Origins

Just getting ready for the big trip to Philadelphia and D.C.  It's come up fast and furious, but I'm so excited to see great places in American History, learn so much more about them, and also figure out ways on how to share it with my students!!


I've done quite a bit of research and reading as part of the grant process.  I read the following books:


    A great book all over how the American Constitution was actually created in the summer of 1787.  The author gave great portraits of each of the delegates, the problems with the Articles of Confederation, how the Constitution was debated, and ultimately how it came to be signed.


    If you are like me you may know that James Madison was president, but I never knew until reading this book that Madison was personally responsible for not only calling the convention where the US Constitution was written, but he was also instrumental in getting it ratified (or passed) and pushed through the Bill of Rights in the First Congress.  Other congressmen were more concerned with other things, but he had made a campaign promise to include amendments regarding personal liberties. So, Madison made sure that it was brought up in Congress.  Today, Americans view the Bill of Rights as some of their greatest freedoms and we have James Madison to thank.


   Six months after the start of the American Revolution, the war was all but lost.  New York had fallen, the British had taken over three colonies, all but taken Philadelphia, and American troops were leaving the army.  George Washington turned that all around in the winter of 1776 when he crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Night and defeated the Hessian Army camped in Trenton.  (Contrary to popular myths..they were not drunk and easy to defeat, but were tired from constant patrols.  The Hessians fought very valiantly and were surprised by the Continental Army during a heavy winter storm.)  After that, Washington went around the British Army, defeated them at the Battle of Princeton, and the tide of the war changed in the favor of the Americans.

   Arguably one of the most iconic American speeches is Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  This book dealt with the fact that Lincoln's speech has become a sort of myth in American culture and has taken on more meaning as time has passed.  Today, the speech has become a gospel that Americans revisit in times of crisis and continually evolves from generation to generation.