Declaration Of Independence Research Paper

Ragini Inguva

Period 2

9/16/15

Due to the damaging French and Indian War, the British rapidly lost money and went into debt post-war. This had a tremendous effect on both the colonists and many British citizens as well. The British began to tax both its’ citizens and the particularly the colonists at high prices to compensate for the great loss they had suffered due to the war they had to fight in the Americas. Right after the war, the British had to send over extra military forces in order to enforce the Proclamation of 1763 and make sure that the new taxes would be enforced as well but this also took a great deal of finances from the government’s pockets. The government appointed George Grenville to solve England’s financial crisis

The House of Burgesses kicked off these formal complaints to in 1765 and later that same year the Stamp Act Congress took place. Rather than just occupying the Americas as English citizens, the colonists at this point began to use their local governments as the basis for all of their laws. Many colonial Leaders began to argue the Enlightenment philosophies like natural rights and these arguments would ultimately lay the foundation for the Declaration of Independence and the fundamental reasons for the separation between England and the United States. A group of colonial leaders that really led this movement toward independence were the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty was a group of colonists including many patriots who were intent on securing their rights as citizens of England and later wanted to completely separate from the nation. Although there were many patriots who consciously made the decision to shift toward colonial leadership as opposed to staying loyal there were also the people who wanted to stay true to Britain and those were the Loyalists who did not participate in the resistance against the British. Soon, with all the combined taxation that was being imposed on the colonies, the propaganda spread about the British by the Sons of Liberty, and

One of the first elements of the engraving that portrays the artist’s perspective about the incident of the Boston Massacre was that the “Red Coats” or the British are more clearly identified and they stand taller than the blurred-out, faded colonists. This element makes it seem like the British were brutally attacking an innocent group of colonists. Another piece that we can see is that the Captain in the painting is holding an arm outward which usually indicates that he is giving an order. Not much is known about how the fighting during the Boston Massacre actually started but one thing that is definitely known is that the British Captain did not give the order to shoot so the artist clearly tried to omit this fact and show the British in a worse light for the propaganda piece. A third part of this painting is that the only group of armed people in the engraving are the British, with large rifles. However, during the actual Boston Massacre, the colonists were not completely innocent- they were throwing stones and other large objects right at the officers in a mob formation. The artist is clearly trying to show the British in the worst possible light by engraving it in this