>> narrator: Fresh from their victories in Boston, the Continental Army marches overland toward New York. Having sent the British running, they are America's surprise heroes. Now 10,000 strong, a new notion gathers around them, an idea that will drive the warring British and American armies on a collision course. America wants independence. It will take George Washington and his citizen army everything they've got to win it. The heroes of Massachusetts, now riding high on confidence, have not even begun to taste the full power of the king's vengeance. The British are coming back, this time to deliver a more decisive blow. As they move toward New York by sea, they assemble an armada the size of which the world has never seen. The British commander, General William Howe, fully understands his orders. What had begun in Massachusetts as an annoying insurgency is quickly becoming an expensive and embarrassing war. It is time to stop it. >> "Flushed with the idea of superiority after the evacuation of Boston, the Americans desire decisive action. Nothing is more sought for by us." --General William Howe. >> narrator: New York is the perfect place to end this rebellion, one way or another. >> The importance of New York City is not lost to either William Howe or George Washington. Whomever controls New York City will control the Hudson River and, by extension, have the ability to sever the lines of communication between New England and the remaining colonies. >> This was the grand strategy that was going to subdue the rebellion, that would break the colonies in half along this river, that would separate the cockpit of the revolution in Boston from the cockpit in Virginia, in New York, in New Jersey, and by that means, bring about the collapse of the rebellion. >> narrator: The conflict that has been fought militarily in Boston and politically in Philadelphia now comes to New York, a city already bitterly divided between Loyalists and Patriots. [men yelling] Each side, Loyalist and Patriot, is waiting for the great clash that will decide their fate. A British victory would likely end the war and return the colonies to the king. A Continental win could set the colonies free. At stake:<i> liberty,</i> the word that has been in colonial ears since the outset of the year when a slim pamphlet set America ablaze. >> "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part.'" >> narrator: Finally, someone has given the colonists a vocabulary of revolution, but who is the author? The words come anonymously from the most unlikely source, not a leading American, but a young immigrant starting his life over in the New World. He comes from England with little money, scant education, and few prospects. But he carries powerful ideas from the European Enlightenment, ideas that, when planted in American soil, will grow into a revolution that will change the world. The author of this incendiary manifesto: Thomas Paine. >> We don't have a statue of Paine. He's got to be the only founding father who has not been commemorated in marble and bronze, because he was too radical. >> narrator: Young Tom Paine had never amounted to much in England, though he had tried his hand at everything. He had been a house servant, a merchant marine, and even a corset maker. In each of these pursuits, he would universally fail. Paine would discover himself in Philadelphia. Like many immigrants, it becomes his blank slate, his chance to start over. It is this same spirit Paine sees in America: restless, searching, ambitious, the raw makings of a new world without the burden of kings or powerful churches. It is a vision Paine turns into 46 simple pages plain enough for every farmer, fishmonger, or founding father to understand. He calls it simply<i> Common Sense.</i> >> "We have it within our power to begin the world over again. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age. Now is the seed time of continental union." >><i> Common Sense</i> conjured up a vision of a very democratic America still to be, an America in the making. >> narrator: The pamphlet quickly becomes a sensation, a best-selling how-to book on making revolution. >> Some say 100,000 copies of this were published. Translate that into population rates today, that would be like selling 20 million books at--through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. That's an awful lot of communicating. >> narrator: Colonists now contemplate the once-unthinkable: breaking with the king of England. Thomas Paine has finally told them what to do: Begin a new world. Begin America. >> "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. O ye that love mankind, ye that dare oppose not only tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth." >> narrator: The army now swells with citizen soldiers ready to fight for Paine's ideals of a new world, soldiers like Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins. >> "My dear Sarah, I hope Providence will provide for us and carry me through all the troubles we have to meet in the way of our duty and while we are absent from each other." >> narrator: A New England cobbler, 32-year-old Hodgkins had joined the army to protest colonial rule in his town of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Now he is pushing farther from his home, his tiny shoe shop, and his wife, Sarah. >> "I would not have you be uneasy about me, as I am engaged in this glorious cause. I am willing to go where I am called." >> narrator: Yet these citizen soldiers like Hodgkins present their own problem to General George Washington. Full of ideals, they lack training and experience. New York will be a battle on a scale none yet know against the full force of the greatest army in the world. >> Order your fire lines. >> narrator: Washington harbors doubts. >> He had very rational fears. Any man of military experience would look at the task before them and realize, "This is not a foregone conclusion that we can achieve victory." >> narrator: Victory or defeat will soon mean the future of America. The rebellion begun in Massachusetts over taxes is about to become a revolution for independence. >> narrator: June 1776: The debate over America's political future has been pushed to the forefront. What once was considered an act of mutiny and treason now becomes a real possibility, even a destiny. America is talking about liberty. >> Suddenly, in every tavern, in every meetinghouse, everywhere people congregate, they're talking seriously about this idea. "Should we go for independence or not?" And they're talking about the ideas that Paine expresses. We have a grand, robust national dialogue such as we've never had before or since around a central theme that meant everything to everybody. >> narrator: The British are intent on stopping it. Having gathered their strength, they arrive in New York Harbor in dramatic fashion. With 130 warships and nearly 25,000 men, they put on a show designed to scare even the most avid rebel. >> When the British come in the summer of 1776, it's like <i>Star Wars.</i> It's<i> The Empire Strikes Back.</i> It's the Death Star. >> These multiple acres and acres of white sail coming into the harbor must really have been a sight to behold. This is the most powerful military nation on Earth that is bringing that power to bear on you. >> narrator: At his headquarters in lower New York, Washington has a front-row seat. >> "The enemy will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance, but remember that with so just a cause, victory is most assuredly ours." --General George Washington. >> narrator: Outwardly, Washington shows a calm face. Yet inside, he knows that defending New York will be the greatest test he has known. The Virginia farmer turned rebel leader is out of his league. >> Washington was faced with a tremendous task. He had no navy to speak of. And he was trying to protect a group of islands with hundreds of miles of shoreline against the world's most powerful naval force. >> narrator: Miles away in Philadelphia, the reality of the situation is harder to take in. The great leaders of the revolution--Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock--see what they want to see: an army that has already stood up to the British. It pushes them to take the next step, the ultimate step, toward independence. A Virginia delegate, Richard Henry Lee, throws down the gauntlet. >> "Why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American republic. If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 1776 will be placed in posterity." --Richard Henry Lee. >> narrator: The time is now to make a declaration and commit it to paper. Congress turns to a young Virginia lawyer, a rising star in American politics. At 33 years old, Thomas Jefferson is the ideal American: bright, ambitious, and a gentleman. >> Jefferson was a tall, slender, gentle, engaging man who wanted to be a scholar and never got a chance because he was such a good politician. Of all the revolutionaries, if I could sit with one at dinner, he'd be the one. >> narrator: But Jefferson embodies America's deepest conflicts and contradictions. Having grown up on a wealthy Virginia plantation, he inherited aristocratic credentials... and the 200 slaves to prove it. Yet Jefferson holds to an ideal America, a place of opportunity for everyone, a place where every American is in charge of his own fate. The child nation is growing up and longs to move beyond the shadow of its parent. >> But they had grown up, and they wanted an independent say about how their laws were made and who governed them. And Jefferson knew all of that. He knew that he wasn't writing anything that was revolutionary in the eyes of his own people, only in the rest of the world. >> narrator: Mid-June 1776: Armed with these notions and a deadline of two weeks, Jefferson locks himself into a Philadelphia boarding house. >> He sat in one room in the July sweltering heat of Philadelphia with the flies buzzing all about him, and he forgot all of that. And he just sat down. And he wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote out of his head. >> "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, the opinions of mankind impel them to the change." --Thomas Jefferson. >> narrator: It is a heady task for a fairly young mind. Every word must contain a reason to die for, every sentence an urgent cause to justify rising up against a king. >> Think about it, you know: the Declaration of Independence, a terribly radical document. That document says that if the government isn't treating you the way you think it should, and if you suffer this mistreatment over a period of time, you've got the right to rise up and destroy that government, to change it. That's a radical thing to say. >> narrator: But Jefferson soon stumbles over the central question of the revolution. It hangs in the hot air: Who will become a free American? In Britain, the elite legislated. Now Jefferson's pen could reinvent all that. Would the new America mean rights for every man, woman, child...and even slave? >> Who's in, and who's out? Who's included? Does this mean everybody? Does this mean only the rich? Does this mean property holders? How far do we go? Who's included in this new nation? >> "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." >> narrator: Jefferson reaches for the highest ideals. But the contradictions of his words come back to haunt him. >> All the talk about freedom and liberty, all of this reaches the ears of nearly 500,000 colonists who are black. That's 1/5 of the population. >> narrator: Slavery already divides the colonies. Now, with the talk of independence, it takes front row. Some colonists draw the line at giving liberty to slaves. Others bristle at the hypocrisy of fighting for independence while sanctioning slavery. Jefferson himself remains divided. His own slaves watch their fates debated before them. >> When Thomas Jefferson-- incidentally, the holder of over 100 slaves at this moment-- wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life,<i> liberty,</i> and the pursuit of happiness," you don't think his slaves said, "Right on"? "Right, you know, right on, Thomas," that "this is precisely what we want"? >> narrator: Many slaves choose not to wait. From cities and plantations across America, blacks begin an exodus. They flee. >> On Washington's plantation, we know that 17 slaves ran: Stephen, 20 years old, a cooper by trade; Deborah, a 16-year-old woman; Peter, an old man. 23 fled from Jefferson. These people had made decisions. What's best for them? Patriot or Loyalist didn't really matter. "What's my best bet?" >> What does a man like Jefferson make of this when his slaves flee? Well, it throws in his face the notion of the enlightened slave master, and it comes upon him with great force, I think, if it hadn't before. This was a fundamental contradiction in this whole revolution project between fighting for unalienable rights and holding slaves. He knew that. >> narrator: Jefferson takes aim at slavery with scathing indictments of its wrongfulness. He puts them in his draft, yet falls short of calling for the end of slaveholding. Major battles are looming. Compromises must be made. In Philadelphia, his draft will soon be thrown to the varied interests in Congress. They will tear it apart... while in New York, the Continental Army prepares to put its life on the line for the dream of independence. >> narrator: Late June 1776: While Congress works on independence in Philadelphia, 100 miles north on the bluffs of Brooklyn Heights, the Continental Army faces more urgent realities. >> Put your backs into it, men. >> narrator: They dig in for the fight to come. Every day, they expect an attack. Every day, it fails to arrive. Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins oversees the building of fortifications, but he grows tired of waiting. >> "My dear Sarah, I long to see you and my children, but when I shall is uncertain. General Washington is calling in the militia, and I hope we shall be in readiness to meet our enemy." --Joseph Hodgkins. >> narrator: While the Americans build fortifications, the British continue to pour into their camp on Staten Island. Throughout the summer, their force swells as the king sends more ships with more troops. Washington watches and waits. The impeccably cool gentleman from Virginia remains perplexed by the British, who gather strength but show no sign of attacking. Day after day, week after week, he can only sit and wonder. >> "Very unexpectedly to me, another revolving Monday is arrived before an attack upon this city or a movement of the enemy. The reason of this is incomprehensible to me." --General George Washington. >> narrator: The flotilla of British ships bobs just off the tip of Manhattan, waiting for even more reinforcements, biding their time, wearing down rebel nerves. What Washington needs is a navy to stand up to the goliath of the British Empire. What he gets is a slingshot, a tiny concept he hopes will have a huge impact. Its code name: the Turtle. It's the world's first combat submarine, designed to harass the world's mightiest navy. Made of oak, covered in tar, the tiny craft fits just one person. With a bicycle-like method, the engineer propels the vessel underwater. With a drill, he will fasten kegs of gunpowder and a fuse to his victims' hull. But the simple weapon is not simple enough. The Turtle will be used only once during the Battle of New York. At night, she sneaks up on the British flagship the<i> Eagle.</i> But fastening the explosives to the hull proves too difficult. The Turtle is forced to make a hasty retreat, spotted, and pursued by British longboats. The keg of gunpowder, the erstwhile torpedo, floats down the Hudson River, where it goes off by itself, harmlessly. >> A giant column of water shot up as the bomb went off, and people on the shores were looking on in astonishment. But that was the end of the experiment. >> narrator: It will be words, not bombs, that deliver Britain the strongest blows. July 1, 1776: [gavel bangs] A draft of the declaration is delivered to Congress. >> The declaration is complete, intact... >> narrator: The delegates immediately tear into it. >> The excruciating part took place after the document was written, and that was three days of debate in Congress in which Congress took out 89 different things, including any language criticizing the practice of slavery. And Jefferson just sat there writhing through the whole thing. >> narrator: The issue of slavery is left for another time. >> There are flickers of doubt. They're bothered by it. They can't fix it. They kick it down the road. They basically postpone the problem, to be reckoned with on another day. That day became the Civil War. It was a pretty bad day. But it's not that they're not bothered by it. They know it's wrong. They just don't know how to deal with it. >> narrator: The pressure of time once again intervenes. On July 2nd, the matter of independence must be put to a vote. It passes. >> "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable in the history of America. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore." --John Adams, congressional delegate. >> narrator: Adams is a little off on the date, but close. Two more days are necessary to hammer out the final declaration. On July 4th, independence becomes written fact. [hooves clatter] Within days, copies travel by horseback throughout the colonies. No one had set out to create a war of independence, yet they had delivered one. >> In the town squares all over the country, church bells are ringing, and the people were huzzahing. The crowd was applauding. People really did believe the birthday of a new world is at hand. >> "These united colonies are and, of right, ought to be free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown. All political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved." >> all: Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah! >> narrator: For those who had only imagined such a document, its realization is inspiring and sobering. The delegates who signed their names know they have just committed treason, a crime punishable by death. >> All of our founding fathers, they think they're going to hang. "We either hang together or hang separately." That was literal. They are outlaws, and if they fall into the hands of the British army, they think they're going to swing from a tree. >> narrator: It is the reckoning at the hands of King George that is on the minds of the signers and for everyone across the colonies who supports independence. >> all: Huzzah, huzzah! >> narrator: July 1776: Across the colonies, the reaction to the Declaration of Independence is deafening. For it or against it, it's clear that there is no turning back. It is a war that will make or unmake America. >> The Declaration of Independence does change what the war is about. Up until that moment, the war had just been about forcing the British into a point where they'd be prepared to renegotiate the terms of membership in the empire. But after that moment, it's about getting the British to acknowledge independence. >> narrator: In New York, Patriots pull down a statue of King George. It is a symbolic deed but a useful one too. The lead is immediately sent off and melted down to make musket balls. 42,000 bullets will come out of fallen King George, and every one of them will be necessary. The battle they have been waiting for has arrived. [cannon booms] July 12th, 3:00 p.m.: the British unleash their guns. Only eight days after the Declaration of Independence, the British answer with a barrage only the world's most powerful empire could muster. [cannons booming] Soldiers and citizens alike freeze with fear. >> A lot of these soldiers were 16, 17 years old, fresh off the farm. Some of these American soldiers were "drunk in their cups," as the expression was. And so it was really kind of a disaster and a really inauspicious beginning to the battle for New York for the Americans. >> narrator: George Washington is furious. The British have made clear their power. Now, inexplicably, they stop the attack. As quickly as the barrage comes, it ends. It is merely a show of force, a scare tactic by the British commander, General William Howe. >> In fact, Howe's goal was not to win; it was to force the Americans to a conference table. It wasn't about inflicting crushing military defeat. It wasn't about humiliating the colonists. It was about showing them that British liberty was something worth having. >> narrator: The British, having amply displayed their might, now counter with an invitation to talk peace. But Howe makes a small yet costly miscalculation. The message he sends is addressed simply to George Washington, a breach of protocol that is instantly recognizable. >> The British are in a very difficult position. If they address the letter as "His Excellency, George Washington, Commander in Chief," they're effectively recognizing the legitimacy of the Continental Army. For Washington, this is a critical thing. He needs to be recognized. They are equals, after all: Howe commands an army; Washington commands an army. >> narrator: The messenger and his various letters is rebuked several times. Finally, the letter is accepted. But by then, Washington wants no part of it. He sets aside the letter without opening it. The Americans will not consider negotiating. >> "So high is the vanity and the insolence of these men. Their leaders seem to risk everything so that blows and war seem inevitable." --Ambrose Serle, British secretary. >> narrator: There will be no peace. Instead, the Continental soldiers will have to deliver America by war. The British might will soon return. But when and where remain a mystery. Joseph Hodgkins redoubles his efforts. >> "My dear Sarah, the posts are not going as quickly as I expected. It is thought this fleet will get all the strength they can before they make an attack on us. But we are awaiting and expecting them every day." --Joseph Hodgkins. >> narrator: This will be a different scale of warfare than these soldiers have ever known. On the eve of battle, some sit down to prepare their wills, aware that their first real battle with the British may also be their last. At their camp on Staten Island, the British are not nearly so nervous. Sure that victory is near, they bide their time, enjoying the fruits of the American continent. >> "The fair nymphs of this isle are in wonderful tribulation, as the fresh meat our men have got here has made them as riotous as satyrs. A girl cannot step into the bushes to pluck a rose without running the most imminent risk of being ravished." --Lord Rawdon, British officer. >> narrator: Their leader also takes full advantage of his time. Having taken one of his officer's wives for a lover, General William Howe lets the days slip by in his private conquests. George Washington can afford no such pleasures. Back in Manhattan, the general is losing his famous cool. As he waits, he guesses and second-guesses every plan and every defense. He, too, is about to face the biggest battle of his life, and it will not be on his terms. It is the British who are running this show. >> narrator: Late August, Long Island, D-day: On a warm August morning, Howe moves his army. More than 15,000 British soldiers now march toward the American positions. For the first time in the brand-new War of Independence, the British will test the strength of the American army head-on. [suspenseful music] ♪ ♪ [musket shots] The British attack first, with two columns taking the Continentals in a frontal assault. [musket shots] >> Fire! >> narrator: The two sides face each other in massive lines, often a mere hundred yards apart. >> They gave everybody a couple of tots of rum just to get them liquored up enough to do this. The Americans didn't have that discipline. They didn't know it. >> narrator: This is European-style warfare. For nearly all the Continentals, it is their first taste of it. >> A person in the 20th or 21st century looks at those linear battle formations of the 18th century as--they seem to be struck by the stupidity of these things. But that--really, these tactics and these formations are predicated upon the state of technology at the time. >> narrator: In open field battles and in smaller forest skirmishes, the Americans struggle to hold their own. [musket shots] What they don't know is that they are fighting a decoy. The bulk of Howe's army is actually a third flank marching out and around the American forces. Washington has not prepared for this. By 10:00 a.m., the British break through the rear ranks and devastate the lines of the Continental Army. >> The worst possible thing that can happen in those situations is to have a complete rupturing of your line, a complete break in which men panic and everybody flees, basically, for themselves. It is without a doubt the most demoralizing, disheartening sort of experience that these soldiers could have possibly felt. >> narrator: The rebel army, in a state of panic, flees. Among them, the young Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins. He watches his soldiers break, a sight he will never forget. >> "Loving wife, in the woods and in the night, the enemy marched out two different ways. We were obliged to go through fire and water. It seems the day is come that in all probability depends the salvation of this country." --Joseph Hodgkins. >> narrator: The army straggles back minus the 300 dead and 1,000 captured. George Washington watches in shock. His army had not withstood the battle. He had failed. And the danger is far from over. At Brooklyn Heights, the army is trapped on all sides. The British Navy commands the waterways to the west. From the east and south, Howe's army closes in on the shattered Continental defenses. All looks lost, but the end would not come just yet. In a last effort to save his army, Washington orders an immediate retreat to start at nightfall. Under the cover of darkness, the army begins to move stealthily, using every ferry and fishing boat available to them. All through the night, soldiers are ferried across a narrow slip between Brooklyn and Manhattan. They soon run out of time, but they get one final providence. As morning breaks, a strange and eerie fog sets in over New York Harbor, engulfing the area in a near blackout. It is their salvation. The British see and hear nothing. >> "I could scarcely discern a man at six-yard distance. In the history of warfare, I do not recollect a more fortunate retreat." --Benjamin Tallmadge, Continental officer. [haunting music] ♪ ♪ >> narrator: When the fog lifts, the British are met with an empty camp. The Continental Army, just hours before on the verge of defeat, has vanished overnight. >> The failure to capture them and to really put a stop to the war by rounding up the rebel forces really was perhaps the--one of the greatest blunders of the war, because it was in New York with the greatest armada, the greatest number of men that they had at any time during those eight years, the British lost their best opportunity to win the war at a stroke. >> narrator: The remains of the rebel army recuperate. Dispirited and defeated, they can only wonder what will happen next. Having made it off of Long Island with the others, Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins now has a moment to communicate with his wife, Sarah. Her words are those of many back home across the colonies, a mixture of immediate fears and distant hopes. >> "My dear husband, I desire to be thankful that you have got off of Long Island. I think things look very dark on our side, but it has been observed that man's extremity was God's opportunity." --Sarah Hodgkins. >> narrator: George Washington is wrecked. He has come within inches of losing his entire army and along with it the cause of independence. Now he knows he must abandon New York City. The Continental Army is in no shape to fight again. They leave the city and go north along Manhattan Island. A few months ago, they were being treated as heroes. Now they are in full retreat. Washington's reputation has plummeted too. His inexperience and mistakes have been costly. His ability to lead an army is now severely in question. Soon, he will receive challenges from within his own ranks. >> If you stopped the clock in 1776, you would have suspected that this guy would be out of a job pretty soon. Things were not going well. >> narrator: The dream of a new world, Thomas Paine's vision, seems more remote with each step. Across America, spirits are depleted. Many soldiers up and leave the army. Others, like Joseph Hodgkins, face the choice: stay and fight or return to their homes, perhaps as British subjects evermore. >> "My dear Joseph, I hope if we live to see this campaign out, we shall have the happiness of living together. It will trouble me very much if you should engage again. Your most affectionate companion until death, Sarah." >> narrator: Hodgkins will stay and retreat with the remains of the army toward an uncertain future for himself, for the army, and for the cause of independence. The revolution will go on, but it is about to enter its darkest days.
