Joshua,+Soojin,+Lynn,+Brandon

The question of the day is "Were the colonies justified in revolting against the British?" It's a complex question without an easy answer. In order to answer this question, there are a number of things that we need to look at:

The first question is, under what conditions are people justified in revolting against their government? Are there instances where a revolt can be condoned? To try to answer this question, we'll look at the work of Thomas Paine, in [|Common Sense]. (Pay attention to just the first couple of pages on what a government is supposed to do.

The second question to ask is, what did the colonists accuse the British of doing? To answer this question, we'll look at [|The Declaration of Independence]. Pay particular attention to the list of grievances against George III. (If you don't like the first version I gave you, try this [|one.)]

Third, we need to look at the evidence and see if the British actually did these things. We'll look at the following events and examine whether or not those events had the impact that the colonists claimed they had. Those events include:

Navigation Acts Proclamation of 1763 Sugar Act Stamp Act Quartering Act Townshend Acts Tea Act Coercive Acts Prohibitory Act Boston Massacre

Finally, we will need to answer the question, "Do these things justify a revolution?"