A Summary View of the Rights of British America by Thomas Jefferson
A Summary View of the Rights of British America
First published in 1774; excerpted from The Portable Thomas Jefferson, 1975
"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate and systematical plan of reducing us to slavery."
Thomas Jefferson, from A Summary View of the Rights of British America
In 1774, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was busy in London, England, trying to get his friends in Parliament to see that trouble was brewing in America over British taxes. Opposition to measures such as the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act, and the Intolerable Acts was reaching crisis proportions. The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed printed matter such as newspapers, legal documents, and even dice and playing cards. The Declaratory Act affirmed the right of Parliament to make laws that would bind the colonists "in all cases whatsoever." The Intolerable Acts closed the Port of Boston, gave the British-appointed governor of Massachusetts complete control of town meetings, ordered that British officials who committed major crimes in the colonies would be tried in Great Britain, and required that the colonists house British soldiers in dwellings belonging to private citizens.
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