The Cost of Victory
Introduction
When the check comes to the table at the restaurant? Who pays the bill? Sometimes you fight over it, other times you split it right?
The French and Indian War cost the British over 140,000,000 pounds. Translated into current US currency, that would eclipse 2 trillion dollars or the entire annual salary of every person living in the colonies times two! Whew!
As England abandoned its policy of salutary neglect, they began to seek ways to extract money from the colonies. This led to a series of events that put England on a collision course with her colonies.
Over the years, the colonies had grown used to their freedoms under British rule and were not about to take a step backwards
Procedure
We will start by reviewing the map of North America from 1754 and 1763, then proceed into a discussion about what is fair about who should pay the cost of war
This lengthy lesson will detail the events which led up to the shots fired at Lexington. We will do several readings about each of these events and explore BOTH sides of the issues created here.
Resources
- lecture and discussion
- The Treaty of Paris of 1763 (map)
- George Grenville (biography)
- Charles Townshend (biography)
- "The Beginning of Conflict" (handout)
- "Stamp Act" cartoon
- "Drift Towards Revolution" (handout)
- "The Path to Rebellion" (handout)
- Ben Franklin's testimony in front of Parliament (primary source)
- "New Taxes and a Massacre" (handout)
- "The Boston Massacre" (handout)
- The Townshend Acts (handout)
- "The Writs of Assistance" protest (primary source by James Otis)
- The Tea Act of 1773 (primary source)
- "The Boston Tea Party" (handout)
- Liberty (DVD)
- Powerpoint presentation: "Paying the Bills"
- Powerpoint presentation: "You're Not The Boss of Me"
- Powerpoint presentation:"England's Move"
- Powerpoint presentation"Lighting the Fuse"
- Powerpoint presentation:"What a Party"
- Powerpoint presentation:"The Empire Strikes Back
- Powerpoint presentation:"The Last Chance"
- Powerpoint presentation:"The Shot Heard 'Round The World"
Objectives
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:
- define "salutary neglect" and explain why this was a popular British policy before the French and Indian War
- explain the concept of taxation and give examples of its use,
- argue the differing viewpoints of the British and colonies in regards to taxation
- assess the relative fairness of taxes on society including who pays and who benefits, and
- propose a reasonable solution to Britain's financial problem.
- identify the causes of the American Revolution detailing events from 1763 to 1775 which led to the initial conflict at Lexington
Evaluation and Assessment
There will be a brief follow-up discussion following the completion of this lesson as well as a quiz on the information in the assigned readings. This and several other lessons will be included in the next exam "The Causes of the American Revolution"
State Compliance
Common Core goals for ELS/Social studies found here:
- Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text
- Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic
- Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
- Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, nothing discrepancies among sources
Social Studies Standards included in this lesson:
History Standard One 6-8a: Students will examine historical materials relating to a particular region, society, or theme; analyze change over time, and make logical inferences concerning cause and effect.
History Standard Two 6-8b: Students will examine historical documents, artifacts, and other materials, and analyze them in terms of credibility, as well as the purpose, perspective, or point of view for which they were constructed.
History Standard Three 6-8a: Students will compare different historians’ descriptions of the same societies in order to examine how the choice of questions and use of sources may affect their conclusions.
History Standard Four: Students will develop historical knowledge of major events and phenomena in world, United States, and Delaware history