Teaching Approaches to the American Revolution

FYI: Documents-based approach to Revolutionary War (Sat, 8 Jul 1995 12:42:01 PDT)
SUBMITTED by David Hsiung via H-Net Central

Almost a month ago, Doug Deal asked for suggestions regarding a documents-based approach towards teaching the Revolutionary period. Up to now I have used Richard Brown's *Major Problems . . .* volume, but now I think I will move in the direction taken by my mentor, John Shy, at Michigan.

Besides assigning several monographs, John has students examine primary sources throughout the course. They are clustered around 6 debates, listed in sequence as follows:

1. British Empire: How well does it work and does it need major reforms?
2. Colonial Society: Is it facing crisis, and if so what are the critical dangers?
3. Independence? Should the colonies united to resist British policies declare their political independence now (June 1776)?
4. Revolutionary War Strategy: What strategy should a society with no army, navy, or central government adopt in a war against the greatest military and economic power in the world?
5. Winners and Losers: Who will benefit, and who will suffer, from an American victory?
6. Stabilizing Revolution: Is a stronger central government, of the kind proposed in 1787 by the Philadelphia convention, essential if the American Revolution is to avoid failure?

John Shy then uses documents from 23 different sources. Rather than give the full citations here, I'll just list the author and titles of the works. If you want the specifics, send me a message or write to John (unfortunatey, I don't have his updated e-mail address) at Dept. of History, Haven Hall, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045.

The sources are: (1) Sir William Keith, "A Short Discourse..."; (2) Sir William Gooch, "Answer to the Foregoing..."; (3) Letters of William Pitt; (4) Benjamin Franklin, "Observations..."; (5) "Vincent Centinel" (pseud.), Massachusetts in Agony; (6) Franklin, "Reasons and Motives"; (7) Henry Muhlenberg, Journals; (8) Correspondence of Arthur Middleton; (9) Gov. Josiah Martin report, 1772; (10) Franklin, "An Account of Negotiations..."; (11) letters and diary entries of E.C. Burnett; (12) speech of John Dickinson against independence; (13) Charles Lee papers; more letters and diary entries from E.C. Burnett; letters from James Murray; (16) "Report of a Joint Meeting of the Committee and the Commission for Conspiracies," 1777; (17) Thomas Jones, History of New York; (18) Letters from America by Hessian soldiers; (19) Thomas Camel, pension abstract, VA Revolutionary Pension Application; (20) selected Federalist essays; (21) letters of "A Federal Farmer; (22) "Letters of Centinel"; and (23) Debates from NY and VA.

These documents were collected in a coursepack and no copyrights had to be cleared (or paid for). John reports he had good success with these debates and documents, so I'm going to try some version of it this coming spring. The only problem is that I have been convinced by the earlier discussions on this list to push the chronological end of my course to 1815. So, any suggestions for documents for the three decades following the Constitution??

I hope this information helps you brainstorm new ways of using documents in your course. Again, if you should like the exact citations for the documents, please feel free to contact me.

• Dave Hsiung