This is on pp. 94-95 of your book. 1. What kinds of taxes did colonists pay according to Franklin? What did the interviewer seem to think of the colonists' tax burden? What disagreements existed between Franklin and his interviewer on the purpose, legality, and feasibility of the stamp tax. According to Benjamin Franklin, colonists pay taxes for all kinds of things. This included property, polls, offices, professions, trades, businesses, alcoholic beverages, slavery, and more. The interviewer seemed to believe that the colonists’ tax burden was moderate and justified. He implied the former when he asked if the colonists could not afford to pay the taxes, and he stressed the latter when he asked if colonists deserved protection from Great Britain without payment. There are a number of disagreements between Franklin and his interviewer regarding the Stamp Act. The interviewer believes that colonies can afford to pay the tax, while Franklin argues otherwise. The interviewer argues that the purpose of the tax on stamps was to repay the country for its protection of the colonies, but Franklin argues that they already repaid this debt by spending many millions on raising, clothing, and paying nearly 25,000 men during the last war. The interviewer states that the Stamp Act is legal because of recent resolutions that assert the right of …show more content…
However, when he is later asked if anything less than military force would carry the Stamp Act into execution, he replies that not even a military force could accomplish such a feat. He explains that if an army was sent into America, but found no enemies to battle with, they would be powerless to do anything other than starting a rebellion. He says that they cannot force a man to buy stamps if he chooses not to make use of them, for there exists no power great enough to change the opinion of a man by
Were the colonists fighting for liberty, equality, and democracy? Explain. Were the colonists justified in their rebellion against England? If you had been there, would you have sided with the colonial elite or with the radicals? Why?
Soame Jenyns, a member of the British Parliament from 1741 to 1780, wrote a pamphlet called “The Objections to the taxation consider’d” in 1765 in which he defended the Parliament’s right to tax the American colonies. Jenyns is clearly writing this to the colonists to read, almost seemly in a mocking way, as stated in the very first paragraph, “…who have ears but no understanding…” He then goes on to bring up three key points that the colonists have given as reasons not to be taxed by the
The author takes into the humanitarian aspect of revolution in prospect; he talks about how Americans wanted to be equal to Englishmen in respect to being represented in the House of Parliament. The "Stamp Act" is what the thoughts of the author are revolving around. Morgan associated the "Stamp Act" with what he believes Americans have reached before anyone else in the world which is "human equality." They have done so by denying that new taxes and tariffs...
Things in Jamestown were good. The people were fed, cared for, and happy. They created their own working government order, but, in a place where everything seems perfect, there is always one man to disagree. In this case, his name was Nathaniel Bacon.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
It was said, and is very true, that the British gave a lot to the colonists and we see such helpings as in the French and Indian war. The British gave up a lot of troops and money and numerous others in fighting that war, that the least that the colonist could do is to pay the taxes. Well they do have a good right to say that since they were the contributing factor in the colonists being safe from the French and Indians. The people, in the end should go about daily lives and pay the normal taxes, but you do have to draw the line somewhere. (DCT 1)
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers to the United States, was not a patriot but a mere loyalist to England before the dissolution between England and the colonies occurred. Sheila L. Skemp's The Making of a Patriot explores how Benjamin Franklin tried to stay loyal to the crown while taking interest in the colonies perception and their own representation in Parliament. While Ms. Skemp alludes to Franklin's loyalty, her main illustration is how the attack by Alexander Wedderburn during the Privy Council led to Franklin's disillusionment with the British crown and the greater interest in making the Thirteen Colonies their own nation. Her analysis of Franklin's history in Parliament and what occurred on the night that the council convened proves the change behind Franklin's beliefs and what lead to his involvement in the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin was the colonial agent representing Massachusetts in Parliament in Britain.
The way that they paid there taxes is by buying a stamp for a silver coin, in this time silver coins were scarce in the colonies. This caused tension for the colonies leaders because they were being taxed without consent by the parliament. Then in October 1765, they sent the colonies representatives to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City. The representatives then went to the king to demand a petition protesting the stamp act. They later organized a boycott on buying any British goods.The protests were peaceful some of the Sons of Liberty burned the stamped paper whenever they could find it. They also attacked customs officials and covered with hot tar and feathers
The American Revolution was caused by a series of attempts from the British to tax American colonists. After a war against France, Britain ruled an enormous overseas empire. Britain however faced war debt and was in need of money to administer the overseas empire. The crown decided that since the colonists were the primary beneficiaries of this empire, it was time to have them contribute to the empire’s revenue by paying taxes.
After the French and Indian War, the British government decided to make the American colonies pay a large share of the war debt with new taxes that they issued. The English ...
To start, the Stamp Act was a tax on the American colonies by the British Parliament. This act was formed in order to raise revenue to pay the costs of governing and protecting the American colonies. This act was supported by Britain’s Chancellor of the treasury department, George Greenville. Paul Gilje points out that, “Since Great Britain had accumulated a debt over £135 million the British first minister, George Greenville, thought it only appropriate that the colonies contribute to their own defense. Maintaining an army in North America would cost about £200,000 per year” (Gilje, Paul A). This act required stamps to be put on all legal and commercial documents such as licenses, liquor permits, newspapers, almanacs, advertisements, papers that were issued in the colonies and various articles like dice and playing cards. Colonists could not participate in any business without the stamped paper. Gilje also explains that, “Anyone interested in any transaction—whether it was buying a ...
After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 the American people had taxes placed on them by the British. The British Parliament claimed that by placing the taxes they were defending the colonies for the Americans. During the twelve years following the war, the British enacted a numerous amount of taxes that allowed them to raise revenue from the American economy. This taxing of the American people hurt the American economy and started to push the American colonists toward an independence movement so they could have a free economy. Over the course of the twelve-year period there were six acts enacted to take money from the American economy.
The most fundamental reason for the American Revolution was the colonist’s outrage over taxation which led to a tax revolt launched by people who were tired of the burden of paying unfair taxes. The king placed taxes known as Townsend Acts, on the colonist’s tea, paper, paint, lead, glass, and many other items that were used daily and the colonists were against this taxing. The purpose of the Townsend Acts was to help pay the cost of government in America. Lawyer James Otis and other colonist rebels referred to King George as a tyrant. As stated by James Otis in The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1763), . . . “The very act of taxing exercised over those who are not represented appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and if continued seems to be in effect and entire
...ned Stamp Act he stated that he, “never saw one of those Stamps” and that he was “certain I never paid a penny for one of them”. So with so much attention being paid to Thomas Paine and his “Common sense” and John Hancock’s larger than life signature, what was the reason for our revolution? While that question may never be answered, there are always the eternal words of Levi Preston, “what we meant in going in for those redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always mean to. That didn’t mean we should”
So the government decided to place taxes in. The Stamp Act was taxes, the Stamp Act it states, “Right and Power to lay Taxes and Impositions upon the inhabitants of this Colony.” It was hard for the merchant to trade because they had to pay taxes to people. In Zinn it said that merchants helped start a protest against the stamp act, “A political group in Boston called the Loyal Nine-merchants, distillers, shipowners, and master craftsmen who opposed the Stamp Act-organized a procession in August 1765 to protest it.” This shows that they didn’t like being tax. In “We are equally Free,” in said “Two years earlier, some merchants had organized boycotts against certain products imported from Great Britain (a strategy known as nonimportation) to resist British taxation measures aimed at the rebellious Americans.” As shown by this tried to protest