By statute of 1775, anyone harboring of army or marine deserters
in the colonies must forfeit 5 pounds, and persuading a soldier or
marine to desert drew a forfeiture of 40 pounds or else up to six
months in prison without bail and one hour in the pillory on
market day.
Bounties were made available to vessels from and fitted out in
Great Britain for Newfoundland fishing.
Any shipmaster carrying as passengers any fisherman, sailor, or
artificer to America shall forfeit 200 pounds because such men
have been seduced from British fishing vessels in Newfoundland, to
the detriment of the fishing industry.
The many years of significant achievements of the colonists, such
as taming the wilderness and building cities, had given them
confidence in their ability to govern themselves. The average
colonial family had a better standard of living than the average
family in England. Many of its top citizenry had reached their
positions by hard work applied to opportunities for upward
mobility. With the confidence of success, the American colonies in
1776 declared their independence from Britain, relying on the
principles stated by John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau that man
was naturally free and all men equal, and that society was only
created with their consent. Issac's Newtons's unified laws of the
universe had contributed to this idea of a natural law of rights
of men.
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