19 Facts About The American Revolution Most People Don’t Know

As someone who gets a lot of fulfillment from learning about history, I rarely see a discussion about history that I don’t take a moment to learn more from. So when I saw this post on the popular Ask History forum where user BLOODMEN71 asked, “What [are] most forgotten aspects of the American Revolution?” I wanted to see what people had to say in response. The answers were quite interesting and I thought I’d share them.

I’ve also included answers to a similar question posted on the subreddit by user Six_of_1, who asked, “What were the atrocities during the American Revolutionary War?”

Here are some of the best answers:

1. “The war was a multinational conflict and involved a lot of different factions, and not just ‘patriots’ and ‘red hats.’

—in/Dan_Morgan

“The Revolution involved armed forces from three separate European powers (British, Hessian, French) and the future USA (once the war was won and the Treaty of Paris signed). There were officers from other parts who fought for the Continentals. The Marquis de Lafayette,” pictured above, “is probably the best-known individual of Cassmiri Pulaski.”

—u/Careful-Ant5868

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2. “Because of the smallpox epidemic that hit the US at the same time, as well as wartime casualties, about 100,000 people died.”

—u/Arthour148

—u/Duke_of_Wellington18

4. “It was an atrocity to spray and weaken innocent Boston postal clerks/employees simply because they worked for the crown. I always feel bad for those guys.”

—u/EliotHudson

—in/Raddatatta

6. “I think it’s worth remembering that a large part of the population was still pro-corona. We tend to think that the war was universally embraced, like World War II.”

—u/Crazydiamond450

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7. “When the war ended, the British fleet evacuated a significant number of African Americans who had escaped slavery and helped the British. Half of the fleet went to Nova Scotia, where those African Americans were allowed to establish settlements. The other half of the fleet went to Jamaica, where the British sold their African American allies back into slavery.”

—u/Every_Character9930

8. “Canadian Perspective: Many Loyalists fled to Canada with stories of patriot atrocities. Certainly the tar and feathers were real. The descendants of the Loyalists became the Loyalists of the United Empire, which was our equivalent of Mayflower ancestors.”

—u/Former-Chocolate-793

9. “In 1774, Virginia’s local government was dissolved by its governor appointed by the king. This is what led to Patrick Henry’s famous ‘Give me liberty or death’ speech. Also, it was delivered in a church instead of a government building.”

-u/deleted

10. “I grew up in Rhode Island. Every year we celebrate the burning of HMS Gaspee by burning an effigy of it. HMS Gaspee was a customs schooner, collecting taxes and enforcing navigational laws around Newport, Rhode Island. In 1772, she was chasing a small smuggling boat when she pulled a smuggling boat off the coast of Warwick and promptly scuttled a boat near Warwick. Gaspee, burning her to the line of afloat. It was one of the first recorded attacks by British colonists. That’s why I love my home state, and less than 200 years later, we’re still burning their ships.

—u/Trauma_Hawks

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11. “The Trial of William Wemms et al., the actual trial of the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre”.

-u/deleted

12. “Nearly 100,000 Loyalists left the U.S. after the Revolution, though more remained.”

—u/Whulad

13. “The Annapolis Tea Party. The citizens of Annapolis were so enraged at Anthony Stewart for paying the tea tax on his ship full of tea that they had him set fire to the ship (called Peggy Stewart).”

—u/Illustrious_Try478

14. “Something that is usually overlooked is the robust colonial press. The Coercive Acts, a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party, targeted almost exclusively the residents of Boston and Massachusetts. However, thanks in large part to the results of several effective communication networks and sympathetic coverage in the colonial press, readers began to be convinced that they were most readers convinced that they had a personal stake in Boston. Importantly, Americans in all the colonies began to believe that the people of Boston were suffering on their behalf.”

—u/Infamous-Bag-3880

15. “I feel like the cause of the Boston Massacre is a little under-documented. It wasn’t just that people were sick of those red coats, it was a reaction to the killing of a child by the British Army and it was the evening after his funeral procession through the city.”

—u/1maco

16. “The Pine Tree Riot. In New Hampshire, a sheriff and a deputy tried to enforce a law restricting the logging of white pine timber to preserve it for use by the Royal Navy. They were beaten nearly to death by a mob.”

—u/TillPsychological351

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17. “Without French support, the Americans probably would have lost that war.”

—u/frozenhawaiian

18. “Baron Von Steuben, a Prussian army officer, helped Washington train and modernize the militia into a fighting army. He returned home, was hated, returned to the US, was granted citizenship by Congress, and lived out his days in honor.”

—u/Recent_Drawing9422

19. And finally: “Many of the men who signed the declaration did so without the support of their constituents. William Floyd is a distant relative of mine and represented the Long Island Loyalist, but he signed the declaration regardless because he felt that self-determination was better for his constituents in the long run. He faced death threats, his property was attacked and used by the British as a sign of wealth, etc. lands and possessions in an effort to finance the war effort’.

—u/CharcuterieBoard

what do you think If you want to share any facts of your own, feel free to leave a comment! Or, if you prefer, you can write in the anonymous form below.

Please note: Some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.

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