The (Really) Rough Road to Independence

Once the fighting had officially begun in April of 1776 at Lexington and Concord, life for colonists were bumpy ones. But during the 14 months leading to an official declaration of independence, both great and terrible things happened. It was a fortunate yet suprising day when southerner George Washington was chosen to lead the 2nd Continental Congress. But things went downhill (literally) when the Americans retreated from the Battle of Bunker Hill, due to the absense of gunpowder. It was a win/lose situation for the colonists, for they had killed more British soldiers, but some considered it a British win because they had retreated. The next month, the colonies were sending the Olive Branch Petition to King George the Third, the petition asking the king to protect the colonies from the tyranny of the Parliament. To the king, this request seemed so outragious that he went as far as to refer to the Americans as "traitors." Almost 6 months later a British man named Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a book stating the colonies should be independent, that the British Empire was only dragging them into their wars. Finally, on July 4, 1776, the colonies declared their independence and considered themselves as proud Americans.

Spoiler

In case some do not recall what the Parliament is, the Parliament is a group in Britian of men elected as representatives to pass laws and impose taxes. The Parliament had imposed many unfair taxes onto the colonies such as the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts. And yes, I know King George's name is not "the third." I just don't know how to do the roman numerals on here.

I feel like this is part of a much larger book, It sounds like an article in a history textbook. It's kinda interesting, though. Perhaps you could try to make it really interesting, make a history book high school kids will care about. Maybe that will make them easier to read. Tweak it a bit, treat it like a novel. Tell us exactly what happened, NEVER exaggerate, but say everything like a narrator would. Everyone will like it better. This is an odd passage anyway.

I'm not exactly a nonfiction writer or reader, so my advice might not be the best out there, but I'll do my best! I definitely think you could build off of this. Maybe not a whole lot, just a few pages or possibly even a few paragraphs, if you could manage it. Your writing flows very nicely and overall I think it's a nicely written paragraph!

I like it. Definitely better then the history textbook and it got the point across better. Non-fiction is not my thing at all but I think you could make a really interesting textbook out of this. One people might actually want to read!