"The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time."
That’s what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd on Friday from her spot on the stage at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.
Excuse me, but Robert Morris would like a word.
Morris was, by most accounts, the wealthiest man in the country in 1775.
A Philadelphia shipping merchant who had built a fortune from nothing, having come over from Liverpool at thirteen and apprenticed his way into a trading partnership that eventually became what one biographer calls "the first national conglomerate."
He signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, making him one of only two men to sign all three founding documents. The other was George Washington, who held the title of wealthiest American president in history for over two centuries, with an estimated net worth of almost $600 million in today's dollars.
(Washington owned more than 50,000 acres of land across five states, ran the most profitable whiskey distillery in America, and commanded the Continental Army through eight years of war as a volunteer because he refused a salary.)
When the Continental Congress needed someone to manage the country's finances during the war, they turned to Robert Morris because he was the only person with the business network and personal credit to pull it off.
What followed was remarkable.
When Washington needed gunpowder, Morris smuggled it past British blockades. When the Continental Navy needed ships, Morris supplied three of his own. When Congress couldn't pay its soldiers (which happened with alarming regularity) Morris issued what became known as "Morris notes"—personal IOUs backed by his own immense wealth that circulated as currency throughout the army for years. When Washington needed to move his forces south for the Yorktown campaign that effectively ended the war, it was Morris who came up with the money to make it happen.
For three years, Robert Morris personally financed the American Revolution out of his own pocket. His personal contribution to the war effort has been estimated at roughly $79 million of the total $101 million spent—numbers that are difficult to translate into modern equivalents but represent something close to everything he had.
Robert Morris died in modest circumstances in 1806, largely forgotten. The man who had funded the birth of a nation outlived his fortune by nearly a decade, but no evidence exists that he ever regretted his contribution.
Of course Morris and Washington weren't anomalies.
John Hancock, who presided over the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration in letters large enough to ensure King George could read it “without his spectacles,” was a wealthy Boston merchant whose fortune made him one of the most prominent men in the colonies. Charles Carroll, also a signer of the Declaration, was by some accounts the wealthiest man in America at the time of his death.
These were not desperate men with nothing to lose! They were men with enormous fortunes who looked at what the British Crown was doing and decided that natural rights, self-governance, and the principles of limited government were worth more than their own financial security or their lives—and then proved it!
The Revolution was about taxation without representation. It was about the right of a free people to govern themselves. It was about whether legitimate authority derives from the consent of the governed, or from whoever has the most soldiers. Those ideas came directly from John Locke, were refined by Jefferson and Paine and Madison, and were debated in pamphlets and town meetings for a generation before a single shot was fired at Lexington.
Wealth redistribution wasn't a grievance in the Declaration of Independence. Punishing the successful wasn't a principle of the Constitutional Convention.
The historical record on this is not ambiguous.
So when someone stands at a university podium and describes the American Revolution as a “class struggle against the wealthy”, one of two things is true:
Either they genuinely don't know the history—which, given the state of how history gets taught in this country, is entirely possible—or they know it and are choosing to tell a different story because it's more useful for the argument they're making.
Ignorance and dishonesty are both serious problems, and neither one is obviously preferable to the other.
This is exactly why what you teach your kids at home matters so much. The version of history they carry into adulthood shapes what they believe is worth protecting, how they understand the country they're inheriting, and whether they're equipped to recognize when someone is handing them a story that doesn't hold up to the actual facts.
Our America’s History Volumes 1&2 have already changed the way parents are teaching their kids the history of the United States.
They cover America's History from 1215 (yes, we make the case that America actually started all the way back with Marco Polo and the Silk Road!) through the ratification of the Bill of Rights.
They teach the ideas, the philosophy, and the actual stories behind why the Founding Fathers did what they did—all in a way that makes kids want to keep reading, and all in a way that makes them actually retain what they learn and know how what happened then applies to what is happening in the world around them now.
Isn’t the whole point of studying history so that we can learn from the victories and mistakes of those who came before us and use that knowledge to avoid having to relive the hardest parts of the past?
America’s History Volume 3, which covers 1791-1849, is almost here, and will be available for preorder starting next week, so stay tuned!
That means that now is a great time to reread Volumes 1 & 2 with your family, and brush up on the things you’ve already learned.
If you don’t already own the first two volumes, or if you’ve been wanting to grab our award-winning history curriculum but haven’t gotten around to it yet, what are you waiting for?
You can learn more about both books, and their accompanying curriculum here!
Look, I don’t know if AOC is misinformed, or lying, or some combination of both, but I do know that she (whether we like it or not) has the ability to impact the way people view this country.
I have a general distrust of politicians, but I also know that public education has failed generations of American children, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she, like so many others, simply doesn’t know the truth about America’s founding.
And that’s a real travesty. Because for all of its flaws, this country was founded on principles and ideas that allow the best possible chance at true human flourishing. However they’ve been twisted and corrupted by politicians along the way, the ideas are still good, and they’re still worth striving for.
That’s why parents like you have made our history books and curricula the best-selling resources we offer.
In a world ripe with examples of selfishness, corruption, envy, and top-down solutions for every problem we face, it’s empowering for kids to learn about a generation of men and women (flawed though they were) who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for a cause greater than themselves.
Maybe I should send Rep Ocasio-Cortez a set of our history books. You think she’ll read them? I think it’s worth a try!
I’m excited to share the next America’s History book with you guys. I think you’re really going to love it.
More to come soon!
— Connor
