UK History have been running a series of documentaries about the War of Independence for weeks. It's immediately clear that the usual dogma of "Oppressed Americans fighting the tyranny of the evil British" is a total myth; actually the war was more like a civil war between Loyalists and Rebels, started by wealthy landowners who didn't want to pay tax or give up slavery, and the average poor American's life didn't change much either way. Well, unless you were black (or native), in which case the Americans winning was a disaster.