Okay, here's the deal. When did people become "that" instead of "who?" I hear this on the radio on the TV ( and shouldn't news reporters know better )? and unless my memory is wrong, have even read it in places. Why? How hard is it to remember that people require a "who"? And here's another--myself instead of me. My boss did this all this time and it drove me crazy. Are we so afraid to be in the spotlight that we have to say, "So-and-so and myself did such-and-so?"
Margaret 'Peggy' Shippen, the second wife of Benedict Arnold--a man whose name would become synonymous with the term 'traitor'--was reportedly also a spy for the British and a force to be reckoned with.
Born in Philadelphia in 1760, Peggy's prominent family were Loyalists (other sources refute this), the people who stood behind George III and the British government when war broke out in the colonies. Peggy met Benedict Arnold when he was military commander of the city. She and Arnold married in 1779. Arnold, feeling underappreciated and underpaid by George Washington, began conspiring with the British to change sides. Peggy, it's been reported, played a major role in convincing her husband to desert the Americans, ask for command and weaken the Fort of West Point, to turn it over to the British.
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According to Aaron Burr (lawyer, politician, and third vice president of the U.S.), Mrs. Arnold, "was disgusted with the American cause" and "through unceasing perseverance, she had ultimately brought the general into an arrangement to surrender West Point."
British documents from 1792 show that Mrs. Arnold was paid £350 for her handling of secret dispatches.
However, the surrendering of the fort was discovered, and she fled with Arnold to England. There, she supposedly received payment from the king for her involvement.She returned to America after the war, in 1789; but in spite of her family's influence she was treated coldly and called a traitor. Arnold died in 1801 leaving Peggy in debt. She died in London in 1804, probably from cancer.
Some say the charges against Peggy aren't true. Joseph Reed, the nominal head of the government (lawyer, military leader, and statesman), resented Arnold's rise to importance and spread ugly rumors about both him and his wife. Reed even called George Washington an incompetent commander. It's hard to know what to believe.
History and Women gave Her Vanquished Land Five Stars: "Diane Scott Lewis has penned a passionate tale about a brave young woman, often in the guise of a lad, who will do anything to save her family and demonstrate her loyalty for the Brits as they lose. It is a novel of loss, of strength, and the love of family. You must read this book! Well done!"
Blurb:
In 1780, Rowena Marsh decodes messages for the British during the American Revolution. When the rebels overrun her home state of Pennsylvania, she flees with her family. Are the people loyal to England welcome anywhere in the burgeoning United States? Rowena struggles with possible defeat and permanent exile, plus her growing love for an enigmatic Welshman who may have little need for affection. Will the war destroy both their lives?
Diane Scott Lewis grew up in California, traveled the world with the navy, edited for magazines and an on-line publisher. She lives with her husband in Western Pennsylvania.
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