The American Revolution’s fourth episode, “Conquer by a Drawn Game,” covers 1777 to early 1778, a period of highs and lows for both the British and Americans. In September, the British defeated the Americans at Brandywine, stealthily attacked at Paoli, and commenced their occupation of Philadelphia. The Continental Congress, Pennsylvania’s government, and many of the city’s patriot-leaning residents fled in advance of British arrival. In October, the British defeated the Americans again at Germantown, but that same month Americans secured a pivotal victory at Saratoga, which ultimately propelled the war onto the global stage. As 1777 came to a close, the British held Philadelphia, and Washington and his army settled into their winter quarters at Valley Forge.

1777 to 1778 was a crucial moment militarily, but it was also a period of great upheaval for ordinary Americans. Much of the press accompanying The American Revolution’s debut advertised the documentary as one that would tell the story from “the bottom up.”[1] I was particularly interested to see how the series would present civilian experiences and ordinary lives, something I think deeply about in my own research. The series utilized quotes and examples from individuals most general viewers wouldn’t be familiar with, but it often stopped short of providing enough sustained analysis to convey why the example was important or what it could teach viewers about living through the conflict. Take for example, the episode’s brief coverage of Ann Peters. Loyalist John Peters fled to Canada to escape the patriots, leaving Ann behind with six children. The documentary informs viewers that “Patriots seized [John’s] home and evicted his family,” and that Ann “carrying their infant son . . . managed to get everyone all the way to Lake Champlain, where they were spotted by a British boat and carried north to a rendezvous with John.”[2] The audience needed more! What did it mean for Ann or other women to be left behind and then forced to flee?[3] Ann Peters is just one of the documentary’s many frustratingly terse examples. Discussing forced mobility, property confiscation, or the complicated legal and political status of women left behind would have done much to give context to Ann’s life.[4] The series did a better job of portraying the experiences of soldiers or those following the army, but the lives of those on the home front deserved greater attention.

Civilians and households also were omitted from the documentary’s coverage of events in southeastern Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1777, war came into the fields and homes of Pennsylvania’s residents. The British victory at Brandywine created a path for the capture of Philadelphia, but it was several weeks before British troops entered the city. General Howe needed provisions, and he instructed his men to requisition them from the surrounding region.[5] For many of Chester County, Pennsylvania’s residents, the moments of disruption initiated in 1777 affected their households and livelihoods long after the seat of war moved out of the state. In 1782, 377 Chester Countians submitted evidence of British depredations, which accounted for over £45,000 of property losses or damages. Much of the destruction outlined in claims occurred in September 1777, but the claims also recorded continued plunder once the British occupied Philadelphia, an occupation that lasted until June 1778.[6]

Map Depicting the Battle of Brandywine. John Montrésor, Battle of Brandywine, 11th Septr., in which the rebels were defeated by the Army under the command of Genl. Sir Willm. Howe., 1777. From Library of Congress.

The “1777 Chester County Atlas Project” incorporates British depredation claims into its digital atlas.[7] Educators seeking to complicate the documentary’s military focus will find this online resource to be a useful teaching tool. After viewing the episode or clips related to the Philadelphia Campaign (see PBS’s “Key Battles” resource), teachers can ask students to consider the ways that civilian lives intersected with the military conflict.^[8] Then, students should view “Plundered: Mapping 1777 Chester County.”[9] This short video examines events around the Battle of Brandywine from the perspectives of the county’s residents. Next, students can examine the interactive atlas to identify the locations of reported British plunder. Students will be able to trace British movement through the county, see the aggregate of losses, identify the names of property owners who reported plunder, and use the atlas’s layers to overlay 1777 roads or 1777 points of interests. These activities will form the basis for class discussion. What did it mean to an individual or household to have property taken or destroyed? How did this impact the community, county, or region? How did people living in the eighteenth century replace personal property (clothing, tools, furniture, household items, preserved food)? Who did that labor? Why did the movement of troops over land used for agricultural purposes matter? Why was it significant that much of the plunder took place in September? By asking students to grapple with these questions, we can encourage them to think more deeply about the ways that military campaigns impacted daily lives and household economies. If students can begin to understand these topics, then subsequent discussions of depreciation of currency, scarcity of goods, or even violence against loyalists carry greater significance. This exercise also bolsters one of the documentary’s main arguments—that the Revolution was a violent civil war.

“Sketch of a Meschianza Costume,” by John André, 1778.
To accompany Episodes 4 and 5, educators may also wish to examine civilian and military interactions during the Meschianza, a celebration held prior to the British evacuation of Philadelphia. For additional sources related to British occupied Philadelphia, see note 10. Image from the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Episode 4 came closest to synthesizing civilian experience with the military narrative through Sarah and Thomas Fisher. Sarah’s surviving writings recorded the movements of Philadelphia’s residents before the British arrived, scarcity of provisions, and her feelings of uncertainty with an absent and imprisoned husband. Those interested in reading or using Sarah’s diaries in the classroom can do so online via “The Revolutionary City.”[10] Sarah is an important source, but it is also worth reminding viewers that she represents the perspective of a Quaker woman from a prominent family. Other women who found themselves on their own because their husbands joined the war, died, or were imprisoned had to adopt a range of strategies to maintain their households. Some took over businesses or ran farms. Sometimes they succeeded, and sometimes they did not. Others sold their furniture or clothing to make ends meet, or in an effort to alleviate economic hardships, moved whole households across state and military borders. Still others petitioned the government for support as war raged, supplies were scarce, and their household economies became even more unstable.[11] These stories run parallel to those of battle and troop movements but are just as crucial to understanding the Revolutionary era.

The American Revolution’s strengths are with its maps, detailed coverage of battles, military movements, and experiences of those most closely connected to the army. It is no small task to fit the history of the conflict into six episodes, but those who view the series or plan to incorporate it into their classrooms should be aware of its limits. A full grasp of the story of the American Revolution requires more attention to civilians, the ways that war disrupted their lives, and how they navigated those disruptions.

Endnotes

[1]John Dickerson, “Ken Burns on America’s Origin Story: ‘The most important event since the birth of Christ,’” CBS News, Nov. 2, 2025. See also Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns, The American Revolution: An Intimate History (New York, 2025).

[2] “Conquer by a Drawn Game (January 1777–February 1778),” The American Revolution, directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt (Arlington, VA, 2025), DVD.

[3] Those interested in incorporating loyalist experiences into the classroom should examine the records of the Loyalist Claims Commission as well as published abstracts of those claims. For the published abstracts, see Peter Wilson Coldham, American Migrations, 1765–1799: The Lives, Times, and Families of Colonial Americans Who Remained Loyal to the British Crown before, during, and after the Revolutionary War, as Related in Their Own Words and through Their Correspondence (Baltimore, 2000).

[4] For some examples of scholarship that focuses on women left behind, see Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel Jr., The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America (New York, 1984); Wayne Bodle, “Jane Bartram’s ‘Application’: Her Struggle for Survival, Stability, and Self-Determination in Revolutionary Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 115 (Apr. 1991),185–220; Judith Van Buskirk, “They Didn’t Join the Band: Disaffected Women in Revolutionary Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 62 (Summer 1995), 306–29; Anne M. Ousterhout, The Most Learned Woman in America: A Life of Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson (University Park, PA, 2003); Barbara B. Oberg, ed., Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World (Charlottesville, VA, 2019); Richard Godbeer, World of Trouble: A Philadelphia Quaker Family’s Journey Through the American Revolution (New Haven, CT, 2019); Holly A. Mayer, ed., Women Waging War in the American Revolution (Charlottesville, VA, 2022); Camille A. Kaszubowski, “‘Left in Distress’: Women on Their Own in Revolutionary Pennsylvania” (PhD diss., University of Delaware, 2022); Lauren Duval, “Women’s Everyday Experiences of War during the Revolution,” The Panorama (Jan. 28, 2025).

[5] Stephen R. Taaffe, The Philadelphia Campaign: 1777–1778 (Lawrence, KS, 2003), 64, 76–78; Rosemary S. Warden, “Chester County,” in Beyond Philadelphia: The American Revolution in the Pennsylvania Hinterland, ed. John B. Frantz and William Pencak (University Park , PA, 1998), 15–16; and Kaszubowski, “‘Left in Distress,’” 41.

[6] Kaszubowski, “‘Left in Distress,’” 66–67 and 117.

[7] “1777 Chester County Property Atlas” Chester County Archives, accessed Nov. 29, 2025.

[8] PBS.org has a range of accompany learning materials for The American Revolution. See, “Brandywine & Germantown,” PBS, accessed Nov. 29, 2025.

[9] Chester County Archives and Records Services, “Plundered – Mapping 1777 Chester County,” Sept. 8, 2020.

[10] Sarah Logan Fisher Diaries, Am.06765, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. See also Elizabeth Drinker’s diaries for perspectives on the Revolutionary era, British-occupied Philadelphia, and life during Henry Drinker’s exile to Winchester, Virginia. Diary of Elizabeth Drinker, ed. Elaine Forman Crane (Boston, 1991), 1: 222–337. See also Robert F. Oaks, “Philadelphians in Exile: The Problem of Loyalty during the American Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 96  (July 1972), 298–325. For British occupied Philadelphia, see Aaron Sullivan, The Disaffected: Britain’s Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution (Philadelphia, 2019); Donald F. Johnson, Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution (Philadelphia, 2020). For the Meschianza see also, David S. Shields and Fredrika J. Teute, “The Meschianza: Sum of All Fêtes,” Journal of the Early Republic 35 (Summer 2015), 185–214.

[11] Kaszubowski, “‘Left in Distress,’” especially ch. 1–3. For additional analysis of women’s petitioning, see also Jacqueline Beatty, In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America (New York, 2023).