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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...
Umber Chapel Azn
  11/29/25
huh. did they have a lot of little bridges back then? or ho...
house-broken sandwich
  11/30/25
There was one isthmus, so had the British come by land they ...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
...
house-broken sandwich
  12/01/25
yeah massive infill with trash and whatever else surprise...
Blitzen Did Nothing Wrong
  12/25/25
...
rebellious lodge striped hyena
  11/29/25
Fact #2: Initially, only free blacks were allowed to join th...
Umber Chapel Azn
  11/29/25
yer an idiot if you believe that’s why they didn&rsquo...
khaki spectacular nursing home
  11/30/25
What’s the real reason? They let them in very shortly...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
if you're a wealthy tea merchant or spice trader astroturfin...
khaki spectacular nursing home
  12/01/25
Underrrated
Iridescent histrionic box office double fault
  12/01/25
Sup, Noam
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/02/25
Fact #3: Early in the war the Continental Congress tried to ...
Umber Chapel Azn
  11/30/25
Wow all this shit about black people sounds really important...
Shimmering Jet-lagged Quadroon Theater Stage
  11/30/25
If not for blacks we would have conquered Canada.
Floppy stead
  11/30/25
I see what you did there. I doff my cap to you, sir.
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
This should not be a new learned fact. The U.S. fought the W...
mind-boggling nubile menage coldplay fan
  11/30/25
XO Jackson would have words about that.
soul-stirring fiercely-loyal parlor
  11/30/25
Trump is gonna finish the job
Blitzen Did Nothing Wrong
  12/25/25
Fact #4: Lord Dunmore declared that any slave owned by a reb...
Umber Chapel Azn
  11/30/25
I thought the idea backfired when they all caught smallpox
Seedy amber genital piercing
  11/30/25
All soldiers of all races suffered badly from small pox. An...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
Update: At the end of 1776, George Washington eventually rel...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/24/25
All of these are facts anyone who has read anything about th...
wild glittery shitlib church building
  11/30/25
oh wow you mean these aren't completely new facts that ken b...
rebellious lodge striped hyena
  11/30/25
really dumb criticism. OP is trying to create solid content,...
appetizing ultramarine gay wizard
  12/01/25
Fact #6: the Iroquois created democracy and whitey stole it ...
rose turdskin
  12/01/25
It’s funny, this claim has been getting traction on Tw...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
so the first few sentences of the series did not say that th...
Marvelous Locale Goal In Life
  12/01/25
That doesn’t bear any resemblance to what you’re...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
it unambiguously says that the Iroquois had a "democrac...
Marvelous Locale Goal In Life
  12/02/25
They did! And they formed a confederacy. You’re not ...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/03/25
it was a permanent ruling caste chosen matrilineally. if tha...
Marvelous Locale Goal In Life
  12/03/25
born Robert Peter Cohon
Shimmering Jet-lagged Quadroon Theater Stage
  12/01/25
Fact #5: The colonies were by far the least profitable colon...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/01/25
Fact #7: George Washington Carver's great-grandfather was a ...
bearded titillating bawdyhouse hunting ground
  12/02/25
Pretty sad you guys just want to do racisms and not learn ab...
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/02/25
?
bearded titillating bawdyhouse hunting ground
  12/03/25
You forgot the super soaker
Umber Chapel Azn
  12/03/25
...
rebellious lodge striped hyena
  12/03/25
Fact #6: I knew that rich drafted men could pay poor men to ...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/24/25
Fact #7: Washington mostly got outsmarted and outflanked for...
Marshall W. Waller
  12/25/25


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Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:22 PM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: November 30th, 2025 8:25 AM
Author: house-broken sandwich

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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: house-broken sandwich



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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:36 AM
Author: Blitzen Did Nothing Wrong (TDNW)

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=2Vannesa#49538864)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 29th, 2025 1:24 PM
Author: rebellious lodge striped hyena



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



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Date: November 29th, 2025 1:36 PM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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: khaki spectacular nursing home

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)



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Date: December 1st, 2025 5:13 PM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: December 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
Author: khaki spectacular nursing home

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)



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Date: December 1st, 2025 11:42 PM
Author: Iridescent histrionic box office double fault

Underrrated

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 2nd, 2025 9:49 AM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: November 30th, 2025 8:23 AM
Author: Shimmering Jet-lagged Quadroon Theater Stage

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: Floppy stead

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: November 30th, 2025 9:08 AM
Author: mind-boggling nubile menage coldplay fan

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: soul-stirring fiercely-loyal parlor

XO Jackson would have words about that.

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:38 AM
Author: Blitzen Did Nothing Wrong (TDNW)

Trump is gonna finish the job

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



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Date: November 30th, 2025 8:20 AM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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: Seedy amber genital piercing

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: December 24th, 2025 6:54 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49536406)



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Date: November 30th, 2025 9:51 AM
Author: wild glittery shitlib church building

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: rebellious lodge striped hyena

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: appetizing ultramarine gay wizard

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)



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Date: December 1st, 2025 5:19 PM
Author: rose turdskin

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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: Marvelous Locale Goal In Life

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)



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Date: December 1st, 2025 6:09 PM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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: Marvelous Locale Goal In Life

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: December 3rd, 2025 8:18 AM
Author: Marvelous Locale Goal In Life

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: Shimmering Jet-lagged Quadroon Theater Stage

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: December 2nd, 2025 12:08 AM
Author: bearded titillating bawdyhouse hunting ground

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: Umber Chapel Azn

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)



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Date: December 3rd, 2025 1:35 AM
Author: bearded titillating bawdyhouse hunting ground

?

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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 3rd, 2025 10:43 AM
Author: Umber Chapel Azn

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: rebellious lodge striped hyena



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



Reply Favorite

Date: December 24th, 2025 6:52 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49536403)



Reply Favorite

Date: December 25th, 2025 6:21 AM
Author: Marshall W. Waller

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=2Vannesa#49538856)