Imagine if all members of colonial society at the time of the American Revolution (women, African Americans, native peoples, and other groups) had access to modern social media platforms. Activities explore how they might have utilized social media to express their ideas and issues in order to gain support for their own groups' Declarations of Independence.
Throughout U.S. history, oppressed and disenfranchised groups (women, African Americans, farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, and more) have set forth their declarations of independence.
Modelled after the original Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, each document presents a vision for achieving full rights, freedoms, and liberties as members of American democracy.
Activity 1: Design a Social Media Campaign for a Declaration of Independence
Identify the grievances and discriminations faced by the writers of the declaration as well as their goals and hopes for a fairer, more just society.
Design a social media campaign to build support for the document. The social media campaign should include at least 2 videos (e.g., YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok), 5 example posts, and 3 images (e.g., memes, graphics, infographics) designed by you.
As you design your campaign, consider the following:
What visuals and language will you use to highlight key ideas from the declaration?
Which social media platforms will you use?
What will you write in your posts to capture attention and inspire action?
How will you use media (e.g., images, videos, audio) to make a convincing argument?
Activity 2: Design a Modern-Day Declaration of Independence
Create a modern-day Declaration of Independence (on TikTok or Snapchat, rather than as a document) for any group you think needs one to achieve freedom and justice in today's society.
Apply knowledge of the history of the Revolutionary period to determine the experiences and events that led the colonists to declare independence and explain key ideas about equality, representative government, limited government, rule of law, natural rights, common good, and the purpose of government as contained in the Declaration of Independence (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Studies) [8.T2.1]