The radical revolutionary movement began ever since the day of America's discovery. The people who left England wanted a change; they were the non-conformist, risk-takers, radicals. Ever since the beginning of settlement, Britain and America had been clashing because America wanted to grow and become powerful economically, socially, and politically but they felt Britain was depriving them from that. Although the colonists during this revolutionary movement were still loyal to England and were only seeking to obtain the "Rights of Englishmen," the colonist decided not to conform to British ideals and so they reacted in their own radical way.
Their radical action during the revolutionary movement can be seen through their outcry of no taxation without representation, their protests after each time Britain enforced an act, and through the drastic measures shown through prominent leaders. Since Britain had to pay for many debts after the French and Indian War, they decided that they had no other choice but to tax the colonists. The taxes imposed angered the colonists because they felt that they were not represented in Parliament and therefore should not be taxed.However Parliament felt that they looked out for the best interest of the entire empire therefore had the right to tax the colonist.
This caused political unrest and uprising within the colonies. Many radical ideas spurred up in newspapers and pamphlets, such as what became known as the famous outcry of the colonists "No taxation without Representation. " If the colonists would have just conformed to Britain and allowed them to tax them and take advantage of them then the colonists would have been following the status quo.However the colonists went against the status quo and against the authority of England trying to be their own individuals.
Not only did the colonists react with their outcry of no taxation without representation they also reacted with many protests. When the stamp act was issued Grenville thought he was being reasonable by simply asking the Americans to pay a fair share of the costs for their own defense through taxes that British people had endured for two generations. On the contrary the colonies did not want to comply with the stamp taxes so groups know as Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty were formed to organize opposition.With the non-importation agreements colonists boycotted all English goods, stamp distributors were eventually forced to resign and stamps were destroyed. The Stamp Act Congress met in October 1765 and adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances which declared that freeborn Englishmen could not be taxed without consent and since the colonist were not represented in Parliament; any tax imposed on them without consent of their colonial legislatures was unconstitutional. Since Parliament was faced with loss of trade they were forced to repeal the Stamp Act.
This made the colonist feel extremely good because through these extreme actions they were able to crush British authority. In addition to the protest after each time British enforced an act the colonist also showed radical action through prominent leaders. Sam Adams wrote radical propaganda to the colonist to use against the British such as calling it the Boston Massacre even though it killed one person. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense in which he made logical points on why breaking away from England was common sense.He also came up with the idea of Independence which was extremely radical because no one had even thought of breaking away from England before this.
These colonist radical displays showed a national identity apart from Britain. The colonies were always looking out for their best interest and every time Parliament tried to exert any control over them, they turned away. This radical movement eventually will cause the colonist to break from British authority and become their own united individuals.
