The Political Basis of the American Revolution Essay

The mistake of not making simple reforms, like allowing one representative in parliament per colony would lead to revolts, and even groups coming together. Some revolts were peaceful while others, which affected the tax collectors and stamp sellers, were violent resulting in the tarring and feathering of the British officials. The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and Patrick Henry, were a very radical and overdramatic group, Patrick Henry would make the fateful statement of “Give me liberty or give me death.” On October 7th, 1765 the Stamp act congress would meet there were representatives from 9 of the 13 colonies. The representatives made a decision to boycott British goods. By March of 1776, the Stamp Acts will have been appealed, but the government in England is not happy.

Soon the Quartering Act was passed, directing the colonies to provide quarters for British soldiers. Americans found this oppressive because it meant that soldiers were placed in colonial homes. In 1764 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, putting a duty on most printed materials. This was a normal tax for the British as it had been going on in Britain for a long time, and it made sense that the rest of their empire would pay the same tax. This placed a burden on merchants and the colonial elite who did most legal transactions and read the newspapers. Also passed in the same year was the Declaratory Act, which stated that the colonies were subject to the will of Parliament. This made a lot of sense to the British, as Parliament was their ruling body, but, to the colonies who had become used to their own government during the years of salutory neglect, this was a direct threat to their way of life.

Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolutions. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.

The Stamp Act further increased the duties on almost any printed material. The amount of mass defiance and rioting, especially in the major cities, that followed shocked the British government, they have never seen this amount or scale of discontent before with their subjects in America. As time went on, so did the riots, mostly in New York, Boston, and Newport, Rhode Island. Finally in March 1766, after a long debate, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act only to pass the Declaration Act, which stated that Parliament could enact laws for the colonies in all cases. Only now most Americans began to realize the power parliament had over controlling their basic rights. England further angered the colonists in June of 1772, when they announced that instead of having a legislature put into place by them, England would pay the governors and judges. Even though it would save the colonists money, they had the mindset of if the judges were paid by England, then they would obey them and what they said. In response, Boston created a Committee of Correspondence to win the sympathy of other colonies, by the end of 1773, all but 3 colonies had Committees of Correspondence. The final step before revolution started was taken in 1773 when the Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to ship tea directly to North America with a tax to the colonists, but the merchants who competed with the company announced this as

Beginning in 1764, Great Britain began passing acts to exert greater control over the American colonies. The Sugar Act was passed to increase duties on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies. A Currency Act was also passed to ban the colonies from issuing paper bills or bills of credit because of the belief that the colonial currency had devalued the British money. Further, in order to continue to support the British soldiers left in America after the war, Great Britain passed the Quartering Act in 1765. This ordered colonists to house and feed British soldiers if there was not enough room for them in the colonist’s homes. An important piece of legislation that really upset the colonists was the Stamp Act passed in 1765. This required stamps to be purchased or included on many different items and documents such as playing cards, legal papers, newspapers, and more. This was the first direct tax that Britain had imposed on the colonists. Events began to escalate with passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767. These taxes were created to help colonial officials become independent of the colonists by providing them with a source of income. This act led to clashes between British troops and colonists, causing the infamous Boston Massacre. These unjust requests and increasing tensions all led up to the colonist’s declaration as well as the Revolutionary War.

     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.

The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a war between England and the colonies which were settled earlier by the English. There were many factors and events that led to the American Revolution. The Revolution was mainly an economic rebellion that was fueled by taxation without representation following the French and Indian War. The English Parliament was more often than not considered cruel and unfair by the colonists. With conflicts over trade, taxes and government representation, the colonies were at a starting line of a revolution that would later transform into the basis of the United States of America.

The Stamp Act angered the colonists because of the possibility for enacting other similar taxes in the future. Further, the colonists were not represented in Parliament, so they felt they were being taxed without representation. The tax was considered by many colonists to be illegal. A speech by Patrick Henry to the Virginia House of Burgesses helped demonstrate the colonists were not going to stand by and do nothing while King George treated them unfairly. As a result, the Stamp Act was repealed in 1776.(Document 1)

The colonists were at first frustrated by the commands of the British and would simply ignore the Proclamations of the Privy Council who found it hard to enforce it orders (Schultz, 2010). The Sugar Act, and Quartering Act, were very unpopular among the colonist, but only had a mild effect on the colonist. Moreover, the Stamp Act had a substantial effect throughout the colonists that actually started resistance groups. The Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty formed in protest of the Stamp Act. The Sons and Daughter of Liberty would intimate the British officials, boycott, and make their own clothing to protest the Stamp Act.

During this time period our young country was still trying to figure out the right things to do and trying to avoid the wrong things. On top of that the French and Indian War had just ended and Great Britain was broke. Some of the new laws and acts benefited the colonies, others made it even harder and even enraged the colonists. George Grenville passed act after act trying to get more money out of the people. The first was The Sugar Act. This tax ended up costing the colonies four times the amount they were actually getting from it. Trying to make up for this, he created The Stamp Act. Parliament passed this act on February 13th, 1765.

Colonists became furious with the Stamp Act and many people boycotted. They refused to pay taxes, ignored the stamps, and they even formed a secret society called the Sons of Liberty. Eventually, Parliament repealed the act but created the Declaratory Act. This showed that the Parliament had the right to make any laws. In 1767, they passed the Townshend Act which placed taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. This angered the colonists once again because it took power away from colonial

     In Parliament some members saw how the boycotts endured by the colonists were affecting the British merchants. One member in Parliament saw how the colonists had grown and had united. For whatever reason the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, however this did not stop the disagreements about taxation and lack of representation.      In 1774, the Coercive or Intolerable Acts were passed. these were meant to punish the colonists for the evil they had committed, especially to punish the city of Boston for their acts at the Boston Tea Party.

As the colonies and England grew further apart the resentment of additional taxes and tariffs increased the distance between the two. England came up with the Tea Act, Sugar Act, and Stamp Act, all of which were designed to regain the money England felt was due. All tea imported to the colonies was hit with an additional tax covered by the Tea Act. The Sugar Act allowed British troops to enter, search, and seize any items that they desired without probably cause, this supposedly allowed them to control the flow of illegal and untaxed goods. The Stamp Act was a tax placed on all paper goods including those materials that could possibly be made into paper. These three taxes were collectively known as the Intolerable or Coercive Acts. Probably the tax that hit

In the fall of 1774 the first continental congress meet in Philadelphia. 55 delegates made

The American Revolution was predicated by a number of ideas and events that, combined, led to a political and social separation of colonial possessions from the home nation and a coalescing of those former individual colonies into an independent nation.