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There ain't no "good guys", there ain't no "bad guys". There's only you and me and we just disagree.
Hahaha! Every war has good people doing bad things. There is no war without civilian deaths/casualties and destruction of civilian building/homes. War can not be contained to the soldiers and battlefields
It's been said that in 1750 there were no freer nor economically comfortable people in their contemporary world than the British colonists of North America. Large tracts of fertile land, high levels of land ownership across the entire populace, low taxes, de facto self rule, and a tradition of English rights.
First, while the British Colonists in North America did enjoy a measure of prosperity unknown to the common citizen in Britain, the aristocracy in Britain was on another level of wealth. I recall reading recently that the most wealthy man in the colonies earned per annum perhaps a tenth of what a mid-level aristocrat earned from his holdings in Britain.
And, to go a little Howard Zinn, British colonial America wasn't such a great place if you were Black, if you were a woman, or if you were a religious minority.
In various colonies, people had to pay taxes to support the local official church, Anglican in the southern colonies, Congregationalist in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Women were non-citizens. They were dependent on the men in their lives, fathers, husbands, brothers, sons. While some widows did manage their own affairs, it was usually under the guise or cooperation of a male relative or friend.
As for being Black in Colonial America in 1750 - slavery existed everywhere and the abolition movement didn't really start up until twenty or twenty five years later. Yes, there were some free Blacks earning a respectable living throughout the colonies, but this was more the exception rather than the norm.
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I left out a rather pertinent phrase in the following paragraph. I've added the missing phrase below, in bold. Sometimes I despair of not having the literary skills of other posters.
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As for the hired German Hessian mercenaries - think about that action. The British government hired foreign troops to enforce British authority upon their own citizens in North America. Can anyone think of any time that an English or British government maintained its power in England/Britain through the use of foreign troops? Also consider that while regular British troops believed that they were maintaining order among fellow citizens and offered the citizenry respect, Hessian troops that were fresh from various European wars had no such views about the citizenry. In Europe, it was customary for mercenary troops to loot, pillage, and rape the locals after military victories - it was expected compensation for hired soldiers.
First, while the British Colonists in North America did enjoy a measure of prosperity unknown to the common citizen in Britain, the aristocracy in Britain was on another level of wealth. I recall reading recently that the most wealthy man in the colonies earned per annum perhaps a tenth of what a mid-level aristocrat earned from his holdings in Britain.
Quite true.
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Originally Posted by djmilf
And, to go a little Howard Zinn, British colonial America wasn't such a great place if you were Black, if you were a woman, or if you were a religious minority..... Women were non-citizens. They were dependent on the men in their lives, fathers, husbands, brothers, sons. While some widows did manage their own affairs, it was usually under the guise or cooperation of a male relative or friend.
It's interesting that in her various writings Abigail Adams did not seem to expound on this, perhaps because her husband, despite his absences abroad and in capitals New York City and Philadelphia was faithful and treated her well. Back in February I finished Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood. He mused that Jefferson, married for ten years to a southern belle, had no reason to worry about women's wanting liberation but Adams, being married to quite an independent spirit did. see also Jefferson Lovers vs. Adams Lovers - Rivals and Friends (Sometimes). I don't know that blacks or members of religious minorities did particularly well in Britain either. Maybe they did but I just don't know. In both countries the women's suffrage movement generated fruit around the same time. There has been some commentary that that movement in the U.S. was prepared to leave minorities behind.
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Originally Posted by djmilf
In various colonies, people had to pay taxes to support the local official church, Anglican in the southern colonies, Congregationalist in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Quite true, but in time, after applied to the States by the later-coming Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment this problem was solved.
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Originally Posted by djmilf
As for being Black in Colonial America in 1750 - slavery existed everywhere and the abolition movement didn't really start up until twenty or twenty five years later. Yes, there were some free Blacks earning a respectable living throughout the colonies, but this was more the exception rather than the norm.
1) American revolutionaries used unethical means to achieve their goals too (tarring/feathering tax collectors, pushing false info and sensationalist propaganda as news).
2) Americans which wanted independence from Britain were a vocal and militant minority; the majority were loyal to Britain.
3) Americans were hypocritical in that they wanted Britain's military aid to fight wars and clear out the Indians, but then when it's time to pay the tax bill, they didn't want to the pay the taxes for it.
4) Britain ended slavery decades earlier than the Americans did. American independence may have slowed down emancipation.
In modern America, the rebels are the Patriots. No kidding.
The first thing that leapt to mind when I read your unsupported claim was the peace terms of the Mexican American War. The US annexed roughly the northern half of Mexico, Mexico received about $15 million from the US government, and the US government assumed about $3 million of debt owed by Mexico to US citizens.
Pray tell, exactly what reparations did the United States pay to the British Empire after the British lost the ARW?
[F]or generations after independence, Haitians were forced to pay the descendants of their former slave masters, including the Empress of Brazil; the son-in-law of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I; Germany’s last imperial chancellor; and Gaston de Galliffet, the French general known as the “butcher of the Commune” for crushing an insurrection in Paris in 1871.
The burdens continued well into the 20th century. The wealth Ms. Present’s ancestors coaxed from the ground brought wild profits for a French bank that helped finance the Eiffel Tower, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, and its investors. They controlled Haiti’s treasury from Paris for decades, and the bank eventually became part of one of Europe’s largest financial conglomerates.
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