Declaration Of Independence DBQ

In the two decades prior to the Revolution, the Americans built up a series of grievances against the British government. Those complaints were clearly articulated in the Declaration of Independence. The colonists did this to prove to every other country in the worlds that their reason for war was justified. It is also important to keep in mind that when Thomas Jefferson wrote this, he did not mean for it to be a historical text, he wrote it as a persuasive essay to gain support from other European countries. So the fact that some of the grievances listed may be fabricated or altercated, is only natural if you want to gain allies, and make your parent country look bad. The colonists didn 't want to quietly separate form the British; they wanted …show more content…
We can clearly see this statement is a valid grievance, because if we examine the numerical statistics of imports and exports of Britain in the years of 1763-1775, we can clearly see a disturbing pattern. In Britain 's trade with the colonies the colonists received about ¼ of what they exported, back in imports (Document B). This unbalance is a big gap that identifies the underlying issue of monopolization, which the British had over the colonies. The Colonists couldn 't possibly have traded with any other country anyways because they had no money. The Grievance in the Declaration of independence that addresses international trade is in fact a valid …show more content…
Examples of these taxes include: the Sugar Act (1764), the Currency Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshed acts (1766), and the Tea Act (1773). These Acts along with others laid the foundation for unrest and high tension within the colonies, towards Britain. Benjamin Franklin outlined the specifics of the taxation of the colonists, before the House of Commons, with his statement, "An External Tax is a duty laid on the commodities imported…, if the people don 't like it, they can refuse it, and are not obliged to pay. But an internal tax is one forced from the people without their consent" (document C). Ben Franklin being an intellectual himself could have provided an educated and relatively impartial statement. Britain mainly used internal taxes to extract wealth form the colonists, and thus seemed more unjust, as the whole process was by way of force. This created further resentment within the colonies and was a major cause of the American Revolution. The Grievance that discusses the taxation of the colonists, by the British was very much a valid