Portfolio: Essay #2

Rhode Island Patriot
The most freedom I have ever felt has been brought to me through Rhode Island. In 1663, a charter was passed saying that we have total freedom from the colonies established around us. When the charter was passed, I was most thrilled and would do anything to support my freedom and the freedom of Rhode Island. I came here to escape the religious oppression and unruly acts forced upon me from our fellow colonies. They would not let the colonists and I practice our faith the way we wished. They tried to rule our lives the way Britain dictates us with their unjust laws. The freedom of Rhode Island has made me a proud patriot and I feel most grateful to live in such a colony as this. "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country"(Nathan Hale). We tried to fight with words instead of violence, but they didn’t want to stop their tyranny. Now is my time to fight with action for my beloved country against the unjust laws and taxes that effect the trade we use to survive. I have lived in the successful colony of Rhode Island for many years, and we don’t need the tyrannical acts such as taxes, and laws forced on us by Great Britain with our pleas for help being disregarded.

Since the time I first came to the wonderful colony of Rhode Island we prospered tremendously in our trade, which led us to our great economy. Newport is the focal point of our trading in Rhode Island, and is one of the most important seaports in all of the colonies (Doak 56). Once Great Britain found out about our prosperous trade, they wanted to seize our wealth and pay off the debts they had accumulated over the years of previous wars with the French. “At the end of the wars, England owed a lot of money for all of the soldiers, weapons, and forts that they had used. To raise money, England decided to tax the colonists for sugar, paper, and tea” (Whitehurst 17). My anger grew when thinking that Great Britain was taking our wealth to payoff their debts, when we have our own debts to settle. “[T]he colonists were already paying taxes to cover their own war debts and run the colonies. A lot of them thought paying twice wasn’t one bit fair” (Schanzer 18). Rhode Island is a small colony and we depend on trade to survive. Farming and trade are our most important economic sources of income. The main port in Newport was blockaded by British ships, and this effected our economy for the worse. “Newport was especially hard - hit. Beginning in June 1775, a British blockade of the port caused Newport residents serious problems. During the blockade, British ships stopped food supplies from entering the port” (Doak 94). These fierce taxes on our trade hurt us instead of help us, so we have to help ourselves. They forced many of my fellow colonists out of Newport, and they took over our trade center. Their taxes are not made with the well-being of Rhode Island as their thought, but rather greedy thoughts of their prosperity.

The King of England and Parliament hurt our colony through their unjust laws and taxations. Great Britain began to pass laws around 1650, and that was the beginning of British attempts to gain our wealth. “Great Britain passed the first of a number of laws that became known as the Navigation Acts. These laws were created mainly to protect British trade. However, the Navigation Acts hurt Rhode Island’s economy” (Doak 41). These laws put limits on the types of goods that we could make and sell. The laws state “[T]hat no goods grown or manufactured in Asia, Africa, or America should be transported to England except in English vessels, and that the goods of any European country imported into England must be brought in British vessels, or in vessels of the country producing them” (The Navigation Acts). The second law states that “This act forbade the importing into or the exporting from the British colonies of any goods except in English or colonial ships and it forbade certain enumerated articles--tobacco, sugar, cotton, wool, dyeing woods, etc.--to be shipped to any country, except to England or some English plantation.” (The Navigation Acts). We tried to put up with the taxes, but they only hurt us, so we had others smuggle the goods in and out of our port. This is the only choice we had to survive. Our economy is suffering more and more as the taxes from England keep coming, and they will only get worse if we don’t stop them.

The King of England does not respond to our cries for mercy, and the only choice they give us is to fight back to protect our welfare. We, Rhode Island and the colonies around us sent delegates to Philadelphia to develop a plan of stopping this nonsense. We made many attempts to stop their terror upon us by attempting to contact the King and Parliament. The delegates wrote to King George III pleading for mercy, but the King kept his attacks on our economy coming. “They wrote to King George III of Great Britain, offering to make a deal. The colonists would stop fighting if the British government met their demands for lower taxes and less meddling in colonial government” (Stefoff 18). We as patriots only want freedom from the British attacks. We make attempt after attempt to stop the taxes without violence. We sent many letters such as the Olive Branch Petition to the King of England asking to revoke the taxes and unjust laws placed upon us, and to treat us as more than slaves under the British Parliament. “We, therefore, beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and influence may be graciously interposed to procure us relief from our afflicting fears and jealousies, occasioned by the system before mentioned, and to settle peace through every part of your dominions” (Olive Branch Petition). The King never took into mind any of the letters we wrote to him, and he never even looked at the Olive Branch Petition. We are falling apart because England is trying to rule over us, instead of next to us. We have rights, and in order to protect them we must fight, so we have to take up arms.
“In our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it -- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before” (Taking up Arms)
It is time to take a stand for the independence of Rhode Island.

England was my “mother country” before she placed us under her like slaves. Our patient letters to the King didn’t stop their abuse. England greedily forced taxes upon us, and unjustly placed laws against us. These minor inconveniences for England are major threats on the economy of Rhode Island. They are simply asking for us to fight back. Our independence is at stake, and England is not going to take that from us. I am a proud patriot from Rhode Island, and I will do whatever it takes to keep my freedom and the freedom of the colonies of America.

Citations:
Doak, Robin. Life in the Thirteen Colonies: Rhode Island. Canada: Children's Press, a division of Scholastic Inc., 2004.

Whitehurst, Susan. The Colony of Rhode Island. First. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2000.

Schanzer, Rosalyn. George vs. George: The American Revolution as seen from both sides. Belgium: National Geographic Society, 2004.

Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - July 15, 1663

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, Now Met in Congress at Philadelphia, Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms.

Journals of the Continental Congress - Petition to the King; July 8, 1775

The Navigation Acts http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/book/chap10_6.html