Flag Waving

[rattlesnakeroot]

This is dedicated to David English in response to the following:

Posted by David English, post 180:

BTW, just to clarify, I don't know when I first saw the flag wave in this conflict, but I do know that RDR began by getting all patriotic about the First Amendment. And then Joe Nocera in the NYTimes brought up the whole notion of those Brits not

Comments

Re: Only a couple of the founding fathers were born in America????

[rattlesnakeroot]

Thanks for the research. I didn't bother because some of the founding fathers became Presidents, and then we know for sure they weren't English citizens anymore. *lol*

I was pretty sure Jefferson was born in Virginia. Ben Franklin was born in Boston, and although he travelled widely as an Ambassador, he was about as American as you can get.

You make a great point when you say they just wanted to be treated fairly under British Law. They didn't want to be overtaxed because they lived in the Colonies, and they wanted a voice in that. The people on the frontier wanted protection as well as the right to set up their own militias. DE should rent "Last of the Mohicans" because that story embodies all the problems the colonies had with English law and why they felt unfairly treated.

The main thing is, as I've said before, our laws are just different and that's what DE hates the most. Our copyright laws are more unpredictable than many people thought. It really has nothing to do with flag waving, flag pins, or what Americans have "forgotten" about American history. I'm just sick of the pomposity.

Re: Only a couple of the founding fathers were born in America????

[rattlesnakeroot]

My husband, who is the historian in our family, just laughed when I asked him how many of the founding fathers were born in England. He said, "How about none of them except Thomas Paine." I told what you wrote about Hamilton.

So these guys were at home in the Colonies. :) They were raised eating cornbread and Virginia ham.

Re: Only a couple of the founding fathers were born in America????

[pdmcmurry]

Yes, they really were Americans by that time, not British, but it took a while for that idea to take root. It was a common sentiment to consider one's home colony as one's "country."

Actually, I found a source that said of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 8 were foreign-born. Two were English, 2 Scots, 3 Irish, 1 Welsh. That's 14%.

It's not as if the colonies had only a few thousand people. There were an estimated 2.5 million people living in the 13 colonies in 1776. I could not find records, but it seems intuitive that there would be more native-born than foreign-born in a population of that size.

The Revolution was born largely out of a sense of separation from England, and that would naturally increase as the population became more and more native-born.

Re: Only a couple of the founding fathers were born in America????

[aredwitch]

I love that story. But the book is way better and yes based on a true story. Our Marquis de Montcalm who died on the Plains of Abraham was the one who took Fort William Henry. I like the way Wiki says the native slaughter of the Brits had passive acquiescence of the French when Montcalm's aide de camp Bougainville relates in his journal that the French were horrified. The officers rushed out of the fort and beat the Hurons back and gave the English money and clothes and whatever they could do to help them. Of course nothing will make up for the death of a loved one but the proceedings were going according to European war customs which the Hurons did not understand. A great book! I should reread it.