American Revolution Dbq Essay

835 Words2 Pages

Before the beginning of the American revolution the majority of colonists thought they were fighting for some representation in parliament not a turning point of a new country. The colonists didn't really understand or have a sense of identity for the colonies and America. The colonists just thought they were another part of England. So the Colonists have not yet developed their sense of unity and identity but a radical few will lead the colonies to revolution with belief they would unify. First, the everyday colonists did not support the revolution or the idea of a revolution. The general public wanted representation in parliament or some removing of taxes. A prime example of the general public not wanting to pay taxes and trying to rebel somewhat is the Boston tea party. The sons of liberty protested by throwing tea overboard when tea came into ports. Another example of colonists not having a sense …show more content…

of identity is in document H. The purpose of this document is to show how the colonists don't know what being an American is and what it means. It also shows how Americans have a clean slate and don't really want to be considered as a European or even a descendant of a European. Document G also shows how the colonies were not very unified as a whole. This article's purpose is to show that the country is somewhat spilt in their connections and ability to help each other. These donations were given for relief in Boston because of the Boston port act. The act blocked all trade in and out of Boston which caused major economic problems. This caused states to give relief aid and the states around Massachusetts gave much more because of their direct connections and easier trade. Overall this shows that the colonies were not unionized and were not working as one unit and the states felt that they were each separate nations. Secondly, the real sense of unity in the country was lead by a few radicals like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. This causes the general states to not unify but the leaders of their states to connect. This is seen in document A as Benjamin Franklin is trying to unify the states with this picture of the snake. He uses this picture to show how the states need to unify as one or else they will die to the British. This shows how Ben Franklin having the point of view of a official in the country is trying to bring the colonies together and unify. He also is purposefully targeting the colonists since they have no feeling of identity or unity. This document was written to bring the colonies together and decide on the albany plan of union which gets rejected. This shows again that the colonists are not feeling like they want unity or have any sense of identity. At this time the colonies were split between colonists still being loyal to the crown, wanting the colonies to govern themselves and some really didn't care. This caused some distrust between colonists. Even some members of parliament like Edmund Burke in Document B show that the english should just step away from the colonies and let them govern themselves. He says this because he believes that the english can’t govern a small group of towns across a large ocean and they should just step away from the colonies. Furthermore, In Document E the continental congress are meeting to talk about why the colonies are going up in arms against the british.

This article shows that the colonies in 1775 feel more unified because the congress clarifies that they do not want to split up the union, and they just want to rise up against the british. This document helps support my argument by showing that again the higher up officials and leaders of states feel a sense of unity and identity and that they need to get together to unify the colonies. In Document D, Mather Byles talks about how that both being ruled by one person far away and a large amount of people that are close to you are not better than each other. This shows that the general public like this preacher do not feel unified under the colonies government or the english government. His purpose in writing this is to document how the public did not feel good about rebelling or being controlled by the english government. Since Mather is just a preacher he might feel more biased about how to be ruled since he is a follower of

God. The colonists of soon to be United states didn't have a sense of unity or identity when going into the American Revolution but the American leaders like Benjamin Franklin lead the colonies to a successful revolution. Even after the revolution had started most of general public didn't know what they were fighting for. So these colonists were even though they didn't know it were fighting for a new county.

American Revolution Dbq Essay
1364 Words | 3 Pages
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1044 Words | 3 Pages
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737 Words | 2 Pages
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American Revolution Dbq Essay