the road to revolution

11/25/13
DBQ
The Road to revolution was a period in time where tension was high and it kept rising between colonist and parliament. The fact that parliament kept adding new taxes and acts for colonist to follow, and they only had virtual representation made the matter worse. As tension rose higher with these new taxes, colonist united to an extent and acknowledged they had their own identity in their new home America. By 1754, certain individuals were already thinking that the states should unite. Benjamin Franklin made the join or die cartoon to show the disunity of states, as a way of showing the people they should come together and unite as one. Later that year, Franklin proposed the Albany plan of union, a plan to unite all of the colonies. This proposal was denied by both parliament and some colonists, but it showed that some people were thinking of unity among the states and can be thought of as the first step in trying to unify the colony.
The French and Indian was started 1756 and ended 1763, and due to the war, Britain had collected a large debt, which became a problem for the American colonies because Britain started taxing the Americans in order to pay off the debt. The parliament started with the sugar act, then the stamp act, the quartering act, the Townshend act, tea act, and the intolerable act. The final straw out of all of these acts was the tea act, because one thing all colonist drunk was tea, and to have prices raised highly on something they love led to the Boston tea party where colonist dressed as Mohawks, went to the Boston harbor and boarded the ship so they could dump all the tea on the boat into the water. Before this was done colonist wanted direct representation instead of virtual representation. They started “the No taxation without representations” because they believed they were being unfairly taxed. Richard Henry Lee, known for the resolution of independence, wrote about how the daughters of liberty boycotted British made goods in order to prove they were separate people. He knew Americans were firmly resolved to defend their liberties against every power on earth that would try to take them away. It can be said that Americans knew who they were, but they couldn’t all together unite, one of the reasons being Tories, like Mather Byles. Byles believed it was better to be ruled by one tyrant instead of thousands of tyrant, and yet he chose to live in America at the time, while still showing and acting as a loyalist for the king. There were others like him living in America, who would give information to the people in Britain without a second thought. Tories were one reason why all the states couldn’t unite. There’d always be someone ready to undermine Americans. Peter Oliver is another tory who lived in America. He thought the leaders of the revolution abandoned their parent, and those who followed the leaders were stupid and naïve. In the Declaration for the causes of taking up arms, there is evidence of an attempted unification among colonies. There was a time for peace and war in 1775. Peace when the second continental drew up the Oliver branch petition, but war began with the battle of Bunker Hill & was fought between colonist and the British. Colonists separated into three political parties, Whigs, Tories, and neutral. These politics were the reason unification was unsuccessful. After the Boston Tea party, the Boston port act, in which no ships could enter or leave the Boston port, was created. Although no one could enter or leave the port, it didn’t stop other colonies from donating for the relief of Boston. Five colonies united by coming together to donate goods to Boston after the port act. The donations were a sign of unification but not total unification, since only five of the thirteen colonies donated.
Identity was one of the things Americans had no problem showing. They no longer thought of themselves as anything other than Americans, and it didn’t matter what their origin was. The cultures and nationalities have become one and they are a new race. Although Most Americans viewed themselves as one, Tories were still around, and they weren’t completely united.
The road to revolution was long, and a lot of tension was raised between the colonist and parliament, and this led to the colonies in American getting their own identity, and unity, to an extent. With Americans having their own identity, and becoming one, this helped them in the revolutionary war.