#us colonies

[twofielder]

Coin of the Day #61 (7/4/2024)

A colonial era coin I found metal detecting here in the US. Happy Fourth of July!

United Kingdom

1735 George II Halfpenny

Found in Berks County, PA 2022

[4democracyspromise]

With all the eyes on American Samoa after Jason Palmer won the primary, it is a good time to remind people of what the island is according to U.S. law.

American Samoa is not considered a state. It is considered an "unincorporated territory". These territories are subject to some of the Constitution, but not subject to other parts. They pay tax dollars can't vote.

In other words.

American Samoa is a colony. A colony in the same way that the 13 states were when under the control of Britain, subject to taxation without representation.

These territories were seized from their native people. They were not given a choice. They must be given a choice now, between full statehood or full independence. Not this imperialist in-between. Power of the People supports self-determination for U.S. colonies.

Learn more about the history of U.S. colonies here.

[linskywords]

just saw you reblogging the delaware post and it made me remember that I was mind-blown last year when I discovered (Im from outside the US) that washington DC wasnt actually in the state of washington?

I somehow thought it was washingtons capital city or something and was majorly confused when i saw people who lived in the state never mentioning going to the white house or anything until i finally googled and realised they were completely different!

Since then I've mentioned it to other people and they didnt know either which made me feel so much better haha not sure if its common knowledge outside the US that there is a difference? alas american geography continues to baffle and intrigue me all the time

Hahaha, that makes total sense!! It's super weird that we have a state named Washington and a city named Washington that 1) is an entire continent's width away and 2) isn't even in a state at all. (Like, why is that even possible? If there are 50 states should they not encompass everything? If Washington, D.C. is not in any of the other states, why is it not a state of its own? Obviously there are historical reasons for all of this, but it's absolutely wild to me that the set of 50 states does not include the entire country.)

Anyway it's also totally reasonable that you, a non-US-inhabitant, would not know this about our geography. Why would you? The amount I know about geography of other countries tends to be waaaaay less than most of the foreigners I encounter know about the U.S. But I will admit that it's kind of fun to figure out what those foreigners do know about the U.S., since it tends to fall in that gray zone of "picked up through cultural osmosis but often not very accurately." I taught English in France for a year after college, and I did a game with my students where they were supposed to draw a map of the US without looking at any references. Things they all knew:

Florida (if they drew the U.S. it was basically a rectangle with a Florida protrusion)

California

New York

They usually knew some other stuff too, like I was from Boston and they had a pretty good idea where that was. Texas popped up a lot as well, and Chicago. Things they super did not know:

That there are 50 states (it's 50 WITH Alaska and Hawaii, not 50 PLUS Alaska and Hawaii, even though 52 is also a nice number that sounds round and familiar because of a deck of cards)

The actual capital of New York state (actually literally none of my students knew this, though there was one boy who was like, "Al...bania??" and I was so impressed. It is actually Albany but 50 points to Ravenclaw, my friend.)

That said, I cannot draw a map of all 50 states without looking at a reference. I can get all the states on there in mostly the right place, but there will be glaring errors. Also, things I did not know until adulthood despite being a highly overachieving student at a top-notch public school:

That the U.S. still has colonies. We are still a colonial power

What those colonies are

Basically anything about Puerto Rico after 1700

So...don't feel bad, is what I'm saying. 😅

[therealsporcle]

Invisible Original 13 Colonies Quiz

[drmonkeysetroscans]

Groups of mid century Puerto Ricans.

[mindvomitofanarchaeologist]

U.S. state boundaries haven’t always been clearly defined. Because of unclear boundary descriptions in the Royal Land grants for Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, major disputes between colonies, settlers, and Natives arose in the 1600′s.