1 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,280 History is often presented as a set of facts and dates, 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,720 of victories and defeats, 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,560 of monarchs and presidents, 4 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:17,160 all consigned to an unchanging past. 5 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:21,160 Huzza! 6 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:23,240 But it's not like that at all. 7 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:28,000 History is the knitting together of rival interpretations, 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,680 deliberate manipulations of the truth, 9 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:34,600 and, sometimes, alternative facts. 10 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,000 In this series, I'll be lifting the lid 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000 on three of American history's greatest national stories. 12 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:44,600 The Civil War. 13 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:48,120 Was it really a battle to reunite the nation 14 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:50,840 and liberate the slaves in the south? 15 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,720 The Cold War supremacy. 16 00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:58,640 American dream or nuclear nightmare? 17 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:06,200 And in this programme, the American Revolution. 18 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:08,440 How a British colony 19 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,200 won its freedom from the biggest empire in the world. 20 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:17,200 This is the story of the birth of the United States. 21 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:19,800 It's a tale of David and Goliath 22 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:24,480 with high ideals and heroism and the ringing of the Liberty Bell. 23 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:29,160 It's a story that continues to inspire in politics, 24 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,160 literature and even on Broadway. 25 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,440 But how much of America's founding story 26 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:38,480 is founded on fact? 27 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:43,480 Did the Liberty Bell really ring out on July the 4th, 1776? 28 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,000 Who really won the War of Independence? 29 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,920 American rebels or the King of France? 30 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,680 The Americans could never have brought themselves up 31 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:57,520 by their own boot straps. 32 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,680 And was George Washington a man who truly believed 33 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:03,120 in liberty and equality? 34 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,720 It shakes the very foundation of American history. 35 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:14,800 Generations of politicians and poets and protesters 36 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,480 have used the story of the American Revolution. 37 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,120 Sometimes to unite the American people, 38 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:23,760 sometimes to divide them. 39 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:28,760 And the story they've told often super-sizes the truth 40 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,400 and comes with a side order of fibs. 41 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:47,200 Early in July 1776, 42 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:51,200 a future American president wrote a letter to his wife. 43 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:55,160 He was a leader in the American Revolution. 44 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,320 And the previous day, 45 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:02,720 the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain. 46 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,920 John Adams knew that this day would be celebrated 47 00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:11,480 for generations to come. 48 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,440 He said that it ought to be solemnised 49 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:16,400 with pomp and parade. 50 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,680 BAND PLAYS And games! 51 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:21,400 And guns! And bonfires! 52 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,480 And illuminations! 53 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:26,360 From one end of America to the other. 54 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,760 The 2nd of July, he said, 55 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,960 would become the most memorable day in American history 56 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,880 and he was very nearly right. 57 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:49,760 But the 2nd of July, of course, was soon forgotten. 58 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,000 The wording of the Declaration of Independence 59 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,840 wasn't finally approved until two days later. 60 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,000 BOTH: Happy 4th of July! 61 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,720 Happy 4th of July! 62 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,000 ALL: Happy 4th of July! 63 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,520 APPLAUSE 64 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,040 MUSIC: STAR SPANGLED BANNER 65 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,720 The British Empire's first American colony 66 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,760 was founded in Virginia in 1607. 67 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:26,240 By 1732, Britain had 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast. 68 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,240 But in the 1760s, 69 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:34,720 American rebels rose up against British taxes. 70 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:40,280 They called themselves Patriots and, after eight years of war, 71 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:43,920 a plucky army of rebel farmers won its revolt 72 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:45,960 against the British Empire. 73 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:52,440 Heroic General George Washington became the first president 74 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:54,480 of the "land of the free". 75 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,720 A nation promising liberty and equality to all. 76 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:08,560 This version of the story is central to America's national identity 77 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:14,000 and it's given the American people a sense of special destiny - 78 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:19,040 that their country is going to lead the rest of the world to freedom. 79 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,960 But just as with any type of history, 80 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:27,000 the line between fact and fiction is blurred. 81 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:33,720 The American Revolution, so the story goes, 82 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:35,920 started with a tea party. 83 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:39,240 In December 1773, 84 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:43,200 three British-owned ships sat in Boston harbour 85 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:45,280 laden with tea. 86 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:49,520 But the people of Boston wouldn't let them unload their cargo 87 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:53,680 because that tea came with a British tax, 88 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:56,240 levied by a parliament in London, 89 00:05:56,240 --> 00:06:00,560 where Americans had no votes and no voice. 90 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,440 The disgruntled American colonists wanted to send the British 91 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,960 a clear message - no taxation without representation. 92 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:16,000 So one night, they dressed up as Mohawk Indians, 93 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,400 they came storming onto the ships, they cracked open the crates, 94 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:21,840 then they threw the tea... 95 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:25,920 ..right into Boston Harbour. 96 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:27,720 Yes! 97 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:32,720 This has been celebrated in history as a jolly jape in fancy dress. 98 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,640 A glorious stunt that sparked a revolution. 99 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:37,280 Huzza! 100 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:42,200 But the protest came after years of dark and bloody violence 101 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,880 between American colonists and British troops in the city. 102 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:51,680 And the rebels were disguised as Mohawk Indians to avoid arrest. 103 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,720 This wasn't called a tea party at the time. 104 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,440 Many in America saw it as a crime. 105 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,000 Now, some influential people - 106 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,480 people like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington - 107 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,680 thought that the destruction of the tea was a bad idea. 108 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:13,920 Destroying private property? 109 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,480 That could even damage their cause. 110 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:26,760 The Mohawk stunt also allowed the British to condemn 111 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:30,440 the American colonists as a criminal mob. 112 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:36,160 So the destruction of the tea was originally a violent, aggressive, 113 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:37,760 illegal action. 114 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,040 When did it become this sort of cuddly tea party? 115 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,720 Well, it became known as the tea party about 50 years 116 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,240 after the event, in the mid-1820s, 117 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:51,760 and that was at the time when a lot of those who took part 118 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,000 in the tea party were beginning to die off. 119 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:58,840 So, there was an attempt, then, beginning around that time 120 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:02,720 to reflect back on that act and it was not thought of 121 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,000 as an act of destruction, but rather something that was more patriotic 122 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,360 and that had become sort of a cornerstone 123 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:11,240 of the revolution itself. 124 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,960 One of the people who remembered the event, 125 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:18,760 although he reportedly was only about five years old at the time, 126 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,800 gave this vial of tea, in 1840, gave it to this institution, 127 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,000 and so this tea says, 128 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:29,760 "Tea thrown into the Boston Harbour, December 16th, 1773." 129 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:33,000 Do you believe it's the tea? I'm doubtful that it's the tea. 130 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,040 Well, you should be doubtful, but I think it's possible. 131 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,480 And the point is that in 1840, when he gave it to this museum, 132 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:41,760 he was wanting to remember... Exactly. 133 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,240 ..this cornerstone of American history... 134 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:47,720 Whether it's real or not doesn't really matter. It doesn't, does it? 135 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,320 It's just the story that's told. It's the story. 136 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,000 It was all part of this renewal and revival of this event that 137 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,840 by this time, much of the violence associated with it was forgotten. 138 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,720 The story of the tea party takes on a new meaning 139 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:04,760 with each retelling. 140 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:09,440 In the 19th century, it became patriotic fun with dressing up. 141 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:14,160 In the 1970s, it was used to support calls 142 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:17,160 for Richard Nixon to be impeached. 143 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,000 And in the 21st century, 144 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,840 it's been adopted by the radical right's Tea Party movement. 145 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,720 We are going to make America great again. 146 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:32,000 Thank you. Thank you very much. 147 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:33,400 Thank you. 148 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:35,440 CHEERING 149 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:37,480 Back in the 18th century, 150 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,920 the tea party provokes a dramatic response from the British. 151 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:45,160 In 1774, 152 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:49,680 George III and the British Parliament punished Boston. 153 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:51,920 Political meetings were shut down. 154 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:55,120 And the port was closed. 155 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:56,960 Tensions mounted. 156 00:09:57,960 --> 00:09:59,760 In 1775, 157 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:03,680 the rebels were stockpiling guns and ammunition, 158 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:05,680 they were getting ready for war, 159 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:08,240 but the British were onto them. 160 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:12,760 British troops were ordered to go to seize and destroy weapons 161 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:15,440 that were being stored in the Massachusetts towns 162 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:18,000 of Lexington and Concord. 163 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:23,680 The American Patriots got wind of the British plan, 164 00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:26,680 so they set up a signalling system. 165 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:30,480 When the British mobilised, 166 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:35,120 lanterns would appear in the tower at the North Church here in Boston. 167 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:41,160 One lantern meant that the British were marching to Concord. 168 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,880 Two meant that they were travelling by boat. 169 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:50,400 At the signal, a Patriot would ride through the countryside 170 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:52,360 to alert the local militia. 171 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:56,760 Paul Revere was a local craftsman. 172 00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:00,320 That night, he would become a folk hero. 173 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:07,040 Paul Revere is celebrated as the single courageous hero 174 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:10,080 who rode through the night to warn the Americans 175 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:12,240 that the British were coming. 176 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,960 But this is actually something of a fib. 177 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:21,680 And it was all cooked up by one of America's greatest poets. 178 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:27,960 In 1860, 85 years after the event, 179 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:31,680 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a stirring poem 180 00:11:31,680 --> 00:11:33,440 about Revere's ride. 181 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:38,720 It's been learned by generations of American school kids. 182 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:43,520 Listen, my children, and you shall hear 183 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:46,000 of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. 184 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,320 Listen, my children, and you shall hear 185 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,360 of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. 186 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:54,640 But the poem isn't the only version of the story. 187 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:57,480 Revere himself described his ride 188 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:00,120 in a statement made soon after the event. 189 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:05,720 He then wrote a more elaborate version 23 years later. 190 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:09,480 In each retelling of the story, though, 191 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:13,960 events become more dramatic and Revere takes a different route. 192 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:21,160 In the poem, Revere sees the signal in the church tower and sets off - 193 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:24,360 a lone rider in the moonlit night. 194 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:28,960 The fate of history is in one man's hands. 195 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:33,360 But according to Revere's own account, 196 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:36,320 there's a second rider - Mr Dawes. 197 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:41,800 Revere rode north of the British route to avoid discovery, 198 00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:44,760 while Dawes rode to the south of it. 199 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:48,440 After stopping at Lexington to warn rebel leaders, 200 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:52,680 they then headed towards Concord with a third man. 201 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,720 But poetry prefers a solitary hero. 202 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:58,960 David taking on Goliath. 203 00:12:59,960 --> 00:13:04,240 Longfellow's poem takes Paul Revere, the lone hero, 204 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:07,920 step-by-step through the Massachusetts countryside. 205 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,360 By 1am, he reaches Lexington. 206 00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:12,800 2am, he gets to Concord. 207 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:15,960 Hurray! He's in time to wake the sleeping locals. 208 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:17,680 Mission accomplished. 209 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,440 Now, here's a funny thing. 210 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:27,040 If you look at Revere's own accounts, this is one of them, 211 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:32,080 you discover that he never actually made it to Concord that night, 212 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:36,800 because after leaving Lexington he was captured by the British. 213 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:41,960 In reality, it was the third rider who warned Concord 214 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:44,000 that the British were on the march. 215 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:47,720 But Longfellow's poetic version 216 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:51,720 guaranteed a place in history for Paul Revere. 217 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:01,120 The morning after Revere's ride, the local militia in Lexington 218 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,240 were ready and waiting for the British. 219 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:06,000 GUNFIRE 220 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,200 But the British Army overwhelmed the rebels. 221 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:14,160 A company of British soldiers then marched to the bridge 222 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:17,160 in the neighbouring town of Concord. 223 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,000 By the time the British got to the bridge, 224 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:24,440 there were 500 militia men waiting for them on this side 225 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:26,400 and battle broke out. 226 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:29,280 The British had only sent 100 soldiers. 227 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,760 They were pretty soon outnumbered, overpowered, 228 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,520 and they began to retreat back towards Boston. 229 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,720 73 British soldiers were killed in Lexington and Concord, 230 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:43,680 and 50 Americans. 231 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:48,000 At the battlefield in Concord 232 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,560 is a memorial to the American colonists who fought here. 233 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:57,680 These men were not professional soldiers. 234 00:14:57,680 --> 00:14:59,760 They were the local militia. 235 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,680 In the colonies, all men were trained to fight 236 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:05,520 with their own muskets 237 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,680 to protect their communities in an emergency. 238 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:14,440 This statue celebrates the militia men as ordinary farmers. 239 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:18,720 He's just a regular bloke, if implausibly handsome. 240 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,960 The statue was put up 100 years after the battle, 241 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,000 and you can tell he's ordinary 242 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:26,400 because he's not wearing a military uniform 243 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:28,640 and, although he's carrying a musket, 244 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:30,960 he's brought his plough with him, too. 245 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:37,000 At the foot of the statue are lines of verse from the Concord Hymn, 246 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,200 written by the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837. 247 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:47,240 The poem talks about the Patriots as "the embattled farmers" 248 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,400 who "fired the shot heard round the world". 249 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:54,760 These are the little people taking on the forces of history. 250 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:58,200 They are amateurs taking on the professional British Army. 251 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,200 Once again, it's David and Goliath. 252 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:05,760 This image of brave farmers taking up arms to beat the British 253 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,960 has become a central part of the powerful mythology 254 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:11,480 of the American Revolution. 255 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:15,160 But it's a distorted version of what really happened. 256 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:18,200 So, these amateur soldiers, 257 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:21,400 were they the men who really defeated the British? 258 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:24,760 That's what we're supposed to think, isn't it? That is the ideal. 259 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:28,080 That's why we have the statue of somebody going back to his plough, 260 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:31,440 but in fact, the American leaders knew that they couldn't do that 261 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:34,760 with just militia troops, so they needed a professional army, 262 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:37,320 what became the Continental Army, to win the war. 263 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,240 Three months after Lexington and Concord, 264 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,000 Congress created the Continental Army. 265 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,680 At first, it united the local militias from across the colonies. 266 00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:50,160 Take aim. 267 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,760 But under General George Washington, 268 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:56,960 it started recruiting and training as a professional army. 269 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:58,640 Fire! 270 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,000 So this Continental Army, this proper army, it won the war. 271 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,760 What happens next? There was great rejoicing. 272 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,160 Everybody was...celebrated the victory 273 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:11,680 and then the army disbanded. 274 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,760 This was because the United States felt it was safe 275 00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,480 now that Britain was recognising its independence, 276 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,360 and because they did not want the expense 277 00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:25,240 or the possible danger of professional forces hanging around. 278 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:28,720 What's the danger? They're here to keep us safe, aren't they? Tyranny. 279 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,680 Tyranny. The possibility of a military dictator 280 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,760 or an oligarchy of rich men 281 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:40,280 taking over our fine, fragile republic was the idea. 282 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:44,760 At the end of the war, even General George Washington 283 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,680 resigned his post and returned to his farm in Virginia. 284 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:53,000 A new nation would have no major professional army, 285 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:57,160 but men would continue to bear arms and serve in the local militia. 286 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:02,480 They felt that the ideal citizen was somebody who had land, 287 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:05,720 a family, a business, and was rooted in the community, 288 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,680 and not one of these restless soldiers obeying orders 289 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:10,920 from some higher power. 290 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,920 So, your ideal citizen owns his own gun. 291 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:19,000 At that time, yes. To be fully a member of the community 292 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,240 in its self-defence, you needed to be part of the militia, 293 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,760 and that usually meant having your own muskets. 294 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:32,000 This belief that the founders had in their citizen soldiers 295 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,760 was so important, it got enshrined in the new nation's Bill of Rights. 296 00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,440 The Second Amendment says that having a militia 297 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:42,440 is absolutely necessary for security. 298 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:45,680 And it says that the people's right to bear arms 299 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,440 shall not be infringed. 300 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:53,480 This statement still forms the basis of US gun law to this day, 301 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:57,760 almost as if Americans are still living in the 18th century. 302 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:01,000 And to me, the irony is that it wasn't even 303 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,720 these normal blokes with guns who defeated the British anyway. 304 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:11,680 At Lexington and Concord, the first shots of war were fired. 305 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:13,240 GUNFIRE 306 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:17,800 But this wasn't yet a revolution to topple a king, 307 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:22,760 so now a new battle began over how to use the story 308 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:26,680 of the conflict to win support from George III. 309 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:31,880 Each side produced conflicting eyewitness accounts. 310 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,000 The British claimed that they weren't looking for a fight, 311 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,200 they just wanted to capture those military supplies. 312 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,000 They said that the American rebels fired first 313 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,360 so they were only acting in self-defence. 314 00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:47,400 Also, the Americans abused the dead. 315 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,320 They cut off their scalps. 316 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:53,400 Though the Americans said the British started it. 317 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:55,400 "They attacked unprovoked." 318 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,720 Also, they were thirsty for blood. 319 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,760 The British are supposed to have chucked pregnant women 320 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:05,440 out of their beds and killed unarmed people in their own homes. 321 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:09,160 Whatever really happened, American patriots hoped 322 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:11,760 that George III would intervene 323 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:15,880 when he understood the injustice against his colonial subjects. 324 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:20,000 The Patriots chartered a fast ship 325 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,720 to take their version of events to England. 326 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:29,200 It arrived two weeks before the British Army's own account. 327 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:33,000 In mid-1775, 328 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,720 the majority in America were still opposed to independence. 329 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,400 Their beef was with Parliament. 330 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,720 They remained loyal to George III. 331 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,680 But radicals, inspired by Enlightenment thinking, 332 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,680 wanted a revolution. 333 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,720 And they could only justify this if the King was seen 334 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,360 as a tyrant, acting against the interests of the people. 335 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:03,720 If America was going to make a go of it as an independent nation, 336 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:07,920 then the Patriot leaders needed to convince the people 337 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,480 that George III was a cruel tyrant. 338 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:16,200 In the 1760s, the King had been celebrated 339 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:19,960 for defending the colonists against Parliament. 340 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,560 As recently as 1770, 341 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:25,680 a statue to George III had been put up here, 342 00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,680 in New York's Bowling Green Park. 343 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:32,480 But, in 1775, 344 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,440 further bloodshed in Boston convinced King George 345 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:37,680 of the Americans' treachery. 346 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:42,200 In August 1775, George III proclaimed 347 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,920 that his American subjects were now definitely in a state 348 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:47,720 of open rebellion 349 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:51,680 and that his troops must do their utmost to put it down. 350 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:56,920 Now, to the Americans who still saw themselves as loyal to George III, 351 00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,000 this was a terrible blow. 352 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,160 Their king had just turned them into traitors. 353 00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:08,400 At the opening of the British Parliament in October 1775, 354 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,160 the King repeated his accusations of rebellion. 355 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:15,880 And when the news reached America, 356 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:20,200 a piece of propaganda was about to make the King look even worse. 357 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:25,400 This is the Pennsylvania Evening Post 358 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,480 for the 9th of January, 1776. 359 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,400 This edition contains the whole of the King's speech. 360 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,760 It goes on for quite some time. 361 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:37,480 It finishes here on page 15, and down here is an advert 362 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:40,760 for a new pamphlet to be published on the very same day. 363 00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:43,960 The topic is the tyranny of the monarchy. 364 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,920 The title of the pamphlet is Common Sense 365 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,280 and the author is Thomas Paine. 366 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,040 Thomas Paine was a British-born radical 367 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:57,720 who became a leading voice in both the American and French Revolutions. 368 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:02,680 He believed independence was the answer to America's problems. 369 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,760 Common Sense was his argument for a revolution. 370 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:11,000 Now, Thomas Paine was really brilliant at using simple, 371 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,720 persuasive language that appealed to a mass audience 372 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,760 and Common Sense became an almost instant bestseller. 373 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,440 In it, he never directly names King George III, 374 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,240 but, by implication, he was pretty rude about him. 375 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,640 Paine talks about the "Pharaoh of England" 376 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:31,960 and the "Royal brute". 377 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:36,160 He was casting George III as the villain of this story. 378 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:42,120 Within six months of the publication of Common Sense, 379 00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:44,320 in July 1776, 380 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,160 the United States denounced the monarch 381 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,960 and proclaimed itself an independent nation. 382 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,040 America's Declaration of Independence is remembered 383 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:58,680 for its high ideals of liberty and equality, 384 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,240 but that's just one line. 385 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:05,960 The bulk of the document was a tirade of grievances 386 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:09,080 against a tyrannous King George. 387 00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:13,240 After a public reading of the Declaration of Independence 388 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:17,240 here in New York, this little square got taken all to pieces. 389 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,440 There had been crowns on the top of these railings, 390 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,200 which were hacked off. 391 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,960 You can still see the marks of the blows. 392 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,800 And the metal statue of King George III that had stood in the middle 393 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,240 was pulled down, his head was cut off, 394 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:35,240 and his body was melted down and turned into musket balls 395 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,160 to be used against the King's own troops. 396 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,440 The toppling of King George's statue looks like a violent, 397 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:47,120 revolutionary act. 398 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,720 But this isn't the image of 1776 399 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:55,200 the Founding Fathers wanted us to remember. 400 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,480 In 1817, the US Congress commissioned 401 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:05,200 John Trumbull's painting, The Declaration Of Independence. 402 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,960 It hangs in the nation's Capitol Building 403 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:09,920 in Washington, DC. 404 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,760 It shows Thomas Jefferson presenting the draft of the Declaration 405 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,160 to Congress in Philadelphia. 406 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:22,720 At the moment of its birth, 407 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:27,160 the new nation was at all-out war with the British Empire. 408 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,720 But history paints the founding of the United States 409 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,960 as a calm, formal scene, 410 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:37,440 speaking of harmony and high ideals. 411 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:44,720 The Declaration of Independence was signed in this room. 412 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:49,160 It explains why America is fighting its war, 413 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,480 why it wants to be independent, 414 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:54,760 how it's going to form itself into a nation. 415 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,960 It's quite a practical document for the short term. 416 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,760 It explains how things are going to unfold. 417 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,720 But the values it presents for the long term 418 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,200 have turned it into almost a sacred text. 419 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:14,760 What makes us exceptional, what makes us American, 420 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:18,680 is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration 421 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,280 made more than two centuries ago. 422 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:25,160 We hold these truths to be self-evident 423 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,560 that all men are created equal... 424 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,680 That they are endowed by their creator... 425 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:33,920 With certain inalienable rights. 426 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,560 Among these are life, liberty... 427 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,400 And the pursuit of happiness. 428 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:43,240 The Declaration of Independence has gone down in history 429 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:48,000 as a unanimous statement of the beliefs of a new nation. 430 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,240 But the writing of the Declaration 431 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,680 exposed a series of highly-charged disagreements. 432 00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:00,240 The document had to satisfy the demands of people from 13 states 433 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:03,720 with opposing views on divisive subjects 434 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,800 like religion and slavery. 435 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:12,000 Professor Danielle Allen has studied the drafts of the Declaration 436 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:13,720 line by line. 437 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:17,640 So, the first draft had an incredible paragraph 438 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:21,720 condemning King George for a slave trade that was violating, 439 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,720 in the language of the draft, the "sacred rights 440 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,720 "of life and liberty of a distant people in Africa." 441 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:31,000 And that was cut out by Congress, that was a pro-slavery moment 442 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,040 where it was too much to say explicitly that Africans 443 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,240 had the same rights of life and liberty as everybody else. 444 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,440 But then we get the anti-slavery moment, which is in the phrase, 445 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,920 "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". 446 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,760 So, the tradition of thinking about rights and the law of nature 447 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,240 that emerged in the 17th and 18th century 448 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,240 often invoked the idea that what governments should do 449 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,520 is defend life, liberty and property. 450 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,640 In the American context, the concept of property had become 451 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,880 closely connected to a defence of slavery, so there was a debate 452 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,720 between the happiness concept and the property concept. 453 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:05,760 The happiness concept won. 454 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,800 It's a compromise concept, because the people who were against slavery 455 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,240 could see it as eroding the justification for slavery. 456 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,280 The people who were in favour of slavery could think, 457 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,760 "Yes, my enslaved people make me happy!", 458 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:22,320 so they too had a way of seeing themselves in the document. 459 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:26,800 Do you think that this is really a very clever document indeed, 460 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,880 because everybody can look at it and see what they want to see. 461 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:31,720 It's a beautiful compromise. 462 00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,160 Well, we've forgotten these days, but one of the core elements 463 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,320 of democracy is compromise, 464 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,720 which is interesting, because often in the US we like to think, 465 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,520 "Oh, what was the original intent of the founders?", 466 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,240 and the fact is, there isn't a single answer to that, 467 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,760 because they had these moments of choice, they'd pick an action, 468 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:52,840 they agreed on the action, but for different reasons. 469 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,160 Even the Declaration's most memorable statement, 470 00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:59,680 "That all men are created equal", 471 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:01,960 was open to interpretation. 472 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,200 Did the fact that everybody was equal, in the basic sense 473 00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:08,280 of their wellbeing mattering, 474 00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,480 mean that everybody should participate in political power? 475 00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,240 And the answer to that question for them was no. 476 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,000 John Adams writes to his wife Abigail when she says, 477 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,760 "What about the ladies? Where are they in this?" 478 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,280 He writes to her and says, "Yes, your wellbeing, 479 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,240 "your life, liberty and happiness are a part of this, 480 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,480 "but we men, we will be in charge of ensuring that the government 481 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,480 "succeeds in delivering that." 482 00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,680 Those white men with property who are going to control power. 483 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,760 Every 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence 484 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,720 is celebrated as the birth of the United States. 485 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,440 But it wasn't the end of the war. 486 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:53,960 America still had to beat the British on the battlefield. 487 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,400 But the Americans didn't have enough arms and ammunition 488 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,480 to win a war by themselves. 489 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:05,920 So, to get rid of one king, they turned for help to another - 490 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,720 King Louis XVI of France. 491 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,760 Within a week of signing the Declaration of Independence, 492 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,760 the American revolutionaries sent a copy to the French monarch. 493 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,080 The British were France's greatest enemy. 494 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:24,960 Raaarrr! 495 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:26,840 Raarr! 496 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,680 In 1756, Britain and France had gone to war 497 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:32,840 over territories in North America. 498 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,200 This became known as the Seven Years' War. 499 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:41,000 It was a battle for imperial supremacy. 500 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,680 But the British...came out on top. 501 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,600 And the French weren't happy about it. 502 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:52,880 France lost all of its Canadian colonies to Britain, 503 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,560 as well as parts of the Caribbean. 504 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:59,560 And all they had to show for their efforts was crippling debt. 505 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:03,240 Sacrebleu! 506 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:07,400 Imperial France saw the American War of Independence 507 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:09,600 as the chance to get its revenge. 508 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:16,440 In 1776, they began smuggling arms to support the Patriot cause. 509 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:21,920 Then, in 1778, the French joined the United States 510 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:23,680 as official allies. 511 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:27,400 The main thing that changed was the introduction 512 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:29,480 of the French Navy into the force. Mmm. 513 00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,720 The British were always dependent upon their Navy to keep themselves 514 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,760 supplied from London, 515 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,800 to move troops around from place to place, 516 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,880 and with the French Navy now on American shores, 517 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,000 all of that was cut off. 518 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,720 Britannia no longer ruled the waves. Mmm. 519 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:50,000 And for them, it changed completely the nature of the war. 520 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,760 Do you think that America could have won 521 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,760 without this help from France? No, absolutely not. 522 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:59,560 America could never have won the war without France. 523 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:02,280 This is not the story of the plucky little Americans 524 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:05,440 with their muskets and their ploughs going out and having a go 525 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:07,760 against the mighty, evil British, is it? 526 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,240 And it never was true and it was never a good fit. 527 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,440 Erm, the Americans could never have brought themselves up 528 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:16,160 by their own bootstraps. 529 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:19,480 In fact, the real story of the American Revolution 530 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:22,760 is that the United States became the centrepiece 531 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:26,480 of an international coalition which together fought 532 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:30,320 to achieve a common purpose - to defeat a common adversary. 533 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:37,800 The last major land battle of the Revolutionary War was in 1781. 534 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,760 In Yorktown, Virginia, the British surrendered 535 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:46,960 to George Washington's army of American and French troops. 536 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:52,720 But the decisive role of Imperial France in the American victory 537 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,120 was very quickly played down. 538 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,720 The war was over, yet the battle to control the story 539 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,920 of the revolution was just getting started. 540 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,640 # Oooo-ooo-oooh... # 541 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:12,040 The early histories of the revolution told the story 542 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:16,240 almost as a morality tale with good triumphing, 543 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,680 and that's because the new nation was still finding its feet. 544 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,640 It needed stability and purpose. 545 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,720 Meanwhile, the French, 546 00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,240 well, they were now having a violent revolution their own. 547 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,160 They were busy chopping each other's heads off. 548 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:37,200 Emerson wrote his Concord Hymn in 1837. 549 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:42,240 By this time, Americans saw themselves as triumphant underdogs. 550 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:46,160 His embattled farmers were celebrated in poetry, 551 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,600 set to the tune of an old psalm. 552 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:53,480 # By the rude bridge that arched... # 553 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:58,480 The revolution was becoming remembered as a sacred story 554 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,720 outlining America's God-given destiny 555 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:03,680 to lead others towards liberty. 556 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:08,160 In the 1840s, its conquest of Mexican 557 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:10,400 and Native American territory 558 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,160 was presented as the divine destiny 559 00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:15,960 of an exceptional nation. 560 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:19,000 The idea that we controlled our own destiny 561 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,520 did not fit very well with the idea that we depended 562 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:26,160 upon European powers to support our birth 563 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,360 and so that part of the story became left out over time. 564 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:30,960 # Free 565 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:36,000 # Bid time and Nature gently spare... # 566 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,760 In the first half of the 19th century, 567 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,240 the nation's patriotism was growing ever stronger. 568 00:34:42,240 --> 00:34:47,280 People were eager to tell stories of America's revolutionary heroes. 569 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,360 And if they don't exist, then why not make them up? 570 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:53,880 Mm-hmm! 571 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:01,720 Take the story of a woman named Molly Pitcher. 572 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:07,440 Legend has it that Molly wandered the field at the Battle of Monmouth 573 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,680 in 1778, bringing water to her husband 574 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:12,680 and his fellow soldiers. 575 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,440 Suddenly... GUNSHOT 576 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:20,680 Ah! Molly's husband is shot in the head. 577 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,440 He falls to the ground. 578 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,520 She drops her pail of water and she cries out, 579 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:29,960 "Lie there, my darling, I will avenge thee!" 580 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:34,160 Molly Pitcher bravely takes up her husband's position 581 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,360 at the cannon and battles on. 582 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,000 CANNON FIRE 583 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:42,760 The next morning, George Washington himself gives Molly a piece of gold 584 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,360 and assures her that her services will not be forgotten. 585 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,720 But, in some versions of the story, 586 00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:53,000 George Washington also makes her a Sergeant. 587 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,960 And in others, the husband isn't killed, 588 00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:57,800 he's only injured. 589 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,240 And in yet others, it's not a bucket that Molly's carrying around 590 00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:05,480 the battlefield, it's a pitcher, and the thirsty soldiers shout out, 591 00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:08,920 "Oi, Molly, we're thirsty! Bring your pitcher! Molly, pitcher!" 592 00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:10,400 Molly Pitcher. 593 00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:15,480 Molly is an appealing heroine 594 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,960 and her battle-scarred 19th-century image 595 00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:22,880 still appears in 21st-century schoolbooks. 596 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:25,760 But Molly Pitcher is a fib. 597 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:30,240 You'll find lots of books about her, but there are no first-hand accounts 598 00:36:30,240 --> 00:36:33,400 that place her at the Battle of Monmouth. 599 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,680 She's probably an amalgamation 600 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:40,000 of several brave Patriot women. 601 00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,200 Some people think that she's Margaret Corbin, 602 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,160 a woman wounded in battle at Fort Washington 603 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:49,160 who received a war pension. 604 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,640 Others claim she's Mary Hays McCauley. 605 00:36:54,720 --> 00:36:56,520 Mary even has a memorial 606 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,120 claiming her as the original Molly Pitcher. 607 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:04,720 But Molly's legend sprung up in the 1830s and '40s, 608 00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:08,400 when the people who'd lived through the revolution were dying out. 609 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:13,240 Historians started collecting anecdotes second-hand 610 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:16,400 and historical accuracy was often sacrificed 611 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,680 in favour of a good story. 612 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:20,200 Fire! 613 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,760 The Liberty Bell is another late arrival 614 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,920 in the story of the birth of the United States. 615 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:41,000 The bell used to hang in the tower above Independence Hall, 616 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:44,560 where the Declaration of Independence was signed. 617 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:49,400 It was put up in 1753 to call politicians to meetings 618 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:53,160 and to alert the public to important announcements. 619 00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:58,760 When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public 620 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:02,200 and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, 621 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,760 a witness said it rang as if it meant something. 622 00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:10,400 In our time, it means something still. 623 00:38:12,720 --> 00:38:17,120 But the Liberty Bell's starring role in the American Revolution 624 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,200 only entered the story 625 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:23,640 71 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. 626 00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:31,520 In the 1840s, George Lippard was the bestselling author in America. 627 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:38,200 Lippard was best known for his sensationalist Gothic tales, 628 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,400 filled with gory murders and vice. 629 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:48,200 But in 1847, he turned his hand to historical fiction. 630 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:58,240 Lippard wrote a story that was set on the 4th of July, 1776. 631 00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:03,200 He introduces the character of an old man in humble attire, 632 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:06,000 but he still has a gleam in his eye. 633 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,240 He's the kindly bell-ringer who's in charge of the Liberty Bell. 634 00:39:10,240 --> 00:39:13,920 And then there's a young boy with flaxen hair 635 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,000 and laughing eyes of summer blue. 636 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,760 The story goes that the blue-eyed boy 637 00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:23,240 had the job of signalling to the old man 638 00:39:23,240 --> 00:39:27,160 to ring the bell when the men below declared independence. 639 00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:30,720 And what a super-exciting moment it is. 640 00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:33,720 The little boy, swelling his little chest, 641 00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:37,720 raised himself on tiptoe and shouted a single word, 642 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:39,200 "Ring!" 643 00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:43,480 Now the old man is young again, his veins are filled with new life. 644 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,240 Backward and forward with sturdy strokes, 645 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:49,720 he swings the tongue, the bell speaks out! 646 00:39:49,720 --> 00:39:52,160 Everybody goes absolutely wild. 647 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:57,160 The bell speaks to the city and to the world. 648 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:00,520 It's a great story. 649 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,680 It's the Hollywood version of the 4th of July 650 00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,400 before Hollywood even exists. 651 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:08,920 And it's also entirely made up. 652 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:14,960 It sounds like heresy, but there's no evidence at all 653 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,680 that the Liberty Bell was rung on the 4th of July, 1776. 654 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,720 On July the 8th, some of the city bells were rung 655 00:40:23,720 --> 00:40:26,440 to announce the public reading of the Declaration, 656 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:30,000 but the steeple at the old statehouse was in disrepair, 657 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:34,800 so it's unlikely that Old Liberty was ever rung that week. 658 00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:37,720 But you can't keep a good story down. 659 00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:42,200 Five years later, a significant historian called Benson Lossing 660 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:46,440 published his Pictorial Field-Book of the American Revolution, 661 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,960 and he too included the "blue-eyed boy" 662 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,160 giving the signal to ring the bell. 663 00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:55,240 Two years after that, 664 00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,400 and a biography of George Washington is published, 665 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,200 complete with the "bright-eyed boy". 666 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:07,200 So, in less than a decade, Lippard's historical fiction 667 00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:10,200 has become accepted as historical fact. 668 00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,720 Thanks to Lippard, the Liberty Bell has become 669 00:41:17,720 --> 00:41:21,200 a central part of the American story. 670 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,760 The body of Abraham Lincoln was brought to Philadelphia 671 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:29,160 to lie in state next to the Liberty Bell 672 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,920 after his assassination in 1865. 673 00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:34,960 In 1917, 674 00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:40,000 its image helps to raise $21 billion for the US war effort. 675 00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:42,960 Thank you, all. 676 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,160 And its legend has continued into the 21st century. 677 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:48,800 And each of the founders coming here 678 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:51,440 would know the ring of the Liberty Bell. 679 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:53,920 It rang to announce the first public reading 680 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:56,040 of the Declaration of Independence. 681 00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,240 But in the late 19th century, 682 00:41:59,240 --> 00:42:02,440 a new symbol of the revolution was forged, 683 00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:05,920 and it would eclipse even the Liberty Bell 684 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,440 in the national consciousness. 685 00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:18,400 The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of the American Revolution 686 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,200 at its biggest and boldest. 687 00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:25,760 Liberty, the central idea from the Declaration of Independence, 688 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:29,000 was reimagined as a 300-foot goddess... 689 00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:32,960 ..armed with a guiding light 690 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:35,920 and a tablet bearing the revolutionary date - 691 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:38,720 July 4th, 1776. 692 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,480 But her meaning has never been set in stone. 693 00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:46,720 She's come to represent all kinds of different things. 694 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:49,480 The revolutionary alliance with France, 695 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,000 America enlightening the rest of the world 696 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,240 and a nation that welcomes immigrants. 697 00:42:56,240 --> 00:43:00,160 Each of these things, though, comes with its own little fibs. 698 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,000 The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French 699 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:11,920 to celebrate their almost forgotten alliance in the American Revolution. 700 00:43:14,240 --> 00:43:17,440 But this wasn't a gift from the French Government. 701 00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:20,920 It was a message to it, to guard against tyranny. 702 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:26,240 The Frenchman who proposed the statue, Edouard de Laboulaye, 703 00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:30,360 was worried about the lack of democracy in his own country. 704 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,440 He wanted a statue to honour the United States 705 00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:37,160 as an example of a successful republic. 706 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:42,360 But this great American symbol wasn't originally designed 707 00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,320 for the United States. 708 00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:48,000 The sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, 709 00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:51,600 had been planning to build a similar statue for Egypt. 710 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,480 He travelled to Egypt and he showed his designs 711 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:58,720 of a gigantic figure of a woman to stand at the entrance 712 00:43:58,720 --> 00:44:00,400 to the Suez Canal, 713 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:03,120 and she was to be veiled in the Egyptian fashion, 714 00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:06,960 she was to hold high a lantern and she was to represent Egypt 715 00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:09,960 carrying the light of progress to Asia. 716 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,480 And this idea excited the Egyptians initially, 717 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:17,160 but the expense was so high and they were expected to pay for it. 718 00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:19,000 They turned it down. 719 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:22,680 So, he just redesigned it so it would be a European figure, 720 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,400 it would be a Roman goddess instead, 721 00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:28,520 and that it would represent freedom and not progress. 722 00:44:30,240 --> 00:44:34,920 The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in 1886. 723 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:42,040 But to some, a statue celebrating the ideal of liberty was misleading. 724 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:47,120 Women protested at the unveiling ceremony. 725 00:44:48,240 --> 00:44:51,680 She might be Lady Liberty, but she still couldn't vote. 726 00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:56,720 While African-Americans pointed out that liberty and equality 727 00:44:56,720 --> 00:44:58,920 still weren't realities for them. 728 00:45:01,240 --> 00:45:05,000 Soon, a new meaning for the Statue of Liberty emerged. 729 00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:08,480 During fundraising to build the statue, 730 00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:11,440 a well-known Jewish poet called Emma Lazarus 731 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:13,960 had written a poem to raise money. 732 00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,240 Lazarus was an advocate for refugees 733 00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:24,280 and her poem gave Lady Liberty a new political message. 734 00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,920 Lazarus's poem was called The New Colossus. 735 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,440 In it, she showed Lady Liberty 736 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:37,680 almost standing on the doorstep of America, welcoming people in. 737 00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:41,160 The line that everybody remembers goes, 738 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:44,680 "Give me your tired, your poor, 739 00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:47,400 "your huddled masses, 740 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:51,120 "yearning to breathe free." 741 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:57,760 Nearly 20 years after the opening, Lazarus's friends had a verse 742 00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:01,680 from that poem engraved on a plaque at the base of the statue. 743 00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:06,720 And now the poem was all the more resonant. 744 00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:08,800 In 1892, 745 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:13,760 an immigration centre had opened on neighbouring Ellis Island. 746 00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:18,520 Lady Liberty would now be forever connected with the idea 747 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:23,440 of the United States welcoming immigrants from all over the world. 748 00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:27,480 Do you think that the key to her success 749 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:31,760 in becoming this symbol of America is the fact that she's so flexible? 750 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,760 She can mean almost anything to anybody, can't she? 751 00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:37,480 Yes, scholars have called her a hollow icon, 752 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:40,720 and that means that because she's really empty inside, 753 00:46:40,720 --> 00:46:43,320 she can be filled with anyone's notion 754 00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:45,240 of what liberty means to them. 755 00:46:45,240 --> 00:46:48,640 That did transform her into having all kinds of new meanings, 756 00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:51,680 like a symbol for immigrants, 757 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:54,920 a symbol for American nationalism, 758 00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:57,760 a symbol for all sorts of ideas. 759 00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:02,760 What started out as a powerful symbol of the French alliance 760 00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:06,800 in the War of Independence had been overtaken by another story. 761 00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:12,800 But in the 20th century, there would be new opportunities 762 00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:17,160 for the story of the revolution to shape the American landscape. 763 00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:20,640 JAZZ MUSIC 764 00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:25,720 Jazz-age New York was the era of the skyscraper - 765 00:47:25,720 --> 00:47:28,640 an emblem of a country looking to the future. 766 00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:31,480 But at the same time, 767 00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:35,120 American architecture was also looking to the past. 768 00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:40,400 Churches, post offices, schools were being built in a style 769 00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,640 known as Colonial Revival. 770 00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:49,000 George Washington High School was built in 1925, 771 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,200 just five years before the Chrysler Building opened. 772 00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:56,720 The name of the school refers to the American Revolution 773 00:47:56,720 --> 00:47:59,520 and so too does its design. 774 00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:02,760 That red brick and those white columns 775 00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,200 and especially the bell tower on top, 776 00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:08,240 they all remind me of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, 777 00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:11,200 or some of the 18th-century buildings of Boston. 778 00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:13,280 JAZZ MUSIC 779 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:19,440 Now, anybody could live in a home or eat in a diner 780 00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:22,400 that looked like 1770s America. 781 00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:32,000 The Colonial Revival was pitched as a truly American-style. 782 00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:36,680 You were supposed to look at it and somehow feel the special qualities 783 00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:38,480 of the Founding Fathers. 784 00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:41,480 Their courage, or maybe their virtue. 785 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:46,440 It was used for public buildings to show people how to be American. 786 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:51,200 In fact, architecture could be a way to make America great again. 787 00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:58,200 But this is an idealised version of the revolutionary era. 788 00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:02,480 It comes complete with heroic Founding Fathers 789 00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:07,520 who embody the Declaration's high ideals of liberty and equality. 790 00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:10,320 And it's another distortion of the truth. 791 00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,720 In the heart of Philadelphia, next to Independence Hall, 792 00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:17,240 is the site of the President's House. 793 00:49:17,240 --> 00:49:20,760 Long before the White House as we know it existed, 794 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,480 George Washington, as President, lived here. 795 00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:27,440 But the house that existed on this site 796 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,200 has a darker side to its story, 797 00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:35,240 because the unpalatable truth is that Washington was a slave-owner. 798 00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:39,680 At the time of his death in 1799, 799 00:49:39,680 --> 00:49:42,280 there were over 300 slaves 800 00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:45,320 working on Washington's Virginia plantation. 801 00:49:47,240 --> 00:49:50,800 Nine slaves worked for him here in Philadelphia. 802 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:55,960 When the foundations of the President's House 803 00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:59,520 were discovered in the year 2000, a campaign started 804 00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:03,920 to have Washington's Philadelphia slaves remembered at the site. 805 00:50:05,720 --> 00:50:08,680 Now, their names are carved in stone here 806 00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,160 and their story is recorded. 807 00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:13,960 But only after an eight-year battle 808 00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,800 fought by activists like Michael Coard. 809 00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:21,000 Why do some Americans, and some very powerful Americans, 810 00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:24,200 not want to think of Washington as a slave-owner? 811 00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:28,160 It shakes the very foundation of American history. 812 00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:32,440 If there were ever a man-god in American history, 813 00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:34,200 it's George Washington. 814 00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:37,480 George Washington is the foundation of what America represents, 815 00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:39,760 so if you find out that at the very core, 816 00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:43,760 at the very foundation, this man had such a horrific blemish, 817 00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:47,360 that blemish being slavery, people don't want to admit the truth. 818 00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:50,280 If he's flawed, then America's flawed. 819 00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,800 How did George Washington treat his slaves? 820 00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:58,240 Well, any person who enslaves any other person automatically 821 00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:01,680 treats them bad by enslaving them, that's the first thing. 822 00:51:01,680 --> 00:51:03,680 But even beyond that, 823 00:51:03,680 --> 00:51:06,760 George Washington was a miserable miser 824 00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:09,600 when it came to his enslaved population. 825 00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:13,240 He was notorious for having them run around in rags, 826 00:51:13,240 --> 00:51:16,480 having them hungry, having them emaciated. 827 00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:18,760 In 1780, there was something called 828 00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:21,400 the Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act. 829 00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:25,200 They passed a law saying, "Hey, if you bring enslaved human beings 830 00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:28,240 "into this state and you hold them for six straight months, 831 00:51:28,240 --> 00:51:30,480 "at the end of that six-month period, 832 00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:33,160 "they could petition for their freedom." Yes, yes. 833 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:37,240 So, what George Washington would do is wait for five months, 29 days, 834 00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:40,480 take them across state lines and then bring them back. 835 00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:43,440 Now, people say, "Well, yeah, he kind of skirted the law." 836 00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:46,200 No, he didn't just skirt the law, he broke the law. 837 00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:49,680 Nobody wants to hear that about our great hero George Washington. 838 00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:51,480 Absolutely! Oh, my goodness! 839 00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:54,720 And it's so funny, because if you want to say George Washington 840 00:51:54,720 --> 00:51:56,760 was a great general, you can say that. 841 00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:59,720 If you want to say George Washington was a great president, 842 00:51:59,720 --> 00:52:02,440 you can say that. But can you be a great human being 843 00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:05,880 when you hold 316 fellow human beings in brutal bondage 844 00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:08,200 and play the type of games he did 845 00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:10,640 with Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act? 846 00:52:10,640 --> 00:52:13,760 Why is it important to tell this story 847 00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,040 about George Washington, slave-owner? 848 00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:19,480 It's important in order for America and ultimately the world 849 00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:22,240 to be able to move toward racial healing. 850 00:52:22,240 --> 00:52:25,000 We might not ever reach that kumbaya moment 851 00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:27,760 where we all come together as a human species, 852 00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:30,480 but at least we can begin to respect one another. 853 00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:33,680 And you respect people when you find out where they came from, 854 00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:35,240 what they're about. 855 00:52:35,240 --> 00:52:38,000 In order to reach the truth you have to tell the truth, 856 00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:40,480 and you have to tell the truth at the beginning. 857 00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:43,720 The beginning of American political history is George Washington. 858 00:52:43,720 --> 00:52:45,920 You've got to tell the truth, the whole truth 859 00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:47,640 and nothing but the truth. 860 00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:49,960 # Oooo-oooh ...# 861 00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:53,440 In the 21st century, 862 00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:58,480 a battle still rages to decide whose version of history gets told. 863 00:53:00,160 --> 00:53:02,960 # Oooo-ooo-oooh... # 864 00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:07,200 And in 2015, that story stepped on stage 865 00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:09,240 on Broadway. 866 00:53:09,240 --> 00:53:10,920 # Alexander Hamilton 867 00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:13,760 # My name is... # 868 00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:16,480 Hamilton is a ground-breaking retelling 869 00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:20,520 of the birth of the United States as a hip-hop musical. 870 00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:23,400 # Just you wait, just you wait 871 00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:25,960 # When he was ten, his father... # 872 00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:29,160 Created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, it's based on the life 873 00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:32,080 of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. 874 00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:35,280 George Washington's right-hand man on the battlefield 875 00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,920 and Treasury Secretary in his Cabinet. 876 00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:43,160 It's been praised by critics and presidents, 877 00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:46,160 won 11 Tony Awards, a Grammy, 878 00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:48,480 and a Pulitzer Prize. 879 00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:53,520 To its fans, the musical Hamilton is a revolution in itself. 880 00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:56,800 It tells the story of the American Revolution, 881 00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:00,760 but all the historical characters are played by actors of colour. 882 00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:04,720 The only white one plays poor old King George III. 883 00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:07,960 So, the stage is full of African-Americans, 884 00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:10,760 Puerto Ricans and Chinese-Americans. 885 00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:13,240 There's a big sign on the front of the theatre, 886 00:54:13,240 --> 00:54:16,920 and it says, "History is happening here in Manhattan." 887 00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:22,960 Hamilton's racial diversity has made the story of the Founding Fathers 888 00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:25,680 more accessible for modern Americans. 889 00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:31,760 But historian Lyra Monteiro believes that this masks the inequalities 890 00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:35,960 at the heart of a revolution fought for liberty and equality. 891 00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:39,760 I saw the show the week it opened on Broadway 892 00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:44,760 and I was blown away by, you know, the quality of it as a work of art. 893 00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:47,760 But immediately I was, like, "Wait a second, this is not..." 894 00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:51,440 It's not cool that these guys are so cool, right? 895 00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:56,480 By turning the Founding Fathers into these, you know, 896 00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:01,000 interesting, cool, clever, exciting, you know, relatable guys, right, 897 00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:05,040 in suggesting that they're just the same as, you know, 898 00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:07,800 African-Americans who were raised in the projects, 899 00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:12,200 it ends up obscuring, really, how much that founding moment 900 00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:16,240 was about the oppression of everyone who wasn't a white man. 901 00:55:16,240 --> 00:55:18,480 It was not a revolution for everybody. 902 00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:22,720 These are definitely people who did not want the ancestors 903 00:55:22,720 --> 00:55:25,120 of the performers onstage 904 00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:28,320 to count as citizens in the nation they created. 905 00:55:28,320 --> 00:55:31,320 Do you think it's possible that there could be a generation 906 00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:34,720 of school kids who go away thinking that all of the Founding Fathers 907 00:55:34,720 --> 00:55:36,760 were great guys, just like Obama? 908 00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:40,000 Yeah! I think there's a real possibility of that. 909 00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,800 And I think there's a real problem with that too, though, 910 00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:46,000 because it continues to perpetuate this idea that 911 00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:49,200 in order to have a rightful claim to power in this country, 912 00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,760 a rightful claim to be in this country, 913 00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:55,760 you have to show that you have a claim to the country's past, right? 914 00:55:55,760 --> 00:56:00,800 And so black men and Latino men representing the founders 915 00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:03,400 is a way of saying, "Look, we belong here too. 916 00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:05,720 "We're as American as white people." 917 00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:07,720 And I think that's kind of shitty. 918 00:56:07,720 --> 00:56:10,120 I don't think that we should have to, you know, 919 00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:13,400 look back to that always in order to make a claim that we belong, 920 00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:16,560 because, ultimately, we're still leaving other people out. 921 00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:20,080 But isn't it "just" a musical? How much does it matter? 922 00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:22,160 Sure, it's just a musical, 923 00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:25,480 but it's a musical about a very... 924 00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:29,240 erm, intensely symbolic moment in American history 925 00:56:29,240 --> 00:56:33,320 that has an impact on how Americans understand ourselves. 926 00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,240 At the centre of the story of Hamilton 927 00:56:38,240 --> 00:56:41,200 is a line which becomes the final song - 928 00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:45,240 "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?" 929 00:56:45,240 --> 00:56:49,240 # Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? 930 00:56:49,240 --> 00:56:52,000 # President Jefferson, I give him this... # 931 00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:55,400 This show is explicitly asking questions 932 00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:58,000 about who gets to write history. 933 00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:02,440 # Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? # 934 00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:05,920 Who controls the narrative of the founding era? 935 00:57:07,000 --> 00:57:10,240 And in a story where some of American history's 936 00:57:10,240 --> 00:57:14,160 biggest fibs abound, this can surely only be a good thing. 937 00:57:15,240 --> 00:57:18,520 # Every other Founding Father's story gets told 938 00:57:18,520 --> 00:57:21,960 # Every other Founding Father gets to grow old... # 939 00:57:21,960 --> 00:57:26,440 The history of the American Revolution has been mythologised, 940 00:57:26,440 --> 00:57:28,920 distorted, reimagined 941 00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:31,760 and sometimes just made up. 942 00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:35,960 And that's partly because it's such an inspiring moment in time. 943 00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:40,720 America has such a powerful national mythology. 944 00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:43,760 It makes Americans feel good about their country 945 00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:47,440 and it's how their country presents itself to the world. 946 00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:50,720 But if history teaches us anything at all, 947 00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:53,440 it's that we have to ask questions. 948 00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:55,680 Who is telling us the story? 949 00:57:55,680 --> 00:57:58,200 How are they spinning it? 950 00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:01,400 And could they be telling us fibs? 951 00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:07,800 Next time, the American Civil War. 952 00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:11,080 You are darling, darling! 953 00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:15,840 Was Abraham Lincoln really fighting to end slavery? 954 00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:20,280 Lincoln always did what was in the best interest of his race. 955 00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:23,760 I'll uncover the fibs in the story of a conflict 956 00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:26,920 that continues to divide the United States.