Lesson Plan My Brother Sam Is Dead Government and Civics, Literature 7 Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...
Lesson Plan The Boston Massacre (Grades 4–6) Art, Government and Civics, World History 4, 5, 6 View the engraving The Bloody Massacre in King Street in the Gilder Lehrman Collection by clicking here . Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, 1775 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ In April 1775, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore and Virginia’s royal governor, threatened to free slaves and reduce the capital, Williamsburg, to ashes if the colonists rebelled against British authority. In the months that followed,...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770 Art, World History 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ By the beginning of 1770, there were 4,000 British soldiers in Boston, a city with 15,000 inhabitants, and tensions were running high. On the evening of March 5, crowds of day laborers, apprentices, and merchant sailors began to pelt...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Henry Knox’s Order of March to Trenton, 1776 Geography, Government and Civics, World History 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ On Christmas Day in 1776 the American Revolution was on the verge of collapsing. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American forces had been driven from New York City to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and reduced...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Surrender of the British General Cornwallis to the Americans, October 19, 1781 World History 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ These three documents—a map, a manuscript, and a print—tell the story of the surrender of British commander Charles Cornwallis to American General George Washington. In October 1781, the successful siege of Yorktown, Virginia, by...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The British evacuation of Boston, 1776 Art, Government and Civics 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 On March 25, 1776, only eight days after the British evacuation of Boston, the Continental Congress authorized a medal, “George Washington before Boston,” to commemorate the event. During the war, Congress commissioned eleven medals...