- [Announcer] Funding for "Field Trip Visits the American Revolution" is provided by... - [Narrator] Ferris Coin, 199 Wolf Road, since 1930 in Albany.

Numismatist specializing in buying and selling rare coins, paper money, gold and silver bouillon.

For more information, ferriscoin.com.

- The American Revolution had big moments right here in Upstate New York, like Saratoga, Fort Ticonderoga, and the Henry Knox Trail.

Today these historic places are home to your neighborhood Stewart's Shops.

History and ice cream?

Now that's a winning combination.

- [Announcer] And by Marlene Brody, Siena University's McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution, and Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi.

- Welcome to a special edition of "Field Trip" where we'll be visiting the American Revolution.

- That's right, the Capital Region is brimming with historical Revolutionary sites to visit, so many sites, in fact, that we had to make this a special extended episode.

- [Matt] We'll be talking with all sorts of experts to learn about what makes these places unique, historically significant, and worth visiting.

- So much to see, so much to learn.

- [Both] Let's go.

(playful upbeat music) (gentle intriguing music) - [Matt] We began our Revolutionary journey with the trip to the New York State Museum to check out the reconstruction of an exciting, new historical display.

- This is the coolest thing that's happening in Upstate New York right now.

So what we have happening right now, this is the reconstruction of a Revolutionary gunboat.

When the World Trade Center collapsed, they were going through the rubble.

They discovered this Revolutionary gunboat.

This boat made its way to New York State Museum floor where it's gonna be its permanent home.

- My name is Michael Lucas.

I'm the curator of historical archeology at the New York State Museum.

The ship was found under about 22 feet of fill, and that fill was part of expanding the island of Manhattan, so expanding the city out into the Hudson River.

Dr.

Peter Fix and his colleagues who have been doing this research, they were able to determine that by the shape of the ship and some of the artifacts associated with it as well that the most likely identification is an American-made gunboat that was built for the defense of, in this case, probably Philadelphia.

But then there's also a military button for the 52nd Regiment of Foot, which is a British regiment.

How does a British button get onto an American ship?

Their hypothesis is that this ship was actually captured by the British, and that's how it made its way eventually to New York 'cause of course the British occupied New York.

So the first thing that the volunteers are helping out with is to do a final cleaning of the wood.

They're using steamers and brushes to try to get the excess dirt off the ship before it's put into place.

- No matter how many times I brush, there's more dirt.

- Am I doing okay?

- Mm-hm.

- Yep.

- I wasn't asking you, Matt.

(laughs) - Artifacts have many different lives.

We've learned about history through this artifact.

It's a doorway or portal into the past, and now as a museum object, people can come, and the museum staff can program around it.

People can use it hopefully to inspire further discovery.

- Wow.

- [Matt] Nice job, Nicole.

- Thank you.

(laughs) (hands clap) (Nicole laughs) Up next, it's time to take a short walk over to Schuyler Mansion to learn- - Wait a minute.

(record scratching) Isn't that where Alexander Hamilton got married?

- [Nicole] Yes, Matt, but also so much more.

Let's go.

- Welcome to Schuyler Mansion.

This is the home of Revolutionary War Major General Philip J. Schuyler and his wife Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler.

I think it's fascinating to think about Schuyler Mansion as a witness to the history that changed so dramatically in the 18th century.

When this was built, of course, the English government was in charge here, and Philip Schuyler was a very good English citizen.

He felt that somehow we could come to terms with the mother country, but of course, that's not the way it turned out.

Schuyler was a leading general, and then after the war, he's now got a son-in-law, who's Alexander Hamilton, and they worked together in this house to really form the new nation.

We learned the most about the Schuylers and the family through their letters.

There are thousands really, and many of them have been digitized.

- [Nicole] We were amazed by the penmanship of these letters on display.

- [Matt] So with a quill in hand, we wanted to take our own brave attempt at making history inside the Schuyler Mansion.

- And here we have quills that have been prepared for writing.

And if you can see like sideways, it's been cut to make a point, and then there's a little slit up the middle.

- Oh my gosh, so can you give us a demonstration on how we write with these quills?

- Sure, you wipe off the excess.

- Okay.

- [Demonstrator] And it takes a very light hand.

A lot of people, they're tempted to jam it, and then the split will release its ink.

It will fly all over the place.

- Very light.

- Very light hand.

- Do you think we can try?

- [Demonstrator] Yeah, absolutely.

- Okay, what should I write?

- [Demonstrator] You can write your name.

- [Matt] Yeah, write your name.

(elegant classical music) - Nicole, that's really good.

- Ta-da.

- And you never wrote before with a quill, huh?

- No.

- You're an expert here already.

- Thank you.

- Dip it in the ink.

Go like that.

Draw on the paper.

Here we go.

(lighthearted music) - Light, light.

- Oh, it did split.

- It's like "Dexter."

There's blood everywhere.

- Gentle.

- It's okay.

Just light touch.

(quill scratching) But perhaps... - Why does it sound like nails on a chalkboard?

(laughs) - [Matt] Okay, let's try that again.

- [Demonstrator] You got this.

- Oh!

- Oh my gosh.

It splattered again.

- I know.

It's hard to- - Oh!

- [Nicole] Don't break the quill.

- Hey.

- Oops.

(Matt and Nicole laugh) - [Matt] Look at that left-handed Matt.

- Oh.

- Alright.

It's getting better.

- That was bad.

That was bad.

- That was very bad.

- Here at Schuyler Mansion, entertainment was important, and they had an entire room dedicated to that, the saloon.

We know that when they could, they did have entertainments there, both music and dancing.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- What are we doing here today?

- I think we're gonna do some lovely English country dancing to beautiful music.

- Wow.

- Thank you.

- I feel a little underdressed.

Do you think we should change?

- I think so.

- All right, let's go.

- Okay.

- We'll be right back.

Hi.

- Welcome back.

- We're back.

- You look fabulous.

Oh my gosh.

- Thank you very much.

- So you ready for a little dancing?

- We are.

- Yes.

- Shall we start with stepping to our right and honoring each other?

So you step to your right and honor, and step to your left and honor.

Yes, like that.

How about we do our back-to-back?

So we're gonna pass the person across from us by our right shoulder, and then we'll move a little to our right and walk backwards passing carefully.

That was it.

- Okay.

- And now let's take right hands with the person across from us, and we'll balance towards each other.

- Balance.

- And trade sides.

- And trade sides.

- And then left-hand balance.

- Balance.

- And trade sides.

- And trade sides.

Whoo-hoo!

- Oh, yes, flip under.

(elegant music) (elegant music continues) (elegant music continues) Beautiful.

- Whoo!

(Nicole and Matt laugh) - That was great.

(participants applauding) - After changing back into something more comfortable, we came across our friend Cordell, who was able to share with us some under-told local history of the time.

- Good to see you.

I was just here, you know, taking a look at some of our signage.

There are so many stories here that are beyond the Schuyler family that we really started to tell now, looking at the enslaved community as a whole and also individuals.

You know, they had their own hopes.

They had their own motivations.

While this war is raging, while the colonists are fighting for their own freedom, their own ability to manifest whatever world they want to see for themselves, they're taking all of those resources from enslaved people.

- Yeah, there's so many stories that you don't really hear about in textbooks.

Do you have any other sites that we can visit that tell more stories like this?

- First comes to mind is Johnson Hall.

We should really check that out.

- I'd love to.

Let's go.

- Let's go.

- Yeah.

(gentle music) - So we're here at the Block House.

This is a structure adjacent to the main mansion, and it was used primarily as an area to cook.

Here at the hearth, the enslaved community was responsible for the cooking.

We're here on, you know, a warm day.

Can you imagine if there was a roaring fire going on, and you were cooking in here all day?

Can you imagine this level of labor being the centerpiece of your life and what you might be willing to do or risk to escape that?

For an enslaved person, this is not about loyalty to a particular nation or a country.

It is about a pathway to freedom.

They have the same individual motivations as many of the people involved in the war that are fighting.

They are fighting only for their personal freedom, not for freedom of country.

There's another site in our system that tells the story of the enslaved community.

So I think we should go and check out Clermont State Historic Site.

- Oh, that sounds great.

Yeah, let's go.

- Cool, let's go.

We're at Clermont State Historic Site, the home of the Livingston family.

Robert Livingston is a man of power and wealth.

So he's one of the Founding Fathers.

He's one of the crafters of the Declaration of Independence.

When you look around this incredible estate, how did they maintain this?

What were the economic drivers that made this possible?

It comes down to slavery as an institution being that economic driver.

1827 is the end of legalized slavery in New York.

There's an early version of that legislation that Chancellor Livingston vetoes because it has a stipulation that says Black people will never have the right to vote, and they'll never be able to hold office.

He fears the creation of a permanent underclass, free but not really free.

The later legislation which does pass does not have that stipulation.

- So there's that conflict within him 'cause here he vetoed that legislation thinking of the future, yet... - And you see this contradiction with a number of the Founding Fathers.

Even as they are trying to win a war for their own independence, they still seek to continue the institution of slavery.

So they see this moral contradiction, and that's reflected in writings and in correspondence that many of them have, but they cannot let go of something that is generating so much wealth for them.

- There's all of these different shadings and complexities of all these histories that you don't really learn about.

You learn sides of, you know, this side, that side, but it's all so interwoven throughout history.

- It's completely interwoven.

It's the whole point of focusing on our whole history, and we're always looking to expand the story, not to replace any parts of the story.

- Thank you, Cordell, for taking us around today and sharing these stories with us.

- You're most welcome.

Thanks for coming.

- [Matt] After Cordell dropped us back to Schuyler Mansion, we decided to utilize our new writing skills and come up with our next destination.

Dear Nicole, it has been so interesting spending time here at the Philip Schuyler House.

What a complicated man.

One thing's for sure, he definitely had better handwriting than me, LOL.

- [Nicole] Dearest Matthew, yes, I agree.

This is fascinating.

I wish we could go back in time and see what it was really like.

Hey, I got an idea.

Let's trace his footsteps up to Fort Ticonderoga.

- [Matt] OMG, Nicole, fabulous idea.

Let's head up to Fort Ticonderoga and learn about what life was like back in the day.

I also heard that they have food up there, and I'm quite famished, LOL.

- I'll notify the fort, or our boss, that we will be leaving immediately.

Be sure to bring your sunscreen, SPF 50 or higher.

TTYL.

(elegant music) Oh.

- You ready?

- Ready.

- Let's go.

- Okay.

(enchanting music) (marching music) - [Matt] We arrived at Fort Ticonderoga eager to learn about how it was a significant location in the war and what it was like to live there back in the day.

- Here at Fort Ticonderoga, many of the moments that shaped the course of our Revolutionary War, they happened right here.

Philip Schuyler as commander of the Northern Department of the Continental Army, he brought his headquarters right here at Ticonderoga.

You know, Americans are hopping onto boats to go down Lake Champlain to try to drive British troops out of Canada.

This is kind of the bridge to the front lines.

- [Nicole] For Ticonderoga is a great place to visit because they employ the use of something called living history.

- Living history is a really powerful tool.

Our public history team are those people that dress in period clothes, and they interpret to the public about what they're wearing, what they're doing, all of the actions that somebody in the past would've done but with the ability to talk with you the visitor about it.

You can see how the world of the past physically covers your body and works with leather and wool and wood and iron and all these different materials in ways that are incredibly powerful.

- [Nicole] With the help of both the living history staff and the archives department, we decided to immerse ourselves in this period of history.

First, by changing into period-appropriate attire, then getting to work helping around the fort.

- [Matt] Up first, boat making.

- Hello.

- Hi.

- Hi.

How are you doing?

- Good.

What's going on here?

- We're building a bateau.

- Bateau?

- Yeah.

So bateau is just French for a boat.

Bateau plat means flat-bottomed boat.

So that's what we're building right here.

- Oh yeah.

- Looks flat.

- Yep, pretty flat on the bottom, and then here I am just marking out one of the framing pieces that you see right here as well too.

- Well, gee, is there anything we can help you with?

- Yeah, I got a couple of different projects actually.

So one of them is actually with the carpentry, so you can help out with that.

- Matt and Nicole, they are working on our bateau.

Bateau were the ubiquitous boats for carrying soldiers and supplies all around not only Lake Champlain, but also the Hudson River, all the way to the Schuyler Mansion.

These would've been a fixture of not only military life, but really daily life in a way that's not dissimilar from how, you know, just about everyone's familiar with automobiles today.

(saw humming) - So they're building boats, and they're in outfits, in a vest and a coat?

- Yeah, exactly.

My coat's over there right now.

- Why?

- I'm not wearing it, but, yeah, you'd be trained how to do this as a carpenter.

There's about three different things you need to learn, carpentry, rigging, and then also sail making as well too.

It's a little bit difficult for carpentry, So we can go over to sail making.

Might suit you a little bit better with that.

With sail making, to protect your entire hand, you're going to be using something called a sailor's palm.

So the sailor's palm is entirely made out of leather, and then it has this brass piece in the middle.

So you'd put that on your dominant hand.

Mine's the right.

You'd take it, and you see how that needle's going to be in that brass piece?

- Oh.

- So it's a little bit weird.

You're gonna take that and then push, and you're gonna let that sailmaker's palm do all the work.

So the only thing you have to do is pull it.

- [Matt] Now's my time to shine.

Watch out.

- Yeah.

- Okay, where do I go?

- Yep, so in right there.

- Oh.

- And then tilt it up.

- [Nicole] Oh boy.

- See how hard it is with just your fingers?

- You got it.

- Just don't pull towards me.

(laughs) Oh, Matt.

(laughs) - [Matt] There, there, there.

- [Demonstrator] Oh, you got it.

- You made that look nice and easy.

- [Matt] After proving ourselves master craftsmen, we took a stroll around the gardens to see if we could harvest anything worth making a meal out of.

- [Nicole] Hi, Stu, what you doing?

- Oh, hey guys.

I am weeding our soldiers' garden patch right here.

- Wow, this is great.

You got a lot of stuff growing.

Can we help you at all or?

- Yeah, and in fact, I've actually got some vegetables here, which we can use for the greens that will accompany our dinner later on.

- Ooh.

- Oh, that sounds perfect.

- Come on in.

(Nicole laughs) Yeah, you got it.

- Okay, got it.

- This is some radishes, which pops up on a lot of 18th-century seed lists.

We've got a couple here that are really big.

We should probably go ahead and pull them.

So if you wanna come on over, go ahead and gently pull it on out so we get all of it.

Yeah, exactly right.

- [Nicole] There's a real radish.

- Gardening, though it seems counterintuitive, was part of military life pretty much anywhere in the Atlantic world.

The British, as soon as they had captured this place from the French, they brought in a whole host of seeds, things like cabbages and onions and carrots, as fresh produce was so highly prized for the nutrition of soldiers.

- [Nicole] Now that we've picked some tasty real vegetables, it's time to help Stu start a fire and then get cooking.

- So we're gonna go ahead and make the sauce, and the sauce was any kind of greens that accompanied meat back then.

And this is what we harvested down below in the garden.

I cleaned it up, took the root stuff off.

So now what I'm gonna need one or both of you to do, we're just gonna cut everything up into really small pieces.

- [Matt] These are so fresh.

- Yeah.

- Fragrant.

(lighthearted music) (knife chopping) - Whoa.

- [Matt] Geeze, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay.

- Once we have a bed of coals, we put our pots and our frying pan, and we carefully watch for not only the sound, but the smell, for any kind of boiling or burning.

And we very carefully move things around so that we can get things to cook through exactly how we want them to do so.

Go ahead and stir those greens a little bit.

I wanna make sure that they all get a chance to kind of brown against the bottom.

There we go.

(utensil clanking) - [Matt] It's beginning to smell really nice.

- Yeah, you can smell those onions starting to cook down.

I'm also getting a little bit of the radish greens there, that kind of green note on it.

- Very aromatic.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I think the sauce is done.

(food sizzling) And our beef is done too.

Let's go ahead and plate this stuff up and try it.

- Okay.

Oh, that's exciting.

(lighthearted music) - [Stuart] Go ahead and do a taste test.

- Okay, now would we eat it in one bite, or how much do you- - Well.

Yeah, I mean, what you could do, so usually back then, they actually ate with the flat part of the knife blade.

- Oh, wow.

- Just put a morsel on there.

And then if you want to get the full effect, take a little bit of your sauce and add it on there and make it into one bite just like that.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Cheers.

Mm, mm-hm.

- Yeah?

- Mm-hm.

- Delicious.

- Nice.

- The salt level is on point.

- Oh!

- [Stuart] Beautiful.

- Perfect.

- [Stuart] Thank you guys for making this.

This is an awesome dinner.

- You're welcome.

Anything we can do for you.

- [Stuart] Absolutely!

- [Nicole] After making sure Stu was fed, our bellies are full, and we're ready to head to Saratoga.

(upbeat marching music) - We're here at Saratoga National Historical Park, and behind me, we can actually see parts of the battlefield where the battles of Saratoga took place.

Both army camps were here within the boundaries of the park.

The tree lines that you see, the open spaces, those are very close to what you would've seen if you were here in October of 1777 for the second battle.

So as you go around the battlefield, you really can experience and feel the conditions the men and women with both armies would've experienced.

- [Matt] After our arrival, we were thrilled to meet up with Park Ranger Eric to learn more about one of the battlefield's unique landmarks.

- Welcome to the Neilson House.

The Neilson House is the only original structure that still is here from the time of the battles of Saratoga.

You can even look through this doorway over here and check out the interior to see what it would've looked like at the time of the battles of Saratoga.

- [Matt] Wow.

- Basically what happened was John and Lydia Neilson had this house.

It was built about 1775, and in August of 1777, they have been informed that a massive British army is coming out of Canada trying to capture Albany.

So we know that the family packed up their oxcart, and they trucked out of here.

Now, a couple weeks later, the American army arrived onto this high ground a week before the first battle of Saratoga was fought.

This house was, of course, abandoned, and it made it a perfect setting for some officers to move in.

- When visitors like us come here, and we see this site, what do you want us to feel?

What's your hope that we take away from this?

- Well, you know, it's, I think in my opinion, great to reflect upon the past, to be in the places where historical events occurred.

Maybe you can imagine being one of those soldiers in the ranks, having to, you know, leave your home from another state fighting for the American cause.

I think it's important to remember that, and it's important to remember how this nation began, where this nation came from.

And it's the acts of generals and just common soldiers that made it all happen.

- [Matt] After spending the day taking it all in, we were surprised by the appearance of some Revolutionary visitors.

(fife and drum marching music) Is this real?

Hi.

- [Nicole] Ah!

(Matt laughs) Whoo!

(Matt and Nicole clapping) Oh, that was so good.

- Wow, that was so cool.

- Oh my gosh, hello.

- Hi.

- Hi, everybody.

I'm Nicole.

This is Matt.

What are you doing here?

- Well, we are here to perform.

We are the Village Volunteers Fife and Drum Corps.

We are from Delmar, New York.

We were formed in 1956.

- Wow.

- Wow.

- And we play fifes and drums for fun.

- Do you think there's a chance that I could try to learn how to play?

- Me too.

- And Matt.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Sue, would you like to give a lesson?

- Absolutely.

So if you've ever had a soda bottle or a pop bottle, and you just kind of blow into it and make fun sounds, that's really what you're doing.

(flute blowing) So you're gonna blow straight down.

And your fingers are just like they were when you were playing the recorder in fourth grade.

- Okay.

- Okay, you just need these three fingers.

(simple fife music) - That's so wild.

- You wanna try it?

- Yes.

- All right.

- All right, Matt, you got this.

(lighthearted music) (Matt blowing and laughing) - It's not working.

(Matt continues blowing) - [Nicole] You're not quite over it yet.

- Well, I gotta get... (blowing) - [Nicole] I don't think that's your problem.

- It's not working.

- That's okay.

That's all right.

- Do it, Nicole.

(Nicole blowing) (Nicole continues blowing) (Matt laughs) - [Matt] We are not good.

- [Nicole] Wow, that's harder than it looked.

- Yeah.

- And you didn't get to practice though.

- Right.

- No.

- It did make me a little lightheaded though.

- We're so glad we were able to end things on a high note.

(upbeat music) What a day.

We made some food, some friends, and many memories, all while learning from passionate stewards of our American history.

So, as always... Thank you for joining us on this special episode of "Field Trip."

- Make sure you get out and visit some of these historic places right here in your own backyard.

- And don't forget, let us know where you think... - [Both] We should go next.

- How is your ribcage?

- Pretty good.

Yeah, how are you doing?

- Good, I'm gonna need to borrow one soon, so.

- Are you gonna do any operatic singing?

- No, just burping.

- (laughs) Just burping.

Hi, Matt.

- Hello.

Welcome.

- Hi.

I am so... (Nicole vocalizes) (Matt R. and Matt K. laugh) So much to see, so much to learn.

- Let's go.

(Matt and Nicole laugh) - [Announcer] Funding for "Field Trip Visits the American Revolution" is provided by... - [Announcer] Ferris Coin and Jewelry, 199 Wolf Road, Albany.

Since 1930 buying sterling silver and silver-plated sets, vintage watches, gold and platinum jewelry.

For more information, ferriscoin.com.

- The American Revolution had big moments right here in Upstate New York, like Saratoga, Fort Ticonderoga, and the Henry Knox Trail.

Today these historic places are home to your neighborhood Stewart's Shops.

History and ice cream?

Now that's a winning combination.

- [Announcer] And by Marlene Brody, Siena University's McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution, and Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi.