American Colonists: Declaring Their Independence Essay

The Grievances of the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776 primarily by Thomas Jefferson, were the enumerated reasons for the colonists establishing themselves as a nation. There are twenty-seven grievances in the Declaration of Independence, all of which are addressed in the U.S. Constitution for the welfare of the American citizens.

When the Britain passed the Royal Proclamation the colonists did not follow the law and still settled in the west. They pushed Cherokees out, paying no mind to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and kept moving west, which helped establish American nationalism. In the First Continental Congress, none of the colonies were talking about independence yet because all they wanted to do was resolve the issues. They began to take the idea of self-rule and participatory democracy into rule. The colonies began to think their rights were being taken away from them by Britain when Parliament and the King rejected their petition. They began to think ideas of freedom when British troops were being sent to the colonies to establish authorization by Parliament and the King. They didn’t think they could stand up to Britain because they were more powerful and the colonists didn’t have the proper kind of training or weapons. The thoughts of freedom became more real, after the Boston Massacre and after Lexington and Concord. When the colonists finally realized the British would use force to keep them in line and to keep control over them.

For two decades prior to the American Revolution, the Americans developed a series of grievances against the British government for the policies restricting the American colonies. In the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, those grievances were listed including British charges of trading and taxations. The Americans stated that the British have no right to restrict the colonies, therefore, there are enough reasons to separate from the Great Britain. However, the colonists blamed and faulted King George III for incidents caused partially by the colonists themselves. My perspective on this issue is that the charges leveled in the Declaration of Independence against the King were mostly valid with few exceptions.

The colonists were justified in declaring independence from Britain because the British always punished them, the British abused their power, and they always made unfair laws. The first reason why the colonists were right to be separated from Britain because the British always punished the colonists and never listened to them. In Document G it informs, “The Quartering Act forced colonists to provide British troops with living quarters, food and supplies.” This act was a complete invasion of privacy and no representatives

1. How do the Sons of Liberty explain Britain's motivations for passing the Tea Act The British Empire was left heavily in debt by the Seven Years’ War and for the first time, Parliament began looking at the colonies as a source to raise money from direct taxes (Foner, Voices 86). During the late 1700’s, the colonists were constantly at odds with the British government, who were attempting to gain greater oversight and control. The Sons of Liberty, a group made up of different merchants and classes of workers, were opposed to the many regulations and taxes levied on them by Parliament.

Although the reputation of being a land of the free, the American colonies were quite often filled with people who were not treated as free citizens or as equals. There was an often misunderstanding that the American colonists no longer wanted to British citizens anymore, and although that wasn’t the case, they still got treated fairly bad by the British Parliament. The American colonists still wanted to be viewed as loyal citizens, and seen as equals. Because the British Parliament treated the American colonies unfairly, the American colonists declared their independence to be freed from the British Parliament to be treated as equals.

Unjust Actions From the beginning of the colonies there was always unrest on whether or not they should be dependent on England. This was a debate that was had amongst colonists since before Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. Declaring their independence was the colonies last standing offense to the King before he decided that England needed to step in. To the English monarchy, the colonies were unjust in declaring independence from them due to their ownership of the lands where the colonies lie; however speculation may tell Americans today that Jefferson was just in his actions against the crown.

Sunday of April 7th, 1765, a group of Rhode Island men boarded the Polly and took down the ship of its cargo carrying barrels of molasses from the sugar islands. This happened eight years before the Boston Tea Party, but the problem was the same. The British Parliament placed a tax on the sugar without letting the colonists have a chance to talk it over. This made the Americans enraged. The Americans needed to resist the tax, or they are just slaves to the British. Americans believed they had the right with what they built with their own strength, knowledge and will. They knew they had to obey laws, but only if they had a say in the making of the laws. The Americans would’ve resisted any tax the British put on them but when they taxed sugar,

Since 1764, Great Britain has been imposing their power on the colonies in very unfair ways. They have been acting as a tyranny who is abusing their absolute power. The colonists were justified in separating from Britain and declaring independence because of unfair taxes, and tyranny. The American Colonies are justified for separating from britain because of multiple unconstitutional taxes.

The American Revolution was not only a battle between the British and the colonists; it was a historical movement that brought about new ways of thinking. The ideas of liberty and equality began to be seen as essential to the growth of the new nation. The separation of the American colonies from the British Empire occurred for a number of reasons. These reasons are illustrated in the Declaration of Independence. Although Thomas Jefferson wrote the document, it expressed the desire of the heart of each colonist to be free of British rule. British rule over the colonies became unbearable in the early months of 1776, making it clear to the colonists that it was time to either give in

     The British colonies of North America took their beginnings in the early part of the sixteen hundreds. At that time Virginia and New England became the first regions to be settled by the English. It was the birth of America as a whole, but it also was the beginnings of two distinct ways of life. The colonies were founded on Independence, but from the start there were two completely different ideas of what that Independence was and what it would mean over time.

The colonists were justified in their decision to declare independence from Great Britain. This is because of the ways in which King George III exploited his power, as well as the numerous foolish decisions he made. After the French/Indian war, laws such as the Townshend act, Navigation act, and the Stamp act were inflicted upon the colonists. These policies were not unjustified, the French/Indian war was costly and had greatly benefitted the colonists. However, they were still unfair, given that the colonists’ sole purpose for England up to that point had been to make them money through mercantilism. They were already extremely beneficiary to the British economy, and taxing them, at least to that extent,

Taking action into a revolution (to gain American freedom) was a very revolutionary event at this time. Earlier, when the colonies were still being controlled by English Parliament, they had strict laws and orders that were to be carried out. Following the French and Indian war, colonists were struck with multiple taxes and acts to pay for the war. This enraged the people, and caused them to take a stand. Like shown in document 1, these people had enough of the government and took some major risks to prove to the British that they were done. They wanted a revolution. Quickly after actions were being made to inform England about their decision, they wrote the Declaration of Independence to make sure that they would be able to live favorably

Independence Many factors were looked over when the colonists decided to declare independence from Britain. The crux of these reasons was the fact that Britain was passing brazen and strict laws that hindered the colonists’ rights and freedom. Of these laws, the most prominent ones were the Stamp Act, Tea Act, and finally, the Intolerable Acts. However, Parliament was given a reason to pass these draconian laws.

The Declaration of Independence was written by the colonists to declare their freedom of independence. The Declaration of Independence is a formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. A quote from the Declaration of Independence is “Resolved that these, united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states”. An interesting fact about the Declaration of Independence is that there are a few handwritten notes on the back of it and nobody knows who it was written by. The Declaration of independence was written to show that the colonies are breaking away from Britain. Its purpose was an idea of government, lists of complaints, and a declaration of war. The Declaration of Independence preamble “We hold