To an extant the colonists developed a sense of their identity and unity as
Americans by the eve of the Revolution. This unity and identity by no means came
instantaneously, but came as a slow trickle and even on the eve of the revolution was still
not complete. This sense of unity and identity came through change over time and helped
shape the American spirit on the eve of the Revolution.
At first the colonists thought of themselves to be British settlers. But as time
progressed, and many colonists in the colonies were born in America, and began to
intermingle with other cultures, they began to develop an identity that they were their
won people. This point is shown well in Hector St. John Crevecoeur, Letters from an
American Farmer. The colonist that now lived in America had less and les ties ethnically
to the British and became moreover products of the "melting pot affect", a person created
from the many cultures from all over tie globe. An example of the identity shared by the
colonists as one people is shown by the manifest of the Contributors of Donations for the
Relief of Boston, 1774-1775. The colonists came together on as Americans to help other
Americans who were in need when the British government closed Boston's ports in 1773,
as a result of the Boston tea party. The colonist of the states that donated items or money
saw that fellow colonists were in need and did not perceive them as settlers in another
colony but as fellow Americans.
As time progressed and the colonist began to become threaten by the British
taking away their rights, they joined together as colonist supporting the same cause and
also willing to die for the same cause. As shown in the Declaration for the Causes of
Taking Up Arms, issued by the Continental Congress on July 6,1775, the colonists show
that they are wiling to stand up against their enemies...