Molasses to Rum

[@nightowl5475]

This fellow sings that song with the most intensity and tour de force performance out of all the theater productions. John Cullum gave the song its high standard but this fellow knocked my socks off. I was captivated with his intensity. What a rich, powerful voice. That song needs to be performed with such power otherwise you loose the meaning of it.

[@scottshepard6151]

Lose

[@ChaosX923]

the most intense song in the entire musical

[@aa4285]

Chaos Hog43 “momma look sharp “ is the heartbreaking song

[@billprash3507]

Superb! This man could sing it on Broadway! Kudos!

[@jodycook9191]

Awesome!!!!!! This song HAS to be sung like this!!

[@jacksparrowismydaddy]

this song made me cry as a child....

[@colleen4ever]

The ironic part is that John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife that if they didn't abolish slavery in the Declaration we would go to war over this same issue 100 years from now! Who knew he could predict the future?

[@sosayweall_jpg]

he'd have gone to war for it then, except the colonies didn't have the freedom to self-determine at the time. the battle they picked then and there was to liberate the colonies from England. unfortunately only an idealist could have seen a strategy for declaring independence while also refusing to acquiesce to the demands of several of the colonies delegates. while the movie isn't obviously completely historically accurate, it does speculate on why these men, particularly those who were openly abolitionist, would have allowed for slavery to continue. they had no choice. without that caveat they'd have lost several of the colonies, therefore lost the vote for independence and continued on under british rule for who knows how long, slavery wouldn't have been able to be addressed at all then if Britain's rule was in support of the south's slavery situation.

[@lilliedoubleyou3865]

"1776" is one of my favorite musicals, but golly, I've always hated this song. When I directed my HS production, I asked the theatre teacher if I could tell our Rutledge to not just shout at the delegates for 4 minutes. She was like, 'yeah that's fine,' and our Rutledge, I must say, gave a really provocative performance with a quieter, almost spooky rendition.

[@letolethe3344]

That's bad. It betrays the musical.

[@aa4285]

John Cullum. Still owns this

[@GlitteryDinosRAWRgoogleplus]

Franklin looks so done

[@averyb4081]

HippyHoneyBees I follow you on Tumblr hey

[@GlitteryDinosRAWRgoogleplus]

hi, thanks for following me

[@averyb4081]

HippyHoneyBees yw

[@colleen4ever]

Cause he knew they were.

[@jscho8674]

Wow. I'm really impressed.

[@darvish2012]

That look on Franklin's (third to the left) face at 1:36 is exactly how I think the real Franklin would react to slavery.

[@joesnow7216]

+darvish2012 Franklin was a realist. He may well have detested slavery, but just like is shown in the musical, he knew that slavery was too divisive an issue to be resolved by the first Continental Congress. If the abolitionists had stuck to their guns and demanded slavery be abolished in 1776, the Confederacy would have been born then and there when the southern delegates refused to be a part of the union and walked out. A Confederacy with a 90 year head start would have been much harder to defeat later.

[@letolethe5878]

He was a slave owner, so probably not. "Franklin owned slaves from as early as 1735 until 1781. The Franklin household had six slaves; Peter, his wife Jemima and their son Othello, George, John and King." www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/slavery-abolition-society/

[@aster965]

@@letolethe5878 That doesn't mean he's not opposed to it or despises it. Thomas Jefferson wrote about how terrible slavery was, yet he owned 400 slaves. It was just the thing people did, and they didn't really know how to solve it.

[@scottfree9601]

@@aster965 exactly. People act like slavery is an American sin but in reality we inherited it from Great Britain. It's like the poor children who are born addicted to drugs because of their mothers.

[@toni9890]

@@scottfree9601 Ben Franklin freed his slaves and wrote in his will that of any of his family owned slaves they couldn’t get anything

[@diddymuck]

exceptional voice and perfect pitch. Outdoes all other entries to this song.

[@matthewlivermanne4441]

Such talent. What a voice

[@RosesNightengales]

Chills.

[@fododude]

+Lauren Faerber Damnit. I'm jealous of him.

[@yanivrubin4166]

Great performance

[@Rosenblum18]

Possibly the best performance of this song, anywhere.

[@cuttersboi08]

"Molassees"?! Other that he IS doing a good imitation of John Cullum.

[@diddymuck]

excellent! in every detail. chance for the entire show to be youtubed?

[@zoponex3224]

Fantastic!

[@diddymuck]

excellent mid-baritone

[@andrewmihovich4252]

In. The. ZONE.

[@valerieverdi2730]

Bravo!

[@fododude]

I'm so jealous of Todd.

[@TTony-tu6dm]

Hail Boston! Hail Charleston! Who stinketh the most?

[@fododude]

Well, he who smelteth it, dealteth it.

[@rickbrown9895]

Awesome!!!!!!!! :-)

[@Teebtentoes]

What his his main arguments in the song

[@3017able1]

+xavier patterson that the north is hypocritical in their critiques of slavery. Seeing as they buy and transport them, making the slave trade possible. He also owned two massive plantation so this is partially,expressing his love of purchasing, and the thrill of the auction to him. It's a big middle finger to the north.

[@Teebtentoes]

+sean fleming thanks. That was really helpful

[@Kvindevognen]

This isn't about any love for auctions. Not as if a plantation owner like him (keep in mind, in real life he didn't make a big fuss about the mention in the Declaration) would go to every auction and behave liked an animal when trying to act like a gentleman. The stuff about handling, foundling, and shouting is him doing an impression of Northern seamen eagerly selling slaves before filling a bag with gold and their hold with sugar and tobacco, then starting it all over again.

[@boxman7044]

Hot damn he did that well

[@fododude]

Yeah, he knows he did, damn him.

[@Inari1987]

I guess the performance from the movie ruins this for me but still good

[@Modernwarrior18]

A bit too legato in the beginning but overall an excellent performance!

[@aprilsmith6587]

Not as good as John Cullum was.

[@Zarastro54]

@4:47 ngl he kinda looks like Trump.

[@fododude]

Indeed! You are correct, sir.