This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchler.

Great New York Fire of 1776, continuing a law story of the American Revolution with

Professor Benjamin L. Carp, Professor of History at Brooklyn College, and the CUNY Graduate

Center. New York City between the 20th of September 1776 and the 21st of September in the morning

of 1776 is burned by unknown cause. Accident or design becomes the debate still not settled

250 years later to look at a map of Lower Manhattan, which is what the urban environment

then described 250 years ago. The burning from Whitehall slip where the ferry is up the west side

through St. Paul's Church all the way up through St. Trinity Church all the way up past St. Paul's

and the east side of the town at that point was saved by luck, by wind, or by the offices of the

British soldiers, the crown soldiers at the time. The crown fleet was birthed mostly in the

merchant district on the east side. We're now the next day and there have been a number of people

detained as accused arsonists. I go to one in particular who looks to describe the hectic events

of the summer of 1776 in New York. His name Richard Brown, Professor Carp, reports him parold

after he was captured in the Battle of Long Island at the end of August several weeks before.

And he was captured on the 21st of September and immediately accused of being an arsonist and executed

for setting fires. What led many people to be detained is that they were carrying what were called

combustibles. What were those, Professor? Thank you.

Combustibles could be a lot of things. It could be matches and at the time matches could be

over a foot long, you know, flammable materials kind of wrapped in rags, not like the small

you know, books of matches that we use nowadays. They could be wooden sticks with

turpentine on the end of them. It could be gunpowder, you know, lots of different materials

that were used for normal civilian purposes or used for normal military purposes, like, you know,

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