Humanities Homework Help

A powerful aversion to taxation was a major ingredient in the independence movement in the colonies, but so too was the idea of “republicanism.” In this exercise, students need to grapple with what that term meant to the colonists, and how its principles were intentionally curtailed in the minds of the leaders of the revolution so that only a certain identity, or demographic, was given the right to engage in politics and government.

• What role did the idea of “Republicanism” play in the American Revolution?
• Consider where it originated, in what ways it was discussed in the colonies, why the colonies were conducive to such an idea, and the limitations of the idea in a world built on so much racial and gender inequality.