American Revolution and Northern Southern Settlements in America ( 1600s-1700s - Essay Example

Topic Examine the Reasons for the American Revolution There were many reasons for the American Revolution, not just one. After the French and Indian War, Britain was in desperate need of revenue to build its empire, and the King decreed that the colonies should be the primary source. A series of laws placed taxes on various goods and services beginning in 1763. First came the Sugar Act, which made importing rum illegal and put a tax on “luxury items” such as silks, wines, and coffee. Other acts such as the Currency Act, which made paper money unusable as “legal tender”, and the Quartering Act, which required the colonists to find places for British troops in their homes, were passed in 1764 and 1765 (Hamby 29).

Finally in 1765, the Stamp Act was passed, that required all printed materials in the colonies to have a revenue stamp on them, which would provide money to “secure, protect, and defend” the colonies. Though these laws were eventually repealed and replaced with the Townshend Acts in 1767, which placed taxes on goods that were imported to the colonies, the damage was done to relations between Britain and the colonies. Things continued to get worse for both sides. On December 16, 1773, men dressed as Mohawk Indians entered Boston Harbor and dumped all of the tea cargo on three ships.

This was done in response to Britain allowing the East India Tea Company to not only gain a monopoly on tea, but also to bypass colonial wholesalers (Hamby 58). To retaliate and show their authority over the colonies, Britain passed the Coercive, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other things, closed Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for, along with rendering most local decision-making bodies ineffective and requiring the governor to approve town meetings before they could be held. When the colonies did not quietly accept the taxes, more and more British troops were sent to the colonies.

On March 5, 1770, a group of colonists threw snowballs at British soldiers, resulting in them firing into the crowd. Three colonists were killed, and the event was dubbed the “Boston Massacre”. All of these events came to a climax on April 19, 1775, when a detail of British soldiers, on their way to Concord, Massachusetts, faced a detail of 77 minutemen, or colonial soldiers, at Lexington. After being warned, the minutemen began to leave, but were fired upon by the British. When the smoke cleared, both sides had lost men, and the American Revolution had begun with, as Ralph Waldo Emerson quoted a century later, “the shot heard ‘round the world!

” The issues that contributed to the American Revolution were many – some involved the use of force, and some did not. Combined, they excited the colonists to push for their freedom from Britain. As John Adams said in 1818, “The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people.” Discuss the differences between colonial northern and southern settlements in the New World America (Timeframe 1600s-Late 1700s) Between the early 1600’s and the late 1700’s, when the colonies won their freedom, many changes took place in the colonies themselves.

Originally begun as places of religious freedom, when more and more immigrants poured in, more and more industries and different ways of life to accommodate them came into existence. Regional differences came as well, and soon the northern settlements and the southern settlements were sharing different ways of life in regards to industry and education. The northern colonies had been founded as a place of religious freedom, though the Puritan religion was still very much practiced by most settlers.

The climate was generally cold and windy, especially during the winter months, and did not encourage the growth of large amounts crops. However, other resources could easily be found, and therefore most of the people of northern settlements had businesses, or at least trades. There were plenty of resources that did not involve agriculture in the north. Large forests gave wood for shipbuilding, and many small waterways allowed colonists to build lumber mills and grain mills. Being close to the sea, harbors could be built, and trade and commerce could prosper.

The water also provided fish, another trade and food source for northern colonists. In the northern settlements, towns soon came into existence around the harbors that provided commerce and trade, as well as work, for the colonists. Children generally went to the village school for instruction, and shared use of woodlots and pastures helped towns to grow small amounts of crops. Towns also established common meeting places such as the village hall and churches for religious worship. Far different were the southern colonies, where agriculture flourished as a way of life.

The climate was warmer, the seasons longer, and crops could be grown in a soil that, unlike the North, was fertile and deep, not thin and filled with rocks. Jamestown, Virginia, founder John Smith in 1607 said, “Heaven and Earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation”. Tobacco was discovered as a cash crop in 1640 in that same settlement, and the tradition continued in South. Crops such as rice, tobacco, and indigo were grown (Hamby 26). Plantations came into existence, and the large tracts of land were worked by slaves and indentured servants from Europe.

Schooling and education in the southern settlements was also different that in the northern settlements. Because the southern settlements were so far apart in location, one house of instruction was not only impractical, but sometimes impossible. Instead, tutors were brought in from locations in Europe such as Ireland or Scotland, and children were taught at home, or in small groups from surrounding plantations. In some cases, children were sent back to England to be educated at formal schools (Hamby 28).

Unlike the formal schools of the northern settlements, the south, while taking education seriously, looked for different ways to provide it – for example, backwater settlements of the frontier worked hard to attract learned ministers that could provide reading and writing instruction to the settlers (Hamby 28). Both the northern and southern colonies were dependent on each other, regardless of differences. The northern settlements sold the products that were produced by southern settlements, and without the northern settlements, the southern settlements would have had no money to keep producing.

Yet despite all of their differences, the settlements soon united for another historical event – the American Revolution. Source for both questions: Hamby, Alonzo L. United States. Outline of U.S. History. Washington, D.C.: US Department of State, 2005. Web. 17 Feb 2011. .