What This #FirstWorldProblems Writer Is So Very Thankful For This Year

I was joking yesterday with my coworkers about #FirstWorldProblems, as I was going to have to complete today’s to-do list on a small screen at home instead of my large monitor at work.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. But lying in bed this morning, ignoring my alarm clock and thinking about Designing America, it hit me how significant my supposed silliness actually was.

You see, my next step since finishing my rough draft hasn’t been to edit. It’s been to go through my historical highlights and notes to make sure I’ve gotten key details and dates correct. And those highlights and notes, details and dates spell out a nearly overwhelming amount of pain.

The Revolutionary War was a miserable time period for those who had to live through it.

I mean absolutely horrific. The Brits were really quite rotten to the Americans.

That’s no offense to the British at large any more than it’s an approval of Americans at large. Any true student of history recognizes that there isn’t a perfect people out there. We’re all capable of committing atrocities, and we too often run with that potential.

Moreover, during the course of the Revolutionary War – as I flat-out state in Maiden America – the Americans behaved pretty darn badly a time or two as well.

Yet with that all said, in my very detailed research, I never once came across a story of American soldiers ripping open pregnant women, or crowding thousands of prisoners of war onto ships to let them rot away for weeks or months under the most inhumane conditions, knowing full well they’d die. (Many went insane first.) Those brutalities fall squarely on the British back then.

For kicks and giggles, I watched The Patriot on Sunday; which, yes, is filled with historical inaccuracies. Considering how that movie and Designing America share the same bad guy, I found myself shaking my head and rolling my eyes over and over again.

But that wasn’t what stood out most to me. What stood out most were the battle scenes, where men’s heads were blown off. Their legs shattered. Their stomachs skewered by bayonets.

Because all of that? That really happened.

Even when that wasn’t going on, those soldiers starved more often than not. They got little to no pay. And after the war, they barely got a thanks from a citizenry that was too often thrilled to celebrate victories but apathetic or downright hostile about providing anything else.

Black and white, free and slave, young and old, rich and poor male and female: Those “rebels” gave their time, their fortunes, their well-being, comfort and very lives…

The result is that I can laugh about #FirstWorldProblems.

For all of those sacrifices back then and my security today, I am truly grateful.

“Maiden America” for the History Buffs Out There

Did you know that a possible majority of Americans weren’t pro-America during the Revolutionary War?

If not, don’t worry. Neither did I until I started my research for “Maiden America” early last year. Through books like “1776” by brilliant historian David McCullough (which reads more like a novel than non-fiction. I highly recommend it) and “The Day Is Ours!” by William M. Dwyer.

As I note in my historical forward:

Several historians strongly suggest that no more than a third of the people at any time were fully on the revolutionaries’ side. As a general rule, those who shunned the spirit of independence did so because:

·      They believed the king’s ways and God’s ways were one.

·      They wanted to financially gain from siding with the crown.

·      They were pacifists.

·      They ranked other admittedly worthwhile concerns above freedom, such as their farms, families and personal safety.

Moreover (and this much I did know), even patriots entered the war considering themselves British citizens fighting for British rights. Right up until July 4, 1776, most of them would have happily laid down their arms and gone on as subjects of the king if their demands were only met.

Equally interesting is how the British weren’t all crying “Huzzah!” at the idea of forcing America to submit. I mean, obviously, King George III was.  And there were a whole lot of badly behaved soldiers and officers who made their affiliations very well known by not only shooting at patriot soldiers but also grossly mistreating prisoners, pillaging ordinary citizens’ property, raping women and generally behaving like cretins. But there were a whole lot of much more nobly-minded motherlanders who privately and publically decried their kings’ decisions:

There were members of Parliament who either partially or completely sided with the Americans in their list of grievances. Additionally, enough of the citizenry took issue with the war that King George III had to rely on German mercenaries to bulk up his military force; and he tried – and failed – to hire 20,000 Russians for the same purpose. There were even a few exceptionally prominent figures in Britain’s army who were noted American sympathizers, including Commander-in-Chief William Howe. The same went for Lord Richard Howe, who was in charge of the Royal Navy.

As for King George III, yeah, he was being a ridiculous tyrant. But like so many other ridiculous tyrants, that’s not at all how he saw it. In his mind, he was protecting his kingdom: His citizens were rebelling and he was simply ensuring that they learned their lesson to behave.

At least that was the goal. Obviously history had something very different in mind.