Guest Blogger: Hamsitha Dontamsetty

As we begin studying The Declaration of Independence and the ideas that served as the catalyst for the colonists’ rebellion, I want to once again consider the philosophy of Locke. As we move forward, I think it is valuable to be able to connect our completed unit to the one we are about to explore in order to maintain coherency in our studies. To do this, I think we should understand how Locke connects to the colonists’ rebellion against the British Empire. The colonists began planning the declaration of independence after years of tyrant rule under the mother country, Britain. At the end of the French and Indian War, the British imposed taxes on the colonists to recover funds they lost during the war; this put the colonists at a disadvantage while the mother country benefited completely. Britain also levied unfair taxes on tea, glass, and paper. When the colonists retaliated by dumping caskets of tea in Boston Harbor with the Boston Tea Party, Britain placed restrictions on importing and exporting goods out of Boston Harbor. These events eventually led to the First Continental Congress, which was a meeting of 12 delegates from the thirteen colonial states who discussed plans of rebellion, and the Declaration of Independence. While these are the events that helped start the rebellion, it was the philosophy of Locke that inspired the Founding Fathers to declare independence. Locke said that if a government was treating its citizens unjustly, then the people have a duty, a responsibility, to rebel against the tyrant government and bring forth a better institution in its place. Locke felt that people must give up their individual power in order to be protected by a secure, just government, and if the government failed in its duty to safeguard its citizens, then the citizens have a right to rebel. This is exactly how the colonists felt when they suffered under the tyrant rule of the British Empire. The colonists felt that the British government was only benefiting the mother country, and that it wasn’t keeping the colonists’ best interests in mind. So, with the philosophy of Locke supporting them and the anger of being treated unjustly raging inside them, the colonists declared independence and instituted a government they felt would serve them better than the British Empire. In this way, the greatest democracy the world has ever witnessed was born.