American Colonies Dbq

During the late 1600’s and early 1700’s things like migration of many immigrants to the colonies in search of economic, religious and political burgeoning and freedom. When they arrived some came to the south, some in the middle and some in the north. When the people landed in the north near MA colony they were out of the charters jurisdiction so they created a temporary gov. like agreement called the Mayflower Compact which in a way was like an attempt to break from the mother country and sort of make their own identity. They colonist started to develop a sense of their identity and unity as Americans as the revolution neared because of British imposed stuff. Along with that each section of colonies, south, middle, and north, all developed
Many political reforms were put in place because the colonies were still under British jurisdiction and were a part of it. They put in many “Acts” because Britain’s debt was continuously growing and they needed to money to pay it off to the loaners so they imposed a lot of various taxation acts. The Stamp Act of 1765 which required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London and carrying an embossed revenue stamp. These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. Like previous taxes, the stamp tax had to be paid in valid British currency, not in colonial paper money. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War. The British government felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of this military presence, and should pay at least a portion of the expense. Colonist replied with somewhat hostility and start a saying “Taxation without representation” which effected the parliament a little to change it. On 3 February 1766 Edmund Burke spoke in front of the parliament in his “notes for Speech in
They were sort of used as propaganda and a way to convey the colonist to unite and create their own sense of identity. In 1750 when the Boston massacre occurred where civilian casualties happened because of miscommunication and taunting/ hostility from the crowd. This incident was depicted by a painting Paul Revere did showing British troops as hostile killers and the Bostonians as civil innocent bystanders being attacked without reason or purpose. Then Mather Byles addressed in “The Famous Mather Byles: The Noted Boston Troy Preacher, Poet and Wit” from 1707 – 1788 that having one tyrant far away or thousands of them close by doesn’t really make a difference but having a better ruler to rule and govern that would be appointed by the nation and follow their own set of laws and regulations and not someone else’s. Then in 1754 Ben Franklin published his famous drawing in the Pennsylvania Gazette showing a snake in multiple piece a representing the colonies and a large caption of “Join or Die” showing that unity is the way to go if to survive and gain a sense of identity by uniting and even strengthening and gain power. Also if you look at it from another point if a snake is cut into pieces it is not technically “united” and really doesn’t have an identity as a snake but if a complete snake is a snake. In 1774, 24 February Richard Henry Lee wrote to