Outline of Delaware

Thesis: The people of Delaware are ready to rule ourselves, because we have a stable economy and a system of government.

I. The Economy in the northern colonies was very established, and may not have been able to survive such a large switch from a local trade to one where England was taxing them.
A. Many Northern Colony farmers grew food primarily for their own families and neighborhoods
i. “Violating expectations of mutuality among neighbors may well have appeared oppressive, in part because it required a position of advantage to violate them with impunity. For most inhabitants of a locality, maintaining a reputation for probity and fairness mattered; those who outraged their neighbor’s ideas of equity might face private admonition from clergy or other notables or feel pressure to submit to the judgment of three respectable local men. Such institutions helped some Americans translate for fair dealings into assumed and even ordinary practice. One Delaware farmer used a revealing shorthand to denote the numerous exchanges carried on between to families: the households “neighborhood”. Narrow economic terms do not adequately describe their transactions.”
a. The British Parliament was trying to implement taxes that would have thrown off the accepted balance of trade in America. Tax collectors might have tried to get into the market of the more isolated communities, and that would have thrown off the balance, possibly to an unrecognizable level
ii. Stamp Act and the Navigation Acts
b. These were taxes designed to limit and control the colonists economy, even though Britain was a world away.
II. King George III had not done anything to help us when we sent petitions requesting the taxes that Parliament implemented be revoked, and what’s more, he seemed to completely ignore our pleas for peace when the British sent a military brigade to Boston.
A. Info from history book.
B. Text Analysis documents will be helpful.
i. Olive branch petition/ Declaration of Independence
III. I have heard that the British are offering freedom to slaves that help them fight in the South. Although I don’t agree with the practice of slavery, this is just another time where the British are trying to take our goods.
A. History book reference.
IV. The people of Delaware have a governmental system already in place, so we can support ourselves even without Britain.
A. Constitution of Delaware
i.
B. Declaration of Independence
i.
b. Not only Delaware, but the colonies as a whole have a working system of government.

Smith, Barbara. "Food Rioters and the American Revolution." The William and Mary Quarterly 51 (1994): 3-38.