Digital History
Digital History: British Mercantilism and the Cost of Empire [Pdf]
Learn about the theory of mercantilism and how it affected the economies of the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Practice making a bar graph showing the value of exports to and imports from England between 1700 and 1774 with...
Digital History
Digital History: The French and Indian War [Pdf]
Read about George Washington's role in the beginning of the French and Indian War, which started in the wilderness of the English colonies and spread to Europe. Was this war a major cause of the American Revolution? Students are asked to...
Digital History
Digital History: The Boston Massacre [Pdf]
This excellent recounting of the days that led up the Boston Massacre and the massacre itself fills in a lot of information that is lacking in textbooks because of space contraints. Read about the British soldiers' and the colonists'...
Digital History
Digital History:the Tea Party and Intolerable Acts [Pdf]
Read about the problems Great Britain was having with its restive American colonists who objected to taxation on their beloved tea. See how the Tea Act resulted in the Boston Tea Party and how British attemps to punish the colonists for...
Digital History
Digital History: The Battle of Lexington [Pdf]
Primary sources make for good reading. Here find accounts by the colonial militia commander, the British commander, and accounts by soldiers themselves that tell of their impressions of what happened at the Battle of Lexington. [PDF]
Digital History
Digital History: By What Right [Pdf]
Two opposing philosophies concerning the relationship between government and its citizens were expressed by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke in the 17th century. Compare these two philosophies and see how they were related to the colonists'...
Digital History
Digital History: Declaring Independence [Pdf]
Follow the steps that Americans took before declaring their independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence set out the ideals and reasons behind this stunning move. Use the student exercises to understand the different levels...
Digital History
Digital History: Historians on the Causes of the American Revolution [Pdf]
Read how the understanding of the causes of American Revolution has been portrayed over years by reading excerpts from writings of 19th and 20th century historians. The suggested student exercises are excellent and ask students to use...
Digital History
Digital History: The Age of Constitution Writing [Pdf]
See how colonial and state constitutions differed and how the idea of a social contract between a government and its citizens is reflected in the state constitutions. The second half of this site gives an abbreviated text of the Articles...
Digital History
Digital History: The Age of Social Change [Pdf]
Find the text of James Madison's tenth Federalist paper in which he expresses the idea of how government can provide the need for stability that citizens require. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: The Road to Philadelphia [Pdf]
The new United States government had many problems under the Articles of Confederation. Find out what these problems were, but also discover some of the successes accomplished under that constitution. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: Representation: By State or by Population? [Pdf]
Read the opinions of some of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in regard to the very thorny issue of how states would be represented in the national legislature. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: Local Control vs. National Authority [Pdf]
One of the debates at the Constitutional Convention centered on whether states or a national government would have greater authority. Read a reconstruction of speeches given by delegates to the convention concerning this important issue....
Digital History
Digital History: Majority Rule vs. Checks and Balances [Pdf]
It is interesting to read how the delegates to the Constitutional Convention thought as they debated important issues such as the checks and balances that should be written into the new Constitution. Read these conversations based on...
Digital History
Digital History: A Bill of Rights? [Pdf]
There was no Bill of Rights attached to the original Constitution, but it was a topic of discussion. Read a reconstruction of speeches of delegates to the Constitutional Convention who debated for and against the inclusion of a way to...
Digital History
Digital History: The Constitution [Pdf]
Find the text of the Constitution and amendments along with an explanation of each article and section. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: The Debate Over Ratifying the Constitution [Pdf]
Read about why ratification of the United States' new constitution was such a struggle. Find arguments for and against ratification, and discover who supported the Federalist position and who the Anti-Federalist position. [PDF]
Digital History
Digital History: The Founding Fathers' Motives [Pdf]
Read some historians' views about the Founding Fathers and their interests, perhaps economic, in writing the Constitution. Historians' views have changed over time, and in the suggested student exercises, students are asked to assess...
Digital History
Digital History: The New Nation [Pdf]
Many problems existed for the new United States. Read about issues facing George Washington as the new President, and find out about the major successes of the first Congress. [PDF]
Digital History
Digital History: Hamilton and Jefferson the Men and Their Philosophies [Pdf]
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton played a huge role not only in crafting important documents in U.S. history, but also by serving as secretaries in George Washington's first cabinet. Read about their diametrically opposing...
Digital History
Digital History: Paying the National Debt [Pdf]
Read about Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, as he tried to find a way to pay off the national debt. See how his ideas were opposed by James Madison, and why the issue was not just economic, but political. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: Hamilton, Jefferson, First National Bank of the Us [Pdf]
As with so many other ideas, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were on opposite sides of the formation of a national bank. Read why Hamilton thought it was a great idea, why Jefferson opposed it, and what they each wrote to...
Digital History
Digital History: Neutrality and the Jay Treaty [Pdf]
See why a war between Great Britain and France showed the vulnerablity of the new United States. Should the United States help France, after that country gave so much in the Revolutionary War, and risk the economic and military enmity of...
Digital History
Digital History: Sedition Act and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions [Pdf]
Read about the foreign policy problems the United States was having at the beginning of the Adams administration. See what led up the the passage of the Sedition Act and some ramifications of it, and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions...