Essay On Why The Americans Should Be Free

The British had sent more than 10,000 troops to North America by the end of the French and Indian War. The British felt like they had spent a great deal of money in protecting the American colonists. They were in debt around 140 million pounds. To pay off all of their debt the British decided to increase the enforcement of existing taxes on the Colonists and impose additional taxes. The British issued The Proclamation of 1763 which meant the colonists couldn’t cheat the Indians out of land. They also establish a border in where they could not buy land. This made the colonist mad because it made them feel like the British were interfering and trying to limit their economic growth.

After the French and Indian war everything seemed to work exactly as the colonist wanted and were grateful for the help provided by Mother England. France had now evacuated the land, the British had come to their rescue, and now they could really turn this land into what they envisioned it to be…so they thought. Then you have the British, they had another notch in the belt by winning a battle that seemed impossible; and now that the battle is over they looked around and saw all this “opportunity”. Then there was the issue of money because now England was in debt some 140 million! England was not impressed with the contributions the colonist were able to mustard up for the battle financially nor military wise; and to help recoup some of their losses they took a decisive step in attempting to force the colonies to pay off the war debt.

When the French and Indian war came to a close in 1763, Great Britain was greatly in debt. They decided to regain this money by taxing the American Colonists with acts such as The Tea Act, The Stamp Act, The Townshend Acts, and The Intolerable Acts. Colonists were furious that Britain had the nerve to tax them when they didn’t even have representation in Parliament. They did everything in their power to try to at least make a compromise with Britain, even sending the king a letter asking him if he could try to address some of their complaints; unfortunately, the king was noncompliant. There was no other choice; America was destined to become independent one way or another.

In the Seven Years’ War or the French and Indian War, Britain took over the eastern part of what is now the United States of America. The British forced out the French from many territories in Canada and received Florida from Spain by giving the Spanish west of the Mississippi River. With Britain's victory in the war, they had complete power of the seas and now the American Colonies did not have to fret about attacks coming from the French, Spanish, and the American Indian allies because the British were there to protect them. Although the British feel that the colonials should feel the need to thank the British for protecting them the colonials feel no need to do that. Instead, the colonials do not want their freedom to be taken over by the British who are across the sea from them. After the French and Indian War the British and colonials start to have differences in their plans which starts the new laws from the British and boycotts from the colonials.

The American Civil War claimed the lives of over 700,000 people. The war was fought from 1861-1865. The results of the war were described as; a union victory, abolishment of slavery, territorial integrity preserved and the destruction and dissolution of the Confederate States. The twelve years that followed were called the Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877. The purpose of the Reconstruction Era was to restore National Unity, strengthen the government, and guarantee rights to freed slaves. The reality of reconstruction though was; violence (260,000 dead), newly freed slaves suffered the most, and Lincoln's hopes of trust and rededication to peace were lost when he was assassinated on April 15th, 1865. It is these realities of the Reconstruction Era and beyond that this paper will address and how those realities affected the newly freed slaves. Life in post-bellum America for African - Americans was violent and filled with fear because of white supremacy, lynching, and the brutal mutilations of blacks.

Firstly, The British and the colonists celebrated a huge and resounding victory over the French in the French and Indian War in 1763, it was a blessing to begin with, but then it got ugly as the cheers and happiness of the victory were quickly wiped away by the intensive taxation that followed in England due to the war debt. Soon after, the Parliament realized that people back in London couldn’t bear this burden anymore, they turned to the colonies almost halfway around the world to claim taxes from them due to the war debt they fought on their land. This created chaos in the Americas as people in the colonies became frustrated by the fact that they were forced to pay taxes on everything they plant or farm which has never happened before, and what made it worse was that they didn’t even have a representative in the

Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.

I realized that the British Americans were unfair to their own country, England. The reason why I am saying this is because, it’s only fair for the British to ask the colonies in the Americas for the tax because they have been receiving financial assistance, troops, warships, weapons, and so on. Not only that, these British colonies that have already settled in the Americas have their own land for farming and livestock, and some of them are small shop owners. Meaning, these colonies in the Americas can finance themselves for war, maybe not much but they can since they sold and trade their goods with the British. I would say that at least they pay gratitude to their motherland so that it will be fair for those people in England that are paying taxes more than they could afford.

The most common phrase in America today is “Home of the Free”. When America first started out in the Colonies the above quote was probably very true. As time has passed through the centuries, America has felt the need to regulate and reduce the freedom that our founding fathers had intentionally planned for us. Such things as religion, reproductive rights, Native Americans and their rights, and marriage rights are being marginalized. These rights could be considered private matters that the government shouldn’t get involved with and probably rightly so.

Since the creation of the United States, the meaning of freedom has changed to meet changing attitudes. Throughout our nation’s history, there have been significant periods of racial, economic and civil rights inequalities. There are different meanings for freedoms that have been established throughout the historical period of the United States. During this modern era, the US had certain periods of time that lived up to the ideals of freedom such as the Gilded Age. In opposition, the US has also had periods of time where our ideals of freedom failed to meet the requirements of our nation, a prime example being the late 1940s when the US entered the Cold War and led to the anti-communism period of McCarthyism which ultimately restricted

America is commonly called the “Land of the Free”, but the abundance of liberties, and liberties for all, has not always been the case. The Puritans were some of the first to settle in the New World, but they were self-interested and did not come with the purpose of creating a free state for all. As time progressed, so did their believes, and by the time Tocqueville arrived from France, liberty was an important aspect of American life. So important that people would fight and die for it. Tocqueville, while impressed at the amount liberty and freedoms that citizens had, believed that America had a long way to go before it could call itself a truly free country. Fast forward over a hundred years later, and John Rawls lived in a time were the

America is the universal symbol of freedom. But is it really free? Does the history of the United States stay true to the ideas of our forefathers? Or has the definition been altered to fit American policies? Has freedom defined America? Or has America defined freedom? I believe America was at first defined by freedom, then after time, America defined freedom, altering the definition to fit the niche it fits in, but still keeping key components so it still seems to be staying true to the ideas of America’s founding fathers.

Several years ago, the United States of America was once land owned by the Britain Empire. After some time, though, the British Parliament began to tax the colonists living in the new world and hardships began to increase within those living in the new world. Such hardships were the result of the taxes. The colonists felt that they were being wrongfully taxed and that there was no true and genuine benefit for them. Additionally, they felt as if they were not being accounted for within the Parliament. Due to this, the colonists grew annoyed as they were being treated less than a British citizen as they rightfully were at the time.

of us fail to cherish and value our granted freedom. Many of us do not

Our country was founded on the idea of freedom: freedom from a king, freedom to believe in whatever one wants to believe in and freedom to openly express these beliefs with others. Through careful examination of what the authors during this period of history were expressing, I have found a greater respect for our freedoms. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine are all familiar names to high school students in the United States. However, their principles are not familiar and I was shocked to learn that I had not previously read a majority of the works these men created to provide a foundation for our country’s belief system.