Classroom Post 9

Thursday, October 11, 2012

We've learned a lot about the Revolution lately. Today, we spent time focusing on the different perspectives about Britain during that time, and I thought it was very interesting. First of all, not all colonist wanted to break away from Britain. They liked the British rule and thought that by rebelling we were committing treason. This wasn't that surprising, as I'd know there were "loyalists" during the revolutionary period from books I've read in the past. But what I didn't know was that the continental Congress met and didn't want to blatantly break away from England either. Instead, they sent out the Olive Branch Treaty, which was meant to stop fighting and allowing the colonies to stay under British rule as long as some of there demands were met. I had been under the impression that all the colonists who weren't loyalist wanted to become independent, but I guess not. Thomas Paine and those who followed him, however, petitioned strongly for the colonies to break away and gain independence. He even published a pamphlet about it called Common Sense, which the loyalist responded to with The Plain Truth. These titles are both highly amusing and I think really show just how much adversity there was between these two groups. It helps to show how much anger and passion there was behind each side.