A00454 - Must See TV for the Month of November 2025: PBS: The American Revolution: The Financial Motivations of the American Leaders

 The first four hours of the Ken Burns documentary on The American Revolution have aired and so far it is a return to the form that was so evident in his The Civil War and The Vietnam War documentaries.  What I greatly appreciated was how this documentary highlights the financial motivation that became so prominent in unifying the American cause.  First, there was the financial motivation of land speculators such as George Washington in opening up the lands west of the thirteen colonies to land speculation and ownership even though those lands were deemed by the British as being the province of the Indigenous American tribes.  I had not considered that before.  The second financial motivation for the American rebellion stemmed from the British offer of freedom to the enslaved Africans.  Many of the enslaved Africans did flee to join the British and the notion that the British would assist them posed a direct financial threat to such slaveholders as Washington and Jefferson. 


It is unclear as to how much of a role these financial considerations played in subsequent actions of Washington and Jefferson.  However, it is not out of the realm of possibility that these financial considerations did have some influence.  After all, both Washington and Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed.  And both Washington and Jefferson continued to own hundreds of slaves after the American Revolution had been won.

It is an interesting counterpoint to the lofty notions that are contained in the Declaration of Independence and does make one think.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Class of 1975
November 18, 2025 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com <skipjen2865@aol.com>
To: Everett Jenkins <skipjen2865@aol.com>
Sent: Friday, November 7, 2025 at 03:52:21 AM PST
Subject: Must See TV for the Month of November 2025: PBS: The American Revolution: A Film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein & David Schmidt

Folks,

It has been a while since I made a Must See TV recommendation, but this month the recommendation is easy.  This month a new Ken Burns documentary will be aired.

The American Revolution | Premieres Nov. 16 | PBS


The documentary will be aired on six consecutive nights from November 16 to November 21 at 8pm.  I hope you will join me in revisiting the birth of the nation ... and revisiting why this country did not ... and does not ... need a king.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A00245 - Must See TV for the Month of March 2024: PBS: "Dante" and Book of the Year for 2024: Dante's "The Divine Comedy": The Inferno

  By some "divine" coincidence, the following was the quote from the Monday, March 18, 2024, page of "A Year of Zen" calendar; "The mountain of release is such that the      ascent's most painful at the start, below;     the more you rise, the milder it will be. "And when the slope feels gentle to the point that     climbing up sheer rock is effortless      as though you were gliding downstream in a boat, "then you will have arrived where this path ends." Dante ***** I do not know where this Dante quote comes from, but what I do know is that the Monday, March 18, 2024, episode of PBS's "Dante" covered the life of Dante through the year 1306 and covered Dante's Divine Comedy through The Inferno.  The program has been insightful and profound.   I highly recommend that everyone watch the program and ponder on Dante's motivation for writing this monumental work.  Both the watching and the pondering could pr...
Read more

A00078 - Art Laboe, R. I. P.

Southern California lost another great radio personality.  On the heels of losing the great Vin Scully in August https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/sports/baseball/vin-scully-dead.html we are now mourning the loss of the great Art Laboe https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/business/media/art-laboe-dead.html For those who grew up in Southern California, or those who have traveled up and down Interstate 5 at night, it was hard not to have listened to Art Laboe and to be hooked by this Oldie but Goodie playing the oldies but goodies of a musical lifetime.  The following California Report broadcast on Art Laboe at 93 highlights the allure of the man and his show.  https://www.kqed.org/news/11723524/at-93-this-california-dj-is-still-connecting-loved-ones-on-the-air What is a bit harder to highlight are the memories of listening to Art Laboe while driving through the desert on a moonlit Summer night.   He will be missed ... but he will continue to live in our memories. ...
Read more

A00244 - Fatima Bernawi, The First Female Palestinian Resistance Organizer

  March is Women's History Month Women's History Month - Wikipedia and on March 11, Ramadan began Ramadan (calendar month) - Wikipedia Ramadan was the time when it was hoped that the Israel-Hamas War would be paused for humanitarian reasons  Israel–Hamas war - Wikipedia but it was not.  In a previous email (see below), I discuss the legacy of the 1948 Deir Yassin Massacre which gave rise to the Nakba. Sadly, the 75th-year anniversary of the Nakba has predictably proven to be woefully tragic. As a student of history, I sense that the result of this latest episode of the Nakba will not bring peace but will produce a generation of young Palestinians who are committed to resist. One example of such historical resistance fighters created by the Nakba was Fatima Bernawi    Fatima Bernawi - Wikipedia I encourage everyone to become aware of her story.  I found it intriguing not just because she was the first Palestinian woman to organize a resistance attack in Isra...
Read more