It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by THELONIO
... it may be lies that your patriotism and pride is based upon but it is those lies that have made you patriotic and proud of your country, it wouldn't have been the same if your history was based on the truths, you may not have had those feelings of pride...
Originally posted by Nerevar
Good links. S&F!
More people need to read the other side of the coin. The problem is that history is written by the victors.
Therefore the truth quite often gets misconstrued. The most poignant point in the whole article is the fact that HARDLY ANYONE is aware of Britain's role in abolishing slavery WORLDWIDE. My forbears actively tried to stop the trade in humans be it through paying indirectly for the naval patrols off the coast of Africa or taking part in these patrols.
To this day, Britain is still accused of everything and anything to do with slavery but NEVER credited with being the first country in the world to abolished slavery and root out its benefactors.
Even the fact that Britain established treaties with the Indian nations of the Americas illustrates that we have always been (or at least tried to be) a tolerant and fair nation.
While i harbour no resentment towards our American descendants / cousins (quite literally cousins), i do feel that the representation of the actions of Britain during the "Revolution" were always distorted. Films such as The Patriot etc really anger me. The fact that they are blaming the "King of England" for unfair taxation smacks of ignorance...all laws in Britain were (and still are) passed through Parliament before reaching the King for his seal of approval.
More and more people should read this, obviously with a pinch of salt as it is considerably biased in its wording (bear in mind that slave trading in the Colonies was a legal trade up until the laws of England abolished it - so it cannot really be used as an insult) and you will be fine.
By Royal Proclamation, the British government stops the seizure of Indian lands by speculators from the Thirteen Colonies and establishes a frontier beyond which vast tracts of land are to be preserved in perpetuity where the Indian nations will be able to carry on their traditional way of life.
Ow, my brain hurts after that one. The Proclamation of 1763 wasn't to keep everything nice and happy with the Indians forever and ever. It served two purposes. First, it was a reward to the few Indian nations who sided with the British during the French and Indians(Seven Years) War. Secondly, the British government got all of French Canada from the war, and there was no logical way to govern it for the time being. Therefore, the line drew from the Proclamation was so to keep British colonists at bay until a way to govern it could be figured out.
By Royal Proclamation, the British government stops the seizure of Indian lands by speculators from the Thirteen Colonies and establishes a frontier beyond which vast tracts of land are to be preserved in perpetuity where the Indian nations will be able to carry on their traditional way of life.
Other than this, by 1773 there was no taxation of the Thirteen Colonies at all by Britain, making the revolutionary propaganda slogan “no taxation without representation” something of a mystery.
These pivotal legal decisions would ultimately lead to the abolition of slavery in all British colonies and possessions throughout the world.
Also missing from the fantasyland version of the American Revolution sold to the American public is the central fact that, in 1768, the British had entered into treaties with the American Indian nations, prohibiting further theft of their land by speculators
In contrast, Britain, the evil colonial power, not only ultimately abolished slavery in its own possessions but fought slavery worldwide, maintaining costly naval blockades of the African coast year-round and pursuing slave ships on the high seas, freeing captured Africans.
Washington ordered that "parties should be detached to lay waste all the Iroquois settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed."
Thank you for the educated observation.
Originally posted by hinky
I saw a couple of sad thing with all the referenced material.
First and foremost, I received my education before many of the people here were born. I learned all these fact in grade school. Only in the modern era of US education have these facts been dumbed out of education and history books because kids today are being neglected by the education system. There are several reasons for this but that requires a different thread.
Second issue, most of the articles are written in a style to cause reaction instead of learning. The author clearly has an agenda. At first, it looks anti-American, but times cited are before America was established, so it must be anti-European which means white. Raced based hatred is among the most noneducational rational used as it places blame on race instead of individuals or society structure of the time.
Third, the author of the site left out "history" just as interesting but from a different perspective of the same events. I would venture it doesn't fit his agenda of placing blame, so these tidbits of knowledge were deliberately left out so the uneducated would not know there is more to be told.
Just my opinion, but I'd get some decent reference history books and read a little bit from reputable sources if any of these articles cited pique your interest.