At 06:15 PM 6/5/2002 -0400, A-Flame Corporation wrote: >What about those who did not arrive from England, coming instead from >Germany, Ireland, Wales, France, and elsewhere? What about those who >spoke no English? Do you know of any Germans who wished to be proud >Englishmen? Irish? Welsh? French? I think not! I have to agree. Look, for instance, at the Carolinas. Some areas of North Carolina were settled largely by Scots -- they were hardly supporters of the English Crown. I can only imagine the rejoicing that many of them felt at the idea of the English having their red coats whupped <g>. Then look at South Carolina. A huge portion of the center of the state was settled by German and Swiss-German settlers. There are long-standing ties between English royalty and German royalty (all that marrying of cousins, you know). Many of these settlers fled their homes, for all the usual reasons (war, famine, religious persecution, etc), and went to England, especially London. And many of them felt that they owed their start in the New World to the Queen, who settled huge tracts of land on these folks to get them to emigrate. Admittedly, this wasn't strictly an altruistic measure; thousands of refugees flooding into London couldn't really be supported, so it probably seemed like a very good idea to ship them off somewhere else. The colonies were a terribly practical solution -- relieve overcrowding while you populate land you'd like to claim. Anyway, many of these people felt a great deal of loyalty to England, and some families in South Carolina were torn apart in much the same way as occurred a hundred years later during the Civil War. Much of what is taught about American history focuses on the New England area, which is only the tip of the iceberg. Schools only have so much time to cover some very complex subjects, and it's understandable that not everything can be covered, but it's a shame nonetheless. People can tell you there were 13 colonies, that the Declaration of Independence was signed on the 4th of July, and that George Washington won the war (and threw a dollar over the Delaware <sigh>), and that's about it. I overheard a conversation not terribly long ago that was inspired by Mel Gibson's "Patriot" -- and I just about choked on my coke when I heard the (self-proclaimed) expert announce that it was no wonder that no one had ever heard of any of the happenings in the movie, because none of it was as important to the outcome of the war as Bunker Hill. Interesting viewpoint... >There are, to my knowledge, no writings left by my ancient relatives, to >indicate their >opinions during this period. I would accept nothing less; as others here >have indicated, 1/3rd of the population was with England, 1/3rd was for >independence, and 1/3rd just wanted to get on with it. That's probably a pretty accurate summation. Not surprisingly, really. It's about the same thing you'd find today. Some of the people are passionately for whatever issue & nothing you can do will change their minds, some of them are passionately against & can't be swayed, and probably the overwhelming majority are somewhere in the middle and would really like to just be left alone <g>. The people in the middle are the ones that eventually make the difference, because sooner or later they'll come down on one side or the other... Angie