Empire, Revolution & Independence — Chapter review · U.S. & New York History: Indigenous Nations to Reconstruction, Grade 7
Five focused units, a three-session source workshop, chapter review, and chapter quiz.
Review the key ideas
French & Indian War: Empire, Alliances & Debt
A twenty-two-year-old Virginian surveyor named George Washington fired the first shots of a world war in a Pennsylvania clearing in 1754. Britain won it, took Canada, and emerged with a national debt that had nearly doubled — which is why the taxes that started the next war arrived within a year of the peace.
Road to Revolution: Taxation, Representation & Resistance
The Tea Act of 1773 made tea cheaper, and Boston destroyed it anyway. That is the clearest evidence that the quarrel was never really about the cost: ninety-two thousand pounds of tea went into the harbour because of who had the right to tax, not how much the tax was.
Declaration of Independence: Principles, Grievances & Purpose
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense sold perhaps 120,000 copies in a few months, in colonies of 2.5 million people, and did something no petition had: it attacked the king himself. Six months later Jefferson’s Declaration turned that argument into a legal case addressed to the world.
The Revolutionary War: Strategy, Alliances & New York
Washington lost most of the battles he fought and won the war, because his task was never to defeat the British army but to keep his own in existence. The decisive victory at Saratoga in 1777 brought France in, and the fighting in New York split the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that had held together for centuries.
Liberty, Equality & Unequal Revolutionary Outcomes
About twenty thousand enslaved people escaped to British lines, which makes the British army the largest emancipator in the war. Northern states began abolishing slavery while southern slavery grew, Native nations lost territory they had not been consulted about, and married women's legal position did not change at all.
Problem 1
Answer and explanation
The packet supports statements about recorded positions, a treaty’s asserted transfer, and continued objections. Three forts do not establish control everywhere, and a European agreement does not document every nation’s consent. More local evidence would test actual authority and its contested reach.
Identify the different types of records.
Distinguish military positions and diplomatic claims from consent.
Use the council record to qualify a universal claim.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence with an explained claim or calculation.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an assumption, evidentiary limit, or distinction that qualifies the conclusion.
Problem 2
Answer and explanation
It treats many nations as one actor and ignores different alliances, aims, and changes. Identify the particular peoples, places, and relationships.
Problem 3
Answer and explanation
The objection can concern who authorizes the tax rather than its amount. Equal rates do not establish equal representation or accepted authority. The pamphlet records a particular argument; more records are needed to determine how widely it was shared and why people responded.
Identify the same monetary amount.
Compare the claimed authority and means of consent.
Qualify conclusions about the pamphlet’s wider support.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence with an explained claim or calculation.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an assumption, evidentiary limit, or distinction that qualifies the conclusion.
Problem 4
Answer and explanation
The dispute concerned the authority and representation behind particular taxes. Opposition to one institution’s levy did not necessarily reject all taxation.
Problem 5
Answer and explanation
The 1776 Declaration argued for separation; the 1783 treaty recognized independence after war; the 1787 drafting addressed federal government design. The sequence shows connected but distinct processes. None of these dates by itself establishes universal political rights or every person’s practical freedom.
Identify adoption as a claim of separation.
Distinguish recognition after war from institution design.
Retain the ideals while qualifying their immediate reach.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence with an explained claim or calculation.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an assumption, evidentiary limit, or distinction that qualifies the conclusion.
Problem 6
Answer and explanation
A grievance identifies a claimed wrong or action; a principle states a broader rule or idea used to judge government and support the argument.
Problem 7
Answer and explanation
The larger force may face reduced food, ammunition, or communication, while allied support can sustain the smaller force. These mechanisms qualify a head-count prediction. Leadership, timing, positions, and actual campaign records are still needed; the packet does not establish a winner.
Identify resources and supply as separate conditions.
Explain how lost supplies affect sustained operations.
Retain uncertainty without inventing a result.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence with an explained claim or calculation.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an assumption, evidentiary limit, or distinction that qualifies the conclusion.
Problem 8
Answer and explanation
Strategy, geography, alliances, endurance, decisions, and wider pressures affect how resources are used. A resource count alone is not a complete causal explanation.
Problem 9
Answer and explanation
The treaty changes governmental relations, while the local rule concerns the resident’s enslaved status. The petition shows a freedom claim, not its successful outcome. Independence, legal emancipation, and practical protection require separate dated evidence, even when revolutionary principles connect the arguments.
Identify governmental recognition.
Identify the separate labor-status rule.
Interpret the petition as a claim whose outcome needs evidence.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence with an explained claim or calculation.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an assumption, evidentiary limit, or distinction that qualifies the conclusion.
Problem 10
Answer and explanation
Yes. Governmental independence and individual emancipation involve different institutions and rules. The U.S. Revolution did not automatically abolish slavery everywhere.