Contribution Of Colonists To Unity During The 17th And 18th Century

Unity within the colonies was something that would help them to stay alive, especially during the 17th and 18th century. As one united whole many of the colonies problems would be solved, although they had different influences and approaches to unity. Some believed a more harsh approach would get the colonies to unite, such as “The Problem of Colonial Union” written by Benjamin Franklin, which stated that if the colonies did not join together they would always be restricted by Great Britain forever, where other took the approach of stating that colonists needed to unite not only for God, but also to protect themselves. Throughout all of this, all of this agreed that unity was important for the colonists to progress, survive, and become the

Franklin, Locke, and many others used Great Britain as a topic to connect and unite the colonies. Many used events such as Bacon’s Rebellion, which showed how Britain refuse to protect their people in their time of need, and shut them down when they tried to fight back for themselves, taxes set by the British to make the colonies pay for the Seven Year War, the Seven Year’s War, which was a war that the colonists had to fight, but was more between the French and the British, and the Proclamation of 1763, which restricted the colonists from moving westward. Events such as the ones listed above were the reason many used Great Britain as a way to influence the colonists to unite. Great Britain was a common enemy among the colonists because of all of the “injustice” they caused to the colonists, such as the stamp act, which was the first direct tax on the people. By showing the colonists that the only way to have control over what happens to them and to have a say in what taxes are imposed upon them, they must unite to achieve their goal of either becoming free from Britain, or gaining rights as to what happens to them, most colonists seemed to agree with the idea of