Natural Rights In The American Revolution

The author wrote this book to summarize the Revolution Era with a brief description of the pre-revolution; with some analytical arguments and opinions incorporated within the book. Morgan takes into prospective the actual motives behind the founding fathers' decision during the Revolution, which he claims to have been driven by their personal benefits. This shows as slavery was not eliminated even though a fundamental basis of the revolution was human equality. Morgan aimed to make an easily accessible outline of the Revolution Era, backed with several documents which critical to the outline; such as, The Constitution of the United States and the Articles of Confederation. He also devoted several pages outlining important dates mentioned throughout the book.

Both the British and the American colonists contributed to causing the American Revolution. The war grew out of contempt: England’s contempt for the colonies and colonial contempt for British policies. A series of actions by the British eventually pushed the colonists over the edge and towards independence. The results of the war gave many citizens a new role in society while others, like slaves, felt no change at all. This paper will examine the specific causes and effects of the American Revolution.

“The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” - John Adams, 1818

Every event in history contains a cause and effect. Every cause and effect is unique in its own way. Whenever deciphering certain events in history it’s important that those researching, keep an open mind to all intertwining factors. The Texas Revolution is an important and crucial event within the history of the United States and having a full understanding of the Texas Revolution is of extreme importance to understanding Mexican-American relations. Issues to be researched in understanding the Texas Revolution will deal with political, lawful, and social relations between the Texas colonists and the Mexican Republic. Understanding the politics, laws, and social relations between the Texas colonist and the Mexican Republic provide a crucial in-look as to why the Texas colonist revolted against Santa Anna and his Mexican Republic. Leading up to the beginning, as well as throughout the Texas Revolution, there are significant and credible amounts of crucial events that take place that provide a supporting backbone in justifying the Texas colonists and their revolt. It is these inhumane events, supported by the doctrine of the Mexican Republic with their politics, laws, and social relations with the Texas colonist, which would ultimately lead to the justification of the Texas colonist and their fight for their natural rights and for the Texas Declaration of Independence.

In the chapter Kings, Parliament, and Inherited Rights, starts off with the quote about the revolution. The revolution was in the mind and the hearts of people, a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. The evolution of the revolution began was an argument over rights that changed into struggle for power of each party to assert their rights as it understood them, then afterward struggle for empire as Americans began to conceive a more ambitious and independent course for themselves. Americans believe that legally of all parliamentary statutes was measured against the constitution; on that basis, being unrepresented in Parliament, they denied the rights of the body to tax them directly according to the principles of constitutional law. A particular act focused on in the chapter is the Stamp Act, which imposed a stamp tax ranging from one shilling to six on various commercial and legal documents such as wills, mortgages, and college degrees, as well as on newspapers, almanacs, calendars, pamphlets, playing cards and dice. Also the Trade and Navigation Acts was a parliamentary revenue raised in America would make England governors and their appointees independent of local pressure and more faithful enforcing British statutes. These made the colonies more united. Colonies wanted to distance

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” (The Declaration of Independence, U.S. 1776, para. 2). The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in American history. The colonists said that Parliament and the king, George III, were violating the people’s natural rights. The colonies were on their own for such a long time that they got used to handling stuff their own way. Out of nowhere, the king and Parliament started giving the colonists taxes. From this taxing we got the saying “No taxation without representation.” Some of the taxes they gave the colonists were the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and the Quartering Act. The Stamp Act was tax on every piece of paper and book published or used. The Sugar Act was a tax on sugar being imported and any food containing sugar. The Quartering Act was when the colonists were forced to house british soldiers, the soldiers were there to enforce the taxes being placed. All of these problems started the American Revolution.

During the colonial era, Britain has acquired considerable territories in the Northern America. These colonies were looked at as a mere resource and were treated as such. However, it can be said that it was England’s own laws that sparked a revolution in these colonies. Starting with the Magna Carta (1215), and continuing with the English Bill of Rights (1689), England has defined certain rights for all Englishmen. However, many of these rules did not apply to the colonies. The abuses of this power against the colonies is what lead to the revolution and enactment of the Declaration

The American Revolution was founded on the notion that all men were created equal, and because of that no government could impede upon their inalienable rights. In the early 1700’s, British citizens emigrated to America in search of political, religious and socio-economic equality. England forced unjust taxes upon its former citizens, and, seeking justice, the colonists rebelled against their former homeland. The

For a better part of the eighteenth century, the American colonists expressed vexation and disapproval of the "coercive " acts, which the British Government perpetrated on the colony through series of legislative acts by the British Parliament. Prior to the acts that the colonists in America termed as atrocious and oppressive, they were willing to cooperate and reaffirm loyalty to the King of England. Some of the legislations and declarations that colonists participated in was the sustenance of British soldiers in the colony, payment of import tariffs and other forms of taxes to support the British central government. These are but a few, the reasons as to why colonists objected to the mode of British rule in America. Another concern was the "Rights violations" by the English government regarding economic progress and representation. Because of these grievances, British colonists in America stepped up agitation through violation of the "tyrannical" Acts and petitions through the Continental Congress. The essay explores the grievances that Colonists in America held against the British government, in riposte to "My Dear America Cousin" letter.

In the late 1760s and early 1770s the American colonists were living a fulfilling and satisfactory life through the means of labor. Labor, which was considered a “painful necessity” of life to those in poverty (such as servants or slaves) throughout the other parts of western society, brought about a “hard-earned prosperity” to the American colonists (Wood, 116). This showed a surplus of middle-class families who were able to live a comfortable life through hard work. Wood argues that due to these beliefs, Americans felt anxious at the prospect of being oppressed by the British and suffering a loss of their liberties. The colonists worked very hard for their prosperity so it was natural “that throughout America, we find these

One of the preeminent factors provoking the former Colonists to revolt from the British was concerned with liberty for all; this concept was expanded upon in Constitution, and subverted by the white men who wrote the Constitution. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independance in 1776, one of opening paragraphs decrees the Americans right to liberty: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”(Thomas Jefferson). Jefferson starts the document addressing the repressed liberty of the Americans in order to demonstrate the importance of fundamental rights. However, though Jefferson says “all men are created equal,” he does not specify a distinction of men, implying all Americans are equal. In the Constitution, the Preamble expresses the need for equality by declaring: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the

The year 1776 ignited the colonial rebellion from Great Britain, with colonists from the newly formed United States demanding their individual and colony’s rights. They advocated for representation, their individual rights, and the issue of sovereignty. With the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, individual rights overall were thought to be “protected” in the newly liberated Unites States. Yet the continued limiting of women’s rights, treatment of the mentally handicapped and emancipated slaves, the individual liberties colonists believed they would gain from Britain was only for certain individuals, not all. The colonists believed that they would advance their individual rights and freedoms with their independence from Britain; though the reality was that the struggles of individual liberties continued throughout the next 100 years in different classes of citizens despite their gaining of independence from Britain.

During the American Revolutionary War the people of America decided to rebel against Britain in order to protect their freedom and pursuit of happiness. Their violence was justified because they were acting out on account of being mistreated. Government should be challenged, “when the government becomes destructive to the end of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” For example, when Mary Diere tried to stay in Massachusetts the government tried to eliminate Mary because she refused to give up her religious freedom in Massachusetts.

For centuries, the British had continuously aggravated relations with the United States through the enactment of the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act, virtual representation, and several other injustices to American freedom; correspondingly, the Declaration of Independence was passed to assure national rights and denounce the king’s violation of those rights, thereby preserving the concept of E Pluribus Unum by maintaining continuity in the emergence of one common ideal: liberty. For instance, amidst the turmoil of

The Glorious Revolution was when James II in 1688 was replaced from the throne. In this event, Mary, daughter of James II was also given to William of Orange, the husband. Their was many different types for this event, for instance: Revolution of 1688, English Revolution, or Bloodless Revolution. The Glorious Revolution led to the English Bill of Rights 1689. The English Bill of Rights was an act of Parliament that created separation and limited the monarch's powers. The English Bill of rights had an impact to The Glorious Revolution because it had to be agreed on by Mary and William before they could take the throne.