One wrote of her experiences during the American Revolutionary era, and the other is helping tell that story as co-director of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution documentary on PBS, starting November 16, 2025.
Elizabeth “Betsy” Jacqulin Ambler was born on March 11, 1865, in Yorktown, Virginia, to Rebecca Burwell Ambler and Jacqulin Ambler. Both sides of Betsy’s family were quite wealthy, even after only a couple of generations in the American colonies. But wealth could only protect them for so long once the Colonists sent a We’re Fed Up letter to King George III, and the American Revolution began.
Betsy’s father was very active in Virginia politics and felt that the family wasn’t safe in Yorktown. This decision kept the family on the move for nearly four years, eventually settling in the new capital of the state, Richmond. When Betsy began a written correspondence with a friend during this time, she unintentionally started keeping a record of the war experience: not of a male soldier or officer, not of battles and strategy, but of a child and then a young woman living as a refugee in her own country. We learn about the fear of moving ahead of advancing troops, of a family trying to stay together, but also of a teenager flirting with soldiers, and so much more.
We’ll tell you the story of her life, her loves and losses, her philanthropic endeavors, her thoughts on our late 1700’s baby democracy. The reason that we know all of this is because not only did she write those letters, later in life she began to organize them, rewrite them, annotate them, and, in doing so, created an organized primary source, a historical record.
On November 16th, PBS begins airing a new Ken Burns’ documentary The American Revolution. Betsy is one of the “voices” in the six-part series, and we sat down with one of the co-directors of the series, Sarah Botstein, to talk about her experience sharing Betsy’s story. We talk about working with Ken Burns for 30 years, how the series was created, and personal accounts of her work and the series. The American Revolution premieres on November 16, 2025, on PBS.
Registration is now open for the June 3-7, 2026 Field Trip to Chicago! It’s a long weekend of subjects near and dear to all of our history-loving hearts! Visit Like Minds Travel for more information and to register!
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