Revolution Song

by Russell Shorto

  33He got his hands on: http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/the-rules-of-civility/.

  33110 “rules of civility”: http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents_gw/civility/civil_01.html. Note that I have cleaned spelling and punctuation slightly in order to improve readability.

  34The rector of St. George’s Church: Lorenz, “ ‘To Do Justice to His Majesty,’” 352.

  35“roape dancings”: Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 101.

  35“Phyllis, lay aside”: D’Urfey, Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy 6: 107. The songbook was popular both in England and in the colonies, especially Virginia. See Darling and Wiggins, “A Constant Tuting,” Music Educators Journal 61, no. 3 (November 1974): 58.

  35“There is a Thing”: D’Urfey, 6:106.

  36“The Britains Through”: D’Urfey, 6:5.

  36Virginia planter society: Longmore, Invention of George Washington, 3–4.

  Chapter 2: A Tide in the Affairs of Men

  37It was June 1743 . . . in Bavaria: Townshend, The Military Life of Field Marshal George First Marquess of Townshend, 13–14.

  38Georg Friedrich Handel: Trench, George II, 217–223.

  41In the new “dining room”: Wenger, “The Dining Room in Early Virginia,” 149–159. William Hugh Grove, Gregory A. Stiverson and Patrick H. Butler III, “Virginia in 1732: The Travel Journal of William Huge Grove,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 85, no. 1 (January 1977):18–44.

  42“baggage prepared”: Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 30.

  42“planter’s pace”: Longmore, 10.

  43“Memorandum to have my Coat made”: Memorandum, 1749–1750. The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel et al. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2007–), http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=GEWN-search-1-1&expandNote=on#match1. Punctuation added. (Throughout, all Washington letters can be found at the source given in this note; the general URL is http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN.)

  43a little over 21 pounds: http://www.kenmore.org/genealogy/washington/probate.html.

  44“They clear a large Circle”: “A Journal of My Journey Over the Mountains,” The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel et al. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2007–), http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=GEWN-print-01-01-02-0001-0002. (One must be logged-in to access.) I have added punctuation and modernized some of the text to improve readability.

  45more than 2,000 acres: Chernow, Washington, 23.

  45“enraptured”: Washington, “Voyage to Barbados”, 1751.

  45But overcome as he was: Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 52.

  46He asked William Fauntleroy: “From George Washington to William Fauntleroy, 20 May 1752,” Founders Online, National Archives, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-01-02-0020. Source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 1, 7 July 1748 – 14 August 1755, ed. W. W. Abbot. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 49–50.

  46coat of arms: Fauntleroy, “The Fauntleroy Family,” 210.

  47man named Baukurre: Smith, Narrative, 11.

  47“man-stealing”: Atkins, Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West Indies, 53.

  48The people of Anomabo: Lovejoy, “The African Background of Venture Smith,” 42.

  48Anomabo was a center of the slaving industry: Getz, “Mechanisms of Slave Exposition,” 83.

  48Anomabo had specialized workers: Berlin, “From Creole to African,” 260.

  49“boat trade”: Shumway, Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 92.

  50“Royal African”: T. Thompson, Account of Two Missionary Voyages, 47–50; Shumway, “The Fante Shrine of Nananom Mpow and the Atlantic Slave Trade in Southern Ghana,” 33–34; The Royal African; or, Memoirs of the Young Prince of Annamaboe, 25–29; Shumway, The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 75–81.

  50“black Portuguese”: Berlin, 258. Shumway, The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 35.

  50Selling slaves . . . cutlasses and firearms: Atkins, 160–162; Alpern, “What Africans Got for Their Slaves.”

  51“many considerable Articles”: Atkins, 162.

  5187 slaves: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database (slavevoyages.org), record number 36067.

  51Charming Susanna: The ship is listed in the records compiled by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database (slavevoyages.org); it is record number 36067. One researcher, Haddam town historian Karl Stofko, believes Broteer was more likely transported two years earlier, on a ship not listed in the database.

  51had struck a deal: Smith, Narrative, 13.

  52“There is a tide”: Julius Caesar, IV.iii.216–222.1.

  Chapter 3: The Turtle’s Back

  53Before there was the world . . . where flowers glowed: The version I give here follows William Fenton, “This Island, the World on the Turtle’s Back,” with emendations from Michael Galban, Ganondagan Seneca Art and Culture Center.

  54“this beautiful valley”: Beauchamp, Aboriginal Place Names, 102–103.

  54A boy was born here: The timing of Cornplanter’s birth is the subject of much speculation. Early historians placed it around 1740 or earlier. Thomas Abler, the most recent scholar to write extensively on Cornplanter, puts it at 1752 or 1753. I think it would have likely been several years earlier, based in large part on the report of Philip Tome, who met Cornplanter in 1816, when he was an old man, and asked him his first experience of battle. Tome says Cornplanter told him it was at Braddock’s defeat, in 1755. There seems no reason for Tome to have invented the detail, and while Cornplanter could have been a boy at the battle, he would not have been an infant.

  55stinking water: Beauchamp, 31.

  55“lineage matron”: Abler, Cornplanter, 19–20.

  55Iroquois names: Abler, Cornplanter, 2.

  55“took notice of my skin”: Abler, Cornplanter, 16.

  56“that incorrigible villian”: Johnson, Papers of Sir William Johnson, 9:397–398.

  56“constantly carried great quantitys”: Johnson, 2:388.

  56Generations before: Jordan, Seneca Restoration, 292–293.

  57“extended 3 or 4 English miles”: Peter, “A Description of the Wild Pigeons,” 56.

  57The pigeons roosted . . . whole family: Swatzler, A Friend Among the Senecas, 152.

  58Seneca children also learned: As indeed they still do. Many of these activities continue among the Iroquois.

  58Besides the tale of creation: Sources include Starna, “Retrospecting the Origins of the League of the Iroquois”; Kuhn and Sempowski, “A New Approach to Dating the League of the Iroquois”; Fenton, The Great Law and the Longhouse, chap. 6.

  58a mystical “white stone” canoe: Michael Galban, in correspondence.

  59But the Senecas, at the far western edge: Here I am following the argument of, among others, archaeologist Kurt Jordan, especially in The Seneca Restoration.

  59The overall population was small: Jordan, Seneca Restoration, 55.

  59Senecas had the upper hand: Jordan, “Not Just ‘One Site,’” 105.

  59party of blacksmiths: Jordan, Seneca Restoration, 101–104.

  59100 miles a day on foot: Morgan, League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee, 105.

  59The Iroquois . . . in the world: Jordan, The Seneca Restoration, 50–51, 84–86.

  60As in European civilization: Richter, “War and Culture,” passim.

  61Near his home: Grant, Memoirs of an American Lady, 32–33.

  61It was also in a sense an Iroquois town: Bielinski, “A Middling Sort,” 276–277.

  61They served butter chicken: Food historian Peter Rose, in correspondence.

  61Abraham couldn’t even take up: Bielinski, “A Middling Sort,” 282.

  62“Een paar schoenen”: Yates, Account Book, 17, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  62When he walked through the doors: Munsell, Collections on th
e History of Albany, 1:57–80a.

  63ran for the same office: Bielinski, Abraham Yates, 4.

  63De Ridder offered as dowry: Wolf, “Abraham Yates, Jr.,” 28.

  64he began selling: Yates, Account Book, 14, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  64In September 1753 . . . one of their own: Wolf, 30.

  65“middle sort”: Quoted in Staughton Lynd, “Abraham Yates’s History of the Movement for the United States Constitution,” 224.

  65He won: Munsell, Collections on the History of Albany, 1:85–86.

  65For the sick . . . the waves: Mustakeem, “‘I Never Have Such a Sickly Ship Before,’” 480–482.

  65“An ordinary passage”: Smith, Narrative, 13.

  65If Captain Collingwood followed the procedure: Smallwood, “African Guardians,” 685.

  65Of the 87 slaves: Slavevoyages.org., ship number 36067.

  66An experienced officer: Lovejoy, “The African Background of Venture Smith,” 38; Smallwood, passim.

  66“in the cool of the evening”: Washington, Diaries, November 4 and 5, 1751.

  6640,66 slaves: Levy, “Slavery and the Emancipation Movement,” 5.

  66molasses: Ostrander, “Colonial Molasses Trade,” 82.

  66The industry was as lucrative: Thomas and McCloskey, Economic History of Britain, 1:91.

  67Of the 74 slaves: Slavevoyages.org, ship number 36067, and Smith, Narrative, 13.

  67his sister Mercy: Smith, Narrative, 14; Stofko, “Reading Between the lines,” 1.

  67Newport outfitted: Elaine Crane, A Dependent People, 17–18; “Newport,” in History of World Trade Since 1450, encyclopedia.com.

  67calling for the abolition of slavery: For example: William Johnston, Slavery in Rhode Island, 1755–1776, 39–42.

  67Venture took in the cityscape: Hodge, “Widow Pratt’s World of Goods,” passim; www.newporthistory.org/about/brief-history-of-newport/.

  68put in at Narragansett: Smith, Narrative, 14.

  69“he had been in his native place”: Smith, Narrative, 15.

  69he made one friend: Stofko, unpublished genealogy of the George Mumford family; Stofko, “Reading Between the Lines: Venture and Rebecca.”

  6913 percent of the inhabitants: Fitts, “The Landscapes of Northern Bondage,” 55.

  70Robinson Mumford had died . . . the weather: Saint and Krimsky, Making Freedom, 33.

  71“to serve two masters”: Smith, Narrative, 15.

  71One day . . . hauled him down: Smith, Narrative, 15–16.

  71“for love”: Smith, Narrative, 31.

  71“broke out into a great rage”: Smith, Narrative, 15–16.

  Chapter 4: The Charming Sound of Bullets

  76“all the territories”: Galbreath, Expedition of Celeron to the Ohio Country, 18.

  77“require of them” . . . “force of arms”: “Commission from Robert Dinwiddie, 30 October 1753,” Founders Online, National Archives.

  77Also, he had the idea: Chernow, 32.

  77“excessive Rains”: Washington, Journal of Major George Washington, 3.

  78“the Land in the Fork”: Washington, Journal of Major George Washington, 4.

  78“extremely well situated”: Washington, The Journal of Major George Washington, 5.

  78He found his way: Washington, “Journey to the French Commandant: Narrative,” Founders Online, National Archives.

  78He also astonished Washington: Humphreys, Life of General Washington, 10.

  79cooked and eaten: Misencik, George Washington and the Half-King, 51.

  79“houses upon our land”: Washington, Journal of Major George Washington, 7.

  79“the great Being above”: Washington, Journal of Major George Washington, 7.

  80“through many mires and swamps”: In present-day northwestern Pennsylvania, near the shore of Lake Erie.

  80“incontestable rights of the King”: Washington, Journal of Major George Washington, 26–27.

  80“As to the summons”: Washington, Journal of Major George Washington, 27.

  81an ungainly group: New York Gazette, April 1, 1754.

  83Half of all British shipping: Kenneth Morgan, “Robert Dinwiddie’s Reports on the British American Colonies,” 341–342. The figures include the Caribbean as well as the North American colonies. See also Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, 170.

  84the Duke praised him for his “gallantry”: Stopford-Sackville, I:290.

  84But this time: Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George II, I:279.

  85“If I had a peerage”: Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George II, I:282.

  85“I despise it”: Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George II, I:282.

  86“Nobody stands higher”: Quoted in Alan Valentine, Lord George Germain, 29.

  87“Run Away from George Mumford”: New York Gazette, April 1,1754.

  88Some newspaper accounts . . . his friends would benefit: Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 80; Pennsylvania Gazette, February 5, 1754, March 12, 1754; New York Gazette, March 25, 1754; South Carolina Gazette, March 26, 1754.

  89“I was employed”: George Washington to Augustine Washington, August 2, 1755.

  89“to act on the Difensive”: Robert Dinwiddie to George Washington, January 1754.

  90“Tu n’es pas encore”: Chaussegros de Léry, Journal, 19.

  91“I heard the Bullets”: George Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754.

  91Tanacharison . . . said so: Hazard, Pennsylvania Colonial Records, VI:151–152.

  Chapter 5: World on Fire

  92“deceived by our interpreter”: Washington, Papers of George Washington, I:169–170.

  93“were the most infamous”: Quoted in Longmore, Invention of George Washington, 23.

  93“Washington and many such”: Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 108.

  93Among the most vigorous: Bradley, Fight with France, 68.

  93“the Protection of Our Possessions in America”: George II, “His Majesty’s Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Parliament” (1755).

  94In eight years: Albany Dutch Church Burials, 1722–1757, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycoloni/chbur.html; Wolf, Abaham Yates Jr., chap. 1, p. 19.

  95As winter settled in . . . checkered cloth: Yates, Account Book, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  95requesting that they come together: Brodhead, Documents Relative 6:802, 828.

  96“a Turky. . . . killed for our diners”: Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, April 29, 1749.

  96“Republics and limited monarchies”: Benjamin Franklin, “Advice to a Young Tradesman,” http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0130; “On Freedom of Speech and the Press,” Pennsylvania Gazette, November 17, 1737.

  98“up the hill”: Quoted in McAnear, “Personal Accounts of the Albany Congress of 1754,” 733.

  98As tribal chiefs . . . of the speech: McAnear, “Personal Accounts of the Albany Congress of 1754,” 741.

  100“the Wel being”: Yates, The Journal and Copybook of Abraham Yates Jr., 2–4, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File.

  101“two johannes, three old Spanish dollars”: Smith, Narrative, 18.

  102“You must entertain”: George Washington to William Fitzhugh, November 15, 1754, in Papers of George Washington.

  102And so he “retired” . . . “Negroe slaves”: Lease of Mount Vernon, December 17, 1754, in Papers of George Washingon.

  103“will be very glad of your Company”: Robert Orme to George Washington, March 2, 1755.

  104His mother arrived . . . so dangerous a mission: George Washington to Robert Orme, April 2, 1755, in Papers of George Washington.

  105took out advertisements: Bell, “Franklin and the ‘Wagon Affair,’” 551–558.

  105When he heard . . . into the future: Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 122.

  106“Honourd Madam”: George Washington to Mary Ball Washington, June 7,
1755, in Papers of George Washington.

  108Indeed . . . their own men: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, in Papers of George Washington.

  108“engage the enemy”: Washington, Remarks 1787–1788, in Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 23:43.

  109They came staggering . . . needing refuge: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 1, Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  109The immediate problem . . . to replace him: Johnson, 5:419, http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/vd/jovdh5697.html; Wolf, 39.

  110“A victory”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 27, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  111“next to impossible”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 39. Note that I have cleaned up Yates’s spelling of place names, except for “Nistigeione,” which is closer to what it was called at the time than the name of the same place today: Niskayuna.

  111“like Brutes in Human Shape”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 54.

  112“let the City Burn”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 70.

  112“to impress an idea”: Untitled history document, Abraham Yates, Jr., Papers, New York Public Library, Box 3, typescript, p. 32; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  112“Let him now”: Yates, Untitled history document, Yates Papers, NYPL, Box 3, typescript, p. 32; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  113Yates wrote to Governor James De Lancey . . . the army’s rule prevailed: Yates, Untitled history document, Yates Papers, NYPL, Box 3, typescript, p. 34; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  114“lay in the same bed”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 96.

  115“the bewitching Charms”: Quoted in John Mulder, “William Livingston: Propagandist Against Episcopacy,” 91.

  115“the Vanity of Birth and Titles”: Quoted in John Mulder, “William Livingston: Propagandist Against Episcopacy,” 83.

  115“monopolizer of power”: Quoted in Mary Lou Lustig, Privilege and Prerogative, 100.

  116“The pretended power”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 112. Note that for the sake of clarity I have cleaned up punctuation and capitalization of the original.

  116“the most iniquitous”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 163–164.

  117“the product of force and violence”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 105.

  117“Abm: Yates Jun Esq”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 130.