Toliver's Secret

The American Revolutionary War took place between 1775 and 1783, though discontent and minor skirmishes with England started before 1775, and instability, unrest, and disagreement plagued the new nation after 1783. Paul Revere’s ride to Concord, Massachusetts, to warn colonists about British movements, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and the Battle of Bunker Hill occurred in the first half of 1775. In July 1775, George Washington took control of American forces. In Toliver’s Secret, he never appears on the page but is consistently referred to as either “General Washington” or “the general.”

Though Washington’s Army found success in the early war with the help of trained soldiers and citizen-organized militias, British general Sir William Howe won major victories in the Battle for New York in the late summer of 1776. The combined British Army and Navy drove Washington out of Brooklyn in August, Manhattan in September and October, and beyond the Delaware River on the west side of New Jersey in November. Ellen’s father fought for the militia and was killed in the Battle of Brooklyn Heights on August 27, 1776. Her brother, Ezra, successfully withdrew to Pennsylvania with Washington.

Unable to survive on their own, Ellen and Mother walked from their home in Brooklyn to Grandfather’s home in lower Manhattan. With the British in power in New York, the 1765 Quartering Act went into effect. It required colonists to house British soldiers. Grandfather houses three soldiers in his bedrooms, while he sleeps in his barber shop and Ellen and Mother sleep in the kitchen. Ellen says that the soldiers staying in their house act like “masters of the house” (7), even though Grandfather owns the residence and business.

Grandfather is one of a network of civilians living in British-occupied New York who operate as spies for Washington’s forces. Since they live alongside British soldiers, they can access valuable information about their movements. Grandfather works as a barber and wigmaker and sometimes serves in a medical capacity. As a result, he overhears valuable information and can get into spaces usually closed off to civilians. In colonial America, civilians in nearly every town formed citizen-militias and gathered to train. However, as Grandfather tells Ellen, there are people like him who are “too old to fight” but still want to help Washington (158). Old men, boys, women, and girls helped in covert ways, like carrying messages. Mr. Shannon tells Ellen that these roles are each a “link in the chain” that leads to success (158); while soldiers were important to the Revolution, Ellen learns that many people can contribute to the war efforts if they have the will.

The character of Grandfather highly resembles a historical figure named Hercules Mulligan. He lived in New York in the mid-1770s. He worked as a well-known tailor who catered to British soldiers, just like Grandfather is a well-known barber and wigmaker to British soldiers. When Mulligan outfitted British soldiers, he “took an active interest in their needs, and learned much about the activities or planned activities of the troops” based on the timelines they gave him for completing his work (Gruber, Kate Egner. “Spies of the Revolutionary War: Subterfuge and Espionage During America’s Fight for Independence.” American Battlefield Trust, 2021). For instance, if soldiers needed his services quickly, it was a sign they were getting ready to move. He then smuggled messages about their movements to Washington. However, Mulligan smuggled these messages to Washington using a man he enslaved, named Cato, rather than Grandfather’s network of free, white American Patriot civilians.