The Boston Tea party marked a critical moment in the history of the American Revolution as an act of colonial defiance against British rule. In Boston harbour, on 16 December 1773, American colonists, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded British ships and threw 342 chests of tea owned by the East India Company into the water. It was a protest about the tax on tea, levied without representation in the British Parliament and against the monopoly of the East India Company. The earlier Townshend Acts placed duties on a range of imports to the colonies. These had been repealed; however, the tax on tea remained. A Tea Act was passed in the spring of 1773 to help the East India Company, which faced financial difficulties, and enabled its control of the trade in tea. To further assert its authority over the colonies, and in response to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed several acts known as the Coercive Acts. To the colonists, these became known as the Intolerable Acts and paved the way for further resistance and the American Revolution. Use the documents in this lesson to explore context for the Boston Tea Party and see what some of the documents from the British side reveal about this event and beyond.

This lesson provides pupils with a glimpse of a medieval village. Pupils can identify the major buildings and make inferences about medieval village life, with reference to a range of medieval maps.

This lesson looks at Queen Victoria and her relationship with her family. The lesson could be extended to work with decoding other photographs or portraits.

Why did people from the Caribbean travel to live and work in Britain? When the Second World War ended, countries needed to recover and rebuild. By 1948, the Nationality Act was passed which gave people from British colonies the right to live and work in Britain if they wanted. They were citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. Many Caribbean men and women had served in the forces during the war, some wanted to re-enlist into the armed forces or find other employment. After the war, Britain needed people to fill jobs in the health service, transport system and postal system. The arrival of the ship ‘Empire Windrush’ is often seen as the start of this migration of Caribbean migrants from countries including Jamaica; Bermuda; Trinidad and British Guiana seeking jobs and a better life in this country. Jamaica for example, had high unemployment and a recent hurricane had caused huge damage. However, it is also important to remember that there were earlier lesser-known ships that carried post-war migrants from the Caribbean. Find out these other ships in this National Archives blog. It cost £28 for travel on the troop-deck and £48 for cabin class travel on the Empire Windrush. The ship picked up passengers at Trinidad, Jamaica (Kingston), Mexico (Tampico), Cuba (Havana) and, finally Bermuda before arriving at Tilbury Docks on 22nd June in Britain. The total number of passengers was 492, of which 52 were volunteers for the armed forces, 236 who had nowhere to go and who were accommodated in London’s Clapham South tube station deep shelter and 204 who had places to go to and were dispersed direct from Tilbury. The Ministry of Labour set up a small labour exchange or job centre in the Clapham South shelter to help to place people in jobs. Fares were paid to those travelling to other parts of the country. Life was difficult for many people after the war. Rationing and shortages continued, people still queued for food. People therefore arriving from the Caribbean would have experienced this as well as leaving friends and family behind. The climate was also colder and wetter. Unfortunately, some Caribbean migrants were made to feel unwelcome and treated unfairly and differently because of racism. Finding jobs and somewhere to live was difficult due to discrimination. Many were forced to accept employment with low wages or poor housing.

Use the British government sources in this lesson to explore the complicated reasons behind the Chinese Civil War and its outcome, including party ideology, propaganda, fighting tactics, and power struggles. In 1940s China, two parties were fighting for power. On one side was the ruling nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. On the other was the opposing Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong. During the Second World War, both parties banded together to fight off Japanese occupation. However, after the war, peace talks between the two quickly broke down. The fighting between the two parties became ongoing before escalating into civil war. The civil war was eventually won by the CCP in 1949. Mao declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949. Chiang Kai-shek, meanwhile, fled to the island of Taiwan, where he continued to rule.

This lesson looks at why the Opium Wars happened and how Hong Kong became a British colony. It shows the importance of ports and trade routes for the British Empire around this time, and how economic factors were linked to its growth. In 1997, Hong Kong stopped being a British colony after more than 150 years of British rule. Authority over Hong Kong was transferred to China. Many see this moment as the end of the last significant colony in the British Empire. Hong Kong became a British colony through two wars: the First and Second Opium Wars. The First Opium War broke out in 1839. It is called the ‘Opium War’ because of one of its major causes: the British were smuggling opium from their Indian colonies into Chinese ports against the wishes of the Chinese government. This was to help pay for the large amounts of Chinese tea that they were importing – by the early 1800s, tea was a popular drink with the British public. Britain also wanted more control over their trade with China, as they could only trade with certain officials called Hong merchants. The Opium Wars resulted in two treaties, each expanding the size of Britain’s Hong Kong territory. These treaties were followed by a 99-year lease in 1898 that allowed Britain to control even more land – a lease that ran out in 1997. Use this lesson to find out the causes behind the First Opium War and how Hong Kong became part of the British Empire. How important were economic factors in the growth of the British Empire? How can we explain the unique position of Hong Kong in the world today?

Use this lesson to explore archival sources relating to the life of Dr James Barry. James Barry, born in 1795 in Cork, Ireland, became a leading doctor with a glittering medical career who did much to raise standards of medical care in and outside the army. He chose to exclusively live and identify as a man, having been assigned female at birth. Sources in The National Archives show how his biological sex became a matter of discussion amongst some of his contemporaries after his death in 1865 and that it was publicly reported. Such an intrusion into a person’s personal life is completely unacceptable today. Archives can reveal historical sources for LGBTQ+ lives that can help us to understand their stories and how they were treated in society. Sometimes, these histories appear to be ‘hiding in plain sight’, and other times are more difficult to find. Our understanding of gender and sexuality has changed a lot since the times of James Barry. ‘Transgender’, meaning someone whose gender identity differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth, was not a term used in the 1800s. However, research has highlighted the significance of James Barry as a transgender man in the history of medicine as both a pioneer and reformer. The text here uses the pronouns he/him in accordance with how Dr James Barry identified himself throughout his life. In the first document shown here, which reveals his appointment as Inspector General of Hospitals in 1857, he signed as ‘Dr James Barry, M.D. Esquire.’

This lesson explores the worsening relations between Christians and Jews in the latter half of the thirteenth century. Use the sources to investigate the religious, economic, and social factors that led to the Jews being expelled from England in c. 1290. Could this extreme royal tactic have been avoided? Following almost two centuries of Christians and Jews living alongside each other, King Edward I expelled England’s entire Jewish population in the autumn of 1290. As the previous two lessons have shown, Jews had once been prominent in national finance and local trade at key regional centres like York, Lincoln and London, yet by the end of the thirteenth century, Jewish individuals were no longer able to reside ‘freely and honourably’ in England nor enjoy the same ‘liberties and customs’ as their predecessors. They were expelled from the realm as perfidious (faithless) men. The reign of King Edward I (1272-1307) witnessed a heightening of tensions between the Christian and Jewish populations in England. Before relations between the two faiths had been occasionally difficult, subject to prejudice around crusading propaganda and the varying levels of debt owed to Jewish moneylenders but horrific outbursts, such as the attack on York’s Jewish population in March 1190, were few and far between. Edward, however, placed new emphasis on the status of Jews in England. The Statute of Jewry c. 1275 outlined that Jews had to live in specific areas of the king’s towns; those aged over seven had to wear a badge that visually identified them as being Jewish; all aged over twelve years were to pay a tax of 3 pence each Easter; and Jews could only sell property or negotiate debts with the king’s permission. New rules paired with heavy taxation and growing suspicions surrounding the coin-clipping events in the late 1270s led to mounting pressure on Christian-Jewish relations. By the late 1280s, Edward could only secure parliament’s grant of further taxation to aid his war with France by making sacrifices. The expulsion of the Jews was the price he agreed to pay.

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Dr William Butler looking at records from the Air Ministry, the Royal Airforce, and related bodies. This video focuses on a report on ‘Operation Plainfare’, the Berlin Airlift (1948 June to September.)

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Dr Juliette Desplat looking at records from the Foreign Office. This video focuses on two documents relating to the British government’s reaction to the Russian Revolution.

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Mark Dunton looking at records from the Cabinet Office. This video focuses on one document relating to a cabinet meeting in 1981 during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.

This video is part of our ‘Spotlight On’ series and features Modern Records Specialist Kevin Searle looking at records from the Home Office. This video focuses on some of the evidence and papers gathered to prepare the Scarman Report on causes of the Brixton uprisings. The title of the document is: ‘Inquiry into 1981 Brixton Disturbances (Scarman Inquiry): Evidence and Papers.’

This video is part of our educational ‘Spotlight On’ series. This video features collections expert Sean Cunningham looking at records from our State Papers collection. He focuses on a ballad relating to the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536-7 from SP1, our series of State Papers relating to Henry VIII.

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Daniel Gilfoyle looking at records from the Colonial Office. This video focuses on two documents relating to the Baptist War in 1831 led by Samuel Sharpe against slavery in Jamaica which shed light on resistance to slavery in the British Caribbean.

This video is part of our ‘Spotlight On’ series and features Contemporary Records Specialist Mark Dunton looking at twentieth century records from the Prime Minister’s Office relating to the start of the Suez Crisis in 1956.

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features collections expert Will Butler looking at our War Office series. This video focuses on a manual from August 1918 about the role of tanks in warfare. It helps explore the impact of this technology during the First World War.

What do these documents reveal about life for Caribbean migrants to Britain in the 1940s and 1950s? When the Second World War ended, countries needed to recover and rebuild. By 1948, the Nationality Act was passed which gave people from the Commonwealth the right to live and work in Britain if they wanted. They were citizens of the ‘United Kingdom and Colonies’. Many Caribbean men and women had served in the forces during the war, some wanted to re-enlist into the armed forces or find other employment. After the war, Britain needed people to fill jobs in the health service, transport system and postal system. Britain also used the European Voluntary Workers (E.V.W.) scheme to cope with its shortage of workers. The plan aimed to provide jobs in factories and farming to people from Europe who had been made homeless after the war. At the same time, many people also left their homes in the Caribbean to live and work in Britain. Those on the E.V.W. plan who were classed as ‘aliens’, however those from the Caribbean were ‘Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies’. Housing for the new migrants, near to their places of work was often provided by National Service Hostels Corporation. At the Causeway Green Hostel in the West Midlands in August 1949, for example, there were 235 Poles, 18 E.V.Ws, 235 Southern Irish, 50 Northern Irish, 65 Jamaicans, and 100 English, Scottish and Welsh. Finding accommodation became difficult for many commonwealth immigrants because of growing prejudice and discrimination in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1958 there were riots in the Nottingham and Notting Hill, London. These involved serious fights between ‘teddy boys’ and new arrivals. The homes of immigrants were also attacked. At this time too, Black people were frequently excluded from skilled employment, pubs, and clubs. Landlords refused to rent to Black families. Other landlords exploited these immigrants by renting them over-priced, overcrowded accommodation. Added to this racial discrimination, the shortage of affordable decent housing and the poor living conditions made matters worse. The following year, Kelso Cochrane, a carpenter from Antigua was brutally stabbed to death in West London. It was a racist murder and not, as the police later claimed, an attempted robbery. These events would lead to increased calls for immigration control, resulting in the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act, many argued that the migrants were being blamed for the prejudice directed towards them. Following these events there was a strong effort to improve relations in the area from Black activist Claudia Jones and members of the Caribbean community which eventually gave rise to the Notting Hill Carnival and the start of legislation designed to prevent racial discrimination.

The early 19th Century saw many advances in science and medicine, in a time where scientific and religious ideas often clashed over what was morally correct. These ideas are explored in nineteenth century literature such as the novel Frankenstein, but the stories in the real world were often as shocking and brutal as the Gothic fantasy. This lesson explores the business of the grave robber and how they furthered the study of medicine through a grey area of the law. This lesson can be used as part of several fields of study for GCSE, including: Crime and Punishment History of Medicine/Health and the People Social Reform of the early 1800s Historical Context of ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley. The confessions of Bishop and May describe their daily lives in great detail. The full confessions are twelve pages long each, and so have been presented as extracts to provide the most relevant sections describing one particular case. The initial task can be completed as group work, in carousel, or individually as its own lesson before moving on to the rest of the sources. Care should be taken in providing the source describing the murder to students. The final source shows the on going effects of the Act over twenty-five years later, asking students to consider these sources in the context of a larger narrative.

This lesson and its sources can be used to look at how evidence over time can change leading to new conclusions. The lesson focuses on the sinking of the Indefatigable was one of heroic loss and then it became clear it was a mistake.

This lesson is designed to support History KS 1-2, units 11 and 12 to learn about the past times of the Victorian people.