Purpose
primary source analysis (learning about the past through an active and critical reading of source produced in the period being studied) and perspective taking (understanding how perspective shapes the historical record).
In unit 3, we are building on those foundations by practicing another key component of historical thinking: historical empathy, or the ability to understand how historical context shaped the events and actors of the past. For this discussion, you will compare and contrast two competing perspectives on the events that shaped the pre-Revolutionary colonies in order to understand how and why people (even the colonists themselves) disagreed on the proper relationship between Britain and her American colonies.
In the years between the end of the French and Indian War and the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, 1763-1775, the colonies and the mother country debated the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies. The British claimed that Parliament held this right without question, while the colonies insisted that only a body which they actually elected could tax them. While the British espoused the commonly-held notion that Parliament represented all British possessions virtually, the colonists drew on their experiences with their colonial legislatures, maintaining that the only true representation was actual representation. Read the accounts below, which are written from either a British or American point of view, and engage in a discussion that explores both sides of the debate.
Assigned Readings
American (pro-Revolutionary perspective
Resolutions Stamp Act Congress
https://go.view.usg.edu/d2l/common/dialogs/quickLink/quickLink.d2l?ou=2020878&type=content&rcode=usgx-16584293
The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved
https://go.view.usg.edu/d2l/common/dialogs/quickLink/quickLink.d2l?ou=2020878&type=content&rcode=usgx-16584298
British (anti-Revolutionary) Perspective
Declaratory Act
https://go.view.usg.edu/d2l/common/dialogs/quickLink/quickLink.d2l?ou=2020878&type=content&rcode=usgx-16584300
Soame Jenyns and Samuel Johnson
https://go.view.usg.edu/d2l/common/dialogs/quickLink/quickLink.d2l?ou=2020878&type=content&rcode=usgx-16584302
Task
Initial Post:
For this discussion, we will divide the class roughly in half and explore division in colonial American society that led to divisions on the question of Revolution.
Using the Assigned Reading documents above, students whose names begin with M – Z will write their initial posting from the British or anti-Revolutionary perspective. Both will write on the same question of “What types of colonists would have been most likely to support the idea of Revolution? Why?
Your initial posting should be at least 2 paragraphs (6-7 sentences each) in length. You just use the primary sources in your analysis. Remember the contextualize the primary sources with what you know about the pre-Revolutionary period.
explain why the colonists disagreed on the proper relationship between Britain and her American colonies.
