The Colour of the Times: Margaret Shippen Arnold and the American Revolution–A Novel of Treason

In April 1778, three years into what would come to be known as the Revolutionary War, Margaret (Peggy) Shippen met Major General Benedict Arnold of the Continental Army. He was thirty-six, arguably the most revered field commander in the country, the hero of Ticonderoga, Valcour Island, and Saratoga. She was eighteen, the highly-educated daughter of a leading Philadelphia family, a renowned beauty, and a British loyalist.

Against the young country’s divide of those for and against independence and those caught in between, The Colour of the Times is the story of Peggy Shippen: scared and angered by the rebellion that has estranged family and friends and bred a new, radical government in Pennsylvania; her meeting and marriage to the brilliant but embattled Benedict Arnold; and their stunning path to West Point and treason. It is the story of the capital, Philadelphia, as Tories and patriots struggle under both British and American rule. It is also the story of the armies and their leaders, George Washington and Sir Henry Clinton, all relying on Arnold. And, finally, it is the story of lesser knowns, like Peggy’s closest sister, Elizabeth, and her fiance, a British prisoner of war; David and Rebecca Franks of the Levy-Franks financial empire, facing ruin from the conflict; John Andre, Adjutant General of the British Army, desperate for a chance at glory; and Judge Edward Shippen, a father trying to explain a time as much civil war as rebellion. Set in Philadelphia, Valley Forge, British-held Manhattan, and the Highlands of New York, this gripping historical account moves from Peggy Shippen’s days being entertained by occupying British troops to the greatest betrayal in America’s history.