Summary of Stephen Brumwell's Turncoat

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Benedict Arnold’s ancestors had been prominent in the early days of New England. His father, for example, had been a governor of Rhode Island. His family had connections with the Caribbean, exporting barrel staves, timber, and pork in exchange for their slave-produced staples of molasses and rum.

#2 Benedict Arnold’s early life is undocumented, but enough information exists to identify the formative experiences that shaped his character. He was a fearless and determined boy who loved to prank others and the local wildlife.

#3 When Benedict Arnold signed his articles of indenture in 1755, Britain and her North American colonies were engaged in a long-running conflict with France. Francophobia was widespread in the Anglo-American colonies, and Arnold grew up in an environment where Frenchmen were the enemy.

#4 The Lathrop brothers allowed Benedict Arnold to complete his apprenticeship, and they began to employ him to represent their business interests on trading trips. They would not have entrusted their hard-earned professional reputation to an irresponsible runaway.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822534070

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Stephen Brumwell's Turncoat

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Benedict Arnold’s ancestors had been prominent in the early days of New England. His father, for example, had been a governor of Rhode Island. His family had connections with the Caribbean, exporting barrel staves, timber, and pork in exchange for their slave-produced staples of molasses and rum.

#2

Benedict Arnold’s early life is undocumented, but enough information exists to identify the formative experiences that shaped his character. He was a fearless and determined boy who loved to prank others and the local wildlife.

#3

When Benedict Arnold signed his articles of indenture in 1755, Britain and her North American colonies were engaged in a long-running conflict with France. Francophobia was widespread in the Anglo-American colonies, and Arnold grew up in an environment where Frenchmen were the enemy.

#4

The Lathrop brothers allowed Benedict Arnold to complete his apprenticeship, and they began to employ him to represent their business interests on trading trips. They would not have entrusted their hard-earned professional reputation to an irresponsible runaway.

#5

Arnold’s business career began in 1763, when Britain’s efforts to clear war debts and administer expanded territories prompted a program of tax legislation for the American colonies that angered their inhabitants.

#6

Arnold’s apothecary business thrived, and he began trading in horses with the Dutch settlements toward the head of the Hudson River. He then moved northward into Canada, where he sold woolen goods and cheese, and bought horses to be shipped to the Caribbean.

#7

Arnold was a successful merchant who had a lot of ambition. He was also a Mason, which was a British import at the time, but it offered an alternative to conventional Christianity.

#8

Arnold’s marriage to Margaret Peggy Mansfield on February 22, 1767, was no shotgun wedding: the first of three sons, Benedict, was born on Valentine’s Day 1768. Dueling was becoming more common in America during the Revolutionary War, and it gave a deadly edge to political life.

#9

Arnold’s readiness to resort to less formal violence is documented in an incident that highlights the tensions resulting from British efforts to tighten up the regulation of colonial trade after 1763.

#10

Arnold’s trading expeditions were lengthy and often distant from the centers of opposition to British policy, but he followed the dispute between Crown and colonies with interest. He was especially upset by the Boston Massacre, which he heard about through the grapevine in 1770.

#11

Arnold was still waiting for his money, and was worried about the rumors that were circulating about him in New Haven. He was concerned about the education of his sons, and he was afraid that if he died, his family would be left alone.

#12

Arnold’s driving ambition ensured his survival in a precarious and competitive environment, but it left seething hostility in its wake. His creditors accused him of cheating them, and he had to clear half his debt with Lintot in 1770.

#13

Arnold was successful enough to cement his status by constructing a two-story, white-boarded mansion on Water Street in New Haven in 1771. He also owned storehouses and wharves, and was considered a merchant of property by early 1780 when the Continental Army Major-General Arnold looked back at his pre-war years.

#14

Arnold was a Patriot who had always opposed British legislation. In 1774, the dispute between the colonies and the British government had escalated to a point where civil war looked inevitable.

#15

Around midday on Friday, April 21, news reached New Haven of bloody clashes between British troops