Internal Problems In Colonial America

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In the mid-eighteenth century, colonial America was prospering more than it ever had since the young nations creation. The British victory of The French and Indian war (1754-1763) brought in an increase of land, which everyone in the colonies desired, as well as, the doubling Britain’s of debt — that needed to be paid off. To curtail the excited colonists from claiming the new territory and to reassure the Indians the crown still valued their trade, The King issued the Proclamation of 1763 which left colonist feeling as if the crown was choosing trade with the Indians over their aspirations to expand. This left many colonists feeling as second-class Englishmen. The British felt that the colonies owed the crown some reimbursement for Her victory. …show more content…
Colonist expected actual representation in parliament and wanted divided sovereignty with the mother country. The colonists began to worry that their government was overstepping its authority and begin to treat the colonist as indentured servants, who would pay for the salaries of the British officials quartered in the colonies newly conquered land after The French and Indian War. We can see indignation for this in Benjamin Franklins testimony before parliament. In his testimony Franklin states plainly that an internal tax would never be adhered to “unless compelled by force of arms”. We can also see similar feelings towards England’s actions in the case of the Conestoga massacre carried out by the Paxton Boys. Frontiersman murdered twenty-one Susquehannock. The justification used by the vigilante group was that Britain’s treatment of the Indians was too friendly and that their friendship had subject them to slavery. These two events show to different ways the breaking down of authority had …show more content…
They believed that from even before conception souls were corrupt and only the select few that God ordained could possibly make it into the kingdom of heaven. By the middle of the eighteenth century there was a revival of religious ideology called The Great Awakening. Lead by Itinerant preachers such as George Whitefield, who preached of a faith where by just opening the heart was enough to get anyone into heaven. This broad appeal is known as big tent religion; it gave the people a chance to “shop” for a religion they felt suited them best. At the same time, an intellectual movement called The Enlightenment was emerging. The Enlightenment spoke of developing a healthy skepticism that was referred to as rationalism. This skepticism can be found in Thomas Jefferson’s letter to his nephew telling him to “Fix reason firmly in her seat” and to “Question with boldness even the existence of a God”. This also led Johnathan Mayhew to question whether Charles I was really a martyr. The emergence of rationalism in the colonials was the key factor in disrupting the harmony between England and the