engine of souls | forum 2

James Racine

French and Indian War DBQ

9/12/08

After the French and Indian War, the colonists political views shifted more towards maintaining self-government, their economy was threatened by British taxes and the peoples Natural Rights were prominent in their viewpoints. They were quickly spiraling out of British control, and into a state of Revolution.

When the colonists fought for the British army in the Seven Years War, they had their own agenda; they wanted to settle the land west of the Appalachians, land that at the time belonged to the French. Many expressed, as did Washington in his letter to Robert Orme, aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, a desire to serve king and country, and to learn from the British regulars. However, as one Massachusetts soldier wrote in his diary, "we now see what it is to be with the regulars, who are little better than slaves to their officers." After leaving the army at the end of their enlistment or with victory, many colonists tried to settle the new land, only to be stopped cold not only by Indian resistance, but also by the Proclamation of 1763. This turn of events left many colonists wondering what they had been fighting for in the first place.

Even with this disappointment, many colonists were still faithful to Britain, and thought, like Reverend Thomas Barnard mentions in his sermon, that an age of prosperity was on its way. Unfortunately, this was not to be. In order to pay for the war, Britain began taxing the colonies. The currency and sugar Acts placed a tax on sugar and prevented the colonies from printing paper money in order to help alleviate their debt. The Quartering Act forced colonists to provide for the British soldiers stationed in the colonies. But nothing provoked as much anger and resentment as the passing of the Stamp Act.

With the Stamp Act came cries of "No taxation without representation." Since they had no voice in Parliament, why should Parliament be allowed to tax them? The Sons of Liberty began violently protesting the Act, burning down homes and tarring and feathering stamp officials. Benjamin Franklin, grossly underestimating the response, wrote to John Huges, telling him that they were trying to get the Stamp Act repealed, but if they are unsuccessful, to stay loyal to the crown.

However, the seeds of dissention had been sown. Sick of seeming oppression after years of salutary neglect, the colonists began to see themselves as a combined entity, as for the first time, nine colonies came together as one in the Stamp Act Congress. The colonists had tasted political and economic freedom (having smuggled through the Navigation Acts) and with the ideals of John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers imprinted on their minds, they werent giving up until they had their rights and liberties restored, rights and liberties that Britain had no desire to give them.

Sorry.