EDWARD R. MURROW HIGH SCHOOL MR. PUELLE

MR. A. BARGE, PRINCIPAL AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

American Experience Fall Semester HOMEWORK PACKET ONE

Directions:

·HOMEWORK WILL BE COLLECTED WEEKLY. ON AVERAGE THREE HOMEWORKS WILL BE COLLECTED WEEKLY. It is your responsibility to hand in your homework on the correct collection day.

·MY COLLECTION DAY IS ______

·You are to use the documents on this sheet to complete the following homework assignments

·You are responsible for making sure that that your homework is handed in on time. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to make sure that you make up your homework assignment and hand it in.

·One sentence answers are not acceptable, nor are incomplete assignments, lists, charts (unless it specifically asks you for it). All answers need to be complete and thorough. All of your answers MUST be in your own words. Answers that are copied from the packet will not be accepted and you will not have the opportunity to make it up.

·NO LATE HOMEWORKS WILL BE ACCEPTED! NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

·Here is a listing of generals historical websites with very good links to more specific historical websites that will help you to complete the assignments for the course:

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Unit 1: The American Revolution

1. Colonial Settlement (Read the passage and chart below and answer the questions that follow)

Who Came to the Colonies

The settlers were a diverse group. They included Africans brought against their will. Scotch-Irish from Northern Ireland, Germans, Portuguese, Jews, Swedes, Dutch, French, Welsh, Irish, Scots, Belgians, and Swiss. In the colonial period, a large number of European immigrants came as indentured servants who contracted to work as many as seven years to repay the cost of their passage or work off their prison sentence. Most of the colony’s population, however, was English. This fact would greatly affect the nature of the government that developed in the United States.

Why They Came
Religious Reasons
Some colonies were founded for religious reasons, but the colonists represented different religions and had different motivations. Massachusetts, for example, was founded by Pilgrims, or Separatists, who had left the Church of England, and Puritans who wanted to reform (change) it. Colonies controlled by the Puritans allowed no religious freedom. Rhode Island., on the other hand, permitted all religions. Pennsylvania was founded as a refuge for Quakers; Maryland for Roman Catholics / Economic Reasons
Economic motives were a major factor in the founding of Virginia, Delaware, and New Netherlands (later New York), as well as South Carolina. Georgia, the last of the colonies to be founded, was settled by debtors. / Political Reasons
Separatists and Puritans came to North America after having fallen into political disfavor because of their objections to the established Church of England and the king who headed it. Quakers, Catholics, French Huguenots, and Jews came to escape religious intolerance and even governmental persecution.

a. In your own words, why were people coming to the American colonies?

b. Write a diary entry as if you were an indentured servant coming to the American colonies. Explain why you are going and what you hope to achieve.

2. The Relationship (Read the chart below and answer the questions that follow)

Analyzing the Relationship Between the Political and Economic Relationship Between the Colonists and Great Britain
Before 1763 / After 1763
The Economic Relationship

The Navigation Acts:
The EnglishNavigation Acts were a series of laws which restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England (after 1707 Great Britain) and its colonies. The Navigation Acts required all imports either to be sold in England or bought from England no matter what price could be obtained elsewhere. The rationale was the theory of Mercantilism: the more money one country or colony has, the more power it will hold.
The Political Relationship
Pre-occupied with France, Britain governed the colonies under a policy known as salutary neglect, or healthy ignoring of the colonies. This policy resulted in the colonists gaining more independence in their trade policies and in local self government. / The Proclamation of 1763, signed by King George III of England, prohibits any English settlement west of the Appalachian mountains and requires those already settled in those regions to return east in an attempt to ease tensions with Native Americans.


  1. How did the economic relationship between the colonists and the British change?
  2. How did the political relationship between the colonists and the British change?

3. No Taxation Without Representation! (Read the passage and document below and answer the questions)

Historical Background

While England found governing its colonies in America difficult, it also found it expensive. Britain had recently fought the French and Indian War. The war was very expensive for England, and it now needed more money to maintain soldiers in all these areas. In 1764, the British government decided to tax the colonists to pay a share of the costs (Sugar Act). The British taxed all sugar bought from the French or Spanish. The British then created the Stamp Act, requiring all newspapers and legal documents to carry a stamp purchased from the British. While the British continued to enforce their control of the colonies, they refused to allow the colonies government representation in England. The British believed that their own appointed government officials adequately represented the colonies. Hence the term “No Taxation Without Representation.” (CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE)

Stamp Act Congress (1765)

The members of this group, who are devoted and who feel honor toward the king and his government, feel our duty to make the following statements. We speak about the rights and freedoms of the colonies and the problems that recent acts of Parliament in England have caused the colonies.

I)The King’s citizens in these colonies should be as obedient to the King of England as anyone born within the lands controlled by England. The King’s citizens should also follow the lawmaking group called Parliament.

II)The King’s citizens should have the same rights and freedoms as any person born in areas controlled by England.

III)It is extremely important for people’s freedom, and it is also the right of all Englishmen, that no taxes be passed on them except when they agree to those taxes on their own or through their representatives.

IV)The people of the colonies are not represented in Parliament back in England. And because of where they live, the people of the colonies cannot be represented in Parliament.

V)The only representatives of the people of the colonies are people chosen by the people of the colonies. No taxes ever have been passed, or can ever be passed against the colonies, unless it is done by the local government and representatives of the colonies.

a. Why did England start taxing the colonies?

b. How did the colonists respond (Refer specifically to the document included)?

4. Growing Tensions (Read the timeline and quote below and answer the questions that follow)

Timeline of Tension

1764 – Sugar Act

1765 – Stamp Act

1766 – Parliament repeals Stamp Act

1767 – Townshend Acts -British passed new taxes on glass, paper, teas, paints and other goods shipped to the colonies from Britain

1770- Boston Massacre –Three American colonists were killed by British soldiers and eight more were wounded, two of which died later in a protest

1773 – Tea Act allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonists, bypassing the colonial wholesale merchants. This allowed the company to sell their tea cheaper than the colonial merchants who were selling smuggled tea from Holland.

1773 - Boston Tea Party – American colonists, disguised as Native Americans, dumped 45 tons of tea into Boston Harbor

1774 – Intolerable Acts – The British close the port of Boston until the British East India Co. they were paid for their loss of $ from Tea Party, they extend the Quartering Act (colonial citizens would be required to house and feed, in their private homes, British officers and troops) just to name a few.

a. Explain Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.”

b. Do you agree with Thomas Paine? Be sure to use at least two examples from the timeline above to support your answer.

5. The American Revolution (Read the passage and chart below and answer the questions that follow)

Military Strengths and Weaknesses During the American Revolution
United States Strengths
  • Familiarity of home ground
  • Leadership of George Washington
  • Inspiring cause of independence
/ United States Weaknesses
  • Most soldiers were untrained and undisciplined
  • Shortage of food and ammunition
  • Inferior navy
  • No central government to enforce wartime policies

British Strengths
  • Strong well trained army and navy
  • Strong central government with available finds
  • Support of colonial loyalists (colonists who supported British rule) and Native Americans
/ British Weaknesses
  • Large distance separating Britain from battlefields.
  • Troops unfamiliar with terrain
  • Weak military leaders
  • Sympathy of certain British politicians for the American cause

The Battle of Saratoga – 1777 - Turning point of the Revolutionary War in that it convinced France to enter the war on the side of the Americans. The American victory convinced France that America really did have a chance of winning. Soon thereafter, French money and supplies (and eventually, troops and ships) were making their way to America.

a. Why was The Battle of Saratoga seen as a turning point in the American Revolution?

b. Using the information from the chart above, could the American colonists have defeated the British without the

help from the French? EXPLAIN

6. The American Revolution and Thematic Essay Writing: Below you will find a Thematic Essay question. Read the question carefully and write an introduction, with a THESIS STATEMENT, as if you were answering the essay question. Remember, you are not writing a full essay,just an introduction in response to this question. Be sure to underline your thesis statement in your introduction paragraph.

Theme: Independence

UNIT 2: The Constitution

7. Creating a Constitution (Read the passage and chart below and answer the questions that follow)

The new nation’s first attempt at creating a government was the Articles of Confederation which established a weak, ineffective central government. The Americans, afraid of a monarch, figured that if the central government was weak, no one person could take over. Instead, people identified with their state, not their nation, and the government was powerless to keep peace and order.

In 1787, Madison, Hamilton and other nationalists gathered 55 delegates from 12 states in Philadelphia to discuss changing and strengthening the Articles. In order to create a Constitution, the delegates had to address some of the major debates that still existed including representation and counting slaves.

  1. Why did 55 delegates gather at a “Constitutional Convention” in 1787?
  2. What impact did theses delegates have on the United States?

8. The Constitution (Read the chart below and answer the question that follows)

Popular sovereignty / Limited government / Separation of powers / Checks and balances / Judicial review / Federalism
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union…"
Opening line to the United States Constitution. / Congress shall make no law…
These words are often the first few words of an amendment to the Constitution.
An amendment is a change to the Constitution. / Article I, Section 1: All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States...
Article II, Section 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.
Article III, Section 1: The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. / Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States...
. / Marbury v. Madison (1803): Ruling in this case established this constitutional principle which gave the Supreme Court the power to decide whether an act of Congress or of the president was or was not allowed by the Constitution (or to decide whether it is unconstitutional). / Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
  1. Review the constitutional principles and documents associated with each principle in the chart above. Describe each principle based on the information from the documents.

9. How “democratic” is the Constitution? (A handout and assignment will be given to you)

UNIT 3: The Early Republic and its Leaders

10. Political Parties(Read the chart below and answer the question that follows)

a. Create a dialogue (conversation) between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson about the power of the federal government. Be creative and historically accurate.

11. President George Washington(Read the passage and chart below and answer the questions that follow)

In February of 2009, C-SPAN asked 65 historians to rank all 42 presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush. The survey results were timed for release on Presidents Day. Here are the results:

We will be looking at this ranking over the course of the school year. For tonight's homework, take a look at where George Washington is placed and answer the following questions:

  1. What criteria do you think these 65 historians used to determine the rankings. (In other words, what makes a great president?)
  2. Why do you think President George Washington is ranked 2nd amongst the nation's leaders?

12. President John Adams (2nd President of the United States)

Adams was the first president to live in what would later be called the White House. Just 6 of the structure's 30 rooms were plastered. The White House's main staircases were not installed for another four years. The mansion's grounds were cluttered with workers' shanties, privies, and stagnant pools of water. The president's wife, Abigail, hung laundry to dry in the East Room. The city of Washington consisted of a brewery, a half-finished hotel, an abandoned canal, an empty warehouse and wharf, and 372 dwellings, "most of them small miserable huts." Cows and hogs ran freely in the capital's streets, and snakes frequented the city's many bogs and marshes. The entire population consisted of 500 families and some 300 members of government.

During Adams' presidency, the United States faced its most serious international crisis yet: an undeclared naval war with France. In the Jay Treaty, France perceived an American tilt toward Britain, especially in a provision permitting the British to seize French goods from American ships in exchange for financial compensation. France retaliated by capturing hundreds of vessels flying the United States flag. Adams sent a negotiating team to France to settle the dispute. The French foreign minister continually postponed official negotiations. Meanwhile, three French emissaries (known later simply as X, Y, and Z) demanded that the Americans pay a bribe of $250,000 and provide a $10 million loan. The Americans refused to pay anything. Word of the "XYZ affair" aroused a popular demand for war. In the midst of the crisis, the Federalist dominated Congress passed the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts, which were designed to suppress public criticism of the government.

  • lengthened the period necessary before immigrants could become citizens from 5 to 14 years;
  • gave the president the power to imprison or deport any foreigner believed to be dangerous to the United States; and
  • made it a crime to attack the government with "false, scandalous, or malicious" statements or writings.
  1. Describe the XYZ Affair.
  2. Describe the Alien and Sedition Acts.
  3. Was Congress and President John Adams justified in passing these laws?

13. President Thomas Jefferson (Analyze the map and passage below and answer the questions that follow) TheUnited States purchased the Louisiana territory from France for $15 million under the leadership and guidance of President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 doubling the size of the United States. This land deal was arguably the greatest achievement of Thomas Jefferson's presidency but also posed a major philosophical problem for Jefferson.

  1. Why would President Jefferson want to purchase the Louisiana territory? Give at least three reasons why you think he made that decision.

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b. How did President Jefferson’s philosophy change regarding the powers of the Federal government when purchasing the LouisianaTerritory from the French? (Consider the debate over the creation of the National Bank….Hamilton vs. Jefferson…interpretation of the Constitution)

14. The Marshall Court (Read the quotes below and answer the questions that follow)