Course: U.S. History to 1877 (HIST 1301) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Hartwell
Module: Week 4 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objectives covered: Objective 4 — analyze the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution and the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, including the Revolution's social possibilities and its limits.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 4 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates assume a Tuesday/Thursday pattern with Week 4 meeting Tue Sep 22 and Thu Sep 24, with end-of-week work due Sunday Sep 27, 11:59 p.m. Adjust day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 4 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 4: The Road to Revolution

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

The American Revolution did not begin with a battle — it began with a tax bill. This week we trace the decade-long road from the end of the Seven Years' War (1763) to the First Continental Congress (1774): a decade in which Britain tried to pay off its war debt by taxing the colonies, and the colonies replied with a constitutional argument that would eventually tear the empire apart. By Friday you'll know the key acts in order, understand the constitutional dispute at the heart of the crisis, and have close-read the document that stated the colonists' case in 1765.

The week's big question

"Were the colonists defending old rights they had always possessed as Englishmen — or were they inventing new ones to justify resistance?"

This is the question historians still argue about, and it will drive your discussion and assignment. By the end of the week, you should be able to argue both sides with evidence.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Name and order the five key acts — Sugar (1764), Stamp (1765), Townshend (1767), Tea Act/Boston Tea Party (1773), Coercive Acts (1774) — and explain what each one did and how colonists responded.
• [ ] Explain the constitutional argument — "no taxation without representation" and why "virtual representation" was the British counterargument; consent and trial by jury as the two load-bearing claims in the 1765 Declaration.
• [ ] Identify the key organizations and tactics of colonial resistance — Sons and Daughters of Liberty, nonimportation boycotts, the Stamp Act Congress, the First Continental Congress.
• [ ] Close-read the Stamp Act Congress, Declaration of Rights and Grievances (October 19, 1765) — source it, contextualize it, read its exact claims about consent and trial by jury, and corroborate it against the broader constitutional tradition.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tools: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, then you judge its work against the documents and the record. This week's classic AI failure: chatbots fabricate "exact quotations" from Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and other Revolutionary figures — quotations that are disputed or entirely made up. The Primary Source Workshop uses the ACTUAL text of the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration, archived at Yale's Avalon Project.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline.

How to succeed this week

• Keep the acts in order. Sugar → Stamp → Townshend → Tea → Coercive. Write them on your hand if you need to. The quiz will test the order and what each one did.
• The constitutional argument is the story. Don't memorize the acts as isolated events — understand that each one provoked a constitutional response that ratcheted up the crisis.
• Read the Declaration twice. Once for what it says, once for the specific words — "consent," "representatives," "trial by jury" — because those words do legal and political work. The assignment asks you to build an argument from them.
• Think about who's speaking. The Stamp Act Congress was 37 delegates from nine colonies, meeting in New York in October 1765 — the first inter-colonial congress the colonies called themselves. Ask: why does that matter?

See you Tuesday.

(B) Announcement — Module 4

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Sep 22, 2026. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Sep 22."

Subject: Week 4 — The Road to Revolution: it started with a tax bill 🏛️

Hi everyone,

Quick question before we start: why would anyone dump 342 chests of tea into a harbor?

This week we find out. The Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773) looks like a stunt — but it was the product of a decade of escalating constitutional conflict, rooted in a single question that Britain and its American colonies could not answer the same way: who has the right to tax the people?

This week — The Road to Revolution — we tackle the big question: Were the colonists defending old rights they had always had as Englishmen — or were they inventing new ones to justify resistance? By Friday you'll know the five key acts in order (Sugar → Stamp → Townshend → Tea → Coercive), understand the constitutional argument at the center of the crisis, and have close-read the Stamp Act Congress's own answer — the Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765) — in Workshop 4.

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 4 — work through the taxation crisis and constitutional argument with one approved chatbot and submit the share link. The tutor will make sure you have the acts in order before the quiz. Due Sun Sep 27.
2. Primary Source Workshop 4 (the week's signature activity, worth 50 pts) — close-read the Stamp Act Congress's Declaration (October 19, 1765) at the Avalon Project archive. Due Sun Sep 27.
3. Discussion 4 and Assignment 4 also close Sun Sep 27 — the discussion asks you to argue the "old rights or new ones" question; the assignment builds a thesis from the 1765 Declaration.

One thing I want you to hold in mind all week: the colonists didn't start out wanting independence. Through 1774, almost every colonial leader argued for their rights as British subjects — not for a new country. Understanding WHY and HOW that changed is the story we're building toward over the next three weeks. Come to class on Tuesday ready to argue about taxes.

See you soon,
Prof. Hartwell