The Road to Freedom

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The American Revolution has shaped the history of the entire world, ever since it occurred in the 1700s. It is the story of the formation of one of the most powerful nations mankind has ever known. The title "American Revolution" holds within it the ideas of "freedom from oppression", "self-determination", and "freedom of expression". It also entails many other very powerful ideas that stir in a humans soul feeling of pride, honor, and a willingness to fight for what one feels is right. It is also the tale of a colony, a new land, and of people learning to live in this new land, as they yearn for fairness and freedom from a government and country that ruled them from afar. They struggled amongst themselves, as they searched their hearts for the proper responses to actions put against them, which they often saw as oppressive, hurtful, and eventually vengeful. The reactions of these people, when put together, add up to a Revolution. However, these great strides, in the advancement of freedom, were indeed made up of just a few small steps. They were just a few decisions made by the motherland, England, which in turn caused reactions from the American colonists, who served to set the stage for this Revolution of the ages. These small political and social maneuvers gained strength as they were tossed back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, until finally the first drop of blood was shed in Boston, at the now infamous Boston Massacre. The war that followed is the known as the Revolutionary War. However, it was only the small powers of the Sugar, Stamp, Townsend and Intolerable Acts, which began as a way of repayment to the debt from the Indian and French Wars, that later became a way of taxation on the colonies. As the colonists began to get comfortable with their new land, learning their strengths, and finding their voices, they began to highlight their thoughts and feelings. These assertions of power were met with increasing demands from England, which started as a movement for fairness, equality, and representation. It then quickly turned into a movement geared towards independence and was really pushing the first steps toward the road to freedom in America. Exploring the escalations that occurred between the two lands, in order to show how such seemingly simple political decisions can lead to immense changes to the history of far-flung lands. The long awaited ending of The French Indian War was in the year 1763. While the colonists were busy celebrating with both the ending of the war and British pride, King George III and the English Parliament were busy planning and passing new laws set to repay the war debt. This act would ultimately cause the colonists to pay taxes on certain, yet desperately needed, items. On April 5, 1764, the newly revised Sugar Act was passed. This was a revision of the 1733 Sugar Act that placed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses in order to make the English product cheaper than those imported from the French West Indies. The new tax would cause the colonists to pay more taxes on items such as coffee, sugar, molasses and certain wines. While only affecting a small portion of the colonists, it was one of the first icebreakers of the American Revolution. Tension had begun arise between the colonies and the British. The passing of the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 only added to the hostility building between them. The new act would impose a mandatory tax to be placed on all paper products including: newspapers, letters, legal documents, permits, wills, contracts, all the way down to simple playing cards. The colonists met the law with great resistance and it was never fully effective. In fact, very few tax collectors were willing to take the risk of collecting taxes from the angry colonists by this point in the Revolution. Just shy of a year later, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act on March 18, 1766. Even after being repealed colonists were still angry. Many began to call themselves Patriots...
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