0:02

We take it for granted, but American

0:04

independence was not a foregone

0:07

conclusion. The Revolutionary

0:09

War was long, more

0:11

than six grinding years

0:13

between the first shots at Lexington

0:16

and Conquered and the British surrender

0:18

at Yorktown, and they all

0:20

too oft an unpaid, ill equipped,

0:23

underfed patriots were almost

0:25

always playing defense, one

0:27

battle away from total defeat

0:30

and the very real risk of capital

0:32

punishment as traitors to the crown.

0:35

Father of his country. George

0:37

Washington earned that title, but

0:40

Washington wasn't at Saratoga

0:42

in upstate New York, site of arguably

0:45

the most important turning point in

0:47

the war. In the summer

0:50

of seventeen seventy seven, about

0:52

eight thousand troops under British

0:54

General John Burgoyne came down

0:56

from Canada and through the Hudson

0:58

River Valley, expecting to join British

1:01

troops moving up from New York City.

1:04

The colonies would be split into

1:06

a classic divide and conquer

1:09

and the rebellion would be put down.

1:12

But those other British troops didn't

1:14

show, and on September near

1:17

the town of Saratoga, the British

1:19

Burgoyne met a line of American

1:22

troops after

1:29

an initial bloody confrontation, the

1:31

British and the Americans, under

1:33

the cautious leadership of General Horatio

1:36

Gates, engaged each other indecisively

1:39

for almost three weeks. Then,

1:41

on October seven, the British

1:43

launched an attack, trying to break

1:45

through American lines, but before

1:48

Gates could issue a command, another

1:50

American general flew into

1:52

action. No man

1:54

shall keep me in my tent today,

1:56

this general raged. I am

1:59

without command, and I will fight in the ranks.

2:01

But the soldiers, God bless them, will

2:04

follow my lead. Cursing,

2:07

rallying the patriots, he charged

2:09

out on horseback, straight into

2:11

the fray. He

2:13

was our fighting general. A comrade

2:16

later wrote, as brave a man as

2:18

ever lived that

2:20

general's name, Benedict

2:23

Arnold. Anyone would be hard

2:25

pressed the point to a

2:27

officer in the Continental Army

2:30

who was a better general.

2:32

In the first years of the Revolution,

2:35

Arnold's horse was shot from right under

2:37

him. He suffered a terrible wound

2:39

to his leg, but he and his men

2:41

prevailed, routing the British.

2:44

Ten days later, Burgoyne surrendered.

2:47

As a result of that victory, the

2:49

French entered to the Revolutionary War

2:52

on the side of the Patriots. As

2:54

the writer R. W. Apple Jr.

2:56

Put it, it marked the beginning

2:58

of the end of the British Empire, and

3:01

it breathed life into the United

3:03

States of America, in

3:06

no small part thanks to Benedict

3:09

Arnold. This is the hidden part

3:11

of Arnold, the Arnold before he went

3:13

back, but just three years

3:16

later, Benedict Arnold, the

3:18

hero of Saratoga, would betray

3:20

his country, his name consigned

3:22

to infamy. Whom can

3:25

we trust? Now? That

3:28

was the question that Arnold

3:30

made all Americans face. This

3:33

episode will tell you the story of Benedict

3:36

Arnold before he became synonymous

3:38

with treason, and will tell you the

3:40

surprising backstories of some of

3:42

history's other villains. You have

3:45

summoned the Prince of Temptation

3:47

fo what Purpose? From

3:50

CBS Sunday Morning and I Heart

3:52

I'm Morocca. And this is

3:54

mobituaries, This

4:00

mopit Benedict Arnold,

4:02

Peanuts and satan

4:07

before they went bad. You

4:24

know what are you doing studying my script?

4:27

I'm in the school play. Oh it's

4:29

wonderful, I'll plan Benedict

4:31

Donald, Benedict Arnold.

4:34

Yeah, it's a great part. Well, it is

4:36

if you like being a trader that's

4:41

from a nine two episode

4:43

of The Brady Bunch. Middle son

4:46

Peter Braby gets cast in the school

4:48

play as Benedict Arnold, and

4:50

it's making him a pariah, so much

4:52

so that he fakes being sick to

4:55

get out of the play. I want you to level

4:57

with us. You don't want to be in that play, don't you. No.

5:02

I don't why,

5:04

Peter, you said you were going to be the best Benedict

5:06

Donald ever. Well, you don't know what it's

5:08

been like. Everybody riding me,

5:11

booing and hissing me because I'm playing a trader.

5:13

I understood Peter's predicament. I

5:16

don't know about the kids today, but when I was growing

5:18

up, to be called a Benedict Arnold was

5:21

a really insult, wasn't it. Oh?

5:23

Absolutely, but it was weird.

5:25

My mom always said her

5:28

hero was Bennedicgonald, and

5:30

so that just confused me as a kid. Bennedicdonald

5:33

epitomizes being a

5:35

trader, being evil. He is the snake

5:37

in our garden. Historian Nathaniel

5:40

Philbrick is the author of three books

5:42

on the American Revolution, including

5:45

Valiant Ambition, about the relationship

5:47

between Benedict Donald and George Washington.

5:50

But hold on a second, what was your mother's

5:53

rationale for saying he was her hero? She

5:56

was a contrarian. But I think back

5:58

in the day she read ken Robert's

6:01

series of novels about the American

6:03

Revolution, and Benedicdonald

6:05

is portrayed largely as

6:08

a sympathetic character. Kenneth

6:10

Roberts was a popular writer of historical

6:12

fiction in the first half of the twentieth century.

6:15

He wrote a couple of books focusing not on

6:17

Arnold's eventual treachery but his

6:19

earlier military daring do But

6:22

my mom latched onto this with a vengeance

6:25

because it just appealed to her, being against

6:27

the grain of most people's thinking.

6:31

Now, I know some of you may be thinking focusing

6:34

on Benedict Arnold's early heroics

6:36

for this episode is kind

6:38

of like talking about how great Richard Nixon

6:40

was for creating the e p A without

6:42

mentioning Watergate. But Nixon

6:45

was kind of great for creating the E p A.

6:48

People are complicated, get over it.

6:50

Don't worry. We'll get to Arnold's betrayal

6:52

in the third act. But first, what

6:55

kind of a family did Benedict Donold come

6:58

from? He came from a large, lead

7:00

dysfunctional family of a family

7:02

that was living in the shadow of

7:05

their forebears. Those forbears

7:07

were also named Benedict Arnold. Our

7:10

protagonist was the fourth born

7:12

in seventy. Arnold's

7:14

great grandfather, the first Benedict,

7:17

was a governor of the Rhode Island Colony.

7:19

But after Arnold's father left Rhode

7:22

Island to start a life in Norwich, Connecticut,

7:24

multiple tragedy struck. Four

7:27

of Benedict Arnold's five siblings

7:30

died before the age of ten. Benedict

7:33

Arnold and his sister Hannah would be the only

7:35

survivors, and his father went to

7:37

drinking and Arnold his later

7:39

life I think would be kind of a repudiation

7:42

of his difficult childhood because he

7:44

had a chip on his shoulders from the very beginning,

7:47

and he wanted to make something

7:49

of himself, because I think he

7:52

had this sense of coming

7:54

from a place of shame. After

7:59

a seven year apprenticeship with an apothecary,

8:02

he started his own pharmacy and

8:04

bookselling business in New Haven. He

8:07

was doing okay, but young

8:09

Benedict had long craved

8:12

adventure. He wanted to

8:14

be the person that he idealized

8:16

the swashbuckling man of action, and

8:19

physically he was fearless,

8:21

you know, he was a kind of athlete. One person

8:24

described him as the best skater he

8:26

had ever seen skater as

8:28

an ice skater. Yeah, it's a funny

8:30

observation. But there are several

8:32

anecdotes about his youth that he

8:35

was a daredevil. There

8:37

was a water mill in Norwich

8:40

and he would grab onto

8:42

the water wheel, rided all the way

8:44

up and then dive off into the stream.

8:47

He was not a big guy, but one

8:49

of those guys with that kind of athletes

8:51

swagger and built very solidly,

8:54

and someone who could intimidate other

8:56

people, not only in terms of

8:59

yelling at them, you know, just his physical

9:01

presence. It's funny because

9:03

you write that he claimed he was

9:05

a coward until fifteen years of

9:07

age. He said that his bravery

9:10

was learned, and so, according to his

9:12

own account, at about fifteen, you

9:14

know, which is a time in life when all

9:16

sorts of stuff is usually happening in the

9:18

life of a teenager, he made this

9:20

decision, I'm going to be a badass, and

9:23

that's what he would be. By

9:25

the time Arnold was in his twenties, he

9:27

had taken to the high seas a successful

9:30

merchant, captaining his own ships,

9:33

sailing as far south as the Caribbean

9:35

and as far north as Canada. He

9:38

began to build what would be, if he had

9:40

ever finished it, the most opulent house

9:42

in New Haven. Who was a man on the make,

9:44

a man to be admired, and

9:47

a budding patriot. When the British

9:49

wanted to tax the Americans without

9:51

giving them representation in Parliament,

9:54

you remember all of that, Arnold found

9:56

a cause he could fight for. He

9:58

became a smuggler, rating his

10:00

businesses in open defiance of

10:02

the British tariffs. He joined

10:04

the Sons of Liberty, the secretive group

10:07

that carried out the Boston Tea Party.

10:09

Then on the morning of April nineteenth, seventeen

10:12

seventy five, the British fired

10:14

on colonial militiamen at Lexington.

10:17

The Revolutionary War had begun,

10:19

and Benedict Arnold lapped into

10:21

action. When I heard

10:23

about Lexington conquered, he led

10:25

a group right to the Boston area. You

10:28

know, getting on a horse and riding around

10:30

and giving orders was exactly the

10:32

kind of thing. Ben MacDonald was wired for

10:35

his years as a merchant and a Mariner

10:37

had prepared him well for this moment,

10:40

and because of his knowledge of

10:42

the geography of New England

10:44

and Canada, he realizes

10:46

that strategically, the Americans

10:49

need to have control of Lake

10:51

Champlain. Lake Champlain

10:54

wasn't just a crucial waterway

10:57

just to its south, stood for ty

10:59

con To Roga with more than sixty

11:01

cannons firepower that George Washington's

11:04

Continental Army desperately needed.

11:07

So he proposed to the powers that be in

11:09

Boston that they take Fort Ticonda

11:12

Roga, a kind of extraordinarily

11:15

aggressive move, but the Powers

11:17

that Be agreed with him and gave him

11:19

a commission to go up there. At off he

11:21

would go, leading one of the most important

11:24

military actions of the beginning of

11:26

the American Revolution. Arnold

11:29

took Fort Ticonda Roga, though

11:31

he had to share credit with Vermont or Ethan

11:33

Allen. Yes, Ethan Allen was a real

11:35

person, not just the name of a furniture

11:37

company. Neither man liked sharing

11:40

credit, but soon Arnold would surpass

11:42

Allen in heroics with an audacious

11:44

attempt to capture the British Canadian

11:47

province of Quebec and make it our

11:49

fourteenth colony. This involved

11:51

a legendary and brutal three

11:54

hundred fifty mile trek through the wilderness

11:56

of Maine. It was the fall

11:59

of seventeen seventy five. The

12:01

weather was getting bad, but Arnold

12:04

was all for it, and Washington, who

12:06

was impressed by Arnold, sent him

12:08

on this desperate journey through the wilderness.

12:11

Almost half the men would desert or

12:13

die or starve. It

12:15

was just one of these incredible tests

12:18

of endurance, but somehow

12:20

Arnold would make it and be dubbed

12:22

the American Hannibal. I traced

12:24

his route through there, and that part of Maine

12:26

is still so remote that just about

12:29

every road you see has Arnold on it, as

12:31

if he was. About the last time anyone was

12:33

up there was when Arnold went up there during

12:35

the American Revolution. Are you serious that their

12:37

roads still named after him?

12:40

Yeah, They're a part of the landscape up

12:42

there in the wilds of Maine. You can

12:44

see tangible evidence of Arnold's

12:46

bravery and adventurous ambition.

12:49

I'm thinking these areas are so remote

12:51

they still haven't heard about the betrayal that

12:53

happened later on, hasn't, right,

12:56

it's still news. Yeah.

12:58

The Siege of Quebec all timidly failed.

13:01

Arnold's left leg was shattered in battle

13:03

and the Americans retreated. But Arnold's

13:06

actions helped slow the British down,

13:08

and for his valor he was made a brigadier

13:11

general. George Washington praised

13:13

him as a persevering and enterprising

13:16

officer. In some ways, was he

13:18

a more talented general than George Washington?

13:21

Judged by the evidence, yes, I

13:23

think you'd have to say that. And

13:26

the thing is, Benedict Arnold knew

13:28

he was that good. The brash confidence

13:30

that made him a hero on the battlefield

13:33

was matched by an arrogance off of

13:35

it. What did Arnold's men think

13:38

of him in the midst of

13:40

battle? They loved Arnold. He

13:43

was someone who, in the heat of the

13:45

moment, behaved with a

13:48

quiet calm and yet a forceful,

13:50

inspiring charisma. The

13:53

trouble with Arnold occurred after

13:55

the battle. You know, he was prickly. He

13:57

could be completely condescending

14:00

and judgmentel. He did not brook

14:02

any kind of what he perceived

14:05

as incompetence, and as

14:07

a consequence, there were just as many

14:09

people who despised the man. And

14:12

when I say despise, I mean they hated

14:14

him. There's two reactions, and there's

14:16

no one that seems in between. You either love

14:18

the man or you despise him. Someone

14:21

who despised Arnold early on was

14:23

a militiaman named John Brown.

14:26

No, not the nineteenth century abolitionist.

14:28

This John Brown was part of the force

14:31

that had seized for Takonta Roga.

14:34

Soon after that, he accused Arnold

14:36

of attempting to defect during that

14:38

battle. Arnold was cleared to that

14:40

allegation, but Brown would go on to write

14:43

in a pamphlet words about Arnold

14:45

that proved prophetic quote.

14:48

Money is this man's God, and

14:50

to get enough of it he would sacrifice

14:52

his country.

14:57

We'll continue with the story of Benedict

14:59

Arnold on the other side of the break, but

15:01

first, before they went bad, Philippe

15:04

Petan. During

15:06

World War Two, Francis Philippe

15:09

Petan betrayed his country

15:11

by collaborating with Nazi Germany.

15:14

The German juggernaut rolls on on to Dunkirk,

15:17

on to Paris. After Hitler's

15:19

Germany seized France in nineteen forty,

15:22

Petan was appointed head of

15:24

the nominally independent French state

15:27

known as v she France. He

15:29

soon proclaimed that collaborating

15:31

with Hitler was the only way to repair

15:33

the ruin caused by Germany's

15:35

conquest of France. I

15:39

say, obviously, actually John

15:43

the accipi. The

15:45

French puppet government put up

15:47

no significant resistance to Nazi

15:50

demands and voluntarily

15:52

implemented anti Jewish legislation,

15:55

even rounding up Jews. Over

15:58

seventy five thousand French Jews

16:00

would die in the Holocaust. Payton's

16:03

very name became a byword

16:05

for collaborationist quizzlings,

16:08

which is quite the turn for someone

16:10

whose first act was so honorable.

16:14

As an army general in World War

16:16

One, Payton was in charge

16:18

of halting the seemingly unstoppable

16:21

German offensive on the French city

16:23

of their Done over what would be the longest

16:26

and most brutal battle of the

16:28

war. Initially pneumoniaus

16:30

stricken and commanding troops from

16:32

his sick bed, Payton skillfully

16:35

reorganized the French front line,

16:38

made innovative use of artillery, and

16:40

inspired his demoralized and

16:42

outnumbered rank and file Miraculously

16:46

verdon held Pathan emerged

16:48

a national hero and was awarded

16:51

the title of Martial, one of France's

16:53

highest military distinctions.

16:56

Three decades later, the story

16:59

was much different. This

17:03

is the Pali de Justice, where peta marshal

17:05

of France and Hiro Verda, is

17:07

on trial for his life on charges

17:09

of plotting against the internal security of

17:11

his country and collaboration with the enemy.

17:16

After Payton's conviction for treason

17:18

in French, leader

17:20

Charles de gaul is said to have remarked,

17:23

the Marshal is a great man who

17:26

died in ninety five.

17:42

I think we forget how frightening a

17:44

revolution is. The whole

17:46

underpinnings of what was your

17:48

life have been ripped apart,

17:51

and suddenly you have to make

17:53

decisions about a future that you

17:56

have no idea where it is headed.

17:58

And so I had sympathies

18:01

for loyalists and patriots.

18:04

That's historian Nathaniel Philbrick

18:06

again. He says that throughout the

18:08

revolution the colonists were

18:10

a lot more divided than we might like to

18:12

imagine. I don't know what I would

18:14

have been. You know, I love my

18:17

country, I love America. Basically,

18:19

they are a third of the Americans are

18:21

definitely in the patriot cause, and

18:23

the third of the Americans are loyalists.

18:25

To say, you know, why are we having a revolution? We

18:27

are the freest, most prosperous

18:30

society on earth. What is

18:32

wrong with this picture? And then

18:34

there's the other third who really

18:37

don't care. They just want to

18:40

live their lives. Remember,

18:43

this is three years into a war with

18:45

Great Britain and Empire, with vast

18:47

resources at its disposal. It's

18:50

really no wonder that there were lots of colonists

18:52

who thought the British would ultimately prevail.

18:56

But early in the Revolution, Benedict

18:58

Arnold continued to prove himself

19:00

a patriot on land and

19:03

see. In the fall of

19:05

seventeen seventy six, at the Battle

19:07

of Valker Island, Arnold commanded

19:10

America's first naval force.

19:12

He supervised the construction of part

19:14

of the fleet, and while the British won

19:16

that battle, Arnold successfully

19:18

stalled them long enough to prevent a

19:21

larger incursion. He is

19:23

clearly the most talented general

19:25

on Washington's staff, and he's

19:28

up for promotion. At this

19:30

point, Arnold was a brigadier general

19:32

looking to become a major general,

19:35

but due to the Continental congress As rules

19:37

on military promotions, a

19:39

bunch of lesser generals kept getting

19:41

promoted past Arnold. Arnold

19:44

had an important friend in George Washington, though,

19:46

who very much disapproved of Congress

19:49

passing him over. Washington couldn't

19:51

believe that this had happened. He

19:53

told Arnold, please hold

19:55

on, I'll check into this. But

19:58

Washington's please on, behalf of arn Old

20:00

went nowhere. For a military

20:02

guy, it's all about the rank, and

20:05

here five people who were

20:07

below him and who had had shown

20:09

none of his talent and abilities

20:12

had been elevated past him. Arnold

20:14

finally did get his promotion after

20:17

getting his horse shot from under him twice

20:19

at the Battle of Ridgefield, but the damage

20:22

to his ego had been done. By

20:24

the time of his heroics at Saratoga,

20:27

where we began this episode, Arnold

20:29

was already embittered. It didn't

20:31

help that at Saratoga his leg was

20:33

crushed after his horse was again

20:36

shot from under him. Being

20:38

Benedict Donald's force was apparently the most

20:40

dangerous job during the American Revolution.

20:44

During his long recovery, Benedict

20:46

Arnold brooded and seethed

20:49

over the credit he hadn't been

20:51

given. And so this is

20:53

where the demons begin to whisper

20:55

in Arnold's ear, why are you doing

20:57

this? In seventy eight,

21:00

George Washington made the now physically

21:02

compromised general the military

21:05

governor of Philadelphia. But

21:07

the city of brotherly love was in

21:09

a state of near civil war, fiercely

21:12

divided between patriots and loyalists.

21:15

You needed someone of great compassion and judgment

21:18

to try to keep a lid on

21:20

this. That was not Arnold. It was

21:22

the worst possible situation. So Washington,

21:25

trying to do as well by him

21:27

as as he could, I think, actually

21:30

put Arnold in the position that

21:32

would lead him down the road that

21:34

he would eventually followed to treason. Philadelphia

21:37

wasn't just politically riven, it

21:39

was a hotbed of corruption. Opportunities

21:42

for profiteering abounded. Benedict

21:45

Arnold, who had left a lucrative business

21:48

behind to take part in the war, who had

21:50

spent much of his own fortune in the fight, and

21:52

who felt unthanked for his sacrifice,

21:55

was not about to hold back. He

21:58

thrust his hands into the into the treasury

22:01

and through the till exactly and

22:03

starts taking advantage of every

22:06

opportunity he can. And he's

22:08

not the only general doing this.

22:10

I mean, all of these officers aren't

22:12

getting paid and they're running

22:15

out of money, But no one goes at

22:17

it with the fervor of Benedict

22:19

Donald. It's a volatile situation

22:21

just looking to explode. At

22:23

the same time he's lining his own pockets.

22:26

Arnold begins cozying up with

22:29

Philadelphia's British loyalist

22:31

set and meets Peggy Shipping,

22:34

the daughter of a prominent family suspected

22:36

of loyalist leanings, and

22:40

falls desperately in love with her.

22:42

Arnold is older than she is. Arnold's

22:44

approaching forty. He's injured,

22:47

but in kind of a sexy way. His

22:50

left leg is shorter than the right,

22:52

he has to put it up on a chair

22:54

and all that, but he's resplendent in

22:57

his major general's uniform and

22:59

they have fallen love. One of

23:01

the ways Arnold woos her he

23:04

reuses parts of a love letter he

23:06

wrote to someone else. He thought

23:08

the letter was pretty darn good because he

23:10

would basically reuse the entire

23:13

paragraphs, if not pages, of this letter

23:16

when he sent it to Peggy, cutting and

23:18

pasting a mash note. I know he's

23:20

really starting to sound like a jerk, and

23:22

I think this is an index to character. You

23:25

know, he has social ambitions, he has romantic

23:27

conditions, but you know there's no

23:29

need to get too carried away here. If

23:32

you did a good job the first time, you can

23:34

reuse it. You know, there's a certain utility

23:36

there. Now. It's not entirely

23:38

clear what role Peggy plays in

23:41

Arnold's betrayal, but she had long

23:43

maintained a correspondence with a British

23:45

spy named John Andre and

23:48

only a month after marrying Peggy

23:50

Benedict Arnold makes his first contact

23:53

with the British Army and they

23:56

begin a secret correspondence

23:58

in which Arnold begins

24:00

feeding them information about what's

24:03

happening on the Patriot side while

24:05

also negotiating a very

24:08

good settlement. If he should actually be of

24:10

some use to the British, is he putting

24:12

men in mortal danger? Absolutely,

24:15

he is feeding information about

24:18

troop movements. He informs the British

24:21

that the Americans are woefully under

24:23

manned in Charleston, South Carolina,

24:26

that Washington is unable to get

24:28

the arms and men they need to defend

24:30

that city. At the same time that

24:33

this is happening, Arnold stands

24:35

trial in a military court for his profiteering

24:38

activities. The court martial

24:40

trial results in a slap on the wrist

24:42

for Arnold, but and this is important.

24:44

Under pressure from Congress General

24:47

Washington for the first time ever publicly

24:50

rebukes Benedict Arnold. After

24:53

this, there is no turning back for

24:55

Arnold, and I think Washington

24:58

was the one figure that was keeping

25:01

him potentially in the

25:03

Patriot camp. In the summer

25:05

of sev Arnold asks

25:08

for command of the strategic stronghold

25:11

of West Point. Washington

25:13

still a believer in Benedict Arnold. Despite

25:16

that, court martial says yes,

25:19

west Point became the locusts

25:21

for the most infamous betrayal in

25:23

American history. Could

25:25

he have gotten George Washington killed?

25:28

Yeah, he could have. I mean,

25:31

this is a psychopath. This is someone

25:33

who really doesn't care what ultimately

25:35

will happen to those he at one

25:38

time loved, if not revered. Benedict

25:42

Arnold breaks bad after

25:44

the break, but

25:47

first before they went

25:49

bad. Peanuts banned

25:52

from schools, kicked off of airplanes.

25:55

In recent years, it hasn't been smooth

25:58

sailing for America's formerly

26:00

favorite snack. E er

26:03

Visits among kids from food induced

26:05

anaphylaxis have been on the rise

26:07

for years, and the proteins found

26:10

in peanuts are the biggest culprit.

26:12

Indeed, because of allergies. Some

26:15

schools have declared themselves peanut

26:17

free zones, and some airlines

26:19

have put peanuts on the no fly list.

26:22

Quite a reversal of fortune for a

26:24

snack with a proud history. Native

26:28

to the Andes, peanuts were offered

26:30

by Incas as a sacrifice to the gods.

26:33

Over the centuries, peanuts would become

26:35

staples in cuisines throughout

26:38

Southeast Asia and India. Enslaved

26:41

Africans were the first to bring peanuts

26:43

to North America. In both Africa

26:45

and America, peanuts were an important

26:48

part of their diet. Wealthier white

26:50

Americans initially used peanuts

26:52

primarily for animal feed, but

26:55

by the late eighteen hundreds, the peanut

26:57

had become a popular snack. P.

27:00

T. Barnum started selling hot roasted

27:02

peanuts in his circus tents. On

27:05

the sports front, peanuts became one

27:07

of the go to snacks for baseball

27:09

bands. Take me out with the braun,

27:14

peanuts and bragg. I

27:16

don't carry if I never get Meanwhile,

27:20

on the scientific front, George

27:22

Washington Carver, the first African

27:24

American to hold a master's in agricultural

27:26

science, pioneered the use of

27:29

peanuts to restore nitrogen

27:31

to soil depleted from the growing of

27:33

cotton. Peanuts were a hit, and

27:35

not just with people. In

27:40

A boy named Elliott used a trail

27:42

of peanut butter candies to lure

27:44

an extraterrestrial out of hiding

27:47

and into his home. But

27:53

once peanut allergies began exploding

27:55

in the mid nine nineties, things got

27:57

sticky. Planters killed off

28:00

Mr Peanut in

28:03

a Super Bowl commercial. Right,

28:08

maybe that, but

28:11

the peanuts future may not be so

28:13

brittle. That's the best I can

28:15

come up with. An increasing number

28:17

of experts are suggesting that schools

28:20

relax their restriction on peanuts,

28:22

and in the FDA approved

28:24

a drug regimen to treat peanut allergies.

28:28

Maybe that's why later in that same Super

28:30

Bowl, Planter has brought Mr Peanut

28:32

back, has a baby?

28:35

Is that a baby nut? Ps?

28:39

A peanut isn't actually a nut, it's

28:42

a legume. I

28:51

think Washington saw a lot of himself

28:53

in Benedicdonald. I'm talking

28:55

with historian Nathaniel Philbrick.

28:58

Temperamentally funded, mentally, George

29:01

Washington was a lot like benned Iccdonald

29:03

if he had not consciously

29:06

changed his behavior. Philbrook

29:09

says George Washington had been a

29:11

hothead and impulsive in his younger

29:13

days, but as he got older he figured

29:16

out how to manage his anger. He

29:18

consciously strove to be

29:21

someone he naturally was, which

29:23

is an extraordinary characteristic. I think most

29:25

of us are who we are and there's not

29:27

much we can do about it. And Arnold

29:29

was that kind. There was no filter

29:32

with Arnold, no ability to step

29:34

back and say, wait a minute, you know, get

29:36

Ahold of your anger. Here you see Washington

29:38

doing that all the time. Arnold was

29:40

incapable of that kind of filter. He

29:43

was who he was and who Benedict

29:46

Arnold was in the fall of seventeen eighty

29:48

was the commander of West Point, a

29:51

vital defense for the Patriots and

29:53

a bargaining chip for Arnold. September,

30:05

The Treason of Benedict Arnold,

30:11

You Are There. In

30:16

one episode of CBS's seminal

30:18

historical reenactment series You

30:20

Are There, host Walter Cronkite

30:22

explained the stakes. For

30:25

five long years, the rebellious American

30:27

colonies have been fighting a desperate, defensive

30:30

war. If the British forces now

30:32

occupy New York City were to strike

30:34

northward, uniting with British forces

30:36

coming down from Canada. They could

30:38

divide New England from the southern colonies,

30:41

cut the Americans in half, and conquer

30:43

each half separately. But in order

30:46

to do that they must take the Hudson

30:48

Valley, and in order to do that, they

30:50

must first capture the American stronghold

30:52

on the River, the strategic center of

30:54

the rebellion, the forts at West Point.

30:57

All things are as they were then, except

31:00

you are there. Can

31:02

I just say I wish I could call on Walter

31:04

Cronkite to set the stage for me on every

31:07

historical turning point. In the

31:09

special, we watch as Arnold welcomes

31:11

a British spy named John Andre.

31:14

He's the one Arnold's young wife Peggy

31:17

had introduced him to. Who's

31:19

how smain that of a friend

31:21

of his Majesty and his Majesty's

31:23

parlam Arnold reviews the

31:25

terms of their devilish deal about

31:28

let us to business. Twenty pounds

31:30

was the agreement equivalent rank

31:33

and the British Army while the war continues, and half

31:35

pay when it is concluded, military

31:38

commissions for my sons and

31:40

a pension in London for Mrs Arnold. In

31:43

other words, the Brits would pay Arnold

31:45

twenty thousand pounds and

31:47

make him a commander in their army

31:50

in exchange for West Point. What's

31:53

more, Arnold told the British when

31:55

George Washington would be present at

31:57

the fort, putting his former ally,

32:00

mentor and supporter in mortal

32:02

danger. On the way out the door,

32:04

John Andre refuses to shake

32:06

Benedict Arnold's hand. You refuse

32:09

my handswer, and yet you

32:11

are in this as deeply as I am. I

32:13

am a soldier honoring a trust. You

32:16

are a soldier betraying one. I hope, sir,

32:18

you recognize the difference. That

32:21

response from Andre is what the kids

32:23

today call a pretty sick burn.

32:26

It's also a bit of dramatic license

32:28

from the you are their producers, but

32:31

it gets at an important distinction between

32:33

the two men. John Andrea

32:35

was loyal to something, in his case,

32:38

the Crown. Arnold was

32:40

just a turn coat. Now,

32:43

Benedict Arnold's plan almost

32:45

works, but long story short,

32:47

Andre is intercepted by three

32:50

Patriot militiamen. They discover

32:52

the deal's plans and take him prisoner.

32:55

When the word gets back to Arnold, he makes a

32:57

run for it and narrowly escapes a

33:00

or the British warship fittingly named

33:02

the HMS Vulture. John

33:05

Andre is hanged as a spy on

33:07

the banks of the Hudson River, and

33:11

American officers and British

33:13

officers alike mourned Andrea's

33:16

passing, viewed him

33:18

as the victim of

33:20

Arnold's betrayal. Arnold

33:23

starts a new life as a brigadier general

33:25

in the British Army. He leads

33:27

attacks on towns in Virginia and Connecticut

33:30

that leave them devastated, but make

33:32

a little difference militarily. Of

33:35

course, as we all know, the British ultimately

33:37

lose the war. Arnold

33:40

receives only a fraction of the agreed upon

33:43

some for his betrayal, since the plot

33:45

to surrender West Point failed. That's

33:47

right, he didn't even succeed in selling

33:50

himself out. How

33:53

did Americans react to the news

33:55

of his treason? This

33:58

was I think incredible wake

34:00

up call for the American people. You know,

34:02

they had spent all these

34:04

years fighting the British,

34:07

only to discover that the real

34:09

threat is not the British but

34:11

ourselves. This is a

34:13

test of character, This

34:16

is a test of our ability

34:18

to function as

34:21

an alternative to Great Britain, and

34:23

are we up to this? Just

34:26

a year after the betrayal came to light,

34:28

the Americans are victorious in the

34:30

Battle of Yorktown, the last

34:33

major conflict of the Revolutionary

34:35

War. Arnold tried

34:38

to frame his defection as a noble

34:40

cause in an open letter he wrote

34:42

to the American public, but his

34:45

name was ruined. American

34:47

General Nathaniel Green lined

34:50

Arnold's treason to the fall of Lucifer.

34:53

Ben Franklin compared him to Judas

34:55

and George Washington, once

34:57

his greatest champion, or

35:00

judge his men to hang Benedict Donald

35:02

if they ever captured him. Arnold

35:04

was burned in effigy in Philadelphia

35:07

and in cities and towns up and

35:09

down the Atlantic seaboard. The

35:12

graves of his father were violated

35:15

by the angry citizens of Norwich.

35:18

He became a figure as archetypal

35:20

in his own way, as Washington

35:23

of an evil incarnate

35:25

of the trader of the Rock

35:28

within the rock with it

35:30

exactly, and I think a troubling

35:32

figure two, because everyone had to

35:34

acknowledge he was one of our best.

35:38

As Washington would say when he first

35:40

heard, whom can we trust?

35:43

Now. Arnold

35:45

lived out his final days in disrepute

35:48

in London, and after a long

35:50

battle with gout, died June

35:52

fourteenth, eighteen o one. He

35:55

was buried without military

35:57

honors at

35:59

sarah Toga National Historical

36:01

Park, site of perhaps his greatest

36:04

feat of heroism. There's a monument

36:06

dedicated to Benedict Arnold. It's

36:09

a boot carved from stone, representing

36:12

the leg he injured in service of the Revolution.

36:15

The monument describes a brilliant

36:17

soldier who was desperately

36:20

wounded in the decisive battle

36:22

at Saratoga, but it doesn't

36:24

bear his name. He

36:28

has been written out of

36:30

the scriptures of America. That

36:33

boot is the only thing left of Arnold

36:35

worth respecting. We

36:39

leave you now with one final installment

36:42

of Before They Went Bad,

36:45

Satan, get

36:48

the behind me, Satan,

36:51

let's face it. Satan has an image

36:53

problem when blamed for the fall of man

36:55

gets laid at your feet. That can happen,

36:58

but let's give the devil his you. Before

37:01

descending into hell and getting branded

37:03

lord of the underworld, Satan was

37:05

riding high

37:09

as an angel in heaven. He had fame,

37:11

wisdom, authority, and power,

37:14

and he was great looking. The poet

37:16

John Milton describes a being

37:18

with hair that bristles like the

37:20

tail of a comet. In fact,

37:22

Satan's alias Lucifer means

37:25

light bringer. But Satan became

37:27

blinded by that light, grew resentful

37:30

of God, and began viewing himself

37:32

as an equal to God. Is

37:34

it possible that Satan loved God too

37:37

much? Was he actually jealous

37:39

of God's love for those far less

37:41

perfect beings known as humans?

37:44

Some believe so. Regardless, Satan's

37:47

designs didn't endear him to his creator,

37:50

who kicked him out of the house and down

37:52

into Hell. In time, Satan

37:54

reinvented himself and began a fruitful

37:57

career of leading us into temptation.

37:59

Here he is slithering around Eden

38:02

in a video series from the people behind

38:04

the popular Beginner's Bible. It's

38:07

nice food, isn't

38:09

it. Why not give it

38:11

a shot? Just a

38:13

tiny, tiny key.

38:17

God probably won't even notice.

38:21

Satan has always made for great reading

38:23

material. He gets name checked fifty

38:25

six times, and the King James Bible is

38:28

the unlikely protagonist of Milton's

38:30

Paradise Lost, in which he

38:32

proclaims better to reign and hell

38:35

than serve in heaven. He also

38:37

pops up in Dante's Inferno in

38:39

the infamous Ninth Circle of Hell frozen

38:42

into a block of ice. The story

38:44

of Satan's fall is a warning to

38:46

the venal and virtuous alike. Disregard

38:49

your better angels, and you too can

38:51

be in for quite a tumble. So

38:54

times I think we're

38:57

not recome. We are

39:00

that there's such a big world up there,

39:03

I'd like to give it a trung. Now.

39:06

My favorite modern depiction of Satan

39:09

comes in South

39:11

Park movie. This Satan

39:13

is tender and love lorn, is

39:15

emotionally abusive relationship

39:17

with Saddam Hussein, and badly

39:20

disenchanted with the nether world. This Satan

39:23

longs to quit his fiery home and

39:26

to send to brighter, earthly

39:28

shores.

39:53

I really hope you enjoyed this mobituary.

39:56

May I ask all you loyal listeners

39:58

to please rate and review our or podcast.

40:01

You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook

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40:05

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40:07

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Wherever you get your podcasts, and

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check out Mobituaries Great Lives

40:15

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selling book Now available in paperback

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and audiobook. It includes plenty

40:21

of stories not in the podcast. This

40:24

episode of Mobituaries was produced

40:26

by Morocca, Jake Harper, Aaron

40:29

Shrank, and Wilcome Martinez Cacceto.

40:31

It was edited by Moral Walls and

40:34

engineered by Josh Hahn, with fact

40:36

checking by Naomi Barr. Our production

40:38

company is Neon Humm Media. Our

40:41

archival producer is Jamie Benson.

40:43

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40:45

Hart. Indispensable support

40:47

from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervei,

40:50

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40:52

everyone at CBS News Radio. Special

40:55

thanks to Robert Marston, Maureen

40:57

Dowd, David Dacovny, and Alberto

41:00

Rebina. The Indubitable.

41:02

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41:05

Executive producers for Mobituaries

41:07

include Steve Raises and Morocca.

41:09

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41:12

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