WEBVTT - Benedict Arnold: Before They Went Bad 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:06.320 We take it for granted, but American independence was not 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:11.680 a foregone conclusion. The Revolutionary War was long, more than 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:16.119 six grinding years between the first shots at Lexington and 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.560 Conquered and the British surrender at Yorktown, and they all 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:25.360 too oft an unpaid, ill equipped, underfed patriots were almost 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:30.200 always playing defense, one battle away from total defeat and 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.920 the very real risk of capital punishment as traitors to 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:39.360 the crown. Father of his country. George Washington earned that title, 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:44.480 but Washington wasn't at Saratoga in upstate New York, site 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.080 of arguably the most important turning point in the war. 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:53.120 In the summer of seventeen seventy seven, about eight thousand 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.600 troops under British General John Burgoyne came down from Canada 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.320 and through the Hudson River Valley, expecting to join British 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.520 troops moving up from New York City. The colonies would 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.560 be split into a classic divide and conquer and the 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:14.240 rebellion would be put down. But those other British troops 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.800 didn't show, and on September near the town of Saratoga, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:29.200 the British Burgoyne met a line of American troops after 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.679 an initial bloody confrontation, the British and the Americans, under 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.880 the cautious leadership of General Horatio Gates, engaged each other 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:43.399 indecisively for almost three weeks. Then, on October seven, the 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.200 British launched an attack, trying to break through American lines, 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.640 but before Gates could issue a command, another American general 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.840 flew into action. No man shall keep me in my 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.120 tent today, this general raged. I am without command, and 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.279 I will fight in the ranks. But the soldiers, God 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:08.320 bless them, will follow my lead. Cursing, rallying the patriots, 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:13.640 he charged out on horseback, straight into the fray. He 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.600 was our fighting general. A comrade later wrote, as brave 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:23.560 a man as ever lived that general's name, Benedict Arnold. 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.320 Anyone would be hard pressed the point to a officer 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.520 in the Continental Army who was a better general. In 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.240 the first years of the Revolution, Arnold's horse was shot 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.480 from right under him. He suffered a terrible wound to 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.840 his leg, but he and his men prevailed, routing the British. 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:49.440 Ten days later, Burgoyne surrendered. As a result of that victory, 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.959 the French entered to the Revolutionary War on the side 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.560 of the Patriots. As the writer R. W. Apple Jr. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.560 Put it, it marked the beginning of the end of 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.280 the British Empire, and it breathed life into the United 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:09.359 States of America, in no small part thanks to Benedict Arnold. 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.919 This is the hidden part of Arnold, the Arnold before 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:17.600 he went back, but just three years later, Benedict Arnold, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:22.079 the hero of Saratoga, would betray his country, his name 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:28.120 consigned to infamy. Whom can we trust? Now? That was 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:34.200 the question that Arnold made all Americans face. This episode 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.520 will tell you the story of Benedict Arnold before he 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.279 became synonymous with treason, and will tell you the surprising 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.760 backstories of some of history's other villains. You have summoned 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.920 the Prince of Temptation fo what Purpose? From CBS Sunday 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:55.920 Morning and I Heart I'm Morocca. And this is mobituaries, 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:08.640 This mopit Benedict Arnold, Peanuts and satan before they went bad. 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.400 You know what are you doing studying my script? I'm 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.840 in the school play. Oh it's wonderful, I'll plan Benedict Donald, 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.400 Benedict Arnold. Yeah, it's a great part. Well, it is 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:42.320 if you like being a trader that's from a nine 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.960 two episode of The Brady Bunch. Middle son Peter Braby 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.680 gets cast in the school play as Benedict Arnold, and 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.520 it's making him a pariah, so much so that he 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.479 fakes being sick to get out of the play. I 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:58.320 want you to level with us. You don't want to 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:05.080 be in that play, don't you. No. I don't why, Peter, 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:06.920 you said you were going to be the best Benedict 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.440 Donald ever. Well, you don't know what it's been like. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.800 Everybody riding me, booing and hissing me because I'm playing 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:17.080 a trader. I understood Peter's predicament. I don't know about 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.159 the kids today, but when I was growing up, to 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:24.159 be called a Benedict Arnold was a really insult, wasn't it. Oh? Absolutely, 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.240 but it was weird. My mom always said her hero 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.320 was Bennedicgonald, and so that just confused me as a kid. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:37.400 Bennedicdonald epitomizes being a trader, being evil. He is the 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.880 snake in our garden. Historian Nathaniel Philbrick is the author 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:46.240 of three books on the American Revolution, including Valiant Ambition, 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.840 about the relationship between Benedict Donald and George Washington. But 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.960 hold on a second, what was your mother's rationale for 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.320 saying he was her hero? She was a contrarian. But 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.719 I think back in the day she read ken Robert's 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:06.080 series of novels about the American Revolution, and Benedicdonald is 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:11.040 portrayed largely as a sympathetic character. Kenneth Roberts was a 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.840 popular writer of historical fiction in the first half of 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.880 the twentieth century. He wrote a couple of books focusing 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:21.240 not on Arnold's eventual treachery but his earlier military daring 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.000 do But my mom latched onto this with a vengeance 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.239 because it just appealed to her, being against the grain 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.280 of most people's thinking. Now, I know some of you 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:36.200 may be thinking focusing on Benedict Arnold's early heroics for 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.560 this episode is kind of like talking about how great 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.719 Richard Nixon was for creating the e p A without 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.919 mentioning Watergate. But Nixon was kind of great for creating 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.160 the E p A. People are complicated, get over it. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.520 Don't worry. We'll get to Arnold's betrayal in the third act. 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.800 But first, what kind of a family did Benedict Donold 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.679 come from? He came from a large, lead dysfunctional family 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.080 of a family that was living in the shadow of 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:10.000 their forebears. Those forbears were also named Benedict Arnold. Our 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:15.560 protagonist was the fourth born in seventy. Arnold's great grandfather, 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.760 the first Benedict, was a governor of the Rhode Island Colony. 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.920 But after Arnold's father left Rhode Island to start a 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:28.240 life in Norwich, Connecticut, multiple tragedy struck. Four of Benedict 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:33.160 Arnold's five siblings died before the age of ten. Benedict 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.200 Arnold and his sister Hannah would be the only survivors, 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.760 and his father went to drinking and Arnold his later 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.760 life I think would be kind of a repudiation of 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.400 his difficult childhood because he had a chip on his 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.360 shoulders from the very beginning, and he wanted to make 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:53.120 something of himself, because I think he had this sense 0:07:53.360 --> 0:08:00.240 of coming from a place of shame. After a seven 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.440 year apprenticeship with an apothecary, he started his own pharmacy 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:08.880 and bookselling business in New Haven. He was doing okay, 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:14.120 but young Benedict had long craved adventure. He wanted to 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.280 be the person that he idealized the swashbuckling man of action, 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.280 and physically he was fearless, you know, he was a 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.440 kind of athlete. One person described him as the best 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:30.000 skater he had ever seen skater as an ice skater. Yeah, 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.920 it's a funny observation. But there are several anecdotes about 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:38.360 his youth that he was a daredevil. There was a 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.320 water mill in Norwich and he would grab onto the 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.560 water wheel, rided all the way up and then dive 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.600 off into the stream. He was not a big guy, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.280 but one of those guys with that kind of athletes 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:56.280 swagger and built very solidly, and someone who could intimidate 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.840 other people, not only in terms of yelling at them, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.400 you know, just his physical presence. It's funny because you 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.080 write that he claimed he was a coward until fifteen 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.880 years of age. He said that his bravery was learned, 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.119 and so, according to his own account, at about fifteen, 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.600 you know, which is a time in life when all 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.960 sorts of stuff is usually happening in the life of 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.920 a teenager, he made this decision, I'm going to be 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.680 a badass, and that's what he would be. By the 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.520 time Arnold was in his twenties, he had taken to 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:33.080 the high seas a successful merchant, captaining his own ships, 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.040 sailing as far south as the Caribbean and as far 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.640 north as Canada. He began to build what would be, 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.360 if he had ever finished it, the most opulent house 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.760 in New Haven. Who was a man on the make, 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:49.240 a man to be admired, and a budding patriot. When 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.440 the British wanted to tax the Americans without giving them 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:56.360 representation in Parliament, you remember all of that, Arnold found 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:00.000 a cause he could fight for. He became a smuggler, 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.160 rating his businesses in open defiance of the British tariffs. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.120 He joined the Sons of Liberty, the secretive group that 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.400 carried out the Boston Tea Party. Then on the morning 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.360 of April nineteenth, seventeen seventy five, the British fired on 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:19.560 colonial militiamen at Lexington. The Revolutionary War had begun, and 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:25.040 Benedict Arnold lapped into action. When I heard about Lexington conquered, 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.360 he led a group right to the Boston area. You know, 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.440 getting on a horse and riding around and giving orders 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.560 was exactly the kind of thing. Ben MacDonald was wired 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.720 for his years as a merchant and a Mariner had 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.200 prepared him well for this moment, and because of his 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:46.040 knowledge of the geography of New England and Canada, he 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:51.200 realizes that strategically, the Americans need to have control of 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:57.120 Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain wasn't just a crucial waterway just 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.679 to its south, stood for ty con To Roga with 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:05.520 more than sixty cannons firepower that George Washington's Continental Army 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.440 desperately needed. So he proposed to the powers that be 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.520 in Boston that they take Fort Ticonda Roga, a kind 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.960 of extraordinarily aggressive move, but the Powers that Be agreed 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.800 with him and gave him a commission to go up there. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.280 At off he would go, leading one of the most 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.359 important military actions of the beginning of the American Revolution. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.840 Arnold took Fort Ticonda Roga, though he had to share 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.040 credit with Vermont or Ethan Allen. Yes, Ethan Allen was 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.400 a real person, not just the name of a furniture company. 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.400 Neither man liked sharing credit, but soon Arnold would surpass 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.200 Allen in heroics with an audacious attempt to capture the 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:51.040 British Canadian province of Quebec and make it our fourteenth colony. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.200 This involved a legendary and brutal three hundred fifty mile 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.880 trek through the wilderness of Maine. It was the fall 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:03.000 of seventeen seventy five. The weather was getting bad, but 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.680 Arnold was all for it, and Washington, who was impressed 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:11.199 by Arnold, sent him on this desperate journey through the wilderness. 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.960 Almost half the men would desert or die or starve. 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.000 It was just one of these incredible tests of endurance, 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.720 but somehow Arnold would make it and be dubbed the 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.120 American Hannibal. I traced his route through there, and that 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.040 part of Maine is still so remote that just about 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.320 every road you see has Arnold on it, as if 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.720 he was. About the last time anyone was up there 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.640 was when Arnold went up there during the American Revolution. 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.400 Are you serious that their roads still named after him? Yeah, 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.960 They're a part of the landscape up there in the 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.800 wilds of Maine. You can see tangible evidence of Arnold's 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.079 bravery and adventurous ambition. I'm thinking these areas are so 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.120 remote they still haven't heard about the betrayal that happened 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:59.160 later on, hasn't, right, it's still news. Yeah. The Siege 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.960 of Quebec all timidly failed. Arnold's left leg was shattered 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.960 in battle and the Americans retreated. But Arnold's actions helped 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.960 slow the British down, and for his valor he was 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:14.319 made a brigadier general. George Washington praised him as a 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:18.520 persevering and enterprising officer. In some ways, was he a 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:23.400 more talented general than George Washington? Judged by the evidence, yes, 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.600 I think you'd have to say that. And the thing is, 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.880 Benedict Arnold knew he was that good. The brash confidence 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.040 that made him a hero on the battlefield was matched 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.480 by an arrogance off of it. What did Arnold's men 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:42.920 think of him in the midst of battle? They loved Arnold. 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.120 He was someone who, in the heat of the moment, 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:52.319 behaved with a quiet calm and yet a forceful, inspiring charisma. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.360 The trouble with Arnold occurred after the battle. You know, 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.960 he was prickly. He could be completely condescending and judgmentel. 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.080 He did not brook any kind of what he perceived 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.120 as incompetence, and as a consequence, there were just as 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.960 many people who despised the man. And when I say despise, 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.320 I mean they hated him. There's two reactions, and there's 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.960 no one that seems in between. You either love the 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.840 man or you despise him. Someone who despised Arnold early 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.600 on was a militiaman named John Brown. No, not the 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.720 nineteenth century abolitionist. This John Brown was part of the 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:35.000 force that had seized for Takonta Roga. Soon after that, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.160 he accused Arnold of attempting to defect during that battle. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.640 Arnold was cleared to that allegation, but Brown would go 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.760 on to write in a pamphlet words about Arnold that 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:50.520 proved prophetic quote. Money is this man's God, and to 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:57.400 get enough of it he would sacrifice his country. We'll 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.000 continue with the story of Benedict Arnold on the other 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.320 side of the break, but first, before they went bad, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:10.640 Philippe Petan. During World War Two, Francis Philippe Petan betrayed 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:15.440 his country by collaborating with Nazi Germany. The German juggernaut 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.640 rolls on on to Dunkirk, on to Paris. After Hitler's 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:24.040 Germany seized France in nineteen forty, Petan was appointed head 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:28.760 of the nominally independent French state known as v she France. 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:33.080 He soon proclaimed that collaborating with Hitler was the only 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.120 way to repair the ruin caused by Germany's conquest of France. 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:46.720 I say, obviously, actually John the accipi. The French puppet 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:51.440 government put up no significant resistance to Nazi demands and 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:57.880 voluntarily implemented anti Jewish legislation, even rounding up Jews. Over 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:02.160 seventy five thousand French Jews would die in the Holocaust. 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:08.800 Payton's very name became a byword for collaborationist quizzlings, which 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.280 is quite the turn for someone whose first act was 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:17.000 so honorable. As an army general in World War One, 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.960 Payton was in charge of halting the seemingly unstoppable German 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.120 offensive on the French city of their Done over what 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.680 would be the longest and most brutal battle of the war. 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:33.680 Initially pneumoniaus stricken and commanding troops from his sick bed, 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.200 Payton skillfully reorganized the French front line, made innovative use 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:43.760 of artillery, and inspired his demoralized and outnumbered rank and 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:50.240 file Miraculously verdon held Pathan emerged a national hero and 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:54.240 was awarded the title of Martial, one of France's highest 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:59.960 military distinctions. Three decades later, the story was much different. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.440 This is the Pali de Justice, where peta marshal of 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.679 France and Hiro Verda, is on trial for his life 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.800 on charges of plotting against the internal security of his 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:17.879 country and collaboration with the enemy. After Payton's conviction for 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.320 treason in French, leader Charles de gaul is said to 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.479 have remarked, the Marshal is a great man who died 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:44.280 in ninety five. I think we forget how frightening a 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.960 revolution is. The whole underpinnings of what was your life 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:53.880 have been ripped apart, and suddenly you have to make 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:57.520 decisions about a future that you have no idea where 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:02.480 it is headed. And so I had sympathies for loyalists 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:07.760 and patriots. That's historian Nathaniel Philbrick again. He says that 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.560 throughout the revolution the colonists were a lot more divided 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.280 than we might like to imagine. I don't know what 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.400 I would have been. You know, I love my country, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.720 I love America. Basically, they are a third of the 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.040 Americans are definitely in the patriot cause, and the third 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.479 of the Americans are loyalists. To say, you know, why 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.280 are we having a revolution? We are the freest, most 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.600 prosperous society on earth. What is wrong with this picture? 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:38.359 And then there's the other third who really don't care. 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:43.320 They just want to live their lives. Remember, this is 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.920 three years into a war with Great Britain and Empire, 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.919 with vast resources at its disposal. It's really no wonder 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.880 that there were lots of colonists who thought the British 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:58.919 would ultimately prevail. But early in the Revolution, Benedict Arnold 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.879 continued to prove himself a patriot on land and see. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.560 In the fall of seventeen seventy six, at the Battle 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:12.359 of Valker Island, Arnold commanded America's first naval force. He 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.800 supervised the construction of part of the fleet, and while 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.000 the British won that battle, Arnold successfully stalled them long 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.960 enough to prevent a larger incursion. He is clearly the 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:29.080 most talented general on Washington's staff, and he's up for promotion. 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.199 At this point, Arnold was a brigadier general looking to 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.920 become a major general, but due to the Continental congress 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:41.160 As rules on military promotions, a bunch of lesser generals 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.040 kept getting promoted past Arnold. Arnold had an important friend 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.040 in George Washington, though, who very much disapproved of Congress 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.960 passing him over. Washington couldn't believe that this had happened. 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.159 He told Arnold, please hold on, I'll check into this. 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.280 But Washington's please on, behalf of arn Old went nowhere. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.000 For a military guy, it's all about the rank, and 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.640 here five people who were below him and who had 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.520 had shown none of his talent and abilities had been 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:17.240 elevated past him. Arnold finally did get his promotion after 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:19.920 getting his horse shot from under him twice at the 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.360 Battle of Ridgefield, but the damage to his ego had 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:27.040 been done. By the time of his heroics at Saratoga, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:31.320 where we began this episode, Arnold was already embittered. It 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.680 didn't help that at Saratoga his leg was crushed after 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.760 his horse was again shot from under him. Being Benedict 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.840 Donald's force was apparently the most dangerous job during the 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:48.040 American Revolution. During his long recovery, Benedict Arnold brooded and 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.320 seethed over the credit he hadn't been given. And so 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.520 this is where the demons begin to whisper in Arnold's ear, 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.200 why are you doing this? In seventy eight, George Washington 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:06.920 made the now physically compromised general the military governor of Philadelphia. 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.840 But the city of brotherly love was in a state 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:14.960 of near civil war, fiercely divided between patriots and loyalists. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.920 You needed someone of great compassion and judgment to try 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.280 to keep a lid on this. That was not Arnold. 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:26.040 It was the worst possible situation. So Washington, trying to 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.520 do as well by him as as he could, I think, 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:33.280 actually put Arnold in the position that would lead him 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.160 down the road that he would eventually followed to treason. 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:41.600 Philadelphia wasn't just politically riven, it was a hotbed of corruption. 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:47.240 Opportunities for profiteering abounded. Benedict Arnold, who had left a 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.199 lucrative business behind to take part in the war, who 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.359 had spent much of his own fortune in the fight, 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.320 and who felt unthanked for his sacrifice, was not about 0:21:56.400 --> 0:22:00.320 to hold back. He thrust his hands into the into 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.600 the treasury and through the till exactly and starts taking 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:08.720 advantage of every opportunity he can. And he's not the 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.399 only general doing this. I mean, all of these officers 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.720 aren't getting paid and they're running out of money, But 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.679 no one goes at it with the fervor of Benedict Donald. 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.960 It's a volatile situation just looking to explode. At the 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:28.280 same time he's lining his own pockets. Arnold begins cozying 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:33.679 up with Philadelphia's British loyalist set and meets Peggy Shipping, 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.320 the daughter of a prominent family suspected of loyalist leanings, 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.520 and falls desperately in love with her. Arnold is older 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.480 than she is. Arnold's approaching forty. He's injured, but in 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.439 kind of a sexy way. His left leg is shorter 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:54.119 than the right, he has to put it up on 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.240 a chair and all that, but he's resplendent in his 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:01.879 major general's uniform and they have fallen love. One of 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:05.560 the ways Arnold woos her he reuses parts of a 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.800 love letter he wrote to someone else. He thought the 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.639 letter was pretty darn good because he would basically reuse 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:16.560 the entire paragraphs, if not pages, of this letter when 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:19.639 he sent it to Peggy, cutting and pasting a mash note. 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:22.200 I know he's really starting to sound like a jerk, 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.600 and I think this is an index to character. You know, 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.320 he has social ambitions, he has romantic conditions, but you 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:31.800 know there's no need to get too carried away here. 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:33.919 If you did a good job the first time, you 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.480 can reuse it. You know, there's a certain utility there. Now. 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:42.040 It's not entirely clear what role Peggy plays in Arnold's betrayal, 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.520 but she had long maintained a correspondence with a British 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:49.760 spy named John Andre and only a month after marrying 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:54.360 Peggy Benedict Arnold makes his first contact with the British 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:59.920 Army and they begin a secret correspondence in which Arnold 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.600 begins feeding them information about what's happening on the Patriot 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:09.119 side while also negotiating a very good settlement. If he 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:12.000 should actually be of some use to the British, is 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:16.840 he putting men in mortal danger? Absolutely, he is feeding 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:21.840 information about troop movements. He informs the British that the 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:26.520 Americans are woefully under manned in Charleston, South Carolina, that 0:24:26.640 --> 0:24:30.000 Washington is unable to get the arms and men they 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:33.000 need to defend that city. At the same time that 0:24:33.119 --> 0:24:36.760 this is happening, Arnold stands trial in a military court 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:41.240 for his profiteering activities. The court martial trial results in 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:43.920 a slap on the wrist for Arnold, but and this 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:48.159 is important. Under pressure from Congress General Washington for the 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:53.720 first time ever publicly rebukes Benedict Arnold. After this, there 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:58.119 is no turning back for Arnold, and I think Washington 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:03.159 was the one figure that was keeping him potentially in 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:08.160 the Patriot camp. In the summer of sev Arnold asks 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:13.399 for command of the strategic stronghold of West Point. Washington 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:17.440 still a believer in Benedict Arnold. Despite that, court martial 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:22.280 says yes, west Point became the locusts for the most 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:27.160 infamous betrayal in American history. Could he have gotten George 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:31.560 Washington killed? Yeah, he could have. I mean, this is 0:25:31.600 --> 0:25:35.240 a psychopath. This is someone who really doesn't care what 0:25:35.359 --> 0:25:39.040 ultimately will happen to those he at one time loved, 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:45.280 if not revered. Benedict Arnold breaks bad after the break, 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:53.600 but first before they went bad. Peanuts banned from schools, 0:25:53.800 --> 0:25:57.440 kicked off of airplanes. In recent years, it hasn't been 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:03.600 smooth sailing for America's formerly favorite snack. E er Visits 0:26:03.640 --> 0:26:07.320 among kids from food induced anaphylaxis have been on the 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:11.080 rise for years, and the proteins found in peanuts are 0:26:11.119 --> 0:26:15.480 the biggest culprit. Indeed, because of allergies. Some schools have 0:26:15.560 --> 0:26:20.080 declared themselves peanut free zones, and some airlines have put 0:26:20.119 --> 0:26:23.480 peanuts on the no fly list. Quite a reversal of 0:26:23.560 --> 0:26:28.639 fortune for a snack with a proud history. Native to 0:26:28.680 --> 0:26:32.440 the Andes, peanuts were offered by Incas as a sacrifice 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:36.680 to the gods. Over the centuries, peanuts would become staples 0:26:36.720 --> 0:26:42.080 in cuisines throughout Southeast Asia and India. Enslaved Africans were 0:26:42.080 --> 0:26:45.359 the first to bring peanuts to North America. In both 0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:49.159 Africa and America, peanuts were an important part of their diet. 0:26:49.680 --> 0:26:54.399 Wealthier white Americans initially used peanuts primarily for animal feed, 0:26:55.400 --> 0:26:58.119 but by the late eighteen hundreds, the peanut had become 0:26:58.119 --> 0:27:02.720 a popular snack. P. T. Barnum started selling hot roasted 0:27:02.760 --> 0:27:06.960 peanuts in his circus tents. On the sports front, peanuts 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:10.200 became one of the go to snacks for baseball bands. 0:27:10.320 --> 0:27:16.480 Take me out with the braun, peanuts and bragg. I 0:27:16.760 --> 0:27:21.399 don't carry if I never get Meanwhile, on the scientific front, 0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:25.399 George Washington Carver, the first African American to hold a 0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:29.879 master's in agricultural science, pioneered the use of peanuts to 0:27:29.960 --> 0:27:33.600 restore nitrogen to soil depleted from the growing of cotton. 0:27:33.920 --> 0:27:38.840 Peanuts were a hit, and not just with people. In 0:27:40.200 --> 0:27:43.400 A boy named Elliott used a trail of peanut butter 0:27:43.480 --> 0:27:47.760 candies to lure an extraterrestrial out of hiding and into 0:27:47.840 --> 0:27:55.720 his home. But once peanut allergies began exploding in the 0:27:55.760 --> 0:28:00.640 mid nine nineties, things got sticky. Planters killed off Mr 0:28:00.720 --> 0:28:10.919 Peanut in a Super Bowl commercial. Right, maybe that, but 0:28:11.040 --> 0:28:15.280 the peanuts future may not be so brittle. That's the 0:28:15.320 --> 0:28:18.080 best I can come up with. An increasing number of 0:28:18.119 --> 0:28:22.520 experts are suggesting that schools relax their restriction on peanuts, 0:28:22.640 --> 0:28:26.320