What political ideas in the colonies influenced the American Revolution? On 4th July 1776, the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. This declaration of independence from British colonial rule has been explained in terms of anger over taxation, fear of losing rights and liberties, and the idea of fundamental corruption within the colonial administration. This lesson focusses on the political thought that inspired the American Revolution, and the ideas that influenced the decision to declare independence. Use the documents in this lesson to explore the context for the political thought that inspired the American Revolution.

This lesson asks students to examine a set of letters to discover the health concerns of a sample of poor people in the Victorian era. The activity can be done in groups or as a carousel providing the whole class with knowledge of the content of each letter. The letters have been grouped into five main themes related to health allowing you to select the letters most appropriate to your group’s studies. You may also want to pair this activity with the use of our interactive maps on our Voices of the Victorian Poor website where there are over 3500 letters from the victorian poor to explore. There is a curated map on health within the ‘secondary’ student portal, or further health related filters within the ‘research’ portal. Using these maps can allow you to explore health issues in your local area or explore national trends in medical care, sanitary reform or disease outbreaks. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

This resource is designed for a KS3 year 8-9 class with prior knowledge on the Victorian Workhouse. It could be used as a partner lesson for the already existing source lesson using the 1837 poster. The lesson examines the Victorian Poor in their own words and seeks to address the common misconception that the Victorian Poor were helpless when in the workhouse and accepted the consequences of becoming a pauper and being institutionalised. This resource is designed as a full lesson and has a section for lower-ability students, depending on whether you wish to differentiate. This lesson would best be used as part of a scheme of work on the Victorians and life during the Industrial Revolution. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

This lesson will explore the topic of food, placing it within the wider context of the enquiry question of ‘What was life like for a child in the Victorian Workhouse?’. This lesson will allow the children an opportunity to explore a range of primary sources, also to draw comparisons towards Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’. This will support the children’s’ understanding of historical interpretation. The key historical aim for this lesson will be to use primary sources to support the understanding of a period in time. They will also be able to draw comparisons between their lives today and understand what life would have been like in the past. This lesson will support an exploration of the Victorians where it is either your post 1066 unit or linked to local history, for example if you have a local workhouse that is now a hospital or converted for other uses. It could also be used if you were exploring children’s experiences through history. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

This lesson explores source material in the form of letters written by Paupers which were sent to the Poor Law Commission in London, generally complaining about the treatment and conditions the pauper children were enduring. The pupils will analyse up to 3 individual letters (see below) to gain an understanding of some of the things which happened to children during this time. This lesson focuses on Schools and is part of a series of lessons which include a focus on Southwell Workhouse followed by two other lessons focussing on clothing and food. You can choose to do individual lessons , or all of them, depending on your context and objectives. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

It has previously been assumed that paupers themselves had little knowledge nor understanding of the legislation governed their position, yet letters sent to the poor law commission from across England and Wales challenge this notion. In fact there is evidence that paupers were frequently writing to contest the way that they were being treated, complain about actions of their Guardians and in some instances even quoted specific parts of legislation in an attempt to change their lives. The legal terminology contained in the letters written by the poor, and the inferences that historians can make from this is a fascinating challenge to students of both History and Law related subjects. This resource aims to demonstrate, through a selection of letters and accompanying tasks, how paupers were active in exercising what they believe to be their ‘right to relief’ and were in fact agents who held the Poor Law to account. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

This lesson explores source material in the form of letters written by Paupers which were sent to the Poor Law Commission in London, generally complaining about the treatment and conditions the pauper children were enduring. The pupils will analyse the individual letters to gain an understanding of some of the things which happened to children during this time. This lesson focuses on clothing and is part of a series of lessons which include a focus on Southwell Workhouse followed by two other lessons focussing on schooling and food. This lesson will support an exploration of the Victorians where it is either your post 1066 unit or linked to local history, for example if you have a local workhouse that is now a hospital or converted for other uses. It could also be used if you were exploring children’s experiences through history. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

This document pack and associated activity are designed to support students with their depth study of Poverty, Public Health and the State in Britain c1780 – 1939. The period of 1834-55 has been chosen to allow focus on the Poor Law Amendment Act and its impact on society. The letters provided in this pack are largely from paupers or interested parties writing to the Poor Law Commission, the Poor Law Board or local authorities in regards to the act, as such they offer genuine contemporary reactions to the Act. The letters have been presented as photographs with transcripts available (printed on the reverse if this pack is printed double-sided). An accompanying powerpoint has been provided which can be edited to suit your needs. Teachers notes have been provided within the powerpoint with suggested activity instructions. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

This lesson explores descriptions of the punishment of the Victorian poor in the MH12 collection in The National Archives. It comes in two parts. The first lesson explores punishments given to children while the second lesson examines pauper attitudes to punishments for the general population. It was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

The seven letters selected within this resource show a wealth of varied experiences of women inside the workhouse. The lesson can either use the letters in full or the teacher can select sections of the letters. Students are encouraged to analyse each letter, focusing on the treatment of women and their mental health. Learning objectives: To investigate the varied experiences of women in the workhouse. To analyse and make inferences about a source. Resources needed: Printed sources. This lesson was created as part of the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.

Very few people had the right to vote in the late eighteenth century. Politics and the running of the government was limited to a small number of wealthy people and certain people later called radicals, questioned if this was the best way of government. The most important radical writer at this time was Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Paine was born in Thetford in Norfolk and later moved to America where he played an influential role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He later travelled to France and became involved in the French Revolution, working with the leaders to produce the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’. Paine wrote a book called ‘The Rights of Man’ which said that everybody should have the right to be involved in government. His book sold half a million copies and was read by many more. It was frequently used as the discussion topic for political groups called corresponding societies. Thomas Paine supported the development of corresponding societies, which grew up across the country in the 1790s in Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow London, Perth, Norwich, Nottingham and Sheffield. The societies aimed to gain public support for parliamentary reform including annual parliaments and universal suffrage. Using the original documents in this lesson, find out how Thomas Paine and other radicals demanded change in how the country was to be governed. How did the government respond?

With the Great Reform Act 1832, voting rights were given to the property-owning middle classes in Britain. However, many working men were disappointed that they could not vote. Chartism was a working class movement which emerged in 1836 in London. It expanded rapidly across the country and was most active between 1838 and 1848. The aim of the Chartists was to gain political rights and influence for the working classes. Their demands were widely publicized through their meetings and pamphlets. The movement got its name from the People’s Charter which listed its six main aims: a vote for all men (over 21) secret ballot no property qualification to become an MP payment for MPs electoral districts of equal size annual elections for Parliament Why did the Chartists make these demands? Use the original documents in this lesson to find out more about Chartism.

In 1832, Parliament passed a law that changed the British electoral system. It was known as the Great Reform Act, which basically gave the vote to middle class men, leaving working men disappointed. The Reform Act became law in response to years of criticism of the electoral system from those outside and inside Parliament. Elections in Britain were neither fair nor representative. In order to vote, a person had to own property or pay certain taxes to qualify, which excluded most working class people. There were also constituencies with several voters that elected two MPs to Parliament, such as Old Sarum in Salisbury. In these ‘rotten boroughs’, with few voters and no secret ballot, it was easy for those standing for election to buy votes. Industrial towns like Manchester or Birmingham, which had grown during the previous 80 years, had no Members of Parliament to represent them. In 1831, the House of Commons passed a Reform Bill, but the House of Lords, dominated by the Tory party, defeated it. This was followed by riots and serious disturbances in London, Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Yeovil, Sherborne, Exeter and Bristol. In this lesson use original documents from 1830-31 to explore demands for change in the voting system.

‘Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive’ is a series of films combining puppetry, model-making, and animation created by a group of eight young people in July 2022. The project allowed the group to explore moments of LGBTQ+ history from the collection, some more well-known than others, and to interpret the documents from a 21st century perspective. They then used their reflections to inspire the narrative and artwork for their films. This was the first young person’s project to be run onsite since 2019. The group worked with a filmmaking team led by Nigel Kellaway, as well as staff from the Education and Outreach department and record specialists. The young people explored stories relating to individuals and ‘spaces’ which allowed them to consider wider themes such as the use of language, criminalisation, and communication through the 18th to 20th centuries. Under the guidance of staff, the young people worked with original archive documents, in some cases seeing photographs of the people and places they were researching. The group demonstrated emotional intelligence and compassion for the people whose lives they have interpreted. The series of films can now be used by teachers and students as brief overviews or introductions to the themes explored within the films. The following questions can be asked of each film: What types of documents are shown in the films? What do the documents reveal about what life was like for LGBTQ+ people at the time? What themes can you identify within the films? How do we view these stories today, with a contemporary perspective? Can you find out how the laws affecting the lives of LGBTQ+ people have changed over time? Can you explain why? Why are these documents kept at The National Archives?

‘British India’, also referred to as the ‘British Raj’ or ‘Direct rule in India’, was part of the British Empire from 1858 until independence in 1947. This independence process was called ‘partition’, because the colony was divided up into two countries: India and Pakistan. Partition was not inevitable and happened because of long and complicated talks between the British government and elite Indian figures, each with their own political interests. The final borders of the new nations were created in only six weeks by Sir Cyril Radcliffe and were based on Muslim and non-Muslim majority areas. The new Pakistan was split into two regions that were more than 1,000 miles away: West Pakistan and East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh). The distance and difference in culture, language, and identity between the two regions, and the fact that West Pakistan held more political and economic power, led to strong tensions and eventually protest movements in East Pakistan. In 1971, West and East Pakistan fought in the Bangladesh Liberation War. This led to the creation of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. How can we trace this road to independence through the British reports in The National Archives?

The purpose of this lesson is to explore sources which reveal something about the contemporary medical understanding of the disease, public attitudes and the role of the General Board of Health over a time frame of series of cholera epidemics in Victorian England. For some, the best advice against the disease was to improve ventilation, cleanliness and purge the body, keep it warm or change the diet. For others it required prayer and forgiveness from God. Again, it is interesting to consider why many of these ideas persisted after the breakthrough provided by Dr John Snow in 1854 that linked the presence of contaminated water to the spread of cholera at a time when the authorities and medical profession believed that the disease was spread by miasma, or bad air caused by pollution.

Resistance to British rule in Ireland had existed for hundreds of years. Irish nationalists, the majority of them Catholic, resisted this rule in a number of peaceful or violent ways up until the start of the First World War. Irish nationalists wanted Ireland to be independent from British control. At the start of the twentieth century, Irish ‘Home Rule’, the name given to the process of transferring rule from British to Irish hands seemed likely and, as a result the Unionist minority, a largely Protestant population, loyal to Britain and British rule, began to more actively resist the idea. Eventually, Irish Home Rule was granted, but it excluded the six mainly Protestant counties of the province of Ulster (one of the four provinces of Ireland) in the north-east corner of the island. This established Northern Ireland in 1920, which continued to be part of the United Kingdom, while the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in December 1921, established the Irish Free State as a Dominion of the British Empire. This meant that the Irish Free State was a self-governing nation of the Commonwealth of Nations,  which recognised the British monarch as head of state. Use the original sources in this lesson to find out how Ireland was partitioned.

In 1604, James I of England and James VI of Scotland published his ‘Counterblaste to Tobacco’. He condemned the use of tobacco on the grounds of its poisonous effects on the body. He wrote that smoking was a ‘custome lothesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian [very dark] smoke of the pit that is bottomless’. ‘Counterblaste’ also revealed James I’s concern about the potential disruptive effects of tobacco to English society. Writers of the period continuously linked the smoking of tobacco with immorality, disobedience, and even treason. As James I had only just ascended the English throne, it is unsurprising that he felt tobacco might encourage civil disorder and unrest. Tobacco had been present in England since at least the 1560s, when sailors returning from Atlantic voyages captained by the Merchant Adventurer Sir John Hawkins had brought it home. It was likely that they themselves picked up the habit from Spanish and Portuguese sailors. Despite James I’s protests, there was a tobacco boom in early Stuart England. Use the documents in this lesson to explore the early Stuart fascination with tobacco, focusing particularly on overseas trade networks and the activity of the Virginia Company, which helped popularise tobacco in England. Find out about the impact of early Stuart colonial ventures on individuals whose stories have often been left out of history.

This lesson shows us how we can use a range of historical sources from the early modern period to piece together the history of sugar, a foodstuff that is now a part of our daily life. It explores the time in history when sugar was beginning to become more easily available and affordable in England, due to the transatlantic slave trade, the growth of sugar plantations in the Americas, and the labour of enslaved peoples on these plantations. A large collection of documents that can tell us about the history of sugar can be found in a collection called HCA 30, a varied set of records from the High Court of Admiralty, which include piracy, prize-taking, colonialism, and overseas trade. Use this lesson to see what you can discover about the history of sugar from six different sources in collections at The National Archives.

On 9 August 1970, a group of Black Power activists led 150 people on a march against police harassment of the black community in Notting Hill, London. They called for the ‘end of the persecution of the Mangrove Restaurant’. Between January 1969 and July 1970, the police had raided the Mangrove Restaurant twelve times. No evidence of illegal activity was found during these raids. Local Police Constable Frank Pulley remained convinced that the restaurant was ‘a den of iniquity’ frequented by ‘pimps, prostitutes and criminals’.¹ At the 1970 march in defence of the Mangrove, violence broke out between the police and protestors. The following year nine men and women were put on trial at the Old Bailey for causing a riot at the march. Their names were Darcus Howe, Frank Crichlow, Rhodan Gordan, Althea Jones-Lacointe, Barbara Beese, Godfrey Miller, Rupert Glasgow Boyce, Anthony Carlisle Innis and Rothwell Kentish. These men and women became known nationally as the ‘Mangrove Nine.’ When all nine defendants were acquitted of the most serious charges after a long 55-day trial, it was widely recognised as a moment of victory for black protest. Use this lesson to find out more about the history of Britain’s Black Power movement and the trial of the Mangrove Nine. ¹ Constable Frank Pulley quoted in ‘A Den of Iniquity,’ Kensington Post, October 12, 1971, as cited in Rob Waters, Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985 (2019), p. 99