The American Revolution

 

  “Give me liberty, or give me death.” The famous words spoken in Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech not only showed how he felt but also how the American people felt about the Revolution. This revolution takes place in the late 1700’s between America and Britain. America’s Declaration of Independence really got Britain to pay attention to the colonies that they had been unjust and tyrannical to. America was right to rebel against the monarch of Great Britain because Britain was taxing the colonists unjustly, British troops were being allowed to stay in the colonists’ homes against the will of the colonists, and they had eventually reached the point of no return.

     The Providence Gazette Extraordinary states, “Resolved that his majesty’s liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain.” This quote shows us that the colonists wanted the same freedoms that the people of Britain had. But this was not so. The King had imposed taxes on the colonists. The colonists were pushed to revolt against the monarchy by all the unnecessary taxes that were placed on them. The taxes kept them from being able to buy goods without having to pay extra. The colonists were taxed on sugar, tea and their postage stamps. It was bad enough that they were being taxed but to make matters worse they were not being represented by the British in Parliament. They had no say. As the Providence Gazette Extraordinary puts it again, “Resolved that it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no tax be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally or by their representatives.” The taxes made the colonists want desperately to break away from the king and the Parliament.

     An additional concern that made the colonists want to break from the king was that the British soldiers were being allowed to stay in the houses of the colonists. The soldiers were also mistreating the colonists. This restricted the colonists again. They now had to feed more people and these extra unwelcome guests were not being kind in return. To make things even more desperate, Britain was not supporting the colonists or the soldiers as much as they should have, making the colonists have to fight for themselves.

     After a while, the colonists had reached the point of no return. They had to do or die. The Boston Massacre sparked the Revolution a little and led to the Declaration of Independence. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Gentlemen, we must all hang together or else we will all hang separately.” The Declaration was the pivot of the Revolution. The colonists now had something on which to base their actions. But something that motivated the colonists to revolt even more, was that they needed and wanted freedom. They wanted their children to grow up in a free world.

      The American colonists really labored and toiled to bring about the Revolution.  Finally, they were rewarded by seeing their children grow up in a more free world. It was not easy, but there were many things that led up to the Rebellion, like being taxed unjustly, enemy troops staying in their houses, and the American people had eventually reached the point of no return. We all can learn something good from the story of the Revolution, like to fight for a fair deal. And we all should care about the Revolution because it is the story of America! It is not a fairy tale. It is a non-fictional story and it actually happened.

Benjamin Franklin

             Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant man who hatched genius ideas that were crucial to the founding of America. He was an excellent statesman as well as an author and an inventor.

           

            Benjamin Franklin was a great statesman. At an early age he was reading great books and reading of the great philosophers like Plato. This helped him think and feel about things in a whole new way, which made him a good statesman. He represented the colonies in Britain when the colonies were not happy with the way they were being treated by parliament. Franklin was one of the five who drafted the Declaration of Independence, the document that we still base our government on today. Benjamin Franklin was an emissary or an ambassador to the French for about ten years. The French were intrigued by this man’s fur cap that he always wore. The cap made the French look at the American people as so very rustic.

            Benjamin Franklin was a great author. When he worked for his older brother as an apprentice in a printing shop he anonymously published the famous Silence Dogood letters. The letters ended up putting Ben’s brother in jail for publishing such controversial material. After learning the printing trade, he ran away to Pennsylvania hoping to work as a printer and live there. His apprenticeship really helped him get a steady living progressing. Perhaps his most well known work is the Poor Richard’s Almanack. The Almanack is full of phrases meant to help the human character such as “a penny saved is two pence dear.”

            Benjamin was an inventor. He invented the bifocal glasses, the urinary catheter, the Franklin stove, and much more. He thought he had discovered electricity, but he learned, much to his disappointment, that some guy in Russia discovered it first. Franklin flew his kite in the middle of a storm with a key attached to it and performed many other experiments like this to gain knowledge of electricity. When he invented things, they were’ not silly things like the Snuggie blankets. They were things that the people needed and also that he needed. Listening to people is a good quality.

             Franklin was perhaps the foremost important founding father. He was a great statesman as well as an author and an inventor. He served his country well for as long as he could. He was born January 17, 1706 and died April 17 1790.