Roland Emmerich's The Patriot And The American Revolutionary War

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The Patriot and the American Revolutionary War What does it take to captivate an audience in the new millennium? Roland Emmerich not only discovered the answer to that question but far exceeded expectations while still maintaining a relatively historically accurate story line. In 2000, he set out to tell the story of a father and his love for his family during the American Revolutionary War. Come with me as we investigate just how far you have to stretch the truth to turn four bloody battles into a blockbuster hit. During the battles portrayed in The Patriot, you see African-American soldiers fighting for the duration of the movie. During the earlier days of the war the enlistment of slaves as well as freeman was decided against by Congress with the agreement of General Washington. The largest concern was arming the slaves and chancing a revolt. Americans considered a slave revolt a larger threat than the opponents they were currently facing. The war started on April 19, 1775. It wasn’t until January of 1776, that General Washington agreed to allow freemen to serve in his military and only if they had prior military experience. It was another year before all free…show more content…
I have found websites claiming that during the time of the American Revolutionary War explosive projectiles were not yet invented. Many online articles on artillery say that even though they were not yet available for cannon use, they did exist as far back as the 14th century for mobile arms. (Impact and Salvo) I have yet to find an article or book that gives any details to whether these small mobile arms with their explosive projectile were used during any of these particular battles depicted in this movie. I did however find one article that stated that the explosives were in fact used with cannons during this time period. There are no other findings to back up this one article.
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