Name: Eva Geitheim

Period: 2

Resolved: The American colonists were justified in their rebellion against Great Britain.

I. Supporting Paragraph One

A. Point
1. Great Britain unfairly violated the colonists rights by inflicting punishments that did not suit the
crime.
B. Example(s) (Historical Evidence)
1. For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for

a serious offence but not so heavily as we deprive him of his livelihood (Magna Carta).
2. The excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual

punishments inflicted (English Bill of Rights).

C. Explain
1. In 1215, King John was forced to sign an agreement called the Magna Carta, which limited the
monarchs power and made it so the king could not pass laws and taxes without the consent of the
people. One such agreement on the Magna Carta was when someone committed a crime they were to
be punished in proportion to their crime, but not extreme enough to take the criminals life.
2. When Prince William of Orange and his wife Mary were offered the crown by parliament in 1689,
the only condition was they had to sign the law of the English Bill of Rights. One of these rights was
the punishment had to suit the crime, without the punishment being excessive.
D. Explore (Analysis)

MLA Format (typed, double spaced, size 12 font, Times New Roman, 1 margins)

Name: Eva Geitheim

Period: 2

1. Unjust punishments were thrown upon the colonists that violated their rights to receive fair
punishments without taking their life, but in the Boston Massacre, (1768), defenseless colonists were
killed by the troops because of the insults the colonists gave the troops. Another example of an
unjust punishment was in 1774, Parliament passed a series of laws to punish Massachusetts for the
Boston Tea Party; these laws are referred to as the Intolerable Acts. These punishments included
closing Boston Harbor until all the ruined tea was paid for, the British soldiers accused of murder
would be tried in England, rather than in the colonies, and made the government of Massachusetts in
control so colonists couldnt even have a town meeting without permission from the governor.

Furthermore, these two examples of punishments violated the colonists rights as Englishmen from
the English Bill of Rights #6 and Magna Carta #18 because the punishments charged were not in
proportion to the crime and took some of the colonists lives.

MLA Format (typed, double spaced, size 12 font, Times New Roman, 1 margins)

Name: Eva Geitheim

Period: 2

Refutation - Identify and disprove the oppositions main argument(s).

II. Refutation Paragraph
A. Oppositions Point (Great Britains Argument)
1. Parliament has the right and authority to make laws and demand taxes of British Colonies living in
America.
B. Colonists Counter-Point (Refutation)
1. Parliament didnt have the right to make laws and demand taxes on the British Colonies in America
because the colonies had been left alone by salutary neglect and had their own self- government.
C. Example(s) (Historical Evidence)
1. Beginning with the colonial assembly of the House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virgina (1619), each
of the 13 colonies developed its own legislative body for making law and taxes (Gaudet).

It simply bound the signers into a civil body politic for the purpose of passing just and equal laws for
the general good of the colony. But these few words expressed the idea of self-government for the first
time in the new world (The Arrival of the Pilgrims).
D. Explain
1. Starting in 1607, to 1763 the British people in England neglected the American colonies for 156 years.
In these years the 13 colonies made their own self-government, assemblies, and system to run

MLA Format (typed, double spaced, size 12 font, Times New Roman, 1 margins)

Name: Eva Geitheim

Period: 2

themselves smoothly with barely any interference from Parliament and the king. The colonies had
accustomed to being more independent and living under self-government.
2. The Mayflower first sighted land from their drastic two-month voyage at Cape Cod, but Cape Cod
wasnt where they were supposed to arrive and the seas were too dangerous to travel on so they stayed
in Cape Cod. Since they were out of the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, where they were
supposed to land, their rules didnt apply so they had to make their own temporary government to keep
from trouble. The members aboard the Mayflower signed a document called the Mayflower Compact
to run themselves in the first sign of self-government.
E. Explore (Analysis)
1. Starting with the Mayflower Compact, colonists in the thirteen colonies started building their own
assemblies and government system during the salutary neglect. The colonists made their own laws and
taxes with barely any interference from parliament and the British from England for 156 years, so when
Parliament stopped neglecting the colonies and imposed more laws and taxes, like the Stamp Act and
Quartering Act of 1765, the colonists felt the right to rebel. From the salutary neglect the colonists had

the right to make their own laws and taxes without Parliament, therefore Parliament didnt have the right
to impose laws and taxes on the colonies.

MLA Format (typed, double spaced, size 12 font, Times New Roman, 1 margins)