Hercules Mulligan’s Secret Weapon: Cato, the Enslaved Patriot Who Saved the Revolution
- Dana at Vibe Tours
- Apr 14
- 7 min read
The Story Behind the Song: More Than Just Measurements
If you’ve seen Hamilton, you’ve met the Broadway version of Hercules Mulligan—the boisterous, high-energy tailor who "takes their measurements, then information." It’s a killer line, and it fits the rhythm of a musical. But as a New Yorker who spends my days walking the actual pavement where this happened, I can tell you the reality was a lot quieter, a lot more tense, and infinitely more dangerous.
In the real 1770s, "taking measurements" wasn't a punchline; it was a front for high-stakes psychological operations. Mulligan’s shop at 23 Queen Street (modern-day 218 Pearl Street) wasn't just a place to get a waistcoat; it was one of the few places in British-occupied Manhattan where an American Patriot could stand in a room full of enemy officers and not be immediately arrested.
But here is the truth that often gets left out of the textbooks: Intelligence is a perishable commodity. If you hear that the British are planning an ambush on the Hudson, that information is worth everything at 2:00 PM and absolutely nothing by 6:00 PM. Mulligan was the "ear," but a spy ring without a "pulse" is dead in the water. That pulse—the legs, the lungs, and the ice-cold courage required to move that data—belonged to a man named Cato.
The Occupied City: A Fortress of Surveillance
To understand Cato’s heroism, you have to understand the New York he was operating in. From 1776 to 1783, Lower Manhattan was the nerve center of the British Empire in North America. After the Battle of Long Island (sometimes called The Battle of Brooklyn), the city was a scorched-earth disaster zone. A massive fire had leveled a third of the buildings, and the British had turned the remaining structures into barracks, prisons, and headquarters.
The city was under martial law. Every street corner had a sentry. Every boat leaving the harbor was searched. As the National Park Service (.gov) outlines in its history of the occupation, New York was the most tightly controlled urban environment on the continent. For a Patriot to move information out of this fortress, they had to bypass a layered system of checkpoints designed specifically to catch them.
This is where the "Invisible Hero" strategy comes into play. Hercules Mulligan was a prominent merchant. If he suddenly started taking long walks toward the American lines in Westchester or rowing a boat toward the Jersey shore, he’d be in a hangman’s noose before he hit the city limits. Cato, however, possessed a tactical advantage that the British never saw coming: their own prejudice.
The "Invisible" Courier: Exploiting the Blind Spots
Cato was an enslaved man in the Mulligan household. In the rigid social hierarchy of the 18th century, the British officers viewed Black New Yorkers as part of the background—no different than the horses at the hitching post or the crates on the dock. They spoke with total, reckless abandon in front of Cato.
While Cato was pouring wine, stoking the fire, or delivering packages, he was absorbing the most sensitive military secrets of the British Empire. He heard ship names, troop counts, and the names of American collaborators. As the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) has documented, this "social invisibility" allowed Black spies to act as the ultimate fly on the wall.
But the real work started when the shop closed. Once Mulligan had the intel, it had to move. Cato would take the "package"—often memorized to avoid having incriminating papers on his person—and begin the harrowing journey out of the city.
Crossing the Lines: The Geography of Risk
Think about the route Cato had to take. From Pearl Street, he had to navigate north, past the British barracks at the Commons (now City Hall Park), past the "Fresh Water Pond" (The Collect) where soldiers hung out, and toward the fortified lines at the north end of the island.
Every time he approached a sentry, he was one heartbeat away from death. He had to have a "cover story"—a delivery, a chore, a message for another merchant. He was playing a character 24/7. Mulligan (and by extension, Cato) were deeply embedded in the revolutionary underground.
When Cato reached the "Neutral Ground"—the lawless territory between the British lines in Manhattan and the American lines further north—the danger actually increased. This area was crawling with "Cowboys" (pro-British marauders) and "Skinners" (pro-American marauders). Neither side cared about the Revolution; they cared about plunder. For a Black man traveling alone, the "Neutral Ground" was a meat grinder. Yet Cato navigated it time and again to reach Washington’s scouts.
The Saving of George Washington
On at least two documented occasions, the intelligence Cato delivered stopped the British from capturing George Washington.
One instance involved a British plan to kidnap Washington while he was traveling. Mulligan overheard the plot from a British officer who was in a hurry to get a watch coat made. Mulligan pumped him for info, realized the danger, and dispatched Cato immediately. Cato ran through the night, bypassed the pickets, and delivered the warning. Washington shifted his route and survived.
If Cato had been ten minutes slower, or if a British sentry had been ten percent more suspicious, the American Revolution ends right there on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.
The Stakes: A Disparity of Danger
As a trader, I’m always looking at risk vs. reward. In the spy game of 1776, the risk was never distributed equally.
If Hercules Mulligan was caught, he was a white, property-owning male with deep ties to the New York merchant class. He had "cards to play." He could be used as a bargaining chip or a prisoner of war.
If Cato was caught, there was no "POW" status. There was no exchange. For an enslaved man caught in an act of espionage against the Crown, the response was a rope and a tree—likely without the dignity of a trial. He was fighting for a concept of "Liberty" that, at the time, legally excluded him. He was a man with no country, fighting to create one.
The Breakfast at 23 Queen Street: The Ultimate Receipt
In November 1783, the British finally boarded their ships and left New York for good. The city was in shambles, but it was free. When George Washington led his troops back into Manhattan on Evacuation Day, he was the most famous man on earth. Every wealthy family in the city wanted to host him. Every general wanted to sit at his table.
Washington ignored the galas. Instead, his first stop was a humble tailor shop at 23 Queen Street.
Washington sat down for breakfast with Hercules Mulligan. But, this wasn't just a friendly meal. It was a massive, public "receipt." In the world of 18th-century optics, Washington was telling the world: "This man is one of mine."
But let’s look closer at that room. Washington is there. Mulligan is there. And Cato? Cato is the one who made that moment possible. He was the one who physically carried the secrets that kept Washington alive long enough to see that breakfast. While the National Archives (.gov) record the logistics of Washington’s movements, the soul of that meeting is the recognition of a secret brotherhood that spanned the racial and social divides of a broken city.
Post-War Mulligan and Cato: The Road to Manumission
The partnership between Mulligan and Cato didn’t just end when the war did. History shows that their time in the trenches changed them. After the war, Hercules Mulligan became one of the founding members of the New York Manumission Society, an organization dedicated to the gradual abolition of slavery in New York.
You have to imagine that Mulligan’s advocacy wasn't just based on abstract philosophy. It was based on Cato. It was based on the fact that he had trusted his life to a man he legally "owned," and that man had proven to be more loyal, more brave, and more capable than the "gentlemen" officers in the British Army.
A Native’s Note: The Ghosts of Pearl Street
Walking Pearl Street today, it’s reminiscent of the rebirth on New York after the great fires that destroyed it . It feels more like FiDi than the place where the Revolution was turned. There are no plaques for Mulligan, but you can visit him in the Trinity Church graveyard where he is commemorated.
But there is no mention of Cato. There is no "Cato Plaza." In a city that loves its monuments, he remains as invisible in death as he was in the service of the Revolution.
But as someone who tells these stories for a living, I see him everywhere. Cato is the patron saint of the "Invisible New Yorker." He is the person who does the work, takes the risk, and keeps the engine running while the "names" get the credit.
Personal Note: I feel the same energy when I talk about the "anonymous heroes" at the 9/11 Memorial. We focus on the names we can see, but the city was saved by the people we can't see. Just like Welles Crowther and Orio Palmer used their specific skills to navigate a crisis, Cato used his specific social position to navigate a war. It’s the same New York DNA.
Why Cato Matters for "America 250"
As we approach the 250th Anniversary of the United States in 2026, we have a choice.
We can tell the "sanitized" version of the Revolution, or we can tell the real one. The real one is where it's at. The real one is New York. The real one belongs to people like Cato.
Lower Manhattan isn't just a place where people trade stocks; it’s a place where people traded secrets to build a world. Cato didn't have a uniform. He didn't have a rank. He just had the most important job in the city, and he executed it with a level of professionalism that changed the course of human history.
Experience the Revolutionary Underground
You can read about Cato, or you can walk where he walked. On our America 250 Revolutionary War Experience, we don't just show you the statues; we show you the shadows. We hit the sites where the Culper Ring operated, where the British prisons stood, and where a tailor and a courier outplayed the greatest empire on earth.
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