Compare And Contrast The Tension Between The Colonists And The British

Colonists vs. British: Rising Tensions
The great American Revolutionary War may not have ever occurred if it had not been for the dense tension between the American colonists and the British. The colonists and the British had numerous negative encounters with one another, and these encounters helped pave the way to the American Revolutionary War. “Thinking that the colonies should help pay for past war debts and for the future cost of keeping English soldiers for the defense, Parliament passed a series of acts to raise money from the colonies”(Benson 182). Parliament passed two acts on the colonists including: the Sugar Act, an act in which placed taxes on wine and molasses, and the Stamp Act, an act in which required stamps to be placed on

The colonists had decided that they had enough of Britain and the King being unfair. All of the colonies were unhappy with the fact that they were being taxed without representation in parliament. “Disregarding American protests that the colonies could not be taxed because they were not represented in Parliament, in March 1765 the British government enacted a stamp tax to take effect in the American colonies on November 1, 1765”(Alexander 174). Many of the colonists were not happy with the Tea Act that was passed to help the East India Company that was struggling. The Boston Tea Party created tension due to the fact that colonists disrespected British cargo. The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773. The colonists dressed up as American Indians, and they proceeded to sneak onto the British ships. The colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. This was once again an act of rebellion by the colonists who were tired of the British

It riled up those who were not already fed up with the unfair British laws and taxes. Thomas Paine published Common Sense in 1776. This published document was the first document to truly give any type of hope for the colonies’ independence from Great Britain. Common Sense was split into four sections. The pamphlet covered different topics including: the English constitution not being worthy of worship, the monarchy of Great Britain not caring about the colonies, how successful the colonies were, and the colonies could win a war against the British. Paine’s words were attacking to the king. “And as a man who is attached to a prostitute is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one”(Paine ***). The document went for sale on January 10, 1776, and it sold out 150,000 copies within a time span of two weeks. Many of the Patriots agreed with the pamphlet, but the Loyalist, on the other hand, were not so happy with the document. “It is an outrageous insult on the common sense of Americans, an insidious attempt to poison their minds and seduce them from their loyalty and truest interest”(***). Arguments between Patriots and Loyalist arose once