How Did The Colonists Question The Declaration Of Independence

Stephan contemplated before he sat down, pulling the chair out slowly, dreading the family's nightly dinner conversation, what Great Britain was doing wrong. First they moved away to the new land, then Britain gave them grief. The proclamation of 1763, when King George told the colonists not to move westward, and the Indians not to move east, there was almost a hand drawn line. The colonists were not very happy, next year, came the sugar act in 1764. The taxes were high on cloth, sugar, coffee, and wine for the colonists, and the naval officers searched ships carefully to stop smuggling. The colonists were, again, not happy. Now, a year later, was another act, the stamp act, and I bet you can guess, the colonists were not very happy.

As generations grew up in America, nationalism within the colonies grew towards their new country. These settlers slowly lost their patriotic tie to Great Britain and it’s ruler, King George III. So when the French and Indian War ended in America, and the indebted England needed some compensation from American settlers in the form of taxes, the colonists questioned the authority of England and their ability to rule them. British imperial policies such as the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Townshend Tea Tax caused uproar within the colonies against British rule without

As a response to the acts, many examples of propaganda materialized in the press. In 1765, Newspaper masthead printed a propaganda claiming that the the hope of resurrection was expiring, and that they were ‘dollar-less’ (Document H). The colonists were furious with the overbearing British rule and needed a way to secure loyal supporters. Propaganda served a crucial role in this aspect because it was accessible to everyone and very convincing. However, this resulted in a negative effect and caused bitterness between the American colonies and Britain. The new taxations angered the colonists. As Benjamin Franklin said in his letter to John Hughs, “As to the Stamp Act, tho we purpose doing our Endeavour to get it repeal’d in which I am sure you would concur with us, yet the Success is uncertain” (Document G). The acts such as the Stamp act and Intolerable acts led to boycotting and many revolts, the most famous being the Boston Tea Party. Although the colonists did not want to be taxed either way, they especially refused taxation without representation. With all these taxes, it is understandable that the Colonists wanted to rebel, leading the to the American Revolution and their independence.

Parliamentary taxation was another one of the main sources of the colonists' anger. With the Sugar Act of 1764, they were forced to pay one-third of Britain?s French and Indian War costs. The Stamp Act was excessive for the colonists as well, but was met with much more hostility. They rebelled against these taxes because they were being taxed without representation in England, they felt the British had no right to tax their colonies when they themselves had no say in how they were ruled. ?For imposing taxes on us without our consent,? was another political whine that Thomas Jefferson inscribed in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson had purpose in saying this, because political problems had most effect in the deciding factors of breaking away from Britain.

     The Stamp Act, however, created much more protest. In 1765, Parliament passed an act requiring the colonists to pay tax stamps on any paper product. The act infuriated colonists because this act was a direct attempt to raise money without the consent of the colonial assemblies. The colonists felt that they were being taxed without representation. With great anger, colonists refused to allow the tax stamps to be sold. Merchants even agreed not to order British goods until the act was abolished. Then, in October of 1765, delegates gathered to discuss the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress stated that the right of taxation belongs only to the people and their elected representatives. Also, they decided that Parliament couldn’t deny their right to trial by jury. They argued that Parliament didn’t have the power to tax them because they had no representatives in Parliament. They denied Parliament’s right to tax them for revenue. The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, but following that, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act. It stated that the kind and Parliament had full legislative power over the colonies regardless.

A major discrepancy the Colonists argued for in the Declaration was Parliament’s act of “imposing taxes on us without our consent”. Becoming a rally cry in the fight for independence, “no taxation without representation” was a consistent belief felt throughout the colonies. The Stamp Act, the first of many taxes to be imposed on the colonists, sparked this belief. The Stamp Act was classified as a direct tax, one the colonists all felt the impact of. There was no way to avoid this tax as it was added onto the price of the item as you were buying it. Document C illustrates this point. When asked about a direct tax, all Benjamin Franklin had to say was that the direct tax was forced upon the people, without their consent and without and representation. His view represents the view of the majority of the colonists. The major reason the colonists felt this tax as unfair was because this tax was levied without their consent, it was decided in Parliament, thousands of miles away, where no American represented the colonists. The Stamp Act was not the only tax the Americans had a problem with. Another tax was the tea tax. Outraged on the East India Trading Company’s monopoly on tea, the Sons of Liberty dumped tea into the harbor in protest of the tea tax. The result was the Boston Port Bill which closed down the Boston port until the colonists paid back the Crown for the lost tea. The Boston Port Bill

The British practiced a policy of salutary neglect, where the colonists were free to do whatever they pleased. Following the unbelievable acts and taxes established by Parliament, colonists felt betrayed by the British government. Many colonists thought it was unfair to be oppressed by taxes without representation in Parliament. Despite many attempts to negotiate with the King of England, no agreement was accomplished. According to Thomas Jefferson in the “Declaration of Independence,” he stated, “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms; Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.” (Doc. 7). The colonists felt they were being ruled by a tyrant. As a result, The Continental Congress convened and Thomas Jefferson wrote “The Declaration of Independence” on July 4, 1776. In this declaration, Jefferson stated, “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation [unlawful seizures], all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” (Doc. 7). Nevertheless, Jefferson was not the only colonist to feel as if the king was a tyrant. One day later, the Second Continental Congress gathered and the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms” was presented. This document was

The American Colonies developed a sense of identity and unity as a result of the negative public opinion to the actions taken by Great Britain during the early 1770’s. The historical driver to the actions Great Britain took in the 1770’s was the large amount of debt the British accumulated during the French-Indian War and the ineffectiveness that additional taxes had on the American colonies due to the open aggression to the rule of the crown. The historical context in which the British Parliament decided to pass the Intolerable Acts is the unrest in the

This led to the Coercive Acts or “Intolerable Acts” as the colonists called them, which just brought more anger and hatred of Britain. The New Englanders hated the British so much that a man named Joyce Junior became “Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering.”, when it was popular to tar and feather tax collectors. When the Quebec Act was put into place “Parliament had found a way-unrelated to the unrest in Boston- to anger and frustrate not just the citizens of Massachusetts but virtually all of colonial America” and more and more undecided were becoming patriots as the loyalists had a hard time defending the injustices set by Parliament. Until “In just about every town it had become impossible to support, publicly at least, the British Government.” This all led to an eventual American victory through the use of patriotism. The difference between the lobster backs and the continental army was that the British forces were only fighting to suppress their colonies and quite honestly to just get paid. But the Americans were fighting for something much more than that. It was Independence. They used all this frustration and anger they had at England to use in their army and made their opposition that much stronger to oppose. Before the Declaration of Independence was even signed and sent over the Atlantic, “Each town in Massachusetts

Thus, events such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and taxes on other products, led to discontent with the crown. An important leader as William Pitt argued that representation in a parliament was needed to enact laws that will favor the colonies. Unlike, the British King that laid “improper restraints on the continent, in favour of the islands” (Pitt "I rejoice that America has resisted"). Furthermore, the assemblage of the Stamp Act Congress tried to repeal the tax required by all legal documents. Colonists stated the Stamp Act was “burthensome and grievous”, therefore they argued that “taxes to be imposed on them but with their consent” (Document

The Stamp Act Congress consisted of delegates from nine of the thirteen colonies who met because they disagreed with the pasting of the Stamp Act by England. The colonies disapproved of the Stamp Act because it required people to pay a tax for every papered document used. England decided to pass the act without consulting with the colonies. In this location the delegates wrote a message to the king of England and their Parliament objecting to the Stamp Act. During this meeting the famous phrase “no taxation without representation” came to be known. They did not want the British government to abuse their power. This was the first Congress of the American colonies and it set an example on how the colonies would try to face the problems made by England. It showed that the colonies could be effective as an organized government and paved the way to establishing an official

Thus, Merchants in the colonial brought forth a storm of protest, “Newspapers and pamphlets” written “no taxation without representation,” Patrick Henry introduced “In the spring of 1765, the Virginia House of Burgesses adopted a series of resolves denouncing the parliamentary taxation and asserting the colonists’ right to be taxed only by their elected representatives.” (p. 42). Due to this act the Stamp Act “unconstitutional” and in 1766, “Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.” Britain reaction after the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party was not the smarts moves, for example, closed Boston Harbor; put Massachusetts under direct British control; passing the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide barracks and supplies to British

The period of events leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution including; the Molasses Act, The Land Bank Ordeal and the French and Indian War these represented acts of rule over the American colonists by the British (Unger 8). Following Patrick Henry’s speech against the stamp tax, in his Stamp Act Resolves, the Stamp Act Congress held a meeting in New York by the Massachusetts Assembly (Unger 73). It was here that a Declaration of Rights and Grievances of the Colonists in America was adopted in October 1765; colonists outlined what they thought were injustices and inequalities that the British crown were trying to impose on the Colonists (Journals of the Continental Congress). The tone of the document was mild and polite to the British

Consequently, the British Parliament imposed taxation on the colonists in the 1760’s. The colonists resented this intrusion, for they felt they were not truly represented in the British government. Taxation without representation became the rallying cry of the colonists.

Parliament had passed many laws without consulting those in the colonies. In result, America was denied the right to colonial currency, Britain cut off trade with America, and the King placed a tax on all paper items. The Sugar, Townshend, and Stamp Acts were all unreasonable and caused disruption among the colonies. Even published in Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania a man said “There is another late act of parliament, which appears to me to be unconstitutional. […] Never did the British parliament, [until the passage of the Stamp Act] think of imposing duties in America for the