Noah Thurm
10H-3
12/8/14
History DBQ From 1750 to 1776, the American colonists developed a sense of identity and unity, by the eve of the revolution. In this time period several political, economic, and social events occurred which led to this unity in the colonies. After all of the event that took place in this time period the colonists were even unified enough to fight the British in the Revolutionary War. This all started with the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. The English fought the French on behalf of the colonists. At first the British suffered heavy casualties and were losing the war. This ended after Benjamin Franklin published the most famous political cartoon in US history, in the Pennsylvania Gazette. The carton was titled Join or Die, and it had the colonies labeled as parts of a snake, but they were all split up. This was saying that if the colonists don’t unite and help the British, then they would surely die (Document A). This was one of the first examples of the colonies joining in unity and fighting for the same goal.
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All of these acts contributed to the continental congress being formed in 1774. This was an example of the colonists uniting under one goal, which was to gain their rights, and freedom from the British. In the second continental congress in 1775, they wrote the Declaration for the Causes of Taking up Arms. This stated that the colonists would do whatever they had to do to gain their independence, even fight for it if they had to. They still weren’t ready to officially declare independence form England yet (Document E). In 1776 they were finally ready to separate from England, in the Declaration of Independence. This document showed the colonists ultimate unity, and identity as Americans because now they were officially not a part of England, and they would have to unite to defend themselves from the