\
  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...
rusted exciting death wish really tough guy
  11/29/25
huh. did they have a lot of little bridges back then? or ho...
bisexual insane mad-dog skullcap fanboi
  11/30/25
There was one isthmus, so had the British come by land they ...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
...
Kenneth Play
  12/01/25
...
chestnut double fault address
  11/29/25
Fact #2: Initially, only free blacks were allowed to join th...
rusted exciting death wish really tough guy
  11/29/25
yer an idiot if you believe that’s why they didn&rsquo...
bearded bespoke ratface sound barrier
  11/30/25
What’s the real reason? They let them in very shortly...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
if you're a wealthy tea merchant or spice trader astroturfin...
zarathustra
  12/01/25
Underrrated
Procedurally Wonky TP
  12/01/25
Sup, Noam
Marshall W. Waller
  12/02/25
Fact #3: Early in the war the Continental Congress tried to ...
rusted exciting death wish really tough guy
  11/30/25
Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important...
irradiated zippy whorehouse trust fund
  11/30/25
If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.
Trip crystalline macaca party of the first part
  11/30/25
I see what you did there. I doff my cap to you, sir.
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
This should not be a new learned fact. The U.S. fought the W...
vigorous crotch
  11/30/25
XO Jackson would have words about that.
spectacular pearl pit circlehead
  11/30/25
Fact #4: Lord Dunmore declared that any slave owned by a reb...
rusted exciting death wish really tough guy
  11/30/25
I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox
Chartreuse Harsh Indian Lodge Dysfunction
  11/30/25
All soldiers of all races suffered badly from small pox. An...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
All of these are facts anyone who has read anything about th...
House-broken infuriating base
  11/30/25
oh wow you mean these aren't completely new facts that ken b...
chestnut double fault address
  11/30/25
really dumb criticism. OP is trying to create solid content,...
...,,..;...,,..,..,...,,,;..,
  12/01/25
Fact #6: the Iroquois created democracy and whitey stole it ...
UhOh
  12/01/25
It’s funny, this claim has been getting traction on Tw...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
so the first few sentences of the series did not say that th...
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
  12/01/25
That doesn’t bear any resemblance to what you’re...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
it unambiguously says that the Iroquois had a "democrac...
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
  12/02/25
They did! And they formed a confederacy. You’re not ...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/03/25
it was a permanent ruling caste chosen matrilineally. if tha...
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
  12/03/25
born Robert Peter Cohon
Senior Ethics Official
  12/01/25
Fact #5: The colonies were by far the least profitable colon...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/01/25
Fact #7: George Washington Carver's great-grandfather was a ...
evan39
  12/02/25
Pretty sad you guys just want to do racisms and not learn ab...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/02/25
?
evan39
  12/03/25
You forgot the super soaker
Marshall W. Waller
  12/03/25
...
ever-growing, towering monument of mental illness
  12/03/25


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:22 PM
Author: rusted exciting death wish really tough guy

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=2Vannesa#49470245)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: bisexual insane mad-dog skullcap fanboi

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=2Vannesa#49471669)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:18 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49475259)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 11:41 PM
Author: Kenneth Play (emotional girth)



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



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:24 PM
Author: chestnut double fault address



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



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:36 PM
Author: rusted exciting death wish really tough guy

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=2Vannesa#49470300)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:20 AM
Author: bearded bespoke ratface sound barrier

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=2Vannesa#49471689)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:13 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49475232)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
Author: zarathustra

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=2Vannesa#49475332)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 11:42 PM
Author: Procedurally Wonky TP

Underrrated

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:49 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

Sup, Noam

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



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:10 AM
Author: rusted exciting death wish really tough guy

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=2Vannesa#49471655)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:23 AM
Author: irradiated zippy whorehouse trust fund

Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:26 AM
Author: Trip crystalline macaca party of the first part

If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:14 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2Vannesa#49475235)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:08 AM
Author: vigorous crotch

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=2Vannesa#49471687)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:20 AM
Author: spectacular pearl pit circlehead

XO Jackson would have words about that.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 8:20 AM
Author: rusted exciting death wish really tough guy

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=2Vannesa#49471666)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:35 AM
Author: Chartreuse Harsh Indian Lodge Dysfunction

I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:16 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49475246)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 9:51 AM
Author: House-broken infuriating base

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=2Vannesa#49471717)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 30th, 2025 10:12 AM
Author: chestnut double fault address

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=2Vannesa#49471741)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:15 PM
Author: ...,,..;...,,..,..,...,,,;..,


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=2Vannesa#49475242)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:19 PM
Author: UhOh

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=2Vannesa#49475262)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:28 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49475296)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:45 PM
Author: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


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=2Vannesa#49475358)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 6:09 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49475427)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 11:00 AM
Author: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


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

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5804097&forum_id=2Vannesa#49477027)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 7:15 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49479288)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:18 AM
Author: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


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=2Vannesa#49479345)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 6:11 PM
Author: Senior Ethics Official

born Robert Peter Cohon

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 1st, 2025 5:30 PM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49475304)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 12:08 AM
Author: evan39

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=2Vannesa#49476260)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:48 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49476778)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 1:35 AM
Author: evan39

?

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 10:43 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

You forgot the super soaker

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: ever-growing, towering monument of mental illness (gunneratttt)



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