Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 121. Agent 355

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121. Agent 355 · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an Airwave media podcast. Delicious Friends, and
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Speaker 1: welcome to who Do Want Now? The history podcast That's
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Speaker 1: Not Your History Class with me your host Katie Charlewood,
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Speaker 1: history harlot and reader of books. Speaking of books, I'm
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Speaker 1: going to be performing at the Red Line Book Festival
0:33
Speaker 1: on October nineteenth in Dublin in the Civic Theater in Taala,
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Speaker 1: where you'll find out one of your favorite writers isn't
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Speaker 1: quite who they seem, but they rarely are, are they now?
0:49
Speaker 1: This episode was supposed to be something else, something very
0:54
Speaker 1: harrowing and hard hitting and oh godous content warning content warning,
1:01
Speaker 1: content warning, really, and it is midnight. I was supposed
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Speaker 1: to record this several hours ago, but instead I've been
1:09
Speaker 1: in a back and forth with somebody who works for
1:12
Speaker 1: my podcast network, and to say I am angry, I'm
1:16
Speaker 1: actually beyond angry at this point. I'm exhausted and I
1:21
Speaker 1: just don't have the emotional or mental capacity to do
1:23
Speaker 1: the original plan. So it's it's next week's episode that
1:27
Speaker 1: is this week, because typically I bookmark the really like
1:31
Speaker 1: harrowing stuff with something fun either side, because I'd rather
1:36
Speaker 1: not you know, torture us with trauma. I feel I
1:41
Speaker 1: feel like that's a bit much to do every single week,
1:43
Speaker 1: and I do try and space it out. But there
1:46
Speaker 1: was some stuff I just I was reminded of by
1:49
Speaker 1: someone and I was like, oh, no, I need to
1:51
Speaker 1: talk about this. But again, I'm just I'm so dung ah.
1:56
Speaker 1: But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, got your
1:58
Speaker 1: jibber jab or in fact me, in fact you well,
2:01
Speaker 1: but first we've got to get our source on. Our
2:04
Speaker 1: sources are who was Agent three five five by Paul
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Speaker 1: Aaron George Washington Spymaster, How the Americans outspied the British
2:15
Speaker 1: and won the Revolutionary War by Sheryl Harness and Thomas
2:19
Speaker 1: b Allen. Agent three five five by Mark Anthony Phelps,
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Speaker 1: Agent three five five, The American Revolution's most Mysterious Female
2:29
Speaker 1: Spy by Ellen Kotsky. Women Heroes of the American Revolution
2:33
Speaker 1: by Susan Casey. Washington Spies, The Story of America's first
2:39
Speaker 1: spy Ring by Alexander Rose, Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes by
2:44
Speaker 1: John Bakliss. An Encyclopedia of American women at war from
2:48
Speaker 1: the home Front to the battlefields by Kevin M Brady.
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Speaker 1: And of course we have our favorites history dot com
2:55
Speaker 1: and biography dot com. I use it incomfortably good. Then
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Speaker 1: let's begin. This week's tale is historical mystery. And by
3:07
Speaker 1: historical mystery, I mean we don't actually know if it
3:10
Speaker 1: happened or not. Is it meth is it lore, is
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Speaker 1: it fact? Is it fiction? We don't know. Like that's
3:19
Speaker 1: the beauty of this story, and that's why it's a
3:22
Speaker 1: little bit later this week. Oh yeah, see, I think
3:26
Speaker 1: about you. I care. I now have to think of
3:29
Speaker 1: another nice story for two weeks time. But it's fine.
3:33
Speaker 1: I'll figure it out. Don't worry. But I got you.
3:35
Speaker 1: I got you. So yes, we are talking about Agent
3:40
Speaker 1: three five five, the secret lady spy of George Washington
3:45
Speaker 1: who helped win the Revolutionary War, who may or may
3:49
Speaker 1: not have existed, But I mean she's the woman from
3:51
Speaker 1: the past whom's to say so Allegedly, Allegedly, Agent three
3:58
Speaker 1: fivey five was a member of the cult spir ring
4:01
Speaker 1: Culper Cooper. You know what, I've never actually heard it
4:06
Speaker 1: said aloud. I've only ever read it, so I could
4:08
Speaker 1: be mispronouncing this completely, but it is what it is.
4:13
Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will always tell me
4:16
Speaker 1: there's always someone to correct me on my pronunciation, isn't it?
4:21
Speaker 1: And Agent three five y five is supposedly this instrumental
4:25
Speaker 1: figure in this Manhattan Long Island Spy written and the
4:29
Speaker 1: only reason we know anything about Agent three fivey five
4:33
Speaker 1: is from a letter from Abraham Woodhull and it's it's
4:37
Speaker 1: like in passing, but it gripped everyone's attention, and people
4:41
Speaker 1: have been obsessing over the lower of Agent three five
4:46
Speaker 1: five ever since. But again fact fiction truth? Lower, was
4:57
Speaker 1: she reel? Wasn't she real? Doesn't matter? But before we
5:03
Speaker 1: get into Agent three fifty five the Lady Spy, we
5:07
Speaker 1: should probably touch on the context and background. Now, if
5:11
Speaker 1: you're from the US and you're listening, you probably know
5:14
Speaker 1: this bit. But for other people, yeah, we don't really
5:18
Speaker 1: get taught the intricacies of your history. This may shock you,
5:22
Speaker 1: but most people aren't. Some of us did study American history.
5:27
Speaker 1: I mean I think I only started from the eighteen forties,
5:29
Speaker 1: but it's been a while since I was in college,
5:32
Speaker 1: so I don't remember exactly AnyWho the American Revolution, what
5:38
Speaker 1: was it? Well, it was a revolution, This may shock you.
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Speaker 1: It was a revoked against the British. What who would
5:48
Speaker 1: do that. We are shocked and have never seen this
5:51
Speaker 1: happen before in history ever. So yes, the thirteen American
5:59
Speaker 1: call because Britain had colonized America or what would become
6:05
Speaker 1: the USA, and they had colonized it and they were
6:09
Speaker 1: fighting for independence like from Britain. And King George the
6:13
Speaker 1: Third you know him, yes, he of musical fame and
6:21
Speaker 1: also shagging Queen Charlotte. That that is going going mad.
6:26
Speaker 1: I suppose the madness of King George. Big deal, but yes,
6:29
Speaker 1: that is the one. So he is desperate for money
6:32
Speaker 1: because in another shocking twist, England is having another dick
6:38
Speaker 1: measuring contest with France. Say what, yes exactly, So listen England,
6:44
Speaker 1: France always sparring, always fighting so much war but was
6:49
Speaker 1: as a general rule, are expensive and so they need money.
6:56
Speaker 1: So in order to make money, they decide to raise taxes.
7:00
Speaker 1: And by raising taxes, I mean they taxed the colonies.
7:06
Speaker 1: So Parliament in the UK it passes a law called
7:09
Speaker 1: the Stamp Act in seventeen sixty five, which meant taxing
7:15
Speaker 1: anything that was like printed. So you're talking like newspapers,
7:19
Speaker 1: legal papers, like anything stamped. You get it like mhm.
7:24
Speaker 1: And that that was just a way of making money.
7:27
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, shit wasn't digital back then.
7:31
Speaker 1: Most stuff was like done on a printing press or whatnot.
7:35
Speaker 1: So a lot of their like legal work and a
7:39
Speaker 1: lot of their news, all of that was being taxed
7:43
Speaker 1: to fuck and they weren't too keen on it. Now,
7:49
Speaker 1: the colonists, they were getting a wee bit tetchy about
7:51
Speaker 1: it because one, it's a lot of fucking money. In two,
7:56
Speaker 1: they didn't have representation, Like there was no one to
8:01
Speaker 1: represent the colonies like over in the British Parliament to
8:06
Speaker 1: like act on their behalf. And this is sort of
8:10
Speaker 1: a common thing, Like India didn't have representatives, you know,
8:15
Speaker 1: I'm trying to like Ireland didn't really have representatives in
8:19
Speaker 1: the whole thing. But like all the places that Britain colonized,
8:24
Speaker 1: like they didn't have representatives in like Parliament in Britain
8:30
Speaker 1: to fight for rights and the areas that are been
8:34
Speaker 1: colonized and to fight for like forms of governance and
8:39
Speaker 1: taxation and all that, like, they didn't have it. So, yeah,
8:45
Speaker 1: there's this tiny island and it's controlling your your country,
8:52
Speaker 1: you know, your livelihood all that stuff, and so they're
8:56
Speaker 1: already they've already got a wee chip on their shoulder
8:58
Speaker 1: about that. And then a few years later a bunch
9:04
Speaker 1: of new laws are passed thanks to Charles Townsend, which
9:08
Speaker 1: leads to the Town's End Act, and it taxes so
9:12
Speaker 1: much more. You've got paper, glass, paint, lead, and tea
9:22
Speaker 1: all being taxed in colonial ports. Now, this made them
9:30
Speaker 1: even less happy. For example, like there were thirteen colonies.
9:39
Speaker 1: Each had their own sort of laws and they sort
9:44
Speaker 1: of govern themselves, which is why states tend to have
9:47
Speaker 1: their own laws now generally, as opposed to like an
9:50
Speaker 1: all encompassing, like one shoe fits all scenario. One shoe
9:55
Speaker 1: fits all. No, one size fits all. I mean, I
9:59
Speaker 1: mean unless it's a we're not going to get into it,
10:01
Speaker 1: stop No. So they had their own sort of stuff
10:05
Speaker 1: to deal with in their own money, and they were
10:09
Speaker 1: sort of left to rule themselves, and they were quite
10:12
Speaker 1: content with this. And now they're having extra taxes upon
10:16
Speaker 1: taxes and levees and charges what like. Honestly, I think
10:24
Speaker 1: people look at the taxation thing today and it's like,
10:26
Speaker 1: we fought for not having this, and yet here you are. Anyway,
10:32
Speaker 1: So initially the colonies are like we're not too happy
10:38
Speaker 1: with this, and we don't want you to control us.
10:43
Speaker 1: We don't want that. We want to rule ourselves. And
10:45
Speaker 1: you know, they protest peacefully, like they try. They're like, hey,
10:50
Speaker 1: they have their we white flags and banners and flowers
10:53
Speaker 1: into the bayonets like it's chill. They do these peaceful protests,
10:57
Speaker 1: and then the British government does the completely rational act
11:03
Speaker 1: of sending a fucton of soldiers to Boston, and this
11:08
Speaker 1: leads to the Boston massacre. They start shooting into the
11:13
Speaker 1: crowd on March fifth, and it just it was this
11:19
Speaker 1: spark that ignited the war. Really, like everyone talks about
11:24
Speaker 1: the tea, but it's this that really just caused like
11:28
Speaker 1: a huge, a huge commotion, Like it really turned to
11:33
Speaker 1: people who were sitting on the fence, you know. So
11:37
Speaker 1: the very same day, March fifth, seventeen seventy, Parliament decides
11:44
Speaker 1: to scrap like most of the town's end like act,
11:49
Speaker 1: but they do keep the tax on tea, which which
11:54
Speaker 1: is probably why most Americans drink coffee now because they're like,
11:58
Speaker 1: fuck you and your tea. In seventeen seventy three, so
12:05
Speaker 1: three years after this, they passed another law which basically
12:11
Speaker 1: made it cheaper for British companies to sell their tea
12:16
Speaker 1: than colonists to sell their tea. So if you had
12:21
Speaker 1: a wee shop and you were selling tea, and you
12:23
Speaker 1: were like an American company, like you lived in America,
12:28
Speaker 1: you're like two generations in and you're like selling that.
12:32
Speaker 1: And then you've got a British company coming in and
12:35
Speaker 1: setting up a shop like their tea is going to
12:37
Speaker 1: be cheaper than your tea, which did not go down well,
12:45
Speaker 1: and because they're like, oh well, you're going to charge
12:49
Speaker 1: us more for tea. No, take your tea and shove it,
12:53
Speaker 1: and so they dump it into the harbor. So these
13:00
Speaker 1: they start boarding all these ships in the port and
13:03
Speaker 1: just like start chucking it into the Boston Harbor, which
13:07
Speaker 1: is basically the Boston Tea Party, which just led to
13:11
Speaker 1: the harbor just having very salty tea. Really like one thing,
13:16
Speaker 1: I understand that tea has significantly less caffeine in it
13:20
Speaker 1: than coffee, but if you're dumping all that fucking tea
13:23
Speaker 1: into this one area, like it's going to mess up
13:26
Speaker 1: any fish that are there, Like they're gonna have the jittles,
13:29
Speaker 1: just like a b jittery fish just flopping about. I
13:32
Speaker 1: didn't know there was flying fish here that there isn't
13:35
Speaker 1: what's up with them? Not a fucking clue And this
13:39
Speaker 1: may shock you. But instead of trilling the hell out,
13:43
Speaker 1: Britain decided to pass even more loss harsher ones still
13:49
Speaker 1: because British Parliament Parliament is a petty bitch, and they
13:56
Speaker 1: closed all the ports. They basically stopped all trade until
14:00
Speaker 1: Boston paid back the cost of the tea that had
14:05
Speaker 1: been thrown overboard, and then all of Massachusetts was under
14:11
Speaker 1: like martial law. It was military role like, it was
14:16
Speaker 1: shocking and having eyes the colonies were like, eh, this
14:23
Speaker 1: is not good, and they are really having a show
14:26
Speaker 1: of force here. And it becomes very clear that the
14:30
Speaker 1: only way the colonies are going to have any self
14:32
Speaker 1: control anything like that, is by taking it. If they
14:36
Speaker 1: want to govern themselves, they're going to have to fight,
14:40
Speaker 1: and they're going to have to do it together. And
14:43
Speaker 1: so the following year seventeen seventy four, like every colony
14:49
Speaker 1: apart from Georgia, like they all meet in Philadelphia and
14:53
Speaker 1: put together the Continental Congress and they're like, hey, you
14:57
Speaker 1: want to stop giving us these dodgy laws. Thanks in Britain,
15:01
Speaker 1: was like, no, here's more soldiers. Shut the fuck up.
15:07
Speaker 1: And so by seventeen seventy five, three million colonists like
15:14
Speaker 1: living on the East coast right from Massachusetts all the
15:18
Speaker 1: way down to Georgia, and yeah, they're they're they're getting
15:23
Speaker 1: angrier and angrier. Now, for the most part, a lot
15:28
Speaker 1: of the colonists were just kind of chill with existing.
15:31
Speaker 1: They weren't necessarily looking for independence. They just wanted Britain
15:36
Speaker 1: to you know, not being the domineering step dad of
15:39
Speaker 1: the situation and just let them sort of live their lives.
15:43
Speaker 1: They wanted to have the option of like certain forms
15:45
Speaker 1: of self governance. They didn't want such high taxes, and
15:48
Speaker 1: they wanted representatives in British Parliament. But yeah, that that
15:56
Speaker 1: wasn't that wasn't on the cards, and so they had
16:00
Speaker 1: to sort themselves out. So they were organizing supplies, they
16:03
Speaker 1: were setting up their own military, and they were basically
16:08
Speaker 1: I'm not saying doomsday prepping, but because you know, they
16:11
Speaker 1: were actually prepping for their doomsday because they knew that
16:15
Speaker 1: war was on the horizon, because there was no other choice,
16:20
Speaker 1: like if they wanted you know, colonial autonomy, then they
16:27
Speaker 1: were going to have to fight for it. They knew
16:28
Speaker 1: there was going to be a massive battle, and that's
16:31
Speaker 1: just how it was. And they knew that it was
16:35
Speaker 1: unlikely that they would win because massive colonial power against them.
16:45
Speaker 1: You know, this is a nation that has conquered the
16:48
Speaker 1: majority of the world. The most common holiday of countries
16:56
Speaker 1: is an independence day, specifically from Britain. And so the
17:00
Speaker 1: colonists decided that they were going to fight. They were
17:03
Speaker 1: going to go down swinging, or they were going to maybe,
17:05
Speaker 1: hopefully possibly tiny winy bit win. And so the second
17:10
Speaker 1: Continental Congress meets, they basically consolidate all of their individual
17:15
Speaker 1: armies to make the Continental Army and put George Washington
17:20
Speaker 1: in charge. And on the fourth of July seventeen seventy six,
17:25
Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress,
17:30
Speaker 1: with the all thirteen colonies becoming united as the United
17:36
Speaker 1: States of America. And then they fight for a couple
17:40
Speaker 1: of years. So July they declare war. August Britain takes
17:46
Speaker 1: New York. So British forces they're occupying New York and
17:50
Speaker 1: it's a stronghold there and they hold it for like
17:55
Speaker 1: the entire war, effectively, and because this is a British stronghold.
18:03
Speaker 1: It's an important place to be and it is a
18:07
Speaker 1: treasure trove of information, which of course leads us to
18:13
Speaker 1: the cul perspiring an agent three five five, because this
18:18
Speaker 1: is an area to collect intelligence like this, this is
18:24
Speaker 1: the spot. Intelligence agents were almost invaluable during the American Revolution,
18:31
Speaker 1: like they were in integral part to winning the war.
18:34
Speaker 1: And Washington actually based a lot of his plans and
18:39
Speaker 1: structured a lot of his military operations based on intelligence
18:45
Speaker 1: garnered by spies. But being a spy is and oh,
18:49
Speaker 1: it's cracked up to be because it's not the safest
18:52
Speaker 1: of occupations. Like Nathan Hill, he was hanged without trial
18:56
Speaker 1: in New York because it was discovered he was the
19:00
Speaker 1: king British military secrets back to this regiment. And so
19:07
Speaker 1: people weren't exactly chomping at the bit to be a
19:09
Speaker 1: spy because you know the threat of a short drop
19:12
Speaker 1: and a sudden stop. And so the Revolutionary army jumped
19:18
Speaker 1: at the chance of getting their hands on someone willing
19:21
Speaker 1: to spy for them. The General George Washington, he was
19:25
Speaker 1: desperate to get a spy ring going on in New York,
19:29
Speaker 1: like he needed something going on. Like the first person
19:32
Speaker 1: he recruits is just like a merchant. Nathaniel Sacket of Fishkill,
19:37
Speaker 1: like just a regular merchant, because in fairness, nobody's gonna
19:43
Speaker 1: worry about talking around someone who's just like selling you.
19:46
Speaker 1: I don't know fish, his name's Fishkill, so I'm gonna
19:49
Speaker 1: assume there's some fish involved. And Nathaniel's military contact was
19:55
Speaker 1: this dude from Long Island, Benjamin Talmadge, who was an
19:59
Speaker 1: officer in the army. He like moved up the ranks
20:02
Speaker 1: pretty sharpish, and he was fairly decent at passing on information.
20:06
Speaker 1: And so Washington brings Nathaniel into be another cog in
20:09
Speaker 1: this wheel, to be another link in the chain in
20:11
Speaker 1: this network, but he's not very good at it, and
20:15
Speaker 1: so they're like, we need to get rid of him
20:17
Speaker 1: and find someone else. And so he's like filling up
20:20
Speaker 1: the spots and he just needs this one sort of
20:23
Speaker 1: New York space filled and he's really trying to sort
20:28
Speaker 1: this network. And then he receives a letter on the
20:33
Speaker 1: seventh of August seventeen seventy eight, and this is the
20:38
Speaker 1: starting point. So yeah, he receives a letter from Lieutenant
20:43
Speaker 1: Caleb Brewster from Long Island, who had ken have already
20:48
Speaker 1: been involved sending messages from John Clark, who was like
20:52
Speaker 1: originally from Long Island and then went back to Philadelphia.
20:56
Speaker 1: So they've been doing like spy stuff between him and
20:59
Speaker 1: Tell Jane was doing these things. So he was a
21:03
Speaker 1: friend of Chalmage as like a childhood friend, like he'd
21:06
Speaker 1: known him all his life. And Brister offered to like
21:11
Speaker 1: collect intelligence on Long Island, which is fine, but they
21:17
Speaker 1: did need someone to manage sort of what was going
21:21
Speaker 1: on there, and so Washington pulls in Brigadier General Charles Scott,
21:26
Speaker 1: a commander of the Virginia Brigade, and he brings him
21:29
Speaker 1: into like really set up a spy network, and he's like, Chalmage,
21:34
Speaker 1: get in there, start helping him now. I mean they say,
21:40
Speaker 1: if you want a good job done, you got to
21:42
Speaker 1: do it yourself. But this dude, Brigadier Charles Scott, he's
21:45
Speaker 1: just his heart's not in it. He doesn't have the
21:51
Speaker 1: necessary motivation required to establish and run an entire spy network.
22:00
Speaker 1: And so all of this ends up back on Talmadge,
22:05
Speaker 1: who's basically doing the job himself anyway, and ends up
22:09
Speaker 1: as like the intelligence chief because Scott ends up resigning
22:13
Speaker 1: because he's just not doing his job. Anyway, so it
22:15
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. And Washington's like, son, can you do it?
22:19
Speaker 1: And Talmadge is like, yes, I can so because Talmadge
22:24
Speaker 1: is like, he's a native of Long Island. That's where
22:26
Speaker 1: he's from, that's where he grew up. And so he
22:29
Speaker 1: decides to recruit people that he knows that he can trust,
22:32
Speaker 1: people he's known since childhood. He's got Robert Townsend, Austin Rowe,
22:39
Speaker 1: Kayler Briister as previously mentioned, Abraham Woodhull, Jonas Hawkins, and
22:44
Speaker 1: like a bunch of other dudes. Now there were more
22:51
Speaker 1: to this, you see, but they all had code names
22:54
Speaker 1: and aliases, so were they're a bit more tricky to
22:58
Speaker 1: sort of decipher. But yeah, intelligence agents, spies, of course,
23:06
Speaker 1: they have bloody code names. And so like they start changing.
23:14
Speaker 1: You've got Benjamin Talmadge becomes John Bolton, which is a
23:19
Speaker 1: way of like, ah, this is Ezekiel Jones. What is
23:22
Speaker 1: he changing his name to Tim Smith? All right? Same
23:26
Speaker 1: as a bit right, But yeah, You've got Abrian Widhell
23:29
Speaker 1: becomes Samuel Copper, Robert Townsend becomes Samuel Cooper junior. They're
23:38
Speaker 1: just like, oh, look, I'm just writing a letter to
23:40
Speaker 1: my father it's completely normal and not suspicious. And obviously
23:47
Speaker 1: this is where the name the Cooper spy ring comes from.
23:51
Speaker 1: But it worked really really well because they all knew
23:54
Speaker 1: each other. They were all very close anyway, they were friends,
23:57
Speaker 1: Like this was a pretty solid, solid network, and so
24:02
Speaker 1: they would use their general lives to get together and
24:06
Speaker 1: you know, enact their spycraft. And it wouldn't be suspicious
24:10
Speaker 1: because if you're visiting your cousin, right, you're just visiting
24:13
Speaker 1: your cousin, it's not weird because you're hanging out anyway.
24:17
Speaker 1: Or if you're going to your neighbor's shop, it's not
24:20
Speaker 1: weird because it's your neighbor's shop. Of course you're gonna
24:23
Speaker 1: buy from your neighbor. Like it's so like below the radar,
24:28
Speaker 1: so normal that it doesn't attract suspicion. It's just my
24:34
Speaker 1: uncle's birthday party. Nobody's sharing military secrets here. So anyway,
24:40
Speaker 1: members of this spiring they would sort of collect intelligence information,
24:46
Speaker 1: sort of military maneuvals, you know, bits and pieces which
24:51
Speaker 1: will be sent back to Washington, who would use this
24:54
Speaker 1: to formulate display. But like they couldn't just write, dear
24:59
Speaker 1: mister Washington, and here are the military manevels in South Boston. No, no,
25:06
Speaker 1: not at all. What they had to do was write
25:08
Speaker 1: in code and sent it carefully, because you don't want
25:12
Speaker 1: it to end up like accidentally being found by the
25:16
Speaker 1: enemy and then being like, shit, these people are gathering intelligence.
25:20
Speaker 1: Let's go stab them with a bayonet. It's always the bayonets.
25:24
Speaker 1: Guy's kind of help myself, And so they are writing
25:27
Speaker 1: in code and talmage. He creates this sort of system.
25:33
Speaker 1: It's a collection of numbers that are assigned to seven
25:36
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three commonly used words. So like language
25:45
Speaker 1: was three six one, Mercenary was six oh three. Long
25:49
Speaker 1: Island was seven to eight, New York City seven to seven.
25:53
Speaker 1: Injuries they one one, and even the names, even the
25:58
Speaker 1: names were assigned, so Washington was seven to one one,
26:04
Speaker 1: Abraham Woodhull was seven to two. Town's End was seven
26:07
Speaker 1: to three. They all have assigned letters. Now, if a
26:11
Speaker 1: word was like out with this commonly used letter system,
26:19
Speaker 1: then the sort of jumbled up alphabet was kind of used.
26:25
Speaker 1: Now just to make sure that they were not caught
26:28
Speaker 1: to like really reinforce this. Not only did they have
26:32
Speaker 1: code names write their letters in a numeracle code, but
26:39
Speaker 1: they also wrote it an invisible ink like like talk
26:44
Speaker 1: about being sure, like they were taking no chances. They
26:50
Speaker 1: even wrote another letter on top of the invisible ink
26:54
Speaker 1: letter like and it was generally typical boring stuff that
26:58
Speaker 1: if you picked up like dearest whomever Jim bobbins so
27:01
Speaker 1: well and have got particularly cough, how are those socks
27:05
Speaker 1: you bought? You know, like really boring, mundane, normal stuff,
27:09
Speaker 1: just enough to be innocuous to like not raise suspicion. Now,
27:13
Speaker 1: a lot of this information was actually collected by Robert
27:17
Speaker 1: turns End himself because he was like a merchant and
27:20
Speaker 1: a shop owner, but he was also a society journalist,
27:25
Speaker 1: so it wasn't suspicious to see him hanging about writing
27:28
Speaker 1: things down. So he was able to collect information at
27:33
Speaker 1: all of these like society meetings, gatherings, like all the
27:39
Speaker 1: stuff he went to, Like he was able to collect
27:41
Speaker 1: information from the British because yeah, it wasn't weird for
27:46
Speaker 1: him to be writing or to be taking notes because
27:48
Speaker 1: he's a society journalist. And so he would pass his
27:52
Speaker 1: information to Austin Rowe, who had a tavern, and this
27:58
Speaker 1: would then go to Abraham Woodhall, who would then take
28:03
Speaker 1: it to Caleb Brewster, who would go to Tallmadge, who
28:05
Speaker 1: would then go to Washington like Pillot to post, Pilot
28:09
Speaker 1: to post. It was always going around. But of course
28:12
Speaker 1: it wasn't just the men now the col perspiring, like
28:17
Speaker 1: it's mainly these dudes. And we don't really have any
28:20
Speaker 1: acknowledgment for the most part about the part that women
28:24
Speaker 1: played here, But there were there were women involved. I mean,
28:28
Speaker 1: of course we have the mysterious agent three five five,
28:33
Speaker 1: but also we had people like Abraham Woodhall's neighbor and
28:39
Speaker 1: a strong and she would use her washing line, her
28:43
Speaker 1: clothes line to let the ring know the intelligence needed
28:47
Speaker 1: to be collected. So she would hang up a black petticoat,
28:52
Speaker 1: meaning that Caleb Brewster was in town, and to find
28:58
Speaker 1: out where he was hiding. She would put like a
29:01
Speaker 1: certain number of like white handkies like up on the line.
29:06
Speaker 1: And because Woodhull's the neighbor next door, he would look
29:09
Speaker 1: at the washing line and go ah, okay, and then
29:12
Speaker 1: he'd go and meet Caleb Brewster. Like this is one
29:15
Speaker 1: of those stories which is very much an allegedly but
29:17
Speaker 1: it's so weird it feels like it should be true,
29:21
Speaker 1: Like if something is weird enough, but could also be
29:24
Speaker 1: real if it's from history. Typically there's a chance that
29:28
Speaker 1: that happened. It's weird enough to be real, and people
29:31
Speaker 1: are suspicious and paranoid enough to do things like that.
29:36
Speaker 1: And like, it was discovered in recent years that Anna's
29:39
Speaker 1: husband was an active member of the Colberspy Ring, and
29:43
Speaker 1: so again it's a woman. People weren't really paying attention
29:47
Speaker 1: to her, So it feels like not really out of
29:51
Speaker 1: the question for her to be involved in this. But
29:55
Speaker 1: I know we're halfway through the episode and you want
29:58
Speaker 1: to hear about age in three five five, but first
30:02
Speaker 1: let's hear from her sponsors, or if you don't hear
30:05
Speaker 1: from the sponsors, enjoy this moment of solitude, and we're
30:17
Speaker 1: back and ready to talk about Agent three five five.
30:22
Speaker 1: So there are almost two hundred letters, one hundred and
30:26
Speaker 1: ninety three to be exact, that survive about the Coper spiring,
30:31
Speaker 1: and out of those one hundred and ninety three, only
30:34
Speaker 1: one makes reference to a woman, the only one ever.
30:41
Speaker 1: So there's this letter from Woodhill to Washington dated seventeen
30:46
Speaker 1: seventy nine, the fifteenth of August and its dates. I
30:50
Speaker 1: intend to visit seven two seven before long and think
30:54
Speaker 1: by the assistance of three five five from my acquaintance,
30:58
Speaker 1: she'll be able to outwit them all. So that's the sentence, right,
31:02
Speaker 1: So seventy seven is the code for New York, like
31:06
Speaker 1: as I said earlier, and three five five is the
31:10
Speaker 1: code for lady. So I intend to visit New York
31:15
Speaker 1: before long and think, by the assistance of lady from
31:19
Speaker 1: my acquaintance, she'll be able to out them all. Now,
31:25
Speaker 1: a lot of research went into this, and we know
31:28
Speaker 1: that on the day that he was traveling, Abraham Woodell
31:31
Speaker 1: was accompanied by a woman. On this journey, we don't
31:38
Speaker 1: have any information regarding who this woman is, who this
31:41
Speaker 1: lady is, her name, her face, her features, nothing, And
31:48
Speaker 1: these are not the kind of details people wrote down
31:50
Speaker 1: then because it's a woman from the past. And typically
31:54
Speaker 1: women weren't really seen as dangerous. They weren't a bother,
31:59
Speaker 1: they weren't were something, they were too emotional, they couldn't
32:02
Speaker 1: be involved in a war, say what no, because they're
32:07
Speaker 1: typically underestimated by men. Oh men sidebar. I had a powerlifter,
32:17
Speaker 1: a female powerlifter, complained to me because she said that
32:21
Speaker 1: I was victimizing myself by saying that men tend to
32:25
Speaker 1: get angry at women who know more than them, which
32:28
Speaker 1: is just a factually correct statement. And I have evidence
32:33
Speaker 1: of that just in my comment section right, just consistently,
32:38
Speaker 1: And yes, she got really mad about it, and then
32:40
Speaker 1: she went on this whole big grant and I was like,
32:42
Speaker 1: I can't be hersed listening to your nonsense anymore. So
32:45
Speaker 1: I just blocked her because I don't need that internalized
32:49
Speaker 1: misogyny in my life. No. But back during the Revolutionary War,
32:56
Speaker 1: the patriarchy, misogyny, it's just woven into the fabric of history. However,
33:05
Speaker 1: the colonists figured out pretty early on that a person
33:10
Speaker 1: who's overlooked is a pretty good spy, Like they're their
33:16
Speaker 1: pretty good asset to have. And because women are generally undervalued, underestimated,
33:25
Speaker 1: or even ignored, they were a very valuable asset in date.
33:32
Speaker 1: I mean, they were pretty good at being spies because
33:35
Speaker 1: they could get into certain areas, they could arrive at
33:40
Speaker 1: certain situations that men couldn't. They could enter households as
33:46
Speaker 1: domestic servants, maids, cooks, etc. Because people would assume that,
33:52
Speaker 1: you know, they were just normal ladies loving their life,
33:55
Speaker 1: doing their chorren, not really being bothered by much why
34:00
Speaker 1: would they consider or be bothered by, you know, a big,
34:05
Speaker 1: bad war. You know, they got pops to scrub and
34:08
Speaker 1: sandwiches to make. Unsurprisingly, a fair amount of women were
34:13
Speaker 1: quite happy to become spies because you know, women are
34:17
Speaker 1: people too, because it's one of the only things they
34:21
Speaker 1: could do at the time to help their country, unless
34:23
Speaker 1: they were nursing even but for the most part, passing
34:27
Speaker 1: on information, providing information. It was like one of the
34:32
Speaker 1: few ways they could actually you know, be involved in
34:36
Speaker 1: the revolution and actually help, you know, and do their partner.
34:41
Speaker 1: And so typically the Continental Army, the patriots, they would
34:48
Speaker 1: get their wives to pass along notes and messages because
34:52
Speaker 1: of course no one would suspect them of doing anything.
34:55
Speaker 1: They're just ladies gossiping or going about their daily business.
35:02
Speaker 1: And yeah, they would go places they were not really noticed.
35:08
Speaker 1: They kind of just breezed through a lot of the time.
35:11
Speaker 1: It would take a lot for men to become suspicious
35:14
Speaker 1: of women, you know, because they just assumed they were inferior.
35:20
Speaker 1: Now back to Agent three five five, who it's so
35:24
Speaker 1: interesting we call her agent even though back then nobody
35:27
Speaker 1: called themselves agent. They just gave themselves new names and
35:31
Speaker 1: like we don't even have a code name for her,
35:33
Speaker 1: just the number, unless our code name is lady. Lady
35:38
Speaker 1: is the code name. But yet agent wasn't really a
35:41
Speaker 1: term they used back then. It wasn't part of the
35:43
Speaker 1: historical vernacular, Like it just wasn't part of it, and
35:47
Speaker 1: so we wasn't used then, but we can use it
35:51
Speaker 1: now because we want to, and we can. So they
35:54
Speaker 1: are all these theories about who Agent three five five was,
35:58
Speaker 1: like who who was she? Who was the mysterious woman
36:03
Speaker 1: who accompanied Abraham Woodhull, And so the biggest sort of
36:10
Speaker 1: suspect the top of the list is Anna Strong, the neighbor,
36:14
Speaker 1: she of the petticoat and Handke's thing, And there's like
36:19
Speaker 1: a lot, a lot of support for this. Again, we
36:21
Speaker 1: don't really know that much about three five y five,
36:25
Speaker 1: but there's like a strong obsession with this. So when
36:29
Speaker 1: you think back to his letter, Abraham Woodhall is saying
36:32
Speaker 1: that I intend to visit New York and think by
36:37
Speaker 1: the assistance of a lady of my acquaintance, she'll be
36:40
Speaker 1: able to outwit them all. And so he's bringing a
36:44
Speaker 1: lady with him back to New York who could be
36:48
Speaker 1: the lady that he is acquainted with Anna Strong. Now
36:54
Speaker 1: I don't know if it would be appropriate for him
36:58
Speaker 1: and Anna to like travel alone together. It feels like
37:02
Speaker 1: that might be inappropriate for the time. Now there is
37:05
Speaker 1: a theory that the acquaintance of the lady is actually
37:08
Speaker 1: Anna's husband, Seller Strong. Now there is this whole thing
37:13
Speaker 1: about is Seller like an actual spies he a member
37:17
Speaker 1: of the spiring, Like he gets reimbursed for like cul
37:21
Speaker 1: perspiring activities, but he's not involved in a lot of
37:28
Speaker 1: this stuff at this point because he's imprisoned. Like he's
37:33
Speaker 1: not doing spy things because he's in jail, Like there's
37:36
Speaker 1: not a lot he can do. Now he's reimbursed, but
37:44
Speaker 1: he's not doing any spying. But who is spying is
37:46
Speaker 1: his wife, who isn't allowed to have her own money
37:48
Speaker 1: or property. And so the reimbursement for spycraft would go
37:54
Speaker 1: to the husband and not to Anna. And it wouldn't
37:58
Speaker 1: be too suspicious for Anna wanting to visit New York
38:01
Speaker 1: because her husband is imprisoned there, so she has every
38:06
Speaker 1: valid reason to travel into the area and for to
38:11
Speaker 1: not like raise any eyebrows because her husband is on
38:16
Speaker 1: a prison ship. Yeah, instead of like an actual stone
38:20
Speaker 1: prison he's on a ship, the AHMS Jelsey. It's a
38:23
Speaker 1: British prison ship, and the majority of prisoners on it
38:27
Speaker 1: they would tend to die of starvation, and so Anna
38:31
Speaker 1: would often visit and bring food with her because you know,
38:36
Speaker 1: her husband's starving to death didn't really seem like a
38:38
Speaker 1: good idea to her. And also, I mean there was
38:41
Speaker 1: also disease. But depending on how cramped it was, It's
38:45
Speaker 1: very much a maybe situation. So she was used to
38:49
Speaker 1: being on board the ship, they probably were used to
38:51
Speaker 1: seeing her, and it wasn't adder peculiar for her to
38:54
Speaker 1: go visit. So maybe she did overhear things. Maybe she
38:57
Speaker 1: did pass on information, whom's to say. Eventually, she manages
39:04
Speaker 1: to get Seller paroled because she's got relatives who are loyalists, right,
39:11
Speaker 1: so she's got royalists and she manages to get him out.
39:15
Speaker 1: And when she does get him released, they just like
39:18
Speaker 1: love happily ever after, Like they're pretty chill. Now. The
39:22
Speaker 1: alternatives for Agent three five five well, one is connected
39:27
Speaker 1: to Major John andre Now. He was the chief of
39:31
Speaker 1: British Intelligence who at the time was considered to be
39:35
Speaker 1: New York's most eligible bachelor. Pretty easy for her for
39:40
Speaker 1: like a female spy, don't you think just some dude
39:43
Speaker 1: who's an absolute horn dog, not just Hamilton and Andre.
39:48
Speaker 1: He loved the ladies, but he didn't quite see them
39:50
Speaker 1: as you know people, which is not super And so
39:56
Speaker 1: there comes a woman, Lydia Da. Lydia's family are loyalists.
40:05
Speaker 1: They are supporters of Britain. They're supporters of you know,
40:11
Speaker 1: British rule. They are big into King George. They're like, yes,
40:15
Speaker 1: love this man and his crown and his Zoeo pantalons
40:17
Speaker 1: were so into it. And so the dre is because
40:21
Speaker 1: their house is well a loyalist house. Meetings are held there,
40:28
Speaker 1: like important meetings, important British military meetings with Major John Andre. Now,
40:36
Speaker 1: Lydia wasn't really big into the whole praising King George scenario,
40:42
Speaker 1: and so she would listen at the door collecting information
40:47
Speaker 1: from these super secret British military meetings and would then
40:51
Speaker 1: collect and pass this information onto Washington so that you
40:55
Speaker 1: could work out military strategies and whatnot. Now you might
40:59
Speaker 1: be thinking what turned Lydia against, you know, the royalist
41:04
Speaker 1: family of hers. Well, Ladia happens to be Irish and
41:09
Speaker 1: as such not too fond of the British a couple
41:11
Speaker 1: of hundred years of issues there, and so she's like, Leah,
41:15
Speaker 1: no love lost. I'm gonna go pass on this super
41:17
Speaker 1: secret information. So Washington gets news of a pending attack
41:22
Speaker 1: and he is ready for it, and it becomes very
41:25
Speaker 1: clear that there's only one place the leak could have
41:30
Speaker 1: come from, and they need to plug it. And Andre
41:35
Speaker 1: he is super suspicious, and he questions every single member
41:39
Speaker 1: of the household apart from Ladia, because he assumed that Lydia,
41:47
Speaker 1: being a woman, would hold these same political views as
41:51
Speaker 1: her royalist husband, and because he trusted Lyadia's husband. He
41:56
Speaker 1: trusted Lydia, And so as long as he was using
42:00
Speaker 1: the Darra house like information about attacks and strategies, like
42:06
Speaker 1: they were getting head out to the co perspiring left,
42:09
Speaker 1: right and center. But when he ended up leaving and
42:14
Speaker 1: going to South Carolina in seventeen seventy nine, the information
42:19
Speaker 1: kind of peached out a little bit. There's actually a
42:21
Speaker 1: letter from George Washington to Alexander Hamilton about this. He's like, yeah,
42:27
Speaker 1: I'm not really getting enough info at this point, buddy,
42:31
Speaker 1: Like he says, the co perspiring is like useless. It's
42:33
Speaker 1: like absolutely useless. And it's from the point where he
42:36
Speaker 1: leaves the Dara household. Well, Audrey leaves the Dara household.
42:41
Speaker 1: So was Lydia agent three five five. I remember Andre
42:47
Speaker 1: is an eligible bachelor, after all, he is a lady's man,
42:51
Speaker 1: man's man, man about town, and like who knows what
42:54
Speaker 1: he was bumping his gums about, trying to like bed
42:58
Speaker 1: the ladies. And so he goes away. Not a lot
43:03
Speaker 1: of information happens. But when he returns in seventeen eighty,
43:08
Speaker 1: So he leaves in seventy seventy nine, back in seventeen eighty,
43:12
Speaker 1: and the information just starts coming back. Like this wasn't
43:17
Speaker 1: just chump change, this was massive info. Like one of
43:21
Speaker 1: the reports they got was an American general was going
43:25
Speaker 1: to like turncoat. He was going to surrender himself West Point,
43:29
Speaker 1: which was like a really big turning point like for
43:31
Speaker 1: the war, and it was going to be this whole
43:33
Speaker 1: thing and he was going to betray everybody. And what
43:39
Speaker 1: do you know, General Benedict Arnold, he had commanded West
43:45
Speaker 1: Point and he was about to surrender to the Brits.
43:49
Speaker 1: Why for money, for bloody money? And Arnold's correspondent, the
43:58
Speaker 1: person he was dealing with was Andre, and so so
44:04
Speaker 1: Talmadge gets wind of this, he writes in the letters
44:07
Speaker 1: and he passes his info on. He's seeing that we
44:10
Speaker 1: need to do something like unexpected and shocking, because like
44:13
Speaker 1: shit's about to go down, because you know, this general
44:18
Speaker 1: knows American forces, he knows are powerplays, he knows all
44:21
Speaker 1: of it. And what do you know? Talmwdge was right.
44:23
Speaker 1: But where was Talmadge getting his info? None other than
44:28
Speaker 1: Agent three five five, who exposed this subterfuge, this ruse
44:36
Speaker 1: which did result in the capture of Major Drawn Andre,
44:42
Speaker 1: who had maps of West Point and letters sound by
44:46
Speaker 1: one Benedict Arnold. Now, because of this abundance of evidence,
44:53
Speaker 1: it's clear that Andre and Arnold are inka Hutz and
44:57
Speaker 1: it doesn't take too long for Andre to confess yes,
45:00
Speaker 1: and then he is hung, shot, drop, sudden stop Arnold,
45:06
Speaker 1: whoever managed to flee so because it was quite apparent
45:11
Speaker 1: that someone very close to the now deceased Major John
45:16
Speaker 1: Andre had been spelling his secrets and this sort of
45:20
Speaker 1: turned up the heat in the kitchen a wee bit
45:23
Speaker 1: and several members of the Coloburg Ring just it fled.
45:28
Speaker 1: They escaped and they went into hiding. Most came out
45:32
Speaker 1: after a couple of weeks. But yeah, yeah, they were
45:35
Speaker 1: all like shit, off we go, don't be suspicious, don't
45:40
Speaker 1: be suspicious now. In fairness, like a good for people
45:44
Speaker 1: did get arrested. It was a whole situation because anybody
45:49
Speaker 1: who had any connection to Andre was being rounded up.
45:53
Speaker 1: They were being questioned, and they again were trying to
45:56
Speaker 1: plug this leak in British occupied territory. And this whole
46:02
Speaker 1: thing really upsets Townsend, like he is just destroyed, the
46:07
Speaker 1: whole thing, Like he's writing letters about so many of
46:10
Speaker 1: his friends being arrested, and he just buggers over to
46:14
Speaker 1: Woodhall's house because he's just like struggling with this and
46:17
Speaker 1: he's going on but how he's gonna quit spying, Like
46:21
Speaker 1: this man is feeling all of his feelings, like he
46:23
Speaker 1: is struggling, and he's going on about how he just
46:26
Speaker 1: can't do this anymore, like maybe something snapped in him
46:30
Speaker 1: and like he's like, I can't do it anymore. And
46:32
Speaker 1: then steals a bunch of shit, like he says, fuck
46:36
Speaker 1: this for Game of Soldiers and just starts nick and stuff.
46:39
Speaker 1: He grabs all this money. He even steals six hundred
46:43
Speaker 1: pounds in ten days, which is like, which in today's
46:49
Speaker 1: money is a fuck ton of cash. And he even
46:53
Speaker 1: steals from his own dad, Like that's how desperate he is,
46:57
Speaker 1: and it's it's like a lot. It's a lot to
46:59
Speaker 1: like her on everything, you know, steal from all your
47:03
Speaker 1: friends and businesses and then try and try and just
47:07
Speaker 1: do a runner. Why like, why would someone who was
47:11
Speaker 1: so integral to this just suddenly snap like is being
47:15
Speaker 1: arrested like the worst thing or was townshend very close
47:22
Speaker 1: and very connected to his informant, a lady perhaps, And
47:31
Speaker 1: this leads us to another possibility for Agent three five
47:36
Speaker 1: five in October seventeen ninety, when all these people were
47:40
Speaker 1: being rounded up and arrested, one of which was a
47:43
Speaker 1: pregnant woman, Like she's getting questioned and interrogated and she
47:49
Speaker 1: is giving them nothing, which is if you're already dealing
47:53
Speaker 1: with pregnancy hormones and if you are pregnant enough for
47:58
Speaker 1: people to be aware that you're pregnant, like there are
48:00
Speaker 1: so many hormones in there, there are so many emotions,
48:03
Speaker 1: like the fact that she hasn't like headbutted one of
48:07
Speaker 1: the inventory is just pure luck at this point. So
48:10
Speaker 1: the theory goes that Townsend is a co creator of
48:13
Speaker 1: the fetus growing inside this pregnant woman, or he was
48:17
Speaker 1: specifically attached to this woman because she was pregnant, Perhaps
48:22
Speaker 1: she was down and out, perhaps she was a widow
48:24
Speaker 1: hymnstis say, but he had some very intense bond with her,
48:30
Speaker 1: and so he was trying to get this money together
48:32
Speaker 1: allegedly to buy her freedom. This woman ends up on
48:39
Speaker 1: the hate GMS Jelsey the present Ship. What again, Yes,
48:46
Speaker 1: content warning a maternal death. Skip forward a minute if
48:51
Speaker 1: it's going to be too tough for you. So, while
48:54
Speaker 1: on the prison ship, the woman gives birth and I
48:58
Speaker 1: don't know, the lack of tools, medical professionals, knowledge consideration,
49:05
Speaker 1: she passes away. What happens to the baby, we don't know.
49:10
Speaker 1: There's like no enfoll specifically on that, but chances are
49:16
Speaker 1: not great. And after this woman dies, Townsend, I mean,
49:21
Speaker 1: he continues spying, but he's not there anymore, the light
49:25
Speaker 1: behind his eyes gone. All we know is that, compared
49:30
Speaker 1: to everyone else in the spir ring, Robert Townsend specifically
49:34
Speaker 1: was incredibly close to the women who died on the ship.
49:37
Speaker 1: What their connection was we don't know, but he was
49:41
Speaker 1: very very close to her, and like the Townshend's actually
49:45
Speaker 1: like if everybody else, like it's an occupied territory, and
49:49
Speaker 1: so there are enemy soldiers like being held in your
49:54
Speaker 1: home like you're hosting them. It's a thing. And the Townshends,
49:59
Speaker 1: like everyone else, Yes, they had enemy soldiers in their
50:03
Speaker 1: home too, So perhaps someone in his household was sharing information.
50:09
Speaker 1: And like the funniest thing as well, is like Robert Townsend,
50:13
Speaker 1: they he never tells George Washington his real name. He
50:16
Speaker 1: is like the most super secretive out of the spies.
50:20
Speaker 1: He's like the most spyy out of all the spies,
50:23
Speaker 1: and so he just doesn't share that information. And like
50:27
Speaker 1: we don't even find out that he's part of like
50:28
Speaker 1: the spir Ring for like so long after it happened.
50:33
Speaker 1: But yeah, he was more connected to this woman. But
50:35
Speaker 1: was she three five five maybe? And like at this point,
50:41
Speaker 1: you know, after this, you know roundup and these deaths
50:44
Speaker 1: and whatnot, the informant stops informing. There is one final
50:53
Speaker 1: theory though, of agent three five five, and that is
50:58
Speaker 1: of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a teenage formally enslaved women. Now
51:07
Speaker 1: I think about it, if you are a person of
51:10
Speaker 1: this era, like and you think women aren't worth your
51:14
Speaker 1: time or your consideration, imagine what an enslaved person would
51:19
Speaker 1: be like. You wouldn't really consider them a lot of
51:24
Speaker 1: the time, even existing like part of the furniture, like
51:29
Speaker 1: they could move through and be your serve and collect
51:32
Speaker 1: the information, and they wouldn't bad an eye like they
51:35
Speaker 1: probably thought they weren't smart enough to even do that,
51:39
Speaker 1: like many other enslaved and formally enslaved people. Elizabeth again,
51:45
Speaker 1: who's like seventeen at this point, she is made to
51:49
Speaker 1: serve sort of soldiers, infantrymen, you know, British royalists, and
51:56
Speaker 1: of course being a woman of color, like she's got
52:00
Speaker 1: two strikes against her in the eyes of these dudes,
52:04
Speaker 1: so they're not really considering her a threat or an issue.
52:09
Speaker 1: And so they would talk quite openly about their plans
52:12
Speaker 1: in front of people of color, and probably more so
52:16
Speaker 1: in front of women of color. And so there are
52:19
Speaker 1: letters that suggest that one of the servants of the
52:22
Speaker 1: household happened to pass on information about Major Andre going
52:25
Speaker 1: to West Point expecting never to return, and considering a
52:31
Speaker 1: lot of the servants in the households at the time,
52:33
Speaker 1: where women of color, one of whom being Elizabeth. Nothing
52:40
Speaker 1: to stop her passing on that info is there. See,
52:43
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was enslaved originally, and she was owned hate saying
52:50
Speaker 1: that by this colonel who ends up giving her permission
52:54
Speaker 1: to leave. And they're like, what's happened to Liz, And
52:59
Speaker 1: they're like, it's found. Don't worry about it. Like she's gone,
53:03
Speaker 1: don't expect to find her again. So off she goes,
53:06
Speaker 1: and she ends up working in the Townshend's house. And
53:10
Speaker 1: so when she's there, I mean there's army officers going
53:14
Speaker 1: in and out, so her collecting information isn't weird. And
53:20
Speaker 1: Robert Townsend purchases and I quote a wench, which was
53:25
Speaker 1: a term which was used to degrade women of color
53:29
Speaker 1: back in the days, and I we like to see
53:31
Speaker 1: like tavern wench and YadA, YadA, YadA, it's it's a
53:36
Speaker 1: racism thing. It's a sexism then racism thing as soon
53:39
Speaker 1: as it crossed the pond. I know, why are we surprised?
53:43
Speaker 1: And so Elizabeth is enslaved by the Townsends and then
53:51
Speaker 1: when the British leave, so does Elizabeth. But there aren't
53:56
Speaker 1: any like notifications or reports of any runway way slaves.
54:01
Speaker 1: It's just she's not there, but Elizabeth's name like shows
54:07
Speaker 1: up like over and over again in the log books
54:10
Speaker 1: of Robert Townsend's store. And Elizabeth is pregnant, right, and
54:17
Speaker 1: so she asks Robert to buy her back, which he does.
54:22
Speaker 1: Was he the father was someone else? The father doesn't matter?
54:25
Speaker 1: He you know. He gets her and she goes to
54:28
Speaker 1: live in his apartment. And after this, she gives birth
54:32
Speaker 1: to a biracial boy, a light skinned child named Harry.
54:39
Speaker 1: Robert then sells Elizabeth onto this widow like her, and
54:42
Speaker 1: Harry gets sold to this widow under the condition they
54:46
Speaker 1: cannot be sold on to anyone else, but they can
54:50
Speaker 1: be sold back to Robert Townsend. But there's a twist
54:53
Speaker 1: in the tail because the widow remarries and her new
54:55
Speaker 1: husband sells Elizabeth, not Harry sells Elizabeth. And when Robert
55:00
Speaker 1: Townsend finds out, he is livid and he goes to
55:04
Speaker 1: get her back, and he does, and he smuggles her
55:10
Speaker 1: back in to New York. And when Elizabeth returns to
55:13
Speaker 1: New York, she does not do so as an enslaved person.
55:18
Speaker 1: She does so as a free woman. And it's at
55:21
Speaker 1: this point that she becomes a servant, and as such,
55:26
Speaker 1: as in the perfect position to be Agent three five five?
55:31
Speaker 1: Like how perfect would that be? Someone who was enslaved,
55:36
Speaker 1: someone who had to fight for their freedom, who then
55:38
Speaker 1: helps another country fight for their freedom. Isn't that amazing?
55:42
Speaker 1: Aren't women just amazing? But could she really have been
55:47
Speaker 1: Agent three five five? Would would Hull have referred to
55:51
Speaker 1: her as lady? Maybe? Maybe not? Like who knows how
55:54
Speaker 1: progressive he was? But three five five? Was that Elizabeth?
56:02
Speaker 1: Was it lydia Anna Strong or even the women on
56:07
Speaker 1: the ship, and like all of the efforts of all
56:12
Speaker 1: of the women like during this time, there's probably more,
56:15
Speaker 1: of course is more, because like women make up half
56:17
Speaker 1: the population and you're telling me they didn't do shit, pft, nonsense,
56:21
Speaker 1: boulder dash. But yes, we don't write down history, Like
56:30
Speaker 1: if it's about a man, the every man, it's it's history.
56:33
Speaker 1: If it's about the every woman, it's gender studies in it.
56:39
Speaker 1: But who was Agent three five five? Wherever she was?
56:43
Speaker 1: Good fucking luck to her, And I'll raise a glass
56:46
Speaker 1: in her name tonight, And so when's her story of
56:50
Speaker 1: Agent three five five? If you liked my little rambling retailing,
56:56
Speaker 1: feel free to wait and review five stars if it's
56:58
Speaker 1: not five stars. Shit about it, say nothing, it's fine,
57:01
Speaker 1: just don't just don't bother recommendation time because I haven't
57:06
Speaker 1: done a recommendation in a while. We have what do
57:10
Speaker 1: we have? We have reading widow Land. Read widow Land.
57:16
Speaker 1: It's it's it's an interesting one. Just go for it.
57:20
Speaker 1: For watching Agatha all along, I'm sorry it's on. I
57:24
Speaker 1: really I really enjoyed it. Like the second time I
57:28
Speaker 1: watched it, I enjoyed it more or only two episodes in,
57:31
Speaker 1: but like the second time really hits you. And for listening,
57:36
Speaker 1: listen to me, now, listen to you know what. Listen
57:39
Speaker 1: to the for Love for the Love of History podcast
57:42
Speaker 1: TK is amazing. She's so lovely and she gives a
57:45
Speaker 1: little fun interest and stuff. Anyway, this was supposed to
57:50
Speaker 1: be a bittisode, but it was supposed to be a
57:53
Speaker 1: little fun padding. But my hands were my hands. We're
58:00
Speaker 1: something I forget in the words, it's too late. It's
58:02
Speaker 1: like shed it's two a m okay. I am going
58:05
Speaker 1: to wish you good night. Arios au Revoir of whiz
58:09
Speaker 1: Am My Friend, Bye Bye,