698. The Civilian Spies Who Helped America Win the Revolution

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Way the World Works. So this is a continuation of my series I'm doing on these unsung heroes of the American Revolution.

Because again, we put so much emphasis on people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. And for good reason, these people were incredible thinkers who helped really frame the country philosophically and ideologically, or people like George Washington, who were literally the commanders who led the Continental Army to victory. We needed these people.

But not everybody had to be this great political thinker or soldier to have fought for the American cause. There are so many, so many stories of great people who we don't always hear about in the history books. I mentioned a couple episodes ago we had who was called the Baker General.

This was the man who baked the bread for the revolution. We've talked about the woman who was named the Mother of the Tea Party, who helped disguise — helped some of the Sons of Liberty disguise themselves when they were as Native Americans when they were throwing the tea off the boat. We've talked about a few of these really cool unsung heroes.

We talked about the woman Mombat, who sued for her freedom and won. She was an enslaved woman who heard the Declaration's promise that all men were created equal. And she's like, "hey, me too."

So now we're going to talk about some spies of the revolution. And these weren't spies in the sense that they were members of the Army and that they signed up to be spies. These were people that did so of their own free will because they could, because they had the opportunity.

So we're going to talk about two gentlemen today. The first one is Hercules Mulligan, which first of all, what a name. Crazy. I would love to know the backstory on how he got such a cool, epic name, right? He was meant to go down in history. And Hercules Mulligan, he is a tailor — a tailor, somebody who makes suits, makes clothes. And back then, remember, you couldn't just go to the store and buy a shirt that was already made. You had to have things tailored to you or have things made, or even to buy something that was pre-made, you had to go to a tailor. So it was a little bit harder.

So being a tailor was actually the perfect way to be a spy because you're going to be around people who are — there was this term during World War II, "loose lips sink ships" — meaning people who run their mouth because they don't think anybody's listening and then they end up giving away secrets that put them in jeopardy. So the phrase in World War II is, if you run your mouth about American secrets, there could be spies and they could use that against us. So that's kind of what that saying means.

But so let's talk about why Hercules Mulligan was in the best position. So he is a tailor in New York. Now, New York at the time was actually heavily populated by the Brits. It wasn't until towards the end of the war that America would actually make progress taking New York. But New York was still an area where like George Washington went to Hercules Mulligan to get one of his suits tailored. So there was our suits — uniforms, I guess is the better term. I call everything an outfit.

But so Hercules Mulligan is going to be working with both British soldiers and American soldiers. He's going to work with both. One really interesting thing about history and honestly about everyday life, present day as well, is that sometimes when people underestimate you, it actually becomes a superpower for you. Because if somebody doesn't think you're smart enough or talented enough or good enough to do something, and then you know that you are and you do that thing, they're not expecting it. So this underestimation is going to come in handy for Hercules Mulligan.

Because when these soldiers on the British side are coming in to get their suits tailored, they don't really think, "oh, this tailor in New York is going to be sharing our secrets or is going to catch on to what we're doing." So they're freely talking. They're just chatting. And a lot of them would accidentally let something slip about a battle that was going to happen, or about a strategy in place. And this one was really interesting.

So Hercules got really good at detecting when a battle could be coming without anyone even telling him. So if somebody rushed in and was like, "I need my uniform done by tomorrow," he could deduce from that, "oh my goodness, he needs it tomorrow because there's going to be an attack." And so he was able to get that information to the American — the Continental Army — so that he could tip them off.

So every time these soldiers are in there getting their suits tailored and they're saying things, Hercules was able to get this information to some of George Washington's men who would then give the message back to him. But here's the thing: it wasn't like he was pretending to be a British loyalist. Because he did also do some tailor work for George Washington. And it is said that he proudly displayed a plaque outside of his door saying that he served George Washington. And so it's not that he's pretending — he's not being like a traitor to one side or the other. He is literally just doing his job and listening. And because the Brits underestimated him, they didn't even think that some simple tailor was going to do all this, and he ends up helping the Continental Army.

So he gives very useful information about troop movements, about possible attacks, and this is going to come really in handy. There was a particular instance where he actually heard people plotting to capture George Washington. They were going to ambush the Continental Army. They were going to literally take General Washington captive, and they were running their mouths in front of their tailor and not thinking anything of it. And Hercules was able to get that information to George Washington in time for him to avoid being captured — which is huge. Absolutely huge.

And he was still risking his life, even though he wasn't pretending to be a loyalist. He still was living amongst the British soldiers and was literally telling their secrets. And so this was still very dangerous for him, but he was a big believer in the American cause and a big believer in what General Washington was doing. And so he was willing to be brave. He was willing to risk his life for this belief in being independent from Britain and starting a new free country.

And one of the reasons I really like these stories of these unsung heroes is that we do remember that it takes so many people to win a revolution. It's not just the soldiers. Some people fight back with different things. Some people, it's just being a tailor and being able to get all these secrets because people are willingly telling them to other people around you. And because of that, it's possible he saved George Washington's life. So very, very cool.

So now we're going to go on to our spy number two, and this is another great story. So spy number two, his name is James Armistead Lafayette. And this is another great story of somebody being underestimated and then using that underestimation to their benefit and to help us win the revolution.

Now, James Armistead Lafayette is a little bit different than Hercules Mulligan. Because remember I said, Hercules Mulligan wasn't enlisted — he wasn't a soldier. But James Armistead — I'm just going to call him that for a minute, I'll explain why the Lafayette part is going to come into play in a little bit. So James Armistead is an enslaved man living in Virginia who gets permission to fight for the American cause.

Now he's not given a prestige position, obviously, because at the time there was the division between the white Continental Army members and the enslaved people or some freed Black people who had come to fight for the American cause. So they gave him a pretty hard job. They say, "we want you to be a double agent. We're actually going to go send you with the Brits, pretend that you're somebody who wants to fight for their cause, and then you're going to give us information. So you're going to be a spy for us."

So he is sent to go infiltrate the British army and to work with them and be a double agent. Meaning he looks like he's working for both sides, but he is going to be discounted once again by the British soldiers, because they think this is just an enslaved man. He's not going to be a threat to us. And so they're not hiding these secrets around him. He's able to be a really good spy because, again, they underestimated him.

So to be a good double agent, you actually have to give the other side — the ones that you're spying on — you have to give them some actual real information. Because if you just keep giving them false information about where the Continental Army is or what their plans are, they're going to catch on that you're lying. So he gave them some facts that he knew were not super harmful, but were going to earn their trust.

So he's doing that. They start trusting him. He starts learning all this information and he relays it back to the Continental Army. So the man he's primarily giving all his information to is the Marquis de Lafayette.

Now the Marquis de Lafayette is a Frenchman actually who comes over to help the American cause. He really believes in everything we're doing over here. He's very close to George Washington. I mean, George Washington, even after the war, considers him almost like a son. And he's also going to be very integral in helping get the French on board — because I know we like to tease the French a lot, but part of the reason we were able to win the revolution when we were down in our luck and our days seemed numbered is because we didn't have a strong Navy, and Britain did. So we needed France, especially their naval power, to come and help us. And eventually they did. And that was due largely in part to the Marquis de Lafayette. Maybe actually we're going to do an episode on him someday, because he is so great. He's one of the more well known people, but he's still a very fascinating man.

But so this is who James Armistead is giving his information to mostly. And then the Marquis de Lafayette is able to — that's why I decided we're going to get into the Lafayette part in a minute with how it connects to James Armistead.

So James Armistead is going to prove himself over and over again during the war, but it's really going to become important during the Battle of Yorktown. Now the Battle of Yorktown is the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. And we're not doing super great until this moment. We've had some victories here and there, but at this point in the war, I believe it was 1781-ish, we're not doing great.

And so luckily General Cornwallis — he's the British general — he is spilling the beans. He's talking about a lot of the plans in front of James Armistead, who is able to give troop locations, who is able to give the strategic plans behind everything. He's able to give that information to the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington. And they're able to know what's going on. And then this becomes a huge turning point for America.

This was the moment when we won the Battle of Yorktown. This is why in the musical Hamilton, there's a whole song about it that is not the most accurate history always, but it's a good song either way. So this is where it's going to be like, we're going to win because of this incredible victory, which was due so much in large part to James Armistead. So the American army is going to literally be able to trap the British army. They're going to have this major win.

And obviously people do understand — they do recognize that it was James Armistead, and they are very grateful. But even though they were grateful, here's the real kind of crummy part. Remember, he is still an enslaved man, and the person who owned him — even though he shouldn't be able to own a human, but the person who owned him back then — basically lent him out to the Continental Army. He did not free him. He just said, "you can go fight for the American cause, after the war you'll come back."

Now there were a lot of people — a lot of enslaved people — who were promised freedom for fighting for the Continental Army. James Armistead's a little different. He wasn't actually fighting. He was a spy. Now you and I look at that and say, what's the difference? He helped us win the Battle of Yorktown. He helped us win the war. But he goes and he petitions for his freedom and he is denied. You guys, after helping us so much, he is denied his freedom.

So this is where the Marquis de Lafayette really does a solid. Now the Marquis de Lafayette was appalled by slavery. He had a lot of really grandiose plans for how America should be abolishing it right away. And George Washington admired his plans, but he kind of dismissed him because he was like, "all right, that's not going to happen here. You know, calm down, Marquis de Lafayette, you got these big ideas, but we're not ready for him yet." But Lafayette was very, very pro getting rid of slavery in America. And he remember worked very closely with James Armistead. And so when he finds out that he's been denied his freedom, he writes a letter to Congress in his honor, just saying, "he helped so much, you have to realize everything he did for the war."

And Congress looks at this letter and they consider it and they grant James Armistead his freedom. Now you remember when I introduced him, I said his name was James Armistead Lafayette — in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, in honor of what this man did for him in helping him secure his freedom. He takes on that last name as a tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette, which I think is a very beautiful story.

But this is just another cool story about a spy, about an unsung hero who was able to help us literally win the war. And then we have Hercules Mulligan — a tailor, a simple tailor — who was also able to give these secrets and help us win the war.

And so as we're celebrating America 250 and we're really paying tribute to people like Jefferson and Adams who deserve our tribute, let's remember these unsung heroes. Impress your friends, guys. Tell them about these cool people. If you have book reports in school, or you have to do a report maybe on a historical figure for America 250, pick these lesser-known ones. Everyone's going to do the other ones — and again, they're great — but you know, dazzle your friends, surprise your teacher, do some of these lesser-known heroes.

I will leave it there. As always, don't forget to like and subscribe to the podcast. And until next time, guys, I will talk to you later.