there is only one list that has ever surfaced of british prisoners kept on the jersey, about 8,000 names that were collected in the middle of the nineteenth century, but as far as i know and as far as anyone has been able to find, there are no other lists of that kind. my strong sense is if such evidence existed it would have been discovered by now. >> there are lists of the people who were captured with ethan allen. >> those records, sure. >> not necessarily n.y. one of the questions has always been who was in the sugar house if you don't find his name. what did you do with the database of names you did, >> it is sitting on my computer. >> might be available. >> it is pretty idiosyncratic

and so forth. but i did accumulate a lot of information about people. i would be happy to answer specific questions, if i could. send me a name and i will see if i got it in my database. >> you might be hearing it. >> fair enough. good. thank you very much, we have run out of time. i appreciate your -- [applause] >> at when -- edwin burrows was a recipient of the built surprise for history in 1999, use a history professor at brooklyn collecollege and unive york. summer book tv is asking what

are you reading? >> i plan on reading several books, a couple of them that i need to finish writing now. one of them is on william wilberforce, a great man in history, responsible for eliminating the slave trade in great britain. he is one of my political heroes in life. the abolitionists in america look to wilberforce and his example of how to get rid of slavery in the united states. anything i can read about wilberforce i try to get my hands on. the book i'm in the middle of right now, which i finished this summer, a tremendous book about his life and how he brought people together to eliminate the slave trade in great britain. another book that i am going to read this summer is the longest day, about that terribly long day when we invaded europe at

normandy, that eventually led to the end of world war ii. of friend of mine recommended it to me, saying it is an amazing book. i am excited about reading that. some recent books that i would recommend to people, one written by a navy seal, about his experiences in afghanistan, called the lone survivor. he is the lone survivor. it is one of the more remarkable stories of human courage, as a tribute to the courage of his comrades who lost their lives in that time in afghanistan. it is a tremendous book. another great book that i just read not long ago called a great upheaval by jay winik, talks about the have french revolution and the american revolution and was happening in russia, it ties history together better than any book i have ever read,

especially how each one of those countries affected each other. so it is one of the better history books that i have ever read. >> to si mort summer reading list, visit our web site at booktv.org. >> nancy stewart was encouraged to write the rise of the revolution, that is the topic of her book. she spoke at the john hay library of brown university in providence, rhode island, for a little over an hour. >> thank you very much. it is a pleasure to be here and have a chance to share with you

some of the things i have learned. but before i tell you things i have learned i am going to ask you a few questions. let's think about a few characteristics. i would like to ask you when you think these happened. the first one is a dangerous dependence on overseas goods. the second one is crashing land values. the third one is a rapidly depreciating national currency. the fourth one is shabby treatment of veterans. and the fifth one is suppression of civil rights. what year do you think we are talking about? any ideas? today? 1780s, the post revolutionary

period. actually before they became nationally aware of them, it is fascinating to me, during the years i was researching this book, i was reading about this terrible recession that these awful things happening in the early federalist period, suddenly they began to unfold in this country so i think things never quite change in human nature. another question to ponder, i probably started the book this way, with a question. how could a colonial woman, colonial women were supposed to be involved in birthing, staying in the home and candlemaking and cooking by the hearth, their education was restricted to day school. how could it be that a woman in

the colonial era, born in 1728, how could it be that she would be one of the most outspoken, individuals during the revolution, after the revolution, 1805, how can that be? within were supposed to be silent. i alluded to that. by and large, even betsy ross, we don't know a lot about her. we had extraordinary opportunities, her father was having her oldest brother

tutored to go to harvard, and he had a second son who he was also having tutored by her uncle in the west parish church nearby. receive was to be home. she was the third daughter. it seems as though number 2 dropped in front, he did not want to go to college. mercy begged her father, a self-taught attorney, can i sit in on these tutoring sessions? it seems as though she was allowed to do that. training for the examination was rigorous. mercy, and a young age, even though he wasn't allowed to read latin or french because she wasn't going to go to college, she still could read in english so she read at a very young age, shakespeare and milton and all the classics, she couldn't read

them in the original like her brother did but she read the classics. she read the history of the world. she became very erudite. she was supposed to be getting married. we don't have hurt chimney piece, the master's thesis for a colonial woman, indicating her domestic skills, but we do have a wonderful card table. if you go to plymouth, mass. pilgrim hall, you will see it, it is quite marvelous. a really complex mind, a person who is very astute to do this masterpiece, indicated the kind of life she was going to lead or expected to be. that would be one of leisure. she was what from a wealthy family, she would marry a wealthy man, she would be at home and entertain her friends with these card games.

really early versions of today's, she talks about how this patriot or this situation trumped that one. we begin to get that language. mercy didn't get married until quite late for a colonial woman. she was 26. twenty-three, 24 was the standard age. scholars have wondered why. of course, the theory that first abandoned was she was simply too well-educated, she's scared off the men. even rousseau wrote in 1762, an educated woman is a surge to her husband and her children. she scorns to steve to the duties of a woman. scholars have concluded perhaps this is why she didn't marry until late. other theories too, of them is that her husband to be was a man

who was to be high sheriff of plymouth and his father was very ill and they were waiting for him to retire before her husband would assume that position. there are a couple jamess in this story so i will try to be specific about who they are. james, her brother, the patriot, she calls him james the patriot, became a great lawyer, prominent, held an appointment as the the the and the fed -- the vice admiral to court, saw all of the trade in massachusetts. this is very lucrative. this included people, merchants and traders, had enormous trade, a very powerful city but by 1761 the british instituted under

gov. bernard, revived the old molasses act and they reusing which of assistance. breaking into shops, warehouses, businesses, holmes, smuggled goods, and part of the old navigation acts, going back to 1783, molasses was important. it could be used for making dumb. i don't mean to imply the revolution was based on lack of information or access to rum but certainly the principles of this violation upset them. english citizens were being violated going back to the magna carter. her brother, james the patriot,

through a side and appointment. he rallied his merchant friends and appliance and instituted a case against the british government. in the old state house in boston, the council chamber matt, the superior court, he challenged chief justice hutcheson and the many other justices, that this was a violation of basic english rights. in fact, a he claimed for 41/2 hours, present people were astounded, he had a british -- brilliant mind. he knew british law intimately. he talked so long, i hope i don't tonight, that seventh had to light the lamp so people could see. at the end, he declared his most famous, and which was taxation

without representation is tyranny. john adams was a lonely 24 but already an attorney. he was fascinated, he later wrote in his diary, the child independence was born. after that, james the patriot organized with sam adams and mercy's husband, james warren, organized liberty, for the next ten years or so, the things you have studied, all of the act, the stamp act, the intolerable acts, so on and so forth, all of the things that happened, mercy's brother, james the patriot, was at the head of them. but he was getting a little talkative, a little over-the-top, a little garrulous, a little unstable. while he was in the assembly, her own husband was in the

assembly, they began to become alarmed. things went from bad to worse with james the patriot. he became frenzied and started riding not only his original treatises, but in 1769, september, he wrote something in the boston does that's patriotic newspaper in which he called a british officer a block head. and citing john locke who they admired for his ideas about inalienable rights of man and national rights that government is supposed to respect, he spread it into the british coffee house, the british officers gathered around him and insulted him. he had his head/open. he was obviously severely ill. he did recover but he never

recovered his stability, and perhaps at some point you may not have heard of james the patriot because from then on he was whisked off stage. you don't hear about him and stanley. you hope he recovers, comes back a few times, then he is shunted off to a farm and other places. we don't hear from him. mercy, meanwhile, is married to james warren. her husband is involved in these politics, a good friend of john adams. john adams knew him through legal circles. her husband being high sheriff, john being a lawyer. john adams didn't much like plymouth first. he wrote to his fiancee in plymouth, i find more bolling lawyers, drunken squires and impertinent people.

but when he met james warren and had sunday dinner with mercy and james, he wrote to his wife, abigail smith, and said here i find friends. however, receive is in a very strange position. she has been writing nature poetry, doing what a colonial wellborn would do. a lovely home in plymouth, homes. between summer and winter, mercy finds herself in an odd position. she knows exactly what is going on. she knows what is happening in the assembly. letters come flooding in to her brother from the radical english statesman in london, wanting to correspond with him, among whom is kathryn mcauley, radical british historian. mercy writes a rather awkward

letter saying my brother can no longer write to you, but -- she is very much in of this woman who had written an important, radical history of the british came from james on. she doesn't expect to get a letter from katharine but i want you to know he can't write any more. i want you to know, we appreciate your support to the american cause. when i started this book, i was going to call it dare i say more? because mercy, being a colonial woman, knew she had to keep her place. she is forever. she continues to ask her friends

-- john adams, her literary mentor, can i say this? this is incriminating. what will people think about me? that goes on and on. she writes in that same tone, a year later, catherine mcauley rights to her, embraces her, i am so honored to hear from the sister of james the patriot, they begin a literary friendship. may be that as part of why mercy becomes inspired. she is horrified by what is happening in the revolution. she and abigail adams are already corresponding, they have become fast friends. john adams, very good friends, in 1772, she just can't stand what is happening anymore in boston, in massachusetts, all of the oppression, and after the

boston massacre she starts to write. they were read widely. she published her first play, the flatter. a few minutes ago -- she is very hesitant. these are not easy to read. they are written in neoclassical style. in the back of the room there is a key to one of them. that will show you that these characters she makes up kind of like saturday night live, if you think about that in colonial america, she has plenty of names for them. gov. hutchinson is the arch villain. she has other characters like

crusty crowbar, simple, she calls one of hutcheson's relatives live. , he must have had a problem with his legs. people know exactly who they are when they read them. we can understand his they are. her name is not on the play. it is published in the massachusetts spa. her name isn't on at. many times if you look at the old newspapers there is no name. she does not have her name on it but it is very popular. pretty soon it is plagiarized. there's another act tied into it but that doesn't stop her. she is very happy that her name isn't on it.

she keeps telling her friends including the wife of a harvard professor, that she doesn't want anyone to know she has written this, she is just happy it got published, she is afraid because she is a woman and she is the sister of james the patriot, her husband is involved, she hosts many meetings are in her home. one person who keeps in courage and her is john adams, she has a genius ken, at knows of no other. this convinces her to go ahead and write the second play called the defeat in which mercy is getting very upset about women, the way women are treated but she is not a feminist even though there has been a lot of scholarship about her. she is very upset about the way

women are tied to men who are loyalists men, their views are different or the way the colonial laws went at that time where a woman, when she married, her dowry was taken from her, she was powerless. she has a little bit of that in her plays. she hates some of the women she knows because they're drinking tea and wearing imported silks instead of homespun. this goes on and on. this is all in her plays. the second place ends, the downfall, there's a wonderful scene in which it predict what happens when he comes back from hell but doesn't recant. even if he does, don't trust him. she writes a wonderful poem about the boston tea party. that is almost like a rape of a lot alexander pope style in which the nymphs of neptune are in the ocean and suddenly they

discover the ocean tastes like tea. how does this happen? it is very cute, it ends with gov. hutchinson in d feet. things continue to keep up between the british and americans and by 1774, we are really heating up and we started long since with plans for a revolution. her husband is in the massachusetts provincial congress and they want him to be president but he doesn't want to be involved in politics so they make somebody else in a very well-regarded patriot to become the head of it. in 1774, spinning out the third play, john adams gets wind of it

and before he even finished, he begged her husband to send it to philadelphia and punish it. -- publish it. husband does send that part of the play on. suited is published in philadelphia, n.y. newspapers and pamphlet form in massachusetts. it literally appears under the nose of general gage who has boston under military rule. mercy's husband has been conquered at that point. provincial congress moves around. mercy is long to see him. he does not see him very much because he has been so involved in political activity. four of her sons are still in the house. she begs to see him and he arranges a weekend, i found a chamber for you. we can visit, this is late march. things are really heating up.

there is a lot of stockpiling of weapons. we are going to have to cancel the meeting. and we have, just before april 19th, a breakout of lexington, concord, bloodshed. the congress has dissolved, gets mercy, we don't know if they arrive in a carriage or horse, she was a country girl, she may have still been able to ride a horse and they with of to province where they warned daniel green right here and the sons of liberty, they might be attacking and before the day is over, messages arrive about the bloodshed. mercy is taken back immediately to plymouth and her husband goes back to concord. mercy spend a number of months terrified, a lot of correspondence between her and

abigail adams. just before the battle of bunker hill, mercy is almost profit like. she is feeling there's going to be a terrible battle, the most bloody battle of fallen she writes a letter to her husband. it was a thrill when i read that, see that it was the day before bunker hill. during that battle, the president of the massachusetts congress was killed. maybe you are familiar with his picture, a famous portrait of joseph warrant dying at bunker hill and mercy is writing a pertinent letter, depressed -- grief-stricken, how could they allow this man to be on the battlefield to encourage his men, and let this man the field?

her husband has to become president of the massachusetts provincial congress. and he is in watertown where they are meeting. when i was researching this book, some of the time i spent at the archives at the massachusetts historical society. a gentleman and i were always going for the same books and manuscripts and began talking. he told me he was a historical architect doing work on the red -- restoration of the house in watertown. i had never heard of it. it was the house that had been rented by the provincial congress after april of 1775, the executive council of provincial congress met. the house is restored, it was recently restored i went to see it. it is quite lovely now. the downstairs is traditional

plea to parlors. the original chamber council was organized, and across the hall is the bedroom where husband, james warren, was essentially on call 24/7. he also became a master general of the army, and speaker of the house for. from june on, he is working around the clock. in the back of the room, which you will see later, you can see the little slide show of mercy and her husband and you'll see a picture of him looking very complacent, gentleman farmer but by the time mersey sees him, he is working round the clock, a key to writing to john adams in philadelphia, send powder, send gun powder, we need it, we need recruits, what is happening? john adams the shredding that what is happening? you are the only person writing to me. what is happening with the occupation? where are the british?

what is happening? he finally essentially asks mercy warren to at least take over the job as private secretary. mercy, who is near 50, rides from 35 miles over rough roads leaving her sons with 7s and becomes the private secretary to her husband, james warren. we have a wonderful letters, some are in code, some were secretly sent off. she stops to see her friend abigail along the way, and they commiserate about what is happening. that goes on for six months. there are other correspondences with people like martha washington and many other people. had to move to a little college out of boston. ..

we know her brother and his friend at one point had burned up all his records of their early revolution so a lot of things for lost, but john adams wants her to write this history and a slowly she begins to do some. slowly tear down and will give a one quick sideline because in that case back there is a

display on this. when the general before bunker hill is in the boston he talks about the blockade of boston and rights as satire and what is a funny story but we may not have time, during the performance of that plank and to leave the audience which are british and officers and their wives think that the gun shots are part of the play but is actually the pages that are attacking into charleston. enter -- there is a runty play written after the british iraq rate and it is called a iffier member the blockheads of boston and remember that the blockheads the word which was used by her brother earlier, and nobody knows if she has written quite raunchy and there is controversy

about. perhaps you wrote it, i done of. she is very proper in her language, almost always. on not always, there are some of letters written by her husband to john adams in 1775 in the fall from the house in which her husband says why are two people in congress, what are you doing? make the declaration of independence paragon and he says, i my wife is sitting next to me and she wants to read a few words. issue price a few words and she says why are you peddling at the threshold of making a decision? so mercy isn't always proper, but she is sometimes. so the british evacuation, mercy it watches and sodas abigail adams and her husband. percy is encouraging abigail had to be a self sacrificing and let john and adams continue on in congress and this is for the

good of the country, but when her own husband is asked, james, to march with washington's out of a battle and later asked to be part of the continental congress and later become a judge in supreme court, mercy will not let him do this. she says you can't leave me here. if you march i will go with a. i will take care of you but you can't leave me here. it's very interesting. abigail is kind of it at odds, she is 16 years younger than mercy and mercy is more formally educated than avondale. abigail accepts this as a young woman but as time goes on to really begins to rankle. the mercy is preaching one thing to abigail about letting your husband go and, of course, he eventually goes to france and england, holland and so on as a minister, but she won't let her husband even leave massachusetts. so it's kind of interesting and.

anyway, the war goes on and mercy stops and starts writing for history. after the war -- well, she and her husband finally after the war obtain it governor hutchinson's old mansion in milton. in a move in there and it's actually i was told last night it is on a street now called green street and you can actually see the harbor. she writes about this beautiful place, but sad things happen there and one of the things that happened there besides her veterans on having his leg amputated, one of the sad things that happen when those mentioning at the beginning of this talk suddenly the new federal -- the new national economy is floundering. soldiers are being paid and worthless continental's. they can't get the cash, they aren't worth anything. massachusetts is struggling under enormous debt as are all

the other colonies but massachusetts in particular. land values have crashed, credit is terra ballwin. mercy's husband who had been a wealthy man and her own family, the notices are losing money daily. one of the reason that the mercy's has been besides the financial situation is that the their second son, their favorite to is not only a gambler, but probably despite the mercy and her husband's high ideals about patriotism and simplicity, thrift, honesty, fairness to all, he is very aristocratic and he has started basically a trading business. scholarly opinion says he probably was a profiteer on the black market. quite opposite of his parents but he runs his family pretty much into debt as well as himself. anyway, things are going from bad to worse in an america at

this point and at mercy and her husband finally sell that governor hutchinson mention and move back to plymouth, but before they do so in the 1787 the new constitution has been sent to run for ratification. now, mercy is an old-line patriot and is a while since the revolution. they're considered the senior members and may be looking a little square to some of the younger people who are thirsting for all these overseas goods they can have an america and are importing them. you can't get commodities because some of the forms are returned from the revolution. the veterans have to restore these things, they don't have money. the veterans can't afford the mortgages on their farm particularly in the western part of massachusetts. things go from bad to worse. abigail and mercy write a lot as does james warren to john adams was overseas, the price of meat and the price of wheat and milk

only allow one loaf of bread a day to a family. which was a staple in those days. things are really bad and yet there is a surplus of overseas good and, the worms called them for police, but that is what they are. and they are being sold and mercy and her husband, upset about the imbalance in trade and the one that americans are living too high and on too much credit to. and this becomes a refrain in all of the letters to john adams and franz. any with the constitution is finally drawn up and their friends in later the governor of you have heard of gerrymandering which is much later, from governor jerry, jerry protests of the constitution as being written up because what about the voice of the people, not providing in the constitution. what about some of the other

basic rights not spelled out in the constitution -- he protests 119 times i believe it is. this constitution nevertheless is drafted and sent to run to massachusetts. mercy and her husband and our poets intellectuals like james winfrey and other people become what are known as anti federalist. they protest the constitution and feel it hasn't provided for the basic rights of the common man, the voice of the people among other things but in his mercy who writes an anonymous treatise. it is called observations on the new constitution and on at the state and local conventions. and in it she protests in 19 pages that we don't have any explication in there anything about freedom of the press, right to privacy, balance between executive legislative and judicial branches, and a

thing about a civil trial with a jury, one about term limits and an electoral college -- many issues that have become relevant again today. this treatise as i said is published anonymously. it is just signed by colombian patriot -- all glory passes -- but it is sort of a counterpoint to the federalist papers. of course, in many other into it federalist documents to but it is very important and gets picked up, it gets copied 1500 and sent around to the other states even though massachusetts the early ratifies. id becomes very important and basically if you look at it and read any even you will see that it covers the 10 major points of the bill of rights. so today if you go to cape got a you'll see a statute that has

been erected a of a mercy otis warren since 2001 and in which she is holding up a bill of rights. to hear about james madison, you hear about george mason as a the architects of the bill of rights. nobody knew who wrote this treatise -- everybody thought it was albert jerry and then a legal scholar, i think it is mercy's great-grandson, charles warren in about 140 years later found her a letter to kathryn mcauley, the radical british historian and mentioned earlier, it is in her handwriting in she says here is a draft of the tree this and that is going to be published to -- she is the unsung architects of the bill of rights. we did not know that and people still don't know that today. anyway, women are finally finally going to be able to put things in their own names around

78 and because they are capping the british tradition, they loved everything british, the close, the fine line, the salons and the party is coming even beginning to think about performing plays so they want to have women a riding like the women in salons in london. so by 79 the mercy is very discouraged, the constitution does pass in the bill of rights doesn't get ratified until 1791. is very discouraged and she decides she is going to do one thing in her name and is going to be her book of poems about the revolution and two of her feminist and prone liberty pro voice of the people place. so it is published in 1790. sad things meanwhile have happened in this country and one of them actually in massachusetts -- people think and scholars think may be prompted or he's in the riding of that constitution because we needed a national government, we

couldn't be washington was worried about that would become the plaything of foreign nations and we need in a national currency. the mercy really doesn't want any kind of a part of that and is very discouraged. for history of american and revolution languages. and she won't publish its. and she is very discouraged because in this america has become once again, the same thing it rebelled against. and has become a nation run by wealthy men and has forgotten the voice of the land and she is very discouraged about that and sit through the 79 days she is back in plymouth beginning to have grandchildren. she focuses her attention on that and she stops and starts writing this history of the american revolution. she has been riding president and asking friends for it and

nothing. by 1790 the warrants and the atoms have really cool that their relationship. the adams, particularly john adams is now known in congress as somebody who really favors more aristocratic way of life. after all all of his years in england and france and when abigail joined them that they lived in a grand manner, the had a town house, they have delivery, they have servants, they had a grand dresses, they were presented in court. and mercy rights insinuating letters to john adams and abigail and a protest -- they write back and they say -- abigail says alan rather be talking to my plants in cabbages then talking to the court and john adams said this is not easy for me. this is terribly difficult. we don't enjoy this and would rather be home at our farm and am only doing this to represent

the country of the united states. but mercy years when the presence in washington, the election of president washington that adams wants to have all the pomp, all of these signs of aristocracy, that he should be called your most royal highness so the relationships between them: and when adams as president in 1798 passes and the alien and sedition acts, that is the final blow for mercy. relationships between her husband and john adams cool completely. i want to skip now because finally in 181 jefferson assumes the presidency and mercy and her husband are delighted because it is now a jeffersonian a republican democracy and she is thrilled. her husband rice congratulatory letters -- nine all of the politicians and mercy still won't publish her history.

and finally in 1805 she does. it does one review. now there are many histories of the american revolution by then. it is one review and that reviews says it is okay that after all is written by a woman and you can tell it is. she is crushed but she is more crash because two years go by before she hears from john adams whom she has sent a copy to and finally john adams writes to her in august 18-hole seven and sister in the spirits of friendship, i wanted to know that i have a few comments about your history. and the comments end up being 20 handwritten pages of corrections. all of them about john adams and about how she called him a monarchist and she didn't represent enough about him and all the things he did right from the beginning back in the 17 sixties with the revolution and

why did he give more space to other people in the mercy to is usually very restrained, by the way she is now in her late '70s, she essentially throws her hands up and immediately rights back to him that day. she protests and explains, the letters crossed back and forth. i want you to think about a greek fema come a great tragedy or you have to heroes who are clashing with pens -- swords and now you have these two people john adams also getting on in years, clashing with pens and these letters, on and on. he writes 10 letters to her, each over 20 pages long. some of the clemenses are funny as only john adams can do. she keeps saying you misconstrue everything that i say about to. and you know, i can't ride a pen nj the value, this is a history of the american revolution in and there are other people here. if you want a man more you

should write your own history. you'll never finish it, of course, because it is much too long with everything you say about to herself. he says some really cutting things, he says you have a -- share 31st chapter is like mustard after dinner. [laughter] and she writes nothing is more disgusting than mustard after dinner except the way you see in your letters all with vinegar and niter and misconstrue everything i say. and finally she quotes him after one of his interminable letters and she says, the true historian the one who incurred sure to read this history -- the true historian will delineate history, let's answer fall where it may appear, but if that doesn't john -- that doesn't shut john adams up and he goes on and on and finally she throws her hands up and after her sixth

letter, and another 20 page letter, she says i can't write anymore and i will have nothing to do with you until you apologize to mercy otis warren. five years ago by, and now mercy is in her 80s. john adams eventually as you probably remember reconciles with jefferson and a ventilator when the adams daughter who is nursing a very well and actually tutored and took care of one winter dies of breast cancer in her late '40's, it is then that john adams softens and in 1812a to reconcile. you know, abigail keeps writing these sub rosa letters here and there, keep a string of the french of going, but now mercy is so happy and avid gelsons for a pen with a lock of hair of john adams and her is entwined to mercy and mercy cents a pain in a ring and mercy send something like that back to them, it took in a great

friendship. she is delighted. there is a wonderful portrait of mercy just before her death sitting in a few years later as a very elderly woman, her hands covered with morning rings for people who had died including by then her husband but one of the ones she was most proud of was the one sent to her by the adams. it is the war of 1812 mercy is now, with only a few signers of the declaration of independence left, mercy is now one of the few women laughed. she is in her late eighties, she is a revered icon of the revolution. she is a survivor, but in 1814 she discovers, she and john adams never saw each other again. she said he is too old to really travel around much, but in 1814. discovers that her most famous

play, the one written just before, occurred at the group has been plagiarized and say with some analysis name in the boston athenaeum, a repository of lamborn historical documents. issue price to john adams, can you straighten this out? and john adams turn is to boston and he scrawls all over, this play the group was written by mercy otis warren. signed president john adams. in if you go to the boston and in the am today in a library you can sit there. mercy dies a couple months later in october and 1814 and she is free reared and celebrated and we don't hear much about her until about 1848 when a journalist named elizabeth eliot writes women of revolutionary america, a small chapter on her and this is for another four years until susan b. anthony and elizabeth cady stanton in the history of women's suffrage and

again praise her as one of the person most import women of america and another 60 years of go by and there is another biography that finally comes out with some of for letters in the 1890's but another 60 years go by before catherine anthony publishes a biography which two my frustration has no notes or annotations so it is hard to find a were letters are from and so on. in the 1990's there are too scholarly books that are wonderful. one by rosemary. jeffrey richards focuses on her poems and plays, but the problem in writing this book, one of the problems was it is almost on microfilm. before i go to questions i just want to read you one thing from the last chapter of her history because i think coming back to where we started i think it is

relevant today as it was nearly 300 years ago. this is in the final chapter in shared knowledge is and this has to do with elections and mr. linda once between adams and jefferson parish sinologists there had been some agitation of spears between existing parties but she hoped it would evaporate and that the present representative of government may stand for agents, a luminous mine and a republican virtue and integrity. to achieve that she reminded readers that the elective franchise is in their own hand that ought not to be abused, neither personal gratification with the indulgence of a partisan acrimony. how to for today? my favorite line she writes the principle of the revolution of ever to be the pole star of the state's man, respected by the rising generation.

bernanke. [applause] so if you have questions i will try to answer them. i can promise i will, but i will try. on -- and don't be shy. >> some women seem to have kept their middle name, and given it father's name in some women don't during this time and i was wondering why is mercy otis warren but abigail adams? is that a choice, their choice? >> i think you'll see that she is often just referred to and some of her books to the bones heavily for just mercy warren and we hear about her a lot as mrs. warren. more than anything in you know in all of the newspapers and never use the woman's name and only use the very name, the husband's name. so i think that continues well to the 19th century. as a tradition.

but mercy, the otis i think must have been a part in some ways because of her brother james and the paycheck of us. and thank you. another question? >> in large part of the biography and least for the beginning is about her brother and then there are a lot of press about her husband and i want you to comment whether or not it seems strange that in a biography about mercy warren and there isn't much about other members of her family? >> as a good question and particularly in his men but you have to understand as i said of the voiceless women of the 18th-century so we don't know a lot about mercy really until we start hearing about her in the late 17 '60s. we know that she married a, we know that children were born and where she lived, but we don't know a lot. we do know that she was formed by those male figures around her and it is interesting, you asked a question and we were

discussing this in another venue that she was fortunate unlike many others. she was unusually well educated. secondly she was well-to-do and i'm sure you know from your class as the history of much of this country and much of europe is preserved by not the voice of the poor so she was a wealthy and so her husband was prominence, her brother was prominent so she had that. so she was shaped by the sources and her father had been a speaker of the house peridot associates from a prominent family and she is a woman. she is ancillary so i felt you really -- how could i began? she was berthing babies. we know that but we don't even know how she was berthing babies, we don't even have those personal letters that we might have had a much later on in history, but we do know that these are towering in monumental

figures around her that shaped her political views in which he then began to contribute to. >> you say she had five children, five sons and grandchildren -- other any progeny living today? >> yes, there are a. of her five sons three of them died in her lifetime sadly. and one married and he had nine grandchildren. actually she has many many descendants. in fact, i have meant now for our five of them and they are not even sure trying to string out with airlines come from, all from those nine grandchildren. i have to say her first grandchild, her daughter and her son and daughter in law named the child marsha which is mercy hated her name mercy and she often sent her letters to abigail and two other people as marsha. so she was thrilled and the child was named marsha.

they even wrote a little sort of cute a book about the alphabet for her. other questions? >> [inaudible] kim and sure, don't be scared. we are not going to bite. >> i found it most convincing for why she is important especially regarding the rights of women was her inability to be heard on the major political issues of the day and the fact she was a woman herself. how much of her writing the thing speaks specifically about the rights of women because i saw that less in the book and which specific riding where you point to look at more to match look up her blazing. >> look at her place the defeat and the group because in the

defeat and she talks about these women who are tied to women who treat them and abuse them mercilessly and in the group also there is more of that. there is a lot of discussion with her and abigail. i'm sure you all know the famous letter to john at adams about not forgetting the ladies and she rented to mercy about giving up a commerce of women. actually in that same springwood a 1775 and historians and particularly in scholarship have pondered this. mercy who later in life is cancelling all these women and advocating women's education later on and letters never responds to this congress and historians especially the feminist scholarship of the last 25 years has wondered why, but if you read in that section her eldest son had essentially a

nervous breakdown and this was not a time for her to get up there and be the perfect mother. she hadn't in a sense the fact that her son had this nervous breakdown reflected she fell very badly on her and her family with so there is a mystery because later she is advocating to lease half full imitation with men. she never goes as far as suffrage one, but she is winking. she tells women let him be the big man and think he really runs everything, but we know better.

>> during the adams arguments to james warren it is very much for the common people, then they had always lived, he claimed they always lived by the common people and john adams said no, sir basically you have lived by an aristocrat by virtue of your wealth. mercy grew up on a farm as repairs for the head of a big farm with but the service was in the custom of the day, they ate them midday meal with mercy and she had to know of very personal close level been made to find parts of mercy, i do find parts of her are hypocritical. certainly about her voice encouraging abigail adams to sacrifice and let her husband go for your son and she won't even let her home has been the massachusetts. percy is very liberal.

for instance even though her own second son is killed during a massacre of, and indiana -- an indian massacre, he goes to the midwest where he is killed in a massacre, she still thinks that the imperial tendencies of the nuys states are reprehensible even though her son is killed by native american. and we don't have a lot on her and slavery, and we do know that she grew up the mother was at least one slave on the farm and she had one servant who stayed with her whole life but slavery was something that we suspect she certainly because of what she thought about imperialism and native americans was something that was unjust. and nobody's ideals are perfect, right? >> there is also the story when

adams is vice president and this is after they have had the argument amount there is an aristocracy and she writes hammett asking for him to help with the situation with her son who is in trouble in the private hearing. so in my opinion is somewhat hypocritical but, of course, all the founding fathers were hypocritical in many ways, but because she did this sort of take some steps to take aristocratic privilege, what you think -- how do you think that affects what her view of republican america of equal rights was in line of that? >> yes another good question. lab has been commented upon by scholars and people have predicted that she asked where this favor shamelessly from john adams for her son. and other people.

henry knox for instance. but it is also pointed out in a scholarly discussions around that that this was commonplace thing for people. it was like one hand washes the other, kind of like you owe me a favor. it was normally to be expected. a barter system in terms of commodities and also a barter system in terms of favor and influence. hypocritical, sure. let me just say that her vision of a republic was one which the voice of the people would be heard. she was for the common man. whether she would have been having to live like them i don't know, maybe not in my backyard, but this is a person who wouldn't wear silk and would not drink tea and a suspended skeins the wall and tried to live by example so that derrick felt

spoiled when in france would get the example. she also even during the height of the tensions between the loyalists' later called tories and the patriots, they were uprisings in her town he may have read about one of them where one of the hutchinson sons was ousted out of town. she would continue to be friendly. i don't say best friends but family, cordial and sold to people on the other side because she felt she is living in a town in this was where good citizenship. i think many of the values she embraces not to be new england chauvinistic but are very much in place in new england and hopefully and around the country today. for fairness and that is what we're hearing about in our government today, fairness and a lot of danger that is resulting from what is perceived as unfair advantage by the powerful.

>> i wonder if you would comment on compromises with the publisher and palin saying commercial interests. >> that is a good question and it really every author faces that no matter what menu of publishing you are in all wet. certainly in a scholarly book anyway this is hopefully annotated and documented. it is even more of a concern although the general reading public -- one thing is length. i did it can't quite a few words at this book because of consideration for commercials. this is on an age where we are producing books like this. it may be too expensive to be printed in and buy and e-mail the so the huckabee portable in some way so that was an issue. i had a wonderful and a tear so we have no editorial issues, and

my purpose in writing has always been to try to reach a general and a heated public ennead since is an historical book one has to be somewhat scholarly. it is always a real fine balancing act but i have to say i was really given a free hand in terms of how i did this book. >> i am just curious what was your intention when you began researching this book? did you want to kind of bring light to things you have heard about, mercy otis warren, and tried to reach the general public or were you just trying to form a comprehensive biography without making that argument? >> i always begin a book with a question. alan ever write a book without a question or a passion to know. i don't think one that can never

do good work unless one has that passion. my question was, how can a woman who has accomplished so much have become a center and a poor in founding mother have become so remote and our time and understanding. it my intent was not to look at her writing per say because having read some of her place in neoclassical style and some of her prose and history it was very off-putting and daunting frankly. but it was rather to try to understand her so that meant -- i want to portray her as a human being much more than as an icon or even as somebody who just wrote the first history of the american revolution by a woman who is the first propaganda play one there and i wanted to find out what she was like and that was my intent to make her real, to bring her to live pierre

cote. so it was a little formidable to discover that many of her letters, almost all of them at least initially this daily correspondence then she handed over 30 years was on microfilm. and that was a longer, fortunately somebody i met at bass historical said to me, ps, quiet secrets, her grandson had transcribed some of these letters and they are in typescript at pilgrim hall in plymouth, massachusetts. so i made a beeline there and i was able to obtain about 25 years of letters without straining my eyes on the last 15 which i had to do on microfilm. but that was great because i can see and understand a lot more about her personal life and that was my intent.

>> one last question. >> did mercy otis warren, if she were alive today which he said to hillary clinton and sarah palin? what she did right, i am just curious what she will say about them? >> well, i think she would have been pleased and may be horrified, but probably please delete secretly and that when a were now being considered for a the first of the second most important role in the most powerful country in the world of. i think she would have been greatly dismayed over where we have, back to when she would consider imperialism in this country. is she would have been appalled at our current credit crunch, it would have been déjà vu for her and i think she would have been appalled what has happened to

housing and what happened to this because she saw that in the revolution. i don't want to be too political but i think she would have been both horrified and pleased as to seeing the women there, but what the choices are may not have entirely pleased her. i know at this particular moment we are hearing a lot about hillary clinton being perhaps secretary of state, very exciting. i think she would have been thrilled by that, but i think she would have shaken her head and said it because there's all this talk about how her husband is going to run it, at issue would have said that she had been there before a. you have been a wonderful audience and it's really been a pleasure to speak to you all. thank you. [applause]

>> nancy rubin stuart it is the author of several books including "isabella of castile: the first renaissance queen". for more information about the author visit her website at nancy rubin stuart.com. this summer booktv is asking what are you reading?

>> i'm marshall blackburn and i represent tennessee seven the congressional district and this summer i am going to really do a lot of reading. i am looking forward to reading a celebrity and tyrrany, marc levin, i think that that sounds like a fantastic one. one i also want to read is one second after which is about electromagnetic pulse and that is something being on energy and commerce and protecting the kids, something important to us. accidental guerrilla, david till: and, also one that is on the list that i plan to read this summer. so that is one of bookies month and will probably add some others to that as i go through the year. >> to see more program information visit our web site at booktv.org if.

>> now paul lockhart recounts an ally of baron de steuben who was responsible for training the continental army and battle tactics, that training helped george washington's troops defeated the british at monmouth, stony point and yorktown. this event from the valley forge national historic park welcome center is an hour and 15 minutes. >> welcome to valley forge national historical park, i am the superintendent of valley forge and serving as special thank-you to the valley forge convention and visitors bureau as well as to the friends of valley forge park for sponsoring tonight's program. as a special welcome to those viewing on c-span. valley forge is one of over two dozen essential sides of the american revolution that our minister by the national park service. besides her the very places wherehe