Let the pouncing commence: I am enjoying Ken Burns Revolutionary War documentary anyway

Ken Burns trolls the right with an Iroquois Nation intro to Revolutionary War documentary

Nov 24, 2025

The first 10 minutes of Ken Burns new PBS documentary—a six-part, 12 hour series called “The American Revolution”—exists entirely before the first episode actually begins, and contains a giant troll for those on the right. It’s not on the order of Project 1619, but claims that the Six Nations had a functioning democracy “for centuries,” and that those ideals contributed to the founding of our union.

Oh my, how the pouncing has begun. Dan McLaughlin, writing in National Review’s online site, countered: “The Founders didn’t model us on the Six Nations, and George Washington didn’t tomahawk a Frenchman.” McLaughlin noted that Burns has been making documentaries for decades, and knew exactly what he was doing when he put these words into the introduction.

Long before 13 British colonies made themselves into the United States, the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy — Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida, and Mohawk — had created a union of their own that they called the Haudenosaunee — a democracy that had flourished for centuries.
“We heartily recommend union. We are a powerful confederacy. And by your observing the same methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power. Therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out one with another.” — Canasatego
In the spring of 1754, the celebrated scientist and writer Benjamin Franklin proposed that the British colonies form a similar union. He printed a cartoon of a snake cut into pieces above the dire warning “Join, or Die.”
A few weeks later at Albany, New York, Franklin and other delegates from seven colonies agreed to his Plan of Union — and then went home to try and sell it. . . . But when the plan was presented at the colonial capitals, each of the individual legislatures rejected it because they did not want to give up their autonomy. The plan died, but the idea would survive.
Twenty years later, “Join or Die would be a rallying cry in the most consequential revolution in history.

I agree, Burns knew exactly what he was doing. It was a troll not quite worthy of Elon Musk or President Donald Trump, but it found its mark among the intellectual egghead right. Did the claim actually show that Benjamin Franklin and the patriots who initiated the Revolutionary War, and eventually declared independence from Great Britain got the idea from the Haudenosaunee? No. It was a artful device, something to hook people, or provoke. It was more like James Michener, who used that kind of sweeping language to move the reader into a thousand page tome, like “Hawaii.”

Scores of millions of years before man had risen from the shores of the ocean to perceive its grandeur and to venture forth upon its turbulent waves, this eternal sea existed, larger than any other of the earth’s features, vaster than the sister oceans combined, wild, terrifying in its immensity and imperative in its universal role.
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But politics being what they are, pundits could not let Burns’ words stand. And thus, the pouncing commenced. The New York Times struck back against the backlash hilariously in its historical timeline game “Flashback.”

I was quite amused. Burns never claimed that American colonists were “inspired” by the Iroquois. McLaughlin correctly noted that Franklin’s print shop published Canasatego’s “unity” speech, 10 lines in a 450-page anthology of negotiations leading to Indian treaties. The 1754 “Plan of Union” document was likely not authored by Franklin, according to scholar Robert Natelson, but by a Tory named Thomas Hutchinson who fled to England during the revolution.

My reaction to this mini-tempest is simple: who cares?

Ken Burns is an excellent documentarian. Even in these days when PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is stripped of funding, Burns has appeal, and has attracted a star-studded voice cast for his long-form plunge into the founding of our nation.

After the introduction, I barely heard references to the Six Nations, other than the correct historical perspective that the indigenous inhabitants of North America played a big role in the history of not just the United States, but also in the European powers’ ambitions for this land. What we call the “French and Indian War” was really part of a global conflict primarily between France and England, fought on fronts from Quebec to India, for seven years. The war debt piled up in London was economy-sinking, and only the trade triangle of slaves, tea, and tobacco kept the empire’s economy afloat.

I was intrigued at the economic analysis of the value of colonies from England’s perspective. The Caribbean islands were far more profitable than, say, Massachusetts. And Massachusetts was filled with literate misfits and political rabble rousers, especially in Boston. Having lived a large part of my life and growing up in that area, I understand exactly what King George III felt. But as an American, and a Yankee, I have special affection for the misfits and rabble rousers.

By the end of Episode 1, I was definitely hooked on this series. Who cares if the reason George Washington joined the revolution was because he was piqued at being denied a commission in the British Army? It was likely one of the reasons Washington wasn’t too happy with the king and his generals.

In Episode 2, Burns’ description of the Battle of Bunker Hill, which every New Englander learns really happened on Breed’s Hill, is excellent and poignant. After watching it, I developed even more respect for New Hampshire patriot John Stark, whose statue still (and always will) reside in the Capitol, as the state’s hero. It was Stark who saw through redcoat General William Howe’s flanking maneuver, and took 60 New Hampshire militiamen to defend the beach in Charlestown. As a result, the British took 40 percent casualties in taking Breed’s Hill, a percentage that would not be seen again until World War I.

The other day, my brother Jay and I were discussing this, and he asked what lesson the British learned from that day. I replied, naturally, don’t charge embedded defenders in defilade over open ground, up hill, with formed infantry. That’s not what he meant, but, I mean, that was the lesson, because the British never attempted it again during the entire war. After Bunker Hill, Howe was recalled to London, and General Thomas Gage was dispatched by the king to run the war.

I’ve watched two episodes of the six-episode series on PBS. The PBS app is available on Apple TV devices, or you can watch from the website. Mini clips are showing on YouTube. If you liked Ken Burn’s seminal series “The Civil War,” you’ll like this one. Trolling aside, it’s enjoyable to see history presented in a relatable, visually stunning way, with plenty of personal first-person accounts thrown in, expertly read by the all-star cast.

All trolling and pouncing aside, I can’t think of a better way to spend a week with the kids home at Thanksgiving than to be thankful for our nation, our founders, and the many soldiers who pledged their sacred honor, their fortunes, and their very lives to obtain our freedom, and to give us the opportunity to govern ourselves by the highest principles ever attempted on a national scale.

This country needs a revival of patriotism, and reverence for the divine aid-assisted and miraculous-seeming story of our fight to be independent. Instead of pouncing on the naked troll referencing our indigenous roots (the Native Americans were, after all, here first), we should reflect on how we treat the descendants of those people today. We should reflect on how we treat our own and the rest of the world today. Are we living up to the principles those who fought over two hundred years ago died for, and believed in?

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