Are you British, or are you American? Actually, you are both. It is 1775, and you’re a 14-year-old living in Virginia. Your ancestors came from England almost 150 years ago. Now you and your family have a successful farm in one of Britain’s 13 booming American colonies.
But soon your loyalties will be tested, as Britain and its American colonies are headed for a confrontation. Things weren’t always so tense. For much of the 1600s and early 1700s, Britain and the colonies had a good relationship. The colonists sold raw materials, such as lumber, to Britain, and the British sold manufactured goods, such as fine furniture, to the colonists. Everyone made money, but the relationship started to go bad in the 1760s. From 1754 to 1763, the British had fought a war against the French in America. Britain won, but the war had cost a lot of money. Britain wanted the colonies to help pay. Many colonists rebelled against that idea, and they used ideas from the Enlightenment to justify their resistance.
