History 1492-1865 the Origin and Growth of the United States

¶ … American Revolution

Major Issues Leading to the American Revolution

The early 1700s brought an influx of immigrants into the New World. The majority of inhabitants were English, but there were also large numbers of German, Irish, Scots, and Spanish. The colonists who had left Britain were beginning to attain their own economic independence from the motherland. Since the first settlements were established, the colonists had managed to establish their own industries in agriculture, wool production, milling, iron work and many other industries. With this economic independence came an independence of ideals as well. The British monarch still viewed himself as a "father" to this fledgling country. As such he demanded loyalty and economic support from his "children." The colonists no longer viewed themselves a subjects of the King and began to assert their newly found independence.

The British monarch expected the colonists to supply Britain with raw materials, and buy goods only from the mother country. The colonists no longer felt loyal to the British crown and wished to establish their own industries and raw materials supply chain. They felt that the crown did not understand their conditions and predicaments in the New World and therefore could not adequately rule them from afar. England began to pass laws that forbade and inhibited commerce in the colonies. These laws were either circumvented or blatantly ignored by the colonists. The spirit of self-government had enveloped the colonies. In addition, scores of other nationalities had never been subject to the British king and felt even less motivation to be loyal to the crown. This is the brew that simmered in the colonies.

There was another issue that added fuel to the fire. From 1755-1763 France and Britain were embroiled in the Seven-years war. This was a foreign war and taxed the British government's resources. As subjects of the King, the colonists were expected to provide troops to support the effort and in addition to provide food and supplies to the troops. England taxed its resources and in order to make up the losses and pay the debts, it imposed exceptionally high taxes on the colonists. The colonists had no representation in Parliament and felt that they should not be taxed without a way to air their grievances. The colonists eventually began to boycott British goods. This was in direct violation of laws imposed by the mother country. The culmination of this revolt occurred when the colonists secured another supply of tea from a cheaper source, the East India Tea Company and dumped British tea into the harbor. This infuriated the King, who attempted to punish the law breakers by imposing further restrictions including restrictions against holding town meetings and closing the Boston harbor, an act that could bring economic ruin to the city of Boston.

The Continental Congress was formed and preliminary documents were composed which voiced the grievances of the colonists about the King and set the stage for the American Revolution. The King tried to stop the movement for freedom, but they could not silence the voice of freedom. In April of 1775 the first shots were fired by the colonists against members of the British Army. The American Revolution had begun.

On July 4, 1776, the second Continental Congress met to declare independence from the British mother country. All was not well, however, and there were some who had achieved and maintained vast wealth from activities tied with Great Britain, these people became known as "Loyalists" and kept allegiance to the British crown. Some found it unusual that those who proclaimed that "All men were created equal" and fought for "liberty" were slave owners, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The British lured many blacks to fight on their side for this reason. But eventually Britain ran into a manpower problem and began losing supporters who had previously been loyal.

The Declaration of Independence and the Spirit of the Revolution

It was Thomas Jefferson who was given the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. In his draft, he addressed the key issues surrounding the colonies' plea for independence. He spelled out his accusations to the king in no uncertain terms. He opens his draft with a justification for why the colonies wish to be separated from British rule. He establishes the right of men to choose their own form of government. He declares that government is for the people, not above and separate from the people.