A Hard C O RE History Investigation
Examining the Grievances of the Declaration of independence
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Thank you again for purchasing the “ultimate break-up letter” lesson for your Hardcore Students! If you have any questions or concerns contact me at [email protected]. Teach hardcore! Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
Bell Ringer Here’s an activity that always hooks students into the antiquated wording of the Declaration of Independence. As soon as the bell rings, inform the class in a serious tone that you have found a note that someone left behind. Declare that it is your policy to read any note passed in class and will proceed to do so. At the end of letter, ask the class if they think you should expose the author. Then declare the author as the Thirteen Colonies! Here’s a video clip of how it works in action: http://bit.ly/PVhUmY
I don’t know how to say it but its been rough these past eight months. We’ve been arguing for quite some time now and based on what you’ve said its clear that you have no respect for me. And I want this school year to go smoothly.
That’s why I’ve decided it would be best if we broke up. I can no longer revolve my life around you and follow all of your controlling rules. It’s been going on for too long.
Here’s a list of other things you did wrong if you can’t remember! 1) You had your immature friends constantly stalking me because you thought I was cheating on you, which couldn’t have been farther from the truth. 2) You did not allow me to see my friends because you thought they were a bad influence. 3) You tried to start fights between me and my friends. 4) You always made up stupid rules for me about where I could go and what I could do without even asking how I felt! 5) And the list could go on and on and on!
I have asked you many times to stop your idiotic ways, but you never listened or cared. You probably should have; because you just lost the best girl you’ve ever had!
Love, 13 Colonies Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Art Gallery Activity
In your groups of 3-4, you will be rotating every 3 minutes to a different art source hanging around the room. For each of the 6 Revolutionary era sources, fill out the chart information below.
Sources Predict how this source What is one question you
may relate to “breaking have about this source?
up” with Great Britain.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4
Source 5
Source 6 Source #1
Source #2
Source #3
Source #4
Source #5
Source #6
Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
In total, 56 representatives from 13 different colonies signed the Declaration of Independence. Although these men held differing views on a number of issues during the Revolutionary era, they shared some common ideas that influenced the list of grievances— or complaints—in the Declaration. First, they believed that their mother country, Great Britain, had been committing actions that were very harmful to American colonists for over a decade. Perhaps just as important, the vast majority of those who took part in the Continental Congress believed in the Enlightenment, a movement that emphasized the equality of all people and questioned the legitimacy of governments who abused the citizens they governed. Specific Enlightenment ideas such as the social contract and natural rights affected how many colonists viewed the recent actions of the British government. According to the social contract theory, governments only held legitimate power if the people they governed were being treated with fairness. If this social contract was broken, the citizens could justifiably their life savings were now justifiably overthrow their government. The penniless. The Stock Market Crash idea of natural rights held that all people signaled the beginning of the Great held God-given rights they were born with Depression. At its peak in 1933, the like the right to life, privacy, property, Great Depression led to the happiness and more. No government had the unemployment of about 14 million authority to strip these natural rights away people and the failure of half of the without good reason. For today’s banks in America. Not until the efforts investigation, we will be closely reading some of the New Deal and the fighting of of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence and determining how our WWII would America return to its Founding Fathers came to the conclusion it former prosperity. was best if the American Colonies and Great Britain “break up” forever. Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation Below are just 6 of the 28 grievances listed in Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence. The final version of the DOI would remove grievance #28, making 27
(14) For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.
(16) For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.
(17) For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.
(24) He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
(27) He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions ..
(28) He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither.
Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation Below are just 6 of the 28 modified grievances listed in Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence. The final version of the DOI would remove grievance #28.
(14) For allowing large bodies of armed troops to live among us and in our houses.
(16) For cutting off our commercial business and trade with all parts of the world.
(17) For forcing us to pay taxes that we never agreed to.
(24) The King’s troops have plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
(27) The King has caused trouble amongst us, and has recruited merciless Indian Savages, who are known for their cruel warfare against all, including the innocent, women and children of our country.
(28) The King has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating the sacred rights of life and liberty in the cases of many Africans, capturing and carrying them into slavery, or by killing them due to the miserable conditions of the ships on which they are transported.
Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation Pick any 3 of the 6 grievances we read together and fill out the chart below for those grievances you choose.
How does this grievance reflect What historical source helps
Social Contract or Natural Rights explain this grievance? How? ideas? Explain in at least two Explain in at least two complete complete sentences! sentences.
Grievance # ______
(Write out grievance below)
Grievance # ______(Write out grievance below)
Grievance # ______(Write out grievance below) Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
Exit Ticket
Answer the essential question above in at least five sentences. Do NOT use any of the worksheets or materials used in class today! Use your memory to answer the question!
______
______
______Source #1
This 1770 print produced by Paul Revere depicts the Boston Massacre with a decidedly anti- British slant. The British are shown gunning down the American colonists with little hesitation and no indication that they had been actually provoked by rock throwing, club-wielding Bostonians. This source helps explain some of the fundamental reasons for declaring independence in 1776: the British standing army in America. Many Bostonians, including Revere, were upset with not only the killing of American shown here, but also with the fact that King George III ordered British troops to be stationed in Boston during peacetime. This enraged many Bostonians due to the fact that many of the British troops competed for jobs with many of the city’s working class residents and the troops helped enforce unpopular taxes and rules handed down by the Crown. Source #2
This 1774 engraving displays the tarring and feathering of a British agent collecting taxes. With an obvious anti-Colonist slant, the image hints at two very unpopular taxes levied by the British Crown during the pre-Revolutionary War period. The paper on the “Liberty Tree” reads “Stamp Act” upside down. Moreover, tea is not only being poured down the throat of the tax collector, but crates of tea are being dumped off the boat in the harbor in the background in obvious defiance of the Tea Act. American colonist considered both taxes as unjust due to the fact they had no say in whether they were imposed or not. Source #3
The graphic political cartoon shown here was actually produced during the War of 1812, but the practice of scalping by Native Americans during the American Revolution was common. Whether or not the British actually paid bounties for the scalps of enemies is still a subject of debate, but American colonists did believe that the “Redcoats” were paying their Indian allies for proof of their atrocities. American colonists decried the British decision to ally with Native Americans at the onset of the American Revolution. The fact that their mother country would employ “savages” to pillage American towns and murder innocents was considered heartless behavior. Source #4
This contemporary painting reveals a common scene during the pre-Revolutionary War period. A colonial family in their home are forced to allow British troops to reside with them. The Quartering Act of 1765 mandated that all colonists provide housing and food to soldiers stationed in the colonies. This law obviously upset many Americans, not just because of the financial burden of quartering troops but also because it violated their rights of privacy. Source #5
Although this diagram was produced more than a decade after the Declaration of Independence, this shocking sketch of the British slave ship named the Brookes displays the horrendous conditions of African slaves during the transatlantic voyage to the Americas. Despite many of the Founding Fathers’ connections to slave labor, many of them publicly and privately deplored America’s reliance upon it. Thomas Jefferson—a large slave owner himself—was strongly opposed to the transatlantic slave trade. Source #6
This is actually another engraving done by Paul Revere in 1775 demonstrating the scene at Boston Harbor after the Boston Port Act of 1774 was put into effect. A debilitating law for many Boston merchants, the Port Act effectively banned all commercial dealings by boat and crippled the city economically. Revere actually numbers the British boats enforcing the Port Act and provides a list of ship names off to the left. Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation Pick any 3 of the 6 grievances we read together and fill out the chart below for those grievances you choose.
How does this grievance reflect What historical source helps
Social Contract or Natural Rights explain this grievance? How? ideas? Explain in at least two Explain in at least two complete complete sentences! sentences.
Grievance # 14 The presence of a standing army Historical source 4 helps explain
He has kept among us, in and the quartering of troops in the grievance. It displays a scene times of peace, Standing people’s houses would be a of a family being forced to Armies without the violation of the natural right to quarter troops in their home. Consent of our legislatures. privacy. Many colonists believed that they should not have to house soldiers in their homes, let alone their town. Also, this could be considered a violation of the Social Contract due to the fact that the British were doing this without Americans’ consent. Grievance # 16 This grievance reflects beliefs in Source 6 helps explain this For cutting off our Trade Natural Rights. By the British grievance. The image shows with all parts of the cutting off commercial business by British ships shutting off the port world. Americans they were denying of Boston, disallowing trade by colonists the right to pursue sea. happiness and property.
Grievance # 17 This grievance reflects a belief in Source 2 helps explain this For imposing Taxes on us the Social Contract. Without the grievance. The image without our Consent. consent of the people, the British demonstrates the mood of government imposed taxes, a colonists towards these taxes clear violation of the people’s trust they considered highly unjust. and power. Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation Pick any 3 of the 6 grievances we read together and fill out the chart below for those grievances you choose.
How does this grievance reflect What historical source helps
Social Contract or Natural Rights explain this grievance? How? ideas? Explain in at least two Explain in at least two complete complete sentences! sentences.
Grievance # 24 This particular grievance is a clear Historical source 1 best explains this He has plundered our seas, reflection of Natural Rights ideas. The grievance. Paul Revere’s depiction of the ravaged our Coasts, burnt our colonists show here that they believe that “Boston Massacre” shows British troops towns, and destroyed the lives the natural right to life, property, and literally destroying the lives of of our people. happiness are cherished. American colonists.
Grievance # 27 This grievance reflects Natural Rights Source 3 helps explain this grievance. He has excited domestic ideas. The colonists deemed that Native The cartoon illustrates many colonists insurrections amongst us, and American warriors recruited by the beliefs about cruel warfare of Native has endeavored to bring on the British had no respect for the right of warriors and the British support of inhabitants of our frontiers, the life and property. such violent tactics. merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Grievance # 28 This grievance reflects beliefs in natural Source 5 helps explain this grievance. He has waged cruel war against rights. Despite many colonists adherence The sketched diagram displays the human nature itself, violating to slavery, some believed that Africans horrible, cramped conditions of a slave it's most sacred rights of life possessed “sacred rights of life and being transported to America. and liberty in the persons of a liberty.” distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither. Name______Class ______Date ______
Essential Question #1: how did the authors of the declaration of independence come up with the Grievances?
HardCORE History Investigation
Rubric Checklist for Exit Ticket _____/4 pts total 1) Answers the essential question thoroughly and in the appropriate amount of sentences. ___/2 pts Comments:
2) The answer demonstrates understanding of the research conducted and proper application of evidence found in historical sources. ____/2 pts Comments: