Читать книгу Anglo-American Cultural Studies - Jody Skinner - Страница 41

13 coloniesWe have just heard about three different English settlements: the Lost ColonyLost Colony, JamestownJamestown, New YorkNew York (in chronological order). For the century and a half after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, colonies were established up and down the east coast, from the MassachusettsMassachusetts Bay ColonyMassachusetts Bay Colony at PlymouthPlymouth in the northeast founded by the PilgrimsPilgrims, a group looking for religious freedom, to GeorgiaGeorgia in the far south, a colony founded for prisoners from EnglandEngland. The English colonies were far from the mother country and relations began to become strained after the colonists began to resent having to pay taxes to the mother land where they had no voice in Parliament. The protest slogan “no taxation without representation” became common from the middle of the 18^th century. The increasingly violent naturenature of the conflict was echoed in phrases like the passionate patriot Patrick HenryHenry, Patrick’s “give me liberty or give me death.” What later became known as the “shot heard round the world” was fired near BostonBoston and the beginning of a war that was to last for eight years.

Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness[38]After the first couple of years of armed conflict, some of those who later were called the Founding FathersFounding Fathers decided for a complete break with Britain and signed the Declaration of IndependenceDeclaration of Independence, a document with the bold claim: “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” truths that were revolutionary at the time: “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” At the bottom of the document is the huge signature of John HancockHancock, John – legend has it that Mr. Hancock signed extra large so that King George wouldn’t need spectacles (an old word for “glasses”) to see the signature. The main author of the Declaration was Thomas JeffersonJefferson, Thomas, who was later to become the third presidentpresident. The Declaration of Independence is the most famous of the many documents that paved the way for the establishment of the United States of AmericaAmerica. The date of the official signing of the Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776, became known as Independence DayIndependence Day and is celebrated as the most important patriotic American holidayholiday. The term American RevolutionAmerican Revolution can be used to refer not just to the War of IndependenceWar of Independence but also to the time before and after the thirteen colonies became the United States of America. While the thirteen colonies at first seemed in favor of a loose confederation instead of a strong union, the group known as the Federalists, one of whom was the important “founding father” George WashingtonWashington, George, eventually convinced the states to sign the ConstitutionConstitution of the United States, which took effect in 1789 ( 5).