Revolution: freedom fights

These were some of the causes of the American Revolution: The Boston Tea Party. The Sons of Liberty group dressed as a local Native American tribe and threw buckets of tea being shipped from the East India Tea company in Britain into the Boston harbor.

The Boston Massacre. A colonist taunted a British soldier on the streets of Boston. The soldier told him off, but the man kept on. Soon a riot began and groups formed. The British were warned not to fire upon the colonists, for they were not armed except for a few clubs. (Remember, this was the 1700s. Not a lot of guns.) A soldier fired upon anyway, therefore killing five, wounding three. That was marked as the first fight of the American Revolution.

The Coercive Acts (also called the Intolerable Acts. Self explanatory, but I’ll tell you anyway). The Intolerable acts consisted of: the Quartering Act (British soldiers were allowed to stay in people's homes as they pleased and the people had to do their bidding). Boston Harbor Act (officials closed the harbor because colonists were shipping tea in from other countries not Britain). There were other acts, but those were the most important ones.

Judging by this information, you can tell that it was hard. You can also tell that to go through all that they must have wanted their freedom a lot. Freedom, That's all they wanted, That's why they did all of that. That's why we're here in America right now, because of all of FREEDOM.

Haven’t you ever wondered if maybe, just maybe, that in the American Revolution, King George wasn’t the evil person you thought he was? Have you ever wondered, maybe there was a good side to King George? There are two sides to every story…

All right, let’s go back to the beginning. I mean before the Revolution. The French and Indian War wasn’t actually part of the Revolution, but it was part of how the Revolution began. But why was the French and Indian War (the Seven Year War) a thing? Well, it’s pretty simple. King George claimed the Native’s land, saying it’s his, then giving some to wealthy people who can pay for them and some back to the Natives, but the problem was, it wasn’t George’s to give. It actually was the Native’s land, but Sweden “claimed” it, but then Britain “claimed” it, so Britain got Sweden and the Natives on their bad side. But the French also was doing this. So they expanded and expanded until they met in Ohio River Valley. Fight, fight, fight, yada yada yada, but the British, after, had to pay a large debt to the Natives for borrowing the weapons, but, after that, the British gave more land to the Natives, and a fraction of that was the colonists’ land, and, well, the colonists didn’t take that too well because it was ‘their’ land. But in reality, it was just George giving some land back to the Natives who lived there. And then soon the taxes started. Sure, it was irresponsible to tax every single piece of sugar and molasses, but hey, the King needed money. And only really wealthy people used sugar and molasses, so most people were fine. Then came the Stamp act. Taxes against paper. Same deal, except now affecting everybody. Then, if that wasn’t enough, good old Charles Townshend said that we needed more taxes, and that led to taxes about lead, glass, paint, paper, and tea. Yeah. Not as cheap as you might think. Then the Boston Massacre, (Actually not King George’s fault, he did not know it was to happen, it was some random guy who yelled “Fire” on the crowd) And then the Boston Tea Party. (Completely The Sons of Liberty’s fault). 342 chests of tea! Jeez, a little excessive, don’t you think? I mean, your King has to pay for winning, so maybe don’t cause a huge commotion like that. But, nothing comes for free. Coercive acts, punishment for the Boston Tea party, not out of free will. I mean, somebody gotta be punished for this. Except the reason for doing it to everyone is because George didn’t know which people were the Boston Tea party people, so he accused everybody. I mean, would you have done any better? But, of course, things got even worse. The War actually started.

Here’s the part you’ve been waiting for. Why did the War have to be a thing? Simple. If The Sons of Liberty just cooperated with King George, maybe this bloody war wouldn’t have even happened. Yeah. Nobody wanted this war. It started all when King George was worried for his people and trying to take away the Sons of Liberty’s weapons. But the war started anyway when the Sol fought back. (Sons of Liberty). Didn’t the Sol know that the taxes would only be temporary? Apparently nobody cared. Very responsible. Also, King George was only 22, so he can’t take all the blame, can he?

So, now, do you think King George was this furious raging tyrant all the time? Do you think he made all those taxes for no reason? Do you think he wanted this war? What do you think?

Have you ever wondered what life was like for Civilians during the American Revolution? I am going to give you one word- HARD. You would be sitting at home worrying. “What if they don't win, what if we're stuck like this forever?" Worrying about your loved ones who are stuck at Valley Forge and in battles. Some places had to put up with the British Soldiers in their homes and as long as the war was still going they had to pay taxes. Then imagine how happy when those soldiers came home to their wives and children. So I would say it would be 90/10. But come on going to war is really hard. And that's the life of a civilian for you.

Do you like cake? Well, Queen Marie Antoinette said, ”Let them eat cake.” What she really meant was they should be eating everything we eat, including cake. Let me explain the French Revolution. It started on May 5, 1799. The people of France were starving when Marie said let them eat cake, like I said. She misspoke, which led to her execution. The person leading this movement was Louis the XVI.

After her death, the French were oppressed and ever since that day France was a democracy. Not only that, but France has changed the world. Who knows, if France was still a monarchy they could have built an empire and forced rule and demand.

Thank you for listening to MY opinion on the French Revolution. Well I have a question. What is your opinion?

People always think, Why are there revolutions? Well, here’s why. There are revolutions because people should have rights and when people truly believe in something they would fight for it. One example is the American Revolution. The colonists wanted to separate from Great Britain so they traveled over to the Thirteen colonies but the truth is Britain never let go, even though they went to a different continent Britain still ruled over them. And they started to tax them because of war debt (but that war is another story). And the colonists are very mad about the taxing so they started to riot and protest. That's an example of a revolution. And another one is the war of the American Revolution itself. And that inspired many other revolutions like the French Revolution. The French were so inspired by them they fought and won their freedom.

Women helped a lot in the Revolutionary War. They sewed uniforms, cooked for the soldiers, and sometimes they were slaves, all while caring for multiple young (usually ladies had lots of children back then). But there are some women who stood out the most for what they did for our nation. Abigail Adams was a determined lady who also happened to be a mother and a wife to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. She encouraged female education and when she became second first lady and first second lady, people started to listen. Deborah Sampson was an ambitious girl, and she disguised herself as a man in order to serve the continental army, one of many ladies who had a military record during that war. Phyllis Wheatly was an African American who was sold from Africa at about 8 years old. She was the first African American to publish a book of poetry. She was freed for her poetry by her owners. Women did help a lot. In fact they revolutionized their rights.