Identity And Unity Among The Colonies
The American Revolution was an event that could only have happened under certain crucial circumstances. Britain's taxation of the colonies as a way of paying their war debts reinforced an emerging sense of American identity and helped to precipitate the American Revolution. Resistance to the crown became more and more common as the years went by, and these minor inconveniences eventually led to the birth of a new nation. By the eve of the Revolution, the colonists had established a deep sense of identity, and although numerous Americans were united against Britain, many remained loyal to the crown.The unique identity of the American colonies became more obvious to everyone as the events leading up to the Revolution took place. Edmund Burke, an English statesman, refers to the American colonies as a "great and growing people spread over a vast quarter of the globe." This shows the American identity being drafted; being molded not only from the colonists, but from the observations of foreign people. The colonies' distance from Britain also affected their identity. The colonies were far enough away that England had little or no influence of American s
As to the unity of the colonists, there was no such agreement between them. While many did revolt against Britain, boycotting and destroying products, a great deal of the colonists were loyalists, and as such, were against the revolution of the colonies. One example of the expressions of unity from the colonists is a cartoon called "Join, or Die" which was placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. This cartoon shows that the colonies need to join together or they will perish. Another example of the colonists' unity comes from Richard Henry Lee. In his letter to Arthur Lee, he states that "N. America is now most firmly united and as firmly resolved to defend their liberties ad infinitum against every power on Earth that may attempt to take them away." He is stating that Americans are unified and strong in their fight for a common cause. Mather Byles, a British loyalist, takes a different view of the colonists' unity in The Famous Mather Byles: The Noted Boston Tory Preacher, Poet and Wit, 1707-1788. His view is that it would be better for the colonists to live with one king that has little influence in America than to have multitudes of politicians
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Approximate Word count = 779
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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