About one third were pro-Britsh, another third backed the revolution, and the other third took no position. I think that is one of the history lessons that hasn't been properly taught in schools, and thus a large part of the public is ignorant of that fact. I appreciate you bringing it up!

Though it was long ago, I think the group dynamics of the Revolutionary War -- as well as the Civil War -- are important to understand in order to place today's situation in an object context. It's a topic that has fascinated me most of my life -- actually since I was in the 1st grade, though I clearly had a six year old's understanding at the time. Our principal told our class about Mohawk Leader Joseph Brant's camp in our town, and I was hooked. That afternoon, my mother told me that one of our family was friends with Brant; within a week, my brothers showed me where Brant's camp had been.

Some of my ancestors, including the one who was friends with Brant, sided with England. A factor was that they were opposed to the expansion into Indian territory that the Patriots favored. Life on the "western front" was tough enough without more conflicts with some of the Ohio River Valley Indian nations. More, after the Revolution, many of these people advocated recognizing the Lenape as a state within our union.

I studied this on my own, and didn't learn about it in school. It wasn't until college that I found it inside of a classroom as part of our country's history. Likewise, college courses provided the more accurate lessons of the colonial era as involving black, white, and red peoples. I think this can be applied to understanding current events, too.