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Antebellum

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Antebellum
The British exerted many forces upon its colonies, some quite tyrannical. In efforts to control the colonies out of the foreseeing that they will inevitably become too far out of control for the British government to handle and tamp down, many injustices were committed against the growing identity of the Americans‚ Among these injustices included anything from requiring a revenue stamp to be placed on all documents to shutting down trade until all the damaged tea was repaid from the protest of the Boston Tea Party. The colonists absolutely hated the restrictions being made upon them from this far off island that was England. The policy that really got underneath peoples' skin was the enforcement of taxes upon America without any consent from the local representatives of the colonies. The peoples' demand for no taxation without representation was an integral part of motivating both the American Revolution and the push for democracy. Not only were the people of the colonies given rights simply as human beings, but also due to these rights it is their prerogative to govern themselves. These natural rights were being infringed upon through the imposed taxation which only added to all the other reasons for revolting.

Firstly, every man born into this world was thought, by the Americans, to have natural born rights as a human being. As Thomas Jefferson stated in Document E page 75, ‚Äúour ancestors, before their emigration to America, were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe, and possessed a right, which nature has given to all men‚Äù of leaving their home nation to one of their choice. This is to state that not only are men free to roam this world, but in the spirit of democracy England cannot and should not seek to control those who wish to leave the island for another continent. Should some leave, nature has never ‚made the satellite larger than its primary planet...England to Europe: America to itself‚ (Document G 76). Thomas Paine means that

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