Analyzing Historical Documents
A Grade 7 ELA worksheet focusing on key strategies for analyzing historical documents, including identifying author, purpose, audience, and historical context.
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Analyzing Historical Documents
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Read each question carefully and provide thoughtful answers. This worksheet will help you practice analyzing historical documents by considering the author, purpose, audience, and historical context.
Read the following excerpt from a letter written by Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, on March 31, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War:
I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
1. Who is the author of this letter, and to whom is it addressed?
2. What is the primary purpose of Abigail Adams' message in this excerpt?
3. Abigail Adams is writing during the time of the War, which provides important context for her plea.
4. Her statement, "Remember all Men would be if they could," suggests her concern about the potential for abuse of .
5. What does Abigail Adams mean by "foment a Rebellion" if women are not given a voice?
She plans to physically fight in the war.
She will encourage women to protest and resist unjust laws.
She will leave her husband and join the British.
She wants women to form their own separate government.
6. Based on Abigail Adams' letter, what can you infer about the role and rights of women in 1776? How does her letter challenge or support those societal norms?
7. Abigail Adams' letter suggests that the idea of women's rights was a completely new concept during the American Revolution.
True
False