How The Role Of The Colonists Changed Colonial Society

As the British colonies in North America achieved economic prosperity and an essential place in the empire, confident colonists assumed this importance would also transfer into the political sphere of their lives. However, Parliament and the British government did not see the colonists as political equals, but as political subjects. As British-imposed mandates unexpectedly changed colonial life, colonists revolted to create change that favored their vision for the colonies. However, as Parliament implemented more reforms and colonists’ revolts became more severe, their views of the colonists’ political identity and what the colonists’ rights were diverged to create a serious conflict and, eventually, a revolution.
Tensions between British Americans

Although put into effect only a year after the less-contested Sugar and Currency Acts, Parliament received more significant pushback on the passage of this tax when colonists formed the Stamp Act Congress in October of the same year. At the Stamp Act Congress, delegates expressed frustration about another tax levied by Parliament and stated, “it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes should be imposed on [the people], but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives.” This reaction to the tax was the most active resistance colonists expressed to Parliament, but this also showed the deepening divide between how colonists’ view of their rights and Parliament’s view of the colonists’ rights. Colonists started viewing Parliament’s taxes as an infringement upon the rights entitled to them as British subjects, yet the lack of revolt against the Sugar and Currency Acts showed Parliament could justify taxes levied against the colonists without their consent. To placate the colonists, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March of 1766 but reminded colonists of the sovereignty they held over and ability to tax them with the simultaneous passage of the Declaratory Act. Colonists felt elated and empowered because of their success in achieving the Stamp Act’s repeal. They believed they fought against taxation without their consent, yet the Declaratory Act quickly reminded colonists that they held little political power in the empire. The act was a turning point in the ever-growing division between Parliament and the British American colonies. Parliament saw a need to reassert their authority across the Atlantic where recent successes with rebellions planted political confidence and a colonial political identity began taking