The Rights of the English Colonies Established in America Stated and Defended; Their Merits and Importance to Great Britain Displayed; with Illustration of the Benefits of Their Union, and of the Mischiefs and Dangers of Their Continued Dissention
- William Bollan (author)
- Jack P. Greene (collection editor)
This pamphlet argues on behalf of the English colonial settlements in America — defending their legal and natural rights as subjects of the British Crown while simultaneously making an economic and strategic case to Great Britain about how valuable the colonies were to the empire. A central theme is the call for colonial unity, with the author contending that the colonies' internal divisions and quarrels weakened both themselves and Britain, while a coordinated union among them would serve the mutual benefit of the empire. The work thus occupies a distinctive middle ground in the Revolutionary-era debate, urging neither outright rebellion nor passive submission, but rather a reformed relationship grounded in recognized rights and cooperative solidarity.
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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.