The Sugar Act
The Stamp Act
The Formation of the Sons of Liberty
The Townshend Acts
Non-consumption and Non-importation
The Boston Massacre
The Formation of the Committees of Correspondence
The Boston Tea Party
The Coercive Acts
The First Continental Congress
Lexington and Concord
The Second Continental Congress
The Battle of Bunker Hill
Washington Takes Command of the Continental Army
Declarations of IndependenceOn this page:
For Teachers » Core Concepts
CONCEPT 8
History is a process involving a series of decisions that could have had different outcomes, not a set of preordained events that simply unfolded over time.
What if things had gone differently?
Perhaps the most difficult thing for students of history to understand is that things didn’t have to happen the way they did. Suppose the Virginia Stamp Act Resolves had been reported in a different manner in colonial newspapers? What if Paul Revere had painted a different picture in his engraving of the Boston Massacre? Suppose the first Continental Congress had approved Joseph Galloway’s “Plan of Union”? What if no one had fired a shot on Lexington Green on 19 April 1775? How might events have been different? Would independence have occurred?
- individual and group decisions affect the course of history
- decisions are both affected by and in turn affect decisions made by others
- neither decisions nor outcomes are inevitable; they could have been made differently with different results
GOALS:
As a result of using this website, students will understand that...- identifying pertinent documents:
- finding at least two documents from the Coming of the American Revolution website
- explaining how they illustrate this goal
- interpreting the documents
- conducting a Document Analysis (see Document Analysis Worksheet)
- answering Questions to Consider (writing and discussion prompts) at bottom of each document description
- investigating the significance and interconnections of the documents
- following one or more of the Further Exploration research assignments and project suggestions at bottom of each document description
- drawing conclusions backed by evidence from documents and introductory essays
- answering the following Framing Questions (drawn directly from the stated Goals above) based on those conclusions and that evidence collected from the documents:
- Choosing two or three of the fifteen topics, demonstrate how decisions affected subsequent events
- Choosing two or three of the fifteen topics, demonstrate how decisions were shaped by previous decisions and how they shaped decisions that followed
- Taking any of the decisions cited above, explain a different choice that could have been made and describe the possible effects or events that might have resulted from that choice
OBJECTIVES:
Students demonstrate their understanding of this concept by...Documents
The Stamp Act
A Tax not too Burdensome
An Effigy Swings and a House Crumbles
The Formation of the Sons of Liberty
"Conducted to the General Satisfaction of the Publick"
The Townshend Acts
Franklin, of Philadelphia
The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, before an August Assembly, relating to the Repeal of the Stamp-Act, &c.
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Non-Consumption and Non-importation
Merchants vote: block English trade!
Non-importation is dead
"Extract of a Letter from London, dated July 27, 1770."
Article from page 3 of The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal, Number 810, 15 October 1770
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The Boston Massacre
A Tumultuous Week in Boston
"Boston, March 12. The Town of Boston affords a recent and melancholy Demonstration ..."
Article from pages 2-3 of The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal, Number 779, 12 March 1770
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Preston Speaks Out
"Case of Capt. Thomas Preston of the 29th Regiment."
Article from pages 1 and 2 of the Supplement to the Boston Evening-Post, Number 1813, 25 June 1770
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Tories Strike First
A Sinister Plot?
The Formation of the Committees of Correspondence
In Boston's Footsteps
"divine spirit of freedom"
![Boston, April 20th, 1773. Sir, The efforts made by the legislative [sic] of this province ...](/database/images/bostonapril20th_1_th.jpg "Boston, April 20th, 1773. Sir, The efforts made by the legislative [sic] of this province ..."){kind=small}
Boston, April 20th, 1773. Sir, The efforts made by the legislative [sic] of this province ...
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The Boston Tea Party
An Intrepid Exertion of Popular Power
Coercive Acts
"commotions and insurrections"
"I would have done what I could"
Lexington and Concord
Sketches of the Countryside
Testimony of the Midnight Rider
"Thus this Unfortunate Affair has happened"
A Circumstantial Account of an Attack that happened on the 19th of April 1775, on his Majesty's Troops ...
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The Militia Pleads Innocent
A Narrative, of the Excursion and Ravages of the King's Troops Under the Command of General Gage, on the nineteenth of April, 1775: Together with the Depositions ...
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The Second Continental Congress
"the die Is cast"
![Letter (draft) from Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, [3] February 1775](/database/images/aa17750203_1_th.jpg "Letter (draft) from Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, [3] February 1775"){kind=small}
A Spirited Manifesto
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, Now Met in General Congress at Philadelphia
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Marshalling the Troops
Issued in Defense of American Liberty
"Philadelphia. In Congress, Thursday, June 22, 1775."
Article from page 1 of The New-England Chronicle: or, The Essex Gazette, Volume VIII, Number 381, 9-16 November 1775
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An "intricate and complicated subject"
The Battle of Bunker Hill
"Masters of these heights"
"orders to march"
"the arrows of death"
Washington Takes Command of the Continental Army
"Chief of all Forced Rais’d"
How to Feed 20,372 Men
Minutes of a conference, held by the delegates of the honble Continental Congress with General Washington, 18-22 October 1775
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