“Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire;..”( Barack Obama; Jan 3, 2008 speech).
Definition of HOPE:
intransitive verb
1: to cherish a desire with anticipation
2 archaic : trust
transitive verb
1: to desire with expectation of obtainment
2: to expect with confidence : trust
— hoper noun
— hope against hope
:to hope without any basis for expecting fulfillment
Patrick Henry “Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by laying supinely on our backs, hugging the DELUSIVE PHANTOM OF HOPE, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?”
The first continental congress was held in Sept. 5 1774. This is one of the first appearances of the word hope that I could find relation to this “band of colonists”.
“To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit, but in the hopes their fellow subjects in great Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us to that sate in which both countries found happiness and prosperity..” The First Continental Congress (FCC for the purpose of this article)
This hope, by definition, was to expect with confidence or trust the King to do the right thing.
This was in direct response to the Intolerable Acts. The intolerable acts were punishments placed on the colonies by King George III. They were laws passed to act as punitive measures against the colonists for the actions of the Boston tea party in 1773.
The Boston Port Bills’ intent was to completely shut down the Port of Boston until the East India Trading Company and Parliament had been paid their due tax on the tea.
The Massachusetts Government Act gave the governor of a colony the power to appoint people to Council without being elected by an Assembly, or in other words, the people.
The Administration of Justice Act allowed British officials to force colonist to move, change colonies, under an accusation of a “capital offense”. This also included the Quartering Act which required colonists to provide British officers and troops housing and food in the colonist private homes.
The Quebec Act was, in a sense, a land re-distribution by the King, to that days current “special interest groups”, the Canadian Catholics and the French.
Another issue was to keep Britain from “raising revenue [revenue = taxes] on the subjects in America without their consent” (FCC; Oct. 1774). Ten years earlier King George III had stirred the pot of discontent and anger by passing the Sugar Act. This was a tax that covered sugar, wine and other things important to the colonies.
