Colonists and Americans
             From the end of the French and Indian War, there was a sense of unity brewing among the colonies. The colonies had to unite in order to overcome a common foe as expressed in the Albany Plan of Union that called a combined effort of defense throughout the colonies. However, even after the French and Indian War the colonies united once again to face an opponent that could not physically be shot down (A). The tremendous hole that was left in the pocketbooks of Britain's be treasury because of the French and Indian wars as well as previous wars caused a change in the economic policy for the colonies in the form of taxing and the enforcement of pre-existing laws. The collective taxing once again pitted the colonists against a common enemy. By the eve of the Revolution, the colonies knew what they were doing, and had defined their identity as no longer British or Englishmen but as Americans.
             Even by 1750, the colonists were already a distinct breed of people. Most were of mixed European background. Whether the colonists defined themselves as Americans at this point does not matter. They were a separate type of people who could be found in no other country (H). Yet, this alone would not be strong enough to define them as Americans just yet.
             The French and Indian War, though, was a major point in colonial unity. After the French and Indian War, colonists began to think of themselves as Americans rather than British or English. The heavy debt caused by the French and Indian War and other wars left the British only one option: to tax the colonies. To defeat this, the colonies had to unite. For one colony or one town acting alone would have little or no effect and would result only in defeat and even harsher regulations. After the Stamp act was defeated, the colonies fully realized that their only chance of withstanding British attempts to tax them was to come together.
             Despite the collective ...