The Late Years of Benedict Arnold: Fugitive, Smuggler, Mercenary, 1780-1801
McFarland (September 10, 2021)
Paperback: 222 pages
ISBN-13: 9781476676531
The life of Benedict Arnold, the American Revolutionary War general who attempted to surrender West Point to the British in 1780, didn't end after he betrayed his American compatriots. In the newly formed United States of America, he was condemned as a conspirator and in Britain, he was suspected of the same. He quickly left America, spent a short time in London, and largely operated in Canada and the Caribbean, where he became a smuggler, a mercenary and a pariah. Although much has been written about Arnold's famous fall from grace, this book is the story of a charismatic man of vaulting ambition. With new research and photographs, it delves into his last twenty years. Arnold remains an object of fascination as a toppled hero and a flagrant traitor. Another American general wrote in the 1780s that Arnold "never does anything by halves." Indeed, he lived on a big scale. This study documents each of the various points of the globe where the restless Arnold operated and lived, pursuing wealth, status, and redemption.