Their Journey to Becoming Americans

Their Journey to Becoming Americans

Prior to the American Revolution, the Colonists saw themselves as "colonies" to the British Empire. This enabled the British to take advantage of the colonies using them for profit. After the French and Indian War, the Colonists began to recognize that their experience under the British rule was unfair. The harshness of British acts and taxes allowed a common identity to emerge that could be shared by all colonists, the diversity throughout the colonies, and people speaking up all gave a wide spread unification leading to the revolution. This identity and unity helped form a continental congress and an army that would bring about a change in the national identity.

Many of the causes leading up to the American Revolution had been from little events that the British did that caused anger and frustration throughout the colonies. Many of the events, such as the Proclamation of 1763, The Navigation Laws, Sugar, Stamp, and other acts caused the colonists increased rage towards the British. Taxation without representation started to occur due to the debt the British had from the result of the French and Indian War. This forced the colonists to face common problems, which eventually led to the colonies working together in order to solve those problems. Another major act was the stamp act. The Stamp Act was a law that placed taxes on every document. They believed went to far and formed a Stamp Act Congress. The congress paved the way to the Declaration of Rights, which stated that there should be no taxes imposed on Colonists without their consent or receive a tax from a body, which they have no representative in. The Stamp Act is one of the main reasons why the Colonists even started to think of opposing the English crown at the first places.

Little acts from well-known people also shined a light for the colonists for hope and unification. The Albany Plan of 1754 proposed by Benjamin Franklin, stated if not united to form a whole snake, then the snake can't survive. It was an image of a snake saying join or die getting the colonists to unite together. Although this did not work, it was a sign of change. Another voice being heard was Thomas Paine and his famous pamphlet Common Sense. In the pamphlet, he spoke openly of independence from Britain and urged a government in which the people ruled through their elected representatives. This was widely read by colonists and many colonists had the same views as Thomas Paine, but before they read the pamphlet, they were to scared to voice their opinion. This gave a voice to the colonists showing them not to be afraid.

The colonist sense of identity and unity as Americans was further developed when different cultures intermixed. Many people who lived in the colonies were not English; they were German, Dutch, Swedish, Jewish, Scots-Irish, and French. Some people were a mixture of many different ethnic groups. This "mixed" group of people, which could not be found anywhere else in the world, that united to fight for their rights led to the creation of a separate identity. Inter mix marriages started to form new identities for the people. Also, the passage of time created a new identity.