The Declaration of Independence was drafted by a committee of five men:  Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman.  Have students write biographies of these individuals and create time lines for each man of the significant events and accomplishments in his life.  Compare the time lines to determine if any of their paths crossed before and after the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  Make a chart to indicate your findings.

Click image for larger version.

The committee of five met and decided that Jefferson should write the first draft. Why do you suppose Jefferson was selected?  Have students read John Adams’ answer to a similar question asked by Timothy Pickering in 1822 to see if there are similar points.

	John Hancock Marquis de Lafayette    Thomas Jefferson William Small  Napoleon Bonaparte George III  George Wythe Louis XVI

	Voltaire Rousseau Montesquieu Peyton Randolph Benjamin Franklin John Adams Robert R. Livingston Roger Sherman Robespierre

As a television news reporter you have just witnessed the three scenes below and caught them on film.  Gather more information (who, what, when, where, why) and report to your television audience what you have witnessed. 

Click images to view larger version.

Select an image below to write a newspaper feature (remember to report who, what, where, when, and why).  Click images to view larger version.

Battle of Lexington	Pulling Down George III Statute	Disembarkation of French Troops
Napoleon in Russia	Napoleon defeating  the Turkish Pacha	Attack on the Bastille

Use this excerpt from the Saturday, January 4, 1800 issue of the Ulster County Gazette, pertaining to news from Paris dated October 14 to determine from what engagement Napoleon was returning to Paris.  Research that engagement and write a newspaper report giving the details including the outcome.  Remember to incorporate who, when, where, what and why. Click image of paper to get closeup of October 14 news.

Use the transcriptions of the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to outline any similarities you find.  Are there any differences?

Montesquieu	Jefferson read the works of Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu.  Examine biographies of each and determine how their writings may have influenced Jefferson’s work on the Declaration of Independence.  Click images for biographies.
Voltaire	Rousseau

The Royal Arms (shown above) inspired pride among the colonies when seen on official buildings.  What feeling did it evoke when it appeared on revenue stamps in 1765?  Explain your answer.  Read the August 23, 1775 Proclamation (shown at right) issued by King George III to the colonists?  What is the King asking the colonists to do?

	What statement was the colonists/mob making in New York City on the Bowling Green when they pulled down the statute of King George III on July 9, 1776?  The statute had been erected in 1770 and was made of gilded lead.  Hypothesize what might have happened to the statue once it was pulled down by the mob.

Compare this depiction of the destruction of the statue created by Frenchman Chez Basset (above) with the depiction created by Johannes Adam Oertel (right). What differences do you notice?  Which depiction do you think is the most accurate and why? Click each image to view larger version.

If you were King George III and you saw the statistics below, what conclusion would you draw?

If you were King George III and you were presented with these statistics three years later, what conclusion would you draw?

Research to determine the figures at the end of the war (troops, expenditures, death toll) and put that information into a chart.  Click here for a chart to use.

An Englishman once remarked that conquering America was “like trying to conquer a map.”  What do you think he meant?

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The Treaty to end the conflict between America and Great Britain was finally signed on September 3, 1783 in Paris.  This painting depicts the delegates of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin.  Who appears to be missing?  Why do you suppose this painting by Benjamin West was never finished?

Examine the Treaty of Paris and outline the conditions of the agreement between Great Britain and America. Who signed for America and who represented Great Britain ?     Click image at right for larger image of treaty as published in an American newspaper.  Click here for transcription of Treaty.

		When the European continent was jolted by the revolution in France, what position did America take?
Attack on the Bastille

Have students research the different American opinions and have students debate the various reactions to the French Revolution.  

Divide students into 10 groups and have each group research a year of the French Revolution (1789 to 1799).  On the board each group should outline the events that took place in that year of the revolution, creating a timeline.

Have students create a diorama of one of the events of the French Revolution that they have recorded on the timeline of the revolution.

Various social, political and economic conditions are listed as the cause of the French Revolution. Have students outline what these conditions might have been. 

One of the early events in the French Revolution was the attack on and capture of the Bastille (shown at left).  Have students research the history of the Bastille and explain why the capture of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 was a significant event of the revolution.   What famous philosopher spent time at the Bastille; when and why was he there?

Have students create a diorama of the Bastille or a diorama of the crowd attacking the Bastille.    

What was Napoleon’s role in the French Revolution and why was he heralded as the Defender of the Revolution?

Read this eye witness account of the Execution of King Louis XVI on January 21, 1793 by Henry Essex Edgeworth de Firmont, a priest in the King’s household.

Examine this excerpt from a speech Robespierre gave on February 5, 1794 and make a list of any teachings/philosophies of Rousseau you find that Robespierre used in his speech.

This great purity of the French revolution's basis, the very sublimity of its objective, is precisely what causes both our strength and our weakness. Our strength, because it gives to us truth's ascendancy over imposture, and the rights of the public interest over private interests; our weakness, because it rallies all vicious men against us, all those who in their hearts contemplated despoiling the people and all those who intend to let it be despoiled with impunity, both those who have rejected freedom as a personal calamity and those who have embraced the revolution as a career and the Republic as prey. Hence the defection of so many ambitious or greedy men who since the point of departure have abandoned us along the way because they did not begin the journey with the same destination in view. The two opposing spirits that have been represented in a struggle to rule nature might be said to be fighting in this great period of human history to fix irrevocably the world's destinies, and France is the scene of this fearful combat. Without, all the tyrants encircle you; within, all tyranny's friends conspire; they will conspire until hope is wrested from crime. We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with it; now in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.

If the spring of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the springs of popular government in revolution are at once virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs.

How does Robespierre justify the use of terror in the fight for liberty for the citizens of France?

The Revolutionary Tribunal (a court instituted by decree of the National Convention on March 9, 1793 for the trial of political offenders) in Paris would arrest, convict and execute thousands for “crimes against liberty.”  When Robespierre gave his speech in February 1794 there were 5,434 people awaiting trial in prisons in Paris.  There was no appeal to the judgment issued by the tribunal. Similar tribunals were also in operation in provinces throughout France.

Read J. G. Millingen’s eye-witness account of the Revolutionary Tribunal in October, 1793. Estimates of the death toll range between 15,000 and 40,000.   Research Robespierre’s life to determine how his life ended.      Who invented the guillotine? Current Events:               Murderer Executed by Electric Chair             Saddam May Hang at Abu Ghraib             The Dying Death Penalty             Executions on Hold in North Carolina

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