Who Was Thaddeus Kosciuszko? After George Washington, there are more statues in the United States of Thaddeus Kosciuszko than any other American historical figure. And every day, millions of TV and radio listeners hear about the traffic jams on the Kosciuszko Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, as well as the gridlock on the Kosciuszko Bridge north of Albany.

Yet few people know that Kosciuszko gave his salary from the American Revolution to Thomas Jefferson and told him to use the money to buy slaves – and free them.

It was Kosciuszko’s plan for West Point that Benedict Arnold tried to sell to the British, and it was Kosciuszko’s plan to use the high ground at Bemis Heights that allowed the rebels to win the Battle of Saratoga – the turning point of the American Revolution.

In Poland, Kosciuszko started a revolt to try to free the serfs and obtain more rights for peasants, burghers and Jews. To this end, his friend Berek Joselewicz started a Jewish cavalry to fight with Kosciuszko against Russia’s army. It was the first wholly Jewish military unit since biblical times. Even a black man named Jean Lapierre traveled to Poland and joined the battle with Kosciuszko to try to free white serfs.

Kosciuszko also stood up for the American Indians, and was given a peace pipe and tomahawk by Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Indian tribe.

The Peasant Prince is a biography of Kosciuszko, who Jefferson called, “as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few or rich alone.”

In his quest for liberty, Kosciuszko worked with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and the French Revolutionaries while struggling against the tyranny of Russia’s Catherine the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Peasant Prince is the unknown story of Kosciuszko’s life, liberty and pursuit of tolerance during the age of revolution.

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It depends who you ask . . .

Benjamin Franklin put him in charge of building forts in 1776 to protect Philadelphia from the British Army.

Gen. Horatio Gates had him draft the battle plan for the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point of the American Revolution.

Gen. George Washington put him in charge of building West Point.

Benedict Arnold tried to sell those plans for West Point to the British.

Gen. Nathanael Greene called him a Master of his profession.

Kosciuszko asked Thomas Jefferson to invest his $12,280 salary from the American Revolution and then use it to buy Black slaves and free them.

Thomas Jefferson called him, The purest son of liberty I have ever known.

Jewish Cavalry Leader Berek Joselewicz called Kosciuszko a messenger from God Almighty.

When Kosciuszko tried to end feudalism and free the serfs of Europe, Russia’s tyrant Czarina Catherine the Great tossed him in prison and called him a beast.

After Kosciuszko advocated for Native Americans' rights, Miami Indian Chief “Little Turtle” awarded the Pole with a combination tomahawk peace pipe as a sign of appreciation.

To the French Revolution's Leaders, he was "Citizen Kosciuszko."

Dictator Napoleon Bonaparte called Kosciuszko, the hero of the North.

Kosciuszko called Napoleon the gravedigger of the republic.

French historian Jules Michelet called him the last knight.

John Keats: “Good Kosciuszko, thy great name alone is a full harvest whence to reap high feeling.”

Lord Byron: “That sound that crashes in the tyrant’s ear – Kosciuszko!”

Scottish Poet Thomas Campbell: “Freedom shrieked as Kosciuszko fell!”