AP U.S. History Prep Episode #2 | The American Revolution (1754-1783)

hey there students Tom Ritchie here and I want to welcome you to our second night of AP prep for AP US history with the Bill of Rights Institute if you haven’t subscribed to Bill of Rights Institute make sure you do that and we’ve got several of these webinars left this is only the second out of nine webinars that we’ve got coming up here so thank you all for those of you who have come by and got let’s see I’m trying to guy got a mute that all right there we go don’t need to hear my own voice twice and so with that let’s let’s go in here see that Shivan is here Addie’s here Emily’s here retracting messages and so as far as that as far as that stuff yeah so Emily there is of course uh some of y’all weren’t here for the prep series some people were and we do some of these you know some of these are going to overlap a little bit here and there of course but as far as that we’ve got Mia here thank you so much now the topics are the same Emily what you’ve noted here hey Charlotte what you’ve noted here is yes when we were doing the AP prep we did some things on the American Revolution now a lot of the stuff we did there actually was preparing for the leq and so that’s something these are gonna be more content driven okay so let’s go ahead and get your questions in and I can go in okay so it’s not like we’re reading from a script or anything like that so as far as what we’re thinking about in terms of the American Revolution I’m hey Sabrina alright so again whenever you’ve got questions ready just go ahead and throw them out there in the chat and so with that which was on the same yeah so Emily this session hasn’t started yet so whatever questions that you’ve got yes some of y’all that have been coming to the sessions faithfully of course there is going to be a bit of overlap what happens here is now that we’re within ya RIPD leq now that we’re you know within two weeks a lot more people are going to are going to be here all right so as far as that as far as that goes let’s let’s see so again now I will go ahead and get started if there are no questions now when there are questions I’ll kind of redirect what I’m doing but when there are no questions I’m gonna go ahead and kind of throw stuff at you that I think is going to be relevant okay so let’s go ahead and look at something here on the French and Indian War as a turning point okay now that’s something that I have that I’ve gone over before I’ve got a video on it in fact but it’s something that is really kind of the foundation for studying the American Revolution because this whole thing starts with the French and Indian War so understand now where we’ve talked about the so called periods one and two now I was just looking at a an essay a DBQ written by a client of mine that was writing an essay about

women’s rights in US history coming from 1776 all the way to 1920 it’s a thematic approach on this DBQ and and what the student did in his contextualization is he ended up writing the contextualization about Anne Hutchinson so you know Anne Hutchinson becomes kind of the foundation for an essay on women’s right so you know that kind of occurred to me how we were talking last night how even though the prompt will not come from a time before 1754 from unit 1 or to stuff from unit 1 or two could be useful and another thing that would be useful when we’re thinking about the American Revolution would be the Navigation Acts okay so when we’re looking at the Navigation Acts we’re seeing that these were laws that were passed that govern trade in Britain in the 17th and 18th century now we want to associate the navigation acts with mercantilism okay noting that trade policies are discouraging trade with other nations okay so what we’ve got to understand about the navigation act is the Navigation Acts is that it’s part of this whole overarching Merton to list policy so trade policies are discouraging trade with other nations basically putting a tax on anything that’s brought in from other nations or other colonies now what we want to understand here is before the French and Indian War that the navigation acts were not enforced that the American colonists were not really subjected to mercantilism what they had instead was a policy of salutary neglect now typically when we think about neglect we think that’s a bad thing okay when somebody says you’re neglecting me that’s usually not good but if it’s salutary you see this kid is happy this is a good kind of neglect this is like look leave me alone don’t put restrictions on me it’s kind of like if your parents go out of town and they put a hundred dollar bill on the counter and they say don’t break anything here’s enough money for you to order some pizzas or feed yourself or whatever then there you go and otherwise sort of leaving you alone the British were the British wanted to promote trade the best way to promote trade was through a laissez-faire kind of policy and not through you know not through taxing trade so trade was good for the economy there weren’t British troops around there was a very limited British troop presence and of course the biggest thing about the French and Indian War is that you’ve got France here okay which is over here if we want to zoom in to the Ohio River Valley and this is what’s happening in terms of English colonists are going across the Appalachian Mountains into the Ohio River Valley around present-day Pittsburg and that’s what’s going on here as the French are trying to fortify their claim which was

really not very well you know very well populated the fridge said oh all of this is New France but very few people lived there so we want to understand this whole policy of salutary neglect and the non enforcement of the navigation acts that this is really kind of a golden age for the American colonies that you know was basically done after the French and Indian War okay so going from going from there all right so we’ll go and we’ll see that the French and Indian War happens and what did the war change okay so what did the French and Indian War change that there’s a lot of national debt the British took on a great deal of debt the colonies really did not do their part when we’re looking at this objectively the colonies really did not do a whole lot this is really the source this this cartoon gets up gets misplaced but it’s a cartoon from Benjamin Franklin okay so join or Die cartoon so when we look at the join or Die cartoon this is the Albany plan of Union that Benjamin Franklin was supporting and this is something that the colonists decided no thanks you know we’re not really much for unifying we know that we’re fighting a war but you know we’re not going to use we’re not going to go into any unity in our colonies that would not you know that just doesn’t go along what we feel like doing right now and so with that we see this whole you know this really failure on the colony’s part to fight the war themselves the British regulars had to commit so the British are basically saying that look we have this debt and the colonies were unable to respond to this themselves and so they need to pay for the presence of British troops in the colonies now the navigation acts will be enforced strictly and so the British are wanting tax revenue and so what we see here is that is the big turning point that we see after the French and Indian War so there are no more French colonies now another thing we might know is the proclamation of 1763 that you notice this proclamation line and the rest of the British territory is being preserved for you know for Indians it’s an Indian reserve here so you see here where there is a restriction put here now what we want to note here is immediately so we think about effects of the French and Indian War that the immediate effect is going to be that there is tension between the colonists and British okay over taxation troops and trade restrictions I’ve got three T’s I like to alliterate whenever I can so that’s the immediate consequence here and then you see here for between 1763 and 1776 this 13 year period where we

see a long term effect the American Revolution so we would note that the American Revolution is a long term effect of the French and Indian War so with that we want to know that this all starts at the French and Indian War so salutary neglect exactly Emily that I would say that salutary neglect is a laissez-faire policy now mercantilism is not laissez faire okay so mercantilism is basically a very hands-on strategy I’m so you know when we look at that we see that the colonists were used to laissez-faire and all of a sudden the British come in and they’re like you know what these mercantilism laws that you know we haven’t been enforcing we’re gonna start to put our hand back on here so yes basically one of the cause is the American Revolution is that the British did have this laissez-faire policy which laissez-faire in and of itself is neglect right laissez-faire is where the government says that we’re not going to necessarily do anything okay so as far as this goes yeah is you know so Emily one thing we want to know and this doesn’t necessarily stop the college board from putting the DBQ anywhere but we have had a DBQ on the American Revolution in the last three years okay so so when we look at the last three years we see the American Revolution imperialism and Progressive Era so Imperial and imperialism of the Progressive Era looks like the early 20th century has been the turn of the 20th century has kind of been saturated very recently but the American Revolution has been used in the last three years but that kind of leaves us with the entire 19th century that actually has not been a subject of the DBQ in the past five years okay I think so we think about that 15 16 17 18 19 you had the conservative movement in the women’s movement so the 19th century seems really kind of ripe for a DBQ now that being said the DBQ could come from anywhere from 1754 to 1945 but it’s just kind of too important to note here that the 19th century has really been neglected for many years and it forms like the myth you know most of the course now when we take out post 1945 when we take out pre 1754 so yes but we definitely want to say here that the stuff that I’m going over would be important for context now one thing that I would note here Emily is that technically maybe it could be thematic we haven’t really received a lot of guidance from the college board on this you know which surprise surprise I mean the College Board is not really indicated except for everything that they’ve put out has been a time frame

DBQ very similar to what we’ve seen in the past so so if I had to if I had to guess okay and again this is just guessing I would say that we’re probably looking at something in the 19th century about a 40 to 50 year window because it’s going to allow for you know a lot of outside evidence and not necessarily going to require the student to have a whole ton of in-depth knowledge in one area okay so so with that let’s go ahead and cut you know y’all get your questions in anything that y’all want to get into on is going to be helpful here and so going into that you know we’re going to let’s see and I’m going to go ahead and as I’m as I’m sharing some of these things I’ll make sure that they are that they remain available to you I’ll just need to remind my friends at the Bill of Rights Institute that we need to keep these links on hand to put in the description later on because the chat links are probably not going to stay so I will as I refer to presentations at least presentations that I would consider finished I will go ahead and you know and make those available to y’all so let me go and make this sure this French and Indian War as a turning point is available and the Bill of Rights Institute will put these in the chat and hold on to these links to add into the description later so let me go ahead and send that to my friend Josh over there and so with that let’s go ahead and get into you know basically our next thing we want to note is parliament taxing the colonies okay so we’re going to go ahead and share this one as well that I’m going to get into here let’s say so alright the road to the American Revolution so the American Revolution is going to be a lot of it’s going to be about causation okay so when we’re thinking about causation what are the causes and then of course a little bit about the course of the American Revolution mostly for the you know the Battle of Saratoga and whatnot on as a turning point so you know but we’re going to be focused on most wars your Wars you’re focused on the causes and the consequences okay so with that let’s go ahead and share my screen and talk about parliament taxing the colonies now we’re looking at these in terms of threes okay the the mind loves to remember things in groups of three okay so the first thing this isn’t going to be paired with anything we want to know the proclamation line of 1763 that prohibited colonists from settling West okay now why does this say oh gosh okay I don’t know why that that is that is the way it was okay so I never noticed that there’s a typo but from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains now of

course at the same time we see the quartering of British troops okay now of course what was very you know what the colonists resented about this partly you know of course this does represent the end of salutary neglect but the troops coming in it’s like why the British really what was going on as the British government wanted to maintain a standing army on just in case they needed to fight a war later the British people didn’t want a standing army in Britain so they decided let’s put in the colonies I mean the thing is the colonists saw right through this these troops were not for the protection of colonists because who are you going to protect them from it’s like France was not a thing anymore so the colonists understood that by K we’re bringing them into the colonies for your defense and we want the colonists to pay for part of the upkeep but the French were going so why are these troops here and of course a parliament is the ruling authority is the representative body and Britain now one thing we want to understand is that colonists did not want to be represented in Parliament that is a common myth about the American Revolution as a lot of people think that Parliament that colonists want to be represented in Parliament they did not they wanted the taxes before they were required in the colonies that Parliament has passed the tax and the colonists believed that these taxes should be ratified essentially by their colonial legislatures okay so when we’re getting into this we want to note that there are three taxes here that are going to be the most important okay the Sugar Act the Stamp Act and the Townsend Acts now you don’t necessarily need to know the exact year of these but understand that they’re all happening in the 1760s and we want to understand that the most offensive of these tax taxes was the Stamp Act now the analogy that I often use here is that most of you would say like I mean I don’t think any of you would want your parents unto you wouldn’t want your parents to take your cell phone away but you don’t dispute their authority to do so okay so and so the thing is if your parents take your cell phone the way you don’t like that they took your cell phone away but at the same time you are thinking in terms of well they’re paying the bill right they have a right to do that that nobody contested the right of Parliament to govern imports okay so when we think about this that the that gun the government the Parliament regulating imports that’s Parliament’s job the colonists may not like the Sugar Act but Parliament legitimately can regulate trade now what the colonists didn’t like let’s say that your parents said you know what you have you know that you have not been oh gosh your Wi-Fi tax oh my goodness so when we’re looking at you know what if your parents said that you

know what you’ve disappointed us you made a Dion you’re on your report card and because of that you’re going to sleep outside tonight and it’s cold and rainy and that cold and rainy night is going to teach you a lesson and make you work harder in school now that would not be a legitimate parental right that would be child abuse and so with that that would that would go past their parental rights and so the colonists believe that since the Stamp Act which tax paper products internally inside the colonies that that require the approval of their colonial legislatures now this goes back to some more contextualization that comes from pre 1754 yesterday we mentioned the Magna Carta that was a 1215 Proclamation like basically a 1215 statement that was signed by the king and that said that the monarch will not tax unless the monarch has consent from the people okay so the monarch has consent from the people and so with that we want to make sure that yeah so too early yes so I would not let me let me address some things here now down gianna you were saying you were asking about Albany plan of Union the Albany plan of Union is something kind of obscure it’s from the French and Indian War okay so essentially what we want to understand here if we’re contextualizing like tomorrow night we’ll talk about the Articles of Confederation so if we’re contextualizing the Articles of Confederation and you’re wondering like why did they not give this government the power and tax why did they not give this the power to control trade or Commerce or currency or you know to put down rebellions inside the colonies and these are all things that the states were hesitant about because remember when we go back to the French and Indian War the Albany plan of Union was very the Albany plan of Union was very like you know it didn’t require a lot of the colonies but at the time of the French and Indian War they didn’t want to associate at all so what we want to understand about the Articles of Confederation is not necessarily why didn’t they do this right and they do this but it represents the United States actually forming some kind of Federation and so that’s something that they had rejected with Albany plan of Union so that’s something and just understand if you see the join or Die cartoon that is a French and Indian War cartoon and that is about the Albany plan of Union it’s not about the American Revolution so with this Timothy I don’t see now now the exam could prove me wrong but I don’t see any like any situation where the dominion of New England would be something that would be relevant that’s something that you know is for a kind of an obscure footnote in

colonial America and I don’t necessarily see something where that would necessarily be come on you know become relevant okay so with that let’s let’s go ahead and you know and call that you know just yeah just know that there are some things that I think are going to be too obscure on to put into there okay so with that let’s go ahead and get into let’s see so we’re going to go ahead and get into so the Sugar Act to stand back to town snacks the stay in fact causes the most controversy on because of the view because the Stamp Act is something that’s a direct tax now the Stamp Act is eventually repealed and ladies and gentlemen remember that this is designed to be interactive so make sure to put your questions in any questions you’ve got that Arella let’s go ahead and get to those and you know in the absence of questions I’ll just kind of keep going so then we go to the Townsend Act so the Stamp Act is repealed and then we see of course that no taxation without representation and remember that the colonists did not want to be represented in Parliament you know in places like the Virginia House of Burgesses now another thing we want to note is the the resistance of the Sons of Liberty okay so the Sons of Liberty this was a group that was organized in order to resist what they saw to be unlawful measures by the British and we see here that this cartoon that’s being that’s being shown here this is actually an anti British error actually an anti Sons of Liberty party on what you’re going to see here this is a British perspective now you see the Sons of Liberty tarring and feathering a tax collector they’re making him drink hot tea this is actually something that we don’t really get to see how much this hurts on but you know this guy’s for our practical purposes being tortured and you see here that this is a Liberty tree that the Sons of Liberty would gather around what they call the Liberty tree or in some cases of Liberty Pole I’m so then you see here on the tree that this is a noose okay so you see here where this British POV is showing on what they see to see it be the lawlessness of the Sons of Liberty and of course a nod to the Boston Tea Party so you see in this British source how like the colonists are being portrayed as lawless and so this is something that’s kind of a counterpoint to Paul Revere so I you know Paul Revere’s an engraving of the Boston Massacre where Paul Revere is showing how the British soldiers in his view fired upon these very innocent colonists which doesn’t go along with any accounts we have of what actually happened and so with that you can see

here that the Sons of Liberty are being portrayed from a British POV so that’s something that’s important that we coorporate that on that the Sons of Liberty used intimidation and mass protests of course the Stamp Act was also resisted by boycotts okay so the daughters of Liberty they were these were women who got together and they were weaving homespun fabrics so remember when we think about mercantilism the reason why boycotts were so effective in resisting the Stamp Act is the way that the Syst that this system worked in the colonies was that the mother country is producing finished goods to trade with the colonies that are producing the colonies are producing raw materials so the colonies are producing raw materials they’re sending them to the mother country the mother country is producing finished goods and the colonists are consuming those those finished goods so that is the whole basis of mercantilism and so when the you know when the Congress are when Parliament passes the Stamp Act we see here that the daughters of Liberty are instrumental in making homes fun suits so it becomes kind of trendy kind of like people there may be some of y’all that like to shop at thrift stores because you see you know it’s not necessarily like an issue for some people of you know at the clothing being cheaper at the thrift store but it’s vintage okay and being seen and like something that’s vintage kind of goes along with the way that you want to carry yourself and so from there we see here that the you know that this is something that becomes trendy like if somebody’s seen in a fancy British suit it’s seen as this person isn’t supporting the colonists okay this person is siding with the British and so we can see here that here is someone’s resignation that is being tendered and the Sons of Liberty are inviting everyone to gather to hear the stamp collectors resignation and the stamp collector is resigning because of the you know it is the stamp collectors resigning because of the partly the intimidation by the sons of liver so with that then you get into the Townsend acts now the towns and acts on were another import tax so the Stamp Act is repealed but Parliament wants the colonies to know we’re gonna get money out of you somehow and so paper paint lead glass and tea and of course the Sons of Liberty aren’t too happy about this either so you see there then British troops land in Boston because they need to basically I’ve get embossed it’s viewed that Boston means son needs the law laid down and these British troops in Boston are present when on the Boston Massacre happens now the Boston Massacre even though our you know our

most known visual source is from Paul Revere you know with when we look at the court records by and large on the soldiers were doing their job only two of the soldiers were found guilty of any misconduct on the captain was exonerated most of the soldiers involved were exonerated on but we do want to know anytime like when we think about visual sources and this is something that’s very important not just for this source you’ve seen this source before but on a DBQ there is going to be a visual source and we want to know how to use that you don’t want to just look and see like what does the source material say or something like that but we want to actually dialogue with the source and analyze it so you know what I say is when you’re looking at a visual source you always want to look at a specific detail so you know call out a specific detail on the source so for example I can say something here about the British soldiers all being lined up okay we can see here that they look like they’re organized rather than disorganized we see here behind the soldiers the captain is raising his sword okay and by the captain raising his sword that is showing that he’s giving the order to fire and of course that’s something that was not proven in a court of law on that he was he was found not guilty of giving the order but what we see here is the British troops or one in good order they are firing on these colonists he’s raising his sword down one thing we see here that may not be immediately apparent but this says butcher’s Hall okay so this is basically like the on the meeting place of the local butchers and we see the butcher saw that’s not an accident he’s put that here to make a point butcher’s Hall that the British are butchers here and so we see there that this is we see that the colonists look very defenseless now in the middle there you see this woman in black you know which a woman wearing black and mourning is probably not actually present but you know that’s what he’s putting out there and then we see here in the top corner that there is a moon now he will say that he’s not trying to misrepresent this but when we look at this it’s got the feel of something that’s happening in broad daylight but then again the moon is placed there it’s in the corner so it’s kind of out of the way but you notice the way everything is lit it doesn’t when you first look at this thing it certainly doesn’t look like this is something that’s going on at night okay and I forgot to have that in the end the thing if we could just ladies and gentlemen just have a brief moment of silence to honor our our friend – gosh that’s been almost four years now was it I think it

was 2016 if I’m not if I’m not mistaken yeah it was 2016 so just just a moment all right so ladies and ladies and gentlemen I’m so going on so they were found not guilty the towns and acts were eventually repealed except for the tax on tea and this is something that is you know this is something that Parliament’s just showing that they have the ability to tax now one thing that we want to know here speaking of tea the Tea Act is one of the most misunderstood parts of the lead-in to the American Revolution so just listen up for a moment let’s talk about the Tea Act a lot of students mistake the Tea Act for a tax it was not a tax okay but what we want to think about here is why were the American colonists upset the British the British Parliament gave a monopoly to the British East India Company the British East India Company was about to go under like they were having a hard time they had all of the surplus tea from India that they needed to sell and so Parliament grants a monopoly to the British East India Company and they said that you know what you can sell you can have the exclusive right to sell tea in British North America but you’re going to have to sell it for a reasonable price so here’s the thing that there was nothing wrong with the tea there the price of it was pretty reasonable but the colonists were indignant because nobody asked them okay and this is one of those things where when we look at the Constitution we see the rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and so life liberty and the pursuit of happiness these are things that are you know sacred and alienable natural rights and part of the pursuit of happiness is economic freedom okay so when we think about economic freedom that I have the choice to buy whatever tea I want now somebody can tell me hey Ritchie we have given you a lifetime of shanti which is the best tea i’ve ever had okay he’s based in Kansas City he goes to China twice a year to supervise his own car I love me some Shaun T okay so so the thing is there they’re not paying me I don’t have a spots or anything like that but Shaun t.com that’s where I’m probably be going next week to order some more tea but here’s the thing I don’t care if it’s Shaun T that I still don’t want somebody telling me what T I’m going to drink okay so if I decide that I want to buy Shaun T for myself for the rest of my life then that is in accordance with the pursuit of happiness if I decide that I never want to drink another brand of tea as long as I live pursuit of happiness but the second somebody tells me Richie you’re going to

get a lifetime supply of Shaun T and there’s nothing that you you don’t have any say in it all of a sudden I get indignant and I say what if I want to drink some lesser tea that should be my right and so Parliament you know is granting this monopoly and that’s why the colonists are upset not because of the tax and so that goes to the Boston Tea Party which of course we commemorate as heroic but you know which means really it was speaking plainly it was an act of vandalism so with that we want to note that now I think let me turn my life down a little bit I’m just looking shiny when I’m looking at myself and I’m just gonna turn my life down just a little bit see if that I look a little bit less shiny as a result okay so maybe I’m look well no I think I’m still looking kind of shiny but with that we’ll just go with it shiny and all right so with that let’s go ahead and take a look here as far as the consequence so the Tea Act leads to the Boston Tea Party which leads to the Intolerable Acts which lead to the First Continental Congress so that’s what we want to know here 1773 to 74 we’re going past like taxes and British troops you know shooting six people or was a six five something like that less than 10 right that stuff doesn’t really necessarily matter on your a bush exam whether you get six or five because a lot of times I can’t even remember myself okay I know it was a small number all right so as far as that goes 1774 and it looks like we got a pretty heavy rain starting outside so we’ll have a little bit of rain sounds here accompanying us hopefully none of y’all fall asleep because that so 1774 the Intolerable Acts bring in martial law to Massachusetts okay so essentially Massachusetts because of the Boston Tea Party is going to lose its right to govern itself its colonial legislature is going to be closed on the Boston pork will be closed and then they will be put under the direction of a royally appointed appointed military governor now to be clear if you know the names of all of these pieces of the Intolerable Acts great but at the same time if you don’t it’s not necessarily a deal breaker here so when we think about this you know you’ve got the Boston port act what did it do it closed the Boston port that’s the main thing you need to understand that it closed the port of Boston which in the times that we’re living in you can understand what kind of effects that has okay so you see right now our economy is suffering right now well the economy was suffering in Boston because the port was really the source of their you know of their livelihood so this is something that we see here the Massachusetts Government Act okay which the Massachusetts Government Act the quartering act the administration of justice Act and the Quebec Act okay so these are a couple

things that we want to that we want to note there the Massachusetts Government Act of course putting Massachusetts under the rule of a royally appointed military governor general Gage and then the quartering act there was already a quartering act but this one basically empowers on the royal governor to do even more on you know in terms of the old quartering act basically said that the colonies needed to provide quarters for British troops this new quartering act says that the royal governor can commandeer buildings can basically say this building is now going to be a barracks okay so that’s something that we want to know in terms of the quarter now what we heard when we were in elementary school about British soldiers being quartered in people’s homes probably not happening okay not real or at least not as much as people might like to think on but it was something to wear the royal governor could say okay this warehouse over here I’m going to turn it into quarters for British troops and there’s nothing the colony can do about it now the administration of justice Act meant that said that any British official in the colonies that was accused of a crime was going to be sent back to Britain for trial which of course was insulting to colonists who had given a fair trial to the perpetrators of the Boston Massacre and then finally the Quebec Act which I’ve got here in a slightly different color because it’s one of those things that is oh it’s kind of related but wasn’t necessarily one of the one of the acts that was passed in direct retaliation now what you could look at here is you see that you know these have been done when when your parents are upset with you one thing they can do is they can punish you the other thing they can do is they can do something nice for one of your siblings and so the Quebec Act was passed about the same time and when the when the Massachusetts colony is being the Massachusetts colony and some of the other colonies on some of these are being punished Quebec is having its borders extended and attacks is allowed to be collected to support the Catholic Church okay which is of course to the colonies scandalous to these Brit you know these anti-catholic British who are suddenly being told that like hey uh you know this is you know we’re allowing taxes to be collected to support the Catholic Church and that’s something that you know is just seen as scandalous but Quebec is getting privileges while the other colonies not so much okay so so what happens here what starts the you know the shooting war of the American Revolution is that you have these these Minutemen who are you know basically these are militia now one thing that’s good to know is the difference between a militia and a an army okay so military we’re talking

about full-time soldiers whereas militia we’re talking about people who are not full-time soldiers now militia can be a state militia like the National Guard somebody who does their National Guard duty one weekend a month two weeks a year but they’re not a professional soldier so that’s somebody who is a member of a state militia now there also are private militias there is nothing there’s nothing no law against a group of people getting together and saying that we’re going to get together and we’re going to do military drill with weapons that we legally own every weekend now somebody you know a militia gets to get enough members there’s probably going to be an embedded FBI agent that’s showing up for militia meetings make sure nothing illegal is going on here or any attempts to overthrow the government but the militia itself is not illegal so we think about a militia the Minutemen are an example of a militia but what’s going on here is this is a time where you know the weapons that civilians had we’re roughly equivalent to the weapons that an army had so the musket that this Minuteman is holding is about the same as I mean it’s the same thing practically as the musket that the British soldier is holding now today on you know a firearm that I’ve legally owned it’s not the same as what a US soldier would carry so that’s something that you can see here why the royal governor saw a threat with these Minutemen being out here in Concord who were drilling regularly they had a store of arms and weapons they had a cannon that they had there and so this is something that you know the royal governor sends British troops to to Concord to confiscate the Arsenal basically to confiscate the Arsenal and to render the Minutemen without arms for their defense and so that’s of course leading to the shot heard round the world and so with that we see that that’s the beginning of it now then we want to kind of we want to think about the is April of 1775 we need to think about you know what happens as we go into 1776 and that’s where Thomas Paine’s Common Sense comes in okay so as far as that let’s see so a patriot in flat so that let’s see what are we what are we talking about here do we have anything anything new let’s see let me just kind of catch up here yes Robin just to be clear on the Paul Revere source you can and should do POV on a visual source visual sources are not objective I think that there are some people who tend to let their guard down when they’re looking at a visual source so for example when you think about when you think in terms of if it’s a drawing or an engraving somebody may have taken some liberties with that even if it’s a

photograph photographs can be used to tell stories that are not necessarily indicative of what happened okay so when so when you consider this you know where you know for example there was a few years ago where there were some you know some of y’all remember a year or two ago when those you know there were those kids that were on the field trip in DC and there was a confrontation between someone wearing a trump hat and a Native American and there was a short video clip or a photo that made it look like something other than what it was and so what we want to understand is even when it’s a photograph or it’s a video clip without context it can look different than so you know it can look different than it actually was and so people will often judge something without looking at the point of view without looking at the context without what surrounded so what we can do here is we can always yeah we can say that this originated with this or the purpose so when we’re looking at political cartoons we want to look at the point of view okay we want to look at the point of view but we also want to look at the on at the purpose of this cartoon so when you look at Paul Revere you know what was his purpose his purpose was to turn public opinion against the British and so Margaret’s asking was the Arsenal that was seized legal or were there laws against that now here’s the thing that as far as that goes this wasn’t now this is where we get into martial law okay so when we get into martial law basically what happens is general gage General Thomas Gage who is now the military governor of Massachusetts there are no laws whenever there’s military rule then you’re dealing with a situation where whatever they say goes so for example right now where we see that moat you know in my state our governor has declared a state of emergency which he is lifting by degrees now there’s still a lock on my privately owned neighborhood pool that I don’t understand while retail stores can be open and people can eat you know at restaurants outside but I can’t take a swim in my privately owned neighborhood pool I don’t know but you see here we’re with a state of emergency a lot of our laws have been suspended okay a lot or at least a lot of our customs so when you look here you see that because there’s a state of emergency the governors of several states have restricted the liberties of a lot of Americans and so looking from there what we’re what we’re looking at you know is thinking in terms of when there’s martial law this Arsenal wasn’t it wasn’t a hidden Arsenal this actually goes back to you know that Concord was a frontier town it wasn’t part of Boston and so a lot of these militias had existed earlier on in colonial America so you look at things

like your King Philip’s War and some of these other wars that were fought in New England against native tribes that basically these militias weren’t brand-new they’d been there for a long time as basically you know if there was you know an Indian attack or something like that that the militias would be mobilized but now it was evident that these militias were you know we’re a threat to British rule and all of a sudden these militias are drilling regularly they’re not they’re not trying to fend off an Indian attack or something like that so certainly general gage was was reasonable to feel threatened but at the same time but you know the consequences if this were discovered and part of the reason the British retreated the battles of Lexington and Concord were not like a big pitched battle it’s not like the Battle of Bunker Hill later where the British say our objective is to take that hill and we’re gonna take that no matter how many men died that gage had actually directed the British troops not to not to engage with colonists basically to retreat if there was any kind of shooting action that followed so the British ended up retreating where they took a lot of heavy casualties so with that yeah the Arsenal itself was not something that was illegal when it was made but typically in a martial law situation you’re going to see a confiscation of weapons so the prompt if the prompt acts about us interaction and foreign policy let’s see Angela that would be that would be interesting it would really I’d have to see what you did with it okay so when you think about we typically don’t think about Native American tribes as foreign policy but I think that if you did it in a certain way I don’t know if it would necessarily be you know disqualified when I would say the Angela the advice that I would give you here is I would say that what you want to do here is you want to think about use foreign policy stuff first okay so primarily you should be thinking about foreign policy as other countries but where I might fall back on Native American policies is if I’m just not if I’m drawing a blank about foreign policy and but I don’t think you’re gonna draw a blank on foreign policy and really foreign policy is probably you know it’s probably unlikely because we don’t have nearly as much like foreign policy to work with until we get to the 20th century so I don’t know if you know we really have enough foreign policy per se in this period but but then again who knows but I would say go with stuff outside the country first but if you feel like you need to bring in something about Native Americans you would say that since the Constitution to fight you know in US law to find Native Americans as basically a nation within a nation Native Americans

are a constituent nation okay so that’s what you think about there you would explain why you’re including Native Americans in that designation so I would say that you need a first of all don’t do that except for as a last resort and second of all be very clear and explaining why you’re doing that so with that let’s spend a little bit of time talking about legacies okay so so a few things here with legacies we want to understand that the you that the American Revolution is typically seen as more of a political revolution the same elites are in control before and after the revolution but we do want to note that there were some differences in American society on because of the American Revolution one thing that I like to show off is Jefferson in Britain in 1786 and now look at him in 1791 that the United States starts trending toward republicanism that they decide that they don’t want a monarchy in the United States that they want a republic and you see here in a republic that even Jefferson a member of the elite that there he is with his natural hair not wearing the powdered wig like he is in 1786 in Britain so with that you know several things happening here that we want to note small our republicanism that we’re going from a monarchy to a republic that now we have instead of a fixed social hierarchy equality under the law and that is of course seen in you know there is no title of nobility that can be granted by the United States government so we see here in the Constitution that our our government is trending away from titles of nobility and things that were very normal in Europe primogeniture in titles that’s kind of a minor thing here now we note that northern states after the after the American lucien north of the mason-dixon line now new jersey will follow slightly after one thing about New Jersey that’s interesting is there were actually slaves in New Jersey during the you know during the 1860 census there were still a handful of slaves being counted in New Jersey so but by 1800 every state north of the mason-dixon line except for New Jersey which I guess New Jersey technically is partly south of the mason-dixon line if you’re in South Jersey so with that just noting that you know that gradual emancipation laws were passed in northern states so that’s important to note that you know slavery and republicanism are you know not you know slavery and republicanism are not really compatible in the northern states that didn’t really depend on slavery economically I’ve started to gradually emancipate slaves okay so we see gradual emancipation now note that very few select few northern states allow free

black residents to vote and some even banned free black settlements so just because they got rid of slavery did not mean that there was equality under the wall for people who were not white now also we want to note that slavery is becoming even more entrenched in the south so that is something that we see a split in the country at the time of the American Revolution slavery was legal in all 13 colonies in all 13 states after the Revolution we see that northern states are saying look slavery and republicanism are not compatible meanwhile the southern economy depended so much on slavery and the racial hierarchy that it was created it was created by formed a basis for society slavery becomes more entrenched in the south we want to note religious freedom that basically you know most colonies before the American Revolution did not have religious freedom so we see where Jefferson wrote the Virginia statute for religious freedom that disestablished the Anglican Church in Virginia and so we see here that no man shall be compelled to frequent for support any religious worship place or ministry whatsoever but that all men shall be free to profess their opinions and matters of religion now we want to note that Connecticut in Massachusetts continued to keep state churches until the 1830s days they disestablished those churches so not all states necessarily disestablished churches but most states did in most colonies before the American Revolution the Church of England was the established religion and taxes were collected to support it so we see here that you know there’s Jefferson’s grave there that will note here no religious test so basically you know you can’t say that office holding in the United States is going to be something that is a qualification for office holding and then of course federalism we want to note here that the United States is forming this Federal Republic they they cooperated to win independence from Britain but we want to know that the state still did want their separate identities and so we’re going to see that tomorrow as we go into the Articles of Confederation and so the United States note these United colonies are okay and of right ought to be free and independent states we don’t see any mention of the nation that Lincoln speaks about later in the you know in the American you know when we think about the American Civil War yeah I was like why am i why am i fighting for that now one thing for any of y’all who want these slides that I’m looking at right now you know if the Bill of Rights Institute will you know keep these on hand put them in there in the description later and we’ll go ahead and put those in the chat now before we go let me just let me just find this okay so I’m going to share that y’all okay

and going from there let’s let’s get into let’s go ahead and send that all right so one last so we’ve had three slide presentations that we referred to in this in this webinar so going from there we also want to recognize some of the continuities in terms of when we think about women we’re not able to participate politically as a result of the American Revolution okay so we want to note that women were not able to participate politically even though Abigail Adams you wrote to her husband could you remember the ladies no not really but ah you know that’s Abigail Adams but then they’re not gonna vote yet but we do know now also another thing to note is in terms of property in terms of her personal property okay this thing is moving a little too much in terms of a wife’s personal property a married woman could not control her own personal property now a husband would have to get permission to sell land that came in okay so so basically there was some property you know like when George Washington married Martha Washington and there some things like you know Martha Washington’s land Martha Washington’s slaves like George Washington emancipated his slaves after he died his wife slaves no because those were not his property to emancipate so there are a few things that you know that a wife still retained but as far as her personal property the husband maintained control this is about 90 95 percent finished in terms of the presentation but what we do want to understand is Republican motherhood okay so when we’re thinking about Republican motherhood small are not capital are there but this idea that a woman is supposed to raise her children to be good citizens in the American Republic now another thing we might want to note here is agrarianism this pride in producing raw materials this pride in agriculture that we see especially from Thomas Jefferson and George Washington those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God Jefferson says the chosen people of God that we see there and of course we see this Republican mentality in George Washington who when he sculpted is not idealized we see here he had a sweet tooth he liked to eat he had him a bit of a belly and we see on that sculpture he’s got a bit of a belly there that best is kind of rumbling to stay buttoned and so Washington is showing off his Republican credentials and in the Jefferson Memorial you see where Jefferson is portrayed just standing up not enthroned like Abraham Lincoln he’s got on his Lewis and Clark coat he seems like he’s dressed pretty smart but at the same time this wasn’t like super dressy for the time so noting that we want to note republicanism as a key legacy of the

American Revolution and so tomorrow ladies and gentlemen we will get more into on the Constitution the Articles of Confederation looking at the early republic so you know going on for our third session we will be live tomorrow and Thursday okay so for the next two days we will be back be back at 6:30 p.m. Eastern we’ll take a break for Friday and Saturday and then we will be back on Sunday evening so Sunday so we’re gonna be Wednesday Thursday and then Sunday to Thursday okay so that’s going to be happening so make sure you’re subscribed to the Bill of Rights Institute that you get notifications let your your friends know that we’re going to be here so as far as that goes on yeah so so as far as that yeah Angela the said the proclamation of 1763 was to try to placate Native Americans on the frontier and to stop some of the things they’re happening like Pontiacs rebellion Pontiacs rebellion was one of the causal factors in the proclamation of 1763 and so as far as that how do I recommend for us Amaury with questions about the DBQ and look through our archive here on the Bill of Rights Institute YouTube channel and you’ll see where we went into the DBQ so y’all go through it go through some of our past webinars on that we’ve put out here and thank you Kat it looks like good to see here it looks like I’ve answered your question there so with that yeah so with with with for as far as the proclamation it was to create an Indian reserve that was going to you know just let the natives know that we’re not letting these colonists go west of the Appalachian Mountains you can quit rebelling now so with that ladies and gentlemen that can our broadcasts and I’ll see y’all tomorrow come ready with your questions on the Constitution the Articles of Confederation and the early republic it’s always a pleasure