Comments on: Celebrating A Decisive Franco-American Victory

By: nypoet22

nypoet22 — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 02:42:37 +0000

i daresay we're a bit less sordid than we used to be

By: C. R. Stucki

C. R. Stucki — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 17:03:18 +0000

Bear [5] What's the point in "confronting our sordid past"? The question seems to imply that we do not have a "sordid" present, and do not anticipate having a "sordid future". I question the validity of either of those presumptions.

By: SF Bear

SF Bear — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 16:38:48 +0000

4 andygaus - The story of Yorktown has always been available, the facts you point out about Washington's behavior are not newly discovered. The racist behavior of our founding fathers has always been known and the fact that the very structure of our country was the result of accommodating the interest of slavery has been available to anyone to see. What is surprising to me is that it has taken all this time for our country to openly confront our sordid past. The question I ask is after almost 300 years: Why Now?

By: andygaus

andygaus — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 14:00:15 +0000

What is less worth celebrating is what happened on October 25th: General Washington issued an order to round up all the Black people who quite sensibly had gone over to the side of freedom, namely, the British, and to return them to slavery. Read it on allthingsliberty.com: "The Yorktown Tragedy." I'm amazed that in all these years I never heard about that till now.

By: andygaus

andygaus — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 03:44:28 +0000

Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" was published in 1776 and contains an economic analysis of how fighting a war on the other side of the ocean affected the British economy. As you might imagine, the effects were disastrous.

By: John M from Ct.

John M from Ct. — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 22:51:18 +0000

Very nice commentary. Vive la France, and 'Lafayette, we are here'. I would only add my understanding that the American lines did not get "closer and closer" to Cornwallis' position by themselves. Washington did not just "outwait" the British, he advanced his siege by a series of bombardments combined with attacks by his army on defended lines. This gave the American soldiers some motivation for staying with the army and doing some fighting, and allowed some staff officers like Hamilton to get some combat experience. I was told once that Governor Nelson of Virginia, nominally a distant ancestor of mine, was with the American forces and directed the bombardment of Yorktown. Supposedly he said something like, "See that house over there? It is certainly the British headquarters as it is the best place in town - it's my townhouse. Open fire." Legendarily the house still stands, with some damage to its structure attributed to the American cannon fire.