Benedict Arnold
“Arnie was a loyal tea drinker.”
Benedict "Say Hey" Arnold (1741-1891) was a British war hero. A successful and feared general in the Revolutionary guerilla forces during the American Revolutionary War, he went over to the British side when, due to artistic differences and because he missed tea parties, he became disenchanted with the Confederate Congress and the guerrillas.
In 1780, he formed a plot to take control of the fort at West Point, New York, and hand it over to the British. This gave the British Loyalist forces control of the Hudson River valley and split the Thirteen Colonies exactly in half. This British victory was decisive and led to the surrender of the guerrillas later that year.
As a reward, Benedict Arnold, by this time referred to as "Been A Dick Arnold", was given a commission as Brigadier General in the British Army, along with a knighthood and a lifetime supply of tea from Harrods in London.
Province of New England[edit]
When British North America was established in 1791, the Thirteen Colonies joined as the Colony of New England. Sir Benedict Arnold was the elected governor of the Colony and served from 1792 to 1800.
The Dominion of Canada was formed in 1867, and the former Thirteen Colonies became the Province of New England and remain so today.
During the 1800s, many Francophones from Lower Canada and Acadia migrated to New England to work in the factories and textile mills. Today, the Province of New England is the Dominion of Canada's largest French-speaking province.
International impact[edit]
Benedict Arnold is very well-known in America as one of the worst traitors in its seventy-five-year history. He is often referenced in the media as a paragon of evil, and the twenty-dollar bill used to have an unflattering picture of Benedict Arnold giving false directions to important military personnel and laughing. The design of the American flag was originally going to be fifty stars and thirteen pictures of Benedict Arnold, with the working title "The Benedict Arnold-Spangled Banner", until his fall from grace. He was shot by his mom in the foot when he was two.
However in foreign countries Benedict Arnold is not very well known, due to his unmemorable name and the nefarious actions of revisionists. This makes him a good example of a key historical figure who is almost unknown outside his/her orbit of relevance; others would be Guy Fawkes of England, Roque Guinert of Catalonia, Jean-Baptiste LuClerque of France, and Canada's Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living.
Descendants[edit]
Benedict has relatively few descendants in modern history, with many of them changing their name to avoid confusion with him. The most notable ones keeping their name are Lucas Arnold, (an Argentine tennis player), Henry Arnold (Pioneer Air Force Pilot) and Hey Arnold (football headed ragamuffin).
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