Colonial and Revolutionary

Samantha Dillon
Mrs. H
Research paper 7-Oct-2012

The colonial and Revolutionary eras in America are not so chronologically distant, yet they are two very different times for America. These two eras are very important parts of America’s history.

The transformation of colonial America to Revolutionary America is quick but drastic. To be a colonial American would mean solely relying on God. An American at that time would center their whole life around God. They believed they did not personally own anything. For example, in Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Upon a Burning House”, Anne implied that it was wrong to feel sorry for the loss of your house or family, because the Puritan belief was that everything is owned by God. Anne considered herself lucky because she was left with the most important thing of all; her life (Chin 78). Anne Bradstreet most captured my attention with her writing style and her pure love of God. Puritans believed that “if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf” (Chin 103). It was easy for the British to keep people of the Puritan lifestyle under its crown because of their religious beliefs (Kiracofe)

The Revolutionary era is when the colonists began to become more opinionated. The start of the Revolutionary era was when the British began taxing sugar. The sugar act lead to a boycott of buying all British imports. The Boycott put the British in great debt and was eventually repealed. At that point, the colonists discovered that they do have a say in their government. The people of America began relying on logistics and facts instead of their faith. This lead to the Revolutionary war, also called the War of Independence (Higginbotham). More and more people began speaking their mind, such as Phillis Wheatley, an African American who writes a Revolutionary piece of art, praising George Washington for fighting and leading in the Revolutionary war. The colonists began to become more and more individualized from the British. The whispers of rebellion turned into shouts after the Stamp Act. The farmers and merchants of America quickly transformed from strongly religious and peaceful men, into soldiers of the Revolutionary war.

Colonial and Revolutionary Americans are two very different groups of people. The colonists were Puritans which means they were highly religiously dependent. Although the Revolutionary Americans did believe that there was a God and that he was on their side, they took their own initiative and fought for their freedom from Britain’s crown. If it were not for Revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and the men who fought for this country, America would still be under the British laws and taxation. We would not have the rights and freedoms we have today. The Revolutionary war has made America for what it is today.