Talk:American Revolution

Semi-protected edit request on 6 December 2025

The American Revolution began in 1754 and ended in 1783, if you include when the war for independence had begun. ~2025-38643-97 (talk) 21:17, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. IsCat (talk) 21:29, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 December 2025

The Spirit of Independence started in 1775 when rivalry happened between the French and the British, somehow dragging the United States of America into the war. according to 8iP0n (talk) 19:51, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. PianoDan (talk) 20:41, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

References

Semi-protected edit request on 10 December 2025

Please change 1765-1783 to 1775-1783 ~2025-39685-67 (talk) 12:21, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. IsCat (talk) 16:57, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Wikidata / Wikicite

@DuncanHill: I see you just replaced my <!--Ray Raphael (2002) The First American Revolution-->{{cite Q|Q59420225}} with a reference to the same document using the {{cite book ... template.

What do you have against Wikidata?

I vastly prefer it to other citation templates for several reasons, including the following:

• If there is an error, e.g., a broken link, it can be fixed in one place.
• Wikidata makes it easy to be more specific, e.g., about which human named David Eddy wrote a certain document. I just found Wikidata items for 4 humans named "David Eddy", and that doesn't count David Eddy Spicer and David Eddy Lewycky.
• It is more work to create a Wikidata item for a document for only one use but much less work for subsequent uses.
• I get several emails a day reporting on Wikidata items that have been changed. Nearly all such changes provide additional information, e.g., making it easier to find other publications by the same author.

There are reasons not to like Wikidata, but I have found them secondary to the benefits.

Thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia:Prime objective to help build "a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge." DavidMCEddy (talk) 18:50, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

@DavidMCEddy: Hi David. Your use of the Wikidata cite together with a {{Harv}} reference in the text caused a no-target error - that is to say, nobody clicking on the text "Raphael 2002" would be taken to the relevant source. This made it harder for readers to verify. I have linked to both the Wikipedia article about the author and the actual book on Archive.org. This makes it mush easier for readers (and other editors) to look up the source. Most of the sources used in the article are formatted with citation templates, and none with Wikidata, so my edit was consistent with the existing style. I also moved the source to the Sources section where it should be. DuncanHill (talk) 19:08, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

@DuncanHill: Thanks for the reply. I will stop using {{Harv}} until I hear that they have fixed it to work with {{cite Q|...}}. (I've seen it before but on recently started using it. I noticed it did NOT connect to the item as advertised and left a note on the talk page for {{Harv}}, but I have not heard back from that.) DavidMCEddy (talk) 21:29, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

Who was the first killed?

Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Indigenous descent, is widely recognized as the first casualty of the American Revolution. He was shot and killed by British soldiers on March 5, 1770, during the Boston Massacre, a violent confrontation that became a key catalyst for the revolution. (comment by user 2026-19549-08)

There were three instantly killed, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, and Attucks, and two died later. The Boston Massacre page indicates Attucks may have started the whole thing by throwing things at the British troopers. Randy Kryn (talk) 14:42, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 June 2026

There were "tens of thousands' of Black Loyalists, enslaved African Americans who escaped to British lines and supported Britain's cause via several means. Many of them died from disease,[citation needed] but the survivors were evacuated by the British to their remaining colonies in North America.[6]

Add citation: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lord-dunmores-ethiopian-regiment/ ShelbyGoode (talk) 01:17, 29 June 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: First off, thank you for your efforts in finding a source for this claim. I'm declining to implement the request for a couple of reasons: one, your provided source is a tertiary source, which, while not prohibited, are not ideal for use in articles. If we didn't have a proper secondary source I might add the Encyclopedia Virginia source as better than nothing.

As it turns out, however, the cited source at the end of the sentence does indeed back up the claim. Shoreranger had added the cn tag in February with the edit summary of According to cited source, where there was no reference to death by disease, and to be fair when I accessed the source and did a Ctrl+F for "disease" I got no results. When I searched for "died", however, I found Contemporary accounts report that some blacks "found means to get ashore" to avoid "the prospect of their wretched fate", and that others died of disease through the neglect of the white doctors. The search function on these PDF viewers of old documents can clearly be hit and miss. Anyway, I think that's sufficient to verify the claim in the article, and I've removed the cn tag. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 18:40, 29 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 July 2026

Change:

The Revolutionary War continued for another five years during which [ultimately entered], supporting the revolutionary cause. On September 28, 1781, Washington commanded ....

to

The Revolutionary War continued for another five years during which [] and [] ultimately entered, supporting the revolutionary cause. On September 28, 1781, Washington commanded .... Jramasco (talk) 08:38, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before posting an edit request. Day Creature (talk) 17:24, 5 July 2026 (UTC)