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. 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 and taxations. I have lived in the successfully independent colony of Rhode Island for many years, and we don’t need the tyrannical acts Great Britain is forcing on 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 only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country"(Nathan Hale). I am a proud patriot of Rhode Island and feel most grateful to live in such a colony as this.
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 join 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). Great Britain began to pass laws in around 1650, and that was just the beginning of our economical downfall. My anger grew when thinking that Great Britain was taking our wealth to payoff their debts, when we have our own debts to settle. “…the 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). 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. Rhode Island is a small colony and we depend on trade to survive. Farming and trade are our most important economical source of income. “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 “ …that 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 “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 he shipped to any country, except to England or some English plantation” (The Navigation Acts). We tried to put up with the laws, 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. Great Britain forces us to disobey Parliament’s laws. 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). They hurt us instead of help us, so we have to help ourselves. The only choice they gave us is to fight back to protect our well being.
The King of England and Parliament hurt our colony through their unjust laws and taxations. We made many attempts to stop their terror upon us by using words, but they never responded to our kindness. We, Rhode Island and the colonies around us sent delegates to Philadelphia to develop a plan of stopping this nonsense. The delegates wrote to King George III pleading for mercy, but the King kept his attacks 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 wanted freedom from the British attacks. We made 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. Taxes greedily forced upon us; laws unjustly placed. These minor inconveniences for England are major threats on the economy of Rhode Island. Our patient letters to the King didn’t stop what they wanted from us. 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 what ever it takes to keep my freedom and the freedom of the colonies of America.
Citations:
Books:
-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.
Primary Documents:
-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
(Olive Branch Petition)
-The Navigation Acts http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/book/chap10_6.html
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