8th Grade U.S. History
View Schoolhouse Rocks "No More Kings"
| How did the colonists identify themselves? |
| Did colonists practice English customs and styles? |
| What was the English government like? Was it tyrannical with an omnipotent king? |
| Were there limits to the power of an English monarch? |
| American colonists identified with the customs of Englishmen and thought of themselves as English. |
| American colonists believed thy had the same guarantees under English law that anyone in England would have. |
| English theorists often claimed that the origins of English rights lay in Magna Carta (1215 C.E.), but the eighteenth-century understanding of those rights was shaped by the English Bill of Rights (1689 C.E.). |
| American conflict with the English Parliament after 1763 taught them that laws which were not spelled out were difficult to guarantee. |
| When Americans won their independence from England they codified the rights which they thought were most important in the first twelve amendments to the U.S. Constitution. |
| The American Bill of Rights deals with those personal liberties that Americans thought were most important to protect. |
| Group students (3-4 per group) and give each group a packet with the excerpts from the American Bill of Rights and the English Bill of Rights. |
| Instruct each group that they should read all the excerpts and place the excerpt taken from the English Bill of Rights next to the amendment from the American Bill of Rights which it most clearly resembles. Tell students that some amendments will have more than one excerpt from the English Bill of Rights and others will have only one. |
| When students believe they have correctly matched the items in the English and American Bill of Rights, check them. If students have sorted them incorrectly, tell them only the number of mistakes, not where they are. |
| A game can be made of this by rewarding the first group who completes the activity correctly or by rewarding all groups who complete the activity successfully within a certain time frame. |
A supreme court justice, Early Warren, once said, "Our people wanted explicit assurances. The Bill of Rights was the result." Write an essay which explains this quotation. Answering the following questions will help you accomplish this task.
| Based on what you know of early American history, why do you suppose the Bill of Rights uses many ideas from the English Bill of Rights? |
| In many cases the rights first talked about in the English Bill of Rights have been extended in the American version. Pick an amendment this has happened to and explain why you think this is the case. Once again, base your answer on what you know of colonial experience. |
| Challenge question: Select an amendment from the Bill of Rights which is not a reflection of the English Bill of Rights (Amendments IV, V, IX, X). Why is this amendment in our version but not England's? What unique aspect of the American experience led to the codification of the right you chose? |