Name: ________________________________________
PD: _______ Was the American Revolution revolutionary?
Definition of revolution- _________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Activity: We are investigating whether or not the American Revolution (1775-1783) was revolutionary. To
form a reaction to this question we will analyze documents that show you life before the war and life after the
war. You will use the documents to prepare for our Mock Trial.
Scenario: Mr. Litz has been charged with the crime of lying to his class and calling the war between the British
and colonists The Revolutionary War.
Once we are done analyzing the documents, you will prepare a closing argument to prove that Mr. Litz is guilty
(should not have called the war revolutionary) or Mr. Litz is innocent (should call the war revolutionary).
Directions: Answer the document based questions on the following pages using your knowledge of the
American Revolution and the document itself.
Document A - Pre Revolution Power in the Colonies
 White, landowning males
 White, male laborers or skilled workers
 Women, free African Americans
Slaves and indentured servants (a person who comes to
America under contract to work for a set amount of time)
Q: What does the chart communicate about who has power and who has limited power in the colonies?
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Document B- Pre Revolution: Government treatment of Colonists specifically in Massachusetts
“He has refused Agreement to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.”
“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance,
until his Agreement should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.”
The Declaration of Independence
Q: What do these two British wrongs tell you about the colonist’s power in deciding important laws?
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Document C- Pre Revolution Treatment of Women (Look back to Document A as well)
A New England kitchen. A hundred years ago. Photograph of drawing by H.W. Pierce.
Q: What was the role of women in society specifically at home and in regards to politics? Were they equal to
men when it came to owning property and voting?
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Document D - Pre Revolution Treatment of Slaves
Negro Act 1740:
a. If a white man kills an enslaved person it is a misdemeanor punishable by fine.
b. Slaves could never attack a white person except in defense of their slave owner’s life.
c. Slaves could not learn to read and write and nor assemble with one another. People
who violated these things were subjected to flogging.
(Flogging is to be whipped.)
"An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes and Other Slaves in this Province" or Slave Code of
South Carolina, May 1740.
Q: What does the Negro Act of 1740 tell you about how slaves were treated before the American
Revolution?
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Document E- Post Revolution Government treatment of Colonists: Articles of Confederation
“No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven
members…”
Engrossed and corrected copy of the Articles of Confederation, showing amendments adopted,
November 15, 1777, Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789; Records of the
Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789,
Record Group 360; National Archives.
Q: How did the rights of American citizens change from the initial treatment under King George III to their
new governing document, Article of Confederation? Why might this be considered revolutionary?
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Document F - Post Revolution Treatment of Slaves
Q: The last battle of the American Revolution was in 1781 and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.
1) Based on the map above, how did life possibly improve for slaves following the war?
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2) How does this map support the Revolutionary War as revolutionary?
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Document G - Post Revolution Treatment of Slaves
THE ALABAMA SLAVE CODE OF 1852
Slaves
No slave must go beyond the limits of the plantation on which he [or she]
resides, without a pass, or some letter from his master or overseer.
No slave can keep or carry a gun, powder, shot, club, or other weapon. . . .
No slave can own property.
Source: The Code of Alabama, prepared by John J. Ormand, Arthur P. Bagby, and George
Goldthwaite (Montgomery: Brittain and De Wolf, 1852), pp. 234ñ45, 390ñ93, 589ñ97.
Q: How does help prove that the American Revolution was not revolutionary? (compare to Document
D)
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Document H - Post Revolution Treatment of Slaves
Q: What does the document tell you about the rights of
women and government following the Revolution?
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... no person shall vote in any state or
county election for officers in the
government of the United States, or of
this state unless such person be a free,
white male citizen of this state, of the
age of twenty-one years... clear (owns)
estate (land)...
Acts of the 32rd General Assembly of New Jersey, Chapter
II, Section 1; 1807.
Document I - Post Revolution Treatment of Women
1. Be it passed by the Senate and
General Assembly of the State of New
Jersey, That the real and personal
property of any female who may
marry, and which she shall own at
the time of marriage, shall continue
to be her sole and separate property.
This Act, though very limited in its scope, was the first passed by the New Jersey Legislature giving
married women rights to their own property.
1852 Married Women's Property Act
Source, Acts of the Seventy-Sixth Legislature of the State of New Jersey (Somerville, 1852), 407.
Q: According to the document above, how have the rights of women changed and improved?
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