SPEAKER_02: Hey, beautiful nerds, it's Roman Mars here to tell you about a podcast that you might enjoy if you appreciate overlooked details like we discuss here at 99% Invisible.In this case, the overlooked details are actually humans.The podcast is called Significant Others, and it tells stories of folks just beyond the spotlight of history.Each episode tells the story of a talented, difficult, and little-known individual who altered the destiny of their better-known partner, child, sibling, friend, and impacted the world that they left behind. The first episode covers a name I bet you haven't heard before, Peggy Shippen, but I am sure you've heard of her husband, Benedict Arnold.Here's a snippet of the episode that explores how Benedict Arnold may have never turned on his country and made his own name synonymous with treason, were it not for Peggy.
SPEAKER_00: The scene in Philadelphia when Arnold arrived was bleak.Citizens were starving, whole neighborhoods were burned, horses lay dead in their traces, churches were stripped of their pews and pulpits, and gravestones had been overturned. Independence Hall was bare, and Washington Square was filled with 2,000 American corpses.The only part of town that appeared untouched by the British Army's occupation was the one square mile of homes and shops where the wealthy folk lived.In other words, Peggy Shippen's neighborhood. Benedict Arnold was brave, brilliant, and had a tin ear for PR.He was constantly doing things that rubbed people the wrong way, like the time he accused his commanding officer of demoting him out of jealousy. In this charged moment when political ideology was getting people killed, and even trying to stay out of the fight could get you into trouble, he didn't worry about public opinion.He moved right into the same mansion the British general had just vacated and picked up where Howe and his officers had left off, with the socializing and the theater going and the special favors for loyalist friends.He even had the same taste in women.
It would be ideal to tell the story of Arnold's courtship of Peggy Shippen in her voice, but unfortunately that cannot be done.Nearly all of her letters have since been destroyed, either by herself or her family, except for any that might frame her as a patriot.We do know that they first met when Peggy was 14 and the 33-year-old Arnold was on his way through town. He didn't creep on her then, but he was likely impressed, as most everyone was, by not only her beauty and her charm, but her intellect, education, and knowledge of current political events.By the time he came back in 1778, she was 18, and so, fair game. Peggy, in that same moment, was like a freshly crowned homecoming queen whose entire football team has just up and left town.All the guys who had been fawning over her were gone.The vibe was rough.And what could she possibly have had to look forward to? But here comes the commanding, tragically widowed coach of the home team, still limping from the wound he heroically suffered while defending his country.
And it turns out he hosts parties that are just as good as the other guys.And even though he can't dance, he pays a lot of attention to her on the sidelines.Plus, he's being nice to her friends' families, even though they were technically in league with the other side.So, yeah, Peggy was just as happy to be adored by this regime as she had been by the last one. Now, this characterization likely does not capture Peggy as she really was.In fact, according to one friend, there was, quote, nothing of frivolity either in her dress, demeanor, or conduct, end quote.She had a demonstrable interest in and facility for both politics and business.And her father, who was so bookish that he spent his entire dowry on a personal library, let her read everything. Years later, she said she had had the most useful and best education that America at that time afforded. But still, she was a teenage girl, so isn't it possible some of this rings a little bit true?
Within a few months of meeting Peggy Shippen, the 37-year-old Arnold had pledged himself to her.At first, she friend-zoned him.Maybe she learned by watching her father how to keep her options open by refusing to commit.But Arnold found a way to spin her offer of friendship and esteem into something more significant.
SPEAKER_01: Friendship and esteem you acknowledge. Dear Peggy, suffer that heavenly bosom, which cannot know itself the cause of pain without a sympathetic pang, to expand with a sensation more soft or tender than friendship. Friendship and esteem, founded on the merit of the object, is the most certain basis to build a lasting happiness upon.And when there is a tender and ardent passion on one side, and friendship and esteem on the other, the heart, unlike yours, must be callous to every tender sentiment if the taper of love is not lighted up at the flame.Whatever my fate may be, my most ardent wish is for your happiness." and my latest breath will be to implore the blessing of heaven on the idle and only wish of my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Parts of this letter were cribbed almost verbatim from one he had written months earlier to Boston Betsy.Apparently, he kept a copy of every letter he wrote, perhaps to save himself from having to reinvent such wheels.But the bulk of it was new.And while we don't know exactly how Peggy responded to it, she clearly didn't tell him to knock it off.Her father, on the other hand, did. Publicly, Judge Shippen said the problem was Arnold's damaged leg, which he worried would never heal and might therefore limit his ability to earn a living.Privately, he saw Arnold as a nouveau riche usurper.And politically, Arnold was far too incendiary.Biographer Randall writes that when Peggy's father refused Arnold's request to marry her, she proceeded to orchestrate a bit of a coup. She convinced her father she was unsure about Arnold, but told Arnold to keep coming around.
She likely coached him about how to get on her father's good side.When Arnold bought a lavish estate intended as a wedding gift for Peggy, Judge Shippen was likely reassured that his daughter would not be gambling on a future with a maimed, divisive military figure in decline. But Peggy reportedly still had to throw one or two of her famous fits to get her father to finally give in.By 1779, Arnold and Peggy were engaged.But outside the ship and family circle, Arnold was more problematic than ever.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to the rest of the episode to hear Peggy's untold mark on history, and you might even hear a special appearance from yours truly.Head over to Significant Others to listen to the rest of the episode now.
