ABSTRACT
When the thirteen American colonies declared their independence on 4 July 1776 they argued that ‘all men are created equal’ and have ‘certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. The colonists argued that the ‘laws of nature’ entitled them to spell out to the British why they wanted to break from the empire. Chief among these natural laws were their rights as free men, which had been restricted by King George III’s government. The Americans claimed they were being made slaves by a tyrannous British establishment. The words of the Declaration of Independence and the high ideals they express echo down through history. Edmund Morgan asserts that on the road to independence the colonists discovered, ‘nothing more or less than the principle of human equality’.1
This principle did not, however, encompass the one in five Americans who were black slaves. Furthermore, in their founding document the Americans also accused King George of ‘cutting off our trade with all parts of the world’ and ‘imposing taxes on us without our consent’. The elucidation of economic grievances, the contradictions of freedom and slavery, and the close connection between ideals and economics have led some to assert that the real driving force behind the birth of the United States was economic self-interest. This essay seeks to briefly explore how historians have interpreted the
reasons behind the Americans’ decision to declare their independence from the British Empire. How genuine were the expressions of ideals by revolutionary leaders and where did these ideals originate? How important were trade and tax in the movement for independence? What changes were there in colonial society which stimulated the fissure with the mother country? When men spoke of liberty were they expressing the same ideal? How could such diverse colonies form a new nation? Before addressing these questions, let us first turn to a succinct narrative of the crucial events leading to independence in the period from 1763 to 1776.
