Significant Others - Peggy Shippen

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Benedict Arnold is famous for betraying his country–but it was his wife who made the treason possible.Starring: Susan Yeagley as Peggy Shippen and Andy Richter as Benedict Arnold. Also featuring: Luke Millington-Drake, Jim O’Heir, Matt Gourley, and Roman Mars. Show notes:John Andre sketch of Peggy ShippenSource List:American Battlefield Trust, Peggy Shippen, 10 Facts: Benedict Arnold and Peggy Shippen, Benedict ArnoldHistory.com, Benedict ArnoldNew York Historical Society, Life Story: Margaret “Peggy” Shippen ArnoldNational Endowment for the Humanities, Love and the RevolutionMassachusetts Historical Society, Letters from John Adams to Abigail AdamsNPS.gov, Benedict ArnoldHistory.com, Why Benedict Arnold Tried to Capture QuebecThe George Washington Presidential Library, Joseph ReedMedium.com, The Highest-paid Spy in the American RevolutionBrobeck, Stephen. “Revolutionary Change in Colonial Philadelphia: The Brief Life of the Proprietary Gentry.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, 1976, pp. 410–34. JSTORBenedict Arnold, Patriot and Traitor by Willard Sterne Randall, ©1990 by Willard Sterne Randall, 2001 Dorset PressDefiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married, Nancy Rubin Stuart, ©2013 by Nancy Rubin Stuart, Beacon Press

Welcome to Significant Others, a podcast that takes a look at the less familiar side of history. I'm Liza Powell O'Brien, and we have finally reached Season 2, with a whole new slate of stories about some of the lesser-known but pivotal characters, without whom history as we know it would be different. Today, we're kicking things off with the tale of how the It Girl of revolutionary Philadelphia ended up nearly costing her country its freedom. But first, I want to offer up my sincere thanks to everyone who stuck with the podcast during this long hiatus, whether or not you've listened to the bonus episodes, in addition to everyone

who's listening now for the first time. We hope you like what you hear, and now on to the show. There is a man so notoriously treasonous that his name is synonymous with the word traitor. But he did not betray his country on his own. His wife was integral to his plans. In fact, she was his connection to the men with whom he conspired to sabotage George Washington and win the Revolutionary War for the British. But the wife seems largely to have escaped infamy. Was she protected by her sex? Hidden by history? Or is it that saying, don't be a Peggy Arnold, just doesn't sound right?

Or is it that saying, don't be a Peggy Arnold, just doesn't sound right? This time, on Significant Others, meet Benedict Arnold's wife, Peggy. Peggy Shippen was the belle of revolutionary-era Philadelphia. A drawing of her in her heyday shows an hourglass shape with a face at the center, ruffled trimmed bodice below, and an equally voluminous cone-shaped mass of hair above. We'll put a link in the show notes so you can see it yourself. This style was all the rage in Europe at the time, where women piled up two feet of hair on top of their heads when they wanted to be fashionable. This particular portrait was drawn by a man who would be crucial to the story of both

Peggy's life and her country's, but we'll get to that in a bit. As her husband's biographer observes, Peggy was born in Philadelphia at the same time as the British Empire, just weeks before the French surrendered Canada in 1760. So by 1776, she was smack in the middle of her teenage years, and the cauldron of rebellion that had been brewing around her her whole life was finally boiling over. Her father, a judge, was part of a small group who had overtaken the Quakers as the dominant force in Philadelphia politics. They were more closely aligned with the Crown than with the Patriots, but Judge Shippen was not given to bold moves in any direction. Self-preservation seems to have been his strongest interest. When the Stamp Act was passed in 1765, he objected to it privately but refused to flout British authority in public.

So he decided simply to refrain from any activities that would require the use of a stamp at all, like continuing his law practice. So when the fighting broke out in 1775, teenage Peggy watched the father she adored struggle desperately to stay neutral. He was not alone in trying on neutrality as a way to survive the war, but it made him no friends. He was labeled a traitor and a spy, arrested, and threatened with treason until he renounced the King of England. But still, he refused to make any public declarations, either against the revolution, which he opposed, or the crown, which he feared. Instead, he invited them all to dinner. Well, not anyone who might be, like, poor or powerless, but everyone else was welcome at his table regardless of their leanings. So Peggy grew up in a dynamic political atmosphere,

absorbing her father's private judgments against the revolution, even as she observed his refusal to speak out against it. In 1777, Judge Shippen's fragile political ecosystem collapsed when word came that the British military was coming for Philadelphia. The ship and family, along with the rest of the town, fled. John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, described it like this. This city is a dull place, in comparison of what it was. More than one half of the inhabitants have removed into the country, as it was their wisdom to do. The remainder are chiefly Quakers, as dull as Beatles. From these, neither good is to be expected, nor evil to be apprehended. They

are a kind of neutral tribe, or race of the insipids. Judge Shippen, though clearly not a patriot, moved his family out of the city so as not to appear loyalist. But a few months later, when the British actually arrived, he hustled his family back out of their country place and into Philadelphia, lest any redcoats take up residence in his townhouse. So right about the age that modern teens start picking out their junior prom outfits, Peggy Shippen returned from exile to find a hometown that had been vastly transformed since she last saw it. By contrast to the old neutral and insipid Quaker rule, the British

troops in Philly that winter were, in a sense, a bunch of young, well-funded expats riding out a lull between assignments. And they were looking to party. The British had money, so things were a lot less austere than they had been. Tea, wine, and silk were plentiful, if you had the means and the connections. Gambling thrived. Taverns became supper clubs. And there were a lot of fancy dances. Peggy and her friends couldn't have been more thrilled. Yes, there was a war going on, and yes, her father's life depended on not being seen taking sides,

but also, there was a new theater in town. There were balls every week. And while the British military were technically the enemy, when it came to the beautiful Peggy Shippen, We were all in love with her. One of them, the high-ranking Lord Rodden, declared the 17-year-old Peggy to be the handsomest woman in America. And none other than the Marquis de Lafayette almost changed the course of her entire life because he was so eager to lay eyes on her. But that comes later.

For now, what was she supposed to do? Just stay home and knit? As if! And so it was that Peggy Shippen chatted, danced, and flirted her way into the British military's heart. It was also how she met a man named John Andre. Andre was a British officer who was more interested in the art of art than in the art of war. A lover of drawing, poetry, and female companionship, and also a pretty good flautist, Andre was spending the winter squatting in Benjamin Franklin's house, ingratiating himself to both his superiors and the local hostesses. Never underestimate the power of strong toast-giving skills. It was Andre who drew that sketch of Peggy with the two-foot-tall hair.

But theirs was not a love story. It was more of an artist-muse type situation. In fact, he sketched her multiple times, in addition to spending many hours gossiping with her and her friends over tea in her father's drawing room. She was the Gigi Hadid to his Derek Blasberg, the Lee Radswell to his Truman Capote, only much more dangerous.

When Andre learned in April 1778 that his boss, General Howe, was retiring, he made it his mission to throw the most epic of all farewell bashes. He called it the Mesquianza. The theme of the party, because of course there was a theme, was love and war and ancient chivalry, which meant knights on a holy crusade for love and ladies dressed naturally in the style of a Turkish harem. There was a water parade, there was an all-night dinner party, there was jousting. André designed the shields and the spears for the knights, as well as the headdresses for the ladies.

The mesquianza made me a complete milliner. Not to mention his own costume, which included, in the words of Arnold biographer Willard Stern Randall, a white satin vest with full pink sleeves wide baggy pants a pink scarf with a white bow draped front and back to his hips a pink and white sword sash girding his waist and pink bows fastened to his knees on his head he wore a high crowned white satin hat turned up in front and enlivened by red white and black pl. His hair he tied with the same contrasting colors, hanging in flowing curls down his back. Andre also designed Peggy's outfit as one of the 14 harem girls. This, described in his own words, included...

A gauze turban, spangled and edged with gold or silver. On the right side, a veil of the same kind hung as low as the waist, and the left side of the turban was enriched with pearl and tassels of gold or silver and crested with a feather. The dress was of the Polonaise kind and of white silk with long sleeves. The sashes, which were worn around the waist and were tied with a large bow on the left side, hung very low and were trimmed, spangled, and fringed according to the colors of the night.

Judge Shippen, of course, footed the bill for all that and for Peggy's two sisters' costumes as well. Even for a man as well-funded as he was, these costs added up. Even for a man as well-funded as he was, these costs added up. The expense of supporting my family here will not fall short of four or five thousand pounds per annum. To put that into perspective, that's roughly half a million dollars in today's currency. This at a time when, not far from Philadelphia, revolutionary soldiers were practically starving to death and leaving bloody footprints in the snow. On the day of the party, a delegation of Quaker matrons appeared at the shipman's door to insist that the judge forbid his daughters from attending. For these staunchly neutral elders, the British military had outworn their welcome.

elders, the British military had outworn their welcome. In the early days of the occupation, there was, apparently, an agreement among the British officers that if one of them were to impregnate a loyalist, he would marry her. Therefore, brothels were basically a consideration on behalf of the officers, so they would not need to pressure any proper young ladies into putting out. But by the late spring of 1778, this pretense of gentility was eroding. There were, by that point, many British bastards, and some even claimed it was their duty to contribute to the population of the country as they depopulated it through warfare. Moreover, the gentlefolk of Philadelphia were now noticing a marked lack of shame on the faces of those officers queuing for the brothel. Any young woman seen wearing a new dress was said to have clearly sold her virtue to a British soldier for some cloth, which, to be fair, unless her family were one-percenters like the Shippens, she probably had.

No self-respecting judge should allow his daughters to consort with such men, the ladies insisted. According to Peggy's family, the judge obeyed his neighbors and kept the girls home the night of the Mesquianza. However, this version of history doesn't seem to hold up. First of all, Judge Shippen was far from ready to cut ties with the British while they were still in control of the city. And no one knew better than he how important social events were to maintaining ties with the rich and powerful. His entire set had solidified their own class dominance through something called the Dancing Assembly. What's more, if Judge Shippen had tried to keep his daughters home that night, he would have come up against an obstacle far more unpleasant than some sour-faced old biddies from down the street.

While largely known to be practical, intelligent, and superbly educated, Peggy Shippen was also the baby of the family and her father's favorite. She had been known, on occasion, to work herself into what was called a howling frenzy before going on a hunger strike to get her way. Whether she did this that day or not, we can't know for sure, but what we can say is that this same skill would play a profound role in the story later on. So the ship and girls would not be stopped from attending the biggest party of the war, and who could blame them, really? Doesn't every teenage girl love a bad boy? And what's more naughty than a well-dressed, charmingly accented foreigner who turns your town into a rave and ruffles all the old religious feathers? In the end, the only blight on the face of the evening was when the American cavalry set fire to the back lawn. but otherwise it could be said that the British occupation of Philadelphia went out in great style. Three days after the Mesquianza,

the British began quietly looting the city as they packed up to leave it. Andre himself stole rare books, portraits, scientific equipment, musical instruments, inventions, and financial records while vacating Benjamin Franklin's house. A month later, loyalists were scattering in panic as they realized a new administration was riding into town, now under the command of the Continental Army's most feared fighter, Benedict Arnold. feared fighter, Benedict Arnold. By the time Benedict Arnold rolled into Philadelphia, as the newly appointed military governor in 1778, he had already lived a life. He had organized against British rule since at least 1765, and had proved himself to be a natural fighter and ingenious strategist. He nearly lost his leg in a brilliantly conceived but ultimately ill-fated invasion of Quebec in 1776, and most recently, the same leg had been shattered during

heroic fighting at the Battle of Saratoga. In his private life, he had amassed a small fortune as a trader, had been married, fathered three children, lost his wife, and fallen in love all over again. In fact, even as he arrived in Philadelphia, he was pleading his case to Betsy Dubois, a 16-year-old Boston Tory girl who, sadly, didn't love him back. But he was also already caught in the crosshairs of the revolution. Washington had charged him with keeping the peace in a time when tensions between the increasingly radical patriots and their loyalist neighbors were reaching bloody extremes. He was also meant to be the face of unpopular government orders, and on top of that, was conspicuously wealthy in a town reeling from the enemy occupation that had

depleted every possible reserve. The scene in Philadelphia when Arnold arrived was bleak. Citizens were starving, whole neighborhoods were burned, horses lay dead in their traces, churches were stripped of their pews and pulpits, and gravestones had been overturned. Independence Hall was bare, and Washington Square was filled with 2,000 American corpses. The only part of town that appeared untouched by the British Army's occupation was the one square mile of homes and shops where the wealthy folk lived. In other words, Peggy Shippen's neighborhood. In other words, Peggy Shippen's neighborhood.

Benedict Arnold was brave, brilliant, and had a tin ear for PR. He was constantly doing things that rubbed people the wrong way, like the time he accused his commanding officer of demoting him out of jealousy. In this charged moment when political ideology was getting people killed, and even trying to stay out of the fight could get you into trouble, he didn't worry about public opinion. He moved right into the same mansion the British general had just vacated and picked up where Howe and his officers had left off, with the socializing and the theater going and the special favors for loyalist friends. He even had the same taste in women.

It would be ideal to tell the story of Arnold's courtship of Peggy Shippen in her voice, but unfortunately that cannot be done. Nearly all of her letters have since been destroyed, either by herself or her family, except for any that might frame her as a patriot. We do know that they first met when Peggy was 14, and the 33-year-old Arnold was on his way through town. He didn't creep on her then, but he was likely impressed, as most everyone was, by not only her beauty and her charm, but her intellect, education, and knowledge of current political events.

By the time he came back in 1778, she was 18, and so, fair game. Peggy, in that same moment, was like a freshly crowned homecoming queen whose entire football team has just up and left town. All the guys who had been fawning over her were gone. The vibe was rough, and what could she possibly have had to look forward to? But here comes the commanding, tragically widowed coach of the home team,

still limping from the wound he heroically suffered while defending his country. And it turns out he hosts parties that are just as good as the other guys. And even though he can't dance, he pays a lot of attention to her on the sidelines. Plus, he's being nice to her friends' families, even though they were technically in league with the other side. So, yeah, Peggy was just as happy to be adored by this regime as she had been by the last one. Now, this characterization likely does not capture Peggy as she really was. likely does not capture Peggy as she really was. In fact, according to one friend,

there was, quote, nothing of frivolity either in her dress, demeanor, or conduct, end quote. She had a demonstrable interest in and facility for both politics and business. And her father, who was so bookish that he spent his entire dowry on a personal library, let her read everything. Years later, she said she had had,

The most useful and best education that America, at that time, afforded. But still, she was a teenage girl, so isn't it possible some of this rings a little bit true? Within a few months of meeting Peggy Shippen, the 37-year-old Arnold had pledged himself to her. At first, she friend-zoned him. Maybe she learned by watching her father how to keep her options open by refusing to commit. But Arnold found a way to spin her offer of friendship and esteem into something more significant. Friendship and esteem you acknowledge. Dear Peggy, suffer that heavenly bosom,

which cannot know itself the cause of pain without a sympathetic pang, to expand with a sensation more soft or tender than friendship. Friendship and esteem, founded on the merit of the object, is the most certain basis to build a lasting happiness upon. And when there is a tender and ardent passion on one side, and friendship and esteem on the other, the heart, unlike yours, must be callous to every tender sentiment if the taper of love is not lighted up at the flame. Whatever my fate may be, my most ardent wish is for your Parts of this letter were cribbed almost verbatim from one he had written months earlier to Boston Betsy. Apparently, he kept a copy of every letter he wrote, perhaps to save himself from having to reinvent such wheels. But the bulk of it was new. And while we don't know

exactly how Peggy responded to it, she clearly didn't tell him to knock it off. Her father, on the other hand, did. Publicly, Judge Shippen said the problem was Arnold's damaged leg, which he worried would never heal and might therefore limit his ability to earn a living. Privately, he saw Arnold as a nouveau riche usurper, and politically, Arnold was far too incendiary. Biographer Randall writes that when Peggy's father refused Arnold's request to marry her, she proceeded to orchestrate a bit of a coup. She convinced her father she was unsure about Arnold, but told Arnold to keep coming around. She likely coached him about how to get on her father's good side. When Arnold bought a lavish estate intended as a

wedding gift for Peggy, Judge Shippen was likely reassured that his daughter would not be gambling on a future with a maimed, divisive military figure in decline. But Peggy reportedly still had to throw one or two of her famous fits to get her father to finally give in. By 1779, Arnold and Peggy were engaged, but outside the ship and family circle, Arnold was more problematic than ever. family circle, Arnold was more problematic than ever. For the patriots of Philadelphia, anything that smacked of royal sympathies was, to some, tantamount to treason, even if it was just a hairpiece. Austerity was the new fashion, and Arnold stubbornly continued to display all the signifiers of colonial prestige. With his deep pockets, his formal dress, his conspicuous consumption, and now his alliance with a prominent loyalist-leaning family,

Arnold was quickly becoming the poster boy for what might, to borrow a phrase, have been called revolutionary in name only. So in spite of almost having gotten his leg blown off defending America, and spending his own money to feed his troops, a debt which Congress would never fully repay, Benedict Arnold was a target for suspicion and ultimately investigation. Joseph Reed, a radical Whig, was on a mission to prosecute Arnold for misuse of government property. And even though much of Congress thought Reed's charges were overblown, the mission was gaining traction. Arnold had played it fast and loose with his access. He bought food and other supplies after shutting the marketplace down, issued hall passes for loyalist friends, and some other stuff that wasn't technically legal but

was also not entirely out of the ordinary and was usually overlooked. Also, the government failed to pay him a salary in the three and a half years he worked for them, so they kind of owed him. But for Reed and his colleagues, this was all perfect fodder for a campaign to discredit and disempower Arnold. They smeared his name in the press and threatened to obstruct and even withdraw from Congress forever if it would not proceed with the prosecution. This kind of affront was unbearable for the proud and hot-tempered Arnold, who once challenged a man to a duel simply because the man accused him of having no manners. So when he was court-martialed, he was like, bring it on. having no manners. So when he was court-martialed, he was like, bring it on. He wanted a trial as soon as possible, the more quickly to clear his name. But the trial didn't come quickly,

and as time dragged on, he began to sense he was losing the support of his most important ally, George Washington. Washington valued Arnold, and Congress had used that against them both. In 1777, fearing Washington had become too powerful, Congress tried to clip his wings by promoting five inferior soldiers over Arnold's head. This infuriated both Arnold and Washington. Arnold resigned, Washington stood up for him, Arnold unresigned, and then went on to win the pivotal battle at Saratoga, for which Washington rewarded him with the post in Philadelphia. But the court-martial was different.

Reed was too powerful an enemy for even Washington to overcome. And when Arnold realized this, he reached a painful breaking point. Within weeks of his and Peggy's wedding, he was making his first offer to the British to serve as a spy against his own country. And the conduit for this offer was none other than Peggy Shippen's old friend, John Andre. Thank you. the mail, while toasting each other on special occasions in absentia. And Andre had recently been promoted to chief of the secret service, so he was, rather conveniently, in charge of all the British spies just when Arnold sent word that he was available to flip. Andre, who was nothing if

not a climber, couldn't believe his luck. A major get for his boss falls into his lap just two weeks into the job, and Andre happens to have an in with the guy's wife? He quickly devised a scheme by which he and Arnold could communicate, which involved Andre writing letters about social nonsense to another member of the birthday club, Peggy's friend, also named Peggy. Andre would instruct the friend to give her response to Peggy Arnold, at which point she or her husband could write secret messages between the lines of the other Peggy's letter in invisible ink and code. One code involved numbers that corresponded to pages, lines, and words in a long book. The ink could be revealed with a wash of acid or by holding the page over a flame.

It was far from a foolproof plan. If the letters, which were to be carried from Philadelphia to New York, probably on horseback, got wet, the code would be rendered illegible, which it sometimes was. Other mishaps occurred, like couriers getting waylaid and paths of travel getting shut down, but within weeks of the first correspondence, Arnold was deep in negotiations as to what he could deliver and how much he expected to be paid. These negotiations

were as delicate as their delivery method, due to both Arnold's ego and Andre's ambition, and they would likely have broken down at multiple points were it not for Peggy. Andre, who had so ingratiated himself to his boss, General Clinton, that there were rumors they were lovers, was essentially authoring his side of the conversation alone. Giddy, his word, with power, Andre decided to drive a hard bargain with Arnold. Pointing to damaging gossip from the American side, he said Arnold's stock wasn't as valuable as he claimed it was. He portrayed Clinton as being in the power seat and basically said Arnold would need to prove himself before he could be trusted. Patronizingly, Andre suggested Arnold should

Join the army. Accept a command. Be surprised. Be cut off. These things may happen in the course of maneuver, nor can you be censored or suspected. A complete service of this nature involving a corps of five or six thousand men would be rewarded with twice as many thousand guineas. For reference, the price was around a million dollars in today's money, which was about the price Arnold was seeking, in addition to full restitution to his military rank and a repayment of all the money he had lost during the war. But Arnold didn't appreciate the tone of this letter. Its lack of respect so enraged him, he refused to even meet with the courier, let alone send a response. Peggy then kept the line of communication open, telling the courier to come back in a few days, presumably so that Arnold would have time to cool off.

After who knows how much coaxing from Peggy, Arnold finally showed up and proceeded to spout off to the courier about how offensive Andre's letter had been. Arnold got himself so worked up during the meeting that Peggy actually had to insert herself into it so she could help cool things down. Ultimately, she asked the courier to send Andre a letter from her under her codename Mrs. Moore, since her husband was still too put out to continue negotiating. Mrs. Moore requests the enclosed list of articles for her own use may be procured for her and the account of them and the former sent and she will pay the whole with thanks. The list of articles

included cloth, spurs, and ribbon. Andre returned a letter to her which said, It would make me happy to become useful to you here. The shopping list, he said, represented trifling services

from which I hope you would infer a zeal to be further employed. But when months passed without the British agreeing to meet Arnold's price, Peggy wrote again to John Andre. Mrs. Arnold presents her best respects to Captain Andre, is much obliged to him for his very polite and friendly offer of being serviceable to her. But then, she says, they found someone else to do the shopping for them. In other words, if the British don't agree to pay up, this offer is off the table. As Randall writes, her stepping in to keep the negotiations alive indicates that she was becoming the driving force behind Arnold's

going over to the British. Far more than just an observer, she had become a go-between, a delicate negotiator, and the diplomat who kept the negotiations alive. All of this, we might add, while she was the 20-year-old mother of an infant whose husband was embarking on a very risky plan that could cost him his life. In the midst of all this, court-martial proceedings against Arnold were finally progressing. The end result looked like it was going to be a slap on the wrist at worst, and possibly even a full acquittal. At this point, Arnold was still perfectly happy to remain with America if he got the treatment he believed he deserved. And the court-martial hearings went well enough that he might have put all thoughts of espionage behind him. In fact, he believed they went so well that he paid to have the entire 179-page court record printed so that it could be circulated in America and France. But though he

was technically exonerated by the court, their sentence recommended that Arnold receive a reprimand from General Washington. Arnold thought, no big deal, he and Washington were tight. In fact, he was so sure it wasn't a problem, he went ahead and proposed a big new position he had cooked up for himself, all while saying it was the Navy's idea. But once again, he underestimated the depth and breadth of his enemy's influence. Rather than awarding Arnold an exciting and impressive new job, Washington did much more than reprimand him. He bitch-slapped him, publicly. did much more than reprimand him. He bitch-slapped him publicly. The commander-in-chief would have been much happier in an occasion of bestowing commendations on an officer who had rendered such distinguished services to his country as Major General Arnold. But in the present case,

a sense of duty and a regard to candor oblige him to declare that he considers his conduct as peculiarly reprehensible, both in a civil and military view. He put that in a daily letter to the entire army, which of course then got picked up by the press. Publicly, Washington was calling Arnold's conduct imprudent and improper. Privately, he hated the mess Arnold had made. Even the shadow of a fault tarnishes the luster of our finest achievements. He chastised him for not having been guarded and temperate in your deportment toward your fellow citizens. Washington knew the importance of being held in high esteem. And he also knew that public opinion rewarded not just

bravery and success, but humility, a quality Arnold could never be said to have cultivated. When Arnold read this letter, he was incensed and more determined than ever to go to the other side. He was also more determined than ever to get paid. His new plan was that he would get himself put in charge of West Point, which the British considered the Gibraltar of America, and then weaken it to the point that General Clinton could easily take control of it. In yet another overly optimistic move, he sent word to Clinton that he was certain he could make this happen. He also stated his price.

certain he could make this happen. He also stated his price, 20,000 pounds and full financial restitution for everything the war had cost him. He maintained that were it not for his family, he would provide this service at a much lower price, but we all know by now this was probably bogus. Again, Peggy was instrumental to the proceedings, and she knew long before her husband did, when General Clinton finally agreed to pay him the 20,000 pounds if he could deliver what he promised. When George Washington heard that Arnold wanted to be put in command of West Point, he was inclined to let him have it. He wasn't sure Arnold would be of much value on the battlefield with his injury, and he might have thought it would be easier to say yes to the determined, contentious Arnold than no. But as he

watched his army grow increasingly demoralized and depleted, Washington decided he needed Arnold's strategic gifts in the field more than ever. So rather than installing Arnold at West Point, more than ever. So rather than installing Arnold at West Point, Washington decided to put him in charge of the entire left wing of the army. This appointment would have been a vote of such confidence that it could have completely rehabilitated Arnold's reputation. It would have restored for Arnold all the esteem he so grudgingly claimed he had been wrongfully denied, and which spurred him to turn against Washington in the first place. But according to Washington himself, when he offered Arnold this post of honor,

His countenance changed, and he appeared to be quite fallen, and instead of thanking me or expressing any pleasure at the appointment, never opened his mouth. Others observed that Arnold's face turned nearly purple with rage in that moment. As for Peggy, when she heard the news at a dinner party that Arnold had not gotten the West Point job, she went into what one bystander called fits of hysteria and then fainted. The next thing anyone knew, Arnold was making a big show of limping around headquarters, insisting he could not serve on horseback due to his injury,

and that really all he was fit for was to hold down the fort at West Point. This seemed strange, but eventually Washington gave in. Peggy had been doing her part in Philadelphia by lavishing attention on the visiting chancellor of New York, who was in a position to recommend Arnold to take control of West Point. Arnold's sister, on hand to observe all this, read it as pure flirtation and wrote Arnold in a huff about a certain chancellor

who is, by the by, a dangerous companion for a particular lady in the absence of her husband. I could say more than prudence will permit. I could tell you of frequent private assignations and of numberless biais du. If I had an inclination to make mischief, but as I am of a very peaceable temper, I'll not mention a syllable of the matter. But Hannah Arnold couldn't have gotten it more wrong. Peggy was nothing if not

a loyal wife. As soon as Arnold was installed at West Point, she and their six-month-old son made the long, uncomfortable journey to join him. The mood when she got there was tense. Committing treason is anxious business, after all. Espionage activities were heating up while the couple were surrounded by patriots who scanned everything they said or did for suspicious remarks or behaviors. George Washington himself sent word that he intended to visit, possibly because he had been tipped off by an unidentified lady spy that West Point was compromised, and Arnold added this tidbit to his pile of informational gifts for the British. All this treasure, including military secrets and meeting minutes in General

Washington's own hand, Arnold handed to Andre in a highly dangerous pre-dawn meeting on September 21, 1780. Andre claimed that, even though the papers themselves were not that important, that Arnold made me put the papers I bore between my stockings and feet. The litany of things that went wrong in the wake of this meeting is almost comical, but the upshot is that afterward, Andre, who was in disguise, was captured by some militiamen gone AWOL, to whom he outed himself as a British officer. When they strip-searched him, looking for cash, they got suspicious because he refused to take off his boots. Thinking that was where he kept his money, the soldiers ripped the boots and socks from his feet, searched inside, and found the incriminating papers.

searched inside, and found the incriminating papers. Peggy's favorite party host, a man she had last seen dripping in pink satin bows, now stood naked in the woods, watching a barely literate delinquent soldier read the notes he had hidden in his sock. Unfortunately for him, but luckily for America, they figured it out. This man was a spy. Minutes before the Arnolds were to receive George Washington for breakfast, a lieutenant burst through the door of the house with an urgent note. I have sent Lieutenant Allen with a certain John Anderson.

That's John Andre's alias. Taken going into New York. He had a pass signed with your name. He had a parcel of papers taken from under his stockings, which I think of a very dangerous tendency. The papers I have sent to General Washington. Arnold raced upstairs to Peggy, locked the bedroom door,

and told her that Andre was captured and that all the evidence of the treason had been redirected to George Washington, who was due to arrive at their house any minute. Arnold's longtime assistant Major Franks, who was ignorant of the deception, tells what happened next. In about two minutes, General Washington's servant came to the door and informed me that His Excellency was nigh at hand. I went immediately upstairs and informed Arnold of it. He came down in a great confusion and ordered a horse to be saddled,

mounted him, and told me to inform His Excellency that he was gone over to West Point and would return in about an hour. Once Arnold was gone, Peggy freaked out. She ran down the hall in her dressing gown, shrieking and struggling against her maids, who were trying to muscle her back into her room. She ran down the hall in her dressing gown, shrieking and struggling against her maids, who were trying to muscle her back into her room. Colonel Varick, the devout patriot who was also devoted to the Arnolds, rushed to help.

She reportedly grabbed him by the hand and said, Colonel Varick, have you ordered my child to be killed? Varick, who had also been kept in the dark, thought Peggy was simply losing her mind. When she seemed a little composed, she burst again into pitiable tears and exclaimed to me, alone on her bed with her, that she had not a friend left here. I told her she had Franks and me, and General Arnold would soon be home from West Point with General Washington. She exclaimed, No, General Arnold will never return. He is gone. He is gone forever. There, there, there, the spirits have carried up there. They have put hot irons in his head. It was during this display that Washington arrived. Varick told him what had gone on and then brought him to see Peggy.

Clutching her baby to her breast, she said, No, that is not General Washington. That is the man who was going to assist Colonel Varick in killing my child. Later, Varick would come to see these histrionics as a performance designed to distance Peggy from her husband's treason and to buy Arnold time to escape. She was successful on both accounts. Arnold got away, and Peggy came off as a victim to everyone in the house, including George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Alexander Hamilton. Her husband underscored her innocence in a letter

he wrote to Washington insisting that he had acted alone. The famously composed, highly moral George Washington, who always charged his men to be fair and tolerant, did not restrain his vitriol. Rather than simply hanging Andre for spying, Washington arranged a trial for maximum publicity. In one day, John Andre was sentenced to execution. General Clinton, Andre's commander and perhaps more, wept. But when Washington reached out to him quietly to propose a trade, Clinton refused. Rather than swap Andre for Arnold, as Washington suggested, Clinton would instead use Arnold as a threat against America to avenge any harm that might come to John Andre. But before that threat could reach General Washington, Andre had already been buried.

His last request for death by firing squad instead of the gallows was denied. last request for death by firing squad instead of the gallows was denied. To Peggy, however, perhaps because he believed her to be innocent, Washington showed mercy, approving her request to travel to her father's house with her baby. His personal pass allowed her to make the journey, but it could not force folks along the way to be kind. As she made her way through the miles of countryside, she may not have seen all the effigies Americans were burning in her husband's image, nor did she witness the Arnold family grave markers that had been overturned in the Connecticut town where he was born, but she was refused food and lodging at almost every turn. When she arrived in Philadelphia, she found her family's hard-earned

equilibrium had been shattered. The house had been ransacked, old letters to Peggy from Andre had been found, mobs kept vigil outside the ship and home, and an anonymous article, thought to be written by Joseph Reed, said she should essentially be despised and banished. Within weeks, Peggy was kicked out of Pennsylvania. She joined her husband in New York, where she conceived and delivered their second child. She was recognized by the King of England for her meritorious services, to the tune of 500 pounds a year, making her the highest paid spy in the revolution, a fact which remained hidden from history until the 20th century. And she still wowed everyone with her beauty and charm. She appeared a star of the first magnitude and had every attention paid her as if she had been

Lady Clinton. Arnold got back to what he loved best, fighting. But the path was no smoother for him on the British side of the war. It could be said, the traitor of my enemy is still a traitor. The troops resented serving under an American who had cost John Andre his life, and General Clinton clearly blamed him as well. Also, Arnold didn't hold back on praising General Washington and criticizing moves the British had made during the war that hadn't panned out, which didn't make him very popular. That, plus the money Arnold was so intent on collecting, made Clinton happy to send him out on risky missions with little support. In 1781, after the British lost the Battle of

Yorktown, the Arnolds retreated to England, where Peggy was received with the usual delight in her beauty, and her husband still did not get the hero's welcome he thought he deserved. By all accounts, she is an amiable woman, and were her husband dead, would be much noticed. amiable woman, and were her husband dead, would be much noticed. The Arnolds were hissed at in theatres, attacked in the press, blackballed in business ventures, and shunned by former friends and acquaintances. Queen Charlotte, however, did take a particular liking to Peggy and granted her an extra pension for each of her children, which raised her annual income to £1,000. Though Peggy remained a steadfast partner to her husband, she did come to regret the bargain she had made, especially as he became crankier and increasingly misdirected with age. He was terrible

with money, in constant pain from his old leg injury, plagued by ulcers and gout, bitter about not getting his due, and still quick to be offended by the world. Peggy missed her family in America and worried for her husband's mental health. She wrote her father in 1786, I find it necessary to summon all my philosophy to my aid, to support myself under my present situation,

separated from and anxious for the fate of the best of husbands, torn from almost everybody that is dear to me, harassed with a troublesome and expensive lawsuit, having all the general's business to transact, and feeling that I am in a strange country without a creature near me that is really interested in my fate, you will not wonder if I am unhappy. When Benedict Arnold finally died in 1801 at the age of 60, Peggy sent word to their eldest son. The disappointment of all his pecuniary expectations, the numerous vexations and mortifications he has endured, had broken his spirits and destroyed his nerves. As a final parting gift from her husband, Peggy learned that written into his will were financial provisions

for a 14-year-old child he had fathered during an expedition to Canada. She wrote to a friend, Peggy proved to have a much better head for business than her husband, and she was able to marshal a modest inheritance from her mother, along with her husband's few liquid assets, into enough money to pay off all of Benedict's accumulated liabilities. She sold the house that had been his wedding present to her, all her furniture and heirlooms, cleared herself of financial debt, and still managed to educate her five sons and daughters.

Two years after Arnold had died, Peggy herself succumbed to cancer at the age of 44. After her death, her children found a locket with a piece of hair in it which had been given to her in happier times by John Andre. Was Peggy Arnold acting when she appeared to lose her mind on the morning of September 25, 1780? Or was she truly overcome by fear and panic? According to Aaron Burr, in notes he left for his biographer, Peggy admitted to Burr's wife Theodosia that she was exhausted from all the theatricals in the wake of Arnold's unmasking. Burr claimed she took credit for masterminding the entire West Point plan. It's impossible to fact-check any of this, and the Shippen family claimed this story was nothing but retaliation for unrequited romantic attention. But there is also Burr's report of how quickly Peggy calmed

after Washington granted her a pass to go home, and her lifelong reputation amongst family and friends for being level-headed and rational, except when she was throwing fits to get what she wanted. To play armchair psychologist for a moment, is there a case to be made that growing up in a house where private beliefs diverged so sharply from public position might have primed Peggy Shippen for her double life? And or was she drawn to Arnold's bombast and bravery because her own father suffered from such a lack of it? We can't know, obviously, especially since the historical record has been scrubbed of her innermost thoughts, or even what she said to those closest to her. But there's no way that living with a father who spent so much energy avoiding confrontation didn't make its mark on her somehow. Benedict Arnold's decision to betray his country was the result of a long series of events, and his character was such that he might have come to that point no matter what.

But the fact is that the woman he loved was, when they met, much less invested in the revolutionary cause than he. She was bosom buddies with British officers, her own brother had run away from home to fight alongside them in a move that infuriated their father. And in the letter Arnold wrote to Judge Shippen declining a dowry, he said, Our difference in political sentiments will, I hope, be no bar to my happiness. Meaning, at the time when Benedict and Peggy were married, he was patriotic enough to have to apologize for it. That within a month he was pledging his services to Britain as a spy speaks, at the very least, to Peggy's support of his plan

to switch sides, and perhaps even to her having been a part of his decision to do so. Either way, it is no stretch to claim that Peggy Arnold was essential to her husband's wicked business. Between the Shippen family's sanitization of history, and perhaps a general inclination to discount the role of women everywhere, Peggy's influence on the course of these events was long denied until Carl Van Doren's 1941 book, Secret History of the American Revolution, which proved Peggy had in fact been paid by the king for her contributions. But the clearest view of it may have been best stated by an old friend of Arnold's,

John Lamb, who, when the treason was first discovered, said, There is little doubt that his beautiful and accomplished wife was the prime mover of the grand conspiracy. The Grand Conspiracy. Special thanks to Susan Yagley and Andy Richter for bringing Peggy and Benedict Arnold to life. I'd also like to thank Luke Millington-Drake and Jim O'Hare for voicing John Andre and George Washington.

Additional thanks to Matt Gourley, Roman Mars, Antony Kahn, Alex Galifant, Katie Scherer, John Danik, and many Team Coco staffers

for providing additional voices. I'd also like to thank my significant other for always being very, very loyal. Join us tomorrow for a follow-up conversation with the author Sarah Vowell, and to find out the surprising place where Benedict Arnold ended up. Significant Others is written and read by me, Liza Powell O'Brien. I'm not a historian, and I'm greatly indebted to the work of those who are. In some cases, I use diaries or newspapers or court records as sources,

but most often I draw from biographies and autobiographies and articles, which represent countless hours of work by people who are far more knowledgeable than I. Sources for each episode are listed in the show notes. If you hear something interesting and you want to know more, please consider ordering these books from your independent bookseller. And if you are a historian or someone who knows something about the people I'm talking about, and you'd like to take issue with an impression I've made or a conclusion I've drawn, I welcome the dialogue. Finally, Thank you. Jen Samples. Our executive producers are Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Colin Anderson. Engineering and sound design by Eduardo Perez, Rich Garcia, and Joanna Samuel. Music and scoring

by Eduardo Perez and Hannes Brown. Research and fact-checking by Michael Waters and Hannah Sio. Special thanks to Lisa Berm, Jason Chalemi, and Joanna Solotaroff. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista.