Early Life in America

Chapter 7 Brandon Adkins

1. After years of salutary neglect, the colonies were not used to being taxed so heavily, and also decided that they were not being fairly represented; after years of protest they finally turned to rebellion as the only way to get their point across. During the French and Indian War, most colonists just viewed themselves as Englishmen, who traveled to the New World in search of religious freedom, wealth, or a better life than that of which they would have otherwise had in England. Also, trade with England was a necessity, as the only way for American colonies to trade was through mother England thanks to the Navigation act, and Mercantilism and they had no factories of their own. Once the war with France had ended, England’s treasury had been depleted and they needed supplies. The colonies were the obvious choice as the means to obtain these supplies. England began passing laws and acts that added new taxes on American goods. At first, the Americans just resented the taxes, and asked England to repeal them, but to no avail. They also plead that if Parliament was going to do this to them, that they should have a representative in Parliament to determine what the American colonies wanted. Obviously protesting was not working, because the more the colonists protested, the tighter England’s grip was. The tighter the grip, the more the people protested. Not only did England not help the situation with all the acts they passed on the colonists, but the colonists were starting to become more independent regardless. Eventually something would have to give in, but it sadly had to lead to war.

2. The American colonies had experienced a period of salutary neglect for some years, and in those years became very independent, but after the war with France, Britain needed more supplies, goods, and money. The British believed that the colonies only existed to produce more wealth for the mother country, and nothing...