The "rights of Englishmen" are the perceived traditional rights of English subjects and later English speaking subjects of the British crown. In the 18th century, some of the colonists who objected to British rule in the British colonies in North America argued that their traditional[1] rights as Englishmen were being violated. The colonists wanted and expected the rights that they (or their forebears) had previously enjoyed in England: a local, representative government, with regards to judicial matters (some colonists were being sent back to England for trials) and particularly with regards to taxation.[2] Belief in these rights subsequently became a widely-accepted justification for the American Revolution.[3][4]
The American colonies had since the 17th century been fertile ground for liberalism within the center of European political discourse.[5] However, as the ratification of the Declaration of Independence approached, the issue among the colonists of which particular rights were significant became divisive. George Mason, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, stated that "We claim nothing but the liberty and privileges of Englishmen in the same degree, as if we had continued among our brethren in Great Britain."[4]
