0:00:02 > 0:00:05America has been the New World in all tongues, to all peoples,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09not because this continent was a new-found land,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13but because all those who came here believed they could create
0:00:13 > 0:00:16upon this continent a new life.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19A life that should be new in freedom.
0:00:21 > 0:00:22With these words,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Franklin D Roosevelt summed up the reason millions of people
0:00:25 > 0:00:29have been drawn to this new world, from the 1500s to the present day.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34Among them, men and women from the north of Ireland.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43This is the story of people from Ulster who came here before
0:00:43 > 0:00:46the United States was even formed and found themselves
0:00:46 > 0:00:49at the very heart of the American experience.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52In every walk of life, at every great juncture in this
0:00:52 > 0:00:56nation's history, they have made an extraordinary contribution, helping
0:00:56 > 0:01:01to shape its culture, its economy, its democracy and its values.
0:01:01 > 0:01:07And in doing so, they and their children became Americans.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35In the summer of 1718, up to ten small ships from the North of
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Ireland docked here at Boston Harbor.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Their passengers were almost exclusively Presbyterians
0:01:42 > 0:01:45from the Bann and Foyle Valleys and they had come here to begin
0:01:45 > 0:01:48a new life in the colonies.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57They weren't the first people to come here from Ireland,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00and their numbers did not compare to those of the famine years,
0:02:00 > 0:02:03but they mark the beginning of large-scale migration
0:02:03 > 0:02:07that would see up to 200,000 Ulster families arrive in America
0:02:07 > 0:02:10over the next half-century.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13The majority were Ulster-Scots Presbyterians,
0:02:13 > 0:02:18small tenant farmers for whom a bad harvest or a fall in the price
0:02:18 > 0:02:23of linen could mean the difference between subsistence and destitution.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30The Presbyterians also suffered religious discrimination in Ireland,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34so often, members of a congregation emigrated together
0:02:34 > 0:02:37because America held out not only the promise of cheap
0:02:37 > 0:02:40and plentiful land, but religious freedom.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46Those Ulster Presbyterians who stepped ashore in 1718
0:02:46 > 0:02:51might have expected a warm welcome from their Calvinist cousins,
0:02:51 > 0:02:55but in fact, puritan Boston was not at all happy with what they saw
0:02:55 > 0:03:00as an influx of new immigrants competing for their land and jobs.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16So, within a few months, the Ulster families were on the move again.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18This time to the very fringes of settled society,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22as they searched for a place to live.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38I'm heading 140 miles north of Boston to find out
0:03:38 > 0:03:43about one group of 1718 immigrants that settled on the banks
0:03:43 > 0:03:46of the Kennebec River in Maine.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11I can only imagine what they must have been feeling,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14those families, after such an incredibly daunting journey
0:04:14 > 0:04:17and now to find themselves on the Kennebec River,
0:04:17 > 0:04:23looking into this wilderness and wondering, is this our new home?
0:04:27 > 0:04:31One family who made their home here were the McFaddens from Garvagh.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Now, nearly 300 years later, one of their descendants is watching
0:04:35 > 0:04:40family legend become historical fact as the site of the log cabin
0:04:40 > 0:04:45built by Andrew McFadden in 1718 is excavated by archaeologists
0:04:45 > 0:04:51investigating the first Ulster settlements in this part of Maine.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55What do you know about the McFaddens of the 18th century and how
0:04:55 > 0:04:57they made it to this very location?
0:04:57 > 0:05:01They came across on the ship, McCallum.
0:05:01 > 0:05:08They arrived here on roughly the 8th of September, 1718 and were
0:05:08 > 0:05:12burnt out by the Abenaki Indians in August of 1722.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19My great-grandfather had been doing our genealogy and discovered
0:05:19 > 0:05:24this piece of property was where our family had settled and in the
0:05:24 > 0:05:28first test hole that we did, we found one of the burnt timbers.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Fate works in strange ways.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37- So, this is the main event? - This is it.
0:05:37 > 0:05:38- A bit of a jigsaw?- It is.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42You get the little individual pieces but what's the big picture?
0:05:42 > 0:05:46What have you now established with some degree of confidence
0:05:46 > 0:05:48about what this might have looked like?
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Well, again, we know that the initial living quarters
0:05:52 > 0:05:56consisted of a 14ft-square cellar hole.
0:05:56 > 0:06:02They came here in September which back in 1700s, 1718, was
0:06:02 > 0:06:07pretty brutal winters and I'm sure they were advised to seek shelter.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10- Underground?- Well, possibly.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14- Were there many other people living in this area?- As far as we know, no.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18There were two other families, of which we haven't discovered
0:06:18 > 0:06:23the names yet but they did come by canoe, or dugout as they refer
0:06:23 > 0:06:26to it, basically with the clothes on their backs.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34What's been the most interesting find you've discovered
0:06:34 > 0:06:36so far in the dig?
0:06:36 > 0:06:40The most interesting thing we have found is the timber framing.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43The preservation of this site is unreal.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45It's like nothing I've ever seen.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Usually we are working with soil stains like we were working
0:06:49 > 0:06:52up there but with the preservation in the hall, we can actually
0:06:52 > 0:06:56see structures and how they were put together, so it's pretty exciting.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00Have you found some windowpanes, anything like that?
0:07:00 > 0:07:03We found so much glass, everybody got sick of it.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07We know there was a window right in here at the corner of the building.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09It sort of makes sense, doesn't it?
0:07:09 > 0:07:13- They had an incredible view over there.- A safety issue, too.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17And a safety issue. A panoramic view for security, that would make sense.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23The McFaddens had good reason to fear for their security.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27In 1722, they came under attack from Native Americans,
0:07:27 > 0:07:29the Abenaki Indians.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34There is reason to believe that they were forewarned of the Indian
0:07:34 > 0:07:40attacks by being able to see the attacks going on north of here.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45It was quite evident that they basically just got out with
0:07:45 > 0:07:46their lives.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50One of the first things we found was this pipe.
0:07:50 > 0:07:56It set me back for a couple of minutes because all I could think
0:07:56 > 0:08:01was, my tenth great-grandfather had used this and probably had
0:08:01 > 0:08:07set it down and then a few hours later when the Indians raided,
0:08:07 > 0:08:13or whatever, it just remained there for 300 years, almost 300 years now.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16But it really has kind of changed my life,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21has given me a deeper sense of connection to my heritage
0:08:21 > 0:08:26and my family and I'm now on this road of rediscovery,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28I guess you could say.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37To find out more about those early Ulster immigrants and how
0:08:37 > 0:08:39they had been encouraged to settle in Maine,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42then part of the colony of Massachusetts, I have come to meet
0:08:42 > 0:08:46John and Val Mann, whose interest in their own Irish ancestors
0:08:46 > 0:08:49led them to establish the Maine Ulster-Scots Project.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55Come into my office and take a look at what we're saving for records.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57During the 18th century, primarily,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00there were over 30 different communities Maine that were
0:09:00 > 0:09:03settled with Scotch-Irish or Ulster-Scots
0:09:03 > 0:09:05during that 18th century period.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Many of them don't have any written records, or they have just
0:09:08 > 0:09:11oral history and they're trying to find out more and more about
0:09:11 > 0:09:15their families so they contact us and we keep a file for each family.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Here, for example, is a file for the Dunning family.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21In there will be whatever information they had when
0:09:21 > 0:09:24they contacted me plus whatever information we've been able
0:09:24 > 0:09:26to find out and share with them.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Also, most importantly to me, is the stories,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32the oral history that's been handed down, has a place to rest
0:09:32 > 0:09:35and be relevant to future generations.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39This map is a pretty good example of what was going on in the time period
0:09:39 > 0:09:43because it shows the river which was the highway of the time, but it also
0:09:43 > 0:09:46shows the land that the proprietors from Massachusetts was claiming.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49You had one set of proprietors up here in the North,
0:09:49 > 0:09:50a different set in the South.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Their land claims overlapped each other,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55so the title for the land was in dispute.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Meanwhile, you not only have land title dispute,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00you have two countries disputing.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03You have England claiming this land, you have France claiming that land.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06You gave Massachusetts and England hoping to get this land away
0:10:06 > 0:10:09from France to protect Massachusetts. And then you
0:10:09 > 0:10:12have the Native Americans who, this is their traditional homeland.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15The river has been their homeland for centuries and centuries.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18All these competing interests taking place and you have the
0:10:18 > 0:10:24Scots-Irish being introduced right in the centre of that area.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26- The eye of a storm. - The eye of the storm.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39When we think of the Ulster-Scots in America,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43we tend to think of Davy Crockett, the Appalachian Trail,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46those American presidents with Ulster-Scots roots.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50We don't tend to think of the state of Maine, it would have to be said.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Ulster-Scots were invited to come to New England early on by the
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Puritans in Massachusetts because they were afraid the French
0:10:57 > 0:11:01were going to advance into Massachusetts with the Indians,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and they needed a buffer up here to protect them.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08The territory within 100 miles of Boston was pretty much all
0:11:08 > 0:11:10wilderness at that point because the settlements that were there
0:11:10 > 0:11:13earlier had collapsed under the pressure from the Indian and
0:11:13 > 0:11:16French alliance, so how do we repopulate that area?
0:11:16 > 0:11:19We don't want to bring in any Catholics because they might
0:11:19 > 0:11:22ally themselves with the French and Indians.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25We want to bring in Protestants and we want to bring in people
0:11:25 > 0:11:28with a reputation for taking care of themselves because Massachusetts
0:11:28 > 0:11:31was in no position to take care of them when they got here.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34And we need people that would defend it at all costs.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Val, what's your family's connection with the North of Ireland?
0:11:41 > 0:11:44I'm eighth generation from William Maybury
0:11:44 > 0:11:47and he came from Ballymoney, Northern Ireland.
0:11:47 > 0:11:53He was married to Bathsheba Dennis and they came over around 1730.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56She gave birth on the boat on the way over
0:11:56 > 0:11:59and they named their daughter, Seafair.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03William Maybury was a blacksmith in Northern Ireland and
0:12:03 > 0:12:06he brought his tools and his trade with them and set up a blacksmith's
0:12:06 > 0:12:11shop on a stump in the middle of the woods in Windham, Maine.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13And his first customers were the Indians.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18There are much easier places to begin a new life than here.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21That's very true and a Maine winter is a Maine winter and the
0:12:21 > 0:12:25ground here is rocky and hard, especially near the coast and
0:12:25 > 0:12:29the coast was the only place that was available when they arrived.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32There were stories handed down that if it wasn't for the clam flats,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36being able to dig shellfish on the shore,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39that there were many winters that they wouldn't have survived at all.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41So, the big picture,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44where do you see the influence of the Ulster-Scots in this region?
0:12:44 > 0:12:47The culture in Maine seems to be much different than the rest
0:12:47 > 0:12:50of New England in the sense that there is
0:12:50 > 0:12:53no real identification of class structure.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55We don't believe in class structure up here.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and you don't tell me what to throw on my dung pile
0:13:01 > 0:13:04and I won't tell you what to throw on your dung pile.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07For years, they tried to figure out why Maine culture was
0:13:07 > 0:13:11so much different than Massachusetts culture, and the local historians
0:13:11 > 0:13:14have pretty much tracked it back to the influence of the first
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Presbyterian Scots-Irish that settled on the coast of Maine
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and the other cultures as they arrived,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23adapting to that primary culture, if you will.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27- Would people here know what an Ulster-Scot is?- They do now!
0:13:27 > 0:13:28THEY LAUGH
0:13:28 > 0:13:32They've been educated. Our programme has really reached out.
0:13:32 > 0:13:33We go to schools,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37we go to historical societies and we tell the story of the
0:13:37 > 0:13:42Scotch-Irish immigration to Maine and enlighten people on the terms
0:13:42 > 0:13:46of Ulster and Ulster-Scots and the language that goes with it.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Those stories documented by John and Val have been passed down through
0:13:59 > 0:14:04many generations of Maine families, stories of conflict and struggle,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08and they reveal the grit and tenacity that their ancestors from
0:14:08 > 0:14:13the North of Ireland needed if they were to have any future here at all.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Throughout the 18th century, many more Ulster-Scots,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25or Scotch-Irish, as they're better known in America,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28were arriving in the colony of Pennsylvania.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44AUCTIONEER CHANTS
0:14:46 > 0:14:49You've got to be very careful that you don't place
0:14:49 > 0:14:50a bid here by accident.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52This is a mud sale.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55It's a first for me and it's called a mud sale simply because at
0:14:55 > 0:14:58this time of the year, the ground can get pretty churned up,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01but they are very popular here in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania
0:15:01 > 0:15:04as a way of raising money for the local Fire Department.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09Lancaster County is also the home of the oldest and largest
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Amish community in the United States.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17The Amish first came here in the 1700s to escape religious
0:15:17 > 0:15:22persecution in Europe and they came to Pennsylvania for the same reason
0:15:22 > 0:15:24that so many Ulster-Scots came here.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Not only was there abundant good land and low taxes,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32but also, uniquely among the American colonies,
0:15:32 > 0:15:37Pennsylvania guaranteed its citizens religious freedom.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42The colony had been established in 1682 by an English Quaker
0:15:42 > 0:15:44called William Penn.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48He described it as his holy experiment, a place where
0:15:48 > 0:15:54people of different religions and races could co-exist on equal terms.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00To oversee his colony and take care of his business interests
0:16:00 > 0:16:03while he was in England, William Penn turned to
0:16:03 > 0:16:07a young protege and a fellow Quaker called James Logan.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Logan met Penn in Bristol where he was working as a linen merchant
0:16:14 > 0:16:18but he had been born and brought up in Lurgan in County Armagh
0:16:18 > 0:16:21where his father was a schoolmaster.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27As Penn's land agent and secretary of the province,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31James Logan wielded a huge amount of power in Pennsylvania
0:16:31 > 0:16:36and he was to become instrumental in the settlement of people from Ulster
0:16:36 > 0:16:40in the colony, and in particular, here in Lancaster County.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48James Logan was a Quaker, principally,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52and he came to seek his fortune as many did.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55By the time he was in his 30s or 40s,
0:16:55 > 0:16:57he had a lot of skin in the game, too.
0:16:57 > 0:16:58He owned a lot of land.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Not as much as Penn did, but if Penn's land was endangered
0:17:03 > 0:17:09by warfare with the Indians and people taking over land, so was his.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12The Quakers here in Pennsylvania had a very serious dilemma,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15didn't they? Because when you build a settlement,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19you typically also have to form a militia to defend that settlement,
0:17:19 > 0:17:20but they're pacifists.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23How did James Logan resolve that dilemma for them?
0:17:23 > 0:17:28James Logan decided to invite the Scotch-Irish to settle
0:17:28 > 0:17:32and to make their homes in the state of Pennsylvania.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35He knew they were tough, he knew they could farm,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38he knew they could get the job done and he also knew that
0:17:38 > 0:17:41if there were Indian raids on their settlements,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44they would fight to the death to protect them.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49James Logan wrote,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53"I thought it might be prudent to plant a settlement of such men
0:17:53 > 0:17:57"as those who formerly had so bravely defended Londonderry
0:17:57 > 0:18:01"and Enniskillen as a frontier in case of any disturbance."
0:18:09 > 0:18:14- Was his plan a success?- James Logan's plan was a huge success.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16In a period of 50 years,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19there were 95,000 Scotch-Irish in the state of Pennsylvania.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24So many that Logan himself feared that the entire province
0:18:24 > 0:18:29of Ulster would be emptied out and there would be no-one left.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33They would all be in Pennsylvania, following his dream.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35How is James Logan remembered today?
0:18:35 > 0:18:41James Logan is remembered today as a great scholar, a statesman,
0:18:41 > 0:18:46a great defender of William Penn and as a Quaker.
0:18:46 > 0:18:53But I really think that his real legacy was introducing
0:18:53 > 0:18:56a group of people that made the backbone of this country,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01people that were not afraid to fight for what they had and people
0:19:01 > 0:19:05that loved their religion and their country but wanted to forge
0:19:05 > 0:19:09and make a new country for themselves.
0:19:10 > 0:19:17Many of those first Ulster settlers in Pennsylvania made their home
0:19:17 > 0:19:21on land set aside for them by James Logan and they named it
0:19:21 > 0:19:24after the county of their birth.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31When settlers first arrived in the United States,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34one of the first things they did was to build a church.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37And churches for them were not just houses of worship,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41they were community hubs, they meant everything to them.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46This is Donegal Presbyterian Church. The clue is in the name.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49A congregation has worshipped here since the first settlers from
0:19:49 > 0:19:55the north of Ireland arrived in this part of America in the 1720s.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00# Holy, holy, holy... #
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Once they had built their church and homesteads, the Donegal settlers
0:20:05 > 0:20:09turned their attention to how their new society should be run.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Members of this congregation and the four others that made up the
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Presbytery of Donegal became assemblymen and colonial senators.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21They joined the local militia and served as County sheriffs.
0:20:23 > 0:20:24Within a generation,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28they had significant political and economic power in Pennsylvania
0:20:28 > 0:20:32and would become the standard bearers for the colonial movement
0:20:32 > 0:20:34for independence from Great Britain.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50The Donegal church was built in the middle of this beautiful oak grove,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and it was here, in 1777,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57that members of the congregation gathered and joined hands
0:20:57 > 0:21:01around an ancient tree and pledged, in their words,
0:21:01 > 0:21:05"Eternal hostility to a corrupt King and Parliament
0:21:05 > 0:21:08"and unswerving loyalty to the colonies."
0:21:08 > 0:21:12No wonder a British Army officer would later describe
0:21:12 > 0:21:16all Presbyterian Churches as sedition shops.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34In the 1770s, Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37It was a hotbed of political and philosophical debate,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40the cradle of revolutionary ideas,
0:21:40 > 0:21:45and it was to this city that some of the greatest minds of that age came,
0:21:45 > 0:21:52to forge a constitutional democracy that would transform America and ultimately change the world.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00The road to American independence began when the British crown
0:22:00 > 0:22:04imposed a series of taxes on the colonies in order to recoup money
0:22:04 > 0:22:06it had spent on the French-Indian War.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11Each new tax on sugar, tea, glass and paper
0:22:11 > 0:22:15fuelled resentment in America, so that for the first time
0:22:15 > 0:22:19the colonies came together to act as one in protest.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25The Quaker Assembly of Pennsylvania was loath to get involved,
0:22:25 > 0:22:27but the Ulster-Scots had no such qualms.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32They had no love for the British who they blamed for their having
0:22:32 > 0:22:34to leave Ireland in the first place,
0:22:34 > 0:22:38and leading the campaign for independence in Philadelphia
0:22:38 > 0:22:42was a former teacher from Upperlands and County Londonderry,
0:22:42 > 0:22:43Charles Thomson.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50You don't see these very often. A 2 bill.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53It's still legal tender in the United States.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55On the front, Thomas Jefferson,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59the third President of the United States, but turn over
0:22:59 > 0:23:01to the back and you see a reproduction
0:23:01 > 0:23:05of John Trumbull's famous painting The Declaration Of Independence
0:23:05 > 0:23:10and right there at the centre of the action, Charles Thomson,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13secretary of the Continental Congress,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17the man who would design the Great Seal of the United States.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23When Charles Thomson came to America a penniless orphan,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26his prospects were poor.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29At the age of ten, he was working for a blacksmith,
0:23:29 > 0:23:31but a place at a school run by Francis Alison,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35an Ulster Presbyterian minister and philosopher,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37turned his fortunes around.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41The blacksmith's apprentice became a classical scholar,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45a businessman and a political radical whose sharp intelligence
0:23:45 > 0:23:50and reputation for honesty and independence led to his appointment
0:23:50 > 0:23:53as Secretary of America's Continental Congress.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04This is Independence Hall, the birthplace of the United States.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08It was here that the Continental Congress met to debate
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and declare independence, and in doing so,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13they set out the principles
0:24:13 > 0:24:16upon which this new nation would be founded.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25The Continental Congress was a group of representatives
0:24:25 > 0:24:27from each of the colonies.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32They came together in Philadelphia in 1774
0:24:32 > 0:24:36to address grievances
0:24:36 > 0:24:38by the Crown, and Parliament.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40And the first Continental Congress
0:24:40 > 0:24:44was a very short-term occupation for all of them.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46They got together, they wrote a letter to the King,
0:24:46 > 0:24:48the King ignored them.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50That led to the second Continental Congress,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54the second group of representatives from the colonies
0:24:54 > 0:24:59who came together in Philadelphia, and ultimately that led to
0:24:59 > 0:25:04the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08The first printed version of the Declaration of Independence,
0:25:08 > 0:25:14known as the Dunlap Broadside, was issued on the fourth of July 1776.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19It was a 28-point attack on George III's treatment of the colonies
0:25:19 > 0:25:24and the philosophical basis for a new civil democracy.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26It was an act of treason.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32There are only two names on the John Dunlap printed version
0:25:32 > 0:25:35of the Declaration Of Independence.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38That is the President of Congress, John Hancock.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41The document is attested to by Charles Thomson,
0:25:41 > 0:25:42the Secretary of Congress.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47If the revolution had failed, or had not gotten off to a heavy start,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51two names, those two men would have been hung.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57Charles Thomson's name on that declaration gave the American people
0:25:57 > 0:25:59confidence in its authenticity.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02If something was promoted,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05it was as good as if Charles Thomson's name was put to it.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08So he had a sense of character
0:26:08 > 0:26:13and was known as a person of very truthful character.
0:26:15 > 0:26:21Part of his legacy is his role in designing the Great Seal of America.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26The very next resolution after the resolution to be independent
0:26:26 > 0:26:30from the Crown was a resolution to have an heraldic seal
0:26:30 > 0:26:34for these new and independent and United States.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38And that was put out to a committee and you can guess what happened -
0:26:38 > 0:26:39absolutely nothing.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Went out to a second committee and nothing happened.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Went out to a third committee and nothing happened.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Charles Thomson accomplished the task in two weeks.
0:26:49 > 0:26:55And the easiest place to see it is on the back of the 1 bill.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59And here actually is the only place that you can see
0:26:59 > 0:27:03both the obverse and the reverse of the seal.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08We are familiar with the eagle, with the shield on its chest,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12holding an olive branch and the bundle of arrows, but the back side
0:27:12 > 0:27:16or reverse of the seal shows a pyramid, an unfinished pyramid.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21And that, in a way, is one of the more important parts of the seal,
0:27:21 > 0:27:26because in heraldry, that unfinished pyramid is an unfinished process.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28And the founders of the...
0:27:28 > 0:27:31the great founders, the revolutionaries, didn't believe
0:27:31 > 0:27:35that they ever finished anything at the end of the American Revolution.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38They only thought that they started something.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53This place just oozes history.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57In its day, this was the most important room in all of America.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01This is where the Declaration of Independence was designed,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05it's where the new Constitution of the United States was adopted,
0:28:05 > 0:28:07and sitting in that chair, just over there,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11right next to the President's chair, was Charles Thomson.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16The young boy from Upperlands in County Londonderry was now
0:28:16 > 0:28:20one of the founding fathers of the United States.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Few immigrant stories have made it onto the pages of history
0:28:26 > 0:28:28like that of Charles Thomson.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31But Ulster immigrants came to America in such large numbers,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34so early in the nation's history,
0:28:34 > 0:28:39that they had a huge influence in securing its frontiers,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43moulding its culture and shaping its democracy.