Home » History » American Revolution » Was Resistance to British Taxation Justified?

Was Resistance to British Taxation Justified?

© Brian Tubbs

Several years ago, in a special Fourth of July commentary for The Washington Post, a Canadian editorialist wrote that the "American colonists who declared their independence from England...were not an idealistic band of freedom fighters but a pack of whiners, welshers, and tax cheats." He wrote that the period between the French and Indian War and the Revolution is the "story of a group of peevish and ungrateful New Worlders who persistently refused to contribute even a modest amount toward the defense and upkeep of their newly claimed continent." Thus, according to the writer, the American War for Independence was nothing more than an exercise in "tax evasion."

It is an undisputed historical fact that the motive behind the British Empire taxing its North American colonies was to recover part of its enormous debt from the Seven Years' War. Great Britain's overall debt had, in fact, doubled between 1754 and 1763.

Norman Gelb, an international correspondent and broadcaster, is the author of Less Than Glory: A Revisionist's View of the American Revolution. In his book, Gelb writes: "It had cost the Treasury in London a fortune to finance defense of the colonies against the French and to confront France's imperial gropings elsewhere in the world." In an effort to "balance their books," writes Gelb, "British ministers couldn't see why Americans shouldn't shoulder part of the expense of administering the British Empire, especially since they were the beneficiaries of His Majesty's government's benevolent expenditures."

A crippling debt wasn't Britain's only problem. With the French and Indian War concluded, there was still a need for British protection of the colonies. The Indians on the frontier had not been pacified. For this reason and to help stave off any further violence on the frontier, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, restricting the colonists from westward expansion. Since part of the reason the colonists rallied behind the British in the French and Indian War was to open the frontier by driving France from the continent, this Proclamation was unpopular from the beginning. In addition to the Indian threat, the Spanish continued to maintain a presence on the continent. And though defeated, France still eyed the colonies for an opportunity to exploit.

But it wasn't just protection of the colonies from external threats that kept British troops in North America. James Otis, one of Britain's most eloquent critics following the Seven Years' War, declared in 1765: "Were these colonies left to themselves tomorrow, America would be a mere shambles of blood and confusion." An Englishman traveling through the colonies offered a similar assessment, predicting a "civil war from one end of the continent to the other" if Britain left North America to its own devices.

The copyright of the article Was Resistance to British Taxation Justified? in American Revolution is owned by . Permission to republish Was Resistance to British Taxation Justified? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.