What exactly
Were the colonies
Trying
To accomplish?
Well, let’s
Call a spade
A spade:
What was
Massachusetts?
It wasn’t
Merely
The imposition
But the idea
That they had
No self-determination,
No right
To settle
Their own fate.
These were colonists
Who had lived there
For generations,
For a hundred years.
They were still forced
To relinquish control
To a system
That operated
An ocean away.
They had developed
A thriving economy,
A way of life,
A culture,
A people
That were different
From those
Who still claimed them
As citizens.
Citizens of what?
When empires colonize
They tend to impose
Upon the natives
And it’s the natives
Who usually strike
For independence.
In the colonies
The natives
Wanted nothing
But to be left alone,
And behaved accordingly,
Including participating
In strategic alliances
Even with their enemies
If it suited them
At the time.
History still struggles
Determining
That outcome.
But the colonies?
They didn’t see themselves
As colonies,
Certainly not in Massachusetts.
They saw themselves
As communities.
Uniting the colonies
Was difficult.
Giving them
An identity
Ended up becoming
A political statement
That changed the world.
And is still
Little understood
Today.
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