Lesson 6: Why Did American Colonists Want to Free Themselves from Great Britain?
Lesson Objectives
When you have finished this lesson, you should be able to
- describe the British policies that some American colonists believed violated basic principles of constitutional government and their rights as Englishmen,
- explain why Americans resisted those policies and how that resistance led to the Declaration of Independence,
- evaluate the arguments that the colonists made to justify separation from Great Britain, and
- evaluate, take, and defend positions on violations of colonists’ rights before the Revolution and important questions about the meaning and implications of the Declaration of Independence.