This week’s assignment will be on the Bill of Rights. I will cover the history of the document and its content. I will also explain the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights.

The Amendments are the modifications to the Constitution. Some of them restate or reaffirm the things covered in the Constitution, while others cover new issues.

The first ten Amendments were passed as a whole, which is what we call the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights has its origins traced back to the Magna Carta and other important documents, but it really began after the Constitution was ratified. Some people disagreed with the Constitution because it didn’t contain some freedoms that they felt were important.

James Madison proposed some amendments, and the House and Senate condensed his into 12 amendments. 10 of these were ratified by the states, which became the Bill of Rights.

Below are the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights in a simplified, easy to understand version.

1. You have the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, petition and religion. This means that people can choose their religion, and have the freedom to say whatever they like, and petition and meet freely. Congress is supposed to protect these rights.
2. You have the right to own guns and use them properly. The government cannot confiscate them without a good reason.
3. There will be no quartering of troops. The government cannot send soldiers to private homes and force people to take care of the soldiers. This was a important one during the 18th century because this was legal when the colonies were under British rule, so the writers of the Bill of Rights thought this was important.
4. The government can’t search a person or their property without a reason or cause to believe that that person has committed a crime.
5. You have the right to remain silent, which means you don’t have to give testimony against yourself if you don’t want to. You can’t be tried for the same crime twice.
6. Anyone accused of a crime should be able to get a speedy and fair trial and they are allowed to get a lawyer and get their own witnesses. They also must be told what they are being charged with, and they can question witnesses opposing them.
7. A jury trial is needed for civil cases in federal courts.
8. The government can’t say that you have to pay excessive or unfair fines, and you can’t be punished in a cruel or unfair way.
9. The government can’t take away rights that are not stated. This means that if there are rights that the people have that are not mentioned in the Constitution or the Bill or rights, the people and states still have those rights.
10. Anything not left up to Congress is the right and responsibility of the people.

Thanks for reading!

In my previous assignment, I covered some of the acts that angered the colonists, like the Intolerable Acts. In this assignment, I will look at how that led to the Revolutionary War and what happened during the war.

At the Continental Congress in 1774, the delegates met to discuss the Intolerable Acts and they called for a repeal from Parliament. They encouraged the colonists to start accumulating weapons and training a militia in the case that Parliament did not repeal the acts. And it sure was a good idea that the colonists did this, because Parliament refused to repeal.

Following this, many skirmishes broke out, including the Battle of Lexington. This was hardly a battle, but it marked the start of the war. Captain John Parker had a group of 80 men, while the British had a much larger group. Neither of them expected to actually fire, but as the tensions grew, a shot rang out. The British responded by chasing the militia, who fled. To this day, nobody knows who fired the first shot.

This battle was followed later by the Battle of Concord. This was when Paul Revere made his famous ride. He came from the Battle of Lexington to warn the colonists of the British who were coming to attack Concord.

The Americans won that battle, as the British had lost their element of surprise. The British now had a long march back to Boston, while being harassed by the American troops.

Benedict Arnold, a famous American general who later switched to the side of the English, led the colonial army to Fort Ticonderoga, where they captured the fort and acquired a large amount of artillery. They marched farther north into Quebec, capturing more supplies along the way.

The colonists won the Battle of Valcour Island, a naval battle that showed that the colonists could stand up to the powerful British navy and survive.

Around 1776, the same year when the Declaration of Independence was signed, the French secretly started supporting the Americans. They provided much needed troops, and the Marquis de Lafayette came from France. He was a key component in the successes of the colonial army, and his training tactics were very successful.

The English won the cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, but in 1777, the Americans turned the tide. They won the Battle of Saratoga, where 5,700 British troops surrendered to the colonial army.

The war then started going back and forth, with the British winning some and the Americans winning some. The French declared themselves allies of America in 1778. The British tried to gain the upper hand by taking over much of the South, where they won a decent number of battles. But the Americans allied with the French were much too strong, so in 1781, General Cornwallis surrendered his troops, which was followed by a peace treaty called the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The war was over, and America had won their independence!

In this assignment, I will pretend to be Thomas Mifflin of the Continental Congress. I will describe my grievances against Parliament and say how they should be solved.

To King George III,

I, Thomas Mifflin, a delegate of Pennsylvania, hereby describe to you my grievances against Parliament’s outrageous laws.

O king, it pains me to describe the things that you have done to us, but I will in the hope that you can stop this craziness.

First, I protest against the Molasses act. This act taxes the sugar coming from other countries so that we have to buy sugar from England only! Now we have to buy high priced subsidized sugar. Sure, this act expired in 1763, and we all thought that was the end. Then what? The Sugar Act! This is almost the same as the Molasses act. It doesn’t matter that the tax is less now, it matters that we still have to pay it!

I also protest against the Currency Acts. Before these acts, we could create and use our own money, but now we are forced to pay in British currency or use gold or silver! It was so much easier and more convenient to use our continental paper currency.

And then, the Quartering Act. This was by far the worst one yet. Now we are forced to provide food and shelter for your troops whenever they come banging on our doors! Us colonists can hardly spare a meal these days! This act is intolerable, and it should be repealed at once!

The Stamp Act was almost as bad as the Quartering Act. All legal documents had to be printed on watermarked paper that is highly taxed. We even had to pay taxes on playing cards, dice and newspapers! Thankfully, after lots of protesting, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But alas, the same act that repealed the stamp act said that Parliament could pass any law without the colonists consent! This was the breaking point for me. Some of the acts were legal because the colonies consented, except for the Stamp Act. But now Parliament didn’t have to worry about if we wanted the new laws or not!

And then, the Townshend Acts were passed, probably just to infuriate us even more. Now we are taxed on tea, lead, paper, glass, and paint. What does Parliament think they are doing? Don’t they realize that if this continues, there will be war? Already talk of rebellion is spreading around the colonies, and riots are breaking out.

There is only one thing for you to do, O king! Repeal these laws and let us live in peace! If you do this, the colonies will be a much happier place.