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In 1761, fifteen years before
the United States of America burst onto the world stage with
the Declaration of Independence, the American colonists were
loyal British subjects who celebrated the coronation of their
new King, George III. The colonies that stretched from present-day
Maine to Georgia were distinctly English in character although
they had been settled by Scots, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, Swedes,
Finns, Africans, French, Germans, and Swiss, as well as English.
As English men and women, the American colonists were heirs
to the thirteenth-century English document, the Magna Carta,
which established the principles that no one is above the
law (not even the King), and that no one can take away certain
rights. So in 1763, when the King began to assert his authority
over the colonies to make them share the cost of the Seven
Years' War England had just fought and won, the English colonists
protested by invoking their rights as free men and loyal subjects.
It was only after a decade of repeated efforts on the part
of the colonists to defend their rights that they resorted
to armed conflict and, eventually, to the unthinkable–separation
from the motherland.
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A Proclamation
by the King for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition, August
23, 1775 learn more...
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Pulling Down
the Statue of George III at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan,
oil painting (reproduction) by William Walcutt, 1857 learn more...
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