Interesting little facts about our American revolution

The Americans of 1776 had the highest standard of living and the lowest taxes in the Western World!

Farmers, lawyers and business owners in the Colonies were thriving, with some plantation owners and merchants making the equivalent of $500,000 a year. Times were good for many others too. The British wanted a slice of the cash flow and tried to tax the Colonists. They resisted violently, convinced that their prosperity and their liberty were at stake. Virginia's Patrick Henry summed up their stance with his cry: "Give me liberty or give me death!"


There were two Boston tea parties!

Everyone knows how 50 or 60 "Sons of Liberty," disguised as Mohawks, protested the 3 cents per pound British tax on tea by dumping chests of the popular drink into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. Fewer know that the improper Bostonians repeated the performance on March 7, 1774. The two tea parties cost the British around $3 million in modern money.



By 1779, as many as one in seven Americans in Washington's army was black!

At first Washington was hesitant about enlisting blacks. But when he heard they had fought well at Bunker Hill, he changed his mind. The all-black First Rhode Island Regiment -- composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves who were promised freedom if they served until the end of the war -- distinguished itself in the Battle of Newport. Later, they were all but wiped out in a British attack.



By 1779, there were more Americans fighting with the British than with Washington!

There were no less than 21 regiments (estimated to total 6,500 to 8,000 men) of loyalists in the British army. Washington reported a field army of 3,468. About a third of Americans opposed the Revolution.

At Yorktown, the victory that won the war, Frenchman outnumbered Americans almost three to one!

Washington had 11,000 men engaged in the battle, while the French had at least 29,000 soldiers and sailors. The 37 French ships-of-the-line played a crucial role in trapping the 8,700 strong British army and winning the engagement.

nicely written.

I keep forgetting we owe the french one. Maybe they're not quite so bad.

eh we paid them back often. we even built them a tank. has one foward gear and 9 in reverse

That......... and in WWI, WWII and Vietnam, Vietnam being a French Territory.

Many Americans died on French soil for the French. There's grave yards near Utah beach and Normandy to name a few. The French pulled out of the search for Ben Laden because the Muslims in France were having a fit.

The people in France are probably a lot like us but the government is, as ours is, "different" & "indifferent"

Just recently, as a matter of fact, we all experienced that undignified power.

I'm so very glad that's over

i like buying french weapons.... never fired and only dropped once !