Lesson 6: Why Did American Colonists Want to Free Themselves from Great Britain?

Lesson Objectives

When you have finished this lesson, you should  be able to

• describe the British policies that some American colonists believed violated basic principles of constitutional government and their rights as Englishmen,
• explain why Americans resisted those policies and how that resistance led to the Declaration of Independence,
• evaluate the arguments that the colonists made to justify separation from Great Britain, and
• evaluate, take, and defend positions on violations of colonists’ rights before the Revolution and important questions about the meaning and implications of the Declaration of Independence.