COLD CASE OF ARSON 1776: 4/8: The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution by Benjamin L. Carp
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Great-New-York-Fire-1776/dp/0300246951
New York City, the strategic center of the Revolutionary War, was the most important place in North America in 1776. That summer, an unruly rebel army under George Washington repeatedly threatened to burn the city rather than let the British take it. Shortly after the Crown’s forces took New York City, much of it mysteriously burned to the ground.
This is the first book to fully explore the Great Fire of 1776 and why its origins remained a mystery even after the British investigated it in 1776 and 1783. Uncovering stories of espionage, terror, and radicalism, Benjamin L. Carp paints a vivid picture of the chaos, passions, and unresolved tragedies that define a historical moment we usually associate with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
1859 Tearing down King George, 1776
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchew with Professor Benjamin Carp of Brooklyn College |
| 0:09.3 | and CUNY Graduate Center. His new book is The Great New York Fire of 1776, a lost story of the |
| 0:15.1 | American Revolution. Nearly 250 years later, there's no resolution. All the testimony gathered at the time from inquiries, |
| 0:24.6 | from investigation, from eyewitnesses, from stories told, an inquiry years later in Britain, |
| 0:31.6 | run officially by the Crown, still no resolution, because we're now talking about fire, perhaps |
| 0:36.9 | at 12 points, perhaps at 15, perhaps at 20. |
| 0:40.2 | But there are people now rushing to answer the fire breaking out in empty houses or houses that have occupants. |
| 0:50.1 | This got my attention immediately, Professor. I had to read it several times. |
| 0:58.0 | Pumps and buckets are sabotaged. Cutting of the bucket handle? Breaking of the pump? How do we explain that unless there was someone with a design? |
| 1:05.0 | I mean, the only other explanation, well, two other explanations. One is that these eyewitnesses are lying or mistaken. |
| 1:12.8 | And the other explanation was that you just had people causing chaos and doing mischief for no motivation, but just because things were chaotic and they were doing this for random malevolent reasons. |
| 1:28.3 | But no, I mean, the loyalists and British witnesses see firefighting equipment being deliberately tampered with, |
| 1:35.3 | preventing the firefighters from doing their jobs as effectively as possible. |
| 1:40.3 | The Trinity Church and the St. Paul's Church, representing the Church of England, representing the Crown, |
| 1:48.9 | that will become an important debating point for those who see this all as a design, because it was anti-church. |
| 1:57.4 | There was one man, I believe his name is Boucher forgive me professor if I misremember who testified |
| 2:03.9 | afterwards or spoke afterwards that there were no meeting houses that is dissenter churches burning |
| 2:09.3 | but there was a great attention to to Trinity Church which burned and St. Paul's I believe they prevented |
| 2:16.7 | from burning. |
| 2:23.5 | And from Whitehall slip to Trinity Church is quite a reach up Broadway. |
| 2:26.3 | That suggests, again, there was design. |
| 2:27.6 | Is that how to read this? |
... |
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