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A Prank Led to America’s First Nominated Female to Office, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 13, 2019 33 min

6. The Turn to Treason

Peggy Shippen. National Endowment for the Humanities

In 1777, Benedict Arnold performed brilliantly in thwarting the British advance into upstate New York. He was instrumental in bringing about its defeat, which culminated in the British surrender at Saratoga, where Arnold fought courageously and was severely injured.

Crippled by his wounds, Arnold was put in charge of Philadelphia, where he took to socializing with loyalist families, as well as extravagant living, which he financed with questionable dealings that led to scandal. He also married a much younger woman, Peggy Shippen, who combined loyalist sympathies with spendthrift habits that soon put Arnold deep in debt. Between resentments and financial difficulties, he secretly approached the British to offer his services.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.