Bibliograph

Treacherous beauty, Peggy Shippen, the woman behind Benedict Arnold's plot to betray America, Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case

Type

Label

Treacherous beauty, Peggy Shippen, the woman behind Benedict Arnold's plot to betray America, Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 260-270) and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Treacherous beauty

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

756578890

Responsibility statement

Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case

Sub title

Peggy Shippen, the woman behind Benedict Arnold's plot to betray America

Summary

Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now, more than two centuries later, comes the first biography of one of the war's most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society girl named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold. After the conspiracy was exposed, Peggy managed to convince powerful men like Washington and Alexander Hamilton of her innocence. The Founding Fathers were handicapped by the common view that women lacked the sophistication for politics or warfare, much less treason. And Peggy took full advantage. Peggy was to the American Revolution what the fictional Scarlett O'Hara was to the Civil War: a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been arrested, tried, and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background-with a generous British pension in hand. In Treacherous Beauty, Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case tell the true story of Peggy Shippen, a driving force in a conspiracy that came within an eyelash of dooming the American democracy

Table Of Contents

Princess of Philadelphia -- No safe haven -- Enter André -- The Meschianza -- Arnold arrives -- Love and money -- The general's wife -- Spymaster -- The dance of deceit -- The way to West Point -- "The greatest treasure you have" -- Meeting after midnight -- A capture and an escape -- The mad scene -- Pariah of Philadelphia -- The three fates -- "The handsomest woman in England" -- Strangers in America -- Unmanned -- The keepsake -- Epilogue

Classification