| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

1776 Turning Point Documents

Page history last edited by Mr. Hengsterman 3 years, 10 months ago

 

 

 

MODIFIED DBQ - 1776 as a Turning Point (PDF)

 

 

Allotted time: 45 minutes (plus 5 minutes to submit)

 

Directions: This question is based on the five accompanying documents. The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.

 

In your response you should do the following.

 

• Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.

• Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.

 

• Support an argument in response to the prompt using at least four documents.

 

• Use at least two additional pieces of specific historical evidence (beyond that found in the documents) relevant to an argument about the prompt.

 

• For at least two documents, explain how or why the document’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.

 

• Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt.

 

 

Prompt:  Evaluate the extent to which the Declaration of Independence marked a turning point in American history, analyzing what changed and what stayed the same from the period immediately before the declaration to the period immediately following

 

 

 

 

 

Document #1


 

Document #2


Source: Letter of Abigail Adams to her husband John, March 31, 1776

 

"I wish you would ever write me a Letter half as long as I write you; and tell me if you may where your Fleet are gone? What sort of Defence Virginia can make against our common Enemy? Whether it is so situated as to make an able Defence? Are not the Gentery Lords and the common people vassals, are they not like the uncivilized Natives Brittain represents us to be? I hope their Riffel Men who have shewen themselves very savage and even Blood thirsty; are not a specimen of the Generality of the people. I am willing to allow the Colony great merrit for having produced a Washington but they have been shamefully duped by a Dunmore.2 I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be Eaquelly Strong in the Breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs. Of this I am certain that it is not founded upon that generous and christian principal of doing to others as we would that others should do unto us." 

 

 

Document #3


Source: George Washington to Henry Lee, October 31, 1786 

 

“The accounts which are published of the commotions [disturbances]. . . exhibit a melancholy [sad] proof of what our trans-Atlantic foe [England] has predicted; and of another thing perhaps, which is still more to be regretted [sorry about], and is yet more unaccountable [strange], that mankind when left to themselves are unfit [incapable] for their own Government. I am mortified [embarrassed] beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn [morning] that ever dawned upon any Country. . . To be more exposed [visible in a bad way] in the eyes of the world, and more contemptible [disgraceful] than we already are, is hardly possible.”

 

 

Document #4


Source: Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence and delegate to the Continental Congress, January, 1787

 

“There is nothing more common than to confound the terms of the American Revolution with those of the late American war. The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government; and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens, for these forms of government, after they are established and brought to perfection.”

 

 

 

Document #5


Source: Alexander Hamilton, Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791

 

"It is not denied that there are implied as well as express powers, and that the former are as effectually delegated as the latter. "It is conceded that implied powers are to be considered as delegated equally with express ones. Then it follows, that as a power of erecting a corporation [such as a bank] may as well be implied as any other thing, it may as well be employed as an instrument or means of carrying into execution any of the specified powers .... But one may be erected in relation to the trade with foreign countries, or to the trade between the States ... because it is the province of the federal government to regulate those objects, and because it is incident to a general sovereign or legislative power to regulate a thing, to employ all the means which relate to its regulation to the best and greatest advantage."

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.