<em>This question is referring to the grievances listed in the American Declaration of Independence.</em>
Answer:
The Declaration of Independence was highly influenced by Enlightenment ideals, especially those ideas developed in John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" (1689).
In such work, Locke promoted the idea of the social contract and natural rights. He claimed that men were by nature free and equal, but with the purpose of interacting in a healthy society, they had to transfer some of their rights to a government under a "Social Contract". Under that contract, the government had to be elected by the people and had to protect people's natural rights (life, liberty, and property), and whenever the government failed to do its duty, people had the authority to abolish it or replace it.
Similarly, in the Declaration of Independence, the Thirteen American colonies unanimously declared independence from Britain and listed a series of grievances to illustrate how the British Crown violated such social contract and failed to secure people's unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness (The latter being a concept said to be taken out from one of the others Locke's work).
