{"id":290197,"date":"2025-06-13T01:44:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T01:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-june-12-2025-revolutionary-war-figures-benedict-arnold\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T01:44:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T01:44:31","slug":"americanstudies-june-12-2025-revolutionary-war-figures-benedict-arnold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=290197","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: June 12, 2025: Revolutionary War Figures: Benedict Arnold"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[On June 14th<\/sup>,
\n1775<\/a>, the Continental Army was formed at the Second
\nContinental Congress<\/a> in Philadelphia. So for the 250th<\/sup>
\nof that momentous military moment, I\u2019ll AmericanStudy a handful of iconic
\nRevolutionary War figures, leading up to a special weekend post on that
\nhistoric anniversary!]<\/p>\n

On the benefits and the limitations to remembering our most
\ninfamous traitor the way we do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to argue that we shouldn\u2019t remember Benedict
\nArnold as one of our first, and one of our most enduring, national traitors,
\nbecause, well, he was. Compared to the contested
\nand still controversial treason accusations leveled at his contemporary Aaron
\nBurr,<\/a> Arnold\u2019s traitorous acts were far more overt and undisputed\u2014when Major Andre was caught and
\nArnold\u2019s plan to hand over the fort at West Point to British forces discovered<\/a>,
\nArnold immediately went over to the British side and helped lead their war
\neffort for the war\u2019s remaining two years; after the Revolution he settled in
\nEngland and lived out his remaining two decades of life in that adopted
\nhomeland.<\/p>\n

So Arnold was a traitor to the Revolutionary army and cause,
\nand remembering him as such is certainly accurate to the specific histories and
\nevents. Doing so is also beneficial on a broader level, as it forces us to recognize
\nthe Founding Fathers and their iconic Revolutionary peers as no less human and
\nflawed<\/a> than any other leaders or people. Arnold was one of the Revolution\u2019s
\nfirst war heroes, playing a decisive role in the early victory at
\nSaratoga<\/a> and other conflicts; yet just two short years later, politics and
\npreferences within the Continental Army, coupled with financial difficulties (perhaps
\ndue to lending money to the Continental Army<\/a>, which would be a textbook
\ndefinition of irony), led Arnold to cast his lot with the same forces he had
\nhelped defeat at Saratoga.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s at least one significant downside to remembering
\nArnold as a traitor, or more exactly to the collective blind spot that such
\nmemories reveal. After all, the most simple yet most commonly ignored fact of
\nthe Revolution is this: it represented an act of treason against the colonists\u2019
\nRoyal government, and each and every American involved in it was thus a
\ntraitor. (There was a reason why Ben
\nFranklin worried, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence<\/a>, about
\neveryone hanging separately if they did not hang together.) Awareness of that
\nfact might not change our collective perspective on the Revolution and its
\nleaders\u2014but might it not at least shift our understanding of the loyalists<\/a>, of those who
\nsided (lawfully) with
\nEngland<\/a> during the war? As a soldier who sold out his comrades, Arnold was
\nof course something more than just a loyalist\u2014but the point here is that
\ntreason, during the Revolution, was a loaded and complex concept however we
\nlook at it.<\/p>\n

Last
\nRevolutionary figure tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Rev War figures you\u2019d highlight?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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