I am not reposting this because I agree with it, at all, but because it is so untrue, it seems the author knows nothing of the American Revolution or that period of time. It is true that England had an established church, the Church of England, but that church was not particularly conservative, and religion wasnt being used to govern. It was the Age of Enlightenment, our Founding Fathers and others were spending lots of time in coffeehouses (a new thing for Europeans and the European colonizers of the New World), and as many of us who drink coffee know, caffeine woke up their brains and they spent lots of time in excited and exciting discussion and thought. England was part of the Protestant Reformation--a liberal take on religion for the time. The Puritans (Pilgrims) were not liberal, however, but self-righteous Calvinists who dumped all the good Paganism out of their version of Christianity and were definitely a no-fun bunch who got kicked out of Elizabethan England for their dour uptightness. They came to this continent not for religious freedom, but to form their own communities where they could control their church members lives. They were all about god rewards virtue with wealth, therefore the poor are sinners--which was certainly not at all what Jesus preached. They were all about the Protestant work ethic, and thought putting sinners in stocks, or public floggings, etc.was just right-on. Their attitudes have influenced social policy in the US ever since, and not in a good way. The Revolution was mostly about not paying taxes to England, where the colonists had no seat in the Parliament, to support Englands military. Also, England expected the colonists to send raw materials (such as cotton grown here) to England, and then were expected to buy fabric from England. So, the cool thing to do then was to wear homespun and leather. It is possible that the colonists also wanted to continue importing African people into slavery here, and the English were inclined to stop the slave trade. Corporations were a part of America from the beginning--all those trading companies and New World explorations were financed by shareholders buying shares.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 11:56:00 +0000