The Road to Rebellion

An amazing amount of work can be accomplished over a seven year time period. When it comes to the American colonies in the years 1763 to 1776, amazing is not even come close to the description of rebellious progress that was made in those years. From the outright rebellion of British imposed taxes, the start of the American Revolutionary War, to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the colonies moved faster than a "shot heard 'round the world."

When the English had finished fighting the French and Indian War, England had a tremendous debt. The way that the British parliament decided to take care of this debt was to impose many taxes on the subjects of the British Empire. At the time, a large amount of the colonist considered themselves to be a part of the British Empire despite the differences in opinions. One of these different opinions was the idea that England had the
authority to tax the colonies. Though there were many "loyalist" in the colonies, the opposition to British taxes in the colonies was extremely prominent in the New England colonies. One reason for this opposition came from Benjamin Franklin. When Franklin proposed to parliament, that if parliament is to levy taxes on the colonies, then there should be colonial representation in parliament, only one parliament member agreed with Franklin. This opposition is apparent in a multitude of rebellious acts by the colonist to the crown.
Many of these rebellions were led by Samuel Adams. One type of rebellion that sticks in most people's minds is the Boston Tea Party. This statement of rebellion was one way that rebel leader Samuel Adams gained support from the colonist. The Boston Tea Party was a reaction to the Tea Act, which was only one of many tax acts imposed by British parliament.

This type of rebellion, of course, put the English on the edge of their seats. The British had decided that they needed to end this type of outcry coming out of the colonies. Looking at the colonies almost as children who needed to be punished, Parliament had sent over British troops in order to immediately stop this type of behavior. This type of action by the British could only rally up the colonist even more at this point though. After The Boston Massacre, relations between the British and Colonist were far beyond on edge. From the second the Paul Revere called out "The British are coming!" it would only be logical to think of every colonist in the New England Colonies preparing to defend their freedoms that they felt entitled to. The battles at Lexington and Concord were only the beginning in a very long war, it was in my eyes a much more explosive moment in history than any length of war could ever be. Arguments in the New England Colonist eyes for this, was the idea that the British had directly imposed on their personal freedoms as British citizens, and were more than willing to fight to the death in order to gain that freedom back with or without English rule. Many legislatures in the Second Continental Congress felt the same way about the cause of "New England's war." Congress created the continental army, turning this into a war for all the colonies.

Though the Rebellion of taxes imposed on the colonies could be reason enough to spark an all out revolution through war, no rebellion was greater than that of the Declaration of Independence. Many things have been said about the Declaration of Independence. The numerous firework displays on July Fourth say plenty enough for me. The reasoning for this act of outright legal rebellion was because of the war, as well as Common Sense written by Thomas Paine. Thomas Pain had written a pamphlet that had caused two major effects on the colonies. The first being giving a large portion of the colonist, including congress members, the reasoning it took to look at themselves as people who needed to be free of England. The second effect was that it inspired all the colonies to join in the fight for freedom from England.

In closing, there are many events that took place in the American colonies, in only a matter of seven years. Rebellion, revolution, and declaration of freedom from an oppressor. Though these events have taken place over 200 years ago, the effects of these key events in history have effected every single human being ever to have breathed this earths air since.