Independence

'That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' That was the big idea; that governments get their power from the people, but, for the 13 colonies, their Monarchy did not allow for them to have a say in the government. This is repeated in the Declaration's grievance list: "without our Consent;" and became the colonist's rally cry "Taxation without Representation". Colonists sought independence from British government for a multitude of reasons. Tension quickly rose between England and the thirteen colonies due to the unjust taxing without fair representation, in Parliament the British also took away the right to assemble, and they were using different tactics to attempt to intimidate the colonists. These reasons and the suffering that the colonists endured at the hands of the British government are enough to justify the colonists in the act of declaring their independence from the British.

Of the many objections pitted against King George III, the one that most angered the colonist and is by far the strongest grievance written in the Declaration of Independence was taxation without representation. The people living in the thirteen colonies did not have direct representatives in the British parliament. Because of that, the colonists had no way to vote for how they would be taxed or who would represent them. Due to this lack of representation, the British government was free to tax the colonists in any way and for any amount that they wanted. With no way to fight taxation and no way to claim their rights, many colonists feared that their property could be taken away through unbearable tax wages. The Stamp Act and Townshend Act were put into place to regulate the trade of the colonists as well as collect taxes from them. Britain was abusing the colonist's rights as Englishmen through doing this because laws in England stated that "somebody may not be taxed if he or she does not have a voice in government." The anger and fear that came from the free reign that Britain had over the colonists smoldered until eventually war broke out.

As time went on, and the British got a little more nervous about the colonies' acts of rebellion, they decide to try and stop it by taking away a basic right, the right to free assembly. This further angers the colonist. England pushes harder on the colonists until an assembly was considered to be two guys meeting on the street. All of this forces the colonists to meet underground.

During this entire period the British were starting to make attempts to intimidate the colonists in hopes to end the rebellions. It seemed that the more and more England tried to scare the people, the angrier they got. The tactics obviously didn't work, but instead pushed the colonists even further into standing up against Britain. The British soldiers