Research Paper on:
What it Means to be an American

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
an American. Ideas regarding liberty and freedom are explored. Bibliography lists 3 sources. SA127Amr.rtf Everyone knows that the history of America included a  period of colonization. While of course the United States of America has grown so much it is considered to be perhaps the major world power today, it once was under  British control. Yet, after awhile, those who settled in the North American continent began to consider themselves Americans. Within this context, some might ask exactly what it is to be  an American. At what point did the colonists begin to consider themselves Americans? It is hard to discern the exact moment when the British colonists began to see themselves as  something other than their backgrounds dictated. Yet, in combing through history books, one is able to get a sense of when things begun to change. Gross (2001) explains that prior  to the Revolution, in the town of Concord, things were as one might expect. However, there is evidence that seems to come forth that might surprise a reader in the  twenty-first century. He explains that there were not all that many people-only about 265 families-and so one has to surmise that only a handful of people really began to come  to think of themselves as true Americans. One can debate the concept today, and consider the American Indian. There are arguments that  of course suggest that the Indian is the only true American, and one could agree based on the fact that the colonists were really European. At the same time, being  an American-as one comes to believe based on Grosss observations-is something more pertinent to the spirit and less reliant on origin. Being an American was based on certain precepts and