\
  The most prestigious law school admissions discussion board in the world.
BackRefresh Options Favorite

Interesting Facts I learned watching Ken Burn's Revolutionary War

Fact #1. Boston used to be an island. Backbay was literall...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  11/29/25
huh. did they have a lot of little bridges back then? or ho...
Impressive Bawdyhouse
  11/30/25
There was one isthmus, so had the British come by land they ...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
...
Impressive Bawdyhouse
  12/01/25
yeah massive infill with trash and whatever else surprise...
Silver sandwich
  12/25/25
...
Opaque Gas Station
  11/29/25
Fact #2: Initially, only free blacks were allowed to join th...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  11/29/25
yer an idiot if you believe that’s why they didn&rsquo...
vigorous cordovan hall
  11/30/25
What’s the real reason? They let them in very shortly...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
if you're a wealthy tea merchant or spice trader astroturfin...
vigorous cordovan hall
  12/01/25
Underrrated
carnelian scourge upon the earth
  12/01/25
Sup, Noam
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/02/25
Fact #3: Early in the war the Continental Congress tried to ...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  11/30/25
Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important...
misanthropic charcoal multi-billionaire
  11/30/25
If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.
sepia hissy fit
  11/30/25
I see what you did there. I doff my cap to you, sir.
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
This should not be a new learned fact. The U.S. fought the W...
Confused appetizing locale affirmative action
  11/30/25
XO Jackson would have words about that.
Brass Athletic Conference
  11/30/25
Trump is gonna finish the job
Silver sandwich
  12/25/25
Fact #4: Lord Dunmore declared that any slave owned by a reb...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  11/30/25
I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox
Exhilarant love of her life nowag
  11/30/25
All soldiers of all races suffered badly from small pox. An...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
Update: At the end of 1776, George Washington eventually rel...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/24/25
All of these are facts anyone who has read anything about th...
glittery corner water buffalo
  11/30/25
oh wow you mean these aren't completely new facts that ken b...
Opaque Gas Station
  11/30/25
really dumb criticism. OP is trying to create solid content,...
obsidian crackhouse
  12/01/25
Fact #6: the Iroquois created democracy and whitey stole it ...
Histrionic metal therapy
  12/01/25
It’s funny, this claim has been getting traction on Tw...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
so the first few sentences of the series did not say that th...
Sickened frisky sanctuary
  12/01/25
That doesn’t bear any resemblance to what you’re...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
it unambiguously says that the Iroquois had a "democrac...
Sickened frisky sanctuary
  12/02/25
They did! And they formed a confederacy. You’re not ...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/03/25
it was a permanent ruling caste chosen matrilineally. if tha...
Sickened frisky sanctuary
  12/03/25
born Robert Peter Cohon
misanthropic charcoal multi-billionaire
  12/01/25
Fact #5: The colonies were by far the least profitable colon...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/01/25
Fact #7: George Washington Carver's great-grandfather was a ...
Disturbing philosopher-king gay wizard
  12/02/25
Pretty sad you guys just want to do racisms and not learn ab...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/02/25
?
Disturbing philosopher-king gay wizard
  12/03/25
You forgot the super soaker
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/03/25
...
Opaque Gas Station
  12/03/25
Fact #6: I knew that rich drafted men could pay poor men to ...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/24/25
Fact #7: Washington mostly got outsmarted and outflanked for...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/25/25
Fact #8: George Washington really did want to exterminate th...
Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button
  12/31/25


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:22 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49470245)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: Impressive Bawdyhouse

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=5310486#49471669)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:18 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475259)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 11:41 PM
Author: Impressive Bawdyhouse



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49476232)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:36 AM
Author: Silver sandwich

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=5310486#49538864)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:24 PM
Author: Opaque Gas Station



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49470256)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:36 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49470300)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:20 AM
Author: vigorous cordovan hall

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=5310486#49471689)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:13 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475232)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
Author: vigorous cordovan hall

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=5310486#49475332)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 11:42 PM
Author: carnelian scourge upon the earth

Underrrated

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49476234)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:49 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

Sup, Noam

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49476781)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:10 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49471655)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:23 AM
Author: misanthropic charcoal multi-billionaire

Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49471668)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:26 AM
Author: sepia hissy fit

If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49471670)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:14 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475235)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:08 AM
Author: Confused appetizing locale affirmative action

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=5310486#49471687)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:20 AM
Author: Brass Athletic Conference

XO Jackson would have words about that.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49471690)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:38 AM
Author: Silver sandwich

Trump is gonna finish the job

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49538866)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:20 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49471666)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:35 AM
Author: Exhilarant love of her life nowag

I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49471699)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:16 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475246)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 24th, 2025 6:54 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49536406)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:51 AM
Author: glittery corner water buffalo

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=5310486#49471717)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 10:12 AM
Author: Opaque Gas Station

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=5310486#49471741)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:15 PM
Author: obsidian crackhouse

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=5310486#49475242)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:19 PM
Author: Histrionic metal therapy

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=5310486#49475262)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:28 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475296)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:45 PM
Author: Sickened frisky sanctuary

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=5310486#49475358)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 6:09 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475427)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 11:00 AM
Author: Sickened frisky sanctuary

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=5310486#49477027)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 7:15 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49479288)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:18 AM
Author: Sickened frisky sanctuary

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=5310486#49479345)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 6:11 PM
Author: misanthropic charcoal multi-billionaire

born Robert Peter Cohon

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49475435)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:30 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49475304)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 12:08 AM
Author: Disturbing philosopher-king gay wizard

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=5310486#49476260)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:48 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49476778)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 1:35 AM
Author: Disturbing philosopher-king gay wizard

?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49479158)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 10:43 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

You forgot the super soaker

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49479641)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: Opaque Gas Station



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#49479354)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 24th, 2025 6:52 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49536403)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:21 AM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49538856)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 31st, 2025 4:03 PM
Author: Jet-lagged exciting factory reset button

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=5310486#49552852)