Declaring
independence was not easy in colonial era. A lot of parties have to struggle
through wars, debates, and changes among them. It also happened to the
colonists who would like to declare independence from Britain in July 1776. They
need to face the Seven Year’s war, changes in political and economic as well as
debates with certain parties. The American Revolution was also impacted to
them. Although those moments were hard for colonists, the war that happened in
Massachusetts leads them to declare the independence.
The American Revolution brought
development on political, intellectual, cultural, and economic in the
eighteenth century. However, in the middle of those developments there was a
failure made by Britain in defining the relationship between colonies and the
empire as well as the imperial reform. The cause of this failure was the Seven
Year’s war that asks British to pay fully attention on that both politically and
economically. This pushes British to let the Spanish Succession happened in the
beginning of the century and doubled its national debt into 13.5 times of its
annual revenue. Another cause of Britain’s failure was the debate between its
officials. Old Whigs and their Tory supporters believed to pay national debt by
taking benefits through its authoritarian empire which are land and resources. However,
the radical Whigs which usually called as patriot Whigs would like to focus on
the national economic growth in terms of trading and manufacturing as well as to
create equality between colonies and the mother country. The ideas from both
sides were powerful to eliminate national debt. Ironically, it became powerless
since both sides prevented coherent reform. Thus, there were notions developed
by colonists about their place in the empire as well as their own local
political institutions which resulted on the existence of colonial assemblies with
duties to manage resident’s tax, colonies’ revenue, and grant salaries to royal
officials. In addition, the eighteenth century also became the moment of Anglicization
where colonists were similar to Britons in terms of culture. It could be seen
from middling-class colonists who were able to afford British fashions and
dining wares as well as to enjoy British liberties. Most immediately, the
American Revolution was meant to reform British Empire in which this empire led
to resistance.
After
the victory of Seven Year’s war which also known as the French and Indian war,
the parliament created Sugar Act and Currency Act in 1764. Sugar Act was intended to increase enforcement
towards smuggle of molasses in New England but cutting the duty in half of it. In
the other hand, the purpose of creating Currency Act was to conduct a
restriction towards colonies from producing paper money due to the scarcity of
silver and gold coins. Those two Acts were restricted by Proclamation of 1763
so that some colonists feared the pattern of increasing taxation and liberties
restriction. Because of this, the Stamp Act was created by Parliament in 1765
to regulate many documents to be printed on paper and stamped. To be detailed,
there were three forms of Stamp Act depend on the class; elites for legislative
resistance, merchants for economic resistance, and common colonists for popular
protest. In the same year of creating this Act, the Stamp Act Congress was also
conducted in New York in October attended by delegates sent by nine colonies,
including Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Thomas Hutchinson, Philip
Livingston, and James Otis. This Congress issued a “Declaration of Rights and
Grievances” to reassert idea about the same rights applied for both colonists
and native Britons; rights to be taxed by the elected representatives and trial
by jury. This brought a conflict since colonists disagreed with virtual
representation addressed for them due to the unelected members to Parliament. Most
importantly, there was a widespread of violence and intimidation throughout the
colonies. One of the tragedies was violent riots in Boston that made Andrew
Oliver, a stamp distributor for Massachusetts, resigned from his position.
Not only that, the
participation of elite, middling, and working class colonists emerged to form a
new resistance. There were circulated lists complete with a promise under
signatures to not buy any British goods. This resulted on the cultural shift in
which women took important role on that. They created spinning clubs to produce
homespun clothing so that they will not rely on the imports of British clothes.
This non-importation and non-consumption contributed to unite the colonies by forming
Committees of Correspondence which will help to give the updated information
about colonial resistance progress. In the middle of 1765 and 1770, there was a
change of colonial resistance to be more inclusive and well-coordinated. If
previously colonists of all ranks were not participated in politics but they
were now took a role in the resistance by monitoring and enforcing the boycotts
as well as not buying British goods. It was supported by fifty-one women in
Edenton and North Carolina who signed an agreement about the existence of to
boycotts. This agreement became popular across the continent since it was
published in numerous newspapers. Then, Britain gave a fast respond on it. They
made a “Coercive Acts” which combined four acts; Boston Port Act to close the
harbor and cut off all trade, Massachusetts Government Act to control the
entire colonial government, Administration of Justice Act to allow any royal
officials who committed crime to be tried in Britain, and Quartering Act to
allow British army arrived in colonists’ homes quarterly. However, the ministry
seems did not support this Acts since they were still allowing colonies come to
the aid of Massachusetts. By early 1774, Committees of Correspondence and or
extra legal assemblies seize the power of the royal government as what
Massachusetts did.
However, in 1775, a war
happened in Massachusetts. There were 20,000 colonial militiamen, militia
members, trapped the British effectively. The radical Massachusetts delegates
asked the Continental Congress to lay siege to Boston until no supplies
remained. Finally, Congress formed Continental Army, adopted the Massachusetts militia,
issued a “Declaration of the Causes of Necessity of Taking Up Arms”, and approved
the “Olive Branch Petition”. Before the petition arrived in England on August
13, 1775, the King issued “Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition”
due to his belief about North America leader as dangerous and ill-designing
men. He also had no doubt that independent empire carried by the resistance. Because
of this, in the beginning of 1776, independence issue became popular debate. Colonies,
localities, and groups of ordinary Americans adopted resolutions that encourage
Continental Congress to draft the formal independence declaration by selecting
five members of committee. Firstly, Thomas Jefferson drafted the document to be
edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin as well as the Congress as a whole. During
drafting the document, there was a radical idea to be the preposition made by
American revolutionaries who said about equality endowed by creator. Finally, Peter Timothy of Charleston printed the Declaration of Independence document then brought it to South Carolina.
References:
The American Yawp. (n.d.). The american revolution. Retrieved from https://www.americanyawp.com/text/05-the-american-revolution/
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. (n.d.). Declaration of independence, 1776. Retrieved from https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/war-for-independence/resources/declaration-independence-1776
*Halo, this is my 1st essay of US History (a course offered by Lone Star College) assignment.
