Why The American Colonists Were Patriots

Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution was written by AJ Langguth. The book was published in 1989 by Simon & Schuster publishing company as a paperback. AJ Langguth wrote Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution with the intent of bringing a more interesting form of history to high school students and adults everywhere. The book is a nonfiction, narrative biography that follows the lives of the men who fought for America’s freedom. It includes the drama, challenges, successes, and shortcomings experienced by these men as they strove to free thirteen colonies and create a new country.

I feel that the way patriots treated the loyalists was cruel and unjust. In the beginning of the Americas, everyone living there followed the king and what he had to say and what he did. They were all British and proud of that. So even if some things went bad and not everybody agreed, the loyalists were still proud to be British, which isn’t a bad thing. The thing that is bad about this is how the people who were no longer wanting to be British treated the people who did.

The British soldiers are not guilty because they only used self defense against the colonist. First, the soldiers are not guilty because their lives were in danger. Captain Thomas Preston states, “They [colonists] advance to the points of the bayonets...seemed to be endeavoring to close with the soldiers.” The colonists were coming closer to the soldiers,

Two hundred and forty years ago, Thomas Jefferson stood before a great many people and issued a declaration that echoed across the world: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This proclamation was the culmination of revolutionary sentiment and egalitarianism-catalyzed subversion. Colonists had been evading the taxes levied on them to pay for British wars, harassing British soldiers, tarring and feathering loyalists, and destroying property. All of these actions were illegal and chaotic, but none of them touched what the declaration incited: treason. Our Founding Fathers’ first step in creating this great nation, a beacon for freedom and equality, was to betray their original country.

In this essay I will show you how the so called patriots of the American Revolution may have actually been terrorists. Since history is written by the victor the American Revolutionaries are considered heroes, but the definition of terrorism and the acts of today’s terrorists may cause you to see those heroes in a new light. Unfortunately the term terrorism wasn’t coined until the tail end of or after the revolution, meaning that the revolutionaries would never have actually been called terrorists. Although going off of today’s definition of terrorism which is “The use of violence and intimidation to achieve a goal especially political” the revolutionaries would have been terrorists, considering some of the violent actions the revolutionaries

American Revolution was a time period where there was a colonial revolt between the Loyalists and Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies, who struggled for human equality and natural right. The ideals for the American Revolution is emphasized in the Declaration of Independence. African Americans were aware of the causes and ideals of the Revolution. Some joined the Loyalists and some join the Patriots to fight in the American Revolution, where they forethought they are fighting for liberty for themselves. In addition, George Washington’s views on slavery is it’s a cruel practice that should be abolished and he felt guilty to be a part of it.

I think that the British soldiers acted in self defense during the Boston Massacre. The colonists were threatening and provoking the soldiers by shouting vulgarly, beating people with clubs, and throwing rocks covered in snow, so I believe that the soldiers had a right to fight for their lives. Just take a moment to imagine the Boston massacre, it’s late at night and people are tired and confused. The colonists are shouting “Fire and be damned, who cares! Damn you, you dare not fire,” (Exhibit B) and the British soldiers are ready to defend but don’t know what’s going on.

Britain was forcing the colonists to house the British soldiers and there was no compensation. The British government also violated the colonist’s rights by restricting trade by preventing other nations from purchasing products form the North American colonial market. Obviously, the Founding Fathers were justified in rebelling because the British government was taking advantage of the colonists. Parliament applied various taxes, and forced the colonists to house British soldiers which violated the rights of the colonists.

The people of America (colonists) were tired of being controlled by England. They wanted to be free and independent. They believed that they were able to control themselves and be their own country. They wanted England to let go of their control and to view them as independent and their own country.

On the other hand the British deprived the colonists of even the most basic of rights. The American Revolution was more about Civil Liberties because there are three main arguments that support it: Taxation without Representation, the Quartering Act, and the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts. These actions that the British did justified the colonists’ revolution. First of all, one civil liberty that was exempt from the colonists reaches was taxation without representation.

During the Colonial Era (1492-1763), colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain; due to the inequitable Stamp Act, the insufferable British oppression, and the perceived tyranny of King George III, the king of Great Britain, however, the colonists were unjustified in some of their actions. In Colonial America, colonists were justified in waging war against Great Britain, because the Stamp Act was unfair and viewed as punishment. Because of the war, Britain had no other choice but to tax the colonists to pay for the debt. For example, according to document 2, the author states that the act was not only for trade but for “the single purpose of levying money.”

The British government was not looking for the best of the people. They were only thinking about what they wanted; the government was not interested in what the people wanted so they decided to make decisions on their own, which resulted in changes that form the United States today. Because of this, they were justified in rebelling and declaring independence. One reason why the colonists decided to rebel and declare independence was because of taxation.

The American Revolution was, to date, the best event to happen on American soil, providing freedom and representation in government to the individuals who fought so hard for it. France and Spain aided our cause, helping this group of brave colonists to defeat the strongest army in the world. But, there is a question still not answered; were the colonists justified in breaking away from Britain? The American colonists were justified in breaking away from the British because there was taxation without representation, they had no freedom, and the British government violated their individual British rights. I believe the American colonists were justified for breaking away from Britain because there was taxation without representation.

Therefore, I have proven that the Colonists should be held accountable for the first shot that fired on April, 19th 1775. Based on information documented prior to the first shot of the revolutionary war, The colonists were proven to be the angriest between the two groups. They had a reason to fire at the British first. On the other hand though, the British weren 't. They were proven to not have as much enterprise to defeat the Colonists. They were fighting only to defend themselves.

Overall, I think that the colonists needed to make a stand for themselves and successfully did. The colonists came up with a plan to disguise themselves as British soldiers. Then on December 16, 1773 they would go onto the Dartmouth, Eleanor and the Beaver to dump the 342 crates of tea into the water. The Sons of liberty were the colonist group that decided a change was needed and created this plan.