Justification to Rebel

Justification to Rebel

In the mid eighteenth century colonist of the new world started to rebel against Britain. Living in the colonies cost Britain a great deal of money Colonist did not like that they were being taxed. There were several acts passed that angered the colonists. For example, the Stamp Act, the Stamp Act was passed in 1765 taxed all legal documents including newspapers and other printed materials. The Stamp Act affected all that bought printed materials and it did not affect the poor because it was not too expensive. The colonist started to rebel and boycotted “No taxation without representation.” The colonists rebelled in many ways one of them was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773 as an act of revolt colonists threw tea cargo of a ship into the ocean. These acts of Britain towards the new colonies caused colonist to revolve and declare war to separate from Britain. The colonists were not justified to going to war to break away from Britain because England was paying more taxes and the mother country deserved absolute respect; however, the colonists were justified to break away from Britain because they were taxed without representation.

It is important to realize that not only did the colonist pay taxes, but the British payed more. According to the chart in Document 2, the British payed more than the triple of what the colonists were paying for taxes. The colonists should have not rebelled to go to war if they were only paying a small percentage of taxes compared to the people in England. New England was being protected by Great Britain and colonists needed to pay a small tax to help with the cost of the protection as said in Document 1, “The nation [had] run itself into an immense debt to give them this protection; and now they are called upon to contribute a small share to the public expense.” If the colonist were getting protected with a pay of little tax, there was no need for war because taxation was too high.

In addition, England had not recovered from the war and needed the money to continue with the protection for both New England and England. The money that they were paying England was in for the benefit of the colonists too not just England. As said by Thomas Whatley, “… they should contribute to the Preservation of the Advantages they have received.” The colonists’ contributions were far more in their own good than England’s. If England was taking so little taxation compared to their taxation, then it was just to help protect the colonists.

Another reason why colonists were not justified to break away from Britain was because the mother country deserved absolute respect. Great Britain did not care about the colonies they only cared about its territory. The colonies were not bothered they were left alone as said by the Queen of Notes, “Britain was more concerned about defending British territories that the colonies were left alone to governor themselves.” The colonist should have respected the mother country because it was doing what was best for them.

Given that, the