The Declaration of Independence: its parts, its ideas and its complaints

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Three documents that use one sentence, 1776 to 1852. Card A, the Declaration (July 4, 1776; Congress; for the king, Parliament and the world): "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Card B, the Declaration of Sentiments (July 1848; written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other organizers of a women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York; for the public and for lawmakers; punctuation modernized): "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal." Card C, a speech (July 5, 1852; Frederick Douglass, who had escaped slavery, speaking in Rochester, New York, to an audience invited by the city's Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society): "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."

2. 1.

   What did the writers of card B change from card A, and what does the change show, Ari asks?

   • They changed 'created equal' into 'made equal' in the sentence
   • They won the national vote for women by using the new wording
   • They added 'and women', using the Declaration's own words
   • They rejected the Declaration's ideas about equality entirely
3. 2.

   In card C, Douglass says the Fourth of July is 'yours, not mine.' What point is he making, Bo asks?

   • He disliked the ideas of the Declaration and wanted them dropped
   • He thought the holiday belonged to each American in the same way
   • He was running late and could not join the celebration that day
   • The holiday's liberty did not reach people held in slavery
4. 3.

   Which claim do cards A, B and C together best support, Esme asks?

   • It was written to end slavery and to give women the vote
   • Its words were forgotten by Americans until the year 1848
   • Its meaning stayed exactly the same from 1776 until 1852
   • Later groups used its words to claim rights left out
5. 4.

   Card B came from reformers and card C was a speech to an anti-slavery audience. How should Jun use them as evidence of public opinion in the 1800s?

   • As proof of what the typical American believed in the 1800s
   • As useless, because activists wrote both of the sources
   • As what reform groups argued, not what most believed
   • As laws that were already in force in the states by then
6. 5.

   Douglass's hosts were an anti-slavery women's society. What does that suggest about his purpose, Luz asks?

   • To celebrate the holiday together with the whole crowd
   • To announce that Congress had just ended slavery everywhere
   • To move listeners to act, using the nation's own words
   • To teach the crowd the history of the thirteen colonies

7. Source A, the Declaration (1776; capitals and punctuation modernized)

   "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." It is one of the charges against King George III. Source B, a summary in our words of how historians describe the Revolution among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nations: Most of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca sided with the British, and the Oneida and Tuscarora mostly sided with the Americans. Other nations tried to stay out. Each weighed its own land, treaties and safety. Source C, a summary in our words: Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration blamed King George III for the slave trade, and Congress cut that passage from the final text (National Archives). Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people over his lifetime (Monticello). Source D, a summary in our words: historians estimate that roughly 15 to 20 percent of white colonists stayed loyal to Britain during the Revolution.

8. 6.

   How does source B challenge the way source A describes Native peoples, Milo asks?

   • Source B shows the Native nations fought as one alongside the Americans
   • Source B shows that the king did not ask any nation for help
   • A lumps them together; B shows nations choosing for themselves
   • Source B says Native peoples took no part in the war itself
9. 7.

   Source A is a charge in a list against the king. What should Noah keep in mind about it as evidence on Native nations?

   • It is Congress's charge, written for its own purpose
   • It is a law that applied to the Native nations of America
   • It is a neutral report of what Native nations actually did
   • It cannot be used as evidence because it is too old
10. 8.

    Sources A and C both come from the Declaration's making. Which statement fits both, Pia asks?

    • Congress kept the Native peoples charge but cut the slave trade one
    • Congress added a slave trade charge to the final text itself
    • Jefferson's draft had no complaint about the slave trade of any kind
    • Congress removed each charge that touched on people the king harmed
11. 9.

    Source C says Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people. What is the best way to use that fact, Ren asks?

    • To ignore it, since it is just about his private life
    • To treat it as the one fact that matters about the text
    • To compare his life with his words, and check the number
    • To show that the Declaration's ideas must be false ones
12. 10.

    Which source would best show how a Haudenosaunee nation explained its own choice, Tala asks?

    • A summary written today, such as the one in source B
    • Their own leaders' statements, made at the time
    • Source C, which lists what Jefferson did in his life
    • Source A, since it describes how the nations fought