A Virginian Double Agent | James Armistead Lafayette, Spy of the Revolution

[@thedizzybusypt]

James Armistead Lafayette was an amazing man. Great job sharing his story. It should be told much more often.

[@rylopuff9598]

LoL do you see his color?? Surprisingly they brought this out.

[@azchick1820]

Outstanding and facinating! I learned so much and enjoyed doing so! Thank you!

[@XericSol]

Framing America as not James' own is very disrespectful of the efforts made, sacrifices made, and grave dangers James Armistead Lafayette endured to establish his nation. I understand that the vision of the Founders wasn't fulfilled until much later of a nation for all people, with liberty and justice for all. Other than a few nitpicks, GREAT VIDEO!

[@littlesleights]

It was never my intention to disparage all the work JAL did to build the nation, as I think the rest of the video represents. More so pointing out that America didn't really consider him one of their own. But I understand the critique and will take my wording into account on my next scripts. Thank you!

[@bryanpeterson9846]

Very well done.

[@XericSol]

Multiple drafts of the Declaration of Independence contained language of the abhorrence of the practice of slavery. Also, it was understood by all the Founders that slavery would eventually end in the United States (this was even spoken of by the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens who then went on to say the Founders were wrong in his opinion).

[@littlesleights]

This is true, and the positions that the founding fathers had on slavery could have been it's own video from what I saw in my research. Some slave owners wanted it abolished while others who didn't own slaves didn't fight for its removal. Very interesting! but intentions only go so far in my opinion when ultimately nothing was put in the final document, and that's why it was included in the video. Thank you.

[@XericSol]

@Huey Hitchens Thank you. I don't know that I would go that far though. I just actually kind of ran into the information while looking for something else, and was so shocked that I had never heard of something so fundamental that I dove down the rabbit hole and did a ton of research and the more I learned, the more I realized how little I actually know. For example, the first non-Native slaver in the U.S. was a black man named Anthony Johnson who petitioned the courts to own a man's labor the rest of his natural life because he paid for the man to get there and when he showed up was expected to work the normal 7 years and then be free, but Anthony basically said he was so lazy that it would take the rest of his life to pay Anthony back for what Anthony had spent for that man's passage to the United States and his food and necessities since! Or one of the manliest men I've ever heard of by the name of Samuel Whittemore, during the opening battles of the Revolutionary War, he fought a British column basically alone, was shot multiple times (by .50 caliber musket balls no less!), beaten, and repeatedly stabbed, the British march on leaving him for dead, and Samuel's neighbors come back to find this stubborn ol' boot leather of a man trying to load his rifle to take another shot at the British! Guy was 80 years old when that happened and lived for another decade! Absolute legend, and I never heard of his story before! I'm just finding out how much of our history has been hidden from us, and I've barely scratched the surface.

[@littlesleights]

Hey everyone, I put this in the description but I'll put it in the comments as well. Many apologies for the sound quality on this video, my original file got corrupted while I was on vacation and then I came back to a broken pop filter 😭 needless to say it wasn't my week as a creator. Hope you enjoy this episode regardless, as James Armistead Lafayette was a fascinating man to read, write, and speak about!