Module Two Concepts to Learn

Module Two Concepts to Learn

Revolutionary Ideas to The American Revolution

Concepts in this unit/module

• Students will understand and identify the important ideas contained in the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, Mayflower Compact, and Common Sense. 

• Students will evaluate the impact of founding documents

• Students will trace the causal relationships between English/British policies, English responses to colonial grievances, and the writing of the Declaration of Independence. 

• Students will recognize the underlying themes of English colonial policies that formed the basis of the American colonists’ desire for independence. 

•  Students will analyze ideas from the Declaration of Independence 

Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact, provided a basis for order and government until the settlers could legalize their status. This document introduced the idea of self-government in the colonies. The Plymouth colonists wanted a government based on the consent of the governed and on fair laws that applied equally to everyone. 

Multiple Choice

The diagram shows that the colonists formed some of their political views from some historical documents. Which phrase completes the diagram?

• rule of law

• self-government

• natural rights

• economic freedom

The Mayflower Compact

The colonists who wrote the Compact agreed to follow the rules that they had created.

Magna Carta

Ideas from the Magna Carta (limited government,habeas corpus, and separation of powers) all made their way into the United States Constitution. 

Multiple Choice

Which documents influenced the colonists’ views of government?

• Common Sense, Articles of Confederation, Declaration of the Rights of Man

• Virginia Declaration of Rights, Common Sense, Bill of Rights

• Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Common Sense

• Magna Carta, Iroquois Constitution, Common Sense

Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Common Sense

These three core documents (one British document and two colonial documents) impacted the colonists’ viewpoints on the role and purpose of government. 

James Otis

At the urging of James Otis, Jr., all of the colonial representative assemblies were invited to a New York City meeting in October 1765. At this meeting the argument that Parliament had no right to tax citizens who did not have representation was made popular. 

Multiple Choice

Which English policy is protested here?

• representation

• taxes

• both of these things

• none of these things

Reasons for the American Revolution

Students will recognize the underlying themes of English colonial policies concerning taxation, representation, and individual rights that formed the basis of the American colonists’ desire for independence. 

Multiple Choice

Which document addressed colonial concerns about English policies?

• Declaration of Independence

• Mayflower Compact

• U.S. Constitution

• Bill of Rights

Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence was written by the colonists

to outline the reasons why they were unhappy with English policies.

Ideas from the Declaration of Independence 

• explain the concept of natural rights

• identify the natural rights specifically expressed

• analyze the relationship between natural rights and the role of government 

• recognize the connection between specific grievances in the Declaration of Independence and natural rights’ violations 

• recognize colonial complaints listed