To What Extent Had the Colonists Developed a Sense of Their Identity and Unity as Americans by the Eve of the Revolution? Use Documents and Your Knowledge of the Period 1750 to 1776 to Answer the Question.

By the eve of the revolution, predominately between 1750 to 1776, the colonists struggled to develop a sense of identity and unity. Parliament began making laws that the colonists did not agree with. In order for the colonists to live how they wanted, they had to make changes; they had to break away from their “Mother Country.”

Seen in the illustration in Document A, propagandists predicted the outcome of the revolution about 20 years before the actual event. “Join or Die” expressed the overwhelming need of unification between the colonists.

Passing regulations such as the Sugar Act, Stamp Act Intolerable Act and the Townshend Act was an inter-colonial grievance against Parliament. The colonies began boycotting and protesting British goods. To protest the Tea Act a group of whites got together, dressed as Indians and dumped chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. (Boston Tea Party). Parliament shut down the Boston Harbor until damages were paid for. The news spread to other colonies from Connecticut to South Carolina. They donated goods such as “ a small flock of sheep, 40 bushels of grain…Ј2000 and a ship load of rice.” (Document G) Not only did the colonists exemplify unity with the “Donations for the Relief of Boston,” but also with the organization of the Albany Congress, the Stamp Act Congress and the Continental Congress.

Creating an identity was a greater challenge the colonist encountered. “What then is the American,” John Crevecoeur states in Document H. Edmund Burke states the pertinent problem that the colonists was governed in the same way of the English. He believed the British Empire was superior to any other and that made them stand out as a whole. (Document B) The Americans saw themselves totally different. They believed they were different from other people not because of supremacy but by diversity. “ I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman…He is an American.” (Document H).

Even though various colonies identified themselves as Americans