Subscribe

5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 3 of 7

Road to Revolution

Taxes, protests and Patriots

What your child practices

British taxes, colonial protests such as boycotts and the Boston Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, and why Loyalists and Patriots saw things differently.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: History 1 · the events and ideas that led the colonies toward independence

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Britain taxed the colonies after 1763 to pay debts from the French and Indian War.
  2. Colonists had no elected members in Parliament: “No taxation without representation.”
  3. The Sons of Liberty protested, Committees of Correspondence shared news, and the Quartering Act made colonists house soldiers.

Example: Why did Britain start taxing the colonies after 1763? Britain had just fought a long war in North America. Wars cost a lot of money. Answer: to pay its debts from the French and Indian War

Road to Revolution in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 3 of 7 in 5th grade Social Studies, after Colonial Trade & Work and before The American Revolution.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Maine Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Paul Revere's famous engraving of the Boston Massacre is a good example of…

    • A source made to stir up anger at Britain
    • A map of Boston
    • A British government report
    • A neutral photograph

  2. Question 2

    Before the war, Benjamin Franklin went to London to…

    • join the British army
    • become king
    • sell the colonies
    • speak for the colonies to the British government

  3. Question 3

    Patrick Henry is remembered for saying…

    • "We the People"
    • "Four score and seven years ago"
    • "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
    • "Remember the ladies"

  4. Question 4

    Mercy Otis Warren contributed to the Patriot cause by…

    • Writing plays and poems that criticized British rule
    • Ruling as governor
    • Collecting the Stamp Act tax
    • Leading the British navy

  5. Question 5

    In 1774, Thomas Jefferson wrote that Parliament…

    • had no right to make laws for the colonies
    • should rule the colonies forever
    • was always right
    • could tax the colonies freely

  6. Question 6

    Why did Britain start taxing the colonies after 1763?

    • To pay its debts from the French and Indian War
    • Because the colonists asked
    • To build schools in the colonies
    • To pay for a war with China

More 5th grade