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Interesting Facts I learned watching Ken Burn's Revolutionary War

Fact #1. Boston used to be an island. Backbay was literall...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  11/29/25
huh. did they have a lot of little bridges back then? or ho...
white bearded property
  11/30/25
There was one isthmus, so had the British come by land they ...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
...
white bearded property
  12/01/25
yeah massive infill with trash and whatever else surprise...
Vigorous garnet ratface step-uncle's house
  12/25/25
...
startling shitlib
  11/29/25
Fact #2: Initially, only free blacks were allowed to join th...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  11/29/25
yer an idiot if you believe that’s why they didn&rsquo...
Translucent aromatic trailer park
  11/30/25
What’s the real reason? They let them in very shortly...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
if you're a wealthy tea merchant or spice trader astroturfin...
Translucent aromatic trailer park
  12/01/25
Underrrated
Carmine fragrant church
  12/01/25
Sup, Noam
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/02/25
Fact #3: Early in the war the Continental Congress tried to ...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  11/30/25
Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important...
odious feces
  11/30/25
If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.
Godawful Glassy State Haunted Graveyard
  11/30/25
I see what you did there. I doff my cap to you, sir.
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
This should not be a new learned fact. The U.S. fought the W...
thriller home dysfunction
  11/30/25
XO Jackson would have words about that.
Histrionic drab market national security agency
  11/30/25
Trump is gonna finish the job
Vigorous garnet ratface step-uncle's house
  12/25/25
Fact #4: Lord Dunmore declared that any slave owned by a reb...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  11/30/25
I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox
Concupiscible striped hyena lodge
  11/30/25
All soldiers of all races suffered badly from small pox. An...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
Update: At the end of 1776, George Washington eventually rel...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/24/25
All of these are facts anyone who has read anything about th...
pearl garrison
  11/30/25
oh wow you mean these aren't completely new facts that ken b...
startling shitlib
  11/30/25
really dumb criticism. OP is trying to create solid content,...
insecure kink-friendly field community account
  12/01/25
Fact #6: the Iroquois created democracy and whitey stole it ...
Lime razzle location faggot firefighter
  12/01/25
It’s funny, this claim has been getting traction on Tw...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
so the first few sentences of the series did not say that th...
Motley Pearly Stage Immigrant
  12/01/25
That doesn’t bear any resemblance to what you’re...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
it unambiguously says that the Iroquois had a "democrac...
Motley Pearly Stage Immigrant
  12/02/25
They did! And they formed a confederacy. You’re not ...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/03/25
it was a permanent ruling caste chosen matrilineally. if tha...
Motley Pearly Stage Immigrant
  12/03/25
born Robert Peter Cohon
odious feces
  12/01/25
Fact #5: The colonies were by far the least profitable colon...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/01/25
Fact #7: George Washington Carver's great-grandfather was a ...
Alcoholic Emerald Codepig Rehab
  12/02/25
Pretty sad you guys just want to do racisms and not learn ab...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/02/25
?
Alcoholic Emerald Codepig Rehab
  12/03/25
You forgot the super soaker
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/03/25
...
startling shitlib
  12/03/25
Fact #6: I knew that rich drafted men could pay poor men to ...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/24/25
Fact #7: Washington mostly got outsmarted and outflanked for...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/25/25
Fact #8: George Washington really did want to exterminate th...
frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary
  12/31/25


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:22 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #1. Boston used to be an island. Backbay was literally a bay.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1bn2n09/boston_land_reclamation_between_1630_and_1995/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49470245)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: white bearded property

huh. did they have a lot of little bridges back then? or how did they get around

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471669)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:18 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

There was one isthmus, so had the British come by land they could have been easily met by militia forces in a bottle neck. That’s why the British chose to come “by sea” and land their forces in Charlestown.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475259)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 11:41 PM
Author: white bearded property



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49476232)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:36 AM
Author: Vigorous garnet ratface step-uncle's house

yeah massive infill with trash and whatever else

surprised thst flooding isn’t a bigger issue there

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49538864)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:24 PM
Author: startling shitlib



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49470256)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:36 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #2: Initially, only free blacks were allowed to join the American forces. Enlisting slaves was seen as "awkward" because they kept saying the Brits were treating them like slaves. This was codified by the Massachusetts legislature.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49470300)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:20 AM
Author: Translucent aromatic trailer park

yer an idiot if you believe that’s why they didn’t allow slaves in the forces

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471689)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:13 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

What’s the real reason? They let them in very shortly thereafter. So they passed a law and then almost immediately changed their minds.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475232)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
Author: Translucent aromatic trailer park

if you're a wealthy tea merchant or spice trader astroturfing insurrection against an onerous tax regime, would you have an easier time convincing the agricultural southern elite to join your cause by demanding that they donate their tractors to the fight, or by telling them that the shitlib bostonians and poor ass backwater western pennsylvanians will absorb all the shrapnel

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475332)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 11:42 PM
Author: Carmine fragrant church

Underrrated

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49476234)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:49 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Sup, Noam

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49476781)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:10 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #3: Early in the war the Continental Congress tried to seize Canada, fully expecting that they could make it part of the new country. But the U.S. lost the Battle of Quebec City. If that hadn’t happened it’s possible all or some of Canada would be America.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471655)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:23 AM
Author: odious feces

Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471668)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:26 AM
Author: Godawful Glassy State Haunted Graveyard

If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471670)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:14 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

I see what you did there. I doff my cap to you, sir.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475235)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:08 AM
Author: thriller home dysfunction

This should not be a new learned fact. The U.S. fought the War of 1812 over the same thing—annexation of Canada—and the British sacked DC and the war ended technically in a stalemate (USA lost badly).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471687)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:20 AM
Author: Histrionic drab market national security agency

XO Jackson would have words about that.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471690)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:38 AM
Author: Vigorous garnet ratface step-uncle's house

Trump is gonna finish the job

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49538866)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:20 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #4: Lord Dunmore declared that any slave owned by a rebel who fought for the British would be freed. He formed a unit of several hundred runaway slaves called “The Ethiopia Regiment”. The idea backfired by more firmly uniting the states, especially the Southern States, against the British.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471666)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:35 AM
Author: Concupiscible striped hyena lodge

I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471699)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:16 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

All soldiers of all races suffered badly from small pox. Another fun fact is that Washington faced the difficult choice of inoculating all troops at once (and putting everyone out of commission for two weeks) or doing it piecemeal and risking outbreaks. They ended up just trying to quarantine.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475246)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 24th, 2025 6:54 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Update: At the end of 1776, George Washington eventually relented and all new recruits had to be inoculated prior to joining the army and this was one of his most consequential decisions, as army readiness soared once this program was in place.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49536406)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:51 AM
Author: pearl garrison

All of these are facts anyone who has read anything about the revolutionary war already knows

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471717)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 10:12 AM
Author: startling shitlib

oh wow you mean these aren't completely new facts that ken burns uncovered himself?

shut the FUCK up you know-it-all dweeb. i didn't know boston was an island.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49471741)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:15 PM
Author: insecure kink-friendly field community account

really dumb criticism. OP is trying to create solid content, and content is what xo desperately needs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475242)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:19 PM
Author: Lime razzle location faggot firefighter

Fact #6: the Iroquois created democracy and whitey stole it before they raped and killed them all.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475262)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:28 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

It’s funny, this claim has been getting traction on Twitter, but it’s actually nowhere in the series. It’s a total made up straw man used by conservatives to attack Ken Burns, but he does not make this claim. He talks about Native American governance, but it’s actually very relevant and interesting as the Natives were a big wildcard throughout the war. The Cherokee kind of screwed themselves by briefly siding with the British.

The knock that’s valid is that he constantly returns to “what were the slaves getting up to”, but given how much research has been done on this period that’s the one area that is actually somewhat under explored and is new to me.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475296)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:45 PM
Author: Motley Pearly Stage Immigrant

so the first few sentences of the series did not say that the Iroquois had a "democracy," is that what you're saying? listen and see what you think.

https://x.com/adamkjohnston/status/1990986003293536716

funny irony: the Jewish narrator of the series adopted the name "Peter Coyote" after an entirely euro-American "plastic shaman," phony Native American led Peter to a faux spiritual path based upon a trip on hallucinatory drugs. then the "Coyote" went Zen and has never circled back to Native American culture.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475358)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 6:09 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

That doesn’t bear any resemblance to what you’re claiming. It’s a total canard.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475427)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 11:00 AM
Author: Motley Pearly Stage Immigrant

it unambiguously says that the Iroquois had a "democracy," which is plainly bullshit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49477027)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 7:15 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

They did! And they formed a confederacy. You’re not even understanding the claims. The claim that has people upset is that the U.S. confederacy and early democracy was modeled on the Iroquois. This is not the case and it’s not a claim Ken Burns actually makes. But it is true that Iroquois and other tribes used forms of democracy and representative government.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49479288)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:18 AM
Author: Motley Pearly Stage Immigrant

it was a permanent ruling caste chosen matrilineally. if that counts as a "democracy" then everything does.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49479345)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 6:11 PM
Author: odious feces

born Robert Peter Cohon

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475435)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:30 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #5: The colonies were by far the least profitable colonies in the British empire. Britain was much more worried about losing the Caribbean colonies at the outset and so British public sentiment turned more quickly against the war than it would have had it really threatened the Caribbean profits.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49475304)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 12:08 AM
Author: Alcoholic Emerald Codepig Rehab

Fact #7: George Washington Carver's great-grandfather was a freed slave who invented the musket, cannon, lantern, candle, and gunpowder.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49476260)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:48 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Pretty sad you guys just want to do racisms and not learn about America

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49476778)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 1:35 AM
Author: Alcoholic Emerald Codepig Rehab

?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49479158)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 10:43 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

You forgot the super soaker

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49479641)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: startling shitlib



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49479354)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 24th, 2025 6:52 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #6: I knew that rich drafted men could pay poor men to take their place, but sometimes entire towns would pay other towns to send men in their place, which sounds like something Shelbyville would do to Springfield.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49536403)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:21 AM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #7: Washington mostly got outsmarted and outflanked for the first two years. He was kind of learning on the job and he basically just loses city after city with a few victories where he catches the Brits by surprise. He actually loses more battles than he wins but his real legacy was the overall organization of the military and its overall strategy. He wasn’t like Napoleon, who was also a tactical genius.

Terrible reconnaissance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brandywine

Overly complicated attack strategy ruined by fog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Germantown

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49538856)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 31st, 2025 4:03 PM
Author: frum adventurous friendly grandma sanctuary

Fact #8: George Washington really did want to exterminate the Indians, hated them, and explicitly used the war to drive Indians off their lands. Indians also knew and understood that this was what was happening, which is why most sided with the British. But that ended up ruining all of their legal and moral arguments against expansion.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310481",#49552852)