Road to Revolution DBQ

Most document-based question activities hand students a stack of excerpts and hope something happens. This packet is built the other way round: one question worth arguing about, six documents that genuinely disagree with each other, and a question set that teaches students how to read a source before it asks them to use one.

The question is whether the American colonists were defending rights they already believed they held, or claiming rights that had never belonged to them. It is a real historical argument with serious support on both sides, and the six documents are chosen so that a student can build either case honestly. The Stamp Act Congress insists in 1765 that it asks for nothing new. Parliament answers in 1766 that it governs the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Paul Revere engraves the Boston Massacre in 1770. The Continental Congress calls itself faithful to the King in July 1775. Thomas Paine argues for separation six months later. The Declaration of Independence lists a grievance in 1776 that repeats the 1765 claim almost word for word, but grounds it somewhere entirely new.

Every document arrives with its author and its date, because sourcing is the skill this packet is really teaching. The analysis questions are labeled so students learn the vocabulary as they go: sourcing questions ask who made this and why it matters, context questions ask what was happening, close-reading questions ask what the document actually claims. A second section then makes students read the documents against one another, which is where the argument gets made.

The Revere engraving does the heaviest teaching. He was not present at the shooting, he engraved it three weeks later from another man's drawing without crediting him, and the trial that followed contradicts what the picture shows. Students who conclude it is therefore worthless have missed the lesson, and the key says so directly.

The writing prompt comes with a four-point analytic rubric covering claim, use of evidence, sourcing and context, and organization. The answer key gives a target response for every question, including the open ones, and two model thesis statements taking opposite positions, so a teacher can demonstrate that the rubric rewards the quality of the argument rather than the side a student picks.