Lesson Plan
Lesson Preview | Objectives
Lesson Preview
The spirit of independence became evident
early in American history. An ocean apart from the rules and regulations that
once restricted them, the first settlers began to make their own laws. Early
colonists were influenced by the Enlightenment and its thinkers, and became
convinced that all people have natural rights.
In this lesson we will explore the democratic principles upon which the United
States was founded. We will examine these ideas as a cause for the American
Revolution, the foundation of the Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of
Rights.
Objectives
When you have completed this lesson, you will be able to
describe the Enlightenment and the
rise of democratic ideas as the context in which the nation was founded,
analyze the ideological origins of
the American Revolution, the divinely bestowed unalienable natural rights
philosophy of the Founding Fathers, the debates on the drafting and ratification
of the Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights, and
understand the history of the Constitution after 1787 with emphasis on federal versus state authority and growing democratization.
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B. J. Subbiondo © 2004