The Declaration of Independence: its parts, its ideas and its complaints
Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
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."
In card C, Douglass says the Fourth of July is 'yours, not mine.' What point is he making, Bo asks?
- He was running late and could not join the celebration that day
- He thought the holiday belonged to each American in the same way
- The holiday's liberty did not reach people held in slavery
- He disliked the ideas of the Declaration and wanted them dropped
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
- Later groups used its words to claim rights left out
- Its meaning stayed exactly the same from 1776 until 1852
What stays the same from card A to card C in how the sentence is used, Kira asks?
- Both measure the nation by equal rights as the standard
- Both praise the nation for living up to its high ideals
- Both were written by members of the Congress in 1776
- Both were given at celebrations of the nation's birthday
Douglass's hosts were an anti-slavery women's society. What does that suggest about his purpose, Luz asks?
- To move listeners to act, using the nation's own words
- To announce that Congress had just ended slavery everywhere
- To celebrate the holiday together with the whole crowd
- To teach the crowd the history of the thirteen colonies
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.
How does source B challenge the way source A describes Native peoples, Milo asks?
- A lumps them together; B shows nations choosing for themselves
- Source B says Native peoples took no part in the war itself
- Source B shows that the king did not ask any nation for help
- Source B shows the Native nations fought as one alongside the Americans
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 a law that applied to the Native nations of America
- It cannot be used as evidence because it is too old
- It is Congress's charge, written for its own purpose
- It is a neutral report of what Native nations actually did
Sources A and C both come from the Declaration's making. Which statement fits both, Pia asks?
- Jefferson's draft had no complaint about the slave trade of any kind
- Congress removed each charge that touched on people the king harmed
- Congress added a slave trade charge to the final text itself
- Congress kept the Native peoples charge but cut the slave trade one
Source C says Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people. What is the best way to use that fact, Ren asks?
- To treat it as the one fact that matters about the text
- To show that the Declaration's ideas must be false ones
- To ignore it, since it is just about his private life
- To compare his life with his words, and check the number
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
- Source A, since it describes how the nations fought
- Source C, which lists what Jefferson did in his life
- Their own leaders' statements, made at the time
Which source shows that colonists themselves did not all agree on independence, Zee asks?
- Source B, the split among Haudenosaunee nations
- Source D, the estimate of loyal colonists
- Source C, because a passage was cut from the draft
- Source A, the charge about Native peoples