How Did The British Policies Influence Colonial America

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A collection of ideas and beliefs changed the course of history. This group of characters freed a people oppressed by a corrupt government. These spoken syllables and consonants started a new era, a new life. Words and ideas have the power to create the future and alter the world. Such an event took place in the years surrounding 1776. Colonial America is an example of such change. The cries of independence were heard throughout the colonies filling citizens with the hope of becoming free. For too long the British had violated the rights of the people through its new policies. Speeches and letters from the leaders of the revolution inspired men to fight for freedom and end the tyranny. The ideas of influential people drove the atrocities …show more content…
The Stamp Act was disliked due to the taxation of stamps on official documents. The Quartering Act, the Townsends Acts, and the Tea Act soon followed and all where opposed by the colonists. The Intolerable Acts, which were meant to punish the colonists for rebellion, was the last straw. British control had to be stopped. The colonists’ opinions on the British policies formed into the ideas of independence through the words of Thomas Paine. Paine guided the thoughts of the people with his writings in his pamphlet Common Sense. He used the colonists’ ancestors to turn thoughts toward the concept of a revolution, stating “the same tyranny which drove the first immigrants from home [England], pursues their descendants still” (“Thomas Paine”). Richard Henry Lee also convinced people to contemplate independence. Lee went to the Continental Congress in 1776 on behalf of Virginia. In his resolution at this meeting, he stated “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved"(“Lesson 6”). His resolution called for a separation from Great Britain, influencing the delegates at the congress to create a declaration of