Revolt against anticipated, rather than actual, tyranny

This is from a test I did in my senior year of high school. This particular item came from a review question that was at the end of the first quarter.

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Mac

AP US History

Monday, October 4, 1999

Throughout the events preceding and during the Revolutionary War, the cries of "no taxation without representation" stirred up popular sentiment and created a common cause for the divided colonies. Many Patriots aligned themselves with Patrick Henry and his "Give me Liberty or give me Death" speech; it was "Common Sense" to take off the shackles of tyrant King George III. Although the Founding Father’s and fellow Patriots were wanting to throw off the chains of the "absolute tyranny" of England and become free, the Americans were revolting against the tyranny they anticipated, rather than actual tyranny. The Americans had just as much representation as most of England, paid less taxes, had less interference than other British colonies, were the freest people in the world, and yet they still felt they were rebelling against tyranny.

The trouble between the British government and the Americans on the issue of representation was the misunderstanding of what representation meant. Most of the common people in England did not have the right to vote for representatives in the Parliament. They did, however still feel as though they were politically participating and that they were represented. Although not many people could vote for the members, the House of Commons and, to a lesser degree, the House of Lords were believed to represent everyone, even those in America. This became a problem when combined with the American belief about representation. The people in America were traditionally used to direct and equal representation. This contrast caused the Americans to believe that they were not being represented in the British government. They perceived representation to mean they had an equal voice in the legislature, which they did not, and therefore believed that they had no voice. Hence they felt they were being oppressed and under tyrannical authority when, in actuality, they had a greater voice than most of the people in the Mother country. Although there was no tyranny, this situation did have the possibility of opening up the Americas to tyranny from the British government.

The issue of taxation was closely related to the misunderstanding on representation. Because the Americans were used to not having to pay taxes to England (the very few tax laws that existed were usually ignored) when Parliament decided to actively tax their colonies they people revolted. The taxes themselves were not tyrannical. The Sugar Act was seen as worse than the previous Molasses Act (which no one revolted to) because it was in principal a taxing measure, not a way to regulate trade. The dreaded Stamp Act was already in place in England and it was a fair way to distribute the tax burden and could easily be collected. It was also a relatively low tax. The British government felt that because the colonies were British citizens, received British protection, and were British colonies they should share in the burden of paying for the government; the Americans disagreed. To the American the government was trying to take away the hard earned money. America was prosperous, the government wanted its portion (just as it receives its portion from all other industries and colonies), and this was the grounds for a battle. The colonists did not pay many taxes, yet they felt because they could not completely stop one tax, nothing could prevent an unlimited number of taxes from being forced upon them.

These misunderstandings between the Americans and the British caused the initial struggles between them. Not because they were under tyranny but because the Americans saw that they could be put in the chains of tyranny they revolted to the simplest measures of control the British put on them. Then, just as with humans, the Mother country started to react to the Child’s tantrums with more control. More control led to more rebellion, which led to more control. This cycle was broken with the "shots heard ‘round the world;" by then the damage was irrevocable and the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Bibliography

Garraty, Thomas. The American Nation. New York: Harper Collins publishers, 1995.
Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1952.
Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Vintage Books. 1993.
Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial. 1995