(As an American) I can't think of anything more American than getting riled up by a political speech then tearing down a statue of the governmental authority and melting it down into ammunition.
There's one thing more American than that - attacking an armed force with increasing aggression until they're forced to open fire, then calling them tyrants, parading your casualties around to incite riots against them, and brutally attacking and killing anyone who disagrees with your angry mob.
@@rpc717 lol. their government imposed unfair taxing without giving them any say in the matter whatsoever and then when they showed them that they didnt like the taxing their government decided to start killing them (as they had historically done in many other conquered locations in order to enforce their rule) in order to get them to do as they were told and they fought back. i love how your idiotic take on the matter decided to leave out the reason as to why they were attacking an armed force with increasing aggression which is a rather important piece of the equation.
@Summer Bozeman, in all fairness we did give him back to them. 😁 He just happened to be in 42,000 pieces as the time, a simple enough matter to reassemble him. 🙃
@@jjjj-cy3vz Justification is not the least bit germane. The statement was whether or not the action was consummately American or not, not whether their anger was righteous or complete BS. I love how your idiotic take on the matter has absolutely nothing to add to the discussion at hand but you spouted off anyway. Or were you thus providing another example?
I just have to reiterate but the American resistance to the taxes were not necessarily against the taxes themselves. For nearly 60 or 70 years by this point, America was treated nearly hands off by the British. As long as they performed their role in the mercantile economy they were fine. What George III did was take a much more direct role in governing the Colonies. The taxes that were implemented were not just taxes but there were many different provisions that were included in addition to the taxes. So for the most part the resistance was against the extra provisions and the way the taxes were implemented was harmful to the American economy. Essentially the Americans were okay with the idea of taxes but they wanted to be able to work with parliament and be able to find a workable solution that wouldn't harm the American economy. Hence the "No taxation without representation."
@@WU88888 We agree with each other. The resistance was not to the idea of the taxes themselves but rather to the way that they were implementing them and with all of the other provisions included in the various Acts of Parliament. They wanted to be able to work with Parliament as free born Englishmen as they believed themselves to be. Also you are right in that many of the provisions included in the Acts limited the idea of self governance that had been established during the hands off policies of the previous monarchs. George III changed that and ignored the complaints of his subjects.
The Stamp Act was also a crude attempt at social engineering. Parliament thought there were too many professional Americans and the tax targeted them for bankruptcy.
@@sld1776 It also rubbed salt in the wound, because the tax had to be paid in specie (coin), which was not always readily available to all the colonists. Whatever hard money the colonists had went to paying their debts to British merchants and bankers. The colonial economies were more based on credit (anchored to land ownership) and barter (payment in kind). Gold and silver were harder to come by than in the UK itself.
It wasn't that the colonists just didn't want to pay taxes, it was that they didn't have any representation in Parliament; they had no voice in the decision making process or any warning when new taxes would be taking effect.
Not to mention, if an entity is able to levy taxes and get away with it, it'll probably enforce more power over time. It may be beyond the taxes themselves and just about the fact that it's enforcing power at all
When asked if he didn't have any pride in being English, Ben Franklin replied he would : "... were I given the full rights of an Englishman. But to call me one without those rights is like calling an ox a bull. He's thankful for the honor, but he'd much rather have restored what's rightfully his".
it's also the fact we were colonists, they needed our resources for their stupid navy. it was their duty to protect the stuff they claim. so the excuse of "we had to protect you from the french" falls on THEM not the colonies they claim as theirs....
This is a good a valid point. It was the colonists' aggression that started the bloody French and Indian War. The taxes the colonists objected to were arguably their share of the expense of the war. Read Samuel Johnson's "Taxation no Tyranny". The colonists' objection that they had no representation in Parliament was I think a very valid one however.
As an American, I never really took the tea thing seriously, always thought it was a British stereotype. Then during a NATO rotation in Germany we worked with a couple British units, and that's when it became apparent tea time is basically a religious thing. It was hilarious and kind of impressive how everything stopped for tea.
@@AL-fl4jk Like war was honorable than, or now. Some kid in a bunker in Nevada sips a red bull, while bombing civilians across the world from them... again just saying
@@AL-fl4jk Yeah that’s not really a fair thing to say because pretty much everyone is like that not just the Nazis or the Vietcong. When the United States and Britain stormed the beaches of Normandy did they call up the Nazis to let them know when and where this battle will take place? No they didn’t instead they did the best they could to catch the Nazis with their pants down in hopes of losing as few of their men as possible
A year before the Boston tea party a group of men, including the Quaker John Brown who founded Brown University, rowed out to the HMS Gaspee which had been grounded on a sand bar off Warwick, in Rhode Island (chasing a small merchant ship from Newport). While the crew were all off the ship and in Warwick or Pawtuxet village a group of 6 men rowed out to the Gaspee and set it on fire. The point the sand bar runs off has ever since been called Gaspee Point and every July 4th bonfires are lit all around Narragansett Bay and there are Gaspee Days celebrations and a burning of an effigy of the Gaspee is held in Pawtuxet cove. It must be like when Brits burn Guy in effigy.
It wasn't just a matter of being taxed, it was not having a representation in parliament. "You're going to make laws that affect us and we don't even have a voice in the government? Don't tread on me!" Had the king given the colonies some representative seats in parliament, this may have ended up very different.
I appreciate that she was able to get a word in edgewise. Her clarification, “that’s it; war’s started now” helped me to better understand the impact of the shot heard ‘round the world 🗺.
If you’re interested, the melting down of George III’s statue into musket balls was nearly paid back in kind when the British captured Philadelphia, but the patriots had a feeling it would happen so while they evacuated they took church bells and other large metal objects that could be melted. Most importantly was the bell that sat atop the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) where the Declaration of Independence was signed so they smuggled it out of the city. Mid transport it was actually a pretty heavy bell and it actually broke the carriage they used and the bell had a massive crack in it that had to be hastily bolted back together and hidden below a nearby church, but it survived the war and now lives on as “The Liberty Bell” and is a famous landmark to visit in Philadelphia now as it’s across the street from its former home at Independence Hall.
Approximately 250,000 Colonists all told fought as Regulars or Militia members against the British in our Revolution. Another 20 % or more of the Colonists were Loyalists who preferred to remain British citizens some of whom helped the British and many moved to Canada . It's really amazing that we succeeded in winning our freedom and Thank God for support from the French , and the other Military trained Europeans who helped.
Jefferson's views on slavery were complicated. Yes, he owned slaves. But he also, in earlier drafts of the Declaration of Independence was very critical of the idea of slavery. Those passages were removed though in order to placate other southern delegates. He would go on to free some (but not all) of his slaves. The best description I heard was that while he had problems with slavery, he had no workable solution to freeing them and felt that slavery would die off on its own (he was nearly right until the cotton gin was invited).
Even after the cotton gin slavery was dying off. Virginia herself had numerous debates about abolishing slavery. The vast majority of Southerners disliked slavery and saw it as making their wages lower. The practice itself was not profitable. A group of slaves vs a group of free workers will always be more expensive and less productive. Of all the lies about the war of Northern Agression the biggest is that slavery "would still exist". No. Slavery would have been gone within 40 years if the war didn't happen.
Think of the Boston Tea Party this way - at this time one Pound Sterling was literally worth a pound of silver!! So £10,000 worth of tea would have been both a huge amount of the tea itself but also a fortune in monetary terms!! It's no wonder the King was pissed off!!
Did you know that there were other similar "tea parties"? I only learned that a few years ago when I lived on the Chesapeake. One of them was in Chestertown -- and they have an annual celebration of it.
I think you're right regarding the "shot heard 'round the world"; there was already so much tension, something was bound to happen at some point. As others have mentioned in the comments, the rebellion wasn't just a case of a few Europeans who'd moved away from home and wanted to be free. The colonists had been in America for 150 years, developing their own cultures and societies within each region. This is a great video, and your reactions make it even better! Looking forward to Part 2!
the thing with the tea was that parliament was forcing the colonies to buy old moldy bricks of tea that were sitting in warehouses in Britain, putting tea merchants in the colonies out of business. The colonists wanted a voice in parliament, just like any other Englishmen. It was only when the king denied them that they started getting more radical and seeking independence.
There was an element of pride involved…while the Colonists considered themselves “English” with all the rights that entailed, the British considered them merely colonists to be treated as “serfs”…a bit of elitism that came as quite a shock to the colonists!
Yeah, Ive heard the hosts mention "British Greed" about three times now and, while all humanity can be greedy, I think the motives were much more classism than greed
People need to realize that until the Declaration of Independence, the colonists were British citizens living in British colonies; there was no America yet. One fallacy in this video is that when Paul Revere made his famous ride, he did not yell, "The British are coming," because everyone was British except for the Native Americans. He actually yelled, "The regulars are coming," which indicated that the King's troops were coming. The colonial militias also had one big advantage over the King's troops. The British regular army used muskets, which were highly inaccurate short-range firearms. Most of the militia used long rifles, which were normally used for hunting. These pieces had long, rifled barrels and were very accurate at long range. They could, therefore, kill British regular troops before the regular troops were in musket range.
One thing he glosses over is Parliment actually lowered taxes on those that could vote them out and were afraid this "let's tax the guys who can't vote us out" would become the norm. That's why the cry was No taxation without representation" not just "No Taxation."
The Minutemen were not poorly trained. Poorly organized maybe but Many were veterans of the Seven Years War and those that weren't were still rural men who ate by their ability to shoot.
What’s amazing to me is that after all of this I think it made our bond stronger. ‘Merica and the Brits are basically BFF now. If anything happened to England, USA would be the first to have y’all’s back, in a heartbeat
Historically, the 2nd Amendment was there to fight tyranny... of having a standing army. It was never for you to fight the government, it was for you to fight FOR the government.
@@markmendel9883 This right here. The government has tanks, drones and nuclear missiles. You're not going to fight the government with your piddling side arms.
@@themoviedealers the thing is, it would be political suicide to use such weapons on your own people. Not only would it strengthen the resolve of rebels it would also piss off a lot of our allies and even embolden our enemies.
On tours of the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they usually show where George Washington took command of the Continental Army. They usually mention that some cannons were hauled up and down the stairs during the siege of Boston.
A moment to put Thomas Paine and 'Common Sense' into perspective and help it make sense. Back then, the British Crown owned all printing presses, technically. In order to publish, you had to receive a royal warrant to do so. But at this time there were technological improvements in printing presses making them smaller and easily portable for the first time ever. Yet, because of the law, owning one of these smaller presses was technically illegal, but since they could be set up and taken down easier than a moonshine still, black market printing presses were all the rage in the Colonies just before the Revolution. Thomas Paine was one of the so-called Pamphleteers who had illegal presses running for his friends and distributed pamphlets and tracts that were indeed distributed widely, shared from person to person, picked up by other black market printing presses, and redistributed across the Colonies. It was considered the cutting edge of entertainment, so the adults in the Colonies would gather in taverns and public houses and folks would bring in the latest pamphlets from a number of the Pamphleteers and read them aloud as something to do while eating dinner or starting drinks for the night. In a very real way, Thomas Paine and Common Sense were the OG American Twitter and social media for its day. So when Thomas Paine turned the subject matter of his pamphlets to rallying the American countryside toward independence as a cause, it had a huge impact. AND, more to modern sensibilities, it is because of the role that the independent "illegal" printing presses played in mobilizing and uniting the whole countryside in an era before true Mass Media that the very first Amendment to the Constitution, the very lead off for the Bill of Rights, took great care to safeguard the rights of a Free Press. Something that was not done at the time.
And you had Sam Adams making full use of those printing presses, advocating for independence for about 20 years prior. And he was happy to play fast and loose with the facts while he did it.
I am absolutely loving your reactions with Millie. Its a two-for-one of getting to see her learn it for the first time, but also its so lovely to see you explaining things to her, showing how much youve actually learned... you are becoming americanized, James!
Yasssss. Also sweet tea is a BIG DEAL here in the south. You can find it in any southern state. (Probably a few Midwest ones to.) Also something we must remember is the Americans knew how to shoot okay because they hunt and they also knew the lands for decades.
You guys should react to Schoolhouse Rock "No more Kings" and "Shot heard round the world". These are two of many 3-4 minuet musical cartoons that were made for kids in the 1970's to help celebrate the bicentennial of the American Revolution while teaching a bit of history. NO ONE on UA-cam has been reacting to these awesome video's and you guys could be the first. Just watch "Elbow Room" before you react to the others and you will see these are really great video's that you could react to.
I came to the comments to see if anyone mentioned this. Anyone who grew up in the 90s (and probably older and younger) learned a lot of our history from schoolhouse rock. I still occasionally get the songs stuck in my head.
The reason we Anericans still to this day drink more coffee than tea goes back to that incident, and it became a patriotic thing to drink coffee vs. tea. I have a t-shirt with a sailing ship pictured that says "l like my coffee black and my tea in the harbor" 😁😉🇺🇸 Love your videos! They are so much fun.
As an American, this just gave me a whole lot of hindsight. I did learn about the Boston Tea party as all of us did in school in history class. But I do remember my grandfather who was a brilliant man telling my brother that George Washington got to be president by default. The only reason is he studied the craft of war and all the tactics to win. That’s how he was the President because of the situation of time. This was entertaining to watch and extremely knowledgeable. I also love that this lovely British couple is watching and understanding the gravity of it all! A bunch of seriously heavy shit back then!
My grandfather 8 generations back was a Captain in a New Jersey regiment in the revolution . He was with Washington at Valley Forge during that bad winter . He was given a land grant in Kentucky by the Continental Congress for his service .Incidentally ,he was already a SIXTH GENERATION American at the time .
Exactly, one of my ancestors from Massachusetts fought for the Continental Army, also, and he was a sixth-generation American whose ancestors had arrived in Massachusetts in 1620, more than 150 years earlier. Nobody in the family had ever been back to the British Isles during that entire period. To him, the British were foreigners.
@@johnalden5821 in 1620 my first ancestor was born on this continent in Hudson's Bay colony. That side of my family eventually immigrated through Chicago in the late 1800s.
@@johnalden5821 Your name is kind of a give-away ,lol . My ancestors were French Huguenots who fled France for Holland because they were being murdered by the Catholics and then came to America on the first Dutch ship to Nieuw Amsterdam ( New York ) . They married Dutch and spoke Dutch for the first 6 generations here
'No Taxation Without Representation' was a part of English political theory. It was the cause of the English Civil War. It's my view that Concord was meant as a provocation, and that British troops would easily put down the 'rabble' and assert direct control. The Crown believed that they could easily win (because all the colonists were commoners, without an aristocracy of 'betters'). The colonists were legally in the right (the Whigs in Parliament in Britain agreed). The only way there would not be war is if the Crown backed down and stopped trying to assert direct control...and I don't think that would have happened without a military defeat.
@@LordTyph The English in the colonies were demanding their rights as Englishmen. English political theory held that the people were ruled via their own consent, and that consent came via representation in Parliament. To be taxed without consent was the same as slavery. The English colonists saw it that way, as did the Whigs in Britain. The Crown was denying them their rights, so yes.
@@Ocrilat ...wow, I have no sympathy for British royalty at the time then. They bungled their status as world power in part because they got greedy and corrupt.
@@LordTyph At the time, they had a lot more power than they do now (though they still have more power than they pretend to have). My theory is that George III planned to become an absolute monarch, and what ended up being the American Revolution wasn't expected. What he expected (again, my conjecture) is that the colonists would be goaded into a revolt (Lexington/Concord), but because the colonists had no aristocracy, would be easily put down. Then the Crown would have an unlimited source of money and manpower apart from Parliament. And Parliament would be even weaker after more or less proving that they were unneeded (if the colonists were 'represented' by the existence of the King, why not the entire nation?).
@@LordTyph It seems to me, losing the American Revolution probably saved the Parliamentary system in Britain. The Tories lost control of the government (even though at first the King refused to allow the Tory government to fall regardless of the votes). The King lost power, and then later lost his mind, so this opportunity closed for good.
You two are so wholesome and a joy to watch. I’ve been bingeing all your videos since I first discovered you 2 days ago lol keep them coming! I love every video you’ve done. Much love from Arizona!
The Stamp Act is why the Ace of Spades in a deck of cards is always unique, it is a representation of the stamps that were placed on cards showing the tax had been paid on them.
Worked out pretty good for our British brothers and sisters, now you have the strongest military in the world backing you up it’s crazy how things worked out ✌️from Texas.
Post Brexit Britain is the reason we are the way we are now. Our own Prime Minister is Russia public enemy number one according to the Kremlin as within Europe the British are the most outspoken and pro-Ukrainian Government. We were the first one's in Europe to send weapons to Ukraine before the War started and I believe the US for that matter. We had the first nuclear threat from Russia and it still doesn't scare us! I love the United States, even though I'm a Patriot Britishman. We work along side America. Britain has always been however the Nation in Europe to stand up in times of trouble. I mean from May of 1940 to December 1941... we faced Nazi Germany in Europe alone! Us Brits always have know how to stand up to dictators. The American and British special relationship took time but it's one I know both Nation's as much as we banter and say about one another know is important.
Regarding the Boston Massacre, there was a trial and the British soldiers were found innocent, as it was only a few soldiers(I think 6-10) against an angry mob of at least 100 men. John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers, was the one who actually defended the soldiers in this trial.
Tea was and still used in the traditional manner in the US; the advent of new tea drinking styles started in the South and spread in popularity. However, sweet tea is not predomimant in every state. Iced tea, however became a practical method of drinking due to the warm climate and hot summers.
This video incorrectly states the "shot heard round the world" happened in Lexington when in fact it happened at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. On April 19, 1775, the first day of the American Revolutionary War, provincial minutemen and militia companies numbering approximately 400 engaged roughly 90 British Army troops at this location. The battle was the first instance in which American forces advanced in formation on the British regulars, inflicted casualties, and routed their opponents. It was a pivotal moment in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and in American history. The significance of the historic events at the North Bridge inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson to refer to the moment as the "shot heard round the world."
However someone shot at Lexington. British Regulars did not just open fire on civilians in this period. Even the Boston Massacre was caused by a British Solider being hit in the head with a club, his musket discharging and people behind the Regulars shouting Fire while their Officer stood infront of the entire Musket line lol
The pursuit of happiness had a different meaning in that time than it does now. Back then, happiness in that context meant improving ones or ones' family situation for the better and improving one's "station". Meaning social level. The pursuit of happiness clause meant that there was a stated intention to do away with limits on personal advancement and was a direct attack on the concept of aristocracy.
11 of the 13 colonies voted to abolish slavery when drafting the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson had an entire paragraph specific to abolishing slavery. But the vote had to be unanimous on anything included to prevent the King from trying to drive a wedge between the colonies during the war.
Thomas Jefferson himself hated the practice of slavery as did Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. At the time though it was the norm and entrenched in colonial law such as Virginia. A small but slowly growing anti-slavery movement was forming since about 1750 (give or take a decade). They knew that slavery was a contradiction of the values expressed by the Declaration of Independence and tried everything in their power at the time to limit its power on the colonies, especially the south.
@@wesleypeters4112 Also, Jefferson was in debt, and probably couldn't sell his slaves due to them likely being viewed as collateral. Plus, Jefferson feared having the families among his slaves being broken up if they were sold. He wanted their families to remain intact. I took a college course on Early American History this past summer, and of course they tried to twist it a bit. But the textbooks clearly provided tons of evidence to prove the Founding Fathers were anti-slavery, despite the seeming contradictions of them still owning slaves. I thoroughly and completely destroyed everyone in that class every time they tried to argue otherwise. and I'd even cite specific evidence in the textbook and other sources we used throughout the course to prove it. Aced the class (the professor was rather reasonable and only displayed moderate bias himself). I can even go into why slavery wasn't ended when writing the Constitution. It is not a simply or easy thing to explain, but their is a reason, and it's hard for most to see. Unfortunately it would take me far too long to explain here. But I wrote a multipage paper on it in the class, detailing what happened, again using the very sources assigned in class to prove it.
@@SoloRenegade That is true. I read about that, very fascinating. Jefferson freed two slaves during his life and more were freed after his death (I don't remember the exact number, possibly a hundred). George Washington also freed his slaves on his plantation (slaves owned by his wives family were handed over to them).
@@wesleypeters4112 Yes, I was going to mention George Washington, but I'm glad to see I'm in good company of another well educated individual on this topic. Women had a surprising amount of rights and influence in early America too. George Washington had no rights to his wives slaves. Some colonies actually had all kinds of laws that would surprise modern people, as those laws were very "progressive" for their time, and very much like laws of the 20th century. In some colonies, the women controlled the finances of the family. Women in other colonies inherited their husbands authority and holdings upon their death, women had businesses, and influenced political discourse, the first female self-made millionaire in US history was a freed black slave... Too bad modern "progressives" don't educate themselves on these facts.
@@SoloRenegade That is true. in my home state women in Hawarden IA voted in favor of passing the construction of the new schoolhouse in 1895. That was one of the earliest times where women voted in that community. Women in my hometown owned dress shops and had prominent importance in the churches organizing social events.
Fun Fact: Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence did call for the abolition of slavery. But, not being able to secure the support of the southern colonies, he was forced to remove it. Later, under Virginia State law, he was prevented from freeing his own slaves. Not wanting to sell them to slaveholders who wouldn't care for them, he chose to keep them until his own death, which was the only way they could lawfully be made free.
These facts are often forgotten & glossed over in order to portray Jefferson as a malicious slave owner with zero conscience regarding the foundational institution of American society (brought to the colonies by the British). The truth, not uncommonly, is much more nuanced.
They don’t really cover the English civil war for example in American K-12 though, so it’s not too surprising when you think about it that British schools don’t go into great detail on this one particular incident in their history.
The first continental congress actually took quite a long time because everyone had such different accents and they hadn’t come across the other accents so they had to basically have some kind of translation. Patrick Henry wrote about this in his journal. Patrick Henry was the guy who gave the speech “give me liberty or give me death.” (Side-note: powerful speech that encompasses the American spirit in a short speech)
The major advantage that the "American" colonies at the time had that other colonies around the world didn't have was that They were essentially British and a lot of the soon to be American military leaders actually fought in the British army so they understood their tactics So they were able to successfully put together a militia that could have a good chance against the British.
that and the sheer distance between us and mainland britain meant that we couldnt get swarmed by an entire army of fully rested and supplied of hardened soldiers.
@@devinwhite5064 Yes the problem of supply lines was used by the American commanders in the southern colonies to tremendous advantage. The British just could not get any distance away from the ports without losing their supply lines and never could get real control over the backcountry. This fact sent them here and there dealing with the southern geography and living off the land (that is, taking supplies from homesteaders, making even more enemies all the time) and struggling with the attenuation of their lines until the final missteps and diversions that led to .. YORKTOWN Looking forward to Part 2!
The major advantage was that the Continental Army was maintained. There were many times it nearly broke apart. If the British Generals had seen their counter parts more like rebels and less like misguided Englishmen things may have turned out differently. Howe could have easily pursued Washington in the New York Campaign and if he had of the entire Continental Army may very well have fallen. The advantage they had is they held on long enough for French intervention also joined with the fact the British Generals had a massive rivalry and hatrid for one another so never worked fully as a united unit. If they had of done, Saratoga would have not of been a surrender and the Colonies would have been cut in half. This is what Washington feared the most. I bet he was relieved when he heard Howe was moving on Philadelphia as opposed to linking up with Burgoyne.
That's true for just about any colonial history. No country wants to teach much about their war defeats or their sordid history of colonizing others' lands. Consider how little they teach us in the US about the War of 1812 (a war that ended with us losing and Canada remaining British). Or consider the US's history in the Philippines. In the Philippines they teach all about the US annexation (we owned them for about 48 years!) and the wars and skirmishes they fought for independence from us. We learn almost nothing about that.
The American Revolutionary War lasted till 1783. I’ve read a few books about the war. Some seriously mental stuff was done to the colonists. Those men were made of rare stuff. It’s an amazing story.
Yes do part 2 of the American Revolution and then react to the War of 1812. It was the War where the National Anthem was written. It also had the famous battle of New Orleans.
Couldn't agree more. The War of 1812 is my favorite war for a variety of reasons (partially b/c it's when individual states really coalesced into a united country.) The Brits like it b/c their troops burned most of DC to the ground -- you can still see singed blocks in the original foundation of the White House, and every new UK ambassador is shown it when they first come here.
It wasn’t just the taxes; it was the principle behind the taxes. What right do you have to tax us when we have no voice in the body that creates the tax: parliament. And what right do you have to tell us we MUST buy your goods only and may not buy goods from other nations? The tea issue was the same. Great Britain taxed us for the tea and we said no thanks, keep your tea. Then we found out that the British were going to force us to buy the tea. Force us to buy something so that you can tax it? That was the last straw.
Imagine you and 100,000 others leave your homes in a trecherious two month voyage across the Atlantic to found a new life. You battle hostile tribes, face disease, and carve cities / wealth out of wilderness for generations. Then suddenly the rulers from the country your grandparents escaped from step in and claim control.
Hmmm, imagine the Country which saved your entire being and way of life then asked for help with the bill and you said, go and screw yourselves and take your armies which help defend our homes and put your Nation into millions of pounds worth of det with you!
Imagine your race lives on a continent for 30 thousand years and then people from another side of the planet start coming and diseasing your race to near extinction and then they successfully colinize the entire continent.
6:55 Its worth noting that the tea that was thrown overboard was NOT leaves, what they would do is they'd steep all the flavor out then boil it into a thick substance that would then be stamped into bars (Think large chocolate bar shape). These bars would last almost indefinitely if stored properly and to make tea all you had to do was grab a knife and the bar, carve a few shavings into a teapot and add hot water for it to dissolve. those "10,000 pounds of tea" represented the sum total tea consumption of the colonies likely for a few years, a single bar could last a family several months at least upwards of a year depending on how often then had tea and how strong they liked the it.
The two of you should watch the 3 part HBO mini series called "John Adams" The series does a really good job of explaining how the revolutionary war came about.
Im sure you have thousands upon thousands of messages that show Americans commenting about how you both show love for us Americans. I as another American who is a service member, I really do appreciate you both for learning about my peoples (which is also your history) history. Much love and respect for you both! Im also happy to know there are people from other countries who show love and appreciation for America. Thank you and love you both! -Tony
The United States were a small, insignificant band of Colonies but defeated the most powerful Nation on Earth...twice. Granted, the first time (the Revolutionary War), the French Navy was what really made it possible. The second (the War of 1812, Star Spangled Banner), a French Creole Pirate named Jean Lafitte and free blacks were instrumental in helping Col. Andrew Jackson defeat a major attack at New Orleans. Jackson rode that victory right into the White House. A pretty famous singer named Johnny Horton released a song called "The Battle of New Orleans" in 1959 and, kinda like Ray Stevens, he made it comedic. Twangy and old fashioned, but funny as hell. In 1960 he released the song "Sink the Bismarck". Not comedic, but a "March" about the WW2 German Warship. Both are well worth reviewing, or just check them out.
The Americans were proud to be British. The problem is that when they began to be taxed, they protested that they didn't have representation in Parliament. The British Supreme Court ruled that the Americans were not British but were subjects of the crown. They were expected to be loyal to Britain even though they were not British. This angered the Americans. They had always assumed that they were British and were conscious of their rights as such. Now they learned that they had no real rights.
I’m gonna go ahead and say that it was our side (Americans) who fired “The shot heard around the world.” Given how amped up we were and less military discipline (especially trigger discipline), it was most likely us.
Although cannot be proven. I'd agree and have always thought this. Regulars vs local dudes with muskets... even if not intentional who's more likely to get nervous and fuck up. Agreement off a Britishman!
It wasn’t no taxes. The issue was the Americans felt they couldn’t legally be taxed without representation in parliament. Americans weren’t backwater yokels. They were the grandchildren of the same puritans that put King Charles I on trial and would cause the same trouble to the Crown as their grandfathers did.
I watch a lot of reaction vids to these over-simplified American history from people all over the world and I gotta say it's kinda touching the reactions I see. One thing though, your talking about British greed and blaming the Brits for a lot. Just remember Every country has done things they might now be ashamed of. Especially America. But Every country also has things they have every right to be proud of. Remember a little thing called World War II. For a while there it was just Great Britain standing alone against Hitler and the Nazis. Before America finally got off its butt and jumped in to help the Brits won the Battle of Britain. And they endured the nightly Blitz which devastating London. And they did it with no real help. Whatever may have happened over 200 years ago, the Brits proved their own courage and strength. Never forget America started out as a daughter of Britain.Thats where we got our spirit. 🇬🇧🤝🇺🇲
@@phredphlintstone6455 he was only referring to the blitz and Battle of Britain during this time British supplies were low and so the Americans had to give us supplies im pretty sure he probably knows WW2 as a whole was an allied effort with France, Belgium, the colonies etc getting involved
We drink a lot of tea in the states. We just drink more coffee. July 2nd was the date the Continental Congress actually voted for independence. It took a couple of days to have the Declaration of Independence printed and distributed.
I’m gonna say this… The Boston massacre was on the colonists. They were heckling British guards who were armed and even dared them to shoot at them and the soldiers were just simply defending themselves. What would’ve you done if people were throwing rocks and oyster shells at you and you weren’t allowed to leave your spot? This is probably the earliest representation of American media over reacting to certain incidents. Maybe they got inspired by this.
You also need to consider the fact that the troops were just people with limited options to respond with. I agree,pressure people with who knows what level of experience dealing with hostile crowds and you probably won’t get a good outcome.
Well eh, sure maybe? It's kind of the equivilent in modern day terms of a riot was going on and the rioters were throwing bottles so the police kill them with live ammo. So yeah it can be seen as self-defense in a tense situation, but it wasn't uncommon to fire into the air to disperse crowds.
@@ZachSawyer2077 the fact that he's the second president after all that is the perfect example of just HOW impartial and a seeker of the truth he was. HBO did a miniseries about him (IIRC it's like 7-8 hour long episodes,) and it actually starts about 5 minutes before the massacre happened and covers the trial. IDR exactly but pretty sure it was nominated for awards; very well produced (and a great cast too.)
@@MrTommygunz420 The Continental Congress having figures like George Washington and John Adams among them...men of substance who had served the Crown honorably and were not mere rabble-rousers...should have told King George and the Board of Trade back in London that this wasn't just a bunch of malcontents who'd crumble when things got tough. Almost nobody in Parliament took the colonists and their concerns seriously, and terribly underestimated their resolve.
The Tea act was such a big deal in America that it permanently damaged tea consumption to this day, and made coffee the main drink. Tea mostly isn't drunken hot due to the fact that the Colonists would buy tea that wasn't good for hot consumption both to rebel and due to the hot summers. This is also why drinks like lemonade were invented.
1) At 4:51, the Loyalist American is wearing a Team GB jersey! 2) At 5:55, the "make the colonists pay for them" appears to be a reference to a former American President's unfulfilled promise to make Mexico pay for the wall never built between that country and the U.S. 3) At 6:30, the British revenue schooner which was burned in Rhode Island was the HMS Gaspee. It happened in 1772 in my hometown of Warwick. To this day there is an annual patriotic commemoration of the event. We conveniently downplay that the burning was done by smugglers. It was the 18th-century equivalent of looters burning a police car. There was so much smuggling in Rhode Island back then that the colony was sometimes called "Rogues' Island." 4) The argument was made by Thomas Paine in "The American Crisis," written during the war, that the British military provoked the Americans into fighting before negotiations to resolve the crisis could be completed (remember, it took 1-3 months for mail to cross the Atlantic). Some in Parliament had boasted the colonies would be quickly conquered and then taxed, and that therefore war would be more profitable than peace. This is probably a moot point; by 1775, war was likely unavoidable. 5) When OverSimplified talked about the UK taxing the American colonies to help pay for their own defense, there are two important facts he did not mention. First, according to the royal charters that established the colonies, Parliament did not have the right to tax the colonies, although Parliament might have been using a loophole by taxing trade goods. Second, under the system of mercantilism which required the colonies to sell their exports to only the UK and buy imported goods from only the UK, British merchants had a monopoly and were earning most of the profits. The colonists thought these profits were a sufficient payment for defense. Also, like most agricultural societies back then, there was very little money in circulation in the colonies with which the taxes would need to be paid. Much of the trade between Americans was one product or service for another. Some Americans at the time questioned the wisdom of the British refusing to listen to their grievances, because war meant the British would lose the profits on trade--either temporarily if they won or permanently if the colonies did.
Hey James and Millie! I recently discovered your channel and Im addicted. You guys are awesome, you both are so likeable and have such great personalities, and you are officially my new favorite UA-cam couple.
A small detail that adds something to “the shot heard around the world”; both sides were under orders not to shoot. So we don’t even know which side fired first or why.
Your videos have not appeared in a while but I’m glad it finally showed up in my suggestions. Love your videos man I’ve been trying to catch up and already watched a few hours of your older videos I missed. Have a great day today
I am from Massachusetts & I love tea. I drink it in the morning instead of coffee. ✌️ My ancestors, 12 generations ago, were from Prince Edward Island & Ireland 💕
Tea was one of the main ways to hydrate since most water during that era would get you sick. It is literally one of the necessities for living on a pragmatic level.
I live and grew up not far from Brandywine Battle field in Chester County Pennsylvania. One night my teen son me and my 4 year old were out on the porch. We heard a revolutionary war sounding flute playing across the back yard. My teen son tried to get in the garage door first I had the 4 year old wrapped around my leg sayin mommie I'm Scared. I got in the garage door frst!😆👍
Fact is, "over simplified" is a gross understatement and it is misleading. The core reason was Brittan levied high taxes on the colonies and sent all that money back to Brittan . and they treated the colonies badly. It got so bad that the colonies had quite enough of Britain's BS and declared the independence. It was not the colonies were against taxes.... they just wanted their tax money to benefit them and not Brittain
No taxation without representation was only ONE of 17 things that the colonists petitioned the king about, and ultimately were written in the Declaration of Independence.
Had a chance to tour many of the Lexiton and Concrod sites. The most striking thing was the graves, or places, that the british fell all along the road, right by the North Bridge, and all along the routes as the Britsh fled back to Boston. A member of the British government paid his repects 30 years or so ago. Only about 67% of the population backed Independence at the time. One colony sent no delgates to even sign the declaration.
Not sure if anyone previously mentioned this or not, the Colonists learned new warfare from the Native Americans. Prior to this both sides lined up in rows and shot at each other, all out in the open. The Native Americans who obviously thought that was a dumb idea taught the Colonists to take cover behind anything that might stop a musket ball, such as trees, rocks, etc. This was a new and very important warfare strategy that tipped many battle victories into the hands of the Colonists.
I've been to the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City and I can't imagine how it felt to fight in the open like that. I felt awfully conspicuous, with no cover anywhere.
From the Colonies perspective it wasn’t just the taxes, but they briefly mentioned that they had no voice in Parliament so the phrase “No taxation without representation!!!” Was born.
I have A family descendant that was a member of the Sons of Liberty at the Boston Tea Party, and The Revolutionary War. He was wounded at the Battle of Concord.
Columbus' story has been mis-told so often that it is scary. The history of Columbus' voyages is more complicated than even the summary could relate in brief.
Theres a book called, "A Narrative Of A Revolutionary Soldier" and it really illustrates the sacrifices made by these men. Its unfathomable. Highly recommended!
My Great (×6) Grandfather Sergeant Benjamin Haskell was actually one of the revolutionaries who fought on Bunker Hill. Supposedly, he was near General Joseph Warren when the general was killed during the battle.
(As an American) I can't think of anything more American than getting riled up by a political speech then tearing down a statue of the governmental authority and melting it down into ammunition.
[I agree!]
There's one thing more American than that - attacking an armed force with increasing aggression until they're forced to open fire, then calling them tyrants, parading your casualties around to incite riots against them, and brutally attacking and killing anyone who disagrees with your angry mob.
@@rpc717 lol. their government imposed unfair taxing without giving them any say in the matter whatsoever and then when they showed them that they didnt like the taxing their government decided to start killing them (as they had historically done in many other conquered locations in order to enforce their rule) in order to get them to do as they were told and they fought back. i love how your idiotic take on the matter decided to leave out the reason as to why they were attacking an armed force with increasing aggression which is a rather important piece of the equation.
@Summer Bozeman, in all fairness we did give him back to them. 😁 He just happened to be in 42,000 pieces as the time, a simple enough matter to reassemble him. 🙃
@@jjjj-cy3vz Justification is not the least bit germane. The statement was whether or not the action was consummately American or not, not whether their anger was righteous or complete BS. I love how your idiotic take on the matter has absolutely nothing to add to the discussion at hand but you spouted off anyway. Or were you thus providing another example?
I just have to reiterate but the American resistance to the taxes were not necessarily against the taxes themselves. For nearly 60 or 70 years by this point, America was treated nearly hands off by the British. As long as they performed their role in the mercantile economy they were fine. What George III did was take a much more direct role in governing the Colonies. The taxes that were implemented were not just taxes but there were many different provisions that were included in addition to the taxes. So for the most part the resistance was against the extra provisions and the way the taxes were implemented was harmful to the American economy. Essentially the Americans were okay with the idea of taxes but they wanted to be able to work with parliament and be able to find a workable solution that wouldn't harm the American economy. Hence the "No taxation without representation."
@@WU88888 We agree with each other. The resistance was not to the idea of the taxes themselves but rather to the way that they were implementing them and with all of the other provisions included in the various Acts of Parliament. They wanted to be able to work with Parliament as free born Englishmen as they believed themselves to be. Also you are right in that many of the provisions included in the Acts limited the idea of self governance that had been established during the hands off policies of the previous monarchs. George III changed that and ignored the complaints of his subjects.
You also had the "Impressment" issue.
The Stamp Act was also a crude attempt at social engineering. Parliament thought there were too many professional Americans and the tax targeted them for bankruptcy.
@@nyborg6425 Impressment was a major issue leading up to the War of 1812 -- completely different war.
@@sld1776 It also rubbed salt in the wound, because the tax had to be paid in specie (coin), which was not always readily available to all the colonists. Whatever hard money the colonists had went to paying their debts to British merchants and bankers. The colonial economies were more based on credit (anchored to land ownership) and barter (payment in kind). Gold and silver were harder to come by than in the UK itself.
It wasn't that the colonists just didn't want to pay taxes, it was that they didn't have any representation in Parliament; they had no voice in the decision making process or any warning when new taxes would be taking effect.
Not to mention, if an entity is able to levy taxes and get away with it, it'll probably enforce more power over time. It may be beyond the taxes themselves and just about the fact that it's enforcing power at all
But we would be okay with not having taxes too.....
When asked if he didn't have any pride in being English, Ben Franklin replied he would : "... were I given the full rights of an Englishman. But to call me one without those rights is like calling an ox a bull. He's thankful for the honor, but he'd much rather have restored what's rightfully his".
it's also the fact we were colonists, they needed our resources for their stupid navy. it was their duty to protect the stuff they claim. so the excuse of "we had to protect you from the french" falls on THEM not the colonies they claim as theirs....
This is a good a valid point. It was the colonists' aggression that started the bloody French and Indian War. The taxes the colonists objected to were arguably their share of the expense of the war. Read Samuel Johnson's "Taxation no Tyranny". The colonists' objection that they had no representation in Parliament was I think a very valid one however.
As an American, I never really took the tea thing seriously, always thought it was a British stereotype. Then during a NATO rotation in Germany we worked with a couple British units, and that's when it became apparent tea time is basically a religious thing. It was hilarious and kind of impressive how everything stopped for tea.
And that is the time to attack..... Just saying....
@@JRock3091 tactics both the vietcong and the nazis utilized, so congrats you now know who you think like
@@AL-fl4jk Like war was honorable than, or now. Some kid in a bunker in Nevada sips a red bull, while bombing civilians across the world from them... again just saying
@@AL-fl4jk Yeah that’s not really a fair thing to say because pretty much everyone is like that not just the Nazis or the Vietcong. When the United States and Britain stormed the beaches of Normandy did they call up the Nazis to let them know when and where this battle will take place? No they didn’t instead they did the best they could to catch the Nazis with their pants down in hopes of losing as few of their men as possible
A year before the Boston tea party a group of men, including the Quaker John Brown who founded Brown University, rowed out to the HMS Gaspee which had been grounded on a sand bar off Warwick, in Rhode Island (chasing a small merchant ship from Newport). While the crew were all off the ship and in Warwick or Pawtuxet village a group of 6 men rowed out to the Gaspee and set it on fire. The point the sand bar runs off has ever since been called Gaspee Point and every July 4th bonfires are lit all around Narragansett Bay and there are Gaspee Days celebrations and a burning of an effigy of the Gaspee is held in Pawtuxet cove. It must be like when Brits burn Guy in effigy.
It wasn't just a matter of being taxed, it was not having a representation in parliament. "You're going to make laws that affect us and we don't even have a voice in the government? Don't tread on me!" Had the king given the colonies some representative seats in parliament, this may have ended up very different.
You have to make these team reactions permanent! Your great together!
Thank you 🥰
* you’re.
I agree
I agree !
I appreciate that she was able to get a word in edgewise. Her clarification, “that’s it; war’s started now” helped me to better understand the impact of the shot heard ‘round the world 🗺.
If you’re interested, the melting down of George III’s statue into musket balls was nearly paid back in kind when the British captured Philadelphia, but the patriots had a feeling it would happen so while they evacuated they took church bells and other large metal objects that could be melted. Most importantly was the bell that sat atop the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) where the Declaration of Independence was signed so they smuggled it out of the city. Mid transport it was actually a pretty heavy bell and it actually broke the carriage they used and the bell had a massive crack in it that had to be hastily bolted back together and hidden below a nearby church, but it survived the war and now lives on as “The Liberty Bell” and is a famous landmark to visit in Philadelphia now as it’s across the street from its former home at Independence Hall.
Approximately 250,000 Colonists all told fought as Regulars or Militia members against the British in our Revolution. Another 20 % or more of the Colonists were Loyalists who preferred to remain British citizens some of whom helped the British and many moved to Canada . It's really amazing that we succeeded in winning our freedom and Thank God for support from the French , and the other Military trained Europeans who helped.
Very true...but, the British had done a really good job of making enemies from which the Americans to go seek help. LOL
@@iKvetch558 Yep, the timing was right .
Don’t forget about the Natives that helped us remove the British as well!!
@@Dr.Unsteady Some did but the majority of Tribes fearing Colonial expansion supported the British.
@@Dr.Unsteady and how did we thank them?
Jefferson's views on slavery were complicated. Yes, he owned slaves. But he also, in earlier drafts of the Declaration of Independence was very critical of the idea of slavery. Those passages were removed though in order to placate other southern delegates. He would go on to free some (but not all) of his slaves. The best description I heard was that while he had problems with slavery, he had no workable solution to freeing them and felt that slavery would die off on its own (he was nearly right until the cotton gin was invited).
Even after the cotton gin slavery was dying off. Virginia herself had numerous debates about abolishing slavery. The vast majority of Southerners disliked slavery and saw it as making their wages lower. The practice itself was not profitable. A group of slaves vs a group of free workers will always be more expensive and less productive. Of all the lies about the war of Northern Agression the biggest is that slavery "would still exist". No. Slavery would have been gone within 40 years if the war didn't happen.
@@cult_of_odin
"It would've taken 40 more years to abolish slavery if the war didn't happen"
Minor correction
Jefferson basically ran a College. In the day, he is very misunderstood. He was playing global politics at is time.
it was a different time... you cant judge people for decisions we couldn't possible understand living in a free society today.
@Laugh Explore Travel she was a child, he raped her for years
Ben Franklin had the quote of the war: "Gentlemen, we had better hang together because if we do not we most certainly will hang separately"
Think of the Boston Tea Party this way - at this time one Pound Sterling was literally worth a pound of silver!!
So £10,000 worth of tea would have been both a huge amount of the tea itself but also a fortune in monetary terms!!
It's no wonder the King was pissed off!!
Crazy!
Also, no other property was damaged or destroyed except one padlock, which was replaced by the Sons of Liberty!
Did you know that there were other similar "tea parties"? I only learned that a few years ago when I lived on the Chesapeake. One of them was in Chestertown -- and they have an annual celebration of it.
Not to mention it took a lot longer in those days to send ships of replacement tea.
I think you're right regarding the "shot heard 'round the world"; there was already so much tension, something was bound to happen at some point. As others have mentioned in the comments, the rebellion wasn't just a case of a few Europeans who'd moved away from home and wanted to be free. The colonists had been in America for 150 years, developing their own cultures and societies within each region. This is a great video, and your reactions make it even better! Looking forward to Part 2!
Agreed if the shot wouldn't have happened. Something else would have caused the war to start.
"I like my coffee black and my tea in the ocean" - 🇺🇸
the thing with the tea was that parliament was forcing the colonies to buy old moldy bricks of tea that were sitting in warehouses in Britain, putting tea merchants in the colonies out of business. The colonists wanted a voice in parliament, just like any other Englishmen. It was only when the king denied them that they started getting more radical and seeking independence.
There was an element of pride involved…while the Colonists considered themselves “English” with all the rights that entailed, the British considered them merely colonists to be treated as “serfs”…a bit of elitism that came as quite a shock to the colonists!
Yeah, Ive heard the hosts mention "British Greed" about three times now and, while all humanity can be greedy, I think the motives were much more classism than greed
People need to realize that until the Declaration of Independence, the colonists were British citizens living in British colonies; there was no America yet. One fallacy in this video is that when Paul Revere made his famous ride, he did not yell, "The British are coming," because everyone was British except for the Native Americans. He actually yelled, "The regulars are coming," which indicated that the King's troops were coming. The colonial militias also had one big advantage over the King's troops. The British regular army used muskets, which were highly inaccurate short-range firearms. Most of the militia used long rifles, which were normally used for hunting. These pieces had long, rifled barrels and were very accurate at long range. They could, therefore, kill British regular troops before the regular troops were in musket range.
One thing he glosses over is Parliment actually lowered taxes on those that could vote them out and were afraid this "let's tax the guys who can't vote us out" would become the norm. That's why the cry was No taxation without representation" not just "No Taxation."
The Minutemen were not poorly trained. Poorly organized maybe but Many were veterans of the Seven Years War and those that weren't were still rural men who ate by their ability to shoot.
The John Adams miniseries is a must see for anyone interested in this particular period of history, simply for its immersiveness.
What’s amazing to me is that after all of this I think it made our bond stronger. ‘Merica and the Brits are basically BFF now. If anything happened to England, USA would be the first to have y’all’s back, in a heartbeat
Like two children in school. Once they kick the shit out of eachother they developed a mutual respect and friendship.
Took a long time and two world wars.
@@TrekBeatTK The Universe is 13.7 Billion years old. What’s a few decades to that?
@@seanpaulhiggins9159 Ah, one of those guys. How clever
These videos that oversimplified makes have taught me more than I ever learned about the American revolution in highschool
This is why we have the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. Guns are not only for sport and self-defense. They are to fight tyranny.
Historically, the 2nd Amendment was there to fight tyranny... of having a standing army. It was never for you to fight the government, it was for you to fight FOR the government.
@@markmendel9883 This right here. The government has tanks, drones and nuclear missiles. You're not going to fight the government with your piddling side arms.
Afghanistan
@@themoviedealers vietnam and afghanistan want a word
@@themoviedealers the thing is, it would be political suicide to use such weapons on your own people. Not only would it strengthen the resolve of rebels it would also piss off a lot of our allies and even embolden our enemies.
Beesley: "we're not the most educated people"
Millie: agrees while wearing a Harvard crew neck
You wouldn’t believe I got a first class honours at University with half the stuff I say 😂
@@millie0804 I would. You seem brilliant.
@@aj897 no shit sherlock. As am I.
She went to Harvard?
On tours of the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they usually show where George Washington took command of the Continental Army. They usually mention that some cannons were hauled up and down the stairs during the siege of Boston.
A moment to put Thomas Paine and 'Common Sense' into perspective and help it make sense. Back then, the British Crown owned all printing presses, technically. In order to publish, you had to receive a royal warrant to do so. But at this time there were technological improvements in printing presses making them smaller and easily portable for the first time ever. Yet, because of the law, owning one of these smaller presses was technically illegal, but since they could be set up and taken down easier than a moonshine still, black market printing presses were all the rage in the Colonies just before the Revolution.
Thomas Paine was one of the so-called Pamphleteers who had illegal presses running for his friends and distributed pamphlets and tracts that were indeed distributed widely, shared from person to person, picked up by other black market printing presses, and redistributed across the Colonies. It was considered the cutting edge of entertainment, so the adults in the Colonies would gather in taverns and public houses and folks would bring in the latest pamphlets from a number of the Pamphleteers and read them aloud as something to do while eating dinner or starting drinks for the night.
In a very real way, Thomas Paine and Common Sense were the OG American Twitter and social media for its day. So when Thomas Paine turned the subject matter of his pamphlets to rallying the American countryside toward independence as a cause, it had a huge impact.
AND, more to modern sensibilities, it is because of the role that the independent "illegal" printing presses played in mobilizing and uniting the whole countryside in an era before true Mass Media that the very first Amendment to the Constitution, the very lead off for the Bill of Rights, took great care to safeguard the rights of a Free Press. Something that was not done at the time.
And you had Sam Adams making full use of those printing presses, advocating for independence for about 20 years prior. And he was happy to play fast and loose with the facts while he did it.
@@rjkennett934 Yes! Sounds like social media to me, right? 😎
The "first" amendment was actually the third, but the first two didn't make it into the bill of rights.
I am absolutely loving your reactions with Millie. Its a two-for-one of getting to see her learn it for the first time, but also its so lovely to see you explaining things to her, showing how much youve actually learned... you are becoming americanized, James!
Yasssss. Also sweet tea is a BIG DEAL here in the south. You can find it in any southern state. (Probably a few Midwest ones to.) Also something we must remember is the Americans knew how to shoot okay because they hunt and they also knew the lands for decades.
I was looking forward to whenever you were going to get to this! Haha
Enjoy! Loved reacting to this!
You guys should react to Schoolhouse Rock "No more Kings" and "Shot heard round the world". These are two of many 3-4 minuet musical cartoons that were made for kids in the 1970's to help celebrate the bicentennial of the American Revolution while teaching a bit of history. NO ONE on UA-cam has been reacting to these awesome video's and you guys could be the first. Just watch "Elbow Room" before you react to the others and you will see these are really great video's that you could react to.
I came to the comments to see if anyone mentioned this. Anyone who grew up in the 90s (and probably older and younger) learned a lot of our history from schoolhouse rock. I still occasionally get the songs stuck in my head.
Love School House Rock!! Absolutely need reactions for those videos!
The reason we Anericans still to this day drink more coffee than tea goes back to that incident, and it became a patriotic thing to drink coffee vs. tea. I have a t-shirt with a sailing ship pictured that says "l like my coffee black and my tea in the harbor" 😁😉🇺🇸
Love your videos! They are so much fun.
Just keep in mind too, the American colonists were just as British as the lower classes back in Great Britain.
As an American, this just gave me a whole lot of hindsight. I did learn about the Boston Tea party as all of us did in school in history class. But I do remember my grandfather who was a brilliant man telling my brother that George Washington got to be president by default. The only reason is he studied the craft of war and all the tactics to win. That’s how he was the President because of the situation of time. This was entertaining to watch and extremely knowledgeable. I also love that this lovely British couple is watching and understanding the gravity of it all! A bunch of seriously heavy shit back then!
My grandfather 8 generations back was a Captain in a New Jersey regiment in the revolution . He was with Washington at Valley Forge during that bad winter . He was given a land grant in Kentucky by the Continental Congress for his service .Incidentally ,he was already a SIXTH GENERATION American at the time .
Exactly, one of my ancestors from Massachusetts fought for the Continental Army, also, and he was a sixth-generation American whose ancestors had arrived in Massachusetts in 1620, more than 150 years earlier. Nobody in the family had ever been back to the British Isles during that entire period. To him, the British were foreigners.
@@johnalden5821 in 1620 my first ancestor was born on this continent in Hudson's Bay colony. That side of my family eventually immigrated through Chicago in the late 1800s.
@@johnalden5821 Your name is kind of a give-away ,lol . My ancestors were French Huguenots who fled France for Holland because they were being murdered by the Catholics and then came to America on the first Dutch ship to Nieuw Amsterdam ( New York ) . They married Dutch and spoke Dutch for the first 6 generations here
'No Taxation Without Representation' was a part of English political theory. It was the cause of the English Civil War. It's my view that Concord was meant as a provocation, and that British troops would easily put down the 'rabble' and assert direct control. The Crown believed that they could easily win (because all the colonists were commoners, without an aristocracy of 'betters'). The colonists were legally in the right (the Whigs in Parliament in Britain agreed). The only way there would not be war is if the Crown backed down and stopped trying to assert direct control...and I don't think that would have happened without a military defeat.
...hold on.
So are you saying that the royalty was being corrupt and that the colonists really WERE getting a bad deal?
@@LordTyph The English in the colonies were demanding their rights as Englishmen.
English political theory held that the people were ruled via their own consent, and that consent came via representation in Parliament. To be taxed without consent was the same as slavery. The English colonists saw it that way, as did the Whigs in Britain.
The Crown was denying them their rights, so yes.
@@Ocrilat ...wow, I have no sympathy for British royalty at the time then. They bungled their status as world power in part because they got greedy and corrupt.
@@LordTyph At the time, they had a lot more power than they do now (though they still have more power than they pretend to have).
My theory is that George III planned to become an absolute monarch, and what ended up being the American Revolution wasn't expected. What he expected (again, my conjecture) is that the colonists would be goaded into a revolt (Lexington/Concord), but because the colonists had no aristocracy, would be easily put down. Then the Crown would have an unlimited source of money and manpower apart from Parliament. And Parliament would be even weaker after more or less proving that they were unneeded (if the colonists were 'represented' by the existence of the King, why not the entire nation?).
@@LordTyph It seems to me, losing the American Revolution probably saved the Parliamentary system in Britain. The Tories lost control of the government (even though at first the King refused to allow the Tory government to fall regardless of the votes). The King lost power, and then later lost his mind, so this opportunity closed for good.
You two are so wholesome and a joy to watch. I’ve been bingeing all your videos since I first discovered you 2 days ago lol keep them coming! I love every video you’ve done. Much love from Arizona!
The Stamp Act is why the Ace of Spades in a deck of cards is always unique, it is a representation of the stamps that were placed on cards showing the tax had been paid on them.
Worked out pretty good for our British brothers and sisters, now you have the strongest military in the world backing you up it’s crazy how things worked out ✌️from Texas.
Post Brexit Britain is the reason we are the way we are now. Our own Prime Minister is Russia public enemy number one according to the Kremlin as within Europe the British are the most outspoken and pro-Ukrainian Government. We were the first one's in Europe to send weapons to Ukraine before the War started and I believe the US for that matter. We had the first nuclear threat from Russia and it still doesn't scare us!
I love the United States, even though I'm a Patriot Britishman. We work along side America. Britain has always been however the Nation in Europe to stand up in times of trouble. I mean from May of 1940 to December 1941... we faced Nazi Germany in Europe alone! Us Brits always have know how to stand up to dictators.
The American and British special relationship took time but it's one I know both Nation's as much as we banter and say about one another know is important.
We used to learn all this in school I always loved history class. Growing up in Southern California in the sixties and seventies was like paradise.
Regarding the Boston Massacre, there was a trial and the British soldiers were found innocent, as it was only a few soldiers(I think 6-10) against an angry mob of at least 100 men.
John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers, was the one who actually defended the soldiers in this trial.
I loved the John Adams series on HBO.
Tea was and still used in the traditional manner in the US; the advent of new tea drinking styles started in the South and spread in popularity. However, sweet tea is not predomimant in every state. Iced tea, however became a practical method of drinking due to the warm climate and hot summers.
This video incorrectly states the "shot heard round the world" happened in Lexington when in fact it happened at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts.
On April 19, 1775, the first day of the American Revolutionary War, provincial minutemen and militia companies numbering approximately 400 engaged roughly 90 British Army troops at this location. The battle was the first instance in which American forces advanced in formation on the British regulars, inflicted casualties, and routed their opponents. It was a pivotal moment in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and in American history. The significance of the historic events at the North Bridge inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson to refer to the moment as the "shot heard round the world."
However someone shot at Lexington. British Regulars did not just open fire on civilians in this period. Even the Boston Massacre was caused by a British Solider being hit in the head with a club, his musket discharging and people behind the Regulars shouting Fire while their Officer stood infront of the entire Musket line lol
The Boston Tea Party... classic 😂
Normally I wait for part two as well to watch both but couldn't resist. :)
Thank you for the support😆
As a 45 year old American I have to admit I just started enjoying a warm cup of tea. Never have I enjoyed tea before. Love the videos.
The pursuit of happiness had a different meaning in that time than it does now.
Back then, happiness in that context meant improving ones or ones' family situation for the better and improving one's "station". Meaning social level.
The pursuit of happiness clause meant that there was a stated intention to do away with limits on personal advancement and was a direct attack on the concept of aristocracy.
Have seen this vid a dozen times, in original form and many reactions.
Very much appreciate your reaction.
11 of the 13 colonies voted to abolish slavery when drafting the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson had an entire paragraph specific to abolishing slavery. But the vote had to be unanimous on anything included to prevent the King from trying to drive a wedge between the colonies during the war.
Thomas Jefferson himself hated the practice of slavery as did Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. At the time though it was the norm and entrenched in colonial law such as Virginia. A small but slowly growing anti-slavery movement was forming since about 1750 (give or take a decade). They knew that slavery was a contradiction of the values expressed by the Declaration of Independence and tried everything in their power at the time to limit its power on the colonies, especially the south.
@@wesleypeters4112 Also, Jefferson was in debt, and probably couldn't sell his slaves due to them likely being viewed as collateral. Plus, Jefferson feared having the families among his slaves being broken up if they were sold. He wanted their families to remain intact.
I took a college course on Early American History this past summer, and of course they tried to twist it a bit. But the textbooks clearly provided tons of evidence to prove the Founding Fathers were anti-slavery, despite the seeming contradictions of them still owning slaves. I thoroughly and completely destroyed everyone in that class every time they tried to argue otherwise. and I'd even cite specific evidence in the textbook and other sources we used throughout the course to prove it. Aced the class (the professor was rather reasonable and only displayed moderate bias himself).
I can even go into why slavery wasn't ended when writing the Constitution. It is not a simply or easy thing to explain, but their is a reason, and it's hard for most to see. Unfortunately it would take me far too long to explain here. But I wrote a multipage paper on it in the class, detailing what happened, again using the very sources assigned in class to prove it.
@@SoloRenegade That is true. I read about that, very fascinating. Jefferson freed two slaves during his life and more were freed after his death (I don't remember the exact number, possibly a hundred). George Washington also freed his slaves on his plantation (slaves owned by his wives family were handed over to them).
@@wesleypeters4112 Yes, I was going to mention George Washington, but I'm glad to see I'm in good company of another well educated individual on this topic.
Women had a surprising amount of rights and influence in early America too. George Washington had no rights to his wives slaves. Some colonies actually had all kinds of laws that would surprise modern people, as those laws were very "progressive" for their time, and very much like laws of the 20th century. In some colonies, the women controlled the finances of the family. Women in other colonies inherited their husbands authority and holdings upon their death, women had businesses, and influenced political discourse, the first female self-made millionaire in US history was a freed black slave...
Too bad modern "progressives" don't educate themselves on these facts.
@@SoloRenegade That is true. in my home state women in Hawarden IA voted in favor of passing the construction of the new schoolhouse in 1895. That was one of the earliest times where women voted in that community. Women in my hometown owned dress shops and had prominent importance in the churches organizing social events.
Fun Fact: Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence did call for the abolition of slavery. But, not being able to secure the support of the southern colonies, he was forced to remove it. Later, under Virginia State law, he was prevented from freeing his own slaves. Not wanting to sell them to slaveholders who wouldn't care for them, he chose to keep them until his own death, which was the only way they could lawfully be made free.
These facts are often forgotten & glossed over in order to portray Jefferson as a malicious slave owner with zero conscience regarding the foundational institution of American society (brought to the colonies by the British). The truth, not uncommonly, is much more nuanced.
Just found your channel and I love it. It blows my mind that you didn't really know about this because we are raised with this at the core
They don’t really cover the English civil war for example in American K-12 though, so it’s not too surprising when you think about it that British schools don’t go into great detail on this one particular incident in their history.
The first continental congress actually took quite a long time because everyone had such different accents and they hadn’t come across the other accents so they had to basically have some kind of translation. Patrick Henry wrote about this in his journal. Patrick Henry was the guy who gave the speech “give me liberty or give me death.” (Side-note: powerful speech that encompasses the American spirit in a short speech)
The major advantage that the "American" colonies at the time had that other colonies around the world didn't have was that They were essentially British and a lot of the soon to be American military leaders actually fought in the British army so they understood their tactics So they were able to successfully put together a militia that could have a good chance against the British.
that and the sheer distance between us and mainland britain meant that we couldnt get swarmed by an entire army of fully rested and supplied of hardened soldiers.
@@devinwhite5064 Yes the problem of supply lines was used by the American commanders in the southern colonies to tremendous advantage. The British just could not get any distance away from the ports without losing their supply lines and never could get real control over the backcountry. This fact sent them here and there dealing with the southern geography and living off the land (that is, taking supplies from homesteaders, making even more enemies all the time) and struggling with the attenuation of their lines until the final missteps and diversions that led to .. YORKTOWN Looking forward to Part 2!
The major advantage was that the Continental Army was maintained. There were many times it nearly broke apart. If the British Generals had seen their counter parts more like rebels and less like misguided Englishmen things may have turned out differently. Howe could have easily pursued Washington in the New York Campaign and if he had of the entire Continental Army may very well have fallen. The advantage they had is they held on long enough for French intervention also joined with the fact the British Generals had a massive rivalry and hatrid for one another so never worked fully as a united unit. If they had of done, Saratoga would have not of been a surrender and the Colonies would have been cut in half. This is what Washington feared the most. I bet he was relieved when he heard Howe was moving on Philadelphia as opposed to linking up with Burgoyne.
Drinking tea while I watch this.
Sometimes life just puts itself together.
Americans see these events as defining moments of the country while the British it's barely a blip on the radar in their history.
That's true for just about any colonial history. No country wants to teach much about their war defeats or their sordid history of colonizing others' lands. Consider how little they teach us in the US about the War of 1812 (a war that ended with us losing and Canada remaining British). Or consider the US's history in the Philippines. In the Philippines they teach all about the US annexation (we owned them for about 48 years!) and the wars and skirmishes they fought for independence from us. We learn almost nothing about that.
Only if you count as a "blip" the beginning of the end of the British Empire .. meh
ngl the parts where you paused the video and explained some bits to your girlfriend were adorable
The American Revolutionary War lasted till 1783. I’ve read a few books about the war. Some seriously mental stuff was done to the colonists. Those men were made of rare stuff. It’s an amazing story.
i love how you can just SEE the happiness drain from their faces as the sponsor comes on!
Yes do part 2 of the American Revolution and then react to the War of 1812. It was the War where the National Anthem was written. It also had the famous battle of New Orleans.
Sadly the Battle of New Orleans actually happened almost a month after the peace accords were signed and the war was over.
Couldn't agree more. The War of 1812 is my favorite war for a variety of reasons (partially b/c it's when individual states really coalesced into a united country.) The Brits like it b/c their troops burned most of DC to the ground -- you can still see singed blocks in the original foundation of the White House, and every new UK ambassador is shown it when they first come here.
At least Johnny Horton got a good song out of it.
It is quite amazing that the Americans were able to hold off two uphill British assaults on Bunker Hill, despite loosing the ground later.
Yay! So glad you're watching it with her.
Really enjoyed this!
@@millie0804 So glad you did! 😃
@@immy829 ❤️❤️
It wasn’t just the taxes; it was the principle behind the taxes. What right do you have to tax us when we have no voice in the body that creates the tax: parliament. And what right do you have to tell us we MUST buy your goods only and may not buy goods from other nations?
The tea issue was the same. Great Britain taxed us for the tea and we said no thanks, keep your tea. Then we found out that the British were going to force us to buy the tea. Force us to buy something so that you can tax it? That was the last straw.
Amazing! Keep them coming! 🎉
❤️❤️
Watching this, I just want to say that you two are an adorable couple. May God richly bless you.
Imagine you and 100,000 others leave your homes in a trecherious two month voyage across the Atlantic to found a new life. You battle hostile tribes, face disease, and carve cities / wealth out of wilderness for generations.
Then suddenly the rulers from the country your grandparents escaped from step in and claim control.
Hmmm, imagine the Country which saved your entire being and way of life then asked for help with the bill and you said, go and screw yourselves and take your armies which help defend our homes and put your Nation into millions of pounds worth of det with you!
Imagine your race lives on a continent for 30 thousand years and then people from another side of the planet start coming and diseasing your race to near extinction and then they successfully colinize the entire continent.
6:55 Its worth noting that the tea that was thrown overboard was NOT leaves, what they would do is they'd steep all the flavor out then boil it into a thick substance that would then be stamped into bars (Think large chocolate bar shape). These bars would last almost indefinitely if stored properly and to make tea all you had to do was grab a knife and the bar, carve a few shavings into a teapot and add hot water for it to dissolve. those "10,000 pounds of tea" represented the sum total tea consumption of the colonies likely for a few years, a single bar could last a family several months at least upwards of a year depending on how often then had tea and how strong they liked the it.
Interesting.
The two of you should watch the 3 part HBO mini series called "John Adams" The series does a really good job of explaining how the revolutionary war came about.
Im sure you have thousands upon thousands of messages that show Americans commenting about how you both show love for us Americans. I as another American who is a service member, I really do appreciate you both for learning about my peoples (which is also your history) history. Much love and respect for you both! Im also happy to know there are people from other countries who show love and appreciation for America. Thank you and love you both! -Tony
The United States were a small, insignificant band of Colonies but defeated the most powerful Nation on Earth...twice. Granted, the first time (the Revolutionary War), the French Navy was what really made it possible. The second (the War of 1812, Star Spangled Banner), a French Creole Pirate named Jean Lafitte and free blacks were instrumental in helping Col. Andrew Jackson defeat a major attack at New Orleans. Jackson rode that victory right into the White House. A pretty famous singer named Johnny Horton released a song called "The Battle of New Orleans" in 1959 and, kinda like Ray Stevens, he made it comedic. Twangy and old fashioned, but funny as hell. In 1960 he released the song "Sink the Bismarck". Not comedic, but a "March" about the WW2 German Warship. Both are well worth reviewing, or just check them out.
The War of 1812 is a draw
I appreciate the Brit at 7:18 admitting that he daily consumes uncountable cups of tea. That’s endearing. Love ❤️ from across the pond.
Check out extra credits. It is done very similar to this format. I would love to see you two react to "Policing London". It is a great series
The Americans were proud to be British. The problem is that when they began to be taxed, they protested that they didn't have representation in Parliament. The British Supreme Court ruled that the Americans were not British but were subjects of the crown. They were expected to be loyal to Britain even though they were not British. This angered the Americans. They had always assumed that they were British and were conscious of their rights as such. Now they learned that they had no real rights.
A good reaction for Millie would be a redux of _BOATLIFT,_ if that's not already on the menu....You guys make a great team.
This is very well done. I have ancestors who fought in a number of these battles and this is a quick overview of what went down.
I’m gonna go ahead and say that it was our side (Americans) who fired “The shot heard around the world.” Given how amped up we were and less military discipline (especially trigger discipline), it was most likely us.
As Americans we are notoriously trigger happy
I agree. Probably on purpose. The sons of liberty wanted independence. Kicking off a shooting war would pull the other colonies in.
Although cannot be proven. I'd agree and have always thought this. Regulars vs local dudes with muskets... even if not intentional who's more likely to get nervous and fuck up. Agreement off a Britishman!
It wasn’t no taxes. The issue was the Americans felt they couldn’t legally be taxed without representation in parliament. Americans weren’t backwater yokels. They were the grandchildren of the same puritans that put King Charles I on trial and would cause the same trouble to the Crown as their grandfathers did.
I watch a lot of reaction vids to these over-simplified American history from people all over the world and I gotta say it's kinda touching the reactions I see. One thing though, your talking about British greed and blaming the Brits for a lot. Just remember Every country has done things they might now be ashamed of. Especially America. But Every country also has things they have every right to be proud of. Remember a little thing called World War II. For a while there it was just Great Britain standing alone against Hitler and the Nazis. Before America finally got off its butt and jumped in to help the Brits won the Battle of Britain. And they endured the nightly Blitz which devastating London. And they did it with no real help. Whatever may have happened over 200 years ago, the Brits proved their own courage and strength. Never forget America started out as a daughter of Britain.Thats where we got our spirit. 🇬🇧🤝🇺🇲
Yeah. France Belgium and Japan aren't real countries
@@phredphlintstone6455 he was only referring to the blitz and Battle of Britain during this time British supplies were low and so the Americans had to give us supplies im pretty sure he probably knows WW2 as a whole was an allied effort with France, Belgium, the colonies etc getting involved
@@rektified4508 shouldn't he be the one to say that?
We drink a lot of tea in the states. We just drink more coffee.
July 2nd was the date the Continental Congress actually voted for independence. It took a couple of days to have the Declaration of Independence printed and distributed.
I’m gonna say this… The Boston massacre was on the colonists. They were heckling British guards who were armed and even dared them to shoot at them and the soldiers were just simply defending themselves. What would’ve you done if people were throwing rocks and oyster shells at you and you weren’t allowed to leave your spot? This is probably the earliest representation of American media over reacting to certain incidents. Maybe they got inspired by this.
You also need to consider the fact that the troops were just people with limited options to respond with. I agree,pressure people with who knows what level of experience dealing with hostile crowds and you probably won’t get a good outcome.
Well eh, sure maybe? It's kind of the equivilent in modern day terms of a riot was going on and the rioters were throwing bottles so the police kill them with live ammo. So yeah it can be seen as self-defense in a tense situation, but it wasn't uncommon to fire into the air to disperse crowds.
Fun fact: The British soldiers were put on trial and were defended by John Adams who actually prooved their innocense
@@ZachSawyer2077 the fact that he's the second president after all that is the perfect example of just HOW impartial and a seeker of the truth he was. HBO did a miniseries about him (IIRC it's like 7-8 hour long episodes,) and it actually starts about 5 minutes before the massacre happened and covers the trial. IDR exactly but pretty sure it was nominated for awards; very well produced (and a great cast too.)
@@MrTommygunz420 The Continental Congress having figures like George Washington and John Adams among them...men of substance who had served the Crown honorably and were not mere rabble-rousers...should have told King George and the Board of Trade back in London that this wasn't just a bunch of malcontents who'd crumble when things got tough. Almost nobody in Parliament took the colonists and their concerns seriously, and terribly underestimated their resolve.
The Tea act was such a big deal in America that it permanently damaged tea consumption to this day, and made coffee the main drink. Tea mostly isn't drunken hot due to the fact that the Colonists would buy tea that wasn't good for hot consumption both to rebel and due to the hot summers. This is also why drinks like lemonade were invented.
1) At 4:51, the Loyalist American is wearing a Team GB jersey!
2) At 5:55, the "make the colonists pay for them" appears to be a reference to a former American President's unfulfilled promise to make Mexico pay for the wall never built between that country and the U.S.
3) At 6:30, the British revenue schooner which was burned in Rhode Island was the HMS Gaspee. It happened in 1772 in my hometown of Warwick. To this day there is an annual patriotic commemoration of the event. We conveniently downplay that the burning was done by smugglers. It was the 18th-century equivalent of looters burning a police car. There was so much smuggling in Rhode Island back then that the colony was sometimes called "Rogues' Island."
4) The argument was made by Thomas Paine in "The American Crisis," written during the war, that the British military provoked the Americans into fighting before negotiations to resolve the crisis could be completed (remember, it took 1-3 months for mail to cross the Atlantic). Some in Parliament had boasted the colonies would be quickly conquered and then taxed, and that therefore war would be more profitable than peace. This is probably a moot point; by 1775, war was likely unavoidable.
5) When OverSimplified talked about the UK taxing the American colonies to help pay for their own defense, there are two important facts he did not mention. First, according to the royal charters that established the colonies, Parliament did not have the right to tax the colonies, although Parliament might have been using a loophole by taxing trade goods. Second, under the system of mercantilism which required the colonies to sell their exports to only the UK and buy imported goods from only the UK, British merchants had a monopoly and were earning most of the profits. The colonists thought these profits were a sufficient payment for defense. Also, like most agricultural societies back then, there was very little money in circulation in the colonies with which the taxes would need to be paid. Much of the trade between Americans was one product or service for another. Some Americans at the time questioned the wisdom of the British refusing to listen to their grievances, because war meant the British would lose the profits on trade--either temporarily if they won or permanently if the colonies did.
I think it is impressive how only a few hundred years ago America was basically a giant forest. Not so much today..
Now it is a shopping mall.
As an American, I want to say that Britain may have done some things wrong but it still did alot right. The free world is free due to Britain's help
Hey James and Millie! I recently discovered your channel and Im addicted. You guys are awesome, you both are so likeable and have such great personalities, and you are officially my new favorite UA-cam couple.
Please react to "Banana Republics" by Sam O'nella or "The Nanjing Massacre" by History of China 🇨🇳
EVERY BRITISH reactor flips out when they see the "Boston Tea Party".
Brexit 1776
A small detail that adds something to “the shot heard around the world”; both sides were under orders not to shoot. So we don’t even know which side fired first or why.
Your videos have not appeared in a while but I’m glad it finally showed up in my suggestions. Love your videos man I’ve been trying to catch up and already watched a few hours of your older videos I missed. Have a great day today
I am from Massachusetts & I love tea. I drink it in the morning instead of coffee. ✌️
My ancestors, 12 generations ago, were from Prince Edward Island & Ireland 💕
Tea was one of the main ways to hydrate since most water during that era would get you sick. It is literally one of the necessities for living on a pragmatic level.
I live and grew up not far from Brandywine Battle field in Chester County Pennsylvania. One night my teen son me and my 4 year old were out on the porch. We heard a revolutionary war sounding flute playing across the back yard. My teen son tried to get in the garage door first I had the 4 year old wrapped around my leg sayin mommie I'm Scared. I got in the garage door frst!😆👍
Fact is, "over simplified" is a gross understatement and it is misleading.
The core reason was Brittan levied high taxes on the colonies and sent all that money back to Brittan . and they treated the colonies badly. It got so bad that the colonies had quite enough of Britain's BS and declared the independence.
It was not the colonies were against taxes.... they just wanted their tax money to benefit them and not Brittain
Tea? If I'm at work and trying to stay alert, I drink ice tea. If I'm home at the end of the day and want to relax, I drink it warm.
No taxation without representation was only ONE of 17 things that the colonists petitioned the king about, and ultimately were written in the Declaration of Independence.
Had a chance to tour many of the Lexiton and Concrod sites. The most striking thing was the graves, or places, that the british fell all along the road, right by the North Bridge, and all along the routes as the Britsh fled back to Boston. A member of the British government paid his repects 30 years or so ago. Only about 67% of the population backed Independence at the time. One colony sent no delgates to even sign the declaration.
Not sure if anyone previously mentioned this or not, the Colonists learned new warfare from the Native Americans. Prior to this both sides lined up in rows and shot at each other, all out in the open. The Native Americans who obviously thought that was a dumb idea taught the Colonists to take cover behind anything that might stop a musket ball, such as trees, rocks, etc. This was a new and very important warfare strategy that tipped many battle victories into the hands of the Colonists.
I've been to the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City and I can't imagine how it felt to fight in the open like that. I felt awfully conspicuous, with no cover anywhere.
I love how we went from this war, to being the closest allies in the world
My uncle who retired as a colonel in the American army would always tell the smaller of his children at the time this this story on Independence Day
From the Colonies perspective it wasn’t just the taxes, but they briefly mentioned that they had no voice in Parliament so the phrase “No taxation without representation!!!” Was born.
I have A family descendant that was a member of the Sons of Liberty at the Boston Tea Party, and The Revolutionary War. He was wounded at the Battle of Concord.
Columbus' story has been mis-told so often that it is scary. The history of Columbus' voyages is more complicated than even the summary could relate in brief.
Theres a book called, "A Narrative Of A Revolutionary Soldier" and it really illustrates the sacrifices made by these men. Its unfathomable. Highly recommended!
My Great (×6) Grandfather Sergeant Benjamin Haskell was actually one of the revolutionaries who fought on Bunker Hill. Supposedly, he was near General Joseph Warren when the general was killed during the battle.