Ken Burns on Why America Really Declared Independence

18 insights saved from this video by @history

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An average colonist paid about one shilling annually in local taxes. An average person in England paid roughly 26.
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In one season in New Jersey, more British and Hessian troops died seeking forage than fell in any battle.
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Washington voluntarily resigned his commission after Britain left New York and surrendered the presidency at the height of his power.
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The deepest cause of the American Revolution was competition over land, specifically Native American land, not taxation alone.
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British forces suffered so heavily from New Jersey forage raids that supply missions killed more British and Hessian troops than battles.
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Approximately 20,000 African Americans fought in the Revolution, including 15,000 for Britain and 5,000 for the Americans.
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The Revolution promised freedom while dispossessing Native Americans. Many tribes preferred Britain as the lesser threat to colonial expansion.
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Natural-rights language turned slavery from a recognized evil into a central political contradiction of universal equality.
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Britain’s mayor of London, his council, senior naval leaders, and an important army figure favored letting the colonies go.
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George III understood constitutional checks and balances, yet disastrously believed Britain could not lose the North American colonies.
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Colonists claimed Native identity after 150 years of dispossessing Indigenous peoples. The United States continued that dispossession across the continent.
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The United States won the most from the Revolution. Native Americans suffered most, while slavery, women’s exclusion, and France’s lost influence endured.
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The Declaration of Independence exaggerated many accusations against George III, yet most rested on genuine colonial grievances.
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Even after Lexington and Concord in April 1775, many colonists wanted restoration, until Thomas Paine’s Common Sense pushed separation.
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George III feared losing North America would endanger the wider British Empire, including Ireland, Gibraltar, India, and other holdings.
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The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. Women gained voting rights 144 years after the Declaration.
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France entered the American Revolution after the Continental victory at Saratoga in fall 1777 made intervention viable.
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Britain’s 1763 boundary barring settlement west of the Appalachians enraged colonists who wanted to expand across the continent.

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