History course
The Road to Lexington: How Ordinary Colonists Chose War, 1763–1775
12-Week History Course
The record, from every side
Your student reads what colonists and the King’s officers said and did, in their own words: a merchant’s diary, town votes, committee papers, acts of Parliament, governors’ and generals’ letters, Loyalist pamphlets, sworn depositions and newspapers. Each side’s case is stated at its strongest before anyone judges it. Parliament, the governors, the committees and the crowds get the same questions, and every claim traces to a source printed in the lesson.
For the parent or teacher
Each lesson’s parent note says what to preview that day, and every lesson and assessment has a full answer key.
Course Big Question
What had to happen before shopkeepers, printers, merchants and farmers would take up arms against the King's troops and their own neighbors?
Course introduction
In 1763 the colonists celebrated the King. By 1775 farmers from dozens of towns were shooting at his soldiers, and committees were deciding which neighbors could trade, preach or stay. This course follows that change from the ground up. Students read the shop counter (a merchant's diary, a bookseller's trade, a tradesman's protest), the town meeting (Boston's votes, Cambridge's and Farmington's resolves), the committees (correspondence, inspection, safety) and the militia company (minute-man resolves, a drill book, a minuteman's journal).
Beside them stands the government the colonists defied. Students also read the case made by the ministers and by Parliament (Grenville, Whately, Jenyns), by the royal governors and generals (Bernard, Hutchinson, Colden, Gage), and by the Loyalists and moderates who said no (Leonard, Seabury, Ann Hulton, Bryan Fairfax, the merchant James Murray). Each lesson asks what one person could see, what it would cost them, and what they chose.
April 19 gets two lessons, and they treat it as a problem of evidence. Students weigh the Provincial Congress's sworn depositions, General Gage's official account, two British officers' diaries, a merchant watching from Boston and a minuteman's journal.
From the peace of 1763 through the Stamp Act, the boycotts, the tea, the Coercive Acts, the county conventions and the minute men to April 19, 1775 and the months after, in six units. April 19 gets two lessons, and they treat it as a problem of evidence. Every writing task has its own expectations for the Grades 7–8 path, Grades 9–10 and Grades 11–12. There are two map and source quizzes, two DBQs, a midpoint test in Week 6 and a final in Week 12, and the capstone case file is shown in Week 12.
Grades 9–12, with a Grades 7–8 path. 12 weeks: two lessons a week of about 45–60 minutes in Weeks 1–11, then the capstone showing and the final in Week 12. Every lesson prints its own sources; no outside books are required. Aligned to West Virginia Department of Education academic standards (Social Studies and English Language Arts, grades 7–12).
The course opens with an active Pharos Terminal subscription.
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Pharos Terminal
Every course is included
This course is included with an active Pharos Terminal subscription, along with every other course, new courses as they’re released, a new Nexus Point every day and the parent tracker. Lessons are aligned to West Virginia Department of Education academic standards in English Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.