This short video examines the flurry of religious expression which spread throughout the colonies during the 1740’s and 1750’s. Led by individuals such as George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards, the Great Awakening cut across racial, class, and geographic barriers to create an incipient sense of nationalism. Professor Jeffry Morrison contends that the popular religiosity of this movement contributed directly to the popular constitutionalism of the 1770’s.
Religion in Colonial America
This short video examines impact of Reformed Christianity on the minds and hearts of the Framers of the Constitution. Influenced by the writings of John Locke, Algernon Sydney, and John Calvin, Founders such as George Washington and John Adams believed that religion should play an informal, though important, role in American Society. Professor Jeffry Morrison examines Adams’ contention that colonial fears of British bishops helped to inflame revolutionary sentiments.
Women During the American Revolution
This short video illustrates the degree to which women actively participated in the American Revolution. In response to the Stamp Act, American colonists agreed to stop importing British goods and the colonial women led the boycotts of tea, fine cloth, and other consumer goods. Women began to think of themselves as “Daughters of Liberty.” Professor Rosemarie Zagarri explains how male political leaders came to acknowledge the political capacity and potential of women during this era.
The American Revolution Changes the Status of Women
This short video illustrates how women in post-revolutionary America came to be seen as intellectual beings responsible for fostering civic ideals in their husbands and children. These “republican mothers” were protectors of the public good. Professor Rosemarie Zagarri concludes that the flowering of feminist sentiments originating in the 1770’s reached its fruition in the Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848.
Voices of History
Voices of History is a collection of eight Bill of Rights Institute curriculum resources including Being An American, Preserving the Bill of Rights, Founders and the Constitution, Supreme Court DBQs, Liberty and Security in Modern Times, Religious Liberty: An American Experiment, and Heroes and Villains. Teachers will have free access to each resources’ lessons plans and handouts.
Primary Source Documents Correlated with “We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution” High School Textbook
Looking for a quick and easy way to read the primary sources mentioned in the We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution textbook? ConSource has created correlations linking lessons of the We the People text with primary sources available at ConSource.org. The correlations of the We the People text are listed by unit and lesson. Clicking on the link takes you to the full text of the primary source on the ConSource website.
Primary Source Documents Correlated with “We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution” Middle School Textbook
Looking for a quick and easy way to read the primary sources mentioned in the We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution textbook? ConSource has created correlations linking lessons of the We the People text with primary sources available at ConSource.org. The correlations of the We the People text are listed by unit and lesson. Clicking on the link takes you to the full text of the primary source on the ConSource website.