Student Learning Expectations

Module I encompasses the conditions, concepts, perceptions, issues and moods of the period from 1763 to December 1773. Stressed are examples of the individual and collective efforts to cope with these issues. At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

• describe key elements of the ambitions of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington before the Stamp Act.

• describe the attitudes that the British high society and Parliament likely held toward men like John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington as well as other colonists merely because they lived in the colonies.

• describe the different views that Benjamin Franklin held about being English and being an American, and what he did that led to his need to leave England to return to America.

• state Parliament's purposes for passing the Stamp Act and the Declaratory Act.

• describe specific colonial reactions to the Stamp Act and the Declaratory Act, and state all of the specific reasons why the colonists who challenged and accepted these acts justified their reactions.

• state the reasons why the colonists were especially upset with the provisions of the Declaratory Act.

• state the concerns of Thomas Hutchinson about what was going on in the colonies and specific actions of the protesting colonists that were evidence to support his assessment of the situation.

• state the reasons why the leaders of the opposition deliberately tried to expand the membership of their opposition to include people from all levels of colonial society.

• describe the attitudes of the leaders of government and society in England toward the colonists who involved commoners in the political affairs of the colonies.

• define boycott and provide purposes of the boycott the colonists used in response to the Stamp Act.

• describe the details surrounding the Boston Tea Party and the reasons why this event fit in with the perceptions of the Parliament to exercise some authority over the colonies and the perceptions of the opposition colonists that Parliament was again acting in a tyrannical way.

• state the tradition in British society of using soldiers as policemen, and the reasons why soldiers were in Boston in December 1770.

• describe the events that surrounded Benjamin Franklin's efforts to bring peace between the two sides by disclosing the letters of Thomas Hutchinson, royal governor of Massachusetts.

• describe the events leading up to the dumping of the tea in Boston harbor, and the reasons why the colonists believed they were justified in dumping it.

• describe the views that Benjamin Franklin held toward Britain before 1765 and from 1773 to 1774 and state at least three reasons why his views changed.

• state the immediate consequences of dumping the tea for the colony of Massachusetts.

Suggested Enrichment Activities

The activities below may be used to complement students' inquiry into this video and its content.

1. Ask students to locate at least three different definitions of liberty that might have been used during this period of time. Ask them to compare these definitions with one another. Ask students to use each definition to determine the extent to which particular actions of Parliament and King George III would threaten or limit liberty.

   The students should justify the decisions that they make for each action. Then ask them to determine whether or not the colonists were right in their view that Parliament and the king were restricting--or giving signs of restricting--their liberty.

2. Ask students to read about a key individual during the pre-Revolutionary War period and write a short biography including personality traits and actions that might have affected his or her decisions and actions in the period between 1760 and 1775.

3. Ask students to investigate one or more of the reform movements, ethnic groups or special interest groups of the decade before 1775 and the activities of each to achieve its goals.

4. Have students examine a topographical and population map of the colonies in 1775. Ask them to make a list of geographical features that might hinder or enhance communication and transportation among the colonies.

   Have them make a list of advantages and disadvantages these geographical features might present for the colonists as they debated the issues of government, taxation and economics associated with acts and actions of Parliament.

5. Ask students to examine a map of the colonies, the Atlantic Ocean, Western Europe and the Caribbean Sea to investigate the layout of the British Empire in these areas and how the distance between the British Isles and the colonies may have contributed to the decisions of the Parliament in 1765 to take a more active part in managing the empire.

6. Have students investigate and then list the causes of the American Revolutionary War that they find in their textbooks and other reference books. Have them determine which causes were most frequently mentioned in the sources they find. Have them also reach a consensus definition of cause. Finally, have them use this definition to determine which of the causes they found in the sources were actually ones that fit their definition. Ask them to support their conclusions with evidence.

7. Have students study each of the major Acts of Parliament from 1763 to 1776. Ask them to determine the major reasons why Parliament decided that each act was needed. Have them consider specific colonial opposition or support for each act. Some students could be advocates of Parliament and the king's position on each act and others advocates of the colonial resisters' position. Ask students to try to reach a compromise between what the Crown and Parliament wanted and what the colonial resisters wanted. Finally, ask students to define the issues negotiated to reach a comprise.

8. Have students study the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the French and Indian War. Have them consider how the terms of this treaty may have led the colonists to expand into the former French territories west of the Appalachian Mountains. Ask them also to consider the feelings of the French toward the British when they had to surrender the territories. If given the opportunity, what would they have done as the king of France to weaken Britain?

9. Ask students to make a list of reasons why the Loyalists might have stayed loyal to the king and Parliament when all about them were arguments and reasons for opposing them. Ask them to imagine that they were Loyalists. Ask them to write a letter to the king to show their support for him, the Parliament and the law. Or ask them to write a letter to Samuel Adams stating a Loyalist's opposition to what Adams and other colonists were doing.

Additional Questions for Discussion

Below are questions for classroom discussion.

1. Prior to the Stamp Act, what were at least two of the major ambitions of John Adams? of Benjamin Franklin? of George Washington?

2. Prior to 1765, what were Benjamin Franklin's views about being English and about being American?

3. List at least three specific ways the colonists who challenged the Stamp Act justified their reactions.

4. How did the colonists who accepted the Stamp Act justify their reactions?

5. In your own words, what were the most important specific colonial reactions to the Declaratory Act?

6. Why were the colonists concerned about Parliament's passage of the Declaratory Act?

7. What specific actions of the colonists might Hutchinson have claimed were evidence to support his assessment of the situation?

8. Describe the attitudes of the leaders of English government and society toward the colonists who involved commoners in the political affairs of the colonies.

9. Give at least three reasons why soldiers were in Boston in December 1770.

10. What are at least five important facts surrounding the Boston Tea Party? Justify your choices.

11. How did the colonists justify their dumping the tea into the harbor?

12. How did the Tea Party reinforce Parliament's perception that it needed to exercise direct and firm authority over the colonies?

13. What might have been Benjamin Franklin's motives for disclosing the letters of Thomas Hutchinson, royal governor of Massachusetts?

14. To what extent did disclosing the letters bring about the effect that Franklin wanted?

15. How did Benjamin Franklin's views of Britain change between 1765 and 1773-74?

16. Why were soldiers sent to Boston following the Boston Tea Party?

17. What were three immediate consequences for the colony of Massachusetts of dumping the tea into Boston's harbor?

Student Resources

• 1-A. Questions to Focus Inquiry: The Reluctant Revolutionaries This exercise focuses students' attention on essential facts in these chapters of the video.

• 1-B. Context and Overview: The Reluctant Revolutionaries This activity provides contextual background for the period from 1763 to the Boston Tea Party in December 1773. This information helps students construct a better sense of the perceptions, conditions and attitudes emphasized in this video.

• 1-C. Content and Overview: The Reluctant Revolutionaries This project explores Britons' and colonists' mindsets that gave rise to the issues and disagreements associated with the origins of the American Revolution. These details also assist students in constructing a sense of the conditions and moods dominant at the time.

• 1-D. Context and Overview of the American Revolution: The Role of Key Concepts and Their Meanings This activity makes students interpret major concepts of the period. It will help them view and analyze concepts critical to the period.

• 1-E. Meanings of Words Used to Label Individuals during the American Revolutionary Era: This project explores the labels used to indicate people's political position during the era. Students gain an understanding of the difficulty of assigning labels. They also learn that the labels' definitions change depending on one's perspective.

• 1-F. Noteworthy Quotations: The Reluctant Revolutionaries This exercise provides a number of quotations illustrative of the various moods and feelings before the outbreak of the war.