What makes you think your complaints are worthwhile? Aren't there good reasons why things are the way they are? Why should things as they are be changed? Would it be possible to summarize the thinking behind your desire for change in a single sentence? (statement of beliefs, or the thinking behind the complaints).To whom would you send your complaints? Why? What reasons would you give for your decision to write out your complaints? (Preamble).This discussion serves as a prewriting activity for the writing assignment.) (Note to the teacher: The following questions correspond to the sections of the Declaration, as noted in parentheses, which will be discussed later. As they begin to compose their document, they should consider the following questions. So, What are You Going to Do About It?Īsk the students to imagine that, in hopes of effecting some changes, they are going to compose a document based on their complaints to be sent to the appropriate audience. WHO makes the rules they don't like, WHO decides if they are fair or not, HOW does one get them changed, WHAT does it mean to be independent from the rules, and finally, HOW does a group of people declare that they will no longer follow the rules? Activity 2. It's important to understand the complaints of the colonists as one step in a process involving careful deliberation and attempts to redress grievances.Īsk questions to help your students consider their concerns in a deliberate way. There is no reason to think people were any different in 1776. There are moments when all of us are more eager to express what's wrong than we are to think critically about the problem and possible solutions. Mindful of both, the framers created the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in which the colonies declared their freedom from British rule. The American Revolution brewed in a context of Americans' concern over contemporary events as well as awareness of historic precedents. In the succeeding years, similar taxes were levied by British Parliament and protested by many Americans. The source? The Magna Carta, written in 1215, 550 years earlier.Īmerican resistance forced the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766. shall be imposed., unless by common counsel." In protesting the act, they cited the following prohibition against taxation without consent: "No scutage. Opponents of the Stamp Act of 1765 declared that the act-which was designed to raise money to support the British army stationed in America after 1763 by requiring Americans to buy stamps for newspapers, legal documents, mortgages, liquor licenses, even playing cards and almanacs-was illegal and unjust because it taxed Americans without their consent.
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