Radical Issues in the Colonies :: essays research papers

During the colonial period of America, some colonists struggled with the laws imposed upon them by England. The struggle grew over the years until many Americans had demonstrable a revolutionary attitude toward their mother country. This attitude non scarce led the colonists into the American Revolution which bumpd them from the rule of England, but also influenced the ways in which the various colonies chose to govern themselves. The experience of colonial rule caused the unexampled Americans to denounce certain aspects of government which had been a part of their colonial ships company and, in fact, seemed somewhat radical at the beat. However, the most revolutionary act they seem to have accomplished was the war for independence itself.The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which served as a basis for many Bills of Rights in state constitutions, laid let on basic rights of men as the foundation of their new government. The idea that tout ensemble men are by nature equally free and unaffiliated is then qualified in the document itself by the phrase when they read into a state of society. The phrase regarding society is intended to exclude slaves from the free and independent status given to all other men. John Ross grow on this theme at a New York state radiation diagram where he stated that blacks are seldom, if ever, required to share in the prevalent burthens or defence of the state and are incapableof exercising that exclusive right with any sort of discretion, prudence, or independence. Colonel Samuel Young, speaking at the equal normal where Ross stated his views, felt that blacks would sell their votes to the highest bidder. The views seem oddly the same, though blacks were no longer slaves in New York at that time. The Pennsylvania Gradual abolition Act of 1980 started the abolition slavery by laying out the conditions beneath which slaves and people born into slavery would eventually be free. Basically, it limited the time a person could be held as a slave and apt(p) other rights to Negroes and Mulattoes. In particular, the Act stated that the crimes of Negroes and Mulattoes would be judged and punished the same as crimes of the other inhabitants of this state, but did denote that a slave could not testify against a freeman. This limitation perpetuated the idea that slaves and black people were not on equal footing with white men. In todays world, the remnants of a time when blacks were viewed as inferior to whites can still be seen, yet it is difficult to imagine that the statements made in documents which were designed to withstand the rights of people in America are so boldly prejudiced.