Glen Beck Needs to Understand History.

Glen Beck needs to read some history before he lectures others about it. I think Beck provides a useful addition to our understanding of the beliefs of the leadership of the Revolutionary War but his limited historical knowledge and understanding prevent him from understanding why New Englanders and others thought they could stand up to the British Imperial Might. It was the New Englanders who started the War and they would not have done it if they did not believe they could somehow prevail. Wars are started by individuals with both a grievance and a belief that they can prevail.



The religious among us tend to describe the Mayflowers passengers as all Pilgrims however only half of them were. The half that were not; were a mix of tradesmen, farmers and some soldiers. It was the soldiers such as Miles Standish who brought them through the first winter in Provincetown and who provided their leadership. As we now know the Indian population had been decimated by disease introduced earlier by traders and others who came before the Pilgrims; this meant the Pilgrims only had to deal with the harsh environment and by their poor choice of location at Plymouth were poorly prepared for it.



The transition in belief from English Colonists to American Colonist began to occur during King Philips War. By this time it had become evident to most of the colonists that “living with the savages” was not possible. The Indians had arrived at a similar conclusion and were almost successful in driving the colonists from New England. Again it was the colonial military leadership who prevailed and was able to defeat the Indians although it could very easily have gone the other way. This was the greatest loss of life on a per capita basis in any war the US has ever engaged in. Unfortunately the animosity against the Indians eventually resulted in the destruction of most of the Indian tribes of New England south of what is now Maine.



The 1704 raid by the French and their Indian allies on the town of Deerfield had a harrowing effect on all of the New England settlers. It demonstrated unequivocally that the outlying settlements were incapable of defending themselves from the Indian raiders and that knowledge prevailed along the whole length of the spine of the Appalachian Mountains. The later experience of George Washington at Bradford’s defeat was probably the basis for Washington’s realization that the English Army was incompetent and incapable of defending the colonists. A glimmer of hope came with the defeat of the Iroquois and the defeat of the French by New Englanders at the Fortress of Louisburg in 1745.



In both cases the colonialists had prevailed against almost impossible odds and in both cases where the British military leadership thought it was impossible. At the same time the young conscript colonialists, who had experienced the British brutality to its soldiers and grew to resent it. These were the young men who’s prior experience was primarily as independent farmers. They not only didn’t like it; they refused to be placed under British Military leadership and instead chose to elect their own officers. These young men later became the mature colonial leadership of 1785 and they believed based on their military experience, they could prevail over the British..



I believe the men of the colonial leadership: Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton and even Washington were men of The Enlightenment. This was especially true of Jefferson and Franklin. Franklin’s experiments with electricity were vitally important in understanding the basis of electric charge and Jefferson’s library showed he was familiar with all of the main ideas of the Enlightenment. All of them were skeptics of European ideas of nobility but understood intrinsically that the historic dominance of the churches of Europe was as dangerous as the nobility. We sometimes forget but it was Christianity that brought us the “Dark Ages”, and it was the Enlightenment which brought us out. Some historians ascribe to the invasion of the Visgoths as the cause of the decline of the Roman Empire; but the conversion of the empire to Christianity had as much or more to do with the loss of the military ethos; which ultimately resulted in the inability of the Roman Legions to defend the Empire from the hostile invaders.



Franklin had personal knowledge of the Quaker beliefs about the Indians, which had sadly resulted in the massacre of thousands of settlers on the Western border of Penn. Even Adams the most religious of the lot was knowledgeable of the Pilgrims murder of countless witches and other poor souls who did not meet the Pilgrims definition of piety. He was also knowledgeable about the hanging of Quakers by the Pilgrims because they chose to evangelize among the Pilgrims.



Jefferson after his election was proclaimed the “Spawn of the Devil” by ministers of “enlightened New England” for his Deist beliefs. Freedom of Religion probably had its basis not in the knowledge of persecution of the Pilgrims but in the distrust of the founding fathers for an established religion controlled by the government. They were totally cognizant of what happens when religion comes to dominate society. A quick perusal of Islamic society today should bring that home to both the believers and non-believers alike.


If you would like to check my sources see the following:



“Captive Histories, English, French, Native Narratives of 1704 Deerfield Raid”



‘White Savage”, William Johnson



“King Philips War: The History and Legacy of America’s Forgotten Conflict, Eric Schultz,”



“The name of War: King Philips War and the Origins of American Identity”, Douglas Leach



“The Mayflower”, Nathanial Philbrick





There are a number of other references but most are long out of print. The ones I reference are both well written and reflect serious scholarship. You can Google the “Seige of Lousbourg” for information on that critical bit of history and when I can find it I will list what I believe to be the most definitive source I have been able to find..

I got it when I was at the Fortress of Lousbourg’s celebration of that famous battle.