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GET TO KNOW AMERICA 23
he Quest for Independence
England and America began their explicit parting of ways in 1763, more than a century and a half after the founding of the first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
he schism started with the introduction of a new inancial policy by the British Empire to sustain its growing empire. Colonists resisted the new taxes and regulations imposed by England, aware that these favored the interests of
the empire. hey insisted that they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies, and the colonists rallied behind the slogan “No taxation without representation.”
King George III, alarmed by the uprising, declared the colonies to be in a state
of rebellion through a proclamation issued on August 23, 1775. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence. July
4 remains America’s most important national holiday. he Treaty of Paris was later signed, a peace settlement that acknowledged the independence and sovereignty of the 13 former colonies and transformed them into states.
hey thus became “free and united independent states.”
As early as May 10, 1776, Congress had passed a resolution advising the colonies to form new governments. On a national level, the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” produced by John Dickinson in 1776 were adopted by the Continental Congress in November 1777, and they went into efect in 1781.
A stronger federal government with an
Top: Declaration of Independence, depicting the ive-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.
authority to collect taxes, to conduct diplomacy, to maintain armed forces, and to regulate foreign trade and commerce among the states became the focus of a newly drafted Constitution in May 1787.
Slavery and Civil War
he abolition of the international slave trade in 1808 did not put an end to slavery. In fact, in the United States, slavery was evident in the farms and factories producing cotton, sugarcane and tobacco. he proitability of slavery was noticed and was permitted at some point, contradicting the belief in equality and showing the nation’s weakness is resolving a major social issue.
Convinced that their way of life, based on slavery, was irretrievably threatened by the election of President Abraham Lincoln, the Southern Confederacy of 11 states declared their independence from the Union in 1860. hese states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. his secession led to
the American Civil War. Four years later, the Confederates surrendered. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln triumphed over slavery