“Too long our patient country wears her chains,
Too long our wealth all-grasping Britain drains:
Why still a handmaid to that distant Land?
Why still subservient to their proud command?”
Philip Freneau, a New York born son of a French immigrant.7
In general, many of the English immigrants came to America to escape political oppression, or religious intolerance, or economic hardship, or all three. Accordingly, they felt no loyalty to England. Regarding immigrants from other nations, this fact was especially so; in short, those who came to America from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, and other countries had absolutely no ties to the British government nor to England itself.
Thus, in 1763 after the British government tried to impose laws and restrictions on America, the colonists reacted with strong animosity. Succinctly, the colonists knew very well that Britain depended on America for its raw materials and manufacturing; they also depended on America’s market for British goods; concisely, one-seventh of England’s trade was with the American colonies.8 Added to this fact, there was a sense of national identity developing in America, which to a certain extent united the colonists.
Overall, in the early days of America most colonists identified more with England than they did with each other; however, over the years, as colonists settled, then established families and had children who were born in America their ties to England waned. Furthermore, as British rule became more oppressive, the colonists bound together in common interests on the land that gave them refuge. Fundamentally, the English approach to the colonization of America was decentralized and autonomous in ways that reflected their fondness of enterprise and commerce. Thus, what the colonists learned and acquired in the New World was the habit of self-rule.9 Therefore, once Britain became assertive and heavy-handed the colonists pushed back. In 1774 Patrick Henry declared: “The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more, I am not a Virginian, but an American.” In 1775, the first open armed conflict between the English Army and the colonial militia took place at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. On July 4, 1776, the colonies finally declared their independence from England. Shortly thereafter England suspended immigration to America.