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7th Grade Social Studies
Canada, Mexico, & U.S. History from the Revolution to Reconstruction
Class 47— Common Sense & Declaration of Independence
December 7, 2015
Focus: Read the conversation below between Benjamin Harrison of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. Then, answer the questions.
“I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry,” said Harrison, “when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.”
· What had the two men just done?
· Why was it so dangerous?
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Student Objectives:
1. I will explain how Thomas Paine’s Common Sense influenced the colonists.
2. I will identify the main ideas of the Declaration of Independence.
3. I will determine how Americans responded to the Declaration of Independence.
Homework:
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 3 pgs 126-128 Stop @ New Jersey (due 12/8)
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 3 pgs 128-131 Start @ New Jersey (due 12/9)
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 3 pgs. 132-134 (due 12/10)
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 4 pgs. 135-139 (due 12/14)
-Public Reading of the Declaration due 12/11
-Chapter 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 Test Tuesday 12/15
1. The Price They Paid
2. Public Reading of Declaration
I. Common Sense
A. Thomas Paine
II. The Declaration of Independence
A. Signers
B. Vocab
C. Consequences
Key terms/ideas/ people/places:
Common Sense Thomas Paine John Hancock Thomas Jefferson Self-evident
Endowed Unalienable Loyalists Patriots Undecided
By the end of class today, I will be able to answer the following:
Who signed their name the largest on the Declaration?
When was the Declaration adopted?
Why were the signers were chased by the British?
Why was it common sense for the colonies to break away from Britain?
Who was Jefferson talking about when he stated “all men?”
THE PRICE THEY PAID
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr,, noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
Name:______Period:______
A “Public Reading” of the Declaration of Independence
One of our government’s most precious documents is the Declaration of Independence. Yet studies show that most Americans are hard-pressed to associate its eloquent passages with Thomas Jefferson who presented it to the Continental Congress in July of 1776. Perhaps it is because few have actually taken the time to read the Declaration. It is for this reason that your assignment is to engage in a somewhat “public reading” of this document. This assignment will familiarize you, and those who listen to you, with a portion of the content of this powerful declaration of our freedom from Great Britain.
Directions:
1. Invite at least two other people, one of whom must be an adult, to listen to your “public reading.”
2. Stand before your audience and read the attached excerpt from the Declaration.
3. Ask your audience members to add their signatures to this sheet as witnesses to the public reading.
4. Return this sheet as proof you completed the assignment.
Listeners Signatures:
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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government….
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Notes
Class 47— Common Sense & Declaration of Independence
December 7, 2015
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
o Paine
§ 39 years old
§ Failed at shopkeeper, husband, and corset maker
§ People thought Adams wrote it
· encourages the move toward freedom
· Claimed that it was simply a matter of common sense that an island could not rule a continent
· Paine soldiered with the common men in the trenches and they respected him for it. His nickname in the army was even Common Sense.
· Paine was an English radical, fighting for everybody’s rights.
· What is it about? (why the colonies should break away)
· What arguments did it make?
o Didn’t owe king loyalty
o setting up of king/queens wrong
§ “One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right of kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.”
o G.B. only helped colonies for own benefit
o owed nothing to England
o Poked fun at the claim that the king spoke directly to God
· 500,000 copies were produced
July 4, 1776-Declaration of Independence
Author-Thomas Jefferson
· Committee assigned the task of writing the Declaration: John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman
· Both Adams and Franklin decline to write it
· Jefferson considered unofficial draftsman of Continental Congress
o John Adams about Jefferson-“reputations of a masterly pen…, in consequence of a very handsome public paper which he had written for the House of Burgesses, which had given him the character of a fine writer.”
· Considered a minor administrative chore
· No one at the time considered the drafting of the Declaration as a major responsibility or honor
· Adams, perhaps exaggerating said it took Jefferson only a “a day or two” to write
· Jefferson was upset at the revisions
· “The People”-Jefferson developed his explanation based on who was not in the picture: infants, children, women, and slaves-“the people” included all the adult white males of the population
John Hancock
o Who is this man? (A Boston merchant and member of the Sons of Liberty.
The British regulars had orders to capture him at Concord. He is now
a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress.)
· Why did he make his signature so large?-Wanted the King to see it without his glasses
Richard Stockton- After signing Declaration of Independence he signs a declaration of allegiance to the King-only signer of the Declaration of independence to do so
What difficulties did Loyalists encounter?
a. Shunned by Patriots
b. Businesses boycotted
c. Vandalism
d. Physical threats
e. Pressure to leave for Canada, the West Indies, or Britain
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7th Grade Social Studies
Canada, Mexico, & U.S. History from the Revolution to Reconstruction
Class 48— New York and Nathan Hale
December 8, 2015
Focus: Why do you think George Washington made the following statement, “on our side the war should be defensive?”
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Student Objectives:
1. I will compare and contrast the Continental and British Armies.
2. I will identify the loss of New York as a terrible defeat for General Washington.
3. I will share the brave story of Nathan Hale.
Homework:
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 3 pgs 128-131 Start @ New Jersey (due 12/9)
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 3 pgs. 132-134 (due 12/10)
-Read and Outline Chapter 4, Section 4 pgs. 135-139 (due 12/14)
-Public Reading of the Declaration due 12/11
-Chapter 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 Test Tuesday 12/15
-Current Events: Women Warriors due 12/21
Handouts:
none
I. The two armies
A. Continental
B. British
II. New York
A. Epic Defeat
III. Nathan Hale
A. American Hero
Key terms/ideas/ people/places:
Battle of Long Island Continental Army British Army Nathan Hale
“How beautiful is death, when earn’d by virtue! Who would not be that youth? What pity is it That we can die but once to serve our country.”
By the end of class today, I will be able to answer the following:
Who volunteered for the dangerous mission to spy on the British in New York City?
What advantages did the Continental army have?
Where was one of Washington’s worst defeats?
Why was Washington so upset after losing New York?
How did Nathan Hale die?
Notes
Class 48— New York and Nathan Hale
December 8, 2015
· British
o Strengths
§ Highly trained, experienced-fight on five continents and defeated forces in Europe, India, North America, West Indies and Cuba
§ 2/3 of the British army in America
§ Navy, 70 ships-1/2 the force
§ “the most arrogant army in the world.”
§ Professional army, largest navy in world, officers who were veterans, availability of military supplies, and ready access to credit
§ Mercenaries
· 18,000-Hess-Hanau, Brunswick, Anspach-Bayreuth, Anhalt-Zerbst, and Hesse-Kassel
§ General Howe, General Clinton, and General Burgoyne best of the general officers in the British army
§ Soldiers called “Bloodybacks” and “Lobsters”
§ Average Length of service-7 years
§ Fleet of 427 ships equipped with 1,200 cannons to transport 32,000 soldiers and 10,000 sailors across the Atlantic. Largest amphibious operation ever attempted by any European power, with an attack force larger than the population of Philadelphia, the biggest city in America.
o Weaknesses
§ 3,000 miles from home
· Voyage took at least 2 months and sometimes three to four round trip
· Cramped quarters-can’t stand up between decks, nor sit up straight in their berths, 6 men per berth-supposed to hold 4, men slept in “spoon fashion”: in order to turn in bed, one would call “about face,” and they would all turn together
§ Get ambushed
§ Total cost- £52.5 million, national debt goes from £127- £232 million
§ British army would lose strength marching hither and yon across the vast American landscape in search of a strategic center of the rebellion that in fact did not exist-this is what actually happened
· Colonists
o Strategy
§ Captured ground, “a war of posts” was meaningless
§ The strategic key was the Continental Army. As long as it remained intact as an effective fighting force, the American Revolution remained alive. As long Washington held the army together, the British could not win the war, which in turn meant that they would eventually lose it
§ Space and time were on his side if he could keep the army united until the British will collapsed. And that is exactly what happened.
o Strengths
§ Defend homeland-“on our side the war should be defensive.”-G.W.