American Revolution: A Serious Crime
When thinking about the American Revolution, many people don’t realize that at the time the colonist were British citizens, and by helping the revolution they were committing treason. Treason is a serious crime that if convicted could result in life in prison or even death. In order to convince people that the revolution was important enough to risk so much, it took very skilled writers. To get people to rally behind their cause revolutionaries targeted three emotions: fear, anger, and intellect.
On July 4, 1776 once the Deceleration of Independents was signed there was no turning back for the colonist. Whether they liked it or not European troops were flooding into soon to be America, ready to fight. Colonist would then be forced to quarter
these German troops. The revolutionaries used this common knowledge to their advantage by scaring people to rebelling. They claimed that they had already gone too far and the war would take place eventually, so might as well get it over with now, before Britain has the chance to get to many troops over to the colonies. Thomas Paine stated in “The Crisis” that families would have to sacrifice their food to soldiers even if that resulted in their own children going hungry. Soldiers would rape their children and wives. By placing these gruesome images in people’s minds writers were able to terrify the colonist to join the fight for freedom.
Paine was extremely Anti-British and he was not afraid to show in. in “The Crisis” he said that the king was as bad as a murderer, a highwayman or a common thief. Even Jefferson talked about all the crimes that the king had committed in the Declaration of Independents, including refusing to pass laws, and “obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners.” By making the colonist angry at the king and his tyranny more people were willing to fight.
When writing the Declaration of Independents, Thomas Jefferson chose to target people’s intellect rather than emotion. The founding fathers accomplished this by using reason rather that stirring up emotions. The Declaration of Independents was mainly just a document that stated why we were breaking away from the British Empire, including a long list of the wrongdoings of the king. Although it may seem like the target audience was the king, Jefferson was actually targeting the colonist. He didn’t really think it was necessary to let the king know why we were breaking away; they could honestly care less what they thought. By logically explaining what and why the revolutionists were doing what they were doing, they were able to convince people to fight for freedom.
In conclusion all three types of emotion targeted: fear, anger and intellect, were extremely effective and inevitably reached the original goal of convincing people to join the revolution. Without the pen work of revolutionaries like Paine, and Jefferson, the process that freed the colonies from Britain could have taken longer. Or perhaps American could still be under British rule. We may never know, but thanks to the revolutionaries we don’t have to worry about it.
On July 4, 1776 once the Deceleration of Independents was signed there was no turning back for the colonist. Whether they liked it or not European troops were flooding into soon to be America, ready to fight. Colonist would then be forced to quarter
these German troops. The revolutionaries used this common knowledge to their advantage by scaring people to rebelling. They claimed that they had already gone too far and the war would take place eventually, so might as well get it over with now, before Britain has the chance to get to many troops over to the colonies. Thomas Paine stated in “The Crisis” that families would have to sacrifice their food to soldiers even if that resulted in their own children going hungry. Soldiers would rape their children and wives. By placing these gruesome images in people’s minds writers were able to terrify the colonist to join the fight for freedom.
Paine was extremely Anti-British and he was not afraid to show in. in “The Crisis” he said that the king was as bad as a murderer, a highwayman or a common thief. Even Jefferson talked about all the crimes that the king had committed in the Declaration of Independents, including refusing to pass laws, and “obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners.” By making the colonist angry at the king and his tyranny more people were willing to fight.
When writing the Declaration of Independents, Thomas Jefferson chose to target people’s intellect rather than emotion. The founding fathers accomplished this by using reason rather that stirring up emotions. The Declaration of Independents was mainly just a document that stated why we were breaking away from the British Empire, including a long list of the wrongdoings of the king. Although it may seem like the target audience was the king, Jefferson was actually targeting the colonist. He didn’t really think it was necessary to let the king know why we were breaking away; they could honestly care less what they thought. By logically explaining what and why the revolutionists were doing what they were doing, they were able to convince people to fight for freedom.
In conclusion all three types of emotion targeted: fear, anger and intellect, were extremely effective and inevitably reached the original goal of convincing people to join the revolution. Without the pen work of revolutionaries like Paine, and Jefferson, the process that freed the colonies from Britain could have taken longer. Or perhaps American could still be under British rule. We may never know, but thanks to the revolutionaries we don’t have to worry about it.