Episode 9: Heroes or Highwaymen?
Hosted by Molly Bernhard
Release date: February 10, 2022
No one really knows what happened on the morning of September 23, 1780, but the aftermath changed the entire course of the American fight for independence. In this episode, producer Molly Bernhard will be discussing the famous capture of Major John André, a British spy, by a group of Americans in Tarrytown, New York. The subsequent monument that was created to commemorate the event honors and glorifies the captors. Historians likewise argue that André’s arrest saved the fate of the Continental Army and the American cause. We take a deeper dive into the stories of the captors and consider whether or not they were in fact the heroes that subsequent generations have made them out to be.
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About this episode of Monument Biography
About the host:
Molly Bernhard is a Ph.D. student at Temple University specializing in Italian and Northern Renaissance art. Before coming to Temple University, she received her Masters in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies from the University of Edinburgh and has worked at museums and galleries in New York City and Edinburgh. Her current research involves Renaissance paintings, their material culture and their provenance.
About the guests:
Henry Steiner is the Village Historian for Sleepy Hollow, NY.
Want to Learn More about the topics covered in this episode?
Robert E. Cray, “Major John André and the Three Captors: Class Dynamics and Revolutionary Memory Wars in the Early Republic, 1780-1831.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 17, no. 3 (1997), 371–397.
Nathaniel Philbrick, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution. Viking, 2016.
Alexander Rose, Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring. Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks, 2014.
Tarrytown (N.Y.). Monument Committee, and Marcius D. Raymond. Souvenir of the Revolutionary Soldiers' Monument Dedication, At Tarrytown, N.Y. October 19th, 1894.New York: Rogers & Sherwood, 1894.
Music Credits for this episode of Monument Biography:
Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (“Death and the Maiden”) by Borromeo String Quartet