Essay

One: Briefly identify 4 of the following. What is the significance of the below issues, people, or events in the course of the American Revolution? 40 pts (10 pts each). Around 2-4 sentences are required to identify the event, person, or issue and indicate its significance in the bigger picture of the American Revolution. Choose the 4 you are most knowledgeable about. (1) “No taxation without representation” vs. “virtual representation” (Hint: respond to both) (2) The Stamp Act Congress’s edict to Parliament in Oct. 1765 (Hint: this is the colonial response against the Stamp Act–not the Stamp Act itself. (3) The Townshend Duties of 1767 (4) The Quebec Act of 1774 (5) The British military objective vs. the Patriot military objective in the war (Hint: respond to both) (6) The Battle of Saratoga (7) Republican Motherhood II. Part Two: Give clear details and the significance for the following two questions on American colonial resistance and revolt. 40 pts (20 pts each). Around 4-6 sentences are required to expound clear details and the significance in the march toward revolution. You must answer both questions. (1) Name the constitutional liberties or rights that American colonists felt like they were being denied which drove them to resist British imperial impositions. Hint: what colonial rights are being denied under the British Constitution? (2) What political, economic, and military strategies did the American colonists adopt in order to effectively resist British imperial impositions? Hint: try to give two examples for each type of strategy. III. Part Three: Read and analyze/interpret the below primary source document and explain how it illuminates the nature of female protest during the American Revolution. What are women’s grievances? What types of changes do women expect after the Revolution? What does the document tell us about the tactics or rhetoric women adopted in their resistance? Do not forget to note the context (where it falls in the chronology of the American Revolution), the author, and the intended audience. What is the significance of the document? 20 pts. Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren (Braintree, MA; April 27, 1776): He is very saucy to me in return for a List of Female Grievances which I transmitted to him. I think I will get you to join me in a petition to Congress. I thought it was very probable our wise Statesmen would erect a New Government and form a new code of Laws. I ventured to speak a word in behalf of our Sex, who are rather hardly dealt with by the Laws of England which gives such unlimited power to the Husband to use his wife ill. I requested that our Legislators would consider our case and as all Men of Delicacy and Sentiment are averse to Exercising the power they possess, yet as there is a natural propensity in Human Nature to domination, I thought the most generous plan was to put it out of power of the Arbitrary and tyranick to injure us with impunity by Establishing some Laws in our favour upon just and Liberal principals. I believe I even threatened fomenting a Rebellion in case we were not considered, and assured him we would not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we had neither a voice, nor representation. In return he tells me he cannot but Laugh at My Extrodonary Code of Laws. That he had heard their Struggle had loosened the bands of Government, that children and apprentices were dissabedient, that Schools and Colledges were grown turbulent, that Indians slighted their Guardians, and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters. But my Letter was the first intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown discontented….It would be bad policy to grant us greater power say they since under all the disadvantages we Labour we have the assendancy over their Hearts. Abigail Adams to John Adams (Braintree, MA: May 7 1776): I can not say that I think you very generous to the Ladies, for whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives. But you must remember that Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken—and notwithstanding all you wise Laws and Maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our Masters, and without violence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet—