Evaluate the relative importance of the following as factors prompting Americans to
rebel in 1776:
It does not ask what caused the revolution or if the following areas were important or
not. The prompt specifically asks for an evaluation of the relative importance! It is not
enough simply to show that you know a lot of information.
A couple of approaches which might be considered:
•deal with the three themes in ascending or descending order of
importance
•stress underlying fundamental causes versus surface causes
(emphasizing, of course, the relative importance)
parliamentary taxation
Revenue acts (Currency, Sugar, Stamp)
“No taxation without representation”
Boston Tea party
Sons of Liberty
Stamp Act Congress (1765—petition for relief sent to George III)
Townshend Acts/non importation boycotts
Committees of Correspondence
restriction of civil liberties
Quartering Act
Writs of Assistance (search warrants to enforce mercantilism—Otis argued
against in court)
Coercive Acts
Suspension of NY Legislature for defying quartering act
Suspension of Mass. legislature for sending letters urging resistance to
Townshend
events leading to Boston Massacre
British military measures
events leading to Boston Massacre
General Gage attempt to arrest Hancock and Sam Adams
the legacy of colonial religious and political ideas
salutary neglect—used to running their own affairs
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
Declaration of Independence
English Revolution of 1688
Compact Theory (consent of governed)
Enlightenment (Locke, Rousseau)
Separatists (individualism, history of defiance of authority)
The Great Awakening (unity crossing sectional boundaries)
8-9
well-organized, clear thesis statement, sophisticated treatment
addresses the relative importance of each area
substantiates argument with relevant concrete detail
cites specific radical revolutionary responses to the above list (rather than
simply listing what the British did)
5-7
thesis statement addresses the prompt
solid organization but sometimes drifts (adds extraneous detail)
defends thesis with adequate concrete detail
2-4
tendency to simply list details or make arguments without support
loses focus on prompt (relative importance)
0-1
no thesis or has thesis but inadequate supporting evidence
rambling
fails to address the prompt