Essay 1, Unit II

Discuss the major reasons for, and events which led to, the American colonists' decision to declare independence from Great Britain.

    Until the conclusion of the 7-Years War between England and France the English colonists in America had been loyal, content citizens of the British Empire. That situation changed when England, heavily in debt because of the war, decided to tax the American colonists to help pay off the debt and help defray the costs of administering a vastly expanded American empire. To collect the taxes Parliament had to increase its control over the economy and to enforce laws heretofore ignored by the colonists.

    he American colonists, accustomed to a large measure of both economic freedom and political autonomy, resented the imposition of English authority. Navigation Acts, designed to regulate colonial trade, had not previously been rigorously enforced. Parliament had also seldom passed laws having a direct effect on the everyday life of the colonists. All of that would change over the course of the thirteen years between the end of the 7-Years War (1763) and the Declaration ofIndependence (1776). It was this dual threat of taxation and imposition of political authority which underlay the growing hostility leading to the colonists decision to break with England.

    Parliament tried a variety of methods for raising money from the colonies and each met with stiff resistance. The first act passed was the Sugar Act which simply placed a tariff on imports of sugar. Since this was a measure designed to raise revenue rather than merely regulate trade the colonists saw it as a tax and refused to pay it. They claimed that there could be "no taxation without representation." Under English law citizens could only be taxed with their approval given through their elected representatives. Since American colonists did not elect members of Parliament they held that Parliament had no legal authority to tax them.

    The colonists protested, refused to pay the tariff, and boycotted English imports. When these techniques of resistance resulted in Parliament's repealing the Sugar Act the colonists felt they had made their point. Parliament, however, simply resorted to a number of other tax laws such as the Stamp Act (a tax on all legal documents), the Townshend Acts (tariffs on a wide variety of imports), and a Tea Act (a tax on tea imports only). The colonial response in each case was a replay of the measure of protest, refusal to pay, and boycott of English imports. Parliament remained just as determined to raise revenue as the colonists were not to pay them.

    While Parliament repealed or revised each of these tax measures it upheld, in the Declaratory Act, that it indeed had the legal right to legislate for the colonies in all matters, including taxation. It then sent more troops and customs officials to enforce payment of taxes, and even passed a Quartering Act requiring the colonists to house British troops in their homes. With each new tax and each new measure to enforce the laws colonial resistance stiffened and hostility between colonies and the mother country increased. Neither side was flexible enough to bend and adjust to the new situation.

    Tensions erupted in violent demonstratons in two instances in the port city of Boston. In one instance a group of Bostonians protested against payment of tariffs outside the customs house. British troops panicked in the face of taunts and threats by the "mob" and in the ensuing confusion shots were fired and five people were killed. This "Boston massacre" inflamed emotions. In another incident a small group of "radicals" dressed up like Indians and dumped tea from English ships overboard into the harbor to protest the Tea Act. This "Boston Tea Party" resulted in the harshest measures of British retaliation to that time.

    Following the "tea party," Parliament passed a series of laws, the Coercive Acts, designed to punish the citizens of Boston and teach Massachusetts that British law could not be flouted. These laws closed the Port of Boston until all the tea dumped overboard was paid for, cancelled the colony's charter so that colonial officials were appointed, not elected, and required that cases of smuggling be tried in England rather than Massachusetts. These violations of what the colonists considered their "rights as Englishmen" (including trial by a jury of their peers, and the revisions of their charter) incensed the colonists.

    The colonists responded to the Coercive Acts, which colonials labeled the "Intolerable Acts," by establishing a Continental Congress to speak and act for all the colonies. This illegal body notified England that Parliament had no right to legislate for the colonies (since they had no elected representatives in Parliament) and that therefore all the laws passed by Parliament for the colonies since 1763 were null and void. This act of political defiance led the King to declare that the colonists were at war with England. The Continental Congress did not view the situation as a state of war, but as another attempt to redefine the colonies' status within the empire.

    This first Continental Congress, founded in 1774, was not ready to do anything as radical as making a break with the mother country or going to war. Instead it sought reconciliation with England and pressed for Parliament to recognize the American colonies' special position within the British Empire. Even after British troops and American farmers had fought at Lexington and Concord (suburbs of Boston) in January, 1775 the Congress continued to seek reconciliation and rejected talk of independence. The "olive branch" petition to Parliament was one example of this effort to seek redress of what the Congress viewed as legitimate grievances.

    Two events in January, 1776 caused a shift in public opinion toward making a break with England. In that month Thomas Paine's revolutionary tract argued persuasively that because English and American interests were so different, and because the Crown and Parliament had acted "tyranically" toward the colonies it was only common sense for the colonies to break with the mother country. The news that England was sending Hessian mercenaries (hired foreign troops) to the colonies to enforce unpopular laws accelerated the movement of public opinion toward independence.

    By July, 1776 the Continental Congress, after prolonged and agonizing debate, finally voted to break with the mother country and on July 4 officially declared independence. The recognition that such a radical action was unprecedented, and the desire to justify a revolution by explaining the reasons for such a drastic step, resulted in Thomas Jefferson drafting the Declaration of Independence which tried to provide a rational basis for the radical stand.

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