ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three aspects of early United States history: American Revolution; slavery; drive for new territories. Britain and France, aided by their colonial allies, fought a major war in North America, in 1754-1763, known as the French and Indian War. It was followed by a series of contentions between Britain and the colonies, the main issue being payment of the debt incurred during the war. Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration contained a contrary statement, one that blamed “the British crown for the introduction of slavery into the American colonies and for the continuation of the slave trade.” Expansion, the drive for new lands is said to have been an important motive providing support for the American revolution, “western settlement” being especially salient for persons living in the interior. The western-lands question appeared again two decades later, in the 1783 settlement of the Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris.
