The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights — page 1 — A PRIMARY SOURCE There are lots of ways to learn about history One of the best ways is to look at primary sources These are sources of information that actually come from the time period you want to learn about Primary sources can be letters newspaper articles drawings photographs and more The diary of a Revolutionary War soldier is a primary source while a history book about the Revolution that was written much later is a secondary source This letter written by the American patriot Nathan Hale in 1776 is an example of a primary source 4

The Bill of Rights — page 2 — Primary sources help us learn what happened in the past as well as how people felt about what happened After all details get fuzzy as stories are retold Some of the most studied primary sources are the documents that established the American government Among the most important of these is the U S Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights is the ﬁrst ten amendments or additions to the U S Constitution This original handwritten copy of the Bill of Rights is kept in the National Archives in Washington D C The U S Constitution is the document that lays out the most basic law of the United States Vocabulary 5

The Bill of Rights — page 3 — INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS For much of human history most people did not think of the rights of individual citizens Rulers often had complete power over the people One early effort by people to change their government was a document called the Magna Carta 1215 It gave people in England some rights and limited the king’s power Later in history certain countries created bills of rights England wrote The full title of France’s statement of rights is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 6

The Bill of Rights — page 4 — its Bill of Rights in 1689 and France created the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789 As the 13 American colonies considered declaring independence from Great Britain there was a lot of talk about individual rights This inspired the state of Virginia to pass a Declaration of Rights on June 12 1776 The declaration stated that the basis of government was the people It explained the rights of individuals and set limits on the powers of government The Virginia Declaration of Rights was written mostly by the American statesman George Mason Which of the statements of individual rights discussed here would you guess had the biggest influence on the U S Bill of Rights Why Think About It 7

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