Saturday, February 23, 2013

Was "The Patriot" historically accurate or inaccurate? How so?please give websites and full detail!

Basically, the answer to your question is "yes."  The movie is both historically accurate and historically inaccurate.  It would be surprising if this were not true.  No movie could possibly be exactly true to history while remaining entertaining.


Most of the websites that discuss this are by amateur historians and/or are very heavily influenced by the personal politics of their authors.  My best suggestion for you is to look for the review of this movie that appeared on page 1146 of The Journal of American History in December 2000.  It was entitled "The Patriot" and was written by William Ross St. George.  If your school has access to the ProQuest system (database of periodicals) you could find it that way.


Briefly, the article says that the movie exaggerates the British atrocities it portrays.  It also ignores the fact that most of the soldiers fighting for the British in South Carolina were colonists.  It also does a few other things to make the Patriots look good and the British look bad.  For more detail, find the article.

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