The surprising role of conspiracy theories in the American Revolution

Conspiracy theories may seem like a recent phenomenon, but they have been part of America’s story since the country’s founding. On Judy Woodruff’s podcast “In Pursuit of Happiness,” she talks with journalist and author Jesse Walker about the surprising role conspiracy thinking played during the American Revolution.

Jeff Bennett:

Finally, tonight, we have an excerpt from Judy Woodruff’s podcast, “In Pursuit of Happiness,” which is all about conspiracy theories.

It may seem like a recent phenomenon, but it has been part of America’s story since its founding.

Here, Judy talks with journalist and author Jesse Walker about the surprising role conspiracy thinking played during the American Revolution.

Judy Woodruff:

There were real conspiracies. There were real conspiracies about trying to get rid of George Washington.

Jesse Walker, author of “The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory”: In this regard. I mean, if you’re making a revolution, you’re involved in a conspiracy there.

So — but at the same time, I mean, the Declaration of Independence, everyone remembers those kind of details, all the reasons why they’re disgusting. They call it a train of abuse and rape. What people often forget, or might think when they read it in school, is that the ad also calls these violations design.

The purpose of this design, they say, is to subject us to absolute tyranny. I mean, the Founding Fathers were in many cases motivated by a conspiratorial vision of what Great Britain was up to, and the idea was not only that they were taking away Americans’ freedom and self-government, but that they were aiming to impose and perhaps ultimately impose tyranny on England.

Judy Woodruff:

But are you saying that’s what the founders and some of the founders think?

Jesse Walker:

Yes.

Judy Woodruff:

That they will be enslaved?

Jesse Walker:

Yes. I mean there’s the letter that George Washington wrote where he says they were actually enslaved like the blacks we control today. I don’t remember the exact phrase.

So, yeah, and it was– Gordon Wood, who just passed away, the great historian of the American Revolution, had a great article in the early 1980s where he talked about the kind of– the kind of approach to dealing with evidence in that era. More generally, there was this idea that you could infer people’s intentions—infer people’s intentions from what they did.

So there’s a passage in Jefferson, future President Thomas Jefferson, where he says — this is not a direct quote, this is me paraphrasing — if it’s just one encroachment on our liberties, it may just be an accident, but when it happens over and over again through multiple governments, it means there’s a conspiracy against us.

Judy Woodruff:

Who was behind raising the matter and making it bigger than it was? I mean, I read a little about Samuel Adams and his role in all of this. Was there…

Jesse Walker:

Oh. Well, I mean, this is actually — there are also British conspiracy theories about who was provoking the Americans.

I mean, long before there was an alliance between American and French revolutionaries, there were people, loyalists, who were convinced that there were outside agitators from France who were fomenting rebellion, and there were no real Americans who wanted revolution.

So this – that was also part of the picture as well.

Judy Woodruff:

I mean, you went so far as to say that conspiracy theories, I mean, from the beginning, have been woven into our history, into our lives. I mean, this seems like — I mean, for some of us, this seems like a very bold declaration. Can you believe it?

Jesse Walker:

Yes, yes, yes. I write what I believe.

(He laughed)

Jesse Walker:

There’s — I mean, and I don’t think this applies only to America, by the way.

My book is a history of American conspiracy theories, but I think it’s human — all humans have the ability to — we’re a pattern-seeking, story-telling creature. We are always trying to connect the dots to see what we cannot see. There are tons that we cannot see.

Judy Woodruff:

Do you… I mean do you distinguish between what real conspiracies were happening and what are the theories?

Jesse Walker:

Oh sure.

We were talking earlier about the Founding Fathers and their kind of fears that there was some kind of conspiracy to subject America and the colonies to absolute tyranny. I don’t think there is such a conspiracy. I think the English were improvising, like everyone else.

But, at the same time, there were already these restrictions on people’s freedoms and self-government. There were good reasons for the American Revolution to occur. It’s just a more horrific version of the story, which is the one that’s often told in these booklets with a lot of capital letters and so on. So…

Jeff Bennett:

You can watch this full episode and more of the “In Pursuit of Happiness” podcast on our YouTube page or wherever you get your podcasts.