Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. I recently ran into a young listener
Speaker 1: of our show who said that her favorite episodes were
Speaker 1: the ones that are connected in some way to Hamilton's.
Speaker 1: So today we have pulled something Hamilton's adjacent out of
Speaker 1: the archives. It is Sarah and Deblina episode on James Armistead,
Speaker 1: an enslaved man who worked as a double agent during
Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War who's handler was the market A Lafayette.
Speaker 1: So let's jump right in. Welcome to Stuff you missed
Speaker 1: in History Class from house stuff Works dot com. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm
Speaker 1: Deblina Chuck for boarding and to Blina. We've covered a
Speaker 1: lot of spy stories in the past year, so we
Speaker 1: have there's no coincidence, mostly thanks to you. We love
Speaker 1: the war spies. I do spies in general, you do.
Speaker 1: They always make for some fun stories, they really do,
Speaker 1: and and they're another popular listener quest of ours. But
Speaker 1: today we're going to venture into the very murky territory
Speaker 1: of Revolutionary War spies, and specifically we're going to focus
Speaker 1: on the story of James Armistead Lafayette, who was an
Speaker 1: enslaved Virginia man who worked for the marketa Lafayette, who
Speaker 1: spied on Benedict Arnold, and who even gained the trust
Speaker 1: of General Lord Cornwallis. So if that all adds up correctly,
Speaker 1: he's a double agent circa eighty one, which is a
Speaker 1: pretty impressive feat. But since Armistead's life story or the
Speaker 1: details that are available are just a little bit, then
Speaker 1: we'll also be talking more about more general espionage during
Speaker 1: the American Revolution, George Washington as a spy master, for example,
Speaker 1: And since Armistead was a slave, we're also going to
Speaker 1: talk about the place of African American slaves and freeman
Speaker 1: in the Revolution. Yes, we're gonna be covering a lot
Speaker 1: of ground today, but before we get to that, it's
Speaker 1: important to note that even though an African American man
Speaker 1: occupies one of the most notable spots in the early
Speaker 1: American Revolution Christmas Attics, of course, the first person shot
Speaker 1: by the British, and the Boston massacre of seventeen seventy,
Speaker 1: there are really a lot of misassumptions about the position
Speaker 1: of African Americans in general in the Revolution. According to
Speaker 1: Noel by Poier, for example, in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Speaker 1: Many people assume that African American soldiers were segregated into
Speaker 1: all black units if they existed at all, or worked
Speaker 1: only as laborers and servants. But that wasn't the case
Speaker 1: at all. No state militias and the Continental Army were integrated.
Speaker 1: Despite attempts to the contrary. Manpower just simply demanded it.
Speaker 1: African Americans also made invaluable spies, both for the rebels
Speaker 1: and for the British. They could, for example, work as orderlies,
Speaker 1: picking up private conversations and privileged information in the process,
Speaker 1: and they could also act as local sides, which gave
Speaker 1: them freedom of movement and the ability to pass on information.
Speaker 1: So two important jobs there that also double his spy
Speaker 1: pretty easily. UM. We'll talk more about the offers made
Speaker 1: by each side toward enslaved able bodied men in general,
Speaker 1: but for now, it's just enough to say that both
Speaker 1: American and British officers would have had full reason to
Speaker 1: believe that an enslaved man like Armistead was on their side,
Speaker 1: so there wouldn't be an issue of is he double
Speaker 1: crossing us? He should be passionately for one side or
Speaker 1: the other. Um. And that's because the Americans figured this
Speaker 1: they would assume that of us, an enslaved man like
Speaker 1: this might be fighting for his country's freedom, might be
Speaker 1: fighting for the home he knew, while the British would
Speaker 1: assume that he was fighting for his own personal freedom.
Speaker 1: And again we're going to get more into the details
Speaker 1: on that later, but before we do that, some some
Speaker 1: information on Armistead's life. Yes, he was born in New Kent, Virginia,
Speaker 1: likely in it perhaps his latest seventeen sixty. According to
Speaker 1: some sources, his master was William Armistead, and James worked
Speaker 1: as a field hand on a tobacco plantation. In seventeen
Speaker 1: eighty one, his master gave him permission to join the
Speaker 1: Continental Army, and he was soon teamed up with the
Speaker 1: Marquis de Lafayette, the frameless French hero of the Revolution
Speaker 1: and a close friend of General George Washington. And with
Speaker 1: Lafayette as his handler, Armstead poses an escaped slave and
Speaker 1: entered the camp of turncoat Benedict Arnold, who we all
Speaker 1: know well, where he worked as a guide and as
Speaker 1: an orderly So that was his his start as a spy,
Speaker 1: passing on information to Lafayette and uh It's even suggested
Speaker 1: that he might have had other orderly's working under him,
Speaker 1: you know, so he wasn't the only spy in the camp,
Speaker 1: but he had other African American men who would pass
Speaker 1: on information to kind of the spy manager by Master Yes,
Speaker 1: and and they'd get that that information onto Lafayette. Eventually, though,
Speaker 1: Armistead was posted close enough to the camp of General
Speaker 1: Lord Cornwallis, and that was of course a big bump
Speaker 1: and the sort of information he was receiving, And he
Speaker 1: also managed to gain Cornwallis's trust and became one of
Speaker 1: his agents, making Armistead at this point a double agent.
Speaker 1: So he was on the one hand getting information from
Speaker 1: the British and informing Lafayette. On the other he was
Speaker 1: feeding the British inaccurate information that Lafayette was giving him
Speaker 1: reporting back on British movement. So, you know, just the
Speaker 1: circle of of information and misinformation going on. The biggest
Speaker 1: perk of being a double agent, though, was that freedom
Speaker 1: of movement that we mentioned earlier. According to Madison Gray
Speaker 1: and Time Magazine, it was during one of these trips
Speaker 1: that Armistead discovered that ten thousand British troops were headed
Speaker 1: to Yorktown, and this was information that eventually got passed
Speaker 1: on to General Washington, and Yorktown was, of course the
Speaker 1: turning point of the war. It came after a joint
Speaker 1: French American attack on British held New York failed, and
Speaker 1: when Congress was bankrupt and enlistments were flagging after years
Speaker 1: of war, so things looked pretty bleak at this time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for the for the revolutionary cause, in part because of
Speaker 1: this intelligence from Armistead, Washington and Continental soldiers plus four
Speaker 1: thousand French soldiers began heading towards Yorktown to meet Cornwallis's men,
Speaker 1: and along the way, of course, a French fleet cut
Speaker 1: off the British fleet's attempt to rescue Cornwallis's army, leaving
Speaker 1: them stranded. And we're not going to go into the
Speaker 1: whole history of Yorktown here, but um, the siege began
Speaker 1: September one and ultimately ended with Cornwallis's surrender a few
Speaker 1: weeks later, and sometime after that the end of the war. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's a quote in the in the Gray article that
Speaker 1: Dablina mentioned from rex Elis, who's the vice president of
Speaker 1: Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area, and he really emphasized the full
Speaker 1: importance of Armistead's part in this victory and said quote,
Speaker 1: if he had not given the information that he gave
Speaker 1: at the strategic time he did, they would not have
Speaker 1: had the intelligence to create the blockade that ended the war.
Speaker 1: So I mean certainly speaks for for Armistead's work. Um
Speaker 1: an interesting side note here though, especially since Armistead was
Speaker 1: a double agent and so clearly helped pivotal yeah, pivotal
Speaker 1: point in the war. General Washington was not always a
Speaker 1: fan of double agents, even though he has a bit
Speaker 1: of a reputation as a spy master. Yes, Washington is
Speaker 1: pretty well known for running the Culper Spy Ring in
Speaker 1: New York City and for employee Sir James Jay's secret
Speaker 1: recipe for invisible ink and his sensitive correspondence. But he
Speaker 1: was uncomfortable with the haphazard nature of the game of
Speaker 1: of using double agent and just the spy game in general.
Speaker 1: You know, different spy working for different people, untrained agents
Speaker 1: passing on rumors and gossip as real intelligent. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: wanted spies to be centralized under his control. He did.
Speaker 1: He wanted everything to be nice and orderly, as you
Speaker 1: would expect Washington would. Fortunately, according to Edward langle in
Speaker 1: military history. Washington's officers were willing to disobey his orders
Speaker 1: and set up their own networks. It was one of
Speaker 1: these that finally turned George Washington onto the value of
Speaker 1: using a double agent. A former captain in a New
Speaker 1: York regiment, Elijah Hunter, who posed as a Tory, infiltrated
Speaker 1: General Sir Henry Clinton's camp and was asked in turn
Speaker 1: to spy for the British. So when Hunter's handler first
Speaker 1: started passing on information to Washington, the General expressed his
Speaker 1: general distrust of double agents, which we just talked about.
Speaker 1: He said, quote, their situation obliges them to trim a
Speaker 1: good deal in order to keep well with both sides,
Speaker 1: and the less they have it in their power to
Speaker 1: do us mischief, the better, especially if we consider that
Speaker 1: the enemy can purchase their fidelity at a higher price
Speaker 1: than we can. Okay, that's an astute point to to make,
Speaker 1: something to be aware of. Fortunately, though, at least um
Speaker 1: for Washington's general trust of double agents, Hunter didn't blow it.
Speaker 1: He didn't do any mischief like Washington was concerned about,
Speaker 1: became a valuable double agent, and uh sort of opened
Speaker 1: Washington up for a little bit of a more decentralized
Speaker 1: sort of spy network, something that would allow him to
Speaker 1: welcome this information he was getting from Armistead later down
Speaker 1: the line back to Armistead's story, though, you would expect
Speaker 1: that after his work for Lafayette, after the spectacular turn
Speaker 1: as a double agent, his vital service to the war effort,
Speaker 1: would be recognized with at the very least his freedom,
Speaker 1: But that was not the case. After the war, he
Speaker 1: returned to his master, returned to to Virginia, the Virginia
Speaker 1: Plan Tation where he had worked and was still a slave.
Speaker 1: But here's another interesting side note about Washington. Washington, despite
Speaker 1: his growing interest in integrated troops during the war, was
Speaker 1: very much four slaves returning to their masters after the
Speaker 1: fight was over and not slipping away during the hubbub.
Speaker 1: But telling Lee, Washington accepted the fact that this might
Speaker 1: not happen. They might not return to their masters. He
Speaker 1: even acknowledged that some of his own slaves who had
Speaker 1: left during the fight would probably not come back, save
Speaker 1: for quote an inclination to return. Yeah. I read a
Speaker 1: little bit about this in Kelly and Loos's A History
Speaker 1: of African Americans to eighteen eighty and it's almost as though,
Speaker 1: or the way they presented it, it's almost as though
Speaker 1: George Washington, the property owner, would prefer to have his property,
Speaker 1: his human property, restored to him. But George Washington, the rebel,
Speaker 1: understood that his slaves might not be willing to see
Speaker 1: themselves property anymore, especially after this dramatic war that had
Speaker 1: happened in the name of civil liberty. So this is
Speaker 1: just to give some some background that this is happening
Speaker 1: all over the New Country at this point, whether slaves
Speaker 1: are going to return after the chaos of the war.
Speaker 1: And Uh, I think it's pretty remarkable that Armistead did
Speaker 1: choose to do that. Uh. Nevertheless, though his friends didn't
Speaker 1: forget him, so he didn't return to This is not
Speaker 1: a sad ending for his story. At least he didn't
Speaker 1: return to slavery and live this obscure life. Uh. Fortunately
Speaker 1: to his master also supported his eventual manumission. But in
Speaker 1: seventeen seven, Armistead was finally granted his freedom by the
Speaker 1: state of Virginia, thanks in part to a strong letter
Speaker 1: of recommendation from Lafayette, who noted that he was quote
Speaker 1: entitled to every reward his situation could admit of Armistead
Speaker 1: ended up living out his days in Virginia, farming, marrying,
Speaker 1: and eventually having children. After his emancipation, he also took
Speaker 1: on Lafayette's name and they met one more time, and
Speaker 1: it was during Lafayette's eighteen twenty four final visit to
Speaker 1: the US. Lafayette spotted him in a crowd and came
Speaker 1: over to embrace him. Armistead Lafayette died in eighteen thirty
Speaker 1: or eighteen thirty two, depending on what source you read. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: like I said, a pretty good end to to that story.
Speaker 1: But I think the biggest question hanging over it, and
Speaker 1: I just hinted it this a minute ago, is why
Speaker 1: why did he do it? You know, why did he
Speaker 1: fight in the first place? Why after his service did
Speaker 1: he return to slavery willingly? And uh, I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: listening to a podcast on the Colonial Williamsburg site. They
Speaker 1: have a lot on on Armistead, hosted by Richard Josie,
Speaker 1: who actually interprets Armstead and Williamsburg. I mean like in character, uh,
Speaker 1: he he portrays him. And he said that those were
Speaker 1: the two most common questions that visitors to to Williamsburg
Speaker 1: asked him, and he said that his answer to the
Speaker 1: first question why did Armistead fight in the first place
Speaker 1: is country. In his answer to the second why did
Speaker 1: he return is his family sense of place. Um, of course,
Speaker 1: we can't be sure what motivated Armistead in either of those,
Speaker 1: but we can sort of take a look at the
Speaker 1: options that were available to able bodied slaves and free
Speaker 1: blacks in the rebel colonies at the time of the
Speaker 1: American Revolution. And while the options were certainly better during
Speaker 1: the Revolution than they had been previously, they were still
Speaker 1: pretty bleak. Yeah, the outside of the war, slaves would
Speaker 1: have been as aware as anyone of the philosophy behind
Speaker 1: the revolution, and they could have certainly hoped for that
Speaker 1: the benefits of liberty might extend to them a little bit. Plus,
Speaker 1: anyone slave or not can have a connection, I guess,
Speaker 1: and an investment in home where they live, where they
Speaker 1: were born. Consequently, there was a strong early support for
Speaker 1: the war among black slaves and freemen, with men like
Speaker 1: Peter Salem, who was a Massachusetts slave freed so that
Speaker 1: he could fight. He saw action in Lexington and it conquered.
Speaker 1: Or Salem Poor was another freeman who fought at Bunker
Speaker 1: Hill and thanks to a decent, although illegal tradition of
Speaker 1: some black participation in New England militias. The early Continental
Speaker 1: Army actually counted a fair number of black soldiers among
Speaker 1: its ranks. But if it hadn't been for the eventual
Speaker 1: manpower shortages later in the war that Dablina mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: plus a pretty bold move on the part of the British,
Speaker 1: it's likely that black participation in the army would have
Speaker 1: been pretty limited because actually, when when George Washington became
Speaker 1: Commander in chief of the Continental Army, he even banned
Speaker 1: the future enlistment of black men free or otherwise, and
Speaker 1: in the southern colonies with black populations out numbering white populations. Uh,
Speaker 1: folks were always a little bit leery of anything that
Speaker 1: could stir up possible slave rebellions and insurrections. And we've talked,
Speaker 1: we've covered quite a few slave rebellions, I think on
Speaker 1: the podcast, So most of you probably have a good
Speaker 1: background on on those fears that that people had during
Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War and after. True in this case, though,
Speaker 1: it took a seventeen seventy five proclamation from the Royal
Speaker 1: Governor of Virginia, Lord dune More, to really shake things up.
Speaker 1: He promised freedom to the slaves of rebel masters if
Speaker 1: they joined the British. That plus the simple need for
Speaker 1: states to fill continental army recruitment quotas with basically anyone
Speaker 1: they could get, was enough for the rules to start
Speaker 1: being overlooked. Rhode Island, for example, even authorized slave enlistment
Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy eight. And of course too many slaves
Speaker 1: saw Dunmore's offer as an opportunity. I mean that that's
Speaker 1: why it was such a problem for the patriot side.
Speaker 1: If you're going to be turning away men who can
Speaker 1: just go sign up up with the British, that's probably
Speaker 1: a bad move. But yeah, many slaves saw Dunmore's offer
Speaker 1: as a chance out of slavery. According to Kelly and Lewis, again,
Speaker 1: up to twenty thousand African Americans served the British during
Speaker 1: the war, which was a number way higher than I
Speaker 1: was expecting to see. Uh. The stakes were raised, though,
Speaker 1: so it didn't just become an issue of if you
Speaker 1: serve a rebel master, you can possibly get your freedom
Speaker 1: if you fight for the British. In seventeen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: Sir Henry Clinton, who was the Commander in chief of
Speaker 1: British forces in America, issued a proclamation that any blacks
Speaker 1: captured with Patriot forces would be sold for a profit.
Speaker 1: So now, if you are deciding to throw in your
Speaker 1: luck with the Patriot cause and you're caught, you're just
Speaker 1: going to be sold again. And that actually gives a
Speaker 1: pretty good indication that Lord Dunmore's earlier offer freedom shouldn't
Speaker 1: be taken as a human rights gesture. It was debated
Speaker 1: in Great Britain as possibly shameful in so much as
Speaker 1: it could turn slaves on their masters. Some even feared
Speaker 1: that it would create general rebellion. After all, from their
Speaker 1: point of view, they thought, what's to keep slaves of
Speaker 1: loyalist masters from leaving a freedom? If freedom is a state. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the most obvious point to me. If if you're
Speaker 1: considering neighboring plantations, for example, in the slaves on one
Speaker 1: plantation belonged to a rebel master and they can go
Speaker 1: fight the British, the slaves on the next plantation are
Speaker 1: supposed to stay there and still be slaves. That seems
Speaker 1: like a rebellion could easily start that way. Of course,
Speaker 1: the British didn't want to end slavery or encourage revolution
Speaker 1: that would disrupt the labor structure of their American and
Speaker 1: Caribbean colonies. And for slaves tempted by the promise of freedom,
Speaker 1: redcoat service often meant poor rations and clothing, backbreaking work,
Speaker 1: death from camp diseases. Yeah, so it really done. Moore's
Speaker 1: proclamation should be seen as something is a way to
Speaker 1: increase enlistment rather than a statement on slavery. But uh,
Speaker 1: with with all of these problems to consider here, threats
Speaker 1: of enslavement, sale, backbreaking labor from all sides, it's not
Speaker 1: too surprising that many slaves didn't join either side, you know.
Speaker 1: They they simply tried to stay out of the fight,
Speaker 1: stay at home, or take the opportunity to just leave too.
Speaker 1: And there's all this chaos happening. Another remarkable statistic from
Speaker 1: from the book I mentioned earlier, Up to one third
Speaker 1: of Georgia's slave population just left during the revolutionary war.
Speaker 1: Some slaves joined guerrilla units, some formed interracial bands that
Speaker 1: capitalized on the chaos that was going on, and some
Speaker 1: just lived in the wilderness. So people finding a finding
Speaker 1: a third way here essentially um, but I found it.
Speaker 1: I was glad to learn more about armistead story. And
Speaker 1: he's one who listeners have suggested in the past as
Speaker 1: a great example of a double agent. It because his
Speaker 1: biography is so difficult to to flesh out many details
Speaker 1: on and we found that before with some of these spies,
Speaker 1: by by very nature of spying, there's often not a
Speaker 1: great record left behind. Um. But I think it's a
Speaker 1: good thing because we got to learn more about what
Speaker 1: the options were for African American slaved in tree during
Speaker 1: the American Revolution. Thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 1: for this Saturday classic. Since this is out of the archive,
Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook U
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Speaker 1: We are at History Podcast at how stuff works dot com,
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