Next, on lectures in history, Clemson University professor Bradley Thompson teaches a class about the preamble of the declaration of independence. Examining it line by line, he talks about the selfevident truths enumerated by the Founding Fathers and explores what they may have intended by their word choices. Good afternoon, everybody. So for the last six weeks in this class, weve been examining the political thought of the imperial crisis. That is, weve been looking at the debates between British Imperial officials and american wig patriots. And that debate has really in many ways come down to one issue which is broadly speaking what is the british constitution and how does it define relations between the mother country and her colonies . And more specifically even the real question is, what is the political constitutional relationship between the power and the authority of the British Parliament and americas colonial legislators . And over the course of about 12 years between 1764 an
Good afternoon, everybody. So for the last six weeks in this class, weve been examining the political thought of the imperial crisis. That is, weve been looking at the debates between British Imperial officials and american wig patriots. And that debate has really in many ways come down to one issue which is broadly speaking what is the british constitution and how does it define relations between the mother country and her colonies . And more specifically even the real question is, what is the political constitutional relationship between the power and the authority of the British Parliament and americas colonial legislators . And over the course of about 12 years between 1764 and 1776, the British Parliament passed a series of laws. In 1764, it began with the sugar act and then a year later the stamp act and then in 176768 the townsend acts and then the tea act and then the coercive acts and then in 1775 the prohibittory act. But standing behind all of these acts of british legislati
Casts. Next on American History tv Richard Belle talks about the declaration of independence. The Smithsonian Associates hosted this event. Dr. Bell presented many outstanding programs for us on topics relating to early American History and the American Revolutionary period in the course of the past several years. He got his degree from the university of cambridge. He is an associate professor of history in college park where he specializes in early American History. The American Society of 18th century studies be stowed thash course design award on the under graduate course. And his book, stolen, it is a true story about five boys kidnapped in the north and smuggled into slavery in the deep south and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice being published in october. So thank you again for joining us, and help many welcome dr. Rick bell. Thanks to heather and cspan for covering this. Many of you will not be surprised to hear my strange accent which is not a m
Good afternoon, everybody. So for the last six weeks in this class, weve been examining the political thought of the imperial crisis. That is, weve been looking at the debates between British Imperial officials and american whig patriots. And that debate has really in many ways come down to one issue which is, broadly speaking, what is the british constitution and how does it define relations between the mother country and her colonies . And more specifically even the real question is, what is the political constitutional relationship between the power and the authority of the British Parliament and americas colonial legislators . And over the course of about 12 years between 1764 and 1776, the British Parliament passed a series of laws. In 1764, it began with the sugar act and then a year later the stamp act and then in 176768 the townsend acts and then the tea act and then the coercive acts and then in 1775 the prohibittory act. But standing behind all of these acts of british legisl
Patriots. That debate has really in many ways come down to one issue which is broadly speaking what is the british constitution and how does it define relations between the mother country and her colonies. More specifically even the real question is what is the political constitutional relationship between the power and the authority of the British Parliament and americas legislators. Between 1774 and 1776 the British Parliament passed a series of laws. In 1774 it was the sugar act. Then a year later the stamp act. In 1767 the townsend act. Then the tea act. Then in 1775 the prohibiting act. Standing behind all these acts was one overarching piece of legislation which i think was the driving force behind all of these particular acts. That was the declaratory act of 1766, which claimed that parliaments authority extended to the american colonies in all cases whatsoever. That meant that parliament was not only supreme over the colonies, but its power and authority was absolutely supreme.