Reluctant Revolutionaries

From the short movie, “Reluctant Revolutionaries,” it is shown that early Americans looked highly upon England and the King, and were proud to be English subjects. Initially, the colonial upper class revered England as a cultured place to emulate. They sold their raw goods to England and purchased finished manufactured goods in return. As time passed and the political atmosphere began to change in England regarding their policies on the colonies, Americans started the unexpected steps of starting a revolution.

At first, the American feelings toward England started to grow sour when the Stamp Act of 1765 was introduced. This act proclaimed that many things, from ordinary goods to copying law documents, had taxes attached to them. The colonies were outraged at this unrestrained taxation. They believed that the power to tax was the power to destroy. Accordingly, the colonials felt that they had the right to run their own colonies without outside interference. Benjamin Franklin felt that the American consumers purchasing the goods of England brought wealth to England, and that excessive taxation would only shun the Americans away.

Eventually, after seeing its ineffectiveness, England repealed the Stamp Act. Unfortunately, England almost immediately initiated the Declaratory Act in 1766. The act essentially stated that Parliament could create any and all laws for the colonies. This forceful action enraged an already outraged America even further. Without delay, Americans began to boycott English goods to show their disapproval.

After several years of boycotting, a dramatic event occurred that would be the turning point of the restless standoff. On March 5, 1770 the Boston Massacre took place, in which a confrontation of British soldiers and Americans resulted with five Bostonian deaths. From then, England had to use military enforcement of their laws and regulations in the colonies. In time, this unhappy environment led to the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Although the colonials conducted their disapproval without military aggression, this act of belligerent defiance gave a hard slap in the face for the English government.

Ultimately, the American Revolution was never something that was planned on or even expected. Since Americans originally highly respected England and its culture, the unfortunate string of events that led to revolution can be placed with the lawmakers and ruler of England. By looking down upon the colonies and its people, England laid the path towards the Revolutionary War. In the end, the Americans were only trying to protect what should be natural to all humans, their freedoms.