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The Fight For Independence

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The Fight for Independence “May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and praise in the whole Earth, until the last shock of time shall bury the empires of the whole world in one common undistinguished ruin!”, stated by Joseph Warren, an American Patriot. A revolution is a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. Similarly, American Independence was a struggle to progress from dependent colonies to independent states, from monarchy to republic (Greene 1). From the perspective of the colonists the revolution for independence was a result of Great Britain’s resistance to the change, the persistent taxing, and Britain’s ignorance to acknowledging the colonist …show more content…

By the spring of 1775, political resistance gave way to violence as war between the British and colonists broke out. In 1776, support for independence swept the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a declaration. The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights, and from the work of other English theorists. The declaration features the immortal lines, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It then goes on to present a long list of grievances that provided the rationale for rebellion. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to approve a Virginia motion calling for separation from Britain ("American Colonies Declare Independence”). As stated in the declaration, “…abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies…” ("The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription."). The conflict quickly spread. Finally, in 1776 the colonists declared themselves independent and in 1783, following a prolonged and bloody war, the British were forced to recognize the independence of the United States (Cogliano). The colonists believed that Britain was conspiring to take over the colonies; therefore they sought a better form of government to replace the British Monarchy, to insure

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The English settlers in the American colonies were acting as independent states well before the American Revolution took place in 1775. There are numerous examples when the English colonist decided to act on their own accord and sometimes disobey direct orders of the crown. In this essay I will outline the numerous ways that the English colonist started to defy orders from the English crown and explain how it lead to the colonists fight for independence.

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The colonists refused to submit to a king that was only interested in their money, causing the colonists to become irate with the British once more. Since Great Britain thought that it was superior to the colonies, Great Britain did not give colonists the opportunity to speak up for what they wanted, which lead the colonists to rebel. The arrogance of Great Britain led to the rebellion of the colonists, which sparked the Revolutionary War through social, economic, and political actions. Furthermore, Great Britain caused a tremendous amount of irritation to develop inside of the colonists. The Revolutionary War showed that it is a necessity for Americans to have their opinions voiced.

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There were many goals that the colonists had in waging the Revolutionary War, and an innumerable amount of those goals contributed to America’s political system. A few of their goals were to convert into a country free of a king, become independent, get rid of all loyalists, equal rights between men and women, and slaves wanted to be freed. A great deal of these goals were accomplished, although they were not very easy to carry out. “The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business there is for a king,” (Document 1). One of the colonists’ main goals was to be free of the king of England.

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Common Sense Examined: Arguments for Freedom The War for American Independence began in the year of 1775, but it peaked in the year of 1776. The colonies were displeased with the constant taxation from the English government. The 13 colonies were being taxed excessively and did not have representation by the British monarch.

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Before Britain became the dictatorial power clouding any American effort to speak up, they were involved in a series of four wars. The last of them, the French and Indian War, occurred on American soil and the British victory handed England a pile of debt and a huge land dispute between the Indians residing in the territory the British gained through the Treaty of Paris and the colonists eager for new land. This started the ferocious turmoil between Britain and the American colonies. From the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, British antagonistic policies only added gasoline to America’s resentment of British rule, and sparked their unity and dedication to colonial republican values. The end of the French and Indian War, signals the beginning of harsh

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The American revolutionaries had a high degree of familiarity with the enlightened ideas that spread to England, which in turn prompted the revolutionaries to see great value in maintaining and protecting their very rights and freedoms that were promoted in the Enlightenment. Perhaps one of the most obvious influences come from John Locke, and his writings can easily be used to aid arguments on behave of liberty, property, and order. John Adams, a founding father and second President of the United States, used the ideas of Locke to shape his “doctrine of justified resistance” in his revolutionary efforts. Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson had a strong reaction against the “many unwarrantable encroachments and usurpations, attempted to be made by the legislature of one part of the empire, upon those rights which God and the laws have given equally and independently to all.” In the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence (June 1776), Jefferson echoes and rephrases the familiar sacred trinity of “life, liberty, and property” from Locke’s Two Treatises of Government: “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

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The American Revolution was kick started with a protest against the new Stamp Act, which taxed all paper products sold, giving the money to their homeland. The colonist’s argument of “taxation without representation” against Parliament was hypocritical in the way that they were enslaving blacks with barely any reason and especially no representation. In this protest, “liberty” was one of the key factors. The word “liberty” has many meanings, one of them being freedom from captivity. While the British settlers were fighting for their liberty, they were taking it away from hundreds of thousands of

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Declaration of Independence Precis Thomas Jefferson in his historical document, The Declaration of Independence (1776), asserts that the colonies should break free from Britain’s tyranny. Jefferson supports his assertion through the use of anaphora, parallel structure, imagery, emotional appeal to patriotism, and logical appeal to the colonist’s basic rights. Jefferson’s purpose is to advocate for the separation of Britain and the colonies in order to escape the British tyranny that King George imposes on the American colonists. Jefferson writes in a measured tone for the British parliament, King George, and for colonists who have been a victim of Britain’s oppression.

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The Declaration of Independence states many different ideas and beliefs in a short form. It includes the ideals, arguments, complaints, and conclusions of the Founders. A committee promptly formed to draft and write the Declaration in response to many grievances against British rule. Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Continental Congress, was chosen to write the important piece. He included personal insight of the committees’ mind, adding their ideas and reasonably listening to other’s ideas.

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They all wanted freedom, equal rights, and respect. When the British began to tax the colonist, they became extremely upset and enraged, and because of this the revolution began. The colonists were unified, but also divided. Many of them were fearful for their independence because it would cause problems and turmoil with the new country. They were also divided because imported printing goods were being taxed.

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April 19,1775 was when the American revolutionary War happened. Long before the war happened, colonists in North America and British people was enjoying the harmony that the British’s permission for self-ruling, at some level, created the freedom of colonists’ society. Yet these colonies were still be considered as parts of the British empire that they had to obey what the British told them, since it was Britain who settled these colonies in North America, and raised them as raising children. The happy days decayed slowly as the time goes by, more and more conflicts between these two poles had occurred. Since the temporary freedom was given carelessly by Britain, these colonists sure would seize as many opportunities as they can to be independent.

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The American Revolution (1700-1790) was a historical event in time, where the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America, gained independence from the British Empire. Many historians would agree that the Revolution was caused by events and the growing differences between the colonists and England. The cause of the American Revolution could be summarized in the saying ‘liberty vs. tyranny’. The American Revolution was a struggle by liberty-loving Americans to free themselves from a dictatorial British rule. In this period, the Colonies protested against the British Empire and entered into the American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence.

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