Britain suddenly put heavy taxes and trade regulations on the colonies after a long period of salutary neglect. ... Britain put strong regulations on trade and manufacturing like the earlier Wool, Hat, and Molasses Acts. ... The purpose of this act was to stop illegal trade with France, Spain, and the West Indies. ... The Tea Act of 1773 made tea cheaper, but the British East India Company got the monopoly on tea trade. ... They wanted to be free from this absurd taxation and controlled lifestyles. ...

• Word Count: 416
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

It started with Mercantilism in which it gave an equal opportunity for the colonies to trade with other countries and make a sufficient and prosperous amount for the merchants that traded. ... So they passed Navigation Laws that restricted the colonies to trade only with them. ... The Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776), which had a clear and precise argument that called for "The Free and Independent States of America". ... Though the process was long and hard we obtained freedom from the British and now we are a free country paid for by a price of blood and death. ...

• Word Count: 676
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

This, in turn, allows trade to continue with the French West Indies, cutting out England and her taxes. ... Once the war had ended, the west was free for exploration, however, England tried to say it wasn't open, the colonists decided that the English opinion of this particular matter wasn't relevant. ... Colonists started picking faults in the trading regulations soon after. ... Calling the regulations on trade nothing but a disguised form of tax. ... Colonies joined together in revolt, they had decided they wanted to be free, revolting against too much authority and governing...

• Word Count: 1147
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

It prohibited settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains and trading in that area without a license. ... The Boston Port Act closed the port to all trade until all of the destroyed tea was paid for. ... This took away people's individual rights to freedom and free speech. ... They finally had enough and decided that in order to be free and happy, they needed to be separate from Great Britain. ...

• Word Count: 883
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Politically, the governments already had a certain degree of independence, but wanted to be completely free from the oppressive ties of England. Economically, the country was developing strategies for trading with other countries, although it was forbidden, and had also developed a small amount of self-sufficiency to some degree. ... The theory of mercantilism maintained that a country could only be powerful if it had, and kept a favorable balance of trade, this meaning a higher export than import. ... Eventually, slavery was abolished in the North, and a new idea of a free man arose in Amer...

• Word Count: 982
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Now that the thirteen colonies were their own free country they would need some type of unifying force. The Articles were said to have been a "loose league of friendship" between the states, meaning the states would trade and work together, but no central form of government was needed. ... So they came up with another plan, the New Jersey plan proposed a one house congress which would have the power to regulate trade and collect taxes, and each state would have only one vote in congress no matter the size of the population. ... This government had the power to regulate trade, make treaties, ra...

• Word Count: 782
• Approx Pages: 3

During the Revolutionary War, England was not only alarmed by the colonists' insistence on trading with the enemy. ... "The parliament unquestionably possesses a legal authority to regulate the trade of Great Britain, and all her colonies. ... A Prince unfit to be the ruler of a free people." ... Altogether the Revolutionary War was bound to happen, if people wanted to be free bad enough they will be war to gain freedom if it is not resolved politically and peacefully. ...

• Word Count: 1249
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the Second Treatise of Civil Government written in 1689 by John Locke, Locke implies that individuals' personality and possessions is free if they are within the law of nature and not bounded by others individuals like Britishers. ... Many laws like cutting off trade with other parts of the world, imposing taxes without consent of colonies, creating commotion in towns and many more. ...

• Word Count: 545
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the past, taxes and duties on colonial trade had always been viewed as measures to regulate commerce, not to raise money. ... When other British soldiers came to the sentry's support, a free-for-all ensued and shots were fired into the crowd. ...

• Word Count: 563
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The years following 1783, welcomed an America free of British rule and taxation - an isolated America with few enemies and vast natural resources. ... The Constitution enforced the return of fleeing slaves to their masters, empowered local government to use force against uprising slaves and ensured the Atlantic slave trade would continue to thrive in Southern territories. ...

• Word Count: 572
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The revolution had a more immediate impact on the lives of African Americans allowing the growth of many free African American communities. ... Since the ideology of freedom was so dominate in America most northern states ended slavery through 1777-1784, many free black men still faced white prejudice. ... Though slavery hadn't been abolished in the south, in the north many African Americans were able to establish free black communities and develop their culture. ... The depressions was due to inflation, British restricting trade, influx of printed currency, and large war debts. ...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

First, the vast majority slaves lived in the South so a few freed slaves in the North do not make much difference for the whole cause. Second, freed slaves lived as second-class citizens and still remained living in conditions like those of slavery or worse. ... They were created to indirectly stimulate the economic growth of the British Empire by controlling the trade habits of the North American colonies. ...

• Word Count: 1221
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For example the Molasses Act which would have done a "crippling job"(10) on the lucrative and economically important New England rum trade was gotten around by paying the customs officers from a half penny to a penny and a half in return for those officers not collecting sixpence per gallon on molasses imported. ... Principle ideas like this were uniting the society, making a colonial consciousness aptly brought out by social activists like John Locke who explained that "men are by nature free, equal and independent of each other [and therefore] have every right to fashion their own government...

• Word Count: 1052
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

​Thomas Paine's, Common Sense, influenced the colonist's ideas and decisions on the revolution and the feelings towards independence. Enlightenment thinkers influenced many of Paine's theories, such as John Locke and Jean- Jacques Rousseau. He begins with general reflections about government and r...

• Word Count: 1116
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In 1774, the British government passed the Tea Act, which granted a monopoly of tea trade in the Americas to the East India Tea Company. ... On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was created and it stated that the colonies were free and independent states, absolved of all allegiance to England. ...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School