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What Culper Spy Day Means to Me
Our democracy is as fragile or strong as we are
Today in the Three Village area of Brookhaven, New York, we celebrate Culper Spy Day. The Culper Spy ring was based in Setauket, a hamlet next to Stony Brook. The ring was the focus of the AMC show, “Turn; Washington Spies.” The spies in question were not the equivalent of trained CIA operatives. They were small business owners, farmers, and other individuals who put the idea of liberty above their own personal safety.
The Culper spies were so good at what they did that it took years for their work to be revealed to the world but the American Revolution would have had a different outcome without them. They provided the intelligence that led to Benedict Arnold’s arrest and George Washington’sattack at Trenton (after the famous crossing of the Delaware) that proved pivotal to the turning of the war.
The American Revolution is my favorite part of the nation’s history. Learning about it as a small child, it was taught as being as inevitable a series of events as the change of the seasons. As an adult, when I could pay more attention and be more discerning in my intake of information, I saw how untrue that assumption was. Most, if not all, of the Founding Fathers loved being British. They were proud of it. It’s one reason there were so many loyalists around.