DAILY LECTURE
AND DISCUSSION NOTES
18-4

The American Revolution (pages 690–700)

Did you know?

Pocahontas,
a Native American girl, was important to the settlers of Jamestown. She brought them food and helped Jamestown’s leader negotiate
with Native Americans. She converted to Christianity and renamed herself
Rebecca.

I.
Settling North America (pages 691–694)

A.
The Spanish were interested in territories in Mexico, Peru, and the

Caribbean. They also
built settlements in the areas that are today Florida,
New Mexico, and California.

B.
Quebec,
Canada,
was a trading post set up by Samuel de Champlain.

The
French settled in Canada and
traveled down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. There they settled in Louisiana.

C.
The English
came to North America to make money, own land,
or gain religious freedom. They eventually founded 13 colonies along the coast
of North America.

D.
The Virginia Company set up Jamestown,
the first English settlement. Jamestown
was in the new colony called Virginia.

E.
John Rolfe discovered that tobacco grew well in Virginia, and the colonists began farming tobacco and
shipping it to England.

F.
The Pilgrims settled
in America
to gain religious freedom. They landed in Massachusetts. Others followed and settled
in Rhode Island, Connecticut,
and New Hampshire.

G.
English Catholics settled in Maryland, and the Quakers settled in

Pennsylvania.

H. The
English colonies began to govern themselves.

I.
The first House of Burgesses, which was similar to the English Parliament,
was established in 1619. It modeled a representative government,
which is a government in which people elect representatives to
make laws and conduct government.

J.
Constitutions are written
plans of government. Most English colonies had constitutions.

Discussion
Question

What
role did tobacco play in the success of Jamestown?

II.
Trouble in the Colonies (pages 695–698)

A.
England united with Scotland in 1707 and became the
United Kingdom of Great Britain. It was the most powerful trading empire in the
world.

B.
For many years, Great
Britain allowed the colonies to govern themselves,
and colonists’ trade was controlled by mercantilist ideas.

C.
The
Navigation Acts stated that the colonies had to sell their goods to

Britain,
and that all goods sold to the colonies had to go through

Britain
first and be taxed. The colonists began to resent these laws.

D.
After fighting for years with the French, the British decided
to tax the colonists to recover the costs of war.

E.
The Stamp
Act taxed newspapers and other printed materials. The colonists were angered by
the Stamp Act and boycotted British goods.

F.
The British
taxed glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea. The colonists protested the tax, and
the British sent soldiers to America
to handle the protests.

G.
At the Boston Massacre, British soldiers fired into a crowd of protestors
and killed five people.

H.
At the Boston Tea Party, colonists protested the Tea Act by
dumping British tea into Boston
Harbor.

I.
The
Intolerable Acts were the consequences the British imposed after the protests
in Boston.

J.
The First
Continental Congress met in Philadelphia
to call for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts.

Discussion
Question

Why
did Britain
tax the colonists?

III.
The War of
Independence (pages 698–700)

A.
Fighting broke out between the colonists and the British. The
battle at Lexington
was the first of the American Revolution.

B.
George Washington was named head
of the colonial army at the Second Continental Congress. Despite appeals from
the Congress, King George refused to compromise.

C.
Many colonists began to feel that the colonies should be
independent, including Thomas Paine, who
wrote Common Sense.

D.
The
Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson,
was issued by Congress on July 4, 1776.

E.
The Battle
of Saratoga was the deciding battle in the war for independence. The French
decided to support the colonists and united with them against Great Britain.
The final defeat for the British came at Yorktown
in 1781.

F.
After the war, the Articles of Confederation were the colonies’
plan of government. It created a national government, but the states held most
powers.

G.
The United
States Constitution divided power between the national government and the state
governments. It also created three branches of government. The Bill of Rights
set out certain rights that the government could not take away.

H.
Popular sovereignty is the idea
that government receives its power from the people. Limited
government means that the government may use only the
powers it is given by the people.

Discussion
Question

What
rights does the Bill of Rights ensure?