Week 4 — Readings & Resources · The Road to Revolution

Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Objectives covered: Objective 4 — analyze the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution, including the ideas and limits of the Declaration of Independence.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week's load is built in four groups, ordered to match the lecture: the context of the Seven Years' War and debt → the taxation crisis and colonial argument → the key primary source for the workshop → optional supplementary references. Watch or read one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable.

Order that matches the lecture: ① the Seven Years' War and its aftermath → ② the taxation crisis and colonial resistance → ③ the week's primary source (for the workshop) → ④ optional references.

A habit to carry all term: before you trust any claim in these resources — or from a chatbot — ask: Who made this source, when, and why? What might they leave out? Does another source back it up?

① The Seven Years' War and Its Consequences

Maps to Lecture Segment 2. The war ended in 1763 (Treaty of Paris) and left Britain with enormous debt — the root cause of the new imperial taxation that triggered the crisis.

Video — "The Seven Years' War and the Great Awakening" (CrashCourse US History #5)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBs-7taaOyU
Why it's assigned: a brisk survey of the French and Indian War / Seven Years' War that covers the key outcomes — French defeat, British territorial gains, and the debt burden — in a format that maps directly onto the lecture. Watch before Tuesday's class if possible.
⏱ ~12 min

Reading — "The French and Indian War / Seven Years' War, 1754–63" (U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian)
🔗 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/french-indian-war
Why it's assigned: a reliable, concise summary of the war and its North American consequences, including the key context for the new imperial taxation policy. Focus on the paragraph about the war's costs and Britain's fiscal position.
⏱ ~8 min

② The Taxation Crisis and Colonial Resistance

Maps to Lecture Segments 3–6. The Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act, and Coercive Acts — and the colonial response: "no taxation without representation," boycotts, the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, the Stamp Act Congress, the First Continental Congress.

Reading — "The Revolutionary Era" (OpenStax, U.S. History, Ch. 5)
🔗 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/5-introduction
Why it's assigned: a free, readable survey of the taxation crisis (Sugar Act through the Coercive Acts) that covers the constitutional argument and the major events in the order we discuss them in class. Skim §5.1–5.3 for this week; §5.4 carries into Week 5.
⏱ ~15 min

Video — "The Road to Revolution" (Khan Academy, US History)
🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history
Why it's assigned: in the "Road to Revolution" or "The American Revolution" unit, the overview lesson lays out the taxation crisis and the constitutional argument clearly — useful for locking in the acts in order and understanding the "virtual vs. actual representation" debate before the quiz. (Navigate to the relevant unit once inside the US History section.)
⏱ ~10 min

③ The Week's Primary Source (for the Workshop)

You'll analyze this document in Primary Source Workshop 4. Read it once before the workshop — even a single careful pass will make the workshop much easier.

Primary source — Stamp Act Congress, Declaration of Rights and Grievances (October 19, 1765)
🔗 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/resolu65.asp (Avalon Project, Yale Law School — authoritative archive)
🔗 https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/resolutions-of-the-stamp-act-congress-2/ (Teaching American History — alternate full text)
Why it's assigned: the formal statement of the colonial constitutional position, adopted by 37 delegates from nine colonies in New York, October 1765 — the most important colonial political document before the Declaration of Independence. Focus on Resolutions III (consent and taxation), V–VI (only colonial assemblies can tax), and VII (trial by jury; Admiralty Courts). These are the resolutions you will close-read in Workshop 4.
⏱ ~10 min

A note on the source text: The Declaration is sometimes referred to as the "Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress." The Avalon Project URL above (resolu65.asp) hosts the full text of these resolutions. The document was adopted October 19, 1765, in New York, at a congress that convened October 7. Both dates appear in the scholarly literature; October 19 is the adoption date.

④ Optional One-Stop References (free online)

• American Battlefield Trust — "Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress" — a clean transcription of the full text with context.
  🔗 https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/resolutions-stamp-act-congress

• National Archives — DocsTeach — the National Archives' primary-source teaching tool; search "Stamp Act" for additional documents including colonial petitions and contemporary broadsheets.
  🔗 https://www.docsteach.org/

• Library of Congress — Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, 1774–1789 (timeline) — useful for placing the First Continental Congress (1774) in its documentary context.
  🔗 https://www.loc.gov/collections/continental-congress-and-constitutional-convention-from-1774-to-1789/articles-and-essays/timeline/

• Gilder Lehrman Institute — "The American Revolution" — short essays and documents on the taxation crisis and resistance.
  🔗 https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/american-revolution

Pick-one quick path (≈ 25 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz and workshop:
1. Watch the CrashCourse video on the Seven Years' War (group ①) — 12 min.
2. Skim OpenStax §5.1–5.3 on the taxation crisis (group ②) — 10 min.
3. Read the Stamp Act Congress Declaration (group ③) once, slowly — 10 min. Pay special attention to Resolutions III, V, VI, and VII.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link fails, let Prof. Hartwell know and use the OpenStax, Khan Academy, Avalon Project, or National Archives references as your fallback — all four are stable, authoritative archives.