Educator Seminar: The Constitutional Crisis in British North America, 1763 to 1776
Americans’ “happiness,” John Dickinson once wrote, “is founded on their constitution.” Their security, liberty, and prosperity would each be “promoted by preserving that constitution in unabated vigor, throughout every part.” Such a message surely resonated as much with delegates to the Constitutional Convention as it might today with America’s defenders of the Constitution. But when Dickinson wrote this in 1768, he was not referencing the United States Constitution at all–because it didn’t exist yet. Instead, Dickinson was explaining that British colonists rioting over the Stamp Act in New York or protesting duties on sugar and tea in Boston did so because they felt their leaders had betrayed the foundations of enlightened rule that governed all Britons. For many Americans, the political crisis that brought about the American Revolution was, at its core, a constitutional crisis.
Over the course of this seminar, educators will explore the role constitutions and constitutional thinking played in the political disputes that characterized the imperial crisis in British North America from 1763 to 1776. Close study of primary sources will help educators unpack the many theories, ideas, perspectives, and arguments about the politics of the day that circulated among Americans from many different backgrounds. Careful reading of leading scholarly works will allow teachers to consider new interpretations of the causes of the Revolution. Collaborative discussions and interactive debates will assist scholars in translating these issues into engaging activities for their own students. And throughout their study, participants will evaluate the many crises that Americans of all backgrounds experienced as part of their effort to construct a constitutional society during a revolution.
Zachary W. Deibel is Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Military Institute, where he teaches courses on United States History, the American Revolution, and the Atlantic World. He served as a secondary Social Studies teacher for eight years before earning his doctorate in history at Binghamton University. His research explores the intertwined histories of learning and politics in eighteenth-century America.
