ancestry ulster
Why was there a revolutionary war when the colonists were same as the British themselves?
I mean the Americans at that time were of British origins right? so why fight, why disagree on something, i thought same ppl stick together and dont rebel, unless some Americans were of different ancestry that time like Ulster-Scots, Dutch etc but most i assume were English so why wud British go against British.
Actually, you’ve sort of hit on the very point, though oddly many miss it — it was BECAUSE the colonists regarded themselves AS Englishmen, with the RIGHTS of Englishmen, that they began to object to recent British policies.
Though there is something to the idea that these people “now thought of themselves as Americans”, their COMPLAINTS against the policies of Parliament and the King were mostly based (with good historic precedents) on the rights they had previously enjoyed as ENGLISHMEN, but which they believed were now being denied.
It is, in fact, true, that for MOST of the colonial period, until 1763 the British HAD allowed the colonies to handle most of their own affairs and problems, including defending themselves and taxing themselves. (Some key British leaders in Parliament pointed this out, but unsuccessfully.)
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The best way to get a clear understanding of this is to read the official statements made by their representatives. Some of this may be found in the Declaration of Independence (and in other STATE declarations around the same time). But perhaps even clearer is the document I’m about to quote from.
The SITUATION: Britain passed harsh measures (“Coercive Acts”, colonists called them “Intolerable Acts”) against Boston and Massachusetts and a sort of warning to the other colonies, in response to the Boston Tea Party (an act that was the result of the colonists attempts to BOYCOTT tea shipments which, though cheap, included a TAX they believed Parliament did not have the right to require).
The colonies then sent representatives to the “FIRST Continental Congress” to plan their response. This ended up including a planned COMPLETE boycott, as well as the following official “Declaration and Resolves” (October 1774) sent to the British government to lay out its complaints and ask them to rescind their recent acts against the colonies.
After listing the specific legislation they objected two, they began to summarize their REASONS for objecting, including the RIGHTS they believed were being denied to them.
“The good people of the several colonies. . . justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of parliament and administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet, and sit in general Congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties, may not be subverted: Whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their most serious consideration, the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first place, AS ENGLISHMEN, THEIR ANCESTORS IN LIKE CASES HAVE USUALLY DONE, FOR ASSERTING AND VINDICATING THEIR RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES, DECLARE,
That the inhabitants of the English colonies in North-America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following RIGHTS:
Resolved, N.C.D. 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty and property: and they have never ceded to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.
Resolved, N.C.D. 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these colonies, were at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural- born subjects, within the realm of England.
Resolved, N.C.D. 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy.
Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity. . . .
[followed by six more resolutions detailing specific grievances, that is, ways in which their rights, esp. their rights as ENGLISHMEN were being denied]
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/resolves.htm
In fact, these sorts of complaints based on asserting their rights as ENGLISHMEN or BRITISH subjects (or subjects to the King) is found in the earliest protests — the Declarations of Rights of the Stamp Act Congress, October 19, 1765 !
http://www.constitution.org/bcp/dor_sac.htm
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