History: sources, change over time, and cause and effect (grade 5) · lesson

From colonies to a new nation

💡 Exploration came first, then colonies, then independence, then a new government.

Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in 1492. English settlers founded Jamestown in Virginia in 1607.

The war for independence began in 1775. The colonies approved the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1783.

Leaders wrote the Constitution in 1787. George Washington became the first President in 1789.

🧠 Let's work it out

Think about what had to come first.
People had to explore before they could build colonies.
Colonists grew angry before they fought.
The fighting began in 1775, a year before the Declaration.
To find how long the war lasted, subtract: 1783 minus 1775 is 8 years.

What do you think comes next?

colony: a place ruled by a faraway country
independence: being free from another country's rule

The road to revolution

💡 Colonists rebelled because Britain taxed them and sent troops without giving them a say.

After a war that ended in 1763, Britain needed money. Parliament, Britain's lawmakers, put new taxes on the colonies, like the Stamp Act.

The colonists had no members in Parliament. They said, "No taxation without representation." That means do not tax us if we have no say. Many colonists were also angry that British soldiers were sent to stay in the colonies.

In 1773, colonists dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest a tea tax. They threw it away instead of selling it. This was called the Boston Tea Party.

🧠 Let's work it out

A cause must happen before the event it causes.
The Revolution began in 1775.
So the taxes and troops of the 1760s could be causes.
Something from 1803 could not be.
When a source shows people throwing goods away, ask what they wanted.
They were sending a message, not trying to get rich.

What do you think comes next?

Parliament: the group that makes laws for Great Britain
representation: having someone to speak and vote for you
protest: to show you strongly disagree

Hard truths of colonial times

💡 Life in the colonies brought deadly new diseases to Native peoples and forced labor for enslaved Africans.

Europeans carried germs, like smallpox, that were new to the Americas. Native people's bodies had never fought these germs before. So the diseases killed very many people.

Large Southern farms grew tobacco and rice. Much of the work was forced on enslaved Africans and their children. They were not paid and were not free.

🧠 Let's work it out

When asked why a disease hit one group so hard, look for what was new.
A germ no one has faced before spreads with little to stop it.
Native nations had healers, but no one had a cure for smallpox then.

What do you think comes next?

smallpox: a deadly disease that spreads from person to person
enslaved: forced to work without pay or freedom

Winning independence

💡 Washington's leadership and help from France helped the Americans win.

George Washington led the Continental Army. He kept it together through hard winters. Later he became the first President.

Britain had a strong army and the biggest navy in the world. France joined the American side.

In 1781, the Americans and French trapped the British army at Yorktown. French ships kept British ships from bringing help. The British army gave up.

🧠 Let's work it out

Read what the source says happened.
French soldiers fought next to the Americans.
French ships blocked British help.

What do you think comes next?

surrender: to give up in a fight

Points of view

💡 People on different sides saw the same events differently, so historians read sources from more than one side.

Patriots wanted to break away from Britain. Loyalists stayed loyal to the king.

A Patriot might call the Boston Tea Party a brave stand for rights. A Loyalist might call it a crime that destroyed property.

A historian reads letters from both sides of a battle. Each writer saw only part of the story.

🧠 Let's work it out

First ask whose side the writer was on.
Then ask how that side felt.
A Loyalist sided with the king, so dumping the king's tea looked like lawbreaking.
Neither letter has to be fake. They show two views.

What do you think comes next?

Patriot: a colonist who wanted independence
Loyalist: a colonist who stayed loyal to the British king