Episode Details

Joseph Ellis, Part Two: Ellis covers the war's transition into a global conflict focused heavily on the Caribbean sugar islands. He examines Britain's Southern Strategy, the "dirty war" that devastated the Iroquois confederation, and Cornwallis's entrapment at Yorktown due to French naval intervention. Highlighting crucial post-war moments, Ellis covers Washington's rejection of a military dictatorship at Newburgh, John Jay's "rogue diplomacy" securing the Mississippi border, and financier Robert Morris personally funding soldiers' checks. The discussion ends with the weak Confederation's tragic failure to protect Native American rights or set slavery on a path to extinction. (2)