It’s a name synonymous with treachery.
A certain generation of Americans may even have heard, as youngsters, the phrase, “You’re such a Benedict Arnold.”
That was an insult and an accusation all in one, it meant the target of the phrase had somehow turned against the speaker. In other words, had become a traitor. It would aptly apply even if it were on a playground.
Not everyone knew, however, that this person so famous for turning against a nascent America was in fact a Connecticut resident born in Norwich, and a very prosperous and an initially very patriotic one at that.
Arnold in 1766 ran a successful New Haven apothecary, had ships, and had solid trade with the West Indies and Newfoundland, said Joanna Steinberg, the New Haven Museum’s director of learning and engagement. Arnold’s house was in a spot on New Haven’s Water Street now passed by thousands each day.
Visitors to the museum will be able to learn more about Arnold, and other Connecticut revolutionaries, at “New Haven’s Unfinished Revolutions,” an exhibition organizers said explores New Haven’s role in national movements and freedom. It opens on July 1 with a goal of sharing new perspective on principles of America’s democracy, just in time for the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Meanwhile, Arnold, who made the pages of the early Hartford Courant, then called the Connecticut Courant, and the Weekly Intelligencer (which in 1783, after the burning of New London, called Arnold an “infamous traitor to his country”) seemed like an apt character to consider as we mark 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Arnold was a paradox as he was an active part of the forming revolution, right down to being among those pushing for the Second Company of the Governor’s Footguard to become a militia.
Steinberg recounted a story, which the museum has an original document from, of Arnold being arrested in 1766 after he assaulted a man on the New Haven Green when that man threatened to turn him in for smuggling.
There was widespread discontent at the time over the British Stamp Act, Steinberg said, which led to trying to get around it. The arrest warrant for Arnold was signed by Roger Sherman, who at that time was a justice of the peace, though he later signed the Declaration of Independence and was the first mayor of New Haven, Steinberg said. The museum has the original copy of the warrant, she said.
Sherman fined Arnold very little for the assault, and it is possible Sherman was trying to maintain public order amid the discontent, Steinberg said.
Steinberg said for Arnold to break the law, to “resist in that way” speaks a little bit to his reactive but also very confident nature. Arnold also was a businessman, so he likely knew he needed supplies.
The Courant has reported some colonists were not exactly thrilled by the notion of severing ties with England and that true believers in independence probably initially were in the minority, as with all revolutions.
Later, Arnold was among the group of patriots working to form a militia from the Second Company of the Governor’s Foot Guard, including James Hillhouse (for whom a New Haven high school is named). This was after the first battle of the revolution at Lexington and Concord, Steinberg said
That original document, sent to the the General Assembly, also is at the museum, Steinberg said.
“Basically they are announcing they are forming a military company,” Steinberg said. “They are organizing too, and ready to protect themselves and the country. They want to be recognized as an official military company. Benedict Arnold was part of the organizing effort.”
“There was resistance to British rule,” she said.
The Second Company reports its first meeting, on Dec. 27, 1774, included 65 men, such as Aaron Burr, later vice president of the United States under Jefferson, and a grandson of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, renowned pastor of Yale College, and the first chaplain of Second Company; Ethan Allen, of Litchfield, who later was to be the leader of those who captured Fort Ticonderoga, and his brother Ira Allen, later major general of the forces of Vermont; Hezekiah Sabin, Jr., the second commandant of Second Company who became lieutenant colonel in Washington’s Army; James Hillhouse, who became a U.S. senator from Connecticut, and third commandant of Second Company; Nathan Beers, Jr., who became captain and paymaster in the Revolutionary Army on Washington’s staff; and Pierpont Edwards, later Second Company’s first sergeant, who had prepared the petition for a charter presented to the General Assembly, and later became the first U.S. district judge.
Though he was eventually branded treasonous, New Haven has for many years marked what is called Powder House Day, a recognition of the day Arnold sought keys to the gunpowder storage shed, as the foot guard needed what it held in order for them to join the revolution, Steinberg said.
“He was definitely front and center of these early episodes in the war,” she said.
According to the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Arnold also became a “skilled officer” in George Washington’s Continental Army, and led patriot forces to victories over the British, including the important capture of Fort Ticonderoga.
However, Arnold, then in command at West Point in 1780, “began secretly communicating with British intelligence agents, giving them insider information, not just about the fort and its defenses, but about American strategy for the war,” the Connecticut Museum reports.
It was pretty much downhill from there for Arnold, whom to this day some Courant readers condemn for the burning of New London and murderous other raids on the Connecticut shoreline.
In New London in September, there will be a reenactment, at the Flock Theatre, of “The Burning of Benedict Arnold,” wherein his effigy will be burned on the waterfront. It will include a march and drumbeat, aimed at celebrating resilience and sparking conversation, according to organizers. The event beings at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at 208 Bank St, New London.
Debate over Arnold’s motivation also still occurs, with some pointing to his own disillusionment with how the war was progressing.
Central Connecticut State University history professor Dr. Matt Warshauer said the “loathing” still directed at Arnold is not unexpected.
Arnold, very well-known at the time, including through items and letters shared in the then-Hartford Courant, depicted an “almost story-bookish hero,” so “the fall is so much greater,” Warshauer said.
“He had so much further to fall,” Warshauer said.
In the early years of the revolution, Arnold “was something of a maverick,” he is “this almost young very viral American patriot who is leading on horseback” was wounded, had difficulty with the Continental Congress and married Margaret “Peggy” Shippen, a British sympathiser, Warshauer said.
“It sets the stage for when he ultimately defects and goes over the the British,” Warshauer said.
Further, Warshauer said, not only does Arnold defect, “he goes home and attacks his home state,” making the raids an important part of Connecticut history and the treachery part of the larger American lexicon. The shoreline attacked areas were important strategically, and Connecticut was “indispensable” to the revolution, Warshauer said.
Warshauer said some stories of American history also are lasting because they are written about, and that keeps them alive. He noted books about Nathan Hale, another Connecticut resident and spy for the American cause. Hale, a Yale grad, was eventually hanged as a young man amid famous words.
Steinberg said that the lasting fascination for Arnold, now 250 years on, also probably is partly attributable to the human fascination with villains, but also because “history is complicated” and the story has a “fair amount of nuance.”
“It’s dramatic, it’s an interesting question,” she said, noting ongoing interest in “proactive patriots.”
“I think there is so much more nuance that can be brought to the story,” Steinberg said, and the goal should be “to look as his legacy as a whole.”
Steinberg noted Arnold’s major contributions to the revolution, such as at Fort Ticonderoga. “With all of these figures, there are all kinds of different perspectives about resistance and strategy. It is an interesting thread to trace through history.”
People had different reasons for joining or resisting, different vulnerabilities, and different economic positions, she said. Many early patriots were successful merchants, so there also were economic motivations at play, she said.
Steinberg said the museum has some “really outstanding artifacts from the revolution,” including part of a uniform from the British raid on New Haven, and minted currency by silversmith Amos Doolittle.
The New Haven Museum exhibition includes an interactive, “Voices of the Unfinished Revolutions,” which brings “first-hand accounts (recorded by actors from Collective Consciousness Theatre) from soldiers and residents during the 1779 British raid of New Haven, a petition by enslaved individuals citing their natural rights and military service during the war, town records about the treatment of the loyalists, and more.”
It also includes highlights of labor history, “including oral histories of women union members who were active in the 1930s and educators involved in the 1975 Teachers Strike,” and information on Native American sovereignty and self-governance that predates the revolution and “centuries-long struggle for recognition of tribal sovereignty and land rights.”
Don’t forget, when thinking about the 250th, Connecticut, the Courant has reported, provided the resources necessary for the newborn nation to win and defend its independence from England, earning it the nickname, “The Provision State.”
Editor’s note: This story is part of a package or series of stories the Hartford Courant did for the 250th anniversary of America.