Revolutionary War: The Prelude
The American settlers had early become used to taking a share in government. Every colony elected an assembly. The Virginians set up their House of Burgesses only 12 years after Jamestown was settled. The Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact before building their first log cabin in 1620. This was a set of rules for governing their colony.Many settlers came to America to be free to worship as they pleased. Two of the colonies--Rhode Island and Maryland--offered almost complete religious freedom. The settlers also believed firmly in the benefits of education. Harvard College was founded in 1636, only 16 years after the Pilgrims landed. In 1647 Massachusetts required its towns to provide primary education. The protests against British injustice printed in papers, pamphlets, and books could be read by most Americans.Land was free or cheap. In the border wilds a man needed only to build a cabin and clear a planting space, and he was a landowner. Even a bond servant could look forward to owning a farm, once his period of service was over. Timber was plentiful, and some port towns had shipyards. American ships visited and traded American goods in for
In the view of Britain's ministers, England had made great sacrifices in order to expel the French from Canada. He now sought ways to make the colonies most profitable to England at the least expense. Meanwhile the colonists became increasingly dissatisfied with this condition. What magic of the American woods could transform these lowly folk into peers of the chosen few who lived on the fat of England's fertile soil?Equally wide was the gulf that separated the colonists and England in their political thinking. The Five "Intolerable Acts"Parliament replied to the Boston Tea Party with the five "punitive," "coercive," or "intolerable" acts of 1774. The money collected was to be used to support British officials in the American service. In fact, the revolutionary leaders eventually placed the assemblies on a par with Parliament. Since the East India Company was carrying out a British law, Lord North and George III felt that the colonial opposition must not go unchallenged. But if England could levy taxes simply to obtain revenue, the colonial rights of self-government would soon be at an end. Just before the Revolution, England was governed by rapidly changing party factions that did not hold to a consistent course. Meanwhile, in Boston, a group of citizens disguised as Indians tossed 15,000 pounds worth of the offensive tea into the harbor. Some of these were the former assemblies, meeting in defiance of the English governors. It would do so at the expense of the pioneer, the land speculator, and the colony whose charter gave it a claim to a section of the interior extending westward to the Mississippi River.
Common topics in this essay:
Englands America,
Acts Trade,
India Company,
George III,
Royal Navy,
Boston Elsewhere,
Americans Land,
Stamp Act,
Farmer Pennsylvania',
England America,
stamp act,
intolerable acts,
east india company,
east india,
india company,
tea party,
tea imported,
french indian,
british officials,
british merchants,
indian war,
french indian war,
england tax colonies,
five intolerable acts,
support british officials,
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Acceptance Essays
