I.         Activating Prior Knowledge
           
You have read some of the quotes of the founding fathers and you have  learned about some of the philosophical view points of the Enlightenment. As you read the Declaration of  Independence, you will see a document that contains many of these  beliefs.
 
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
           
While reading the Declaration of  Independence, there are several things that you should be looking for within  the document. Why did the colonists declare their independence? What are  unalienable rights and do they apply to all people? Why are governments formed? What are justice, liberty, and equality? Why are this document and the Constitution  of the United States considered to be the two most important documents in  American history?
 
III.       Reading the Text (Read, Re-read, and Read Again)

The  Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
Action of Second  Continental Congress, July 4, 1776


The  unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

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. 

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
Why  is Thomas Jefferson writing The Declaration of Independence?

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,
 
Stop! Can you answer these  questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What  are the three basic rights of man and who bestows these rights? Be sure that you can explain what is meant by these rights. Why are governments created? From  whence do governments receive their power?

 --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,  laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such  form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be  changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath  shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,  than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same  Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their  right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new  Guards for their future security. 

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
When  is it right to overthrow a government? When is it not right to overthrow a government? What should a group do once an old government is  overthrown?

--Such  has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.  The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of  repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the  establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let  Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What  has been the “sufferance of these Colonies” and what are they “constrained” to do?

He  has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public  good. 

He  has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and  when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 
 
He  has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of  people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the  Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 
 
He  has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and  distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of  fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He  has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly  firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He  has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be  elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have  returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the  mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions  within.

Stop! Can you answer these  questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
How  did the king manipulate the legislative systems of the colonies? According to  the charges against King George III, did he treat the English citizens in  England, the same way that he treated the colonists?   Be able to give examples to support your response.

He  has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose  obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others  to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new  Appropriations of Lands. 

He  has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws  for establishing Judiciary powers. 

He  has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices,  and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He  has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to  harass our people, and eat out their substance. 

He  has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of  our legislatures.

He  has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil  power.

He  has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our  constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of  pretended Legislation: 

For  Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a  mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What  is the purpose of the previous lines? In essence, Jefferson is accusing King George III of declaring “martial law.” What is martial law? What evidence supports Jefferson’s claim? 

 
For  cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: 

For  imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of  the benefits of Trial by Jury: 

For  transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: 
 
For  abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province,  establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so  as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same  absolute rule into these Colonies: 

For  taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering  fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: 

For  suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power  to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What  economic hardships are imposed by the king? What judicial hardships are imposed?

He  has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging  War against us. 

He  has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the  lives of our people. 

He  is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat  the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of  Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally  unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. 

He  has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms  against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and  Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 

He  has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on  the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known  rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and  conditions.

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What  happens to governmental power when official groups are absent? What effect does this have on a society? Jefferson suggests that the king has “abdicated” his power in the colonies. How has the king “abdicated” his power? In addition, Jefferson accuses the king of instigating conflict with the colonists. Give an example of how the king was instigating conflict and creating  conflict. 

In  every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most  humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated  injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a  Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor  have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them  from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable  jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our  emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and  magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to  disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections  and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of  consanguinity. 

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
How  did the colonists respond to the treatment of the king? How effective was their  response? (How was it received?)

We  must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation,  and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace  Friends. 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 the 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. 

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
How  must the colonists respond to the mistreatment of the king and the lack of response on the part of the British parliament?

The  signers of the Declaration:
New Hampshire - Josiah Bartlett, William  Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts - John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island - Stephen  Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut - Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York - William Floyd,  Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey - Richard  Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark 
Pennsylvania - Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John  Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross 
Delaware - Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean 
Maryland - Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of  Carrollton
Virginia - George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina - William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn 
South Carolina - Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr.,
Arthur Middleton
Georgia - Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton 
 
Stop!  Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
Signing The Declaration of Independence was  an act of treason, punishable by death. John Hancock’s signature is the largest  on the document and it is said that the reason he did this was so that Old King  George could read it without his spectacles. Why would Hancock and the rest  sign their name knowing that it was an act of treason and that if the  revolution was unsuccessful, they would most likely die for their  crime?

 IV.       Personal  Reflection

Part 1 – Select a philosophical belief from one of the previously studied Enlightenment thinkers and find an example of that belief in The  Declaration of Independence. In your response, be sure to give the name of
the philosopher, his belief, and the example from the text.


Part 2 – Pretend for a moment that you were at the signing of The Declaration of Independence. Would  you have signed the document? Why or why not? Are there any parts of the document that you would have disagreed? If so, what are they? If you had to chose one line from the document that you consider to be the most powerful, which line is it and why?

Part 3 – Pretend that you are King George and you have just  received this document in your daily mail, what is your reaction and  response?

V.        Peer  Reflection
Read one of your classmates response and respond to what they
have written.


Source:
  http://teachers.spart5.k12.sc.us/grantdl/?page_id=12
 
Picture
I. Activating Prior Knowledge

According to the Google search engine, propaganda is “information of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular cause or point of view.” In this activity, you are going to be looking at propaganda that espoused the idea of revolution.

II.  Setting A Purpose for Reading

As you look at the following pieces of propaganda, try to identify the perspective of the artist or creator. What, if any, of the information would be considered either biased or misleading?

III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-read, and Read Again)

Boston Tea Party
Source: http://king.portlandschools.org/files/onexpedition/expeditionproducts/sparks/files/sparks/teaparty/teaparty.htm

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is taking place in this picture? What is the perspective of the artist? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in this picture?

Picture
The Repeal, of the Funeral Procession of Miss Americ-Stamp

Source:http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a05303/

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is taking place in this picture? What is the perspective of the artist? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in this picture?

Picture

Picture
Don’t Tread on Me!
Source:http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/ingemusings/archives/2010/07/ventura-county-1.html

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is taking place in this picture? What is the perspective of the artist? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in this picture?

Picture
La Marseillaise – French National Anthem

The French National Anthem was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle as a rallying call of the French Revolution.



1.  Arise you children of our motherland,
Oh now is here our glorious day!
Over us the bloodstained banner
Of tyranny holds sway!
Of tyranny holds sway!
Oh, do you hear there in our fields
The roar of those fierce fighting men?
Who came right here into our midst
To slaughter sons, wives and kin,
Your country

To arms, oh citizens!
Form up in serried ranks!
March on, march on!
And drench our fields
With their tainted blood!

2.  Supreme devotion to our Motherland,
Guides and sustains avenging hands,
Liberty, oh dearest Liberty,
Come fight with your shielding bands,
Come fight with your shielding bands!
Beneath our banner come, oh Victory,
Run at your soul-stirring cry.
Oh come, come see your foes now die,
Witness your pride and our glory.
 
To arms, oh citizens!
Form up in serried ranks!
March on, march on!
And drench our fields
With their tainted blood!

Source: Stearns, Perter N., Gosch, Stephen, S., & Erwin P. Grieshaber. Documents in World History: Volume 2 – The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present. New York: Pearson, 2009, p. 132.

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is being described in this song? What is the perspective of the song writer? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in the song?

Execution of Louis XVI 
Source: http://www.theculturewatch.com/the-french-revolution

Picture
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Source: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france/institutions-and-politics/the-symbols-of-the-republic/article/liberty-equality-fraternity

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is being described in these pictures? What is the perspective of the artist? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in the pictures? What do the symbols suggest?

Picture

Picture
Haitian Revolution Begins with a Slave Revolt





Source: http://www.augustine.com/history/black_history/jorge_biassou/

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is being described in these pictures? What is the perspective of the artist? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in the pictures? What do the symbols suggest?

Picture
Hidalgo













Source: http://www.remezcla.com/2011/latin/el-grito-de-dolores-mexican-independence/

Stop! Can you answer these questions? If not, go back and re-read the passage. What is being described in these pictures? What is the perspective of the artist? How are liberty, freedom, and equality being expressed in the pictures? What do the symbols suggest?

IV. Personal Reflection - Respond to the following questions in your blog. Be sure to include quotes from the text to support your response.

Part 1 Response  - Why were pictures and songs used to convey the message of revolution? If you were a revolutionary leader, which of the following would be the best way of communicating the idea of revolution to the masses: essays, letters, public speeches, slogans and pictures, music, books, cartoons, or an idea of your own? Explain your choice.

Part 2 Response – Select one of the pictures or song and explain why it should be considered propaganda. Give evidence from your selection to support your response.

V.  Peer Reflection – Read three classmates’ reflections and respond to what they have written
.