The Colonists – Sense of Identity and Unity
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The colonists had a highly developed sense of identity and unity as Americans by the eve of the revolution, but it took longer to attain colonial unity than a distinct identity. Many of the colonies were envious or suspicious of each other, which delayed colonial unity. These small barriers were removed when the colonists began fighting to preserve their rights and later began fighting for their independence from Great Britain.
Colonial unity, an ongoing struggle, was necessary for preserving freedom. It was imperative that the colonies put aside their differences and unite even during the French and Indian War when they were allies with the British. In 1754, the first year of the French and Indian War, Benjamin Franklins famous “Join or Die” cartoon was published in Philadelphia (Document A). The cartoon, which shows the colonies as part of a disbanded snake, seriously advised unification. Unity among all the American colonies during the French and Indian War, where the British and the American colonists fought the French and their Indian allies, was mandatory because a French victory in the New World would result in a loss of British superiority. The British dominance in the New World, which resulted from a British and American victory, helped pave the way for the colonists to have the opportunity to form their own nation and expand their territory.
The three-thousand miles of ocean between Great Britain and the American colonies combined with a long period of lax British rule, which allowed the colonists to experiment with democracy and self-rule, quickly gave the colonists a sense of identity as Americans. The presence of the Atlantic Ocean made it increasingly difficult for the British to have firm control over the colonists and the freedom that resulted from this leniency contributed to the formation of a distinctly American identity (since no other British subjects had as much freedom as the American colonists). Edmond Burke, a member of the House of Commons and a supporter of the colonies, noted in 1766 that “The eternal Barriers of Nature forbid that the colonies should be blended or coalesce into the Massof this Kingdom.” (Document B). The “tyrant three thousand miles away” (Document D) attempted to have tighter
control over the colonies by enacting the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, and the Declatory Act and quickened the unification of the American colonies, who felt like victims, against the British.
The colonists sense of identity and unity as Americans was further developed when they coalesced to fight the British. Many people who lived in the colonies were not English; they were German, Dutch, Swedish, Jewish, Scots-Irish, and French. Some people were a mixture of many different ethnic groups. This “mixed” group of people, which could not be found anywhere else in the world, that united to fight for their rights led