This reasonable reader cannot see how those 70 militiamen, with guns suicidally drawn against a vastly larger force of professional soldiers, were advancing their economic self-interest, suppressing class tensions, claiming land out West, promoting commerce, or defending slavery. [More]They were there for a much more basic purpose.
[Via Mack H]
The world has a history of misinterpreting its history in order to justify whatever agenda du jour is being pushed.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, the core of the American Revolution is being deliberately ignored. The historical facts show plainly that Britain's North American colonists felt their government had run amok and was busy trampling their rights guaranteed to them by what passed for a British constitution. That pot had been simmering for years until it boiled over in April of 1775.
But the penultimate fact that is consistently glossed over is that by the end of April 19th, some 3000 formerly loyal British subjects had run, some of them for miles, in order to open fire on their own government's troops.
After the events of April 19th, despite the Continental Congress' attempts to do so over the next year and four months, there was no way to cram that bit of toothpaste back into the tube.
Now why any of today's leaders would try to ignore that particular bit of truth is beyond me. ;-)
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana