Preview

How Did The American Revolution Influence John Locke's Fight For Independence

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
206 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did The American Revolution Influence John Locke's Fight For Independence
The American people were in the process of extracting a new government. With this newly established country, the people wanted a perfect union. They wanted a union that opposed the tyranny of Great Britain. Americans were done with the dictatorship and how they were being put through “taxation without representation”. The ruler of Great Britain was taxing the people without being a representative of their government. This led to the political American Revolution. The Continental Congress was soon developed and was put in every colony for government.
During this time period of a craving for independence, a man named John Locke had a powerful influence on how American’s fought for independence. Locke’s philosophy was “life, liberty, and the right

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    AP Government study guide

    • 2262 Words
    • 10 Pages

    b. The ideas of American philosopher, John Locke, greatly influenced the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Locke believed that it was the responsibility go the…

    • 2262 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Following the British victory in the French and Indian War, the ideas of the English philosopher John Locke spread throughout the British North American colonies, instilling upon many colonists the ideas that all people are entitled to certain natural rights and that the role of government is to protect these natural rights. The American movement for independence was the result of many factors, resulting in a large rift between the thoughts of Britain and the American colonies. Britain felt as it was entitled to use resources in the American colonies and that colonists were obligated to pay their share of debts accumulated in the French and Indian War. However, British efforts to assert control over the colonies left many colonists feeling…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The period surrounding the Revolutionary War philosophically drew from the philosophies of J. Locke and C. Montesquieu. Both men wrote on the origin, need and extent of governments in their time, and created the basis for the liberal form of government. When the Articles of Confederation are compared to the individual philosophies of these two men, the Articles of Confederation proved an ineffective government economically speaking.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When Thomas Jefferson was drafting the American Declaration of Independence, he looked to a number of philosophers and studied their writings. This helped him put into words the best possible foundation for the United States of America. One of the main influencers of Jefferson’s writing was a person he called one of the “three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception”, (Jefferson, Thomas) the English philosopher John Locke. You can see Locke’s influence in the American Declaration, when Jefferson penned “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence) These words in the declaration have the same tone as Locke’s words in the Second Treatise of Government when he stated “a legitimate government may not violate our natural right to life, liberty, and property.” (John Locke) It is widely reported and quoted throughout the internet, (but I have been unable to find the original source) that in one of Jefferson’s original drafts of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson used Locke’s original words of: life, liberty and property. Later in his final official draft that he presented to the committee (who were: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston), Jefferson changed Locke’s “Property” to “the pursuit of Happiness.”…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    John Locke wanted everyone to have the "right to life, liberty, and property" which is used in the Declaration of Independence as the "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." His ideas of the social contract, in which everyone in a society is accountable to one another, and the idea of governments deriving their power from the consent of the governed were both revolutionary concepts in 1776 that made their way into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Support for independence swept the colonies in the spring of 1776, and the continental congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a declaration. To justify American independence, Thomas Jefferson incorporated some of the ideas of john Locke, an advocate of natural rights. The declaration features the immortal lines, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jefferson uses words such as “oppression,” “injury,” and “abuse” to describe what the British government has done to them. The authors create a feeling of betrayal by using these words, thus pushing the people to accept the separation. There are many cases shown in this article where the King acted without the people’s consent or against the people’s belief. Stating these incidences gained trust that a new government set up by the people and for the people would be more prosperous. Thomas Jefferson shows that the best option for the people of America is to overthrow the government by using…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Document A in the DBQ clearly talked about John Locke and his consent on political philosophy. John Locke emphasizes consent of the government republican values. The Quebec Act also played a major part in Political Philosophy/Independence. It took colonial lands away from Ohio River, took the representative government from French in Canada, and gave recognition to Catholicism instead of Protestantism. Document G relates to Common sense where Paine’s “Common Sense” states that colonists should fight against Britain and not be a coward or sycophant, furthering the feeling of independence. A quote (Declaration of Independence) states “...to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the government.” Another strong quote which really was a catchy yet true quote that spoke about the virtual representation of the colonists. “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” Thomas Paine’s Common Sense brought up a sense of republican values, as it stated “A government of our own and our natural right.” The Olive Branch Petition angered colonists greatly because of King George declining the petition that stated the Colonists should have asserted rights yet still stay loyal to Britain. Therefore the increase of their version of republican values that was brought up thanks…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In This essay I will be explaining Locke's point of view on the influence he had on the Declaration of independence.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Our Earth has been the home to a multitude of great thinkers. These thinkers were scattered throughout the generations from the Romans all the way to the 20th century; however, the time period with the most philosophers was the Enlightenment Age. During this time there were many thinkers such as Voltaire and Thomas Hobbes. One thinker in particular who contributed a great deal to history was John Locke. His work is still influencing the lives of people across the world 300 years later. He rethought the moral role of government, created a new theory of knowledge, introduced the use of reason, and reminded people of their natural rights. The combination of these four things made him the single most influential philosopher…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Common Sense was written in January of the year 1776 by a man by the name of Thomas Paine. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson in July of 1776.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    French and Indian War

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    John Locke’s ideas on natural rights pushed the colonists even further to gain their independence. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” was the quote that changed most of the American colonists’ minds into being a free country. Britain forced the colonists to house British soldiers, taxed the colonies without representation, and restricted free trade. The British even closed the Boston port and after the Boston Tea Party, colonists could not be tried in local courts, they were sent to a British admiralty court. The Americans were fumed by these restrictions and were closer to declaring for their liberty.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This American essay will show that the reasons for the American Revolution were rooted in economics. The people of the thirteen colonies that made up the then United States resented the British Government’s levies of tax without representation. The Revenue Act of 1774 was primarily the reason for the rift between the colonies and the Crown. It was the phrase 'taxation without representation' that brought the colonists together to rise against the mother country. Often this revulsion against the tax policies of England was violent.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Locke pointed out only human being have natural liberty. Meaningly, he argued that tied on 'the bonds of civil society'. But there was a premise a community for their comfortable, maintenance of peace to each other, their right to protect the safe and property. Locke assumed people need an establishment of a civil society to resolve conflicts courteously from government in a state of society. His political 'social contract' theory became a cornerstone of the Declaration of Independent of America; it is a good example how theory influences society. Jane Nicoll discussed "The liberty granted within this contract in exchange for protection from the warring tendencies of…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The American Revolution embarked the beginning of the United States of America. A war that lasted eight years, 1775-1783, was able to grant the thirteen colonies the independence they deserved by breaking free of British rule. The war was an effect of the previous French and Indian War, which forced England to tax the American colonist, compelling them to rebel against parliament. From the 1760’s to 1775, many factors lead up to the American Revolution such as the various acts the British Parliament passed to pay the war debt, no representation in parliament, and the American people wanting to gain their independence. “No Taxation without Representation”, a slogan used by the American colonist, was the most important cause of the colonists declaring war for their independence on the British government.…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays