Revolutionary War Patriots

Prior to the Revolutionary War, many American Colonists dealt with a conflicting issue of whether to remain loyal to the crown or join the Patriots in their fight for Independence. The colonists, most in the North, were taking the side of the patriots while others were not. The question was whether the colonists were being pragmatic or were they just being anti-liberty if they weren’t choosing a side. It is important to determine the reasoning behind why they would remain loyal or join the Patriot cause. Unaware of the eventual outcome of breaking away from the British government and if a war were to break out, colonists were afraid of opposing the British government. How would the new government be formed, would the new government be able
(Hewitt & Lawson, 2016) They were enforcing stricter laws. The British government created many new Acts that were placed on the colonies and colonists to keep down the smuggling and to impose harsh rules for commerce and trade. The British troops remained in the colonies to keep an eye on the colonists and they felt as though they were being intruded on. Uprisings and protests began and led to violence that prompted more support in the push for independence from Great Britain. There are many Acts and laws that were already in place and not sternly enforced. First, they enforced the Navigation Acts in the 1760s and then the Sugar Act in 1764, which was a tax on sugar, coffee, and luxury items protests started to escalate. The 1765 Stamp Act imposed a tax on paper goods, which was a direct tax on items that were already in the colonies not on imports or exports. This instigated tensions to build. The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766 but it had already done damage. This allowed for the colonists to see that their protests were becoming organized and successful. Groups of colonists who were opposed to Britain began to form. This included the infamous "Sons of Liberty". As the protests continued to grow and patriot groups were forming, British
Patriots at the time were fighting for their liberties as citizens. The laws and taxes that were being imposed on them without the colonies being properly represented in the parliament. Again, with the many articles that were being written at the time the most famous was "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. In Common Sense, Paine wrote about political freedom is the absence of supreme monarchy and that people should be able to represent themselves in government. (Paine, 1776) This sounded great and all however, many were opposed to the fact that they had always been under Great Britain rule and that a democratic government would not work. Many colonists lacked the political education. (Kim, 1993). They did not know how to establish laws and create a new government that would not be a monarchy. Many loyalists who were trying to convince the colonists that it was a bad idea and that they would just be giving up an already established government for one that would not be proven to be successful and could potentially be just another