mrcantilism, the stamp act and the intolerable acts were justification enough.
I was speaking of their intentions. Just finished a rather lengthy book on the subject. The colonists worked backward from what the British government did to what their intentions were.
The colonists apparently weren’t fully aware that incompetence often explains actions that are otherwise assigned to malice. And it is abundantly clear that the British pols of the time were thoroughly incompetent.
Today we have the advantage of access to the British government records of the time, which the colonists didn’t have, and its quite obvious they had no intention of “enslaving” the colonists. Had the colonists not rebelled, we would more likely have wound up with a Canadian or Australian type of system than a tyranny.
While I’m a fan of the Founding, Canada or Australia are a lot better than just about any of the alternatives.