across the channel in the bahamas. if they experienced property losses. they could petition the crown for reimbursement. now the loyalist diaspora to canada, the caribbean and sierra leone gets a lot of attention. but it's also notable that british subjects who wanted to stay in even under spanish rule could, if they changed their allegiance to the spanish king and about 500 to 1000 people ended up doing the transition from british spanish rule began. 1784 and july. the spanish governor, the santa manuel the suspicious arrived in st augustine and there's no portrait of him. unfortunately but there was a flower named after him in memory of how he authorized a botanist to collect specimens. so that's the best i can do in to show you what he looked like. the outgoing british governor

and was a little more vain perhaps he had an irascible personality we know and he stayed there and in fact in florida for almost a full to oversee the evacuation when suspicious arrived he quickly developed a measure tone in as in his words hypercritical facts. yes and deceitful and he wasn't wrong. tonin had a famously personality. he had picked fights earlier in governorship during the british period with some powerful people. the two governors battled for the next year. but they rarely did it face to face, even though they could actually see other's houses across the plaza. that's because english, spanish translators were in short supply. these were legal issues that require careful consideration before responding. so instead they furiously wrote letters and memos back and forth, which is very good for

historians as far as had no legal adviser assisting him. and we also see in the record his pleas to superior peers for guidance and. they were met with silence. hone in on his side of the paper skirmishes had the assistance of james hume, who had been the colonies chief justice in the british period cesspit has said that tonin again in his words, rarely left his house and stayed shut in with quarrelsome chief justice hume as the two were busily engaged in prying into my actions and misinterpreting my decisions. cespedes, who is jealous of his own authority newcomer, believed correctly that tonin wanted to convince the enormous population and still in saying augustine that to quote the spanish governor, his authority to govern them has not yet expired. so this became some kind of a period of dual governor ship. that's how tonin thought of it.

he proudly identified himself a thorn, which they wished get rid of and he stayed for that full year and he informed his superiors in what, i think we can charitably call exaggeration and that he was an appendage able bulwark against the spaniards in defense of the british and their property. so how did this year battle play out between the two governors as they both vied for authority over british population in a spanish colony? well, yes, but as began by holding a big party, he a grand public ceremony of that tone and immediately objected to what he did was issue proclamations issues to solidify his power in that first month of july 1784. they ostensibly dealt with bringing the colonies criminal gangs under control, adjudicating property claims and

establishing legal status for the people of color with all of these areas, slave was connected in some way it was the locus of the contest over imperial authority. but and that's because in these circumstances slaves were not just numerous, but they complicated the transfer as a paradoxical form of property that was also a person. this gave tremendous value as movable property as population. also that could contribute to the might of either one empire or the other. and it also meant that as people they made autonomous decisions that involved running away or for manumission or joining a criminal outfit on the and those decisions had legal and diplomatic ramifications for the governors in the form of property rights, property claims and policing slavery was the

site of asserting imperial authority in the first month because it combined with those considering oceans of population, property and public cesspit. as antonin made use of people free people of color, british subjects in their contest over sharing authority that year. so suspect has issued his first proclamation on july 14th, and he did not mention slaves directly in it. but was about slavery. dealt with the bandits and that were plaguing the frontier and british property disputes upon us. but as his arrival learned that the countryside was rife with criminal gangs that had recently formed, when news first broke, that britain was negotiating the colonies transfer to spain the outlaws were comprised former loyalist militias and some army

deserters, including, i suppose, the most famous be bloody bill cunningham from virginia. the bandits raided plantations for enslaved people because they recognized slaves as extraordinarily valuable and a movable form of property. so was about in many ways slavery. but the two governors differed in their approaches to restoring order and protecting the property claims of slave holders. tona in favored the area with a mounted militia, especially that's but as noted bitterly in the vicinity of his own plantation and other estates that he managed for absentees. total plantation. if you look on the west side, the left side of the map, about halfway up black creek is the heart of where tony's landholdings were and give you a sense how close the the bandits

were based look up to the next creek mick gertz creek was named after one of the bandit leaders the mick gertz daniel mccarty. it's particularly so tone it and wants to boss around his own estates and the spanish for his part wants to diffuse problem by offering amnesty outlaws outlaws who and then leave florida would be given amnesty and his first proclamation exten did that offer and it seems like it might actually work because some offenders turned themselves literally the next day. nevertheless, zespri has recognized the need for kind of policing force and allowed tonin to send out a patrol and he used british loyal on patrol because as a new coming governor he couldn't properly equip his own

dragoons. he brought them with from cuba. but the prices and the lack of supplies in saint augustine when he arrived handicapped him also zespri's assumed incorrectly that the loyalists would just patrol defensively. and what actually happened was the troop keen to end the slave stealing that plagued those british plantations and took the fight to the gang this undermined the spanish effort to reconcile the outlaws and cure the colony by expelling the poison. the gang continued kidnaping slaves as a result and the slave holders because they were alienated and the slave holders of the countryside, continued to clamor for protection and this fed the doubts about the spanish ability to bring order. that first proclamation dealt with slavery in another way to this other provision of that

first proclamation was to improvise a legal system, to adjudicate disputes among british subject in the spanish territory. tonin considered himself a quasi governor for them during the evacuation but cesspit has seized the initiative from tonin in claiming authority over british community and their affairs by appointing two british residents as arbitrators. now there weren't many candidates to choose because these had to be people prominent enough among british to command some respect, willing to become spanish subjects and stay on in the new spanish period. one of them, john, plans to stay in spanish and continue to make his fortune by supplying trade goods for, the creeks and other indigenous tribes. but he had no legal training or experience. frances. philip fangio wasn't a lawyer

either. the planter from switzerland, who saw an opportunity to consolidate his wealth and authority by staying on these two judges, mostly adjudicated disputes over slave ownership. but tonin found fangio decidedly unqualified because he had been in the british system only since his arrival in florida in 1771, giving him and the ex-governors words very imperfect knowledge of the language and constitution. john of great britain. in fact the two arbitrators didn't use any consist in legal procedure but worked agreements based more on their personal knowledge of the parties. tonin didn't like photo tended to refer willy nilly to legal precedents from other european systems. he spoke something like four languages, which made him popular with diasporas. but he didn't have a consistent

legal legal application that tonin could discern. some plaintiffs grumbled the photo most egregiously made his judgments in private and didn't explain his reasoning afterward, tonin suspected fangio was prejudging the cases if he deems to explain, he would come up with the reasons. but governor tonin especially disliked an issue of authority. here, though he disliked how far too young used his appointment by the spanish governor assessment as to puff himself up with a title of and i quote here judge as he styles himself over his britannic majesty's subjects. well, also enriching himself and his friends by prejudging cases. i can give you a specific example. one of these cases with luisa waldron and, the enslaved woman,

lucy. now we're jumping ahead a few months to look at the implications of this proclamation. we're jumping to september 1784 for a moment. this was when an enslaved woman named lucy went missing. and because of the paradox of, her being a person who was also considered property, her decision and her action made her the focus of attention for the two governors, her enslaver lorenzo rodriguez was new to her. he was a spanish captain of a military transport ship, and he had purchased her recently from a british who put her up for sale because she had already disappeared in the for lucy rodriguez kept an eye on a certain house mile north of town where she'd been found twice in the past the house's occupant was waldron, a widow and a british subject. so he got authorization from the spanish appointed judge for british affairs francis philip

fazio to search the house and question her because she fell into this category of being a british subject under spanish rule. louisa waldron was when she saw the search party arriving and she ran outside to hide the soldiers. the spanish soldiers detained her. the enslaved woman who was with was also detained. but it turned out that that woman was not the missing. lucy. still, they forced waldron and the enslaved to go both to st augustine for questioning and photo and another holdover from spanish period. another inquisitor, francisco sanchez, interrogated her for two weeks about the whereabouts. lucy they threatened that she might be as later depositions put it, confined in a dark place all by forever. shut up a dungeon or that she might even be sent to havana, cuba or onward from there to be

worked into oblivion in the spanish mines, deeper in the empire. they also pressured her to transfer to them the enslaved woman that had arrested with her. and they said that would be compensation for. the value of the missing lucy. they relented and only when they learned that this enslaved woman was actually the property of not waldron, but someone else of hers. so stymied with that they started to collect the by selling at a fraction of its value the horse and saddle had brought her to jail and. they started to pressure her to sign over to them a handsome annuity. she had that generated 25 pounds per year. they said it be better to pay up than to, quote, die. in a june in a dungeon. they also unofficially did when they sent a. of six spanish soldiers to empty

waldron's house of its furniture, clothing and provisions while she was still in jail. this was the loss of. nine pounds. this theft was spotted by some british passers by and documented by her friend, the british jailer, as holding her watched her unravel during this time, even as she persistently denied involvement to the point that she attempted to take her own life. a pen knife. she went unconscious and 6 hours elapsed before she was resuscitated. after 27 days, though, finally louisa waldron was released because. lucy, the missing enslaved woman, was located on another farm much farther from st augustine, 15 miles away. and lucy is the one who, as person with agency now took it upon herself during this chaotic transition and to look for an improvement in her

circumstances. but because of that core of slavery that she considered valuable property but she also could move not freely, but she had autonomy of movement to some degree if she chose seek freedom. that's what thrust the british and spanish governors a conflict over authority over. louisa waldron now that louisa was vindicated, she petitioned the two governors for compensation. tonin used her case to bash cesspit as his authority. he protested that waldron's 27 day imprisonment and the intimidation faced was very severe, regardless of whether, in fact you did it on suspicion of harboring lucy or because she tried to hide from the spanish officers, he presented an affidavit from the jailer john thomas, who corroborated the intimidation and the to pry property from her in really convincing detail.

this was a useful case for tonin to bring attention to the incongruities between the british property rights that were protected by the treaty and the the expectations of judicial rights against the installment of, a judge with no legal training to govern british matters under a standard system of justice it was useful not simply because waldron was innocent, but also because was a woman and in fact a widow without male assistance. society marked by gender and race as a sympathetic victim, the jailer reported that she fought through what he called her tears and grief for example, to exclaim that she was perfectly innocent. tonin implied that theo and sanchez thought these outlandish threats of dungeons forced labor would manipulate her as a woman into signing over whatever could be seized from her house while after her.

louisa waldron, who now was left with almost nothing of actuated across the channel to bahamas, and that's where she continued to seek a compensation for her lost property. her final appearance on the record as a claimant asking for a 390 pounds from the british government government. now let's back a few months before. the incidents with lisa waldron and lucy back to july. 1784 to look at the second proclamation. this july 26th dealt more explicit with slavery. but again invoked something else property and property disputes as the justification for putting a lot of attention on jurisdiction over slaves. cesspit locked down the colony in this proclamation by requiring an exit license for every person who wished to leave, including both white house and ship color. whether they were free or

enslaved and any slaves who were discovered being carried out of the colony would be forfeited to the spanish crown as a kind of contraband. in the second proclamation cesspit as also required that any person of color in the colony who did not hold actual manumission or a deed of purchase had to report to the governor's office immediately if they did. the default assumption would be that were free and they'd be issued a permit. and if they did not and they were discovered, they would have to. they would be assumed to have slave status. they'd have to be seized as slaves of the spanish crown. so this assumption that this would had. it was incorrect that the british were really good at documenting slave sales and manumission they were not they not nearly as fastidious as the spanish at documenting basically they ever did in government.

tonin and chief justice hume were outraged this potential confiscation of property whether the ownership of the was being resigned to the spanish crown to the enslaved person by giving self freedom, by awarding himself property in themself. tonin and hume informed zespri as that many colonial british slave sales were just verbal that did not generate a paper trail. if the ownership of a in those circumstances became then it was customary prove possession by or prove legal by the enslavers consist in holding of that person and by a neighbors knowledge of the of the household and that that would be sufficient. on top, the basic difference between the british and spanish systems. the turmoil the american war of independence also muddied the waters here. for one thing, if freedom papers

did exist, they were sometimes in the war and evacuation. also, if deeds of ownership existed, they could be lost. more concerning was that papers were not usually even generated for any people of color who. status changed from slave free when they served in the british army under dunn morris proclamation or the philipsburg proclamation? sometimes british officers even animated entire groups of men all at once without issuing papers to the individuals and this made it very hard for lot of people to prove that they were free once were in st augustine on according to the british to the spanish. so some toning. hume calculated that five out of six black people in st augustine did not have kind of documentation that says. but as wanted to classify them spanish as tonin and hume accused or cesspit as of

actually fully understanding what he was doing here. but the lack of documentation was a big problem and that cesspit as might have been trying to take advantage of that both to nullify freedom of some black british subjects and to confiscate valuable slaves held by others as evacuated the financial incentive to confiscate slaves was also especially strong for the two judges appointed by cesspit as to oversee british, namely leslie and because the proclamation awards owed the judges a portion of the proceeds from each confiscated slave incentivizing them to usually rule against british subjects. now cesspit as acknowledged that yes there existed in st augustine's some black residents who had gained their freedom by virtue of the war but lacked papers. but he remained firm that he still to actually know who was who, who actually had freedom. he claimed was necessary for the restoration of public tranquility in two ways. the first was british subjects

from stealing slaves from their rightful owners. they left the colony and the other was to bring down a perceived rise in crime that he attributed to black people whom he classified vagrants that had become detached from their enslavers households. he claimed that vagrants were, quote, roving city robbing and even breaking open houses. he said that those who failed to present themselves would reveal that they wished to continue in this bad way of life. so he was trying to prevent those transgressions as despot as did not state his actual underlying goal. but we can use our knowledge of the historical context of people's memory from this backwards into the 18th century to see how spanish stood to benefit from this. for a time the british spanish rivalry in the colonial south east recognized value of

increasing their own size circulation in the region. from the 1730s, the spanish famously had a sanctuary policy for who fled from british carolina, crossed the imperial boundary and settled in spanish. florida as converted roman catholics, who now had freedom. when this population grew, it not only subtracted laborers from the british empire, but it also added simultaneously contributors to the chronically undermanned florida society and even armed them in defense of the colony at fort mosley shown on the map here. the british empire, for its part, tried to buttress its colony of georgia by, you guessed it, increasing the population. this time by coordinating the transplantation of whole communities from europe and later in the south in the revolution. the british army obviously attempted to do a form of this if we consider the army to be a

floating island of imperial people who were enslaved by revolution areas were welcome to cross that moving boundary into domain of the army to contribute to it and receive freedom in east florida in, 1784, as the spanish watched 16,000 british inhabitants leave, they found themselves again in the position, lacking manpower and as despot as could stem the flow of. people during the evacuation he would strengthen the colony, forcing a decision about people of color who couldn't produce documents would push a lot of them into classifications that made more likely to stay in florida cesspit, as insisted that people who presented themselves immediately, in his words, be considered free. and we know that 251 people did present themselves and were registered free. so suspect has defended his proclamation by pointing to them and celebrating what called their cheerful countenance that

they were now acknowledged free people no longer forced to dismayed in solitary corners. we can imagine why everyone without papers attempted, though. for one thing, the spanish governor was an unfamiliar entity that might prove capricious, especially if they believed the propaganda that the spread about the spanish. this would give people pause in approaching the governor. if you drew attention to yourself it could make you more vulnerable. if the claim was contested by a former enslaver or a dance colonist who posed as a former enslaver, also a successful award of freedom would require staying behind in the spanish when loved ones may have been evacuating with the british. and so that one would have to weigh staying with community

family against staying behind in spanish florida and having legal freedom in the end about 450 white british inhabitants and the 253 people of color stayed under this new regime, along with an unknown of enslaved people. the overall population of spanish east florida hovered around 3000 people for the rest of colony's life, from 1784 to 1821, when it became a territory of the us. so how do we end? well, tonin ultimately had to leave in june 85, but continued to fire missives from his frigate in the harbor. his final fusillade was a 115 page letter to the despot as it took the spanish governor's staff several weeks to translate this letter tone in. also a copy of the dissertation to lord north and one historian

and surmises that this probably helps explain why he was not awarded another colonial governor. canaan's final statement rehashed every between the governors as they wrestled authority over the anglo-american. the treaty is protection of property rights and, freedom to exit the colony, both directly to slavery. running through all of these. but so did the incoming spanish governors concerned with adjudicate property disputes, maintaining public order, reducing criminal activity? but slavery was the locus of the contest for authority between the two governors because slaves were valuable property and movable property. also, along with free people of color. they were people who had valuable contributions to make to whichever empire landed in. thank you, jason.

they have little time for questions. tim, there's somebody front and then i will repeat. jason because i know you won't hear it when absolutely great. but early in the presentation jason you mentioned the possession was that the spaniards wanted to trade in order to get boats back to the bahamas. and i were reading about that which bahamas appears in one of the first u.s. actions in the revolution. and then as location that a lot of the locations that oil is what you and following the treaty making or 83. i'm not familiar the history of the bahamas during that of that period between so it sounds like the spaniards captured in the bahamas or some portion of it. so jason the questions about the bahamas and the role of the transfer of territory during and

after the american revolution. was the were the bahamas at one point captured or under the control of the spanish leading up to the of the revolution. yes, the spanish if i remember and i'd have to look up i don't remember if the spanish and the americans both participated in the same at the same time in this invasion of the bahamas. but it was a successful of the bahamas, very temporary. it was quite near the end of the war. and that was traded back. the british as part of the settlement. so. all right, jason, i think you're off easy. no other. we do a question. we got two questions in the room. really fascinating? presentation. thank you. to what extent did the u.s. get

involved in these important deals between? great britain and spain and during that period of vying for? so, jason, what, if any, did the united states play in this? what's going on in florida in the post-revolutionary period. the main role was played by individual migrants coming from the united states into florida florida. i don't know a lot about the did the high level diplomatic history between the u.s. and spain. i am early in this project so that's not something i've looked into yet. but what do see popping up in the records and over is a lot of migration for economic reasons from. the deep south from georgia

south carolina really, primarily georgia into florida seeking to take advantage of the lawlessness, the chaos of this moment in spanish florida and that those americans sometimes end up having to get license to swear allegiance to the spanish crown. this continues picks up a lot in the 1790s. there is filibustering heading down into spanish florida as well. so it's it's really. the empire of liberty concept of individuals coming from the united states who are making themselves a their own thorn in the side the spanish and forcing some concessions eventually from the later spanish governors to permit them to worship freely. protestants, for example. that's one of the concessions that's made, because the increase in population is useful

the colony and for its in the 1790s was this comes back to hurt spain because it makes florida even easier for the u.s. to grab and more now into the united states as well when jackson leads the u.s. invasion of florida. in the 19th century. we have an ongoing question and then tim whip question over here by the camera. i'm not one the i'll this is perhaps a useful follow up the ending of that previous question but one of our on the audience asks what happened to property rights after spain ceded florida to us. so jason, the question is what happened to property rights once the the colony was ceded to the united states? yes. this is another question that really interests me. i think it's a great question. it. my current book project is organized around the three

moments of transfer, including in 1821 when the united states makes florida into its and there are spanish subjects who do behind and. it's clear that they continue to hold property. i just haven't gotten to that part of my research yet i've i've looked mostly entirely at the 1763 1764 and 1784 as the two moments of transfer of the three that are going to be in this book. so the answer is please stay tuned and maybe in a year or two i'll have a good answer for you. okay. we have time. one last question. it's a great i really enjoyed it. i actually grew up with florida and would take field to the states and markets. so somewhat to with it. but i was curious as it's not

like you're actually taking some of the people who back then is there any evidence that were emancipating themselves to the world, to indigenous in that area? if so, how that plays into it. and i do believe that people that were involved in a seminal work. so jason, the question is about the people and the involvement of running away associating the indigenous peoples and how that played out in the colony. yes. well, in factual. louisa waldron, one of her suggestions while she in jail during this case i mentioned was why don't you look westward that she knew some people who lived way out on margins of the colony that they might find lucy going

towards native american territory so it comes even in this case but the broader picture is that yes there's a large number of of people who were enslaved that just seemed to disappear from. the record during this moment and it's to know exactly what happened but it seems quite that most of them went into native american territory with the creeks and now the seminoles, as they were a tribe and there were entire maroon kind of combines native american, african-american maroon communities that were objects of. what do you call that? the military went after some times because they were such a for the colony.

so those communities existed and there was the adoption of african-americans into native american communities as well. it's just it's hard to come up with numbers and documentation on this, but it's clear it was happening and, you know, i think in the 19th century, i might if i heard your your the echo of your question correctly, you mentioned that in the 19th century, the black seminoles become an object of concern for the united states. thank you, jason. thank you, everybody i really appreciate your questions. i'll take a ten minute break and. get ready for our final presentation before ltonight.

sorry about that. so a heads up to our online audience that after the morning session, we're going to be closing out the webinar. you'll need to log back in just before 2:00. joining online today are folks from connecticut, florida, maryland massachusetts, new jersey, new york, pennsylvania, south carolina, vermont and virginia. so welcome to the online audience. and before i introduce our speaker, i also wanted to make sure all of you knew that the latest bulletin of the 40 catalog, the museum, arrived from the printer this week and that. now. eight bulletins since we revived the bulletin in 2016. and if you don't have a complete set, there are a few of them at or nearing the end of their print run and they won't be reprinted. so take advantage of your chance to get as many these as you need to complete your collection. and i'd like to thank matt cagle

for his help in production of the bulletin and. it's always gratifying to open the box when they come. the printer. our final speaker this morning is robert swanson, whose presentation is for the common cause of the ideology and canadian participation in the american revolution. he invites us to investigate the etiological motivations of canadian members of the first and second canadian regiments during the american revolution. consisting of both anglo and french canadians. these men primarily enlisted as part of the continental army during the fall of 1775 and the spring of 1776, following the continental out of canada in 76. canadians in many of the major conflicts the war and were active until their discharge in 1783. his presentation argues that ideology was a major in enlistment and continued in the

of the canadians in the american revolution and the broad appeal of the american ideology during the revolution that transcended cultural and and political boundaries. robert swanson is a ph.d. student at the university of missouri and hence had a nice long trip to get here. good morning and welcome rob. good morning. i'm honored and excited to be here to be able to talk a little bit. these canadians who participated in the american revolution. it been a while since my undergrad, which was a while ago that i've been looking at at these guys and their stories. so i want to start with a little story. on the night, october 14, 1781, the soldiers, the second

canadian, also known as congress's own regiment marched towards the outer defenses of british defenses. yorktown. shot sounded from british muskets as as a combined of american and french infantry. the redoubts. the second canadian under the direction. the marquis de lafayette had previously helped to dig the first siege line of yorktown. regarding their combat that night, lafayette later wrote, they marched with admirable firmness and discipline in the face of heavy fire. by 1781, congress's own or the canadian old regiment was a combination of two regiments formed in 1775 and 1776, and for the continental army, and had participated in battles in upper in the upper middle colonies throughout the american. by the end of the war they were a motley assortment of recruits from canada the colonies, ireland, germany and as well some recruits from great britain

itself. the canadians continued presence in the american army provides a fascinating case study for the transnational of american whig ideology during the revolution. so there are two approaches to the study of the canadians. one is very much a military historian military history, where you them in the battles and you trace the role that they had as a military unit. the most recent work being holly maier's, congress's o, published in 2021. the second tradition places them as a subplot in the larger story of the failed 1775 and776 invasion, which happened to through fort ticonderoga what has often been neglected in the study of these regiments is the of american whig ideology in the canadians recruitment their with the army and their ultimate settlement in the united states. building on previous. i want to suggest that this

ideology was the key determining factor in why they. especially when there is many reasons to go and it was also key factor in why they enlisted and i suggest that ideology had to this american whig ideology not just appealing to british colonists this american whig ideology was based of what was called the true whig ideology, the country whig ideology is what scholars call it today that was very unpopular in britain. it was kind of a very odd sect of thinkers in britain. but americans love them to. and i argue that these canadians to embrace these ideas as well. so to understand the commitment of the canadians, the french canadians to the cause is essential to trace the introduction of american ideology into old french canada, beginning with the british seizure.

quebec following the seven years war. by tracing the growing french assimilation of of wake and expansion of american whig into the colony, it becomes cle h american armies receive as much support as they did during their invasion. following their retreat from canada. the continued preof the canadians in the continental army. sorry, having a little tech issue. so masses of it did freeze up. there is perfect. sorry about that. they just moved on. and again, i'm trying to get to. i'm sorry. it's all you. we'll go with it. so the seizure. so as part of this, i want look at several key events.

first off, and i'll be looking at the seizure of. canada as part of the treaty of paris in seven in 1763. obviously, lookingw french canadians began, the rights that they began hearing about from british not only british, but from settlers. most of them are coming from new d and are very much committed to thghts as englishmen. this happens in the 1760 in the 1770s, the americans n to athe canadians. and there's the growth of the revolution movement in canada. follthis, we have the invasion of canada, the actual, you know, the rubber meets the enlist in the armies and begin to fight in battles just north of here at the top of. four shambling and there's the retreat from can participation in the war and theiement each in each of these areas you can see of this this ideology and ho're embracing whig sorts and applying it to as as kind of

outside heirs to the british political traditions. now, unfortunately, will not be going through every single example that i provide in my longer paper because be a long time. but i am to share some of them with you today. so when the british forces arrive in canada, they did not want to incite rebellion. they were very much opposed to another costly. given that the seven years war had ended and depleted treasuries and caused a lot of financial, they did not want more warfare in the region. therefore, they applied several unique policies that were aberrations from previous british policies regarding areas with majority catholic populations. first off, the british officials decided there would be there was a known of anti-catholic policy. the catholic church was allowed to function without open hostility from the state. anyone who studies history knows that for the previous 200 years that was not how you did things.

if you were annglishman, you did not let the catholic church for you survive in any form. there was a push as well to to avoid applying common law. they said let's just keep things how they are which happened to benefit the elite canadians and yours and priests who were generally the beneficiary of french of the laws in the province. common law would have allowed made it a little bit more tedious, they argued, also would have been a burden on the society. they also did not expel the french canadians they had done in nova scotia and during the previous war. so these are aberrations, something new is going on. they're looking at the empire differently as however, with these aberrations and where they're starting to do things a little bit differently. this does cause some panic among the arrived anglo canadians,

specifically those new englanders who are very passionate about having an assembly about being able to go aommon law jury be right to jury as well as anti-catholicism. also very important for these newngnders. they begin to demand. they begin to argue that the colonial government is infringing on their rights, not just in the fact that they're not supporting protestant supremacy, but the fact that there is no assembly, there is no way to put there's no legitimate means for them to be able to have a check on the power of parliament and the king. this is causing quite a bit of consternation among the anglican and as as good british as would say, they were good britons. they looking to expand the rights of freedom to everyone. and what is most intriguing about is that, as protesting as they're getting more and more frustrated that there is no changes occurring in canada,

they start to appeal to french canadians, which in and of itself is quite remarkable considering the nearly 200 year history of absolute that was between these two groups of people, particularly new englanders and french canadians. what they were arguing is that unless we have protect our rights, unless we work to ensure that there is equality, that we will become slaves, which are which you begin to hear. also the colonies during the stand back crisis which intriguingly enough the anglo canadians in britain were not as about the stamp act as they were the fact they didn't have an assembly and but they as well they begin to correspond with bostonians other new englanders complaining incessantly about the challenges they're facing in canada. so how did the french canadians to this?

well as you can see there, the phrase poisoned in their min becomes a phrase thesh begin to use a lot about obedience or the lowest class of people. so while while french canadians, particularly the elites, the senores and the priests argue that being apply the rights of englishmen, they to send petitions to the king, they begin to argue on these general. they did begin to argue that as members of the empire, we have rights, including the fact that new englanders can't boot off our land, the habitants are not following the same trajectory. the lower sorts and the middling sorts in french canada. they begin to argue as well that the british government make us do things that it wants to do. for example, during one era, a campaign against native americans. the british attempt to force the habitants to provide transit them which had been a cloth they. that's what french canadian habitants had done for the french for generations.

that was part of the like. however, the evidence began arguing, saying under british law, under our rights, under the rights of englishmen, we don't have to unless you get a warrant for us to do this. this is exactly the point when the british officers declaring that the habitants had been in their minds by someone remarkable that people could want to have rights like not being forced into the campaign trail without without official due process. however, really drove a lot hostility and began to force the french canadians and the english needs to work together to begin to really embrace ideas of rights of englishman's rights was the quebec act. historically, historians have seen this as a very magnanimous move by the british government, because the quebec act allowed allowed the french canadians continue practicing catholicism.

this allowed them to retain their laws and customs. what they failed to know, however, is that the people who were most excited this were the elites who already had the power in the province. it not. it. when looking back at the historical documentation in the lower courts of canada, furious at these new laws. there were protests there were there were there were speeches given because for the french canadians, they did not want a law that forced to pay tithing some way was because they protestants they were french, canadian, others, it was because they did not want to be forced to pay tithing. they could pay tithing on their own without the government telling them that's what they had to do. and they began to protest. and they also are pushing back against these ideas. and the british government shocked, to say the least. they thought this law would be welcomed. we received they were not surprised by the anglo canadian reaction and the fury that the anglo canadians had,

particularly given that there was no assembly. they were surprised by the french and immediately they. the french capital to corresponding as well with anglo canadians. they began meeting together. now to be sure this is what these massive meetings that you're seeing but you're starting to see a small group of french canadians lean towards the anglo canadians, their historical enemies, and begin to with them about these rights that are being infringed by the british government. now, we when the americans arrive, as many of us are, well. ethan allen and benedict arnold's actions here fort of worms that the colonial congres't exactly excited to open one of those one of that can a part of that can worms was what to do with c so before that however we need to loo at the 1774 appeal to the canadians in this letter addressed by written by john foremost wrin the american

colonies, he's he is known by many people as the farmer. he had written many powerful essays defending colonies, rights he argued that the french canadians friends, which i argue, is perhaps one of the most striking changes and one of the most revolutionary things happening in the american revolution is that centuries of protestant hatred of canadian catholics was being laid aside because they viewed the threat coming from england as greater than the threat from the pope, which i argue is, if nothing is revolutionary in their revolution, which some historians argue this moment is in fact revolutionary, that they are laying aside this much hatred in order to appeal to them as friends is one of the words that they use repeatedly, and they talk to them on the term of ideology. a little patronizingly, mind you. but they're talking to them equals rather than as people who

are subservient or brainwashed. they're seeing them as friends and allies in this. and one of the things that is very important is they begin to explore ways that how can we make work out the empire? so that way we don't have to hate catholics as much and we can all be together in this. and the americans begin to say, maybe we could have something like the swiss cantons or the swiss government. they say we can in switzerland, there's catholic city governments and there's protestants there governments. and they don't kill each other all the time. maybe we can work something out. this is incredibly transformative moment. that only accelerates with the invasion of canada, led at first by philip schuyler and later by richard matt montgomery on, june 27, 1775. they begin to head into canada and i want to read a quote by th ainslie. i hope i pronounce his name right here. if there's any descs of thomas, please correct me afterwards on pronunciation.

he wrote in june. in june, cn peasants began to show a disposition to be expected from a conquered peo who had been treated so much leniently by government. the agents and friends of the congress had not idle by wor and by writing that their minds. key phrase that hear over and over again fe british poisoned. they had been brought to believe that the minister later plan to enslave td to make them instruments of enslaving all the neighboring provinces that they be continu war far removed from their wives and families from the impressions madeese seditious people. the canadians look upon the rebels as best friends and are assertions of their rights and libertie much could be said. i could go on and on. on about more declarations coming from british agents, from french canadians, from americans. what striking about this is that in this moment you are having, this is the actual fracturing, that process of hegemony had dominated colonial thought. in this moment, they view the

idea that ideology is more important. i would argue that for french canadians, this is also a fracturing of previous political thought, where new englanders the worst of all britons and you don't want associate that with them unless they are they're paying you a lot of money for your goods. this is a moment where french canadians are beginning to see them as natural allies, as friends, and they begin to incorporate revolutionary ideas. ideas and ideological statements. they begin to use phrases such liberty rights more than they had before, and they're interacting their opening up correspondence with boston's radical committees of correspondence. this is not. and what's more, boots on the ground matter a lot you have thousands of canadians mobilized in which the franco baby diary illustrates because there was a lot of people who who couldn't get a lot of this in yours could not get malicious formed and these militias would instead enlist with patriots out of this

fervor came to regiments led by moses hazing and james livingston they both create these regiments first and second canadian regiment, who then in the attack on quebec and even after the failure of the attack you have more canadians surging to to try to assist to try to help push the american americans towards victory. now, when the americans retreating, you have a lot of people who you know what, i don't really want to up my land, though, who then and once with governor carlton emphasizing over and over and over that, hey, you guys if we can if you just lay down your arms and i hate the american cause, all is forgiven you. don't even have to pay. there's no punishment for you being a rebel. a lot canadians take that route and there's lot of reasons why they take that. however, you still have. 200 to 400 soldiers who cross the border, come down here to fort ticonderoga and then the

other military. and cameron's despite. the fact that smallpox is raging in the american encampments, despite the fact that governor carlton is saying you get a free pass, you get to come back home, there is no reason why you should keep going. and yet these canadians joined the continental army, knowing they are a part under the direction of congress. they are not under the direction of the state which, if anyone has studied the history of congress supplying anyone during the american revolution, it is. these canadians continue to to participate during the war. their officers, some french canadians, anglo canadians argue. that your memorial is at an earlier period as the present war drew their swords for the protection of the rights their countrymen as well as their own individual liberty, and have never hesitated partake of the dangers and evils war when they point to the path that led to military glory. these canadians, their commander moses hasan, that he had only

had one desertions among the french canadians, anglo canadians. now that not counting all the desertions that happened among his american recruits. they show up and. these regiments were never far from the border. they spent most of their time the middle colonies, the furthest south they ever was yorktown. and that was because urged them to get down there as fast as they could. they were mostly in rhode island, new york. they fought the battle saratoga. they fought battle of germantown. they fought in battles around new york city. these canadians were primarily in the northeast and they also had correspondence, their friends and family in canada knowing full well that no one was punished for being favorable to the americans. it would have been easy them to slip across. but repeatedly in their letters they assert their rights as we are part the cause. we are part of this larger movement of liberty. they embrace this idea, but they also begin to encourage americans. you know, you did tell us that canada would be free. what happened to that. and throughout the whole invasion, they're trying to keep

while they're down. the states are continually petitioning. can we just go invade canada one more time? one more time. a second time to the right. like we'll get it and marquis de lafayette is in favor of how are the french? french government says? i don't think so. we don't want americans having any more land in the north american continent. ultimately these regiments fought through across the american court across the northeast middle colonies. and at the end of the war, they standing guard duty around york, making sure that the british, in fact leave their leaves. the united states fight after the war they began petitioning congress. they wait in refugee camps. their are down there and they' petitioning to have lands that congress promised them. many settled in this region, actually right here in area they formed. and as holly mer suggested, they formed kind of a buffer zone. they performed onect of service. that way, if there was ever another invasion, who would be on the front lines? but e french canadians who had fought throughout the these

canadians are emphasizing their ideological to the united states. and despite the fact they lost lands, treasure, business. they remained in united states. and i would suggest that from their letters, one of the primary reasons that we can't say it's the whole reason is because of ideology. commander, he said, these very men who largely shared in every danger, toil, fatigue who have been faithful costs in their duty, willot participate of the blessings of peace which the citizens of these it states will perfectly thebeg secluded from their native country, they therefore are stl attached to the cause in which they have fought and bled rather than returned, neglected, and despite as willing to rtake of these blessingsf which they have was unremitted plan and fig assisted to obta the this. these canadians not aumical majority by any means. 400 people out of the whole continental army is pretty pitiful, but it does show an

interesting of how ideology is transforming the atlantic world transforming the way people, their connections to governments, the fact that people who do not up raised inculcated their families in the rights of englishmen rhetoric could view these rights and sees them as their own and say that this is our rights, our god given rights as part of the empire and eventually move it to be as part of our rights as citizens of the united states. this is a powerful moment of transnational appeal of american ideology. it challenges the way we think about how congress is seeing in the world, how congress is wanting to broaden its appeal and reject its older past traditions of england. while the americans were certainly very conservative in many ways drawing on older traditions, on unlocking in theory, on these older whig ideology, i suggested perhaps the american revolution was in fact as revolutionary people said, in part because, their laying aside past past ideas,

such as a protestant supremacy and arguing that the rights of englishmen extend to all who are willing to fight and, defend it. thank you. we'll start the online question. actually, it's on table question because it's my i'm better. i'm curious about the the impact of the exodus of these soldiers on. well on week ideology as it may or may not have developed in canada. you know does this does this contingent of troops end up becoming an effective buffer in 1814, say, or there a legacy of you know some lasting part of this whig ideology that infiltrates canada in the 1760s and seventies that survives through to the lower canadian rebellions in the 1830, for instance. yeah, i haven't researched that

far forward. i do see british officials occasionally. it's those same canadians. but what i really see a lot of is canadians. the border is very porous. canadians may these canadians get lands here and then go visit grandpa back in french canada and they're sharing these ideas these and they're coming back and forth across the border. so while i haven't researched as fully yet, i think that is a potential avenue i some of rhetoric that these 1820s that i've seen definitely mirrors some of the rhetoric that was coming out of this but maybe i'm just overextending and getting too excited about these canadians and giving them more weight than they may have had. so hopefully that is it. so this might be outside of the scope of your research. yeah. i was wondering if, as one of the motivations because of of the. one of the canadians joined with

the american forces, i was wondering if one of their motivations may have been kind of like a french or a french identity to create of like a french, a french state in quebec that would be more kind of the united states of quebec for lack of a better term. so i was wondering if there any indication of that. yeah, i mean, i haven't seen necessarily like a french nationalism appearing in part because this group of who i call french canadian whigs. they're a group of anglo french canadians who kind of together and are a little bit ostracized at first and then become more popular among maybe. and then they have to all get out of dodge, you know. so i haven't seen that, but i don't think that that's doesn't mean it's not there yet another online. yes. so one of our online attendees asks understand that during the 1775 invasion of canada, there was little support by french

canadians to help the americans. how does this, with ideology being important among the common population? yeah, that's a great question. i would suggest as a little bit of historical mythmaking from canadian historians of the 1920s that has remained very popular. there's a lot of historian, scholar like mark anderson, holly maier, if you look at the documents from british officials, they are furious at canadians now. i will say that the questioner is right the elites of canada. you have very little elite participation on the side of the americans who those are the ones who happened to have all documents saying how we hate americans, what they don't capture. though, a lot of those 1920 historians did not look at the military diaries, the british officers or french officers in the british army. frank joyce, barbara after words went through with surveying people. why did you join the americans? why did you help them? and lot of people kind of like

they share like some of their reasons. they're they're giving. and there's a lot of that evidence of the ideology playing a role. so that's how i square it. i view it as if we're looking the french elite, then absolutely there is zero support. but i think the diaries you also and from american, the americans, you do not a mass army of french canadians joining the british but you do see thousands of canadians which to be fair, that's not the full population of canada, like a lot of canadians chose, to remain neutral. and i need to make sure i clear here most canadians are kind of like, yeah, we kind like this, but i'm looking at a very small subset of the thousands that did participate that are actively giving and it also doesn't help. col ah general wooster, who comes in, was a anti french anti catholic military man. he ticks off a lot of people really quickly. so there is a little bit of a shift towards the end because. he really lays into the canadians so i have two questions and a book

recommendation. so as someone who studies this stuff like ideology, great. but i was curious if you've been able to trace any sort of trade relationship between these canadians and, their americans, that they're going to support? so that's my first question. my second question is, have you considered kind of putting these canadian almost expats into conversation with fleeing loyalists who kind of do the reverse, who go to canada? and then my book recommendation is if you're not familiar with robert parkinson scholarship, he's doing some really interesting work with ideology and race and your your references to like enslavement really made me think about some of his recent work. yeah i'll admit i'll start with the last one. all men. robert parkinson, while he's doing some very fascinating work, i met this as it was part a little bit kind of saying but this doesn't square when you're looking further north like further north you get where i think his work has a lot of merit in areas with higher populations. i think may i i'll just leave it there. i think there's some areas that i disagree with his thesis and i

think there's but think he has some strength and i actually wrote that need to make sure we don't overlook ideological on trade a lot of those middling canadians who kind of are the facilitators, who are the guys reading the speeches happen to be merchants, who happen to be connected to all the new englanders. so i think there is that element in there i in my longer essay, i argue that we can't just at ideology. and you know, back in my speech would call that a little bit more of. we need to make sure, though, that we also say that there's other motivations and causal relations. i just say that ideology kind of been left on the side and we to make sure we reintegrate that back in some hopefully and sorry what was the loyalist. yes. i haven't really done much on that, but i think that's an interesting avenue. i've read a lot of loyalist literature, though, of those people how they're for a different project. but i'll have to look into that for oh so we go back.

hi. so my question is about, you know, so we know the invasion eventually. there's a lot of reasons we can give that. but one of the reasons that often gets kicked around for canadians not throwing in with the cause in huge numbers. yeah. is that until the continental show up with this invasion force, you know, it had kind of been in the back burner. many canadians minds. but you're talking about, you know, 1774 already there, this rhetoric of liberty. and so i'm wondering if i don't know this canadian history, can you tell us is there the infrastructure of the rebellion that we see in in new england in the middle colonies you know, committees of safety forming committees and correspondence forming. does that happen of the border or is lack of infrastructure maybe another we could chalk up to why this invasion doesn't have the lasting hold on canada that it does you know, new

england the rest of the colony. yeah i would say that one there is in montreal, there is in the richelieu of the montreal has a committee of correspondents but they never quite like they're always kind of like this tension of like this from what i've in the records, there's this a little bit of tension. like they're like, yeah, it's easy for you guys to like, rebel like your economy isn't fully on. there's a little bit of economics question of some of these canadians are a little hesitant. 1774 they spend so much time debating each other whether or not how they're going to participate in the boycotts that are happening as part of the act and all that. and they never actually end up sending anyone but. i think too often like it's been have said, oh well no one came there for they didn't care. i think there was just it was the i think infrastructure really was a bigger issue. there was kind of a tentative infrastructure and it was growing. but i think the the realities of

war kind of just when americans i think if the americans had had another maybe who knows what we would have seen maybe would have been that for to colony. but i a lot of that did have like think committees of correspondence that really does affect i think that does affect things so we have another online question. yeah, i actually have two questions that are somewhat related to i'll try to bring them together. one of those is, did the french canadian sympathizers with revolutionary ideology indicate they were enthusiastic about certain more than others, for example, did they care more about jury trial and one of the other online supporters asks basically, what role did catholicism play in popular support for the american revolutionary war? which sounds like maybe, you know, that could be added to the list of what ranked higher with these canadian, you know, revolutionaries yeah. so i'd say for the revolutionaries it's one of the higher ranking things was that initially it was the juries there was a lot of antagonism

about seniors the elites the landholders controlling the jury like there wasn't a jury trial and the siniora's the system was kind of stacked in favor of this the yours towards the end it's looking like it's about assemblies. assemblies begins to become a bigger issue on that being said, part of the challenge i faced was trying to identify the lowest sorts of why they're joining in the front boys. maybe helps a little bit and it just seems to be like this idea of liberty and they kind of are buying into it. it's not as much about like, oh, well, assembly and, all that, it's the specifics, it's more these broader ideas that seem to be kind of hitting the courts. but then again, like it's a little bit hard and in response to this, the other question reminds you quickly remind me of the role of catholic role catholicism. so that actually played another role towards the end. a lot of americans are about this is the catholic priest

basically say if you join americans at the end right as carlton is moving down from quebec, down towards montreal you're seeing canadians still enlisting. the catholic priests had been in favor of the british empire and. they begin to argue that they they may statements that say if you join the americans we will not do the rites at death which for people who are theologically committed to this system like who deeply believe in this, like this is a big deal not have and americans don't exactly exactly abounding in priests from the catholic church especially northeastern united states. there's not a lot of priests to do your rights. and even beyond that, they don't speak french. and there is one priest father a lot being locked been here i butchering name and i apologize for that my french is terrible but he participates and he joins but like he gets ex-communicated by the by the canadian catholic

church so like for of these people like i suggested like there is an alienation from their from their families, from their homelands, their religion, even that they don't have. and the americans trying to help, like charles carroll, the carrolls from maryland, try to help like you just don't see. that. i think that's one of the bigger part of the equation that needs be factor in in your in the group to calm down but you know the ratio between the british canadians and the french canadians how did they handle the language issue? i can see where lafayette might been helpful there. but third, what was the impact of smallpox? they already had been exposed to more resistant because that was a significant factor in the american troops coming. yeah. so i haven't fully investigated. that was more recent kind of thing i started realizing was about disease and i'm going to be looking at more as further research on but i will say that

with the canadians, a lot of the officers there was a few french canadian officers and most of them were english office, english, anglo canadians. but a lot of the foot soldiers were about because the officers tended to come from an upper and a lot of the anglo canadians who were fighting with the americans were the merchants, were these more upper class individuals who had already with new england. but a lot of the foot soldiers that came were evidence and they ranged like you have a wide range of foot soldiers. when i was looking at the of the war documentation of who was still left there was a lot lot of french names still showing up and it was their enlistment dates were all from 1775, 1776, which to me says these weren't french soldiers. these were french canadians and a lot of them and some are really active writing, glossing. is one of the men he writes a lot of letters to washington, just like, hey it's not great. now in my situation, i gave up

everything for you guys. can you help me out? so i think that's something as well. like, i think i should do more with the disease. we'll wrap up with one more online question. yes. and before that, you mentioned father lavinia, who i believe, is the older brother of michel who designed fort campbell, where we are so small world. nevertheless, i have a question here, was there a surge in french enlistment to support the patriot after saratoga and the signing of the franco-american treaty? so was there a surge? so by the by surge how? hallelujah. by 1777, you're not getting a ton of french canadians coming down. i mean, they're probably well aware of how terrible the situation is for the for example, lord stirling, who was the marquis de lafayette, was there overall commander for a while before him, was stirling, who was over the regiments as part of a larger group. and lord stirling says, like i, i've never seems like such

suffering. and he's like, these people don't rebel. they don't fight against like not like the pennsylvanians out there who are like protesting and marching on. these are like canadians just don't do that. even though worse off. so there is that of a lot of the canadians don't there doesn't seem to be as much traffic south afterwards and maybe that could as be we can ascribe that to the fact there is a ton of british troops in canada canada burgoyne and all that. maybe that helps stymie it. the french, canadians participated in the battle though. were first regiment under they were the ones who'd been in the conflict longer. they were the ones who helped capture the forts north of at the north end of the lake. they were the ones who helped capture montreal. so these are soldiers who were well experienced. so hopefully that answers a little bit of the question. thank you, rob. okay okay.

we have reached lunch break. for those of you that are first timer, just follow the they'll take you to where the lunches are, their box lunches out in the picnic area here there is a book with several of our authors starting at 1:00 in the log house in the museum store. we will reconvene here at 2:00. and i'd like ask the afternoon speakers to wait here minute before you go off to lunch so we can make your powerpoints are all set for this afternoon. thank you. good afternoon and welcome back to before introduce our first speaker this afternoon i just wanted to let you know about a couple.

first off, if you or somebody, you know, might be interested in presenting at next year's seminar, there's an open call for papers closes on september 30th. you can just go our website to find that information. i also wanted note that we have teachers scholarship winners in the room and teacher scholarship winners joining us online. so in the room i hope you're back from lunch. if aaron is here, could you just your hand? aaron's not back from lunch yet. aaron is from saint thomas the apostle school in west springfield, massachusetts. chris lundgren is from the historic. is from historic pursuits program in rochester, new york michael sear, tayseer cesari is from stow high school and stowe, vermont. and michael tell in the back is from the expeditionary school.

in ludlow, vermont then online we have denise carter marable from, the neighborhood charter school in new city, nicole finney from the wachusett regional high school in holden, massachusetts. daniel miron from farmingdale college schools in farmingdale, new york, and george masters, and from the lawrence family development charter school in lawrence, massachusetts. so those of you in line, we're clapping for you as well. we also have some past teacher scholarships here in the room with us, wendy burchard on clock clock. diane bugler, todd guilford, tim cox, who i think is still helping wrap up the book signing stuff. christians scott christian, he was helping with lunch as, a volunteer, so he might still be tied up. bonnie schiewe, who's out at the table and and kevin wagner

wagner. so thank you. as you can tell, current teachers winners, there's a lot of past teachers who get hooked and come out that year after year. so we hope you'll be joining us that we are happy. welcome back, todd. the sorry again, who we're happy to welcome back todd braisted to the podium at fort ticonderoga for his talk today anxious to be some service to the government. the trials and tribulations of burgoyne troilus corps at saratoga. well, burgoyne is british and troops marched into captain city after his defeat at saratoga. the remains of his four regiments of royalist troops were permitted to go back to canada. what became of these men for the next six years of the war? todd braced id is an author and independent researcher in loyalist studies. good afternoon and welcome back. todd.

good afternoon, everybody. thank very much, rich. it is a pleasure to be once again here at fort ticonderoga. i started coming here as a. back in 2008. i gave my first talk on the loyalist during the burgoyne campaign, but only up until the end of campaign. up until saratoga you know. i know all of you out there have been anxiously. what happened to these people after. it kept me up four nights knowing pure, deep. i delved into, trying to find out what became of these people. now doing loyalist studies, it's it's an interesting sort of

calling because not lot of people do it. a few people. this room, to be sure. not many of us. so the descendants of loyalists tend to gravitate to those of us, researched them, looking answer for answers that concern me, their ancestors and their in hopes of finding out information and rightfully they should do my area is military studies and their area is generally. who married whom and? who got baptized where and whatnot. i'm here. help them with the end of things as they tell every time. i'm not a genealogist, but i do occasionally play one on television. so i can help them with the military stuff. and with that in mind that we came up with this project and it involves endless numbers of muster roles and pension

applications, claims for compensation and land grants and. god, so many memorials. but you can get lost in the minutia. but the thing is. even though their primary document, they're not necessary truly correct. and they be misleading. they're correct in what they say. but if you don't know everything, you understand what they're saying you're going to have a problem with that. hence our talk today. and we're we're not moving. sometimes it freezes. first time.

book and now nothing like and how it works. thank you, rich. yeah. christian where on august 27, 1777 was appointed captain and the king's loyal americans a core then racing under lieutenant ebenezer jessup, serving in the 1777 burgoyne campaign. it's except this document written in 1784, says he, a lieutenant in the king's road regiment of new york, a provincialegent. many of you ar familiar with thisocument, also written at the time, says the bearer, derek served in the corps. loyal rangers commanded captain samuelay, but the loyal

rangers, commanded by edward ner in that corps.mckay was what's going on here. to answer these questions, we must start in 1777, when over 1200 loyalists join general john burgoyne and, his quest to capture albany and beyond and beyond the campaign ended in disaster with. the capture of his army leaving a little over hundred and 25 loyalists, soldiers their way to canada, to lick their wounds. most people forget or never knew of these units that we're going to talk about, because none of them existed at the end of the war. the king's loyal americans was commanded lieutenant colonel ebenezer jessup and raised to

november 1776 from about loyalists who joined the army under sir guy carlton at crown point. seven companies were formed until august 8th, 1777, when captain legros company then transferred to another unit battalions corps. it raised 334 officers and men, some 78 of whom were transferred to corps during the campaign. the queen's loyal rangers was raised in may 1777 by lieutenant john peters. of the 372 officers and men that served in it during that campaign, some 100 were likewise betrayals it out of the unit. battalions corps of royalists raised by captain daniel mcalpin on august 1st, 1777.

little is known of their organization in the campaign. other than that, they fielded at least 210 officers and men. mcalpin would command until his death july 17, 18. fisker's corps of royalists. raised august 15th, 1777 by frances fisher of husak, new york. seven companies totaling hundred and 65 officers, had been in the campaign in fisher's command. 24 hours being killed at the battle of. bennington the next day. burgoyne test captains. samuel mckay, formerly the 68th regiment, to take over corps. mckay led the of the men to safety in canada when burgoyne surrendered, where he was promptly removed from any more service and replaced major robert e lee for the remainder

the war. i must just move aside for one second. mckay commanded before that. one of the three companies of canadians that part of burgoyne state last year. army for that campaign. for instance. we covered canadians this morning. you have a little shout out to the canadians serving under the british during that campaign. so they got their love. now now, the smallest of royalist corps was the one commanded by captain samuel, a physician from arlington, charlotte county, new york. he joined the british at the end of 1776 with five of his sons serving under and another as an officer, ebenezer jessup, his company of at least 37 officers and men, was divided into rangers and in the latter under

captain chaps, the holy. speaking of back to him in captain peter van holstein in, september 1777, what commanded company of 27 of those people? the survivors in 1778. received permission to move to new york where they continued in a similar service in. and lastly, captain wilcox of, william sick, new york. what command a 24 man pioneer that did not survive the campaign. wilcox himself what survived 1777 but not the war being killed. serving as a captain of cavalry and the west chester militia attacked in that county in february 1780. so who were these people of the original members of the royalist units? we know the nativity of some 310

of them. not surprising, almost five of six were born in america. most loyalists were in america. that's a question people ask me so much. what loyalists go home to england at the end of the war. they've never there. they weren't from there. you can't go home to where you've never been from. an examination of one's. and 63 to war claims shows where they resided when. they left to join the army again. not surprisingly, 141, the majority were from new york, while 14 were from vermont. three from connecticut. two from new hampshire. two from massachusetts. and one from new jersey. and the record that last one was not me. tax primarily to general simon

advance guard. they suffered accordingly losing some 700 officers and mend killed in action to certain discharged taken prisoner or just disappeared. one of the biggest issues concerned who authorized corps to be raised. right. when you were studying the british army, it's pretty easy. the king is the only person authorized to raise a new british regiment. but a lot of had the authority to a new regiment in america. so sir john carleton was in charge of the northern army. but it was actually y governor william tryon, the royal governor, of course, who ordeenezer jessup to raise his corps general. john burgoyne, commander.

the expedition. authorize peter's corps. except two companies of them that in 1777, which were authorized previous year by brigadier general montfort brown at york city. brown was brigadier general provincials and governor in the bahamas. so why not raise armies for the northern armies, both fixtures and score were authorized. sir william hill, commander of the army in america, not northern army and none of these officers gave anyone a commission. right. you're an officer. you're an officer. your everyone's officer. but no one gets a commission. with burgoyne a prisoner and returning to england. carleton no way of knowing that these units were anything but the small debris that appeared in canada after the campaign. nor did he care.

he too returned england, being replaced by general frederick haldeman. haldeman saw, a large, good looking provincial units. the king's royal regiment of new york and the royal highland emigrants, and instantly liked them and their commanders. then he saw the royalists and instantly disliked them. to hold him in a swiss with no knowledge of local loyalist personalities and. the simple was to merge all these as a second battalion to the king's royal regiment of new york and name sir john johnson, their commander in 1778. he attempted to do just that, gathering the wireless at sorrel, even though those who had been prisoner in canada under the articles convention had been freed from their confinement. as a result of the continental congress, not ratify the

convention. hardly were present for the new unit when the commanders explained the hold them. they mostly didn't care to be under sir john. the matter was laid aside. a number of the captured or wayward one way or another found their way to the british in new york city. the most interesting must have been the four members of the mentzer family. bernard enlisted, september 1277 as a p in jessut and at the convention became a teamster driving baggage wagons to boston with the convention army. three others christopher john and martin, all enlisted as on august 15th, 77. in peter's corps all being captured september 19, 1777 at the battle stillwater all made their way to new york city and all enlisted on july 5th, 1777,

in the royal reformed means. i love that name. i just envision loyalist soldiers in orange jumpsuits on the side of a highway picking up garbage. when this corps was drafted in october 1778, they all entered into the third battalion of the lances brigade, with whom they served until the of the war. despite not wishing to serve under his commd. r hnson was tasked by haldeman to more or less administer the different royalist corps, serving as a single point of contacfo things like and clothing. the relationship only lasted till the spring of 1779, when argued his leaving to take the field on expeditions precluded a baby sitting on the royalists.

all the corps commanders wanted their units employed. ebenezer spoke for many when he wrote that after losingany men, your memorial was returned canada and anxious to be of some service to the government. memorial list assisted the commanding engineer by general haldeman directions in many places as much as he could do with the men of the corps who were not in keeping three frontier posts with two women. your mascum and attachments point about point offer and your memorial conduct was approved of by the commanding engineer. both crumpton and haldeman considered the remainder of the different unsuitable to serve on campaign as incomplete corps, but rather wishing to take those youngest and finish from all the units on an ad hoc basis.

in august 1778, some 43 men were placed under the command of captain william frazier, a mikkelsen's corps, to act as ranger company. the men to their actual regiments. when the campaign was done. captain robert. we command twice as many of the following year for service on campaign. under sir john johnson. it is unknown where exactly they came from, but the quartermaster general's stores in quebec was issued up contained in a blue regiment of coats faced white, which were issued to the royalists in 1778 and in smaller numbers to them and others for the next years. some the royalist had worn a red coat faced green in 1777, and they very much wished to return to that as quickly as possible,

fearing friendly fire inside its. the officers had given some of the men blanket coats in december 1778 to simply avoid confusion. after about six months, sir john johnson ceded administration of the royalists to one of their ow el mlpin. mcalpin been an officer in the british ay since 1737 and a captain in 60 of regiment since 1771. on may 79, mcalpin took over a post he would hold until his death. on july. 22nd 1780, after a long illness. after mcalpin correspondence. he really cared about these people. the best officer they had in charge of and his correspondence with the british command was almost daily looking after the welfare. his men as best he could.

the royalist corps were prohibited from sending recruiting parties into america, almost guaranteeing their wiering away on thee. this changedn september 1780, when general haldeman, the restriction. the being his announcement of what was known as the american establish guaranteed rank and half pay to all officers in provincial units, complete to their establishment of. around 550 men. this system. schmidt was created a full year earlier and it is not known why he delayed making the loyalist units in canada aware of the in the announcement caused a mad for recruits which now included rebel prisoners and. not all worked out well.

the new establishnthreatened e coany corps.an samuel adams even before the announcement, adams had requested hisompa joined to major james rogers. king'eric rangers, a provincial unit which was rejected by haldeman. if haldeman disliked anyone more than the royalists, it was the king's which he believed belonged to the army in america, not his northern army. what adams requested discharge of the men in september 1780 was denied. he lost all hope soon thereafter, unilaterally and without any authorization, and whatsoever disbanded his company. his son gideon, an officer and some of the men eventually joined jesup corps, while adams ceased serving any further in the conflict. but just to backtrack one second

to talk about the king's american rangers known generally the king's rangers. this was the year raised by robert rogers, who had originally served the french and indian war and then raised the queen's rangers in america before getting booted from their sir henry clinton, gave him permission to raise a new corps. he said a bunch officers to canada with no word that they were going and they just showed up at general haldeman stores and hi were here to recruit a regiment so you can understand he wasn't happy. a few of the royalist units staged cheer graphically intact during years in limbo. the british off parties as needed throughout the qu area. th an example of one unit theueen's loyal rangers for the muster. taken may 1st, 1781. all right you see on duty at quebec, a lieuteonel and a lieutenant on duty at st

john's, a captain. o volunteers. the sergeant to corporals. a drummer. 12 privates engineers employ a lint. two sergeants. three corporals. 29 privates. a nouveau goose. one sergn command. yamashita. 11 privates. carlton island. two privates. one secret service volunteer. two privates absent by and hashish. three privates servingip as marines. seven pr. seuarters. one private. second montreal. one priv total absent. a lieutenant colonel. a captain. until attendance. thlunteer years. five sergeants. five porpoise. a drummerrivates. so how many men were left for duty with the regim a few officers and five privates.

five to places of importance that were garrison or the blockhouse was that you may ask. and the loyal blockhouse on north hero island, lake champlain. captain justice sherwood of the queen's rangers commanded up the ladder from which post men were dispatched on secret service into new york and vermont vermont. i like the slide because we actually have an illustration of someone who existed. the final note administrator of the combined wireless units was long serving professional soldier john nairn now and was a scottish bor officer but served in the 78th ghlanders in the french and indian. settling in quebec at the peace he served as a major in the militia in quebec city during the siege as well as captain in the royal immigrants. despairing of no further

advancement, it was on the verge of leaving the service when promoted to major in the 53rd regiment afoot foot in october 1780 a large john nairne collection of manuscripts exist in the library archives canon. it is a lovely collection and yes, as i alluded, that actually is john. we have no portraits of messrs. jessup or peter or any of them, so we like their. one of the things you find when you study these is, everyone tries to claim everyone else's soldier again, these guys want to complete their regiments and it's hard. so if they enlist someone in another officer of another regiment takes their men they think illegally they're going to put up a fuss. this went on year after year after so.

so in february 1781 at st john haeman, appointed oicers to a board of inquiry to finally settle the of what soldiers in dispute belonged to what corps a source of great friction. they interviewed 160 officers and men judged them to the following corps for for. to the queen's loyal rangers. 18. to the king's loyal americans 16. to the late. the corps. 58. to leeks corps two. to the royal highland and 18 to rogers kings. american rangers, including one found to be a deserter from the has a out which i saw as this put an end at for the time being of squabbling over who belonged to which unit as long as regiments had to vie recruits

from the same pool. the problem would never completely go away. one of the most famous and successful partizans currier and spy john waldon byers, deserves his own presentation in which i have to believe some of his probably delivered before now. sily put, s from albany county, new york and joined the army as a private in jessup corps during. the burgoyne campaign said from camp to ne york. he serd as a captain and not one but two regiments. the royal american is our friends again under lance's brigade in 1781, he raise an independent company serving out of kent about he would be the greatest partizan of the northern army. whether directly or through intermediaries. sir john johnson still coveted

some of the royalties for his own, especially now that he was raising a second battalion, two of his own, second battalion. no sooner had 1777 campaign ended when he persuaded nine men of mcalpin corps to enlist in captain samuel anderson's company of n yorkers. this practice would continue throughout the war. the king's northern rangers. this was a 1780 plan by an unknown officer to combine all the royalist units into a two battalion regiment. he'd say they wand how many men they wanted by a thousand guys to be in this corps. well, since all the royalists combined or around hundred men, the british did not think that was really feasible and nothing ever became of. on november 12th, 1781.

the process of the royalist corps to pce. when major league captain chris should wear a litent jeremiah french led 109 other ranks into the new btaon. king's royal of new york, which had started raising the previous year. the men came from all the royal us, but primarily from links. mcalpin jeremiad in french, was no doubt happy to be removed from his old unit, the queen's loyal rangers, happy with his brother lieutenant gershom, french face down, fifth team charges brought against him in 1781 by the commander john peters. there have been some strains there. e men you see up on the screen were part these second battalion kire all regiment of new york. and on the left there was seen

that that is the second battalion of new yorkers on. their disbanding the second battalion actually existed six months longer than the first battalion. they disbanded june 24th, 1784. they and butler's rangers would be the last provincial soldiers serving in the revolutionary war. on november 25th, 1781, the new provincial corps loyal rangers was finally established after yearof limbo efforts to complete the royalist corps. the surviving officers gave in the inevitable and the consolidation took place, but command would not involve either. ebony's or jessop or john peters. both considered too frail to command. mr. jessop robust constitu and

his personal activity merited an expert and experience having served less war or circumstances would render him fit person to command. in addition to jessop, john peters would officially be a captain commanding most of the older men of the corps in what was called the invalid company in may 1782. the court expanded from its original seven companies to nine, forming one under captain thomas and joining captain john byers, independent company officially into the corps. the term invalid is period, but not exactly what it means today. they took most of the old or older men and those worn down and formed into one company under john peters with the rank of captain. this was a nod to peter's service, ensuring he would get permanent rank half pay at the

end of the war. when the corps was disbanded disbanded. now the officers were actually going to be officers with the loyal rangers and, actual provincial rt. ual the workers. coissionsigned by hold them. such as the one shown here belonging to alexander campbell, formerly on the government's corps. your commission as an officer is your legal document saying you are an officer. okay. if it says you're a lieutenant, you're a lieutenant. all right. your men have to obey you, and you have to obey everyone over the rank of, lieutenant. but that is your legal document that. you're not. you're not. you're. you're just not. no. there were a lot of eess officers. all those units had lots of officers. and there ulnot be a lot of

ofce in the new corps. with a whopping four excess. gentlemen. those would serve as officers as we as gentleman volunteers. they officially became known as pensioners, receiving daily pay to. either recruit a new or sit out rest of the war on the sideline. it was the end of the war. guess what most of them did. after their formation. the loyal rangers would go on, recruit 109 men in 1782 and 77. more in 70, 83. before all ring was ordered to stop on august 24th, 1783, one of the 1782 recruits came with former military experience. that was a guy named roland lennox. then, like roland lennox just stands out at you that when i transcribed the roles for the

rangers as, a roland lennox. i know that name. he was court martialed for murder in new york city in 1781. was a soldier of the lance's brigade. i was involved in an alcohol related st patrick's day incident. obviously unprecedented. so he spent a good deal of time in the new york city provost. an unpleasant place had been tried for murder. murder of a sailor and was acquitted. but apparently he did not enjoy his time in the provost and from the lance's brigade and made way up to get back and enlisted in the loyal rangers. so go figure. oh, one of the king's rangers, not a royalist, but fairly close the book on them was the end of war d had james fearful that he and his would be precluded from the benefits of

e estlishment having but three companie january three 1783 approached edward. edward jessop about ending his company's too. the loyal rangers hold and turned down the request. maintaining his belief that the king's rangers belonged to the army in america and recalled to new york city it would cause a mess. no one, and i cannot stress this enough no one in new york city would have ever recalled james rogers union. but that's a lecture for another time. loyal rangers passed into history on christmas eve, 1783 at the river dusha. thankfully for halderman allowed everyone to still receive rations and remained under a roof in quarters throughout the winter. the would receive grants of land, but that would take time until serving and distributed.

the discharge shown here is of daniel simmons of rhinebeck in dutchess county, new york. he was 17 years old and then only enlisted in the rangers four months previously. in august 1783. simmons was possibly the very last man to enlist in his majesty's service in the provincial corps. and with that, thank. we have time for questions. we do up now that i'm all the way up to the front front. regarding justice sherwood. was it true that he here at ticonderoga in 1781 as a member

of the british secret service? probably, yes. sherwood got sherwood was the principal one of all of all the royal officers the british trusted sherwood implicitly. he was extremely active. showed great merit. and. from the british post in quebec. there were at ticonderoga a number of times actually. so in 1781, i can't tell you the exact date, but i'm sure. i'm sure the ground you're trotting on. he did as well. interesting presentation. thank you. i was curious, the one of the slides you showed where these loyalists came from that joined these various corps. what? and the vast majority were born america. so what was the motivation for, these guys to join if they coerced, perhaps coerced. was it you know fidelity to the

king? was money. they got higher. pay them they could make as a civilian. or was it skepticism about whether the americans could succeed in revolution or what? probably all of the above. but what i. i like it's a question that often comes up. so thank you of one of the questions that i will often the answer is, well, what made somebody be a loyal. i mean obviously the american revolution really popular and all the cool kids were doing. so what made somebody be a loyal oc? rich when you woke up this morning, did you get up, stretch and say, i'm going to obey all the laws of the united today. no. who would do that? that's insane. you just go about your business and you'll live your life in a simpler manner. you have to wake up one morning and say, i am going to violently overthrow government. people became rebel.

people didn't become loyalists. loyalists was everyone left behind from all the cool kids who were just living their as they saw fit for what the many myriad reasons you that you mentioned it was just who they were. and i'm sure if you ask some of them, they might give you a specific reason or not. but having gone through literally thousands of claims. motivation is mentioned. other than that. they were simply enjoyed living under his majesty's government. that's that was enough for them. jane mcrae's fiancee lieutenant, davy jones. i was under the impression that he left the army, the campaign, and he went a little nuts. but gavin white had disagreed with me on that. do you know exactly happened to him after jones, i believe, was an officer of the queen's loyal

rangers and his brother actually came mccray's brothers were officers in the queen's rangers in the army, in america, in new york. this is actually the second jones question i've gotten year, and i'm trying diligently to the answer because the first one i gave, as far as i know, he did not because he made claims after end of the war. so he was around them. so i don't think he went nuts. how? i'm sure the incident was not a pleasant one for him. i'm sure being a human being, it affected to what degree? i no personal knowledge. but he was around at the end of the war to make and whatnot so he didn't he didn't off a cliff or something. we have two online questions. well, actually, it's a question for me. this is great because in part it clear up a lot of the organization of these from 77 to later on when we encounter them

back here at ticonderoga and detaching at least in late 1781 under st leger and in my work through there come across at least one letter slight, only reprimanding or accusing think it was peters of men of african descent and prohibiting that practice. and in the role of his companies, the place where i have found a man whose place of origin is africa. and i wondered if you could comment on enlistment of men, of african descent, of the relationship, those with these royalists coming out of canada. as far as the royalists corps themselves are concerned. i found one or two. i think what they nero and either peter's corps or chesapeake's core one of the two now as the loyal rangers are concerned the oil once they're all formed up in november of 81. there's only two sets of roles for them. they're actually signs roles

from. december 1780 1st december 1782 were notes where the men were born and enlist again. may be two from africa now the northern army and the army in america were two very different things. the army in america was governed by a provincial inspector general as as provincials were concerned. and sir william howard ordered no blacks whatsoever. ought be enlisted. and those who had been previous to that were to be discharged. the northern army have that didn't have any inspector general, didn't he existed. and there are some mentions from the king's who arrangement of new york from one of the privates there, bring 14 from the mohawk valley in 82 and wanting them to be enlisted.

i do not how that worked out because there must roles are not that great either. but he was making their case which i found that this guy had private or a purple was going out on a and tried to enlist those men. so he had all this obviously made some sort of bond with them. but the final disposition of that, i you can make up a happy ending if you like. i do have one comment here from the online audience, which may be a little further afield from this question, which is how would you characterize, the loyalism of joseph brandt? obviously very strong. he was a extremely zealous partizan on behalf of the british in that both native tribes and would follow him and a number of white settlers would follow as well. and what was loosely referred to was branch volunteers ostensibly

part of the indian department in which he loosely served as well. so he certainly made a name himself. if anybody in the colonies. knew of one native leader, it was going to be joseph branch. he made all the papers. so once you get the press, you know, you've got you've got the following. so, yeah, he was extremely, extremely zealous for the cause. and, you know, depending on whose side you're on great things or horrible things. thank you, todd todd. we'll take a seven minute break before the next speaker.

it the fact that there's three presentations revolving around saratoga is purposeful but it wasn't intended when we were doing a call for papers it's just the way that the papers kind of fell together. so sometimes there's some serendipity involved when we're pulling together our programs for the afternoon before i introduce introduce our next speaker, i wanted to just briefly thank our volunteers, some of whom are in the room and most of whom are not because they're helping make other things happen during the day. so patricia curtis janet. denny, todd guilford. bonnie shealy. beth folsom and kristin scott, thank you for all your help. our next speaker is david sheehan, who will speak about energy, geography and geology in the saratoga 1777.

similar to all living organisms, armed forces have a military. one that requires food, fuel work, work, animals and, food for those animals in order to and fight in saratoga campaign brutish hessian forces face daunting challenges when acquiring and using this shape. the outcome of the battles and had a long term on the battlefield environment. david shu, professor of history at jinny junior area college in pennsylvania, is a book about the environmental history of the war of independence. welcome, david. thanks. good work. okay. all right. okay. thank you, rich. thank you again to volunteers,

but also the other folks here at fort ticonderoga go who have organized this seminar and keep things running so smoothly thank you all for spending weekend here, folks, online. thank you for for zooming in. i don't think i'm going out on a limb to assume that this group is familiar with, told them that, you know something, about maybe a lot about the battles of saratoga who's been to the battlefield battlefield. all right right. i'll it short so you can come to to the podium and out the afternoon about about saratoga there. as you know, there's been a lot written about saratoga. what i have to add to all that comes from the perspective of environmental history, and by that i mean how human and the

natural world have interacted and affect each other in a continuous, ongoing, dynamic relation. humans shape the environ ment that changed environ and then shapes how humans think about and and act in natural world and about 250 years historians have tried to understand the american revolution and they most often have approached it from the political or economic social and cultural spheres of human activity. what i would to do is add a little to this incredible body of scholarship by paying attention to those human interactions with the and in particular, what the sciences, biology, chemistry, ecology, geology what can they help us see? so as you heard in the intro,

my, my particular interest to do with energy we all have a table sums all living organisms have metabolisms and we need energy to survive and we can use that concept of metabolism and expand it to human communities like, cities, water nat gas, natural electricity come into a city, the occupants it and wastes are created so. so that idea of metabolism can be extended to the revolution. armed forces have i would call a military metabolic and to do things that armed forces need to do they need energy and that energy comes from food i think that's the first one. yes. all right. and if you need you need water.

okay. anything else to fuel most often in the form of firewood. wood. but coal was involved as well. anything else have pack animals working, animals, armies have to move to do the things that they need to do and animals need food as well all of that energy comes from the environment. so how did armed and governments and so forth, how did they acquire and use that energy and how did doing that shape the course of the war? so let's look at some of the ways in which british and german military ran hot, how they could not reliably get the fuel or the energy that they needed and how that shaped the battles. saratoga they june 13th, 1777. john burgoyne there on the left,

he led a force of about 9500 british and german soldiers, along with support, south from the outskirts of montreal. and i hope those of you in the cheap seats and back can, can, can see the map up towards up towards the right there traveling mostly over water the force quickly reached this spot fort ticonderoga, and then began surrounding the fort july 2nd to fourth. the battle that was also quick gela major general arthur st clair and the continental army evacuated his men on july 6th and started south. so then burgoyne was faced with the decision about how to pursue

the americans. the continental army. he decided to do it overland. i don't have a laser pointer but sort in the middle of that map you might see schemes bureau today it's so burgoyne force was going from fort ticonderoga down to schemes burrow eventually to the southwest there to fort and and then south to fort edward about, 22 miles. now trek demanded a tremendous expenditure of energy from the troops, hoisting 60 pounds packs on their backs. the men trudged forward. but in places had to stop every or 12 yards because. trees blocked their way now why were trees in the way because

major general philip schuyler of the continental army instead looked at his men. you will begin as near fort and possible to fell across the road sort of like a big pile of pickups. you will make obstructions as effectual as possible. take up every bridge and burn the covering and timber so the continental broke up about 40 bridges, tore a three mile long cause that ran through a swamp, all to delay the progress of burgoyne forces. the british and german could clear some of those obstructions. pretty quickly, but at other times, like to british lieutenant william digby, we were obliged to cut a road through the wood which was

attended with great fatigue and labor for our wagons and artillery and the men needed about. 1700 kilos calories day just for their basal just to stay alive, just to keep the heart pumping and this kind of work 60 pounds packs clearing obstructions that would have required at double, maybe triple the amount of calories day. now, the british and the germans had enough food as of the end of july but then they started to run low. now why? well, they worked they had food here. they occupied fort ticonderoga and they had food farther up the supply line the way up to canada. but their shortage arose in part because they did not have

transport vehicles, they did not have enough back to. the bartos are about 30 foot long flat bottomed wooden boats. and i'm going to look at rich i think there is a bateau being reckoned two of them reconstructed over by the somerville och tour tomorrow. okay. they did not have enough of these bateau and not enough carts now. i couldn't find a good image of a british army cart. so here's one from colonial williamsburg here that is, i think roughly take these carts would get loaded in say fort an 800 pounds of provisions are driven south to edward unloaded and turned right back to fort and to get another load okay the men shuttled these boats and

carts back forth, burned extra calories so they had to eat more food and troops wade ing around for these carts and boats to deliver stuff from from farther north were sitting around and they needed eat more food to maintain their their metabolisms. so it's hard to build up supply a stockpile of provisions so that army could then move forward towards albany. now all of this shuttling back and forth, all of this work a lot from the animals, from from horses. now, i mentioned the carts first i put the cart before the horse because i think it helps explain the workflow these. horses had to bear each each day the breed the canadian horse

initially brought to quebec from, france, adult horses were pony sized, 58 inches at the withers, at shoulder, at their shoulder level, and adults weighed about 1,000 pounds. what were their metabolic needs? well, it depended on a variety of factors age, sex weight. it depended on environmental factors. what kind of surface were they walking on? what was the grade, even? what was what was the design of the yoke, the collar that that that they had from reference works like the nutrient for horses sixth edition. i calculated that a canadian horse under burgoyne command consistently hauling kinds of loads probably.

needed 24 mega calories day of digestible energy now for you and me what does 24 mega calories a day? what would that be equivalent to 44 mcdonald's quarter pounders. so i don't know if you had your 15 quarter pounders for breakfast but i know lunchtime the box lunch did not contain another 15 quarter pounders. okay. so these horses is got a daily ration as close as i could figure an official daily ration of 12 pounds of hay and eight pounds of oats. right. and you calculate out the calories, 16.6 mega calorie a day, only 7% of the requirement that these working horses really

and by mid august the british could not come anywhere near to supplying each day this of the ration that was officially on the books and unfortunately the horses there was not enough for edge not enough grass around the road from schemes bureau to fort and to fort edward and on for them to make up this 30% deficit. so these horses were and therefore they moved ever more slowly and then eventually broke completely. and further slowed the progress of burgoyne army towards albany. now these metabolic demands from humans and horses shaped the decisions and military decisions that burgoyne he stayed in place

for while. so that provision could laboriously be brought forward or so his could scour nearby for food and forage. here's that map again he skat he stayed near scheme sparrow from july nine to july 27th as the men who. might my my to i was wondering where you were while the soldiers cleared the route to fort and the army arrived at fort edward? yes on july 30th and stayed there for over six weeks, in part a raid in mid-august to acquire cattle and forage and more horses near bennington, vermont, which is to the east

that raid ended in disaster by mid-september after weeks of contests and toil, the army finally had accumulated about five week supply of provisions and so burgoyne saw okay, i can cut the supply line back north and head off to albany. so on september 13th the british germans packed their tents, crossed the hudson river and headed south. now all of these delays, however, the slow movement and being place in one place for a while gave the continental army local militia time to get to the saratoga brega area. time to assemble in overwhelming. so the two sides clashed as you. september 19th and october 7th. you know the results the german

british forces did not because of one reason insufficient and horses and histories to complex to be reduced to a single but i think in environmental history and the perspective of military metabolisms helps us understand burgoyne decisions why the army moved so slowly and it ultimately put it at such a fatal disadvantage. now me turn to the results. one result of these battles, a particular byproduct of military metabolisms, and that's waste in particular. i'm interested in hazardous waste. the soldiers shot musket balls and no one went to ground afterwards up these musket. no one remediated the

battlefield. and we all know that led the environment is a bad thing okay bad in what ways is neuro. yeah lot of lead poisoning, lot of problems with the nervous system, the brain and all that. so how much lead was deposited saratoga. so here are my armchair armchair calculations. okay. first we got to start with a number soldiers who were engaged in battle each side had. more soldiers, but only a subset actually fought on on those two days. then got to think about ammunition. each side fired led musket balls, each 175 caliber weighing ounce americans added three or four buckshot in their muzzles

call that 0.2 of an ounce. and then how many cartridges each side carry? 30 rounds for americans, 64 british and germans in their cartridge boxes. now, i started by assuming that every soldier fired his full supply of ammunition that's possible possible because numerous accounts describe fighting as intense and continuous lasting almost 4 hours on september 19. and at least three and a half hours on october 7th. so you take the number of soldiers and how much of how how much how many musket balls they you multiply it all and you get 45,000 pounds of lead or over 22 tons of heavy fighting.

indeed. now, modern medical and scientific studies look at cancer integrations. mgs two kg or parts per. so i have to put this weight of musket balls into a quantity of soil on the battlefield in order to get a concentration. so here are some more estimates size of the battlefield 253 acres that's initial that's my initial rough estimate i to fine tune this much more and the soil in this part of upstate new york is and rhinebeck salt loam you take a cubic foot of it weighs hundred and five pounds okay now you take i a imagined i took a a

four inch slice of a of that battlefield like a énorme mist 253 acres sheet cake. okay and i four inches because a musket ball probably wouldn't penetrate farther than inches. at least that's suggested by modern studies of at firing ranges at ranges. so you take this huge sheet cake, 253 acres, four inches thick of hudson rind back silt loam and it weighs 380 plus million right. you i looked at the natural concentration of lead in this soil 15 to 40 milligram arms, two kg or two parts per million. so i took the weight of, the the

lead, the weight, the soil, converted everything into metric hit the calculate to hit the calculator twice and i got to concentrate of a 119 milligram is two kg or 3 to 8 fold in crease in the natural concentration of the left but maybe i should have made a more conservative calculation. maybe not every soldier fired his weapon or used up all his ammunition. how could that be. yeah, right. maybe he got killed. it musket ball number five and still had 25 or 55 more cartridges in his box. okay so i arbitrarily cut 25% from the total and that leads to

2080 9.3 milligrams two kg parts per million to two six fold increase in the natural concentration. this is bad, isn't it? it's bad if particles of lead into your body, through your skin or you inhale it or you drink contaminated ground water. okay, well was my original thinking, but the environmental side of environmental history pushed further. how do those lead particles get formed? mostly by the lead breaking down when a lead musket ball gets stuck in the soil, it slowly gets transformed into compounds. so russ site hydro cirrus site and lead sulfate now in acidic these compounds dissolve fairly rapidly and the little bits of

lead get out there and can get in the groundwater. okay but this the acidity of these hudson and rhinebeck silt loans is only little bit acidic. 6.1 to 6.5. so the musket balls would have been fairly stable and the compounds would have released relatively little of their let so led certain damages human health but not this led sitting in this soil at this time. furthermore even if the lead all released at these concentration zones it probably wouldn't posed a threat to human health, u.s. environmental protection agency, the epa says that lead is a hazard when, quote, for hundred parts per million of lead in bare soil in children's play

areas. now the epa has shown that much lower concentrations of harm, different species of plants and birds and mammals, low more than the 119 or the 89 that i came up with. but for now, let's keep the focus on bass. humans. given the amount of lead and the type of soil why go to all this trouble to describe the concentration of lead. it's because i think conditions have changed since. 77 over the past century there's been a of fossil fuels that have been burned releasing a lot sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and ammonia into the atmosphere and comes down as sulfuric acid and nitric acid and ammonium has acid rain.

acid snow, right from 1998 to 2000. rain in this area of. our adirondacks had, a patch of 4.5, ten times the more acidic than background conditions. and the hudson in rhinebeck, silt loam don't have the limestone deposits that would buffer or help neutralize that acidity. so. maybe two centuries after the battles of saratoga that cirrus site and hydro cirrus site might have started to breaks down. conditions have also changed because more land has been deposited on the saratoga battle. americans first pumped leaded gasoline in 1923. and by the time stopped in 1985, automobiles had.

about 7 million tons of lead into the atmosphere. how much landed saratoga? i can't, but but lead deposited the sky combined with in the soil liberated by acid rain. maybe maybe now 250 years later might reaching some critical concentrate shows musket balls in 1777 may now be hitting targets that the soldiers had never even thought of. so environmental history reminds us that during the revolution, humans were locked in this intimate relationship with nature just like today. think about the energy we use to move around the food and drink we consume the gasoline or electricity we put into our vehicles. we think about the wastes that

fill our dumps, the greenhouse gases pump into the atmosphere. what's true about today can be applied to the 1700s and remembering, i think, will help us understand an event that still fascinates all of us and that's the american revolution thanks for your attention. it might be question. yet another yet another very interesting presentation you thank you. so when when ferguson's army was ensconced in fort and for those six weeks, where was the bulk their supplies coming from? was that coming from supply line to the north? were they were they commandeering supplies locally?

were they buying supplies locally where they come from? i think most of it. okay. the question was when the when bergwijn's army was static. where were they? the supplies. i think they were coming down from ticonderoga and from canada and were trying to obtain supplies locally. they had a hard time because the local revolutionaries were not staff medic during this time they would move their cattle out of harm's way. they would do other things make it hard for for the germans and the british to to acquire energy. so has been any testing done of

the soil to see if this theory could possibly be. yeah come to okay the question has any testing been done of this of the soil. i asked the saratoga battlefield folks maybe a dozen years ago and they said no. could i drill down? and they said. no, it's federal property. so my son said, dad, i can give you like my black sweats and black hoodies and you can like sneak onto the onto the. so so no. but, you know, times change and so i should i should ask again. thanks for reminding me. have you considered testing water supply in the area? there are farms south of there and you would think percolation of the water through would pick

up the lead. yeah, that's a possibility that you could didn't have to do the ninja stuff. you know, the black that the grandson would love to. the question was test the you know the problem with a difficult of testing today is how do you know the results you get are from the time period or or well i guess we're testing led that's been deposited and all that. yeah. or is it from it is just yeah. my my initial theory is okay the lead from leaded gasoline all that what if there is some factory. dumping wastewater upstream from saratoga sugar. would that mess up the the readings that.

are the side of side check water supply here. what the the response was makes some comparisons some testing side by side. okay you yeah so well part not to throw off your calculations too much burgoyne orders is british and german forces to be filled with 100 rounds of ammunition per man. so i don't know how that affects the overall thing. my question is actually about the forage for animals. and do you have a sense if those animals are entirely living off supplies that are forwarded to the army in terms of oats and hay, how are they feeding on local know, eating on the itself or, you know, cutting fresh, fresh provisions for those animals, all these regiments for supply sides and forage courts to be able to provide provisions and impact. does that have on those environments grazing. you know how, much higher

concentration of animals than typically would receive. right. right so how much foraging was done by those animals i think was there was certainly some foraging probably? not enough. okay. also this is by this time august, there other animals would be foraging earlier the summer through this area, maybe other local farmers. so i think it was i think it was tough if if they getting a decent amount of forage, maybe that raid bennington would have had some different orders. but they were supposed to get cattle meat. they're supposed to get they're supposed to get horses. not just for transportation, but mount some dismounted. and so by and my initial sense

is, not enough is still so much a question as a disturbing thought. there's all those civil war battlefields where ten times the number of people are firing even more led. yeah, i mean, i have no comment that it's just mind boggling very disturbing. thank you. when always happy to you out. i it's it's my understanding that chewed musket balls found on the battlefield after all the fighting is taking of largely been found have been caused by animals chewing on them like pigs. so i'm kind of curious as to whether, you know, how that might have impacted meat for those who eat livestock. right. right. so i was i was taking the the

easy approach of of ingesting lead. you just drink some water. but yeah, if you eat an entire musket ball, yeah, i think that's kind of that's going to do something to the pig whether, whether the digestive liquids in the intel would break down that that led so that when you make a pork chop it's it's like hazardous i don't know or would would a pig just poop out the musket ball ball i don't know maybe more testing and comparison needs to make here like go to go to oh here's pig you know pig chow for the group and then for the test group pig chow with basketball and hate to

tell you, one of your options for dinner tonight is, pork chops. we have one last online question in the back yes. one of the attendees online is asking, you can speculate if there might be any impact. the water in the lake champlain or the hudson river that might have an impact on military metabolism. the the water quality or the the the the left, the water level. if it's if it's the water level and wind resistance, you know, they're coming burgoyne forces coming down from canada and it takes energy to to pull oars. they had sails when possible but

there's also if i remember this right, the energy required to cover the distance on like lake champlain is the equivalent of running a half marathon. something that as for water quality i don't know i think i think i know i was going to i was going to speculate our systems getting used to drinking this kind of water. but 250 years ago they drank water out of streams lakes all the time without had would they have just adapt to that? i'm sorry. i don't, but thank you for the question. thank you, david. and we'll take quick break before our final speaker.

all right right. we've almost made it through a day. these seminars go by so quickly. it's hard to believe we're already at the last presentation for saturday and before introduce our last speaker, i just want to do a reminder for those of you that purchase dinners at the log house, that dinner starts at 5:00 and pork is not on your menu menu. it's actually a nice turkey mashed potatoes and all the all the the fixings for that and that'll be available at five. so please don't show up at 430 give it give cafe a chance to get ready for you at. 5:00 though i'm sure they'd be willing to sell you an adult

beverage ahead of time if need to, because i have to kill a little time for the speakers your dinner. is it paper and pencil? there were directions in your in your envelope. but if you have questions, please just let me know. i'll be sure to help you get there. and yes pork is one of your choices. there. so our final speaker this is kieran o keefe. he asks the question, why horatio gates become a revolutionary. horatio gates is best known as the general who oversaw the american victory at saratoga in 1777, but for much of his life, he was a loyal british army officer. david explores how and why. david sorry, kieran. kieran explores how and why gates went from a dutiful subject the crown to a committed revolutionary. it argues that drift to revolution stemmed from personal grievances with the british military, british ministry, political and resentment against class hierarchy and shifting

context. dr. kieran o keefe is assistant professor of history at lyon college. good afternoon and thank you. all right. thank you, everybody, for hanging around to the last, last presentation of today. so, as was said, this is going to be about horatio gates to i'm sure everybody here knows for for saratoga primarily. and if you're, of course, more familiar with ticonderoga. he was in command of tie in 1776 and helped oversee the construction, the fortifications that prevented guy carlton or discourage guy carlton from attacking in the fall of 1776. but than looking at gates's military background, i actually want to look at his path towards revolution. he's long time british army officer. he's he becomes an officer in 1745 at leeds and leaves in

1769. so 24 years in the service of the british. so in many respects that him a pretty unlikely candidate to sport a sporting revolution across ocean in america. and i think sometimes considering why people revolt sometimes we frame it as ideology or self-interest. and i think what gates helps show is that it's sort of the intersection of ideology, self-interest. in his case, you can see how they're sort of not mutually reinforcing. and both play a role in his path towards revolution in the years leading up to the revolutionary of the 1760s and 1770s. so horatio gates was born in 1728 and probably in debt for which is new york greenwich in what's now greater. despite his later prominence. we don't know a whole lot about his early life. he's born 1728. that's clear. in april, you know, bits and pieces about his early life. but there's not a whole lot

known about the first 20 years or so of his life. but what we do know indicates that he comes from a pretty modest family, from what we call like a middling. his on his father's side, many of his family, they were on the docks in greenwich, which is not surprising, given that's a really big port community. one of his grandfather was was a tailor. there's not a whole lot of certainly he's not a gentleman it's not coming from a prominent in the london area. and in many respects there's not reason to expect why he would rise to later prominence. but he does have one really important connection that's to be important to him getting it a historic and becoming someone of significance in his life. and th ithe individual all on the right of the screen here. the third, duke of bolton. so the third duke of bolton is, obous member of the house of lords, was a sometime ally of of robert walpole and.

somehow he and the gates's each other i think the most persuasive speculation or theory for that is gates his mother may have been a housekeeper for bolton, and they got know each other from from that. but anyway, bolton is going to be really the first patron and gates is going to benefit from a number of different patrons early in his life that's going to allow him to from a pretty middling background to someone of pretty pretty substantial significance later later in his career. so in 1745 in response to jacobite rebellion in scotland john bolton raises a regiment help put down that rebellion. and gates is going to be commissioned as an engine and then later lieutenant in bolton's regiment. so this connection with bolton is going to give gates his first military commission as a year old in. in 1745. and one thing i want to point out on the screen here, which is one of those crazy coincidences of history, which is almost hard

to believe. buifou look on the left there is a record of gates, a 45ommission at the national archives and in in london and this commission book has a hundreds of pages and even on isndividual page it'all the officers in bolton's regiment so that you can see there quite a few names here and i don't have a you don't have a laser pointer but gates his is maybe about 80% towards the bottom and the person directly below him on the same exact page in this regiment and this book of hundreds of pages is john burgoyne. so it's kind of a funny coincidence that's a little hard to believe that. and burgoyne, of course, will come to have much more significant connection. some 32 years later. but that was a it's kind of an amazing coincidence. so gates is is a probably in germany for a few years after

initially entering his military career. the evidence isn't like really solid that he's in germany but i found a few hints that suggest he's in germany at least a little bit but when kind of emerges from from the darkness and when we really learn more about his life is actually when he goes to nova scotia beginning in 1748 1749, he goes there as an aide to general edward cornwall who who was another early patron, and is the is the uncle of charles cornwallis, who will be gates is a nemesis of the battle of camden and the decades down the road. this is like a pattern you see throughout gates in his early life. is that he recognizes that a somebody somebody a pretty middling background if he is going to advance within the british military establishing it's going to be through establishing connections through the more influential patrons people who have more power and inflnce than he does. and so onef s earliest relationships to build this build this connection with cornwaishich allows him

allows some military advancement early on in nova scias going to serve father the looters war is to need his his his wife philpsho comes from a fairly well-to-do nova scotia family. you can see a miare her on the right there on the screen that is in the villa belongs the new york historical society. and together they're going to have one son who the name robert who they call bob. he's promoted to captain, ends up being sent to fight in the french and indian war. he partakes in the braddock expedition, which everybody here knows doesn't go very well for the british, which would be think kind of an understatement and goes very and you know, so many officers are either killed or wounded that gates is among the wounded. he is in the advanced guard commanded directly by a badge by thomas gage, will later be a general on the british side in the revolution.

i mean, gates is actually shot, shot through the body, left for dead in the ground. and then one of his sergeants in his regiment comes out, makes like a shift for him and terrorism carries them to safety and saves his life. but he nearly dies on the battlefield. it's now western pennsylvania in 1755, along along with many other british and american officers. he spends the next few years on the on the new york, especially the mohawk valley, where fighting various french canadian and indigenous warriors. and then in 1758, he's going to become brigade major really like a military chief of staff to general john. gates is going to thrive as staff officer. he has he's very organized, has great attention to detail. and this is going to kind of really make his name within the british army during, the french indian or the seven years war. and he impresses as his

superiors as as a as a brigade eventually stand will go back to britain and he's going to become the brain major to robert monckton is going to be one of his closest friends, probably his most important patron, the various patrons. gates had in his early life. and even though marked in as a general. he and gates are about the age mountains only two years older. and so they they really become close friends during during the seven years war. and 1762. monckton is going lead an expedition against martinique. so after the than really the mainland american part of the war has largely died down the war is still really active in the caribbean and gates an aide to mountain and the expedition against martinique the battle is another major victory. i pretty much like all the battles were at the end the seven years war and a sign of their friendship and the high regard in which he holds gates. mokton sends gates to london to deliver news to the ministry and to the king of the of

capture of martinique to become the honorary messenger. with this great news, gets back to london meets the george the third meets the prime minister is the duke of newcastle meets other members of the ministry and as a reward for his for a service for years in america for bringing this news back back to london. he's given a financial reward. and then also the rank of major in 45th regiment, a foot. and it's a little bit surprising, but actually this promotion and this this this reward is given for his rule, his his his bringing the news of the capture martinique to london. it's this promotion. in the end, the reward that is going to really his path to revolution as we'll see in the next few minutes. so there are a few problems with getting promoted. and the biggest problem that the position that he had been granted already been filled by general geoffrey amherst in america. he had appointed somebody to that same exact position of

major in the 45th regiment. so that means the fact that there wasn't a position for gates to get didn't have a position. gates also that he deserved to be promoted to lieutenant colonel, but he had a hard really gathering together the money he needed to purchase lieutenant colonels because of his middling background, doesn't have the financial resources that a lot of a lot of other officers do. so he struggles to to purchase a commission that he feels like he deserves for based on his service in the seven years war. adding to all this, 1762 is obviously the very of the seven years war. so war is going to wrap up, which means the army is going to demobilize and shrink as. the war ends and peace arrives and that means there are fewer positions be filled. finally, the ministry gives him another another major position, but that's in quebec. he doesn't want to go to canada. and so he basically drags a seat for a while and turns turns down that offer. and by 1765, he's very and he goes on half pipe pipe over next

few years, he's going to continue to to to find a commission. pretty much every effort he takes fails, he finds one possible avenue and that fails another avenue might appear fails there. and so by 1769 he so he so disgusted he decides just leave the military entirely. so he sells his commission in 1769 to actlly his mountain's younger, younger brother. and he he leaves he leaves the military entirely. he turns to monckton, who had done this patron during the seven years war and had gotten him this promotion and had helped him really move up the ranks of. the the british military establishment and monckton was really the running to become the commander in chief. the east india company army and moncton's like hey i if i get this this this position i'm going to bring you to india with me and you'll have, you have a position of prominence in india. but he doesn't get the permission for the position.

gates really blames monckton for doing enough to help him out and they have a falling out. the friendship ends and they never talk to each other again. after. after 1772 and over all, by 1769, early 1770s, gates is extremely disgruntled and really upset, feeling. he's been he's been dishonored and denied his place of a place of prominence within the british military establishment establishment. this frustration also leads to personal frustration. he spends kind of wandering around great, trying to trying to find a permanent spends time in bath goes to wales for a while in bristol for a time his personal finances begin weaken as the money from the sale of his commission dries up in 1769. he ends up renting an estate called sandrge in england, where he tries to become a farmer. life.r been a farmer in

he grew up on the docks. he knows nothing about farming but is trying to teach himself farming. it's not going very well. friends kind of make fun of him about it, but she doesn't like. he's trying to live like english country gentleman without the money to live like unjust english country gentleman and his wife. to elizabeth is is really upset, too. she's a very supportive in all these years and she shares in his frustration. so as he's really he looks around and tries to figure out did he failed to achieve the rank he thought he deserved like what was the problem? why was not able to move up the ranks in the way that he wanted to. it felt like he was entitled to and ultimately gates really concludes that it's his relative low birth that prevents him from receiving a position in the british military establishment that he thinks he deserves and that he's qualified for increasingly, by the late 1760s, you see gates moving into radical whig circles, radical

politics for. example, while he's in bristol, he becomes friends with henry kruger, who's actually originally from new york, was, is working in bristol point for a promotion company and he's from it. kruger, who's a radical whig, they talk about kruger and others that are a of circle are opponents of britain's towards america. isaac barry is another person that gates is friendly with in bristol while he's there there by the late 1760s. if you read what gates is writing, he's espousing pretty standard radical whig ideas fears about corruption, fears about autocar. see, he complains about the lack of social in great britain, and he views that his own inability to rise through the ranks is a sign that something larger, wrong with the british system, that corruption is preventing the preventing men of merit from rising the ranks. by 1770. there are some of gates his friends were openly calling him a republican and a democrat.

so this was pretty well known by 1770 that he is he's a political radical and in particular, he chafes at privilege. you find complaints, the nobility in his letters about the aristocracy. and it's really blending strands of social and ideological radicalism. the late 1760s and early 1770s, a critic of class, class privilege, social hierarchy, aristotle percy fears a concentration, power, corruption, the threat of tyranny. he's very much immersed in this radical whig world. by the late 1760s. his views on the crisis in america evolve over the years. initially, he's not all that sympathetic to colonies and they're complaining about taxes and say the stamp back prices in 1765 1766. he's pretty friendly with charles townsend one point famous townsend acts there passed by charles townsend. gates is friendly with him for a

while, but he as he's very disgruntled by his own personal experiences and that he feels like he's being denied his own personal. i was on a qualified position within within the british military establishment. you can see these these views change. so by 1768, he actually he dines of benjamin franklin evening and franklin refers to him as a friend of america. so by 1768, franklin thinks, he's on the american side of the imperial crisis. he argues that american are entitled to push for a total repeal the townsend act, not just a partial repeal. there's also a very revealing essay letter or a speech. he writes in 1769, which is probably a draft speech of him considering running for public office, not clear if it's parliament or some local. but in that speech, at least, he calls britain's treatment of the colony is pernicious. so he's openly critical of the of britain's treatment of the colonies thinks it's too heavy handed handed of a manner the way they're dealing with the american colonies during the

imperial crisis. the person with whom gates has the correspondence about the imperial crisis and sort of most clearly espouses the radical whig ideologies of the john hale was a who's a hero from the of the ai ofbram that then had served with gates in nova scotia. and he and gates are kd of on the same page politically, where they're very cynical about the way the ministry going and a very critical of britain's treatment of the colonies. and increasingly hailing gates are framing america as this place. liberty is kind of is the last holdout in america and go and have liberty in america because liberty is in other locations. but in america liberty is still thriving. so do that. liberty is in retreat across the world. and america is kind of its last bastion. so in 17 and 22, gates decides to move his family to america he initially is a little bit

conflicted about where he's going to move, but he's really on either northern virginia, maryland ends up finding a tract of land in northern virginia that had been recommend to him by his old army friend adam to stephen. he settles in berkeley county, which is now in west virginia, because of the civil war happened and west virginia separated. and he builds a house there, calls travelers rest. this house obviously still stands today. it is privately owneou might be. hotel gates and not enjoy a satellite tv tv like on the on the left there but it is privately owned the woman who owns it she was nice enough let me come visit over the summer and she's lived there since 1965. such owned it for almost 60 years so she knows a lot about the house but gates builds his house right after he moves to move virginia and and he becomes immersed in virginia society. his radical big ideas are more and more accepted and one way

that it becomes more like an american or more like a virginian is it becomes a slaveholder as begins purchasing enslaved people and becomes, by the standards of berkeley county, is not the tidewater of virginia becomes a fairly substantial slaveholder in that particular county. gates views in america intensified his all all of us have been set in motion years earlier. concerns about corruption and autocracy in the sense that the ministry was really leading to liberty, eroding everywhere in the british, british world. he arrives in virginia. not long after that, the boston tea party takes place. parliament response to the urse of acts which are i'm sure you all know, designed to punishchusetts in boston for the boston tea and the gates the course, of course, of acts are really emblematic. these fears he had long harbored e british government it's sign of autocracy, corruption. the fact that liberty is in decline in great britain and he's concerned that britain is

going to drag america down the same path that america which he really envisioned its last holdout of liberty, is going to see liberty erode as a result of the course of acts by 1774. he is openly predicting that war is going to come to pass. he says that he will take up arms if war happens. a he ends up serving on a local committee of correspondents. he's at the forefront of resistance by. 1774 in response to the course of acts. there are a couple of letters in particular. gates writes, during these years, which which are particularly revealing. and unfortunately, gates did not keep a copy of most of his personal correspondence. so we kind of gather only a limited number of options to choose from of the outside. the period 1875 and 83. but there a couple of letters he writes in 1774 that that survive and are really revealing for for ideology at this point. so one thing tt writes is a charles lee who nother

british officer who who settles in northern virginia, really right wnhe street from gates there, basically. and they're reallyeibors. so when he writes to lee he's really critical of thomas gage says his old old commander from the from french and indian war. he in disbelief that somebody like gage we thought very well of could, quote, undertake a business fit only for an abandoned desperado or a monster in human shape. referring to gage being the military of massachusetts who's tasked with enforcing the course of act. so monster or inhuman shape, is not the most endearing term. and including that including that letter to gates, he stated, i am ready to risk life to preserve the liberty of the western world again. america as a last place where you can really find liberty. if if liberty disappears on america, that's it it's over. another letter he writes in 1774, that is also revealing is written the chaes mellish, who is a member of the of commons

between 1774 and 1784. and is letter he criticizes, he defends the boston tea party. there are actually quite a few americans who are uncomfortable with the boston tea party, thought it was a step too far. britain's response is ridiculous, but someone like george washington wasn't didn't really endorse the boston tea party because it was really considered beyond the beyond the bounds of appropriate behavior of a resistance. gates, though, defends it. he actually predicts that one day north america will be in in this letter, which in 1774 says, long before common. so we're not anywhere near where we're most americans are in support of independence. but gates is predicting in 1774 and he also again attacks privilege. so in this letter, he says, however, politically and artfully princes may endeavor to distinguish from man true merit for the discerning few will ever be to mere nobility. so he never really gets past the this idea of the fundament battle corruption in british society that men of birth as

opposed to men of merit. so war breaks out in an april 1775 at lexington in concord, as as we all know, he is not boozman. he's been predicting it really the course of ax news of the course of reached america in the spring 1774 when he about lexington and concord he immediately visits george washington at mount vernon, who he knew from his time in the french and indian war. and washington is trying to put together an army he needs experienced officers. and so he advocates for gates, wants gates to get some kind of position of leadership within the new continental that is that is being created. gates is appointed adjutant of the army with the rank of brigadier general. and there was some concern in congress about gates being of english birth and there's this letter where john adams talks about it and john adams says

something to the effect of like, you know, we know he wasn't born in america, we know he's an englishman. he's only been here a few years. but he he has real american merit. that's a add on to his real american merit, which i think saying that he knows it's well known that gates, a pretty strong radical in support of the american cause despite being from england and being be an englishman by birth. and you can make an argument to you that he's the most experienced officer in the continental army when the war breaks out. he certainly has a lot more years of experience in washington. does i think charles leaves the other one you could kind of the two of them are sort of in the running for experienced officers when when the when the war begins and it's adjutant general, as you know, the chief administrative of the army, because he has all this experience, a staff officer from his time in french and indian war serving under sandwich and month in his a lot of a lot administrative experience and so he's really really dialed in the position he begins his experience his his as adjutant general in a in massachusetts soon his appointment in in 1775.

during the first year of the war gates is at the vanguard of the independence movement. he doesn't think reconciliation is possible. so there are still a lot of americans into early 1776 and from certainly, i mean, the loyalists exist obviously even after july 1776, i think independence is not the right decision. and he's a he opposes the olive branch petition in 1775. he is critical of congress when when they decide to kind of reach out to the king one last time. he's really he's not in congress, but his political allies of sorts of john adams and benjamin franklin, who are trying to push congress to get to independence. and there are a number of letters that survive or gates writes to adams and franklin saying, you need to do this and to do that. he's giving benjamin john benjamin franklin advice for how to get john dickenson on board, who is notoriously a holdout on independence. and he insists that britain can never be trusted.

freedom isn't possible unless you have independence. and he he says, who cares? setting up the government, you got to get into it. get freedom first and then we'll worry about the government, which now is the best approach. but that was his approach in congress course in july 1776 will declare independence. but that point a month earlier in june 1776, he had been promoted major general in over the course of the revolutionary war. he's going to have a lot of highs and a lot of lows, have a high at saratoga, of course where he's going to oversee an absolutely crucial victory at saratoga, capturing army and others. debate over much credit. yates deserves for that, but i think he deserves some credit for it. and then few years later, he has a big low at that la camden, which really doesn't include end his military career, but ends and his commission as a as a battlefield commander least. and despite all that. he's a true believer in the cause from the beginning of the war until the end of the war and one way that you can see about

how like this radical ideology is a strand of radical ideology that that he has really lasts until the end of his life is by looking at is his post war politics. so there are nine major generals in the continental army. if you want to throw george in there as commander in chief, that's 30 individuals. now, those individuals, only one of them became a jeffersonian republican in the early republic. and was horatio gates. he's the only one to be a jeffersonian who actually will serve in the new assembly in 1800 to to vote for thomas jefferson, to have him become become president of instead of john adams. but i'm going to stop there. thank for listening and happy to answer any questions. any questions. do you get the impression that is trying to restore or recover

the prestige that he wanted from the british in the by the early mid 1770s by going with the american? i mean, is that what's motivating him, do you imagine? i think i think on every corner for that we honor like all men in the 18th century. and gates is certainly one of them that he felt like he had been dishonored while was a british officer not not receiving the position prominence he felt he deserved. and i think as a general in the american army a way of restoring his honor and gaining honor men in the 18th century are if you read letters in 1890 that the amount of times men worried about their honor is just kind of ridiculous. it just honor honor is everywhere. i'm honor, your honor is there. so gates was very wary of his honor, as i think most men were in the 18th century and rebuilding his honor, which he felt like he had been denied while he was a british officer. i'm curious i'm glad you mention charles lee, because i'm wonder

if you might comment on how the experience gates differs or a to lee to st clair or to montgomery, who are all experts or officers that emigrated to america and took up the cause during the revolution. yes i certainly know less about them than i know about gates. i know it was he's he's i think a lot more like educated and probably well read than gates is if you read his writings he is he has a lot of latin phrases for example in his in his writings which indicates education and he's more knowledgeable about like the the political theory of why america is right than gates is. but where they are in terms of like the i think on the political spectrum is pretty, pretty similar. and it's kind of funny to think about of the biggest radicals in the in the among the leadership continental army. they're both born in england, which is kind of kind of funny in a way. yes. so lee is, i think, very similar. gates probably better read, i don't know a ton about british

career as a as an officer, but i think in terms of his political ideology he and gates of lot in common lee is a is more well-read and probably knows a book of theory a lot better than than gates does. do you think his politics after the war or because after camden he and washington had fallen out maybe even prior to that and was that reflective at all in his politics after the war and washington's presidency. yeah so i. i don't think so because right here in washington don't don't get along all that well the first year or so of the war initially long time. but by 1776 there are some tension and by by late 1777, there's just kind of a whole falling out. i don't think so, because he does become a jeffersonian but he's he's allied with washington and virginia in trying to ratify

the constitution. so he's all about like james madison. let's let's ratify constitution. but then the way it's implemented is concentrating too much power. and the federal. so i don't think is a response to washington. i think there's a pretty consistent ideology throughout his life that you can follow. but i will say that i think washington's view of gates, which is pretty well documented as being being bad, has really clouded how historians. viewed gates especially look at read historians the 19th century. they hate gates even they want historians like gates, but especially like the 19 early 20th century's they're trying to celebrate washington this great founder of the nation and, he really doesn't like this other guy. the other becomes kind of the bad guy in many ways and ways that are sometimes another. washington's criticism always unfair. but i think the way that historians have often interpreted it has probably hurt gates's legacy a bit. and one way to think about it is it's not really much named after is like, think about the other revolutionary generals. there's a ton named after them. and i think because of that falling out with washington, because camden went really,

really almost as well as saratoga when camden went the other way. and because of those two factors, i think legacy has been a not as positive as some of the other generals in the army. do you suppose the egos of gates and benedict arnold might be the reason why they were at loggerheads a lot of times both seem to be wanting recognition, which may be why gates what happened at saratoga? gates decided to take all the credit. yeah, that could certainly play a role in it. i think, you know, if you look at relationship they actually got along very well initially they collaborated very well when gates was in command of ticonderoga helped oversee the creation of the of the arnold's fleet lake champlain gates is very supportive. arnold when it comes under criticism by other officers in the army, what kind of leads to their falling, i think is more i think it's probably ego to some

degree, but also different a difference of strategy at saratoga, gates is advocating a more conservative approach that is primarily about staying behind the fortifications up in the states and sending out troops piecemeal into the battlefield where arnold wants to be more aggressive. also, the the falling out arnold and gates has also suffered in that. historians have largely relied on james wilkinson as a source. and if you i think about james wilkinson, he's a notorious liar in a lot of a lot of historians have taken what he said at face value. and there's some reason suggesting that arnold and gates had a falling out as is documented but they kind of patch things up towards the end of the battle by the second battle so depends also how much you want to believe james wilkinson versus versus other sources. but yeah, they do both have i think pretty powerful egos and i'm sure that plays a role why they don't don't have a perfect relationship saratoga for sure. so you mentioned earlier that you gates moved to virginia and he became a slaveholder and also

he was a true believer the cause and given that maybe how do we know how he felt about slavery later in life and independence? yeah, i'm working an article now, the gates and slavery. so it's. so i have a good question. ask so gates initially as far as i can tell has qualms about slavery and when he's in he's in the seven years war like and even in martinique no evidence he has any any questions about that slavery he does seem to undergo some kind of transformation and that maybe transformation is too big of a word, but he does have some questions about it as he as he goes through the revolutionary war. there's a case actually, while he's in his wars and commander ticonderoga, there's a local landholder who who claims that a woman is his enslaved property and gates is like, no, she's not. she's not your property. gates actually defends her and protect her from from being re enslave by by this man and well william gilligan did think his name was so he he does protect her but he's in command of the eastern in the 1778.

there's a question about about black men who have who have served in the continental army if they're if they were slaves before they serve. do they go back to being slaves afterwards and gates is clearly uncomfortable with that idea and he's telling the massachusetts counsel. i don't really think that's the right thing to do, but it's up to you. so it's not like an radical at all. he continues to have enslaved people, but in 1790 he's going to sell travelers rest in virginia and he's going to move to new york as his life. and i'm pretty close to her now. the madison square garden is and actually sells his entire estate to his neighbor. mark is also his friend and one of the conditions of the sale. is that all it's all the older enslaved will be freed within four and a half years and all the younger ones be freed. i think it's age 28. so you could have to double check that he includes provisions in the sale. they be freed and mark follows through on that. he does free them.

and so doesn't have like a public stance against slavery but he does he does this free his own enslaved property and interesting i found a couple cases abolitionist newspapers in the 1850s using gates as an example of revolutionary generation not being pro slavery because he freed freed slaves was a gradual manumission, but most of the founding generation didn't the slaves at all. so gates. gates has some kind of about it, but he doesn't really articulate it a way. and also, i should say he's he's supportive of of like he's very complimentary of black black soldiers in the haitian revolution that taking place 79 his early 1800s. he says they're never gonna back to being slaves they will not do that they're going to be great soldiers will they ever going back to being enslaved. thank you, karen. so you everyone we