Considerations Relative to the North American Colonies
- John Fothergill (author)
- Jack P. Greene (collection editor)
This essay is a political pamphlet written by John Fothergill, a prominent English Quaker physician and naturalist, in response to the mounting tensions between Britain and its American colonies in the mid-1760s. Published the same year as the controversial Stamp Act, it urges British policymakers to take a more conciliatory approach toward the colonies, arguing that heavy-handed taxation and restrictive policies risked damaging the vital commercial relationship between the two sides.
Fothergill draws on his Quaker principles and practical reasoning to appeal for mutual goodwill, making the case that the prosperity of Britain and the colonies was deeply intertwined and that coercive measures would ultimately harm both.
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The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.