musket

One of Whitney’s next ventures was manufacturing muskets for the federal government.

For the guard, being a guard, was armed with a musket.

The Spaniard brought only 11 ships, some 450 men, 16 horses and a modest collection of cannons, crossbows and arquebuses, precursors to the musket.

Alexander Hamilton backed the idea, saying that “an essential part of the plan is to give them their freedom with their muskets.”

Give them ropes and muskets, dress them in skins and watch them scale a replica of the Capitol, smash windows, hunt cowering politicians and attack security forces like the heroes we know them to be.