This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

And we continue with our American stories.

It's called the first American Christmas because the Declaration of Independence was created

for the previous summer, essentially divorcing America from England and declaring our country

as an independent nation.

Here is the story of Christmas 1776.

My name is Brian Benjamin. I recently wrote a children's book entitled Christmas 1776 that I'll

be reading for you today. It covers the Revolutionary War and follows George Washington and

the Continental Army in the late months

of 1776 as they were fighting and mostly losing to the British for American independence.

It, of course, culminates in the famous crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776.

This book I was actually reading a biography of George Washington,

and I got to the part where the Continental Army is in Pennsylvania.

Christmas is approaching, and the war is looking really bleak,

and they plan the crossing

of the Delaware River. The two things that struck me were, one, I didn't realize how bleak

the picture was for the Americans at this point during the war. We were really getting kicked

around by the British and heading into that winter of 1776.

The cause of American independence did not look well.

And the other thing that struck me was how history really turned on a dime with this attack,

but this really saved America's cause.

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