Your nation is on the brink of war. What has caused this?
Unit IIIa
A Letter from Boston
Place yourself (same age, family situation, and relative occupation) in early 1770s Boston. You are inspired to write a letter to someone (family, friend, co-worker, etc.) outside of the area about what you have seen or heard happening with regards to the growing rift with Britain. Below are questions you must address in your letter.
Your nation is on the brink of war. What has caused this?
In your current situation, how has the foreign government impacted you, and what you are seeing evolve as the American government?
Are you hoping to see a new nation emerge, or are you hoping for a reconciliation with Britain?
You are encouraged to be creative with the assignment, but make sure you are using facts from what you have read and learned to guide you. Your letter must be a minimum of one page, double spaced, and written in Times New Roman 12 point font.
*Note that the taxes aren’t actually as high as you have been led to believe, but the point is that they should not be assigned at all without your consent. It was between 1.9 and 2.1 percent, total. It is often depicted as an issue of rates so high that starvation was an issue, and that really wasn’t the case.
Acknowledge that this is a debate, that a certain percentage are radicalized for independence, but there are is also a law-and-order group who find this horrific, and want to smooth out issues with their home country. Just acknowledging that this is going to be a messy issue that might result in Americans killing each other can add to the complexity. There were many home-grown Americans who were conflicted about the issue, and had to evacuate Boston after the British left. Yet, the overwhelming majority of textbooks forgets them.
For reference, think about how you would feel if you were in California, and people were debating breaking from Washington? That’s a pretty accurate way to look at it through their eyes. Sure, not everybody loves what’s going on in Washington, but are things getting that bad?
For those of you who are going to go dump tea into the harbor, justify the act of theft and vandalism to me. I mean, would you do it to the Best Buy to protest foreign goods? No, because we have laws that tell us that we shouldn’t do that (hint, they did then, too). I find it ironic when people in law enforcement are really enthusiastic about how they would have been breaking the law–but there are reasons to do it. Remember that this is part of a critical thinking essay.
Lastly, talk to me about who you are listening to, who you are reading. There are some amazing writers and speakers who are coming out at the time. What are they saying?
PS – the term Patriot was used by both sides. Revolutionaries didn’t have a lockdown on it until they kicked out their Loyalist neighbors, sold their estates and furniture, and started writing their own histories. Just so you know, at the time they used the term Whigs for themselves, and Tories for the Loyalists.
Unit VIIa