COLD CASE OF ARSON 1776: 8/8: 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
⏱️ 10 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.”
1776 HMS Phoenix and Rose defeat fireships off Manhattan Island
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Basterworth. Professor Benjamin Carp. His new book is The Great New York Fire of 1776, a lost story of the American Revolution. Seven years later, October 1783, General Guy Carlton convenes an inquiry, in part to ascertain whether the same, |
| 0:26.8 | the burning, was accidental or the effect of a design. That is the question before the court. |
| 0:32.6 | Professor, this is wonderful. At first, I thought, no, it can't be true. You kept referring to the inquiry |
| 0:39.3 | throughout the early part of the book, and I then realized, no, this is a real thing, very thorough |
| 0:44.9 | on General Carlton's part. His questioners had four questions initially to ask of the eyewitnesses, |
| 0:53.5 | of the people who participated. Do you believe |
| 0:55.3 | it's an accident? Do you believe it was designed? What do you make of the pumps being |
| 1:00.2 | sabotaged? And at this point, what do you make of the after effects, the question of the |
| 1:09.6 | combustibles that were found that hadn't been burned. |
| 1:14.5 | All four questions are put to the witnesses. |
| 1:19.9 | Is there a summary opinion that speaks to these four questions? |
| 1:25.1 | There were others were added at the time. |
| 1:28.8 | And does a summary opinion give more than we can have in these separate questions, Professor? |
| 1:34.7 | Yeah, no, there's never some, any kind of summary opinion. I mean, these records are thorough, |
| 1:39.3 | but they are also incomplete, I think, because they just kind of gave up on the inquiry once it was clear |
| 1:45.0 | that the evacuation was, the final evacuation was going to proceed. |
| 1:51.1 | The evacuation from New York. |
| 1:53.0 | Yeah, the British evacuation from New York. |
| 1:54.7 | That's correct. |
| 1:55.5 | And what's really odd about these records is that they are not in the British National Archives. |
| 2:00.3 | They were in the personal papers of the clerk who took down these notes, |
| 2:04.6 | who brought them in exile to New Brunswick in Canada. |
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