Reddit reviews John Laurens and the American Revolution (Non Series)

This technically isn't about the musical, but the fans. As someone who was super into history before Hamilton, some Hamilton fans either repeat inaccurate things, fail to understand/misrepresent different issues, try to downplay issues because they like [character in musical] and want to defend them, etc. Oh, and demonize [character in musical] if they don't like them.

It's upsetting. Some of it is done from ignorance and that's fine, because no one is born knowing everything and that's something that can be fixed, but some of it is very deliberate.

I suppose you could say I have some issues with how the musical itself represents some things, but I don't expect the musical to be an accurate representation of what happened, I know what's different between the musical and real life, and I think it's ridiculous to think a musical should have to be 100% accurate. So when people treat it as 100% accurate and then enter historical discussions about early American history? That's annoying.

And what I hate most are the type of fans that left these reviews on Mr. Massey's book about John Laurens. It's very clear most of them didn't actually read the book, didn't read the updated preface that clearly says of the three things he would change if he were to write the book again his portrayal of the Laurens-Hamilton relationship was the first one. But Massey didn't say Laurens was gay, so let's give one star ratings crying about how dare he and acting like all John Laurens ever was was a sexuality. (And saying Chernow's biography on Hamilton is a better biography on Laurens than Massey's biography dedicated to Laurens and his father, which is kind of amazing in how ridiculous that statement is.) Let's completely disrespect the memory of a real human being by reducing him to who he may have had sex with.

For the record, I think it's extremely likely Laurens was attracted to his sex. I think it's likely he was intimate with someone of the same sex. I'm not going to say he was gay or bi, because I think it's inappropriate to try and put a modern label on something that didn't have a similar existing concept.

I think I'm done ranting now. Most of y'all are the chillest people, but we all have something we want to strangle people over, you know?

(And though this isn't relevant, I feel compelled to add that I, like most other people I know who are into Early American history, am a coupe letters in LGBT. Some people seem to think my disliking those types of reviews is because I'm a homophobe? I'm not sure what that's about. I doubt anyone in this sub would make that type of argument, but covering my bases.)

You can get it on Amazon for less than $30

Source: Amazon Link