can you do a similar post for innacurracies in 1776 when you get s chance?
(This has been here for a month and I am so sorry.)
John Adams and Martha Jefferson waltz during “He Plays the Violin”. The waltz did not become popular until 1780, when it became the rage at the Hapsburg court in Vienna. It spread to other countries several years later.
In “Cool Considerate Men”, Southern delegates sing about “moving to the right”, but “right/left” political labels originated in the French Revolutionary Assembly of 1789.
Also something of an anachronism is that the first few bars of the verses and the first words of the first verse are clearly a reference to “The Star Spangled Banner”, the lyrics of which in 1776 would not be written by Francis Scott Key for 38 years.
Adams and Franklin talk about Botticelli painting Venus. At his death in 1510, Botticelli had lapsed into obscurity and was all but completely forgotten until a revival of interest in his works in the mid-19th century. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin would probably not have been familiar with him and his art.
Lewis Morris of New York had only 10 children, not 12 and the 3 oldest boys fought in the Revolution- not 4 as stated in the movie.
The insult that sparks a brawl between Dickinson and Adams is “Lawyer!” One of the first lines is “One useless man is called a disgrace, two become a law firm, and three or more become a Congress.” Yet 90% of Congress, including John Dickinson and John Adams themselves, were lawyers, so that seems a strange insult to use against somebody in the same profession.
During the song “The Egg” they sing “on this humid Monday morning”, yet the date is shown as June 28, 1776, which was a Friday.
Caesar Rodney suffered from asthma and skin cancer, but he had not returned to Delaware because he was dying. As a brigadier general in the Delaware militia, he was in Sussex County monitoring Tory activity when he received word that the vote on independence was about to take place. Changing horses several times, he rode all night, eighty miles through a thunderstorm, to reach Philadelphia in time to cast his vote. He remained almost continuously in public service until his death in 1784.
John Hancock was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The others waited until August 2nd. One signed it in 1781.
John Dickinson was a pacifistic Quaker who objected to revolution, not a Tory leading the resistance to declaring independence.
Stephen Hopkins’ statement “The Colonies are rotting for want of independence,” should actually be attributed to Rev. John Witherspoon.
John Adams and Richard Henry Lee had a healthy admiration and respect for one another.
There was no direct requirement for unanimity, only the understanding that a less than unanimous vote would indicate a divided America to potential allies.
Martha comes to Philadelphia to see Thomas. While Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, Martha stayed in Virginia, recovering from a miscarriage. Which was why Jefferson constantly requested to be returned to Virginia- being denied every time because he wanted to be with his wife.
When the Declaration is signed, John Dickinson leaves the Congress without signing the document. Though he was a non-signer, he did not resign. At the time the Declaration of Independence was passed, he was on the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation (part of Richard Henry Lee’s resolution).
Caesar Rodney is depicted as a short willowy man, but he was famously tall and thin.
After the song “Cool Considerate Men,” McNair remarks that he could not borrow a dollar from any of those men. Although American dollars were not minted until 1792, Spanish reales were recognized as international currency, and called dollars by English colonists.
After the Declaration is approved Hancock asks the secretary if it is ready to be signed. The secretary replies that it is. This is not possible, as a deletion was made to the text only moments before, so no printed copy could yet exist.
In the close-up of Franklin’s portrait, the painter’s brush is clearly not making any changes; no paint is added and none is removed.
After several days of debate, congressmen made several changes in wording and deleted nearly a quarter of the text. Jefferson resented many of the changes. In reality, Adams and Franklin had made a few substitutions prior to submitting the document to the full Congress.
Congressmen probably did not sign the Declaration on July 4, most signed on August 2, 1776, though others signed before and after. In fact, on the day of July 4, Jefferson was absent from Congress buying gloves and Adams claimed in a letter to Abigail that July 2 would be a future day of celebrations.
The Liberty Bell is depicted ringing as the Declaration of Independence is being signed on July 4 (a mistake itself) in the film. The bell actually did not ring on that date, but on July 8, when the Declaration had been returned from the printer and unveiled to the public.
During “The Lees of Old Virginia”, Richard Henry Lee refers to Harry Lee as “Lighthorse Harry Lee”. Harry didn’t earn that nickname until 1778.
If anyone has more, you can add on!
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