The Unity and Identity of the Us Colonies

1006 Words5 Pages
Under the control of England, the colonists experienced their fair share of ups and downs from the year 1750 until 1776. Oppression from the British was an important issue that the colonists felt needed to be addressed with action. By the eve of the Revolution, the colonists had established their own identity which led to them uniting in opposition to the British. It was important that the colonists established an identity for themselves because it set them apart from the controlling Britons. In his notes for speech in parliament on February 3, 1766, Edmund Burke elaborated on how the colonies were too different from the country of Great Britain and that they could not blend in with the mass. The evident differences between the English and the colonists were what American identity was built upon. Crevecoeur got technical in his Letters from an American Farmer by stating that Americans were different genetically. He mentioned that one who was mixed in blood was American and that they lived a different life than that of their passed in Europe. Hector St. John Crevecoeur strongly argued that the colonists emerged towards creating their identity through the molding together of a melting pot. After the French and Indian War, the colonists realized that they were much different than the British. Written law was preferred by the colonists over “word of law” which the people of Great Britain were fond of. The group of colonists in America who opposed the British referred to themselves as the “Patriots”. The colonists also abolished primogeniture and entail which pulled them further and further away from their mother country’s ways. The colonists shed the values that had been instilled in them by their mother country and began living life in a unique way that defined them. Once the colonists accepted their identity, a sense of unity was brought about. On the
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