HIST101 American History to 1877 : History of the American Revolution

Option 1: Reasons for Revolt: The Revolutionary American Colonial Perspective on the British Monarchy

 

The British King and bureaucracy (the Crown) thought the colonists were acting like spoiled children. The colonists thought the British were overbearing, taxing unfairly, and ignoring their grievances. For this assignment, take the perspective of American colonists and write a paper explaining why the British colonies in North America revolted against the Crown.

 

Below are some of the items to consider:

The colonial relationship to the British before/after the French and Indian War
The acts passed by the British government
The grievances stated in the Declaration of Independence
The events that escalated the division between the Crown and the colonists.

A question is generally asked why the colonists revolted against Britain. They had several reasons to revolt, and they have also mentioned them in the Declaration of Independence that had been adopted by them on July 4, 1776. There are two parts of the declaration of independence. First is the preamble that is just an introduction. In the second part, they have mentioned the reasons behind the revolt by the colonies (Berkin, 2006). Basically, all the reasons were related with the abuse by the king of his rights and privileges in order to exploit the colonies.

The whole start of the revolution can be activity to the French and Indian war. A lot of money was spent by England in order to protect American soil. Therefore, they were of the opinion that the colonists should help by paying for the war (Champion, 2009). Therefore in order to receive this money, a series of Texas are imposed by England. Nearly everything that they could think of was taxed by Britain. For example, the Sugar Act imposed a tax on sugar, wine and molasses. Similarly, the Stamp Act imposed a tax on nearly all the paper products (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989). Similarly, there were many other taxes imposed by Britain. For the colonists, the main problem with these taxes was that they had been imposed by the British Parliament and they did not have any representation in it. Therefore the slogan was given regarding Britain taxes which mentioned, 'no taxes without representation'.

Another reason present behind the revelation was that most of the cases the English courts did not allow a trial by jury to the columnist. On the other hand, they allowed a trial by jury, but it was denied to the colonists. Therefore the colonists asked as they were also a part of the English empire, they should be treated equally (Nash, 2005). Even if it was not a major cause behind the rebellion but it was one of the little things and all these little things became huge problems.

Another issue was related with mercantilism. In case of mercantilism, a country believes that well-being is more significant than the individual. In this case also, England never bothered about the colonists and they only wanted to continue receiving the bullion and exploiting them. England failed to understand that the colonists also wanted to be ruled by exactly the same laws as for the people in England (Raphael, 2001). As the East India tea company was facing financial problems, England made a rule according to which the colonists can only purchase that kind of tea. Although the prices of the tea were cheaper by the colonists did not like to be forced in this way. Therefore, they boycotted that brand of tea. Another interesting thing done by them in protest was that they dressed up as Indians and went on board a ship and threw the tea overboard. This was known as the Boston tea party. The uproar of this action was felt in England.

As a result, Britain took action against the colonists. The Coersive Act from Britain was introduced in the colonies as the Intolerable acts. It also closed the Boston Harbor, which was very significant for the colonists as it was a major trade center. Under the circumstances, Thomas Paine wrote a 47 page pamphlet called "Common Sense" which explains why the colonists should revolt.

References:

Berkin, C. (2006) Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence. New York: Vintage Books

Champion D (2009) American Patriot.” History of American Women. 2 April 2009. Available from https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2009/04/deborah-champion.html. Accessed 19 Sept 2017

Kaplan, S and Kaplan E.N. (1989) The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, revised ed. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts  

Nash, G. B. (2005) The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America.New York: Penguin Books

Raphael, R. (2001) A People’s History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence. A New Press People’s History, ed. Howard Zinn. New York: New Press