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Liberty Online: A Summary View of the Rights of British America
Written before the Declaration of Independence, this lengthy essay by Thomas Jefferson argued that the British Government was treating America unfairly. This site contains full text and footnotes within text hyperlinked to panel at...
The History Cat
The History Cat: Countdown to Revolution
Begins with a description of the British system of mercantilism that was imposed on the American colonies along with the taxes levied through the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act. The Americans complained that it was taxation without...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Beginnings of Revolutionary Thinking
The American Revolution was close to 200 years in the making. Read about the philosophies and attitudes toward government, as well as the diverse populations who came to the British colonies, that eventually fomented rebellion.
Digital History
Digital History: Was the Revolution Justified?
A terrific look at the twenty-seven specific reasons Thomas Jefferson cited in the Declaration of Independence and the support for those reasons of why the colonists felt justified in breaking the bonds with Great Britain.
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams was born on September 22, 1722, in Quincy, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard College at the age of 14. During the 1760s, Adams became a leader of the Patriot resistance to the British government's attempt to tax the American...
Read Works
Read Works: Some Laws Are Intolerable
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the British Acts that lead to the Boston Tea Party and to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in...
Curated OER
Map: Imperialism and the Balance of Power
World maps of the Colonial Empires of 1914 as well as their revenues during that time period. There are also maps depicting urban growth, type of government, wars and atrocities, and living conditions of the world in 1900.
Curated OER
Map: Imperialism and the Balance of Power
World maps of the Colonial Empires of 1914 as well as their revenues during that time period. There are also maps depicting urban growth, type of government, wars and atrocities, and living conditions of the world in 1900.
Yale University
Avalon Project: Mayflower Compact 1620
Read the actual words of these earliest Americans and their attempt at self-government with the writing of the Mayflower Compact. Link directly to other colonial charter pages.
University of Nebraska
Digital Commons: The Constitutions of the Free Masons (1734)
The 1734 American edition of the freemasons' constitution in electronic form, a reprint of the 1723 version from London, England. An abstract is provided here, and a link for downloading the complete document. The abstract states that...
Curated OER
Portrait Showing Edmund Burke
A one-page summary of the life and philosophy of influential eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish Parliamentarian Edmund Burke, whose theories of government led him to sympathize with the American colonists against the British crown, to...
US Department of State
U.s. Department of State: Albany Plan of Union, 1754
Learn all about the Albany Plan of Union from this article from the U.S. Department of State. Find out why it was proposed, what the plan would provide for, and the results.
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: John Adams
Short, overweight, and quick-tongued, John Adams hardly fits the model of the typical Founder. But Adams's contributions to American independence and the formation of the United States government were great. Adams penned defenses of...
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Connecticut Constitution, 1639 1789
Develops the concept of "constitutionalism" as related to the U.S. Constitution and Connecticut's role in the Constitutional Congress and Convention. An overview of Connecticut's colonial history, and judicial origins and organization,...
Other
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission: William Penn
This resource presents a biographical essay about William Penn that highlights his role in the establishment of Pennsylvania.