Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 5

Document Links:

Document 5.1 The Albany Plan of Union (1754)

Document 5.2 Boycott Agreement of Women in Boston (1770)

Document 5.3 PETER BESTES AND MASSACHUSETTS SLAVES, Letter to Local Representatives (1773)

Document 5.4 Committees of Correspondence (1773)

Document 5.5 J. HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CREVECOEUR, Letters from an American Farmer (1782)

Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 5

The following exercises provide an opportunity to use the sources collectively to respond to a guiding question.

Guiding Question: How did different groups of colonists think about liberty, equality, and what it meant to be an American, and how did those understandings change during the second half of the eighteenth century?

Instructions

Below are three topics that might find a place in organizing an essay responding to the guiding question. This exercise asks you to identify which sources would provide relevant evidence for that topic. Select the best answers for each question. Choose ALL that apply. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 5.16

1. Which of the sources provide specific evidence about the degree to which the American colonists in different regions perceived and acted upon their common interests during the last half of the eighteenth century? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.1: The Albany Plan of Union
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 5.2: Boycott Agreement of Women in Boston
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 5.3: Peter Bestes and Massachusetts Slaves, Letter to Local Representatives
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.4: Committees of Correspondence
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.5: J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
Correct: Document 5.1: The Albany Plan, by proposing that colonists unite for some political purposes, demonstrates that some Americans had begun to think about the colonies’ common interests in 1754. Document 5.4: The letter from the Virginia committee of correspondence shows that representatives from Virginia and Boston were in touch with one another and strategizing together about protesting against British policies. Document 5.5: Crevecoeur discusses the values and culture that unite Americans in 1782.
Incorrect: Document 5.2: The boycott agreement sheds light on women in Boston but not on people from other colonies. Document 5.3: Peter Bestes and the Massachusetts slaves express their perspectives, but not those of colonists in other regions.

Question 5.17

2. Which of these documents provide specific evidence that only certain colonial groups qualified for the “American” rights to liberty and equality? Choose ALL that apply.

kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 5.1: The Albany Plan of Union
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 5.2: Boycott Agreement of Women in Boston
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.3: Peter Bestes and Massachusetts Slaves, Letter to Local Representatives
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 5.4: Committees of Correspondence
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.5: J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
Correct: Document 5.3: Peter Bestes and his co-signers, by arguing that they are also men and expressing the wish that Americans’ commitment to liberty be extended to them, imply that colonists considered only white American men as deserving of liberty. Document 5.5: Crevecoeur expresses his disapproval over the ways white Americans treat slaves and deprive them of their rights.
Incorrect: Document 5.1: The Albany Plan does not address issues of liberty and equality. Document 5.2: The Boston women express their support for “Friends of Liberty” and commit themselves to political action but do not specify that certain groups have more rights than others. Document 5.4: The committees of correspondence discuss their ancient legal and constitutional rights and describe the complaints of all the colonies against Parliament, making no mention of specific groups.

Question 5.18

3. Which of the following documents provide evidence about how various groups of Americans defined what it meant to be an American? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.1: The Albany Plan of Union
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.2: Boycott Agreement of Women in Boston
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.3: Peter Bestes and Massachusetts Slaves, Letter to Local Representatives
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.4: Committees of Correspondence
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 5.5: J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 1Printed Page 36