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A Discussion Of The Documents Of 1776

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Documents of 1776 The Revolutionary War began as a result of gradual tensions that involved wealthy and the “common people”. The wealthy elite were in positions of power within the government due to the fact that they owned more land than other colonists did. The reason why this occurs can be summed up from a gentry man himself. According to document number two involving John Adams, he states that “power always follows property”. One of the reasons why the ideas for legislation in 1776 were considered “revolutionary” was due to the fact that the gentry would no longer hold significant amounts of power. The power would be given to the people to elect, and or run for offices within the government. As with the usual cases of good ideas, there …show more content…

According to dictionary.com, the word “revolutionary” means, “radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedures”. In regards to the idea of colonists wanting to govern themselves, this was an extremely radical idea that went beyond established procedures. For over 100 years the British Empire had governed the colonists. Some could argue that Great Britain allowed the colonists to govern themselves, however I argue this point. While while the colonists did govern themselves so to speak, they still had to answer to members of the government whom Britain had appointed in the governments of the colonies. Often times, these were men of incredible wealth and privilege who did what they wanted for their own benefit. These people often came from Britain and therefore didn’t “grow up” in North America. They didn’t understand the problems that the people of North America were facing. As a result, any proposed legislation that involved the “common wealth” dictating the law was a drastic change from the …show more content…

For example, the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 mentions that, “the commonwealth or state of Pennsylvania shall be governed hereafter by an assembly of the representatives of the freeman of the same, and a president and council”. As previously stated, the idea of the “common people” in positions of power within the government flabbergasted the gentry and other members of the wealthy elite. Most argued that the common people were not educated in the affairs of politics. Therefore giving them the right to elect their own people in Congress would be catastrophic to the state. Similarly, many gentry felt that the common people “are more easily led by specious appearances” (Governor Morris, to Thomas Penn). In this instance, the gentry argue that they are the only ones who should be in office because their education allows them to see past the false pretenses of people looking to take advantage of the

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The Revolution wasn't revolutionary due to a lack of political change with Document #10, a letter from Cornplanter, Half-Town, and Big-Tree to George Washington that described the destruction of Native American villages, and Document #7, which describes Abigail Adams´ letter to John Adams. Doc : 1 Document #1 shows a picture of lower classmen taking down a statue of the British KIng

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223 Words | 1 Pages

The Revolutionary war was revolutionary, especially for the colonies. This statement was supported by how much land was available to them, and even the prices of each everyday item differed. If the colonists didn’t win the revolution, or if the revolution didn’t take place, things would have turned out differently. Along with that, they were now independent, and not following their home country, England. Other lower class colonists felt more equal to rich and upper class colonists, as shown in Document 3, where the lower class colonists were shown enjoying a game with more upper class men, and most likely richer people.

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503 Words | 3 Pages

In that case, the American Revolution was very revolutionary because there were political, social, and economic changes. Wealthy people lost their money, there was a new government, it made citizens question slavery, and certainly more freedom for the Americans. The American Revolution resulted in the establishment of an independent nation; British colonists became American citizens. That was a vast change in U.S history.

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The author that I agree with in this case would be Robert Eldon Brown, a history professor at Michigan State University. Author of “The Nature of the American Revolution.” Brown agrees that the American Revolution was a conservative movement by arguing that the revolution was fought in order to preserve an already existing democratic social order. While I do think Alan Taylor’s essay “Agrarian Independence: Northern Land Rioters after the Revolution” holds some ground, I find Brown’s thesis makes more sense and backs up his ideas with better arguments. Also taking into consideration that more historians seem to have the same argument Brown does.

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283 Words | 2 Pages

After America’s Declaration of Independence asserted in 1776, were radical notions for those who had grown up in a society that was ruled but a king and that enthusiastically embraced the idea of aristocracy. “The first step in Grenville’s new program was the Revenue Act (1764), popularly known as the Sugar Act” (Keene, Page 98). But, this Act violated two longheld beliefs. Also, required colonists to purchase special stamps for everything from newspapers to playing cards.

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APUSH 2.06 Making connections is a critical component for historians to help them understand the events that have taken place. In this essay, I’m going to compare the similarities between three groups and how they relate to a certain history theme. Each term within each group relates to a particular theme, however, eventually each term will connect to one theme overall. The colonial legislatures, the First Great Awakening, the term “Patriots”, and the Preamble to the U.S Constitution all relate to the historical theme of Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture.

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The poor in the counties of Orange and Mecklenburg had a mistrust of the rich gaining political power. Both counties had a meeting and tried working out the functions of the state government (Palmer, P.163). Once the constitution of North Carolina was written it became clear that all taxpaying citizens could vote for members of the lower house (Palmer, P.164). Palmer refers to the North Carolina constitution as a “ compromise between populace and landed gentry” (Palmer, P.164). In the case of Pennsylvania, palmer describes the convention as “dictatorial” (Palmer, P.164) because the attitude of a majority of the state was not

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At the dawn of the 1770s, American colonial resentment of the British Parliament in London had been steadily increasing for some time. Retaliating in 1766, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act which repealed most taxes except issued a reinforcement of Parliament’s supremacy. In a fascinating exchange, we see that the Parliament identifies and responds to the colonists main claim; Parliament had no right to directly tax colonists who had no representation in Parliament itself. By asserting Parliamentary supremacy while simultaneously repealing the Stamp Act and scaling back the Sugar Act, Parliament essentially established the hill it would die on, that being its legitimacy. With the stage set for colonial conflict in the 1770s, all but one

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248 Words | 1 Pages

The Revolutionary War wasn’t revolutionary because even though the British didn’t have control over the colonies, a lot of ideas and motives stayed the same. In document 6 where the African American valedictorian is giving his speech, he says he has no future because if he wants to get a job, white people won’t accept him. This was the same way they treated the slaves & African Americans when Great Britain had control over the colonies. Also in document 7 where Abigail Adams wrote about how the women should matter & not just the men. Women could not vote, be in the military, be part of government issues, be part of the government, etc.

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The term “Revolutionary” is an instantaneous change or shift that promotes equal rights, liberty, and freedom. So, while some may argue that the revolution was a turning point for America, The American revolution in this case is not revolutionary since slavery was still present, minority groups did not gain rights, and British ideals and tactics were still being used in the new government. One of the crucial pieces of evidence that this “revolution” could not be considered revolutionary is because of the slavery still taking place even after the war ended. Throughout the revolt against British rule in the 16th century, the American people fought under the banner of truth, justice, and liberty for all people, However, the only people that indeed

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When looking at the social and political changes that took place during the early American colonies you can see a steady progression towards ideologies that would lead to the Revolution. When you have different levels of government being put in place by the states depending upon their needs, where rural areas had different court systems than more urban areas, you see a level of independence for governance that the colonists began to see the benefit of having, separate from the rule of the Crown. To counter this increase in independence. the Crown implemented ever changing political positions that could be assigned to those who were loyal to the Crown and the social hierarchy that was prevalent in Britain at the time. These actions of corruption

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282 Words | 2 Pages

A revolution is a large-scale rebellion with the intent to change or get rid of the current political system. The American Revolution was a fight to be free from British rule. People were tired of being controlled. The colonists of America wanted to create their own government where they could get what they left Europe for. While some may argue that the American Revolution did not change life for minorities, the American Revolution changed the political, economic, and social atmosphere and set the stage for future change.

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872 Words | 4 Pages

All thought the colonists had seen the importance of Politics and Power from the beginning with the Mayflower Contract and the election of John Carver as their governor, laws hadn’t been particularly enforced. The 1630s saw all of the colonies being ruled by a General Court of a governor and his assistants, as well as deputies from the towns making up each colony. The General Court not only passed laws, levied taxies, and distributed land, but “probated wills and heard criminal trials,” (pg 175). Land disputes were abundant and the Court ordered many a execution for charges ranging from murder to

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444 Words | 2 Pages

One of the defining revolutionary contributions to the idea of Constitution was, firstly, the necessity to codify it in writing, but also to organize its structuring and framing so that it “operates as supreme fundamental law,” since it embodies and is instituted by popular sovereignty (Rakove 104). Another revolutionary contribution stems from the Massachusetts Constitution. It separates the writing of the constitution from the typical legislature to a separate body, wherein “framing by a special convention and ratification by the people” frames a Constitution in order to capture “the people as a constituent power,” as Professor Dowd argued (Rakove 106). This influenced the understanding that the Constitution would, therefore, be the “supreme

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640 Words | 3 Pages

Normally, in a revolution, a government is overthrown and replaced by another type of government. An example of a revolution is the American Revolution, in which the British monarchy got rejected by the colonists in the Thirteen Colonies. From the rejection, it resulted in a war in which the Thirteen Colonies uprised against the British. Both argued over a disagreement about the way the colonies wanted to be treated versus the way Great Britain treated the colonies. Ultimately, the idea of equality among the people and government became a major concern.

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