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From 1763, throughout the mid-1770’s an ideology of revolution began to
evolve throughout the thirteen American colonies. Many factors contributed to
the formation of this ideology including Salutary Neglect, the Boston Massacre,
and the British tax policy. In the early 1700’s the British neglected the
colonists because neglect served the British economic interests better than
strict enforcement. The colonies prospered as did their trade with Britain,
without much government interference. But, at the end of the French and Indian
war, British leaders reevaluated their relationship with the colonies; because
of conflicts between Great Britain and the colonies during the war, ending the
policy of salutary neglect and proposing reforms and new taxes. The war had left
Great Britain deeply in debt and the British viewed American prosperity as a
resource and taxing the colonies as a means to relieve British debt. More and
more Americans were convinced that British politicians were deliberately robbing
them of their personal independence through taxation. The Stamp Act of 1765
which required the colonists to buy and place revenue stamps on all official
legal documents, deeds, newspapers, pamphlets, dice, and playing cards, left the
colonists alarmed and the educated colonists mounted an ideological attack on
the new British policies.
The colonists believed that the Stamp Act was an
attempt by Britain to seize control of taxation from the representative colonial
assemblies and to tax the colonists without giving them representation in
government; “taxation without representation.” While confrontations over taxes
and reforms were serious, the bonds uniting the colonies and Britain were still
strong. An American diplomat declared in 1769 that the British ministry should
“Repeal the laws, Renounce the Right, Recall the troops, Refund the money, and
return to the old method of requisition.” This solution would have required
parliament to renounce its claims to sovereign power in America and was almost
unthinkable given its quest for authority. Moreover, violent acts such as the
Boston Massacre, in which soldiers fired at colonists after some boys threw ice
at a sentry guarding the Customs House; killing an African American named
Crispus Attucks and four other colonists, showed how difficult it would be to
achieve any peaceful constitutional compromise. These main factors as well as
many others, played into the hands of those Americans who wanted independence.
They saw the British as corrupt, immoral, and power hungry and they felt they
needed to take a stand against the pattern of enslavement they saw in these
actions. They did not see themselves as radicals or revolutionaries; they were
simply protecting their way of life, their land, and their households. Thus
brought about the formation of the ideology for a revolution.
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