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00:05they were undisciplined as soldiers we say that there was an army there wasn't an army there was
00:11a gaggle these men are ragged getting drunk on duty it was a mess up against the world's
00:17strongest empire the british are certain they can swat these militia away like pesky flies
00:22americans lost battle after battle the british make the assumption that a simple show of force
00:29will be enough to scare rebels back to their senses
00:36the question britain's asking is why isn't this thing over yet this should have been an easy victory
00:58boston 1765 lately life in the colonies has been relatively tranquil certainly it has for thomas
01:07hutchinson a fifth generation bostonian hutchinson has enjoyed good fortune and political success
01:18the king has appointed him chief justice and lieutenant governor of massachusetts
01:24for years thomas hutchinson has been one of the colony's most admired citizens
01:36hutchinson's life is about to take a dramatic and ugly turn an angry mob is surging through boston
01:43hutchinson is about to find out that he's the man thereafter he's the man in charge of the
01:50intolerable new policies imposed on the colonies by their british rulers tax policies that have
01:57incited an increasingly violent rebellion among the people
02:02a rebellion against the tax imposed not by their own local representatives but by parliament
02:09three thousand miles away in england lieutenant governor hutchinson is duty-bound to enforce this
02:16controversial new tax though he personally opposes it he is being denounced as a traitor
02:30massachusetts has never seen a mob as violent as this
02:36they're not just angry about the money they're angry at the assault on their autonomy by english rulers
02:42who neither know them nor represent them the revolt spreads like an epidemic through all 13 colonies
02:50it's hard to imagine that the fallout from this tax will ignite a social revolution unlike any
02:57the world has ever seen
02:58you
03:08you
03:09across the atlantic england's king george the third is losing his patients
03:13his colonies are acting like petulant children
03:17these are his subjects
03:19englishmen born in america but englishmen just the same
03:23he is their ruler and it's because of them that his empire is going broke
03:32a decade ago he sent british troops across the ocean to defend the colonies against french settlers
03:38and their indian allies
03:41the war went on for seven years and it cost england 60 million pounds
03:46money it now desperately needs
03:49there's a sense that after the seven years war that america ought to pay its way a little bit
03:56that expenses to protect north america should in part be raised in north america
04:01parliament's solution is unprecedented
04:04the stamp act of 1765 directly taxes colonies by having them pay for stamps that must be affixed to virtually
04:12every piece of paper they touch
04:14from official documents to playing cards
04:18it is the first time ever that parliament has levied a tax on the american colonies
04:25it goes badly from the start
04:27the colonists resent not only paying the tax but also having it imposed by a faraway parliament where no one
04:34represents them
04:35though the crown appoints colonial governors and high officials
04:39each colony is long accustomed to ruling itself and levying its own taxes
04:47the americans believe that over 150 years of being colonists
04:51they had in a sense created a nation within the british empire
04:54they had free assemblies democratically elected
04:58they had free and independent and very good newspapers
05:00they had their own tax system
05:06it wasn't just paying a little bit of money
05:09the notion was that other people were making them pay money
05:13so it's an emotional issue who's in control here
05:15we want to control our own lives which includes of course our own pocketbooks
05:21in 1765 a new generation of colonists is rushing headlong down an uncharted path to an unknown end
05:29and the stamp act is what starts it
05:34much of the spirit
05:35if not the exact words
05:37is don't you see what they're up to
05:41don't you see what's going on
05:43there's a strategy at work here
05:45to gradually erode american liberties
05:48if you let them do this
05:50what will they try to do next
05:53for the british the tax isn't about eroding liberties
05:57it's about money
06:01stoking the colonial reaction is a powerful underground movement known as the sons of liberty
06:08they meet secretly in taverns across the colonies
06:11and come up with every tactic they can to keep government officials from collecting england's tax
06:19people really started forming alliances between kind of street theater street gangs and merchants and artisans
06:27and figuring out ways to all work towards the common cause which is to repeal the stamp act
06:34soon enough things begin to get ugly
06:37intimidation is a favorite weapon
06:39those who remain loyal to the king known as loyalists or tories often find themselves terrorized by these self-anointed
06:48patriots
06:49they often use very dramatic techniques tar and feathering for instance
06:54this is a great way to humiliate people
06:57first you're stripped naked
06:58the bucket of tar is heated and you're coated with tar
07:02and then they put these feathers these goose feathers all over you and you're all hot and you're branching about
07:07like a silly goose
07:08after a display like this how is this person going to publicly oppose the patriot position
07:15a loyalist printer in new york city publishes a loyalist newspaper
07:21and they come in and smash his printing press while they are also proclaiming free speech
07:28as a principle to fight for
07:30that's the nature of war and the nature of revolution
07:36while the angry rabble takes to the streets
07:39men of property and education use printing presses and politics to denounce the stamp act tax
07:48one of the most outspoken is 29 year old john adams
07:53a bright ambitious attorney
07:55who brings logic and intellect to this very emotional argument
08:00he drafts anti-tax resolutions for some 40 massachusetts assemblies
08:05we have always understood it to be a grand and fundamental principle of the english constitution
08:11that no free man should be subject to any tax to which he has not given his own consent
08:18john adams
08:19adams has always envisioned great things for himself
08:23and the cause of liberty presents the opportunity of a lifetime
08:27his wife abigail is his trusted confidant and partner
08:31in all things great and small
08:35i think it's hard to overestimate the importance of abigail adams
08:39i mean not only is she
08:40more than an equal partner
08:42to her husband
08:44but she comes to this contest with really perfectly formed ideas about which she feels passionately
08:50she's an enormous influence on her husband
08:53one day
08:54these two will be counted among the founders of a new nation
08:58for now
08:59john adams is one of many voices of protest
09:02in a stamp act rebellion
09:04that engulfs all thirteen colonies
09:10down in virginia
09:11a fiery young legislator named patrick henry
09:14ups the ante
09:17resolved
09:17that the inhabitants of this colony
09:20are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance
09:24designed to impose any taxation whatsoever
09:27other than the laws of their own general assembly
09:30patrick henry
09:32in other words
09:34no taxation without representation
09:37henry's virginia resolves become a radical touchstone
09:41for all the colonies
09:50three thousand miles away in london
09:52another important player in the colonial drama
09:55america's benjamin franklin
09:57is doing what he does best
09:59playing chess
10:00flirting with a pretty young thing
10:03and keeping an eye on developments for his countrymen
10:09Franklin becomes the point man
10:10he is the man in england
10:12who is there essentially trying to hammer out some kind of compromise
10:15on issues of taxation
10:17with the crown
10:19at 59
10:20franklin is the most famous american in the world
10:23he has spent the better part of two decades in england
10:26as a trade representative
10:28and the colonies unofficial ambassador
10:30wooing and wowing a london society
10:33with his wit and wisdom
10:37this is the philadelphia printer and writer
10:40who created poor richards almanac
10:42the colonies best-selling annual rich with homespun advice
10:48he is the scientist who famously flew a kite to experiment with electricity
10:52who invented the lightning rod
10:54and the bifocal
10:57a self-made man
10:58who went from lowly apprentice to wealthy entrepreneur
11:01franklin is the embodiment of what it means to be an american
11:05yet he adores england
11:07the mother country
11:08and especially london
11:10he's absolutely in his element
11:12this is where the great center of science is at this point
11:14it's a it's like being in the city as opposed to having been in the country
11:17he's really hit the right group of people
11:20and he's very much
11:21he races down as the happiest years of his life
11:24now the uprising at home has put franklin at center stage
11:28a place he generally enjoys
11:31london's baffled politicians come pounding on his door
11:35desperate for a solution to the problem
11:37hoping he can use his considerable influence
11:40to bring the colonists to their senses
11:44but it's business not politics that settles the matter
11:49the decisive blow is the blow to the british pocketbook
11:56north american merchants said well okay
11:58while the stamp act is in place
12:00we're just not going to trade with you
12:02it's a way of getting merchants in england
12:05to say
12:06if this is going to ruin business
12:08then the stamp act's gotta go
12:10now england's merchants and bankers are feeling the pinch
12:14from the loss of business created by colonial boycotts
12:17and they too start railing against the stamp act
12:22the tax crisis has become just too big a headache
12:26and in march 1766 a beleaguered parliament finally repeals the stamp act
12:35unbelievably the people of the colonies have forced the world's greatest power
12:39to back down
12:40the rebel colonists can celebrate their first sweet taste of victory
12:45and of power
12:48but the battles are far from over
12:50england still needs the money
12:52and still needs to show who's boss
12:55over the next four years parliament devises new taxes
12:58which trigger renewed upheaval
13:00and end up being repealed
13:03as this seemingly endless cycle continues
13:06england dispatches two military regiments to massachusetts
13:09from new york to keep order
13:11adding fuel to the fire
13:16in 1768
13:18four more regiments sail from england
13:20on a collision course
13:23with america
13:31boston 1770
13:32one thousand british troops occupy this city of fifteen thousand
13:37it is a volatile brew
13:40boston is an accident waiting to happen
13:43literally
13:45conditions are right
13:46we've got an indigenous population that is very very sensitive
13:50to having british soldiers quartered amongst them
13:54you have all of these british regiments in boston
13:58this is something that the bostonians simply chafe under
14:05resentment grows against the soldiers in boston streets
14:09on the night of march 5th
14:11a band of local patriots heckles a british sentries standing guard at the customs house
14:17at first they merely hurl insults
14:20but soon they're hurling snowballs
14:22and eight more soldiers come to the aid of their comrade
14:28you have a group of men who are egging on british soldiers looking for ways to kind of stir up
14:36a fight
14:36and now they've created the antagonism that they've been trying to gin up
14:44hundreds more colonists pour into the street
14:46hundreds more colonists pour into the street
14:46hundreds more colonists pour into the street
14:48they launch a barrage of ice oyster shells and rocks at the soldiers
14:56the guards panic their guns go off
15:02when it's over five civilians lay dead on the frozen street
15:09it was a tragically predictable sort of event
15:13it's one of those situations in which the soldiers that are there to impose order
15:18are actually that seat of discontent that's going to produce disorder
15:22within hours of the deadly shootings the patriot spin machine roars into high gear
15:28a tragic accident is recast as a murderous crime against the colonial people
15:33in what becomes known as the boston massacre
15:43this was not remotely a massacre
15:46this was a case in which a mob assailed a small detachment of british soldiers
15:50which may have panicked but had very legitimate cause to fear for their well-being
15:56but that's not how it's portrayed to the outside world
15:59a local silversmith and artisan named paul revere renders an exaggerated version of the event
16:05that makes it look like an unprovoked slaughter by the british soldiers
16:11boston papers are quick to print and distribute revere's version
16:16and this becomes the patriot image of the boston massacre
16:20which shows the british lined up in a row firing their muskets
16:24all at once as if they got the command to fire which didn't happen that way
16:30the first to die in the gunfire is a black man
16:34a sailor and runaway slave named crispus attics
16:38he is widely viewed as the first martyr of the american revolution
16:47in this explosive atmosphere the public outcry pressures the british to pull their troops out of boston
16:53the soldiers responsible for the so-called massacre are put on trial for murder
16:58and they are hard pressed to find an attorney to take their case
17:02surprisingly one of boston's most vocal patriots steps forward
17:06john adams
17:09adams is willing to risk everything
17:11his and his family's safety
17:13and his reputation as an ardent advocate of colonial rights
17:16but he believes passionately in the right to a fair trial
17:21without human rights
17:23the patriot cause
17:25isn't worth fighting
17:27it was one of the best pieces of service i ever rendered
17:31judgment of death against these soldiers
17:33would have been a foul stain upon this country
17:36john adams
17:39adams wins an acquittal for seven of the soldiers
17:42and light sentences for the other two
17:45only his unquestioned devotion to the patriot cause
17:48keeps him from being branded a traitor
17:51the crisis is resolved
17:53for now
17:57back in england
17:58the colonial rebellion becomes a national preoccupation
18:02over the next three years
18:04parliament keeps trying to impose its authority with new laws
18:08and new taxes
18:11as each new law inflames the rebellion
18:14it ends up getting repealed
18:15except for one
18:17a tax on tea
18:20the principle involved
18:22is that parliament is sovereign
18:24it can pass laws on whatever it wants
18:26so we're going to just keep this one in place
18:28just because
18:29to assert the fact that we can do this
18:32the tea act puts only a three-penny tax per pound
18:35on the drink of choice for most americans
18:38it's hardly a burden
18:39but in the current climate a three-penny tax
18:42still equals oppression
18:46it's all that militant patriots need
18:48to strike another blow against the empire
18:54in the country
18:55Feathers and coal dust
18:56are their weapons
18:58on December 16th
19:001773
19:01the Sons of Liberty enlist 50 men
19:03to darken their faces
19:05stick feathers in their hair
19:07and arm themselves with hatchets
19:09in a bad impersonation of Mohawk Indians
19:145,000 people follow them down to Boston Harbor
19:17and watch as they climb aboard a merchant ship
19:20loaded with tea from England
19:23with British soldiers absent since the Boston Massacre
19:27there is no one to stop them
19:31342 crates of tea worth 10,000 British pounds
19:34are cast overboard
19:37this wanton act of sabotage
19:39which becomes known as the Boston Tea Party
19:42will soon push the two sides to the brink of war
19:47the British reaction
19:50was disgust and outraged
19:53from a British point of view
19:55you had an entire colony
19:57running amok
20:00and the British government after the tea act
20:02frankly said we've had enough
20:04we've had enough with Massachusetts
20:06and we're going to clamp down on them
20:08and we're going to make Massachusetts an example of what happens
20:11if you defy the authority of parliament
20:14at that very same time
20:17the British discover yet another outrage
20:19committed by an American
20:20someone they thought they could trust
20:23Benjamin Franklin
20:26over a year ago
20:27Franklin was passed a stolen packet of confidential letters
20:30written to a British official
20:32by Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson
20:36ever since Stamp Act rioters tore down Hutchinson's house
20:40nine years earlier
20:41he had tried to juggle serving his king
20:44with serving his angry fellow citizens
20:48the letters given to Franklin
20:50exposed Hutchinson's true loyalist sympathies
20:55there must be an abridgment of what are called English liberties
20:58I wish for the good of the colony to see some further restraint of liberty
21:03rather than the connection with the parent state should be broken
21:07Thomas Hutchinson
21:09Franklin sent the incriminating letters to colonial assemblymen in Massachusetts
21:13who had recently made them public
21:15as irrefutable proof of Hutchinson's treachery
21:19against the patriot cause
21:23the reaction in the colonies was torrential
21:26mobs burned Hutchinson's effigy
21:28the press vilified him
21:31by December when the patriot raiders throw the Boston Tea Party
21:35they have destroyed Hutchinson's long career
21:38as a public servant
21:43within six months
21:44Thomas Hutchinson will pack up his family
21:46and sail to England
21:47the relentless strife that has set American against American
21:51will force this man
21:53long devoted to colonial causes
21:55into exile
21:58heartbroken
21:58he will never again set foot
22:01in his beloved homeland
22:08now in London in January 1774
22:13Benjamin Franklin is summoned to appear before the King's Council
22:17on the heels of the recent looting of the tea in Boston Harbor
22:21Franklin's recently revealed role in the Hutchinson fiasco
22:24is more than British officials can tolerate
22:27he must answer for his sins
22:29and the sins of his countrymen
22:32Franklin is dressed down by the solicitor general of England
22:35for a full hour
22:37in the strongest possible language
22:39it's really abusive language
22:40in front of a crowd
22:42is going wild at this venomous attack
22:44and Franklin stands
22:46stock still in this humiliating moment
22:49you know head erect
22:50and doesn't say a word for an hour
22:54many people have dated that as the moment at which Franklin becomes a revolutionary
23:01Franklin the revolutionary is done with England
23:04and England is done with him
23:07Parliament punishes Massachusetts with a vengeance
23:10it revokes the colonies 80 year old charter
23:13dissolves its local assemblies
23:15and after a four year absence
23:17sends 3,000 troops to reoccupy Boston
23:21the crown now runs Massachusetts
23:25these people had been meeting in town meetings for 150 years
23:30when they can no longer decide their own fate
23:32they said this is the end
23:34people throughout Massachusetts
23:37rose up as one and said no way
23:40there is no turning back for either side
23:43the tension between the people of Massachusetts
23:45and the British troops becomes unbearable
23:48it's only a matter of time
23:50before someone fires the shot
23:52that will echo around the world
24:03Boston, August 10th, 1774
24:07John Adams is donning a new suit
24:09and if he's not careful the British will bury him in it
24:14the patriot leader is heading for a secret meeting in Philadelphia
24:17that will change the course of history
24:20and could cost him his life
24:24Adams is one of four men representing Massachusetts
24:27at the first Continental Congress
24:30an unprecedented and as far as the king is concerned
24:33illegal meeting of delegates from up and down the colonies
24:3855 delegates of America's best and brightest
24:41who gather to come up with a unified strategy
24:44to oppose Britain's increasing encroachment on their liberties
24:48if the king had his way they would all hang for treason
24:52that illustrates how strongly they felt that they must take steps
24:59to remove themselves from the what they saw as the arbitrary power
25:02of the British crown
25:05Britain has already suspended Massachusetts Constitution
25:08and imposed martial law there
25:11the other colonies fear that it's only a matter of time
25:14before they all meet the same fate
25:17even though these colonies have different economic interests
25:19they have different political histories
25:21they have different populations
25:23they recognize that in our relationship with Britain
25:26we have much in common
25:28not all of these people have met each other
25:30most have heard about each other
25:31now they're eager to meet each other
25:33see what's going to happen
25:34people know that there's going to be moderates
25:36and not so moderates
25:38and there's already kind of little factions forming
25:43Joining John Adams from Massachusetts is another radical
25:4737 year old John Hancock
25:49a wealthy Boston merchant
25:51who has been using his considerable fortune
25:54to fuel the cause
25:56Pennsylvania has sent a moderate lawyer
25:58John Dickinson
25:5942
26:00whose widely read essays back in the 60s
26:03helped launch the anti-tax movement
26:06from Virginia comes Patrick Henry
26:08the volatile young orator
26:10whose Virginia resolves helped stamp out the Stamp Act
26:15and also from Virginia
26:17a wealthy 42 year old planter
26:19and veteran of the Seven Years War
26:21George Washington
26:29one of the problems is
26:31they all thought of themselves as
26:33Pennsylvania
26:33and the South Carolinians
26:34as Pennsylvaniaans, Rhode Islanders
26:35South Carolinians
26:37much more than they thought of themselves as Americans
26:40Patrick Henry
26:42really just electrifies everyone
26:44when he says
26:45I am no longer a Virginian
26:48I am now an American
26:52John Adams says
26:54John Adams says
26:54the trick is to get 13 clocks to strike all at the same time
26:5813 ships to sail in the same formation
27:03it's not easy
27:0613 conspirators against the Crown
27:09finally
27:10after two months of arguing and pontificating
27:13the Congress adjourns with a unified message for England
27:18until colonial rights are restored
27:20all 13 colonies will halt all trade with Great Britain
27:25local militias are to arm
27:27and stand in readiness
27:31as one might expect
27:33kings don't do well with ultimatums
27:36no one tells the King of England what to do
27:40the die is now cast
27:42the colonies must either submit or triumph
27:45I do not wish to come to severe measures
27:47but we must not retreat
27:49I trust they will come to submit
27:52he makes the assumption
27:55that a simple show of force of military might
27:59will be enough to scare the rebels back to their senses
28:04not likely
28:06certainly not in Boston
28:08the city is a tinderbox waiting to explode
28:11the British have turned it into a virtual police state
28:15they have sealed off Boston Harbor
28:17disbanded the colonial assemblies
28:19and forced locals to house British troops
28:22the man in charge is commanding General Thomas Gage
28:26his orders are to quash the rebellion
28:29and while he has the guns
28:31the rebels have the numbers
28:34he repeatedly asks the crown for a larger army
28:38Thomas Gage only has 3,000 soldiers in Boston
28:44he's looking at 5,000 in Worcester County
28:474,000 in Plymouth
28:49all over like this
28:50he's looking at this he says
28:52what am I going to do with my 3,000 people
28:55against force like this
28:56he's playing a losing hand
28:58he can't do anything
28:59for which he is called an old woman
29:03he's very much a man in between
29:05he's a military officer
29:06who is charged with a political task
29:09for which he's not really equipped to handle
29:11with Hutchinson's departure
29:13Gage is now Massachusetts governor
29:16and commander of an occupying army
29:18that no longer faces a small rebellion
29:21it is a population in uprising
29:26they start smuggling cannons out of Boston
29:29and they start purchasing arms
29:31and the militiamen start training
29:33and they form the minute men
29:35they actually sign associations
29:37I will mobilize on a minute's notice
29:41this is no longer a skirmish over taxes
29:43the patriots believe their way of life
29:46their liberty and their property are at stake
29:49nothing short of war will settle it
29:53in April 1775
29:55Gage gets orders from England
29:57to break the uneasy stalemate
30:00he will send a full force out to the countryside
30:03to seize a huge store of rebel ammunition
30:06unknown to Gage, Parliament, King George
30:10or anyone else
30:11the fate of the British Empire
30:14hangs on this decision
30:22April 18th, 1775
30:26British troops are on the march
30:28colonial militia are arming
30:30and stockpiling ammunition
30:32for what many fear is an inevitable showdown
30:36British Commander General Thomas Gage
30:39has ordered his soldiers to capture
30:41a huge hidden store of gunpowder in Concord
30:43a Massachusetts village
30:4520 miles west of Boston
30:48the British detachment that marches out of Boston
30:52roughly 800 soldiers
30:53march out knowing that
30:56the countryside is on the verge of armed action
30:59once Gage sends that mission out
31:02he really has set into motion
31:04a chain of events that is beyond his ability to control
31:10the British are indeed coming
31:15the news starts leaking out
31:17and people start mobilizing
31:20they're ready
31:22out into the countryside to spread the word
31:25goes Paul Revere
31:27whose engraving of the Boston Massacre
31:29fanned the flames of outrage
31:30five years earlier
31:33poems and school books will one day mythologize
31:36Revere's midnight ride
31:38as if he were the lone heroic messenger
31:40but in fact
31:41he is just one part of a whole system of communication
31:46Paul Revere is one of the dozens then scores
31:50and literally hundreds of messengers going every which way
31:54bells are ringing
31:56the shots are being fired
31:58so before dawn, hours before dawn
32:00the whole countryside is mobilized
32:04and knows what's happening
32:05they arrange a signal
32:07one lantern light in Boston's Old North Church
32:10if the British are coming by land
32:12and two if by boat
32:18British troops rowed to the Cambridge side of the Charles River
32:21and wade through reeds and thick marshland
32:24to begin their overnight march to Concord
32:30at around one in the morning at Lexington, Massachusetts
32:33farmers, blacksmiths and shopkeepers gather to intercept the British
32:38at Lexington Green
32:42130 civilians
32:43some too old
32:45some too young
32:46most with no formal military experience
32:49stand ready to risk it all
32:52against the world's most feared army
32:54these were men who literally felt under attack
32:58and in fact they were under attack
33:01the British army were walking out to seize colonial property
33:05and they felt compelled to defend it
33:092am
33:09after an hour of waiting
33:11no sign of the British
33:13the night's chill sends many home
33:16others choose nearby Buckman's Tavern to await another alarm
33:24most hoping it will never come
33:384.30 am
33:39drums announced that the British are on their way
33:49I'm sure the mood on Lexington Green was extremely tense
33:54the best trained most professional army in the world
33:58is bearing down on them
34:00so even though they were fired up with a great sense of injustice
34:04they were probably nervous
34:06and if they weren't they should have been
34:12let's sit
34:14ok
34:15stand back lads
34:16stand back
34:27get it
34:29get it
34:34take care
34:35hold
34:38right
34:38right
34:39face
34:48both sides eye each other suspiciously
34:51both sides not wanting to take a misstep
34:54all of a sudden a single shot is fired
34:59nobody knows who fired the shot
35:01after the war investigations nobody ever found out
35:05as soon as that shot was fired
35:07both sides commenced firing at will
35:09and the American Revolution was on
35:36in less than two minutes eight militiamen lay dead ten wounded
35:40in less than two minutes eight militiamen lay dead ten wounded
35:42it really lit up
35:44the newspapers everywhere
35:46blood had been shed
35:48and there was really no looking back after that
35:56it will take six weeks for the news to reach London
35:59by then
36:00the course is set
36:02I think there's a recognition in London after Lexington
36:04that the battle has been joined
36:06that the chances for preventing this conflict
36:10from degenerating into war has just about passed
36:16the conflict calls Benjamin Franklin home from London
36:20after nearly twenty years in England
36:22he is leaving for good
36:24no longer loyal
36:25and no longer welcome
36:27branded a revolutionary traitor by the British
36:30Franklin will set sail for his Philadelphia home
36:33to take a seat in the Continental Congress
36:38a man of peace he will now have to counsel war
36:42as he helps his fellow delegates navigate the new
36:44and bloody conflict that threatens to blow America apart
36:56April 19th, 1775, Lexington, Massachusetts
37:01for the first time ever
37:03British soldiers and colonial citizens have stood face to face
37:06and fired upon each other
37:09eight colonists lay dead
37:13but it's not over
37:15the British continue their advance to get what they came for
37:18the colonial ammunition stored in nearby Concord
37:25along the way detachments of redcoats storm into local homes and ransack for weapons
37:39the word spreads and militia from all over the area rushed toward Concord to head off the British
37:45this time it's the Americans who are coming
37:52they find not just the Concord militiamen
37:55but all sorts of other militiamen coming and still coming and still coming and still coming
38:00the British are certain they can swat these militia away like pesky flies
38:04and find that they cannot
38:06that they have encountered hard fighting men
38:09the British are badly outnumbered
38:11they are forced to retreat
38:15sixteen miles separate them from the safety of Boston
38:19sixteen miles
38:21on foot
38:22they are sitting ducks for armed and angry colonials
38:25it is a trauma they won't soon forget
38:28all the hills on either side of us were covered with rebels
38:31so that they kept the road always lying and a very hot fire on us
38:35without intermission
38:37Henry de Bernier
38:39British soldier
38:50twenty hours of constant barrage bring heavy losses to the beleaguered British
38:56seventy-three dead
38:58one hundred seventy-four wounded
39:00and twenty-six missing
39:03the Americans suffer forty-nine killed
39:05with forty wounded and five missing
39:08by the time British soldiers get back to Boston
39:11the Colonials have the city surrounded
39:14with militia from neighboring colonies on their way
39:17Gage and his troops are trapped
39:20with their backs to the sea
39:22the rebels have added insult to outrage
39:26they have possessed the roads and other communications
39:28by which the town of Boston was supplied with provisions
39:31and with a preposterous parade of military arrangement
39:35they have effected to hold the army besieged
39:39Thomas Gage
39:43Three weeks later, on May 10th, 1775
39:47Benjamin Franklin is back home in Philadelphia
39:50just as the Continental Congress is called back into emergency session
39:56the bloodshed in Massachusetts demands a new colonial strategy
40:01assembling a Continental Army
40:03and complete independence from England
40:06are subjects now on the table
40:08the delegates eagerly await the thoughts of their venerated elder statesman
40:13Benjamin Franklin
40:15only to find him unusually quiet and withdrawn
40:19the long voyage from England has made him ill
40:22but it is the short trip he will soon make
40:26that troubles Franklin most
40:32Franklin is headed to a confrontation with his only son
40:3543 year old William
40:38the rift in the colonies has brought a terrible split between father and son
40:44William Franklin has been New Jersey's royal governor for over a decade
40:49a post granted him by the king
40:52owing in no small part to being Benjamin's son
40:56William is vehemently opposed to the rebellion
40:59and unalterably devoted to the king
41:02now his father will make one last attempt
41:05to win him over to the patriot side
41:12once they were as close as a father and son could be
41:16it was William who held the kite during his father's famous experiment with lightning
41:22it was William who was his father's constant companion in the early days in England
41:27but now neither the strife in the colonies nor the humiliation heaped upon his father by the British
41:33turns William away from the king
41:37now father and son must choose between country and family
41:41but neither will bend
41:44like the growing civil war between patriots and loyalists
41:48reconciliation between father and son
41:51is no longer possible
41:55there were two sides to this issue
41:57most people could have seen both sides
41:58everyone had reasons to see those sides
42:00Franklin isn't buying it
42:02and he gives his son
42:02he's absolutely unyielding with his son
42:06nothing has ever hurt me so much
42:08and affected me with such keen sensation
42:11as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son
42:16and not only deserted
42:17but to find him taking up arms against me in a cause
42:20wherein my good fame fortune and life were all at stake
42:25when I think about Benjamin Franklin the great revolutionary
42:28and his son the leader of those conservative loyalists
42:32it seems very strange to me that the old man should be the radical
42:36and the young man should be the conservative
42:39once they were inseparable
42:40now the wound between father and son will never heal
42:46William Franklin doesn't get very good press in the American textbooks
42:50but you know there were many others just like William Franklin
42:54which side are you on?
42:55that became the question
42:58the political argument that tears the Franklins apart
43:01will also be replayed in thousands of colonial families
43:05politics have become intensely personal
43:09every American had to choose
43:12do I support the patriots?
43:14do I support the loyalists?
43:16is there any neutral ground between them?
43:18a bitter time is coming
43:21when everyone must choose sides
43:23when fathers may have to fight sons
43:25when brother may fight brother
43:29there are twice as many patriots in the colonies as loyalists
43:33but more than half the population just wants to be left alone
43:38in the coming months and years
43:39no one can remain on the sidelines
43:43the ship has sailed
43:45the revolution is on an irreversible course
43:49it will take sturdy leadership from men
43:51as different in temperament as the people they represent
43:55whether they know it or not
43:57these are the men of destiny
43:58who will guide the American people into their uncertain future
44:05and these are the men who will shed their blood
44:08and give their lives to make it happen
44:12the men who will make it happen
44:23they are the men who will make it happen
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