The nation that was to declarie its independence from Great Britain in 1776 was hardly a nation at all but a string of separate colonies stretching from Maine (then a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) to Georgia--all separately governed in one form or another, their laws and religions were as different as their economics and social structure as unlikely a national beginning in history. Strangely enough, however, the strongest bond between them was their common allegiance to the King of England. By 1763 and the end of the French and Indian War, the colonists were well on their way to becoming Americans--they had been here fro 150 years and had virtually governed themselves with little British interference. Still they held to the English common law and until political extremists portrayed George III as a miserable tyrant, the common man swayed little from his loyalty. Indeed, until the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, George Washington and his officers of the Continental Army toasted the health of "their King."

Following the war with France, however, British attention was focused solely on the colonies. The national debt has doubled and economically Great Britain was in a serious depression. Parliament determined that the colonies should share the expenses of the Empire. This came ina long series of taxes and restrictions that affected nearly every phase of commerce. But one out of every five Englishmen was an American colonial without any seat in Parliament and the whole idea of taxation without any representation was a shock of mammoth proportions. The allegiance slowly began to crumble.

The Stamp Act, a tax stamp on legal documents, newspapers, contracts, and almost every piece of commercial paper, was the first internal tax Britain had ever imposed and it united the colonists in a fury, from Boston to Williamsburg. Within a year Parliament repealed the Stamp Act but the peace was only temporary. Soon came other taxes on the importation of glass, paper, dyes, and tea. Though all but the tea tax were later repealed, the fires of revolt had been kindled. Urged on by Samuel Adams, political agitator and radical patriot, several colonial assemblies adopted nonimportation and nonconsumption agreements, serving notice on the mother country that the issue of rights and freedom was at stake and that regardless of economic impact, the colonies would stand firm in their determination to oppose these repressive legislations.

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