Themes & Essays
The Themes below provide a way of understanding each historic scene within the context of four different humanities themes. Select a scene (listed across the top of the screen) and move down the column to the theme you are interested in. Click the theme essay title to read the short essay; click a scene title to go to that scene.
Please Note: an asterisk (*) indicates an essay is unavailable.
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| Themes ↓ | January, 1783 War's End |
Fall 1783 &1784 Boom & Bust |
September, 1786 Petition & Protest |
January, 1787 A Bloody Encounter |
March, 1787 Taking the Oath |
May, 1787 Making a Nation |
Getting By & Getting Ahead |
*Paper Currency— When to Take It, When to Let It Go? |
*Profitable Peace? | "The Labyrinth of Debt" | "The Most Distressing Situation" | *Fiscal Relief | *The Federal Solution |
| Economy, currency and the controversy surrounding state-issued paper money |
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We the People |
*A Standing Army | *In Debt to the World | *Consititutional Resistance? | "the people assembled in arms" | *Up Close: Taking the Oath | *We the States or We the People? |
| Government, democracy, dissent and loyalty—who gets to decide? |  |
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The Wider World |
American Cincinnatus | Ginseng and Salt Cod | *"Great tumults and contentions" | Reporting a Bloody Encounter | Mercy or Retribution | *The Republican Experiment — Fatally Flawed? |
| National and international affairs and their impact on personal choices and behaviors |  |
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Everyday Life |
*A People's Army | *Adding Up | *Divided Communities | Militia Men and Regulators: Who was at the Arsenal? | *Oath or Fight? | Communities United, Communities Divided |
| Post-Revolutionary society—the promises of the American Revolution and how they were, or were not, fulfilled |  |
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