Episode Details

In July 1776, Caesar Rodney rode 70 miles through a thunderstorm to break Delaware's deadlock on the Lee Resolution for independence, arriving in Philadelphia in his boots and spurs. This episode looks past the legendary ride to the full man: a wealthy, witty bachelor from the 849-acre Byfield plantation in Kent County who broke with his own class to side with the pro-independence Country Party.

We cover how his vote cost him his seat at home, how he led Delaware's militia and served as state president through invasion, the Black Camp Rebellion, and his struggle with facial cancer hidden beneath a green scarf. We also examine his legacy as an enslaver of 18 people and the 2020 removal of his Wilmington statue.

• How the colonial office of sheriff gave Rodney control over elections and county tax rates
• His long rivalry with George Read and alliance with Thomas McKean
• Why the Continental Congress voted by colony and how one delegate could tip Delaware
• Governing a collapsing state with almost no legal authority during the Revolutionary War
• The unmarked grave at Byfield, the Delaware quarter, and the statue's 2026 move to Freedom Plaza