The American Revolution seems doomed as the British army launches a bold new campaign in the South, but unsung patriots help reverse the course of the war and shock the world: Elizabeth Burgin helps POWs escape from British prison ships in New York in 1778; Peter Francisco is known for his size and strength on battlefields in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and South Carolina; and James Armistead, a slave, serves as a spy who gathers intelligence before the Battle of Yorktown in the fall of 1781.

Time after time, American independence seems like a lost cause as George Washington's Continental Army teeters on the brink of annihilation. These patriots help the colonies live to fight another day: John Glover, a Massachusetts mariner who saved George Washington's army after the Battle of Long Island in August 1776; John Honeyman, a spy whose intelligence gathering helped tip the scales at the Battle of Trenton in December 1776; and Sybil Ludington, a teen girl who rode 40 miles to warn colonial forces about British movements in New York in April 1777.

Unsung patriots strike Pivotal blows for American liberty as unrest between Britain and the Colonies explodes into a war for independence. This three-part examination of the American colonies' break from England highlights contributions by lesser-known individuals to pivotal events, and begins with Joseph Warren, a Boston doctor who sent Paul Revere on his famous ride in April 1775; Samuel Whittemore, a septuagenarian combatant in Massachusetts; and Salem Poor, a former slave who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.