Infamous America - BENEDICT ARNOLD Ep. 1 | “Pride”

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Benedict Arnold is an energetic young man, but tragedy strikes his family at an early age. As a teenager, he feels the lure of military service during the French and Indian War. He becomes a prosperous merchant who dabbles in illegal smuggling as tension grows between the American colonies and the British Empire. After a series of taxes and the Boston Massacre, war looms on the horizon. Thanks to our sponsor, Simplisafe. Get free security camera and a 60-day risk free trial at SimpliSafe.com/infamous Use our promo code Infamous 12 when you sign up for HelloFresh! (hint: try the Steakhouse Pork Chops) Go to HelloFresh.com/infamous12 Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In January of 1766, an American sailor named Peter Bowles walked out of the customs office in New Haven, Connecticut. That year was the 130th anniversary of the founding of the colony, but Peter Bowles probably wasn't concerned with milestones like that. He was concerned more with tangible prospects. The customs office was offering a reward to anyone who reported merchants for smuggling goods into the country. That was importing foreign goods. goods like sugar and molasses without paying the proper duties. Bowles strode into the office to report his own boss for smuggling, but no one was there. He would have to file the report some other time.

For now, he checked into an inn. It was cold outside, and he needed a place to get warm after a long voyage at sea. Two days went by, and Bowles was a fixture at the tavern near the inn. It's possible he forgot all about reporting his boss to the customs office. But as he sat in the tavern drinking, he heard the door open. Bowles looked over his shoulder, and what he saw made his stomach sink. Standing there staring at him with a posse was his boss, Benedict Arnold. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America.

I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling a four-part story about one of the most infamous people in America. in history, Benedict Arnold. This is episode one, pride. By the time Benedict Arnold was born, the Arnold family had been in America for just over a hundred years. Benedict Arnold I I arrived with his family in 1635 or 1636. He settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then moved south to join in the founding of Rhode Island. Benedict I. Benedict I was highly popular, and he served 10 terms as colonial governor. But the Arnold's weren't just public servants. Benedict I first was also a respected merchant, and he was thought to be one of the richest men in Rhode Island. But Benedict

also ensured that his wealth wouldn't last. Rather than leaving the family fortune in the hands of his firstborn son, he divided it amongst his five sons. Benedict Arnold II did the same thing, and thus Benedict Arnold III only inherited a sliver of the family fortune. Benedict III then had to work for a living. In 1730, he left Rhode Island for Norwich, Connecticut. He was a cooper by trade and went into business with Absalom King, a wealthy merchant and sea captain. Then in 1732, King died at sea.

He was survived by his wife Hannah, whom Benedict III married the third married the next year. Benedict then took over King's merchant business and soon found success. He and Hannah raised a family, and in January of 1741, Hannah gave birth to a boy. To keep the name alive, the Arnold's called him Benedict. And this was the Benedict who would become infamous in American history. Benedict's mother was a pious woman, and she tried to instill in him the values of an upstanding citizen. She once told Benedict in a now famous letter, keep a steady watch over your thoughts and actions. Be dutiful to superiors, obliging to equals, and affable to inferiors, if any such there should be. Always choose that you choose your

companions be your betters, that by their good examples you may learn. Young Benedict was an active boy with a bold personality. He liked to spend his free time playing outdoors, climbing trees, swimming, and challenging his friends to foot races. But he was also known to put himself in physical danger, perhaps for the thrill or for showing others he could do it. According to one story, he was waiting in line at a mill when he threw himself onto the mill's water wheel. He rode the wheel for two complete turns, and as he came up from the water, he was pleased to see that everyone was watching him. But two tragedies hit the Arnold family, and they changed the course of the boy's life. First, when Benedict was 12 years old, yellow fever tore across Connecticut.

While he was away at school, he received a letter from his mother, informing him that three of his four sisters had fallen ill with the fever. All three died. Benedict also had a younger brother who had died a couple years earlier at the age of two or three. So by the end of the yellow fever outbreak, the Arnold family was reduced from six children to two. It was now just Benedict and one of his sisters. Benedict was heartbroken. He wanted to go home to his family, but his mother urged him to stay at school for fear that her only living son would catch the illness. It was probably a smart move, because Benadict was probably a smart move, because

Benedict's father caught the sickness next. He survived, but that wasn't the end of the family's troubles. Their shipping business was failing. Benedict's father had fallen on hard times and was unable to pay back the debt he had accrued over the years. And worse, he descended into alcoholism, and it was interfering with his work. The family was running out of money, and eventually, when the business collapsed, they could no longer afford to send Benedict to school. So they withdrew him and brought him back to Norwich. My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another,

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Mood.com promo code infamous. It was humiliating for Benedict to come home. People talked in Norwich, and soon everyone would think that the Arnold boy had been set up to fail. What else would they think, if Benedict's father were sent to a debtor's prison. The family would have been totally spurned by the public, but relatives stepped into help. Brothers Daniel and Joshua Lathrop also lived in Norwich. Daniel studied medicine in England, and now he and his brother ran a pharmacy, which was one of the first of its kind in eastern Connecticut. They were fabulously wealthy, and they were cousins

of Benedict's mother. In 1755, after the Arnold's fell on hard time, the Lathrop brothers picked them up. The Lathrop's made a deal with the Arnold's that had several pieces. The Lathropes paid the mortgage on the Arnold's home and paid off the family's debt so that Benedict's father could avoid jail. And the biggest component was young Benedict himself. Benedict was 14 years old now, which was old enough to take up a trade. Part of the Lathrop's offer was that Benedict become an apothecary's apprentice. The apprentice should be a ship was for seven years, which was typical. If Benedict paid attention and applied himself, then by the age of 21, he would be well on his way to having a business of his own. And finally,

Benedict would live with Daniel Lathrop and his wife. Benedict found life with Daniel Lathrop far more comfortable than with his parents, and he learned new skills. In his early years, Benedict saw the merchant business when he was on trips with his father to the West Indies. Now, he learned about medicine and herbs and how to run a business. It was a good move for the young man, but then came the French and Indian War. The British and the French had feuded for generations, and in the 18th century, even across the Atlantic Ocean in North America, it was no different. By 1755, France claimed a massive amount of North America as its territory, roughly a third

of modern-day Canada and a third of the modern-day United States. Britain's 13 colonies controlled the east coast of the continent, but France was pressing from the west. It was common for the French to raid the British colonies, and many times they did so with the assistance of the local native tribes. The colonial militias usually bore the responsibility for beating back the raids, but with the French dominating in Canada and the upper Midwest, The British responded differently this time. They sent a standing professional army overseas to fight. The need was especially urgent at Fort William Henry.

It was a small fort on the southern end of Lake George in New York on the border between French and British territory. The French had spent the first half of 1757 weakening it. They broke its supply chains and attacked nearby settlements. In late July, a general at a nearby British fort put out a call for local militias to provide assistance. Connecticut obliged and sent thousands of men. Benedict Arnold was 16 years old, which meant that he was old enough to join the militia. He was eager to enlist, and he asked the Lathropes and his parents for permission to temporarily suspend his apprenticeship.

They said yes, and Benedict was off. he and the rest of the reinforcements marched the 135 miles to Albany, New York. But when he reached Albany in mid-August, Benedict learned that it had all been in vain. The British had already surrendered the fort to the French, and then the French reneged on their promises to their Native American allies. The French didn't provide the spoils of war they had promised, so the tribes raided the fort themselves. They took plunder and captives whom they later released.

But it didn't change the situation for the militias that had just traveled 135 miles in the summer heat. The militias turned around and Benedict went back to his life in Norwich. He was disappointed that his first military experience had been so anticlimactic, and he was hungry for the next chance for action. When it came, it was by sea instead of land. By 1761, Benedict and his sister were orphans. their mother, Hannah, had essentially worked herself to death. Hannah was managing the Arnold household as well as her husband's failing business affairs,

and she was exhausted. She fell ill and she couldn't recover. She died in 1759. Two years later, Benedict's father passed away after a long battle with depression and alcoholism. So now Benedict was the head of the Arnold family. He was 21 years old. and he had finished his apprenticeship with the Lathropes. They gave him a gift of 100 pounds to help him start his own business.

He accepted the money and moved to the booming college town of New Haven, the home of Yale University. He started a trading company that specialized in pharmaceuticals and books. Soon he was a respected member of New Haven Society, and he branched out into merchant shipping. He invested in a 40-ton sailboat called The Fortune, and it made his business more competitive. Benedict and his company could take on more lucrative contracts

and handle all of their own shipping. And like his father before him, Benedict supervised the shipping himself, taking numerous trips to the West Indies. Becoming a prominent merchant shipper meant that Benedict found himself embroiled in politics. The French and Indian War left the British Empire with a great deal of debt. One of the biggest expenses had been the professional standing army that had been sent to the North American colonies.

The British public was tired of shouldering the war debt. So, the British Parliament responded by levying taxes on the colonies and getting more serious about collecting the taxes that were already in place. One of those taxes was on sugar, as laid out in the Sugar Act of 1764. Ironically, the British lowered the tax on imported molasses, but because they did, they could now price the colonists out of the market. In response, many colonial business owners and merchants turned to smuggling, and that included Benedict Arnold. Generally, people in the colonies supported the practice, but it was dangerous.

If Benedict were caught loading goods from abroad without paying the proper taxes, he could lose his ship and his business. One of Benedict's sailors, a man named Peter Bowles, thought to use the situation to his advantage. The fortune sailed into New Haven in January 1766. Bowles stepped off the ship and pulled Benedict aside to have a word. Bowles said he knew there were smuggled goods on board, and that if Benedict didn't pay him,

Bowles would tell the customs officer in New Haven. Benedict was incensed, and he refused. Bowles went straight to the customs office to file a complaint and collect their reward for reporting a smuggler. But the official wasn't there, so Bowles left. Then he checked into a local inn, exhausted from the recent voyage. Benedict learned that Bowles had been to the customs office.

So he gathered a posse of like-minded men and went looking for Bowles. They found him in a tavern and muscled him into signing a statement that declared he had been instigated by the devil to report Benedict Arnold. Peter Bowles promised to leave New Haven immediately.

Benedict was satisfied and went home. But four hours later, some sailors knocked on Benedict's door. They told him that Bowles was still drinking at the tavern. Benedict and the men went back to the tavern. They kicked in the door, dragged Bowles into the street, and held him at a whipping post where Benedict personally dealt him 40 lashes. Now the details of the Bowles situation vary, but a couple things are certain. Even though Benedict was charged with disturbing the peace for giving Bowls a public lashing, he was only fined 50 shillings.

And he was now a local celebrity. One year later, Benedict Arnold's life improved again. He married Margaret Mansfield. She was the daughter of Samuel Mansfield, who was a merchant and the county sheriff. Samuel was also a member of the local Freemasons chapter. Although Benedict had his critics, he was still a respected citizen overall. His capable leadership meant that other business owners saw him as a reliable partner. In 1765, a year before he had to deal with Peter Bowles,

Benedict was recommended for the Masonic Lodge, where he was voted in by unanimous consent, and then he met Samuel Mansfield. As his friendship with Mansfield grew, Benedict occasionally went to dinner at the Mansfield House, and that's where he met Mansfield's daughter, Margaret. Most people in New Haven considered Margaret attractive and of a gentle, somewhat shy disposition. She and Benedict married in February 1767, and they had three sons, Benedict the 6th, Richard, and Henry. But it's possible that the marriage wasn't entirely happy. Benedict continued to travel extensively for his business.

He was gone for weeks or sometimes months at a time, and while he was away, he wrote lots of letters to Margaret. It's clear that he was deeply in love with her, but it's hard to tell her. of the love was mutual, because she rarely wrote back. In some letters, he remarked that he hadn't heard from her in weeks. In a letter sent from Quebec in 1773, he wrote that he didn't know whether he was writing, quote, to the dead or the living. Benedict's commitment to his work might have been hurting his marriage, and it also might have been responsible for a flare-up that could have gotten him killed.

During one of his voyages to Central America, he was in Honduras and he was preparing to return to Connecticut. A merchant captain named Kroski invited him to a dinner party. Benedict might have been flattered by the invitation, but as usual, he was too occupied with his work to attend. Standard etiquette required Benedict to send a formal reply, thanking Kroski for the invitation but politely declining due to his work obligations. Benedict forgot to send it.

The next morning, Benedict went to apologize to Kroski, first for not attending and second for not sending his regrets. Kroski snapped at Benedict and called him a damned Yankee, destitute of good manners or those of a gentleman. Benedict was never one to stand for insults. He quietly took off a glove and handed it to Kroski. The message was clear. Benedict challenged him to a duel.

The duel was scheduled for the next day on a nearby island. A small party went out to the island, and the duelists took their places. Benedict let Kroski go first, as the man who had been challenged. Kroski fired and missed. Then Benedict took aim. He fired and hit Kroski in the arm. A nearby surgeon bandaged the wound. Then Kroski took aim for a sense.

second shot. Benedict warned Kroski that he was a dead man if he missed again. Kroski reconsidered his situation and decided it wasn't worth risking his life to win the argument. He backed down and apologized for the insult the previous day, and the two men traveled back to the mainland in the same boat. And it was during these critical years, the 10-year span from 1765 to 1775, while Benedict built his reputation. and his business and his family with Margaret, that unrest grew in the British colonies in America. The Sugar Act that led to increased smuggling was just an early step along a dangerous road. Both sides, the American colonists and the British loyalists, were taking rapid steps toward

each other that would result in a collision that might seem inevitable in hindsight. More taxes and a massacre in Boston fanned the United States. the sparks into flames. Benedict Arnold's membership in the Freemasons put him in company with some high-profile people, though they were in different cities. Members included men like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Samuel Adams. And some Freemasons, like Adams, were also members of another group called the Sons of Liberty. The group was founded in 1765.

The colonists formed it in opposition to new taxes, notably the St. The Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required colonial printers to use paper that was produced in London. The paper was printed with a royal seal, and it was used for everything from official documents to playing cards. Like the Sugar Act of the year before, revenue from the Stamp Act was meant to pay back the debt from the French and Indian War, and the Massachusetts Bay colony was particularly resistant. Sometimes colonists formally registered their complaint. and sent petitions to Parliament to repeal the taxes. Other times, they rioted.

In response, the British Crown sent additional soldiers to keep the peace in urban centers like Boston. Resentment toward the British government for the new taxes had been growing for years, but as more soldiers stepped on to American shores, the tension jumped a notch. New taxes were one thing. Occupation of colonial cities was another.

On March 5th, 1770, British Captain John Goldfinch walked across what is now State Street in Boston, Massachusetts. A few yards away, a 13-year-old wig-maker's apprentice, Edward Garrick, called out to Goldfinch. He said Goldfinch hadn't paid his bill to the wigmaker. Goldfinch ignored the young man. He paid his bill yesterday. A nearby British private, Hugh White, told Garrier, to watch his mouth. But Garrick kept going, and White's anger grew. White walked over to Garrick and struck him in the head with his musket. Garrick's friend then started arguing with White, and the argument drew a crowd. Private White told a runner to go back to the barracks and get

back up. When more soldiers arrived, the crowd had grown to dozens of people, all of whom were taunting white and daring him to fire his gun. The crowd then started throwing things like snowballs and rocks. One of the reinforcements, Private Montgomery, was struck in the head by an object, and without receiving an order, he opened fire on the crowd. At the sound of the first shot, other soldiers fired two. When the gunshots and chaos finally subsided, three colonists were dead on the street. Crispus Attacks, Samuel Gray and James Caldwell. Two more were mortally wounded, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr, and they died shortly thereafter.

The event was quickly immortalized as the Boston Massacre. Those opposed to the British occupation pounced on the opportunity to condemn the crown for its part in the massacre, and depicted the event in papers and engravings. One of the most famous engravings was produced by Paul Revere, who was a member of both the Freemasons and the Sons of Liberty. News of the massacre spread through the colonies like wildfire. When it finally reached Benedict Arnold, who was in the Caribbean on one of his many business trips, he was outraged.

He wrote a passionate letter to a friend in New Haven, in which he said it was necessary for the colonists to take vengeance against those who would suppress their liberties. The Boston Massacre was a decisive moment in the history of the colonies. It was the bloodiest event in the years of rising tension between colonists, many of whom increasingly believed themselves to be separate, distinct, and independent people, and the British crown. But there were still five years of escalation ahead. Massachusetts remained disobedient.

Three years after the Boston Massacre, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act. It enabled the British East India Company to ship and sell its tea directly to the colonies. Previously, the company sold its tea to American merchants in London, and then the merchants shipped it to America and resold it at huge markups. The East India Company got rich, and the American middlemen got rich. But the Tea Act cut out the American middlemen. In protest, the Sons of Liberty went to Boston Harbor and threw 10,000 pounds worth of East India Company tea off its ships. The Massachusetts Assembly refused to reimburse the company,

claiming that members of the Mohawk tribe dumped the tea. The British cracked down hard in response. They revoked the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which granted colonists the rights of Englishmen, and they replaced the elected governor with a military commander. The New England colonies started forming their own independent militias. A few months later, on April, 19, 1775, American militiamen, who were mostly farmers with guns, exchanged shots with British

soldiers in Massachusetts. The American Revolution began, and later that year, Benedict Arnold made sure he was part of it. Next time on Infamous America, Benedict Arnold has an incredible two-year span in the earliest days of the Revolutionary War. He helps seize a pair of forts in New York. He leads part of an invasion of Canada, he commands an American fleet in a naval battle, and he plays a critical role in the decisive Battle of Saratoga. But he also experiences slights by the Army and the Continental Congress, and those offenses hurt more than his battle wounds. That's next week on Infamous America. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive early access in the entire season to binge all

at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This season was co-produced by Stephen Walters in association with ritual productions. Research and writing by Dante Flores. Original music by Rob Valia. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wolle.

swimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America podcast. Thanks for listening.