The Daily Signal - Virginia Giant: The True Story of a Revolutionary War Hero

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

Travis Bowman is a seventh-generation descendant of one of America's most remarkable yet overlooked Revolutionary War heroes: Peter Francisco, known as "The Virginia Giant." Recalling stories of his famous ancestor, Bowman shares the incredible tale of Francisco's life: from his mysterious beginnings in the Azores Islands, to his kidnapping by pirates and arrival on Virginia's shores, to becoming a 6'6" towering figure in America's fight for independence. Learn how Francisco, taken in by Patrick Henry's uncle, grew to become such a formidable warrior that George Washington himself had a special six-foot broadsword forged for him. Bowman, author of the historical novel "LUSO," discusses Francisco's legendary feats, including the famous Battle of Guilford Courthouse, where his prowess in combat is commemorated by a monument to this day. Discover how Francisco's legacy lives on through seven monuments, state holidays, and even a 1976 bicentennial stamp. With America's 250th anniversary on the horizon in 2026, Bowman shares plans for a nine-episode miniseries based on his novel that aims to bring this Revolutionary War story to the screen. Keep Up With The Daily Signal Sign up for our email newsletters: https://www.dailysignal.com/email   Subscribe to our other shows: The Tony Kinnett Cast: https://www.dailysignal.com/the-tony-kinnett-cast  Problematic Women: https://www.dailysignal.com/problematic-women  The Signal Sitdown: https://www.dailysignal.com/the-signal-sitdown    Follow The Daily Signal:  X: https://x.com/DailySignal  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/  Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DailySignal  Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/TheDailySignal    Thanks for making The Daily Signal Podcast your trusted source for the day’s top news. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk, business. From the stories of everyday Americans to detailed policy conversations, we are going beyond the headlines to discuss the issues and events that have and are shaping this nation. Welcome to The Daily Signal podcast, weekend edition. I'm Rob Bluey, your host today. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll be right back with today's interview. This is Rob Bluey from The Daily Signal. In today's media landscape, it's more important than ever to have a trusted source of news and conservative commentary.

That's why we are asking for your support. Your donation helps us continue our mission of delivering accurate, factual reporting on the issues that matter most to you. Whether it's $5 or $500, every contribution makes a difference. Visit dailysignal.com slash donate to help us keep Americans informed and fight for conservative values. The Daily Signal is your voice for the truth. Travis Bowman is an author, producer, and descendant of Peter Francisco. Thanks so much for joining The Daily Signal today. Yes, thank you for having me.

It's an honor. Before we delve into the book and the miniseries, I'm glad that we're not standing because you'd be towering over me. And I promise this one will come up later in the conversation. But how tall are you, Travis? Well, I, six foot six in my younger years, come down a little bit in my life. older age. I hear that happens. That happens, right, you know. But, uh, but yes, uh, Peter Francisco himself was six foot six. And in his day, he was a foot taller than the average man. So as I was, taller. Wow. So if you go to like, if you go to Williamsburg, you know, right here in Virginia,

and you go just walk through their old houses, you see their beds are small. They're, they're, they're not big beds that we see today. So you go to any historic home back then. In today's world, we think, these people are short. And that, I mean, in his day, he was like Shaquille O'Neal. That's what I would say. He was like, you know, a seven-foot guy in his world. Which is why he had the name, the Virginia Giant. Virginia Giant, that's right.

Or the Hercules of the Revolution. They're like, who is this freak of nature, you know? So, yeah. Well, you are a seventh generation descendant. You're somebody who's passionate about his life and telling the story. Share with our audience more about Peter Francisco, who he was and why it was. why it is that you are so drawn to making sure that Americans and other people across the world know about him. Yeah, I mean, it's a fascinating story of rich in American history.

I mean, truly, he's considered one of our founding fathers. Anybody who was instrumental in the birthing of our nation lands in that category. But his life begins in the Azores. And most people don't know where the Azores are. They're kind of like Hawaiian islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,000 miles off the coast of Portugal. They're Portuguese islands. So Peter himself, you know, Portuguese and Portuguese people are not known for being tall. They're not. Still to this day. So here you have this little kid born in the Azores kidnapped by pirates, dropped off in Virginia, not in South Africa, Brazil, or think of a million other

places on the planet that pirates would have dropped him off or could have, but in Virginia at that moment in time. So what we know is he was dropped off in Hopewell, Virginia. There's a huge monument with a head bust. Okay. How old was he at the time? He was five years old. Five years old. So he dropped off in 1765, June 23rd, to be exact, June 23rd, 1765.

And next thing, you know, we see that Patrick Henry's uncle takes him in, kind of like an indentured servant. They knew he wasn't African. They didn't know where he's from. He's a little kid. And so he ends up serving on Patrick Henry's uncle, Judge Anthony Winston's plantation, which It was a big plantation out in Virginia. If you go out in Buckingham County,

matter of fact, Buckingham County today, I was just there a couple days ago, but in their administration building, their auditorium is named after Peter Francisco. They have a beautiful portrait painting hanging in there. But anyway, in his day, Judge Anthony Winston has this huge plantation. He's working there, and he grows to be a giant, a six-foot-six foot taller than the average man giant.

And at that moment in time, 1776, when the fight of the fight for arms and freedom, do we stay loyal to the King of England and continue to deal with the Stamp Act and not being able to actually have a voice in what's going on in the colonies, or do we take up arms and fight? And now Patrick Henry makes that famous speech. Peter Francisco was there with Judge Anthony Winston when Patrick Henry says, I don't know about you all, but give me liberty or give me death. And most people don't know that what Patrick Henry was saying was, look,

British troops are coming. Our arms and all of our gunpowder, that's locked up in a church in Williamsburg, they're coming, they're going to hang us all for even meeting here at St. John's Church. So give me liberty or give me death. And Peter Francisco is there. Amazing. Amazing. So before we talk more about his role in the founding in America, was he ever able to reconnect with family and the Azores?

Or do we know more about how the kidnapping happened? No. Well, in fact, he never knew that he was. from the Azores. Oh, okay. So 200 years later, it's Dr. John Manahan from the University of Virginia. So right here, great Virginia, as a professor was over in the Azores doing some research for a project, and he knew the story of Peter Francisco.

And so he's just looking through archives, and he comes across a birth record, which I've seen many times, I've been over the Azores many times, but this birth record of a family, you know, looking for a name, Peter Francisco, but a little Pedro Francisco, birth record, but no death record. Because obviously in those books by a priest, a priest that's saying, I baptized this little kid here. Later, they would say, well, so-and-so is deceased. And this is the date that he passed away. Well, this little boy, Pedro Francisco, there is no death record. And so in 1960, that was when the Portuguese community in particular rallied around and said, this is our giant. Our giant hero came from the Azores. And so there's actually five monuments

in the U.S. today. One, and there's a sixth one over. in the Azores that stand in honor of him. But three of the five monuments in the U.S. were built by the Portuguese because they have taken him in as one of their own, you know. Amazing. Okay. So let's go back. So on the plantation. Yeah. What happens next? Blacksmith? So yeah, what we see, what we know in history is that he was a blacksmith. We also see that he falls in love with a girl named Susanna, who she's betrothed to a wealthy Virginia plantation owner, but she's like, I don't want to marry that guy. I want to marry the big strapping, you know, handsome hunk of a dude. So true story. I mean, real story. But we see that

he goes off to fight in the 10th, he signs up with the 10th Virginia Regiment in October 1776. And so we see him fighting all through the American Revolution. He's there from the beginning to the end. So some of the early battles for those that love history and love the battles from the American Revolution, but he was in Brandywine. He was at Fort Mifflin, which half the men lost their lives there. He was at Mammoth in New Jersey. And so the monuments that you do see in his honor are typically around in those states. But then we see he was at Stony Point, which was he was handpicked by George Washington for 20 elite commandos. We would call the Navy SEAL of today, or the Army Rangers of the day. And so George Washington picked.

him along with 19 other guys to take, in the middle of the night, take a fortress from the British. And so he's in that engagement. He's wounded, takes a nine-inch gash and his stomach's left for dead. He ends up being left for dead twice during the whole American Revolution, wounded six times, should have been dead. Like for all account, any other soldier, if it was me, like the first time I got a musket ball in my leg, I'd be like, I'm out, I'm done. I, you know, have fun with that, you know. But you see, he survives the entire. America Revolution and continues to fight and goes back in the battle. It's great.

Do we know from history? What was his motivation? Why did he keep going back? Well, that's a really good question. And I mean, the speculation is this little kid knew what freedom was and it's ripped from him. So like I said, he wasn't a slave per se on the plantation, Judge Anthony Winston's plantation. But there weren't any records to say he was a slave. So I guess the point, or an indenture servant, sorry.

So an indenture server would be after seven years, you're free, right? You've served your time and now you're a free man. There was no record to say that he was a slave or indentures. So we don't really know exactly what he was. But I always say is because nobody knew who his parents were. He wasn't white Anglo-Saxon of his day. He really kind of fit in the slave narrative of his day. There wasn't paperwork to say he was a slave.

But the fact is he most likely was probably treated more like a slave. So when the American Revolution came, I'm sure to your point of his motivation, it was, I know what it was like to be free at one point in my life. I don't know who my parents are. I don't know. But this great, this new country that everybody's talking about, that great idea, I'm behind that. And so I think being there at Patrick Henry's speech, that famous speech at St. John's church fought, you know, that fired him up to go fight.

So I think that was the motivation. And George Washington knew him as well. Yeah. So George Washington's story is that he was six foot two. you know, you got Peter Francisco standing, you know, four inches taller. And that day was, you know, significant. So, yeah, I mean, you know, people saw George Washington as a leader because of his height and obviously his resume of fighting the French and Indian War and so on.

But then you look at Peter and he's even taller, you know. And so now what's interesting about Peter Francisco is that later in the war, George Washington offers him a commission to become an officer. And so lead some men. But he didn't know how to read or write. And so historically we see that he turned the commission down and he remained just a private soldier his entire time because he didn't know how to read. You know, George Washington said, here, move the man here. And here's your orders.

He didn't know how to read that. He didn't know how to respond back. So what we see after the war is he went to school so that he could earn the hand of marriage of Susanna. So chivalry was not dead in those days. And certainly he lived that up, you know, lived up to that. But yeah, we see that he actually goes and gets an education and lives a long life. I'm going to ask you about Suzanne in a moment. But from what I also understand is Washington had a special sword made for him.

So obviously there was a deep amount of respect that Washington had for Peter. Yes. For those that know, again, that geek out on the American Revolution, there was the northern campaign and then the Southern campaign. And so for those that maybe not geek out on it, if you've watched the movie The Patriot that Mel Gibson produced, it starts with the Southern campaign. campaign, the burning of Charleston, South Carolina. So what we see is, by this point, Peter Francisco is famous in the Southern campaign. This would be 1780. So American Revolution has been going on for four years now. 1780, we see that he's militia. And so he comes into battle there. And so the sword that you're talking about was the battle of Guilford Courthouse in Greensboro,

North Carolina. And that would have been March 15, 1781. The story is that two days before the battle starts that he's a huge sword is delivered to him that was a six-foot broadsword, which by the way, I brought a pamphlet. There's a monument in Greensboro to this day that stands in honor of where he swung this massive broadsword. And there's a plaque that says Peter Francisco rendered himself likely the most famous private soldier with his very own broadsword here at this battle. And a pamphlet that was printed in 1910. I brought that so we can look that over here. But it talks about the six-foot broadsword in the pamphlet that was, that was printed. And was that the battle where...

15 years ago was that... Didn't he, wasn't he able to, to injure or kill a large number of himself of British soldiers? It was 11 British, and so the monument, a monument shows 11 stones high. Okay. Yeah, so that's, that's, I mean, yeah, you think of 11 British or killed in the battlefield. Right. By one man. Yeah, and it was eyewitness accounts that validated that later on after the battle.

and so yeah. Okay, let's, we'll go from war to love. Yeah, War to Love, that's right, yes. For the female audience, we completely lost them. So now we're bringing them back. Right. Now there's a love story. So tell us about the love story, because obviously that plays a big role in your book.

It does. I mean, you know, so as it was unraveling the story, there's been about a half a dozen books that have been written before my book. And so I read those and then, you know, built my story in flesh my own. I don't know there's been many of the story. other books have been written about Peter and really truly fleshed out the love story like I did. And so that's certainly one of the things that I was looking at what historically do we know about her. Like I said, she was betrothed to George Carrington, which Carrington is still a prominent

name in Virginia. But she's betrothed to George Carrington. But she's like, in real life you see, she's like, I don't want that. I don't want that guy's money. I don't want any of that. I want the big strapping guy Peter Francisco, which is crazy. I mean, so you could tell that she's a little bit feisty, you know, she's like, she's going against the grain of society, and which I think is awesome. I love those. It's a Romeo Juliet type of story, right? So what we know is in real life, Peter Francisco fights for three years, 1776 to 79, and then he comes back and Judge Winston wants to treat him like a slave again. And so an argument breaks out and he throws him out of the plant, you know, says, get off my plantation. This is a true story. So, I mean, so as I'm on

I'm unraveling this. I'm like, this is just epic, you know, for like, I'm thinking Braveheart, you know, I'm thinking big, you know, movie. Like, so what we see is that he ends up going and living with the Anderson family, Susanna's family. And so I'm like, oh, this is great. Like, there's got to be a Christmas ballroom scene, you know, there's dancing, there's festivity around crowd.

Like, this is awesome. So that's what I wrote in my novel. You know, I just kind of like taking the literary license where we don't know. Sure. This is Christmas time. There's obviously festivities and they're falling in deep. in love. But what we then see, of course, he goes back in the battle. And so what I speculate is he asked for her hand in marriage, her father, James Anderson, who again, prominent Virginia in that time,

but says, absolutely not. Who are you? Like, how can you provide for my daughter? George Carrington's the guy. We've already made that deal, you know? And so he's like, okay, well, screw it, you know. And so he goes back into that. That's what we see is that he then fights in South Carolina and the North Carolina. But that's all speculation on that, on that regard. But what we know is after the war, they do marry, after he goes and gets an education. So that's what makes it really, really fascinating if you stop and think about you. Like, this big giant guy who's kidnapped and then he, you know, doesn't have an education, but he ends up going to school with little kids so he can earn the hand of Susanna Anderson. When did you first start to learn about being a descendant of Peter

Francisco? Was this a son? a young boy. Really good question because we haven't talked about this. So in 1976, Peter Francisco was on a stamp. And my family, being descendants of Peter Francisco, my grandmother loved to tell stories. And so in the 70s when I was a little kid, there was this chatter about him on being on a stamp and the post office in California. That's where my grandparents lived.

The post office gave us the big poster, you know, here's the stamp of Peter Francisco. So there was chatter about that. But I didn't know the whole story. And it wasn't until I moved to North Carolina. Carolina that, and that was about 20 years ago, that my grandmother said, hey, should go visit that monument in Greensboro? And I was like, there's a, I remember the stamp. I remember that.

Like, you know, I knew it was a giant, but what did he do? I knew nothing. I mean, I didn't know about the Azores. I knew none of that. So now then to go to the Azores multiple times and meet with the president of Portugal, was knighted by the king of Portugal five years ago for all this whole story and unraveling it. And, you know, it's just been absolutely riveting. what God's done just as I'm getting out and just being thankful.

What does the rest of your family say? As you've made all these discoveries, I mean, it's tremendous, right? Oh, it's been just wild, you know. I mean, yeah, the whole family has been very engaged in telling the story. And there's a lot of descendants of Peter Francisco today. He was married three times. His first wife passed away after two children. Then he remarries and four more children.

She passes away. And we see that then he marries a third time later in life. And she had six children. children. So he adopts them. They all took on the last name of Francisco. So technically, there was 12 children with, you know, all those descendants. And so, you know, I've interacted with descendants of Peter Francisco all across the country, as you can imagine today. They they've heard the stories through the years. And so that's been a lot of fun. But even my immediate family, you know, they've been riveted. So you mentioned 1976. Of course, we have another

big anniversary coming up in, in 2006, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration. The Declaration of independence, obviously, hopefully a momentous occasion for our country to celebrate and bring out the patriotism that so much of us, many of us have. Do you have any plans to make sure that his story is known more widely among school kids to adults? Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think this is the perfect story to unravel the American Revolution and educate the next generation. This is not, you know, this is not the stuffy old guy with a wig on. This is like this, you know, handsome, you know, giant muscular guy and a love story. So it's a great way to educate Americans on the American Revolution. And so through my years of getting out and telling this story, I met a guy

in Hollywood, Brian Patrick Wade, who people would know him from Big Bang Theory and a number of different television shows, The Guardian movie with Kevin Costner and different things. But he and I've been collaborating. He's my business partner. And so we're now bringing the novel here into a nine-episode miniseries. And so our passion is to bring this, you know, alive to, you know, to the silver screen, as they say, and, you know, unravel the American Revolution. And really, truly, Forbes magazine says that 83% of Americans don't even understand the American Revolution. And obviously, we see that in this world today, more than ever, the woke ideology that's out there.

It's just, you know, we live in a world where the American flag has become an offensive symbol and statues are being torn down and our history is being rewritten. Brian and I want to take the story and go, let's educate Americans on the biblical foundation, the rich heritage we have all through the eyes of a giant hero. A God ordained real hero that are monuments out there. He's on a stamp in 1976. Like, this guy is a real legitimate hero. Let's educate you on the American Revolution. So that's our passion for 2026. Well, thank you for doing that. So tell us more about the details. Obviously, people can buy the book today. When is the miniseries coming? Are there things that our audience can do to support your work? Make sure that it's widely distributed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's great. And the book is called Luso. So for those of watching this, you see the front cover, Luso. But if you're listening, L-U-S-O is a prefix that means a person of Portuguese descent. So I've already unraveled that he was from the Azores, Portchese Islands. But luso.tv is where you can go watch our short film. So we've got a nine-minute short film on there. You'll see my business partner, Brian Patrick Wade,

bringing Peter to life and swinging a big six-foot sword and all that. But it's really a proof of concept of what we have here. And what our passion is is to produce the first episode here in 2025 and then be releasing that in 2026 and do a similar business model as the chosen. And that is release it for free. people watch it for free educate Americans. But then the pay it forward model is what we want to use. And like, hey, if you watch it, it obviously costs money to produce this.

And so pay this forward. So we're talking with investors right now. And we've obviously before the election, it was a little challenging talking with people who wanted to invest in a project like this. But now the election is behind us. And I think we're in a great place to celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary. And I think there's, you know, investors out there that want to, get behind us. And so we're out there talking with those types of investors about this project.

And we've also collaborated, I will say this, we've also collaborated with Turning Point USA, which would be Charlie Kirk and his organization. They've been great to work with. And so we'll be working with influencers like Tucker or Candice, so as those types of influencers to drive people to watch our first episode on our website. And then as it builds momentum, then obviously you'll see it on Amazon and Netflix. but just like the chosen, it took some time to actually build that following before you'd start to see it on different streaming platforms. That's fantastic.

Again, the website is luso.tv. We'll be sure to include a link in the description of the show notes so that it's easy for you to click through to do that. Travis, one final question for you. You obviously, I can sense you're passionate about history and telling this particular story, but why in this day and age when we seem so divided as a conversation? country and, you know, there's so many issues that, and challenges that we face in our daily lives. Why is it important to remember what happened at our nation's founding? Yeah, I mean,

I think Ronald Reagan said it well, that we're only one generation, one generation away from losing our freedoms. And, you know, when you, when, never would I have imagined, I'm 51, never would I imagine that we'd see a day where statues are being ripped down and the rewriting of history in our history books. And it's just unbelievable. I was just meeting with a board of trustees from Washington and Lee University. And he said for 10 years, they fought to keep the name Washington in the university name. They spent $2 million to protect George Washington's name there at the university. That's the world we live in. Like I said, the American flag is becoming an offensive symbol in our own country. Not in another in our own country. And so that's why I'm

passion. Like, there are men who are willing to lay it all on the line for the freedoms that we enjoy 250 years later. And when I was a kid, my dad worked for the Defense Department here in D.C. And we lived in Germany when I was a young kid in the early 80s. So I went to Checkpoint Charlie in in Berlin. If you're familiar with Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin wall was up. And guards stood there to keep people in East Germany. And I, as a kid, it was so obvious to me that there was a difference between tyranny versus freedom. And we're one generation away from seeing that same garbage. And we know, our minds can't fathom that. We're like, no, that would never happen in America. Like, no, I've seen it in our day. And, you know, when I was a kid, we weren't allowed

to go to the eastern block of Europe. Today, all that's, you know, my wife and I've been to Hungary and Poland and all those countries today. But back then when I was a kid, couldn't go there. You couldn't travel. And those people were locked in. They couldn't go to a free. It was crazy, you know, when you stop and think of it. It is. It is truly. The freedoms that we enjoy today, we need to be reminded of it. We do. We do. And I think as a father, myself, with three kids, I mean, it is so critically important to make sure that next generation does understand because it's so quickly we could lose that freedom and all of the things that we do cherish. Travis Bowman, again, the book is called Luso. Thank you for joining the Daily Signal. We look

forward to seeing the mini-series and following your work closely in the future. Hey, thank you so much for having me. It was an honor. It was privilege. Thank you. We are going to leave it there for today. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new shows from The Daily Signal. Every weekday, catch top news in 10 right here in this podcast feed. Keep up with the news that you care about in just 10 minutes every weekday at 5 p.m. And go deep with us right here every weekend for the Daily Signal's podcast interview edition. If you like what you hear on any of our shows, let us know by leaving a comment.

We love hearing your feedback. Thanks again for being with us today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph Von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.