# 451 The Court-Martial That Put The American Revolution on Trial

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ben-franklin-s-world-320219/451-the-court-martial-that-put-the-american-revolution-on-trial.md
Podcast: [Ben Franklin's World](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ben-franklin-s-world-320219)
Published: 2026-09-15T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://benfranklinsworld.com/451
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/52fee974-b62e-4142-847c-eb3710c264ff.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ben-franklin-s-world-320219/episodes/451-the-court-martial-that-put-the-american-revolution-on-trial
Duration seconds: 3910

## Resource

In December 1777, Continental Army Colonel David Henley climbed off his horse to discipline a drunk British prisoner of war who was screaming epithets about Americans and vowing to fight for his king. Henley struck the prisoner, one of 6,000 in his care, with his sword. The wound was minor, but Major General John Burgoyne cited this incident when he accused Henley of plotting to murder British prisoners of war. Burgoyne demanded a formal court-martial. Professor Timothy Breen joins us to examine Henley’s trial with details from his new book, The American Revolution on Trial . Timothy asks a question most grand narratives of the American Revolution skip past: What did it actually feel like, in real towns among real people, to stop being British? What did it mean to be American ? Timothy’s Book Show notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/451 EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:43 The 250th Anniversary and the Limits of Grand Narratives 00:09:31 How Timothy Found the Henley Court-Martial Transcript 00:13:26 Major General John Burgoyne and Aristocratic Privilege 00:23:00 Competing Ideas of Honor During the Revolution 00:29:53 Inside the Cambridge Prisoner of War Camps 00:36:23 The Two Incidents that Led to the Court-Martial 00:45:25 The Verdict and What Happened Next for Henley and Burgoyne 00:48:37 How Early Americans Judged the Revolution and the New Nation 00:53:41 What Happened to the British and German POWs in Cambridge RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES 🎧 Episode 048: Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives During the War for Independence 🎧 Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America 🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West 🎧 Episode 414: Robert Newburgh’s Trials: Queerness & Reputation in Revolutionary America 🎧 Episode 434: The Frank Brothers: Freeborn Bla…

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