America’s History : the Declaration of Independence

Be sure to use specific evidence properly footnoted from the book Self, America’s History, Volume I: To 1877 (Bedford/ St. Martin’s, Ninth Edition, 2018) [e. g.: (H&H, p 187)] to support your argument. 1.What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he wrote the first thirty-five words of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence? What were the various origins of the ideas thathe wrote? Where did they and his political worldview come from? 2.Was the Puritan experiment in New England by the end of the seventeenth century a success or failure? Explain why or why not. 3.How and why did the Americans politically and militarily prevail over the British in the American Revolution? Or, put another way, how did the British lose the political and military conflict? Explain. 4. At what point during the rebellion of the American colonists against Great Britain between 1765 and 1776 do you think that the “revolution” became inevitable? What factors or which persons contributed most to this? What elements were necessary to turn a rebellion into a revolution? 5.Examine the origins of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening and compare and contrast the impact that each movement had on British-American colonial culture and society during the eighteenth century. How do you reconcile the fact that two seemingly opposing worldviews managed to prosper and develop in one country or culture? Which, in the end, had a greater impact on late 18th century life in the new United States? 6.Did the drafting and ratification of the U. S. Constitution complete the American Revolution or constitute a counter revolution? In what ways did the Constitution affect how democratic or how republican the polity of the United States was? Was it more one or the other? Was it a conservative document that emerged out of past colonial political practices or did it represent a dramatic break with the past?