The Early America Project

Contents:

1. Patrick Henry?s ?Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?
2. The Declaration of Independence
3. ?The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere? first published in 1863 as part of "Tales of a Wayside Inn?
4. The Constitution of the United States
5. The Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments

Two Points:

These selections are of varying levels of difficulty, from elementary school through law school. In law school, two semesters are devoted to Constitutional Law but few law students would venture into Constitutional Law as a sole interest. Nonetheless, with the Vaudio Media formatting, even junior high school students can profitably get their feet wet in the Constitution.

In past generations not one of these documents had their audience strictly among college students; they were required reading starting with Paul Revere in the fourth grade. It had never been possible to leave high school without having laid eyes upon all of these seminal works. However, none of them is politically correct, including The Constitution of the United States, in which it is perfectly acceptable to refer to a slave as three-fifths of a person. Even Paul Revere is not now seen as historically accurate. ?Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death? sounds vaguely like a suicide bomber preparing his justification for killing. The Bill of Rights could be seen as political rhetoric that was never implemented, while the British, the antagonist, would easily interpret the Declaration of Independence as one-sided. However, none of these characterizations falsifies the entirety of the document or excuses Americans from considering their content and their contentions. They provide the basis for our country?s founding ideals and so are required reading no matter what.

Give Me Liberty Questions

Line 3
This speech was written

1. Before The American Revolution
2. Before The Civil War
3. Before The Second World War
4. All of the above

Line 5
An illusion of hope is

1. A dream that will come true
2. A dream that cannot come true
3. A dream about a girl named Hope

Lines 6-7
If you shut your eyes against a painful truth, what could happen?

1. You might be run over by a car
2. Someone could steal your money
3. You could lose your freedom
4. You could look like a fool
5. All of the above

Line 11
Patrick Henry is most concerned about

1. Getting run over by a car
2. Someone could steal his money
3. Americans could lose their chance for freedom

Lines 14-15
If you have eyes, but don't see what's happening around you and you have ears and don?t understand what people are saying to you, you are

1. Smart
2. Stupid
3. Ugly

Lines 18-21
Patrick Henry wants to know the whole truth even if it causes ?anguish of spirit?

1. So he can suffer
2. So he can tell everyone how much he is suffering
3. So he can figure out what needs to be done

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