When is Breaking the Law Justified.

When is breaking the law justified? The people of the American
colonies believed it was justified when the law takes away ones “natural rights”. The writings of John Locke had a large influence on the philosophies of the colonists. He was the man who coined the phrase “natural rights”. He stated that each person had the rights of life, liberty, and property. Prior to the revolutionary war, the British tread upon these rights.
Prior to the American Revolutionary War, the British Government had gone into great debt. There solution to getting out of debt; tax the American colonies. First they instituted the Stamp Act, where they taxed goods such as tea, pots and many other things. This enraged the colonists who hadn’t even been consulted with.
American colonists decided that action needed to be taken. Many
colonists did without these things, and started making many of these goods themselves. When the British demanded that the tax for a shipment of tea must be paid, a group known as the Sons of Liberty, came on board the ships and dropped all of the tea into Boston Harbor.
In the twentieth century, African-Americans were not allowed all of
the same rights as the other Americans. One of these rights might seem rather small, but was able to make a very large impact in this case. The law stated that on buses, African-Americans had to give up there seats to Caucasians if it was needed. One day in Montgomery Alabama, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a Caucasian. She was arrested, and in her honor many African-Americans started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where instead of using the bus they carpooled.
When is breaking the law justified? In both these instances people
broke the law when their “natural rights” were not respected. They broke the law ready to accept the consequences of their actions, because they believed in what they stood for. The American colonists believed that they should have a say in how they were governed. Rosa Parks believed that African-Americans should have equal rights with Caucasian-Americans. I think that each of these instances were justifiable. These people made no effort to injure the people who dictated them, nor did they run away from these trying experiences. They simply stood up for their God given “natural rights”.