I remember when I was a kid
that I didn’t much relate to the American Revolution. My parents emigrated from
Italy. It’s fair to say that I wasn’t much interested in Garibaldi either. I blame
it all on my boring Social Studies teacher who didn’t seem to like his job.
Trust me when I say this because, since my high school days, I’ve known several
brilliant social studies teachers who made history come alive. I know the
difference. My point being that my
education about the American Revolution came very late in my life.
There’s a TV series now
that I watch regularly. It’s the right combination of realism and romance,
often sending me to Wikipedia or books or historical web sites to check out
scenes, mentions, events in the series.
TURN: Washington’s Spies is
a welcome event for history buffs who
like to see history in action. Includes
me. The conflict between Captain Simcoe who leads the rough and ready Rodger’s
Rangers and the more orthodox British
Army forces led by Major Hewlett is something I wouldn’t know about if I didn’t
watch the show.
On the other hand, I was
aware of the profoundly seriously attitude that George Washington took toward
traitors who undermined the Continental Army. The opening scene of one episode
depicts the execution by hanging of two men.
It’s not proven that they exposed General Washington’s
Culper spy ring but they were hanged on charges of counterfeiting. It’s pouring
rain as the offenders are pushed off the scaffolding in a grisly and shocking
scene that pulls no punches. The hangman has flubbed the job resulting in the
beheading of one man. The other man keeps his head and was hanged properly. He
can be seen vomiting white bile as a soldier steps forward with a pistol to
deliver the coup de gras.
It’s the American
Revolution form of ‘scared straight’—the executions are a lesson to the
observers. The execution depicted of Sergeant Thomas Hickey fits with the
official documents of the American Revolution, and so was that of Colonel
Bradford who stood beside him on the gallows.
Who knew?
The show is based on a book
by author Alexander Rose. Gotta’ give AMC credit for knowing a good thing when
they read it.
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