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Three Persistent Myths About the Founding of America That Refuse to Die
250 years later, it’s time to get these right
We are exactly one month away from the grand celebration of America’s 250th birthday (assuming it doesn’t get canceled like a not-so-grand planned concert I will not delve into here). As with lesser anniversaries of our country’s inception, we will all gather to scarf down burnt hot dogs, blow off our fingers with cherry bombs, and get Bruce Springsteen’s classic “Born in the USA” completely wrong. I can’t stop the first two and have fought a losing battle for decades over the third, but there is one thing I can do to hopefully Make America Less Dumb Again: correct a few myths about the founding of our Republic. The myths and misconceptions about that era are legion, but today I want to dispel just three.
1. All of the American colonists were in favor of independence from Great Britain. Let’s get perhaps the most common myth out of the way first. History books — at least in the United States — paint a picture of the revolution in which every colonist was in favor of independence, except for a tiny number of misguided, tea-and-crumpet-loving traitors. This fact was hammered home to the kids of Generation X with the Schoolhouse Rock episode “No More Kings,” and surely Schoolhouse Rock wouldn’t lie to us. In fact, they would…
