Valleydale High School - Conquest Yearbook (Charlotte, NC)

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All men who have come to know liberty celebrate it. Each generation learns that it can be lost through neglect and complacency. Today we salute two hundred years of vigilant independence for these United States of A merica. QLUTI O 459 N630 W 5 Q Q -A CC 2 X9 ? ie 3 D76-1916

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We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people and persuade them that they are not sprung from a natzon Ln whose vezns the blood of freedom ctrculates Edmund Burke 1766 If one were to lsolate a slngle lflCldCIll whlch prec1p1tated colonlal Amerlca s struggle for ID dependence 1t would be the Stamp Act of l765 lf there was a pomt of no return lt occurred w1th the Ollve Branch petltlon of 1775 Thls ten year perlod marked a tlme 1n whlch a natlon was fash 1oned forged 1n the heat of frustratlon on the anvrl of the North Amerlcan contlnent An overwhelmmg problem facmg the Br1t1sh Crown m the l760s was the fmanctal stram placed upon the Enghsh people a stram furthered ln part by the mamtenance of Br1t1sh troops ln the Amerlcan colonles The steady expanslon westward called for even more troops to protect and secure thls new land 5-.l fee-MQ 'Sryn fvwlyx vi Ui! JJ 77 Y 2 F P 1 Rebelllous S lrzpes Flag British S tamp Tax Seal 1765 In 1765 by royal proclamatlon Kmg George III closed all land west of the Alleghenles to further lmmrgratlon and expanslon Parllament 1n order to force the colonies to pay thelr falr share for protectlon passed the Stamp Act Although thls tax on documents and legal papers amounted only to .5560 000 a year there was lnstant outcry from the colonles agalnst thls lnternal tax Many felt that lt was one more burden 1n a 11st of repressxve acts by the Crown Fear also exlsted among Engllsh credltors that colomal merchants and planters could not meet thelr debts and pay thls addltlonal tax as well The seeds of dlscontent were spreadlng through the colomes farther and faster than anyone ex pected New problems of enforcmg the taxes conductmg trlals and metlng out punlshments all brought further alarm In Boston Phlla delphla New York Charleston and even IH WllllamSbUfg apprehenslon began to run hlgh In a flery speech before the House of Burgesses May 29 l765 months before the Stamp Act was to go mto effect Patrlck Henry shook the splre of the Capltol w1th h1s verbal assault agamst the Crown Many caut1ous men who heard lt mcludmg a young lawyer named ,171 e 'YZV , V 11' E W W iv? ' ' ,as - ' ' ,-t I nl. ,signal . .,g. ln the course o human events it becomes necessar for one eo le to dissolve the olitical b P