The Colonists Case
Essay Preview: The Colonists Case
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The colonists go through social changes that the Britains do not witness and then patriotism in the colonists also starts to unfold. Then there are the political problems that were adding on to the problems the colonists had. All of these aspects contribute to why the colonists went from labeling themselves Britains to calling themselves as Americans.
The colonists go through many social changes that the British does not witness. The Enlightenment, the Great Awakening, and the idea of Deism are all religious changes that were in the colonies. Document D is basically the first few amendments of todays constitution, and it changed some of the ideas the colonists had, into laws. Document A brings forth the separate government from Britain. It talks about planting the first colony in Virginia for “Better ordering and preservation”. There are also the ideas of human happiness and liberty that the colonists were introduced to. All of these social reasons showed that the colonists were moving towards separating themselves from British subjects to Americans.
After all of the social changes the colonies had, patriotism started to kick in. In Document B, Benjamin Franklin shows his patriotism by comparing the qualities and characteristic of America, to a rattle snake. He describes how each never attack, but when attacked they dont surrender. He also says that both the rattle snake and America shows true courage and solitary. If the colonists have patriotism, it steers them away from being British. They start calling themselves Americans rather than British.
The political problems in Britain were a big reason the colonists changed to calling themselves American subjects. Shortly after the Seven Years War, Britain began to create political problems for the colonists. The economic losses during the war put Britain in debt and they needed to get back the money they lost. Britain imposed different taxes including the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townsend Act, Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts. Document G shows Britains response to the colonists revolting against these acts. Fighting against Britains power was the last push to the majority of the colonists to go from being British to American.
The colonists that called themselves British underwent social changes, political changes, and patriotism. The patriotism increased the greatness of revolting against British rule and the political and social changes gave them the last push. All of the events made the colonists consider themselves American subjects.