England's American Colonists example essay topic

In the first part of US History we learned about the hardships and conditions upon which the settlers came to settle in this country. We learned about how the poor fled to claim riches and escape poverty, the Irish fled from famine and, being of Catholic religion, escape their Protestant masters, and the criminal were sent to start a new life. America meant freedom to the fleeing Europeans. As Page Smith writes in his essay From the Beginnings, "Many of them shared some particular expectation, whether for spiritual or material betterment or, happily, both".

Most of all the new American Colonist searched for economic and social freedom. From the beginning, the European immigrants fled the British Isles because of religious persecution. A Puritan named Cromwell beheaded Charles I and took over the throne of England. The Royalist, who was the supporters of the executed king, fled to America and found refuge in Virginia and New York. When Charles II came back to reclaim the throne, those who were involved in the execution of Charles I fled to Puritan New England. Many others in the Isles made the travel for similar reasons.

The Irish left Ireland to escape their Protestant masters. Being that the Irish were of Catholic faith and there was a Protestant ruler of England at the time, the English looked down upon the Irish as if they were less than human. Travels to America meant freedom religious persecution and a sense of social sovereignty. Whether in the realm of social or economical freedom, of which America could accommodate all, life was not what most had expected. Once in America, if one was unable to pay for their travels they were sold as an indentured servant to repay the debt accrued for their travels. As we see in A Letter from an Indentured Servant in Virginia by Richard Fret horne, Colonists were made to wait on their masters or to work in the fields for their masters.

In many cases an indentured servant was killed by disease or starvation. Many watched as those around them around them died of terrible disease, Indian attacks, and starvation. If one made it to freedom, or one had repaid their debt, you were given clothes, tools, in some case, horses or cows. You were sent to make a life for yourself.

The Separatists, also known as the Puritan Separatists, made their colonies in New England around the Cape Cod area. They set up a society in which none were but the Separatists had freedom to worship. Faced with the dilemma of not having authorization by the British crown to settle this region and the fact that they were intolerable of other types of worship, the colonists were determined not to lose control of their colony. After finding a few sympathetic non-separatist strangers who shared the same ideas as the separatists, The Mayflower Compact, November 11, 1620, which allowed them to make all the colony's laws, was written and signed. The Compact read: .".. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and the Advancement of the Christian Faith and the honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant The first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; Do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant And combine ourselves together into a civil body politick...

Such just Equal laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet convenient for the general good of the Colony... ". This was the start of a sense of political freedom in the colonies. By the 1700's, England's American colonists thought of themselves as free individuals, because they possessed certain liberties as subjects of the English Empire.

One of the liberties was a representative government. In the colonies, adult males who met certain requirements were able to elect legislative assemblies, who alone had the right to tax their colonies residents. In truth, which the colonists were soon to find out, only the Parliament could levy taxes. Heavy import and export duties, or taxes, were pushed onto the colonies so that England could make money off of them. This outraged the colonists. The colonists argued that they were not rightfully represented in Parliament, a basic English right, guaranteed in the Magna Carta (American Colonies, Alan Taylor 277).

To this, the Parliament answered that the colonists were "virtually" represented. But the colonists persisted that is was not true representation. They considered taxation without representation a form of tyranny. This was the beginning of the American Revolution.

As Americans began to grow and endure the hardships one went through, they began to pull from the English rule and question what freedom they really possessed. For a century, the colonists had formed their own small societies and now they wanted to be their own nation. The Colonists no longer wanted to be under the rule of England, their taxes and duties. This was the point where all their efforts to get away from persecution, political restrictions, and religious restraints began. America was starting to form into the country that we live in today.