, the British Army under the command of Sir Henry Clinton, completed their evacuation of this city after having possession of it about nine months. The indiscriminate destruction of Whig and Tory property to be seen in the neighborhood of the city strongly mark the character of those British savages. They have increased the resentment of their old enemies and turned the hearts of their friends: Many who welcomed them into the city and who were deceived and seduced by their specious proclamations, followed them with the bitterest execrations. A few citizens, whose conduct and crimes gave them no reason to hope for mercy from their injured countrymen, went off with the British Army. (Newspaper moving) 

Liz Covart (00:53:22):

That’s how John Dunlap, the printer of the Pennsylvania Packet newspaper, announced his return to Philadelphia in the July 4, 1778 issue. As the printer of the Declaration of Independence, Dunlap was a staunch patriot who fled to York, Pennsylvania with Congress. On his return, the Packet teemed with advertisements seeking lost and missing items, the return of enslaved people who ran away with the British, and news about the alleged atrocities committed by the British Army while they occupied the city.

Andrew Sullivan (00:53:50):

If you look at the newspapers they’re full of all sorts of ads, as people try track down what happened to their property. Has it been destroyed? Has it been taken by the British to someone else in the city have it? As they try to announce where their homes are now, where their businesses are located now. The newspapers do help them sort this out. It’s a handy thing about Philadelphia and America in general at the time, that’s a very literate society, they can use newspapers for that.  And then there is the political stress you’ve got this situation where Philadelphia has gone from being a colonial capital to the capital of the independent United States, to the headquarters of the British Army, back to the capital of the independent United States.

Liz Covart(00:54:29):

As Philadelphians cleaned up their city and searched for their belongings, they also marked the second anniversary of American independence on July 4, 1778. Here’s how Elizabeth Drinker described the occasion.

Voice Actor as Elizabeth Drinker (00:54:43):

(Pen scratching) “July 4 [1778] A great fuss this evening it being the Anniversary of Independence, fireing of Guns, Sky Rockets &c—Candles were too scarce and dear, for Alluminations, which perhaps sav’d some of our Windows–A very high Head dress was exhibited thro the Streets, this afternoon on a very dirty Woman with a mob after her, with Drums &c. by way of rediculing that very foolish fashon–a Number of Prisoners brought in to day: moderate weather.” (Pen scratching)

George Boudreau (00:55:14): 

I don’t think the occupation of Philadelphia really cracked any part of the American movement toward independence. I don’t want to call it an inconvenience because I’ve just described neighbors killing neighbors. But it isn’t like it breaks a great momentum towards breaking with Britain.

Liz Covart (00:55:32):

As George Boudreau revealed, in the long term, the occupation of Philadelphia had only a small impact on the outcome of the War for Independence. But for the ordinary people who lived through this experience, their lives had changed in sometimes very dramatic ways.

For Black Americans, the occupation and the war opened doors to freedom and possibility. Sometimes this happened by leaving the United States while in other cases it happened by remaining.

Kalela Williams (00:56:00):

When I do costumed interpretation, I portray a woman named Eleanor Harris who has sometimes in the record been called Helena Harris. And like a lot of African American women at the time, and like a lot of women at the time, we don’t know a lot about her. What we know is that she was a teacher in Philadelphia and towards the end of the Revolutionary War, she would have left Philadelphia and gone to England, looking for her husband who served with the British. 

She found out that he died. She stayed in Chatham, England for awhile and she taught white families’ children, and she also remarried. She married a man named John Harris and that’s, of course, where she gets her last name that we have on the records that are left. And then she comes back to the U.S. and she teaches on Cherry Street at a school that’s supported by Quakers. She was noted in a few different documents, there’s a 1794 directory that calls her a Black woman of considerable parts, meaning many notable facets of her life. There’s a beautiful obituary after she dies in the late 1790s, in which the obituary talks about how her funeral was attended by so many people, Black and white. And there’s this gorgeous message of equality that we’re sort of left with at the end of her obituary.

Liz Covart(00:57:18):

James Forten was a boy during the War for Independence, but his experiences during the war shaped his future as a Black businessman and abolitionist in Philadelphia.

Kalela Williams (00:57:29):

The legacy of this is terribly important. The legacy of African-Americans acquiring skills that are needed for more opportunities, for these skilled labor opportunities continued for a long time. Because what you end up having, what you ended up shaping was a healthy middle class and people like James Forten were really integral to that. And, I’ll add, you know one thing I didn’t mention about James Forten is that as a young man, he was actually imprisoned on a British ship. He was working as part of the Navy. He was a sort of cabin boy and he was imprisoned and his imprisonment was a very formative experience for him.

Later when he opened his own sail shop, he employed people. He was giving back as he was earning. And so you have others like him who are earning, but giving back, earning but giving back. This middle class has the time and the resources to really throw in efforts toward abolition. And so you see the fruits of this in the 19th century and beyond.

Liz Covart (00:58:26):

When Sally Franklin Bache returned to the city in the Fall of 1778, she reported to her father Benjamin that his, quote, “House and Furniture were in much better order than we could expect,” end quote, but that one of his chests of papers had been opened and ransacked.

Others returned slowly during that summer and fall. And in addition to assessing their belongings, they also looked around at their neighbors and re-evaluated their opinions of their fellow Philadelphians based on their actions over the previous year. In some cases it took years and even decades before neighbors could trust the loyalists who had stayed behind.

George Boudreau (00:59:04): 

There is no battle of Philadelphia, there is no grand dramatic military moment where everyone can say I was standing at the window when the British came in and this is where I shot at them from. And I think that there is a certain level of suspicion of the people who stayed behind. Were they Tories? How did they survive this? Or when grandpa was hanged for his behavior, why wasn’t her husband?

I think some people were rather angry. They hadn’t stood their ground and remained here with the people who were stuck here. And Philadelphia has this love-hate relationship with being the national capital for the rest of the century.

Andrew Sullivan (00:59:47):

A lot of sympathy for the British Empire that existed among the Loyalists in Philadelphia, or that potentially existed among neutrals in Philadelphia, evaporated when the British decided to abandon the city and let the revolutionaries come back in. People were very bitter about that. It felt like Britain was abandoning its American subjects when it evacuated the city without putting up a fight to keep it.

I think this was their moment to just sort of accept the reality that the revolutionary government is in control. Britain has been here and it chose to leave us behind and they are probably not coming back. There was a very real sense in the months and the years after the occupation, that as far as Pennsylvania is concerned, and probably as far as the Northern states are concerned, this is over. Britain is not gonna retake Philadelphia. Britain has given up on the Northern colonies at least and they need to make their peace with the revolutionaries. They may not be excited about it, but they come to a place of just accepting it.

Liz Covart (01:00:45):

Philadelphia remained the national capital for several years, until Congress moved it to New York City for much of the 1780s. Philadelphia again served as a temporary capital for the United States from 1790 to 1800 during the construction of the brand-new capital city, Washington D.C, 

Though no longer the seat of government by the beginning of the 19th century, Philadelphia nonetheless served as one of the key Atlantic ports in the new United States as the new nation developed its economy, politics, and diplomacy.

After 1778, the British Army began to shift its military strategy to defeat the American rebellion. The British continued to hold New York City, but General Sir Henry Clinton and other commanders focused their attention on the Southern colonies from Virginia down to Georgia.

In our next episode on July 5th, we’ll turn to these southern campaigns and explore how the people of Yorktown, Virginia experienced their own occupation toward the end of the War for Independence in 1781.

Liz Covart (01:01:44):

This episode was co-written and co-produced by Joseph Adelman and Liz Covart.

Joseph Adelman, Holly White, and my partner Tim Wilde served as our voice actors.

Music for this episode came from Blue dot sessions.

You’ll find more information about our guests, Aaron Sullivan, George Boudreau, and Kalela Williams, on the show notes page: “Ben Franklin’s World Dot Com slash Three Three Two.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and family.

This episode of Ben Franklin’s World is supported by an American Rescue Plan grant to the Omohundro Institute from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Production assistance for the podcast comes from the Omohundro Institute’s Digital Audio Team: Joseph Adelman, Martha Howard, and Holly White. Breakmaster Cylinder composed our custom theme music.

This podcast is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. To discover and listen to their other podcasts, visit AirwaveMedia.com

Finally, Joe, Holly, and I wish you and yours a very Happy Fourth of July! And we’ll see you next Tuesday, for the second episode in our annual Fourth of July celebration. 

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute, and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.