Click to download the general instructions for the Rights charts as a PDF file. The instructions also appear below.

Purpose of the Rights Charts

People’s understandings of their rights are not static; those understandings have shifted with time and circumstances. The purpose of the Rights charts is for you to collect information on how some key rights were claimed by Britons and Americans in six documents created during the period from the English Glorious Revolution (1688) to the drafting of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (1787-1791).

Instructions

For each document analyzed in a Rights chart:

First, note how the document describes its overall purpose. This is often stated in the introduction to the document.

Second, look for what the document has to say about the following six rights:

The right to due process (see below for a definition of due process)
The right to bear arms
Guarantee of freedom of religion
Guarantee of freedom of speech and/or freedom of the press and/or freedom of assembly
Protection of private property
No taxation without representation

For each right,

First note Yes (the right is declared/claimed in the document) or No (the right is not declared/claimed in the document). DO write No if the right is not declared; otherwise I will assume that you forgot to answer
If the right IS declared, then note the location(s) in parentheses. This should either be an item number (many of the declarations are numbered), or the page number in Rakove. The charts will note whether a page number or item number is required
Finally, if the right IS declared, note any limitations or restrictions on the right as stated in this document

Finally, note anything about the document as a whole that stands out to you as being interesting or different from other documents that we have discussed.

As much as possible, please paraphrase the information from the document (put it in your own words) rather than quoting extensively. Also, you do not have to write in complete sentences, but you must provide enough information so the instructor can tell what you meant.

Definition of due process: “a course of legal proceedings according to rules and principles that have been established in a system of jurisprudence for the enforcement and protection of private rights. In each case, due process contemplates an exercise of the powers of government as the law permits and sanctions, under recognized safeguards for the protection of individual rights.

Principally associated with one of the fundamental guarantees of the United States Constitution, due process derives from early English common law and constitutional history. The first concrete expression of the due process idea embraced by Anglo-American law appeared in the 39th article of Magna Carta (1215) in the royal promise that “No freeman shall be taken or (and) imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed . . . except by the legal judgment of his peers or (and) by the law of the land.” In subsequent English statutes, the references to “the legal judgment of his peers” and “laws of the land” are treated as substantially synonymous with due process of law.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173057/due-process; accessed September 10, 2014) [Note: Due process concerns the rights of individuals who have been accused of violating a law. Due process could include, but is not limited to, the right to a trial by jury or protection against cruel and unusual punishments.]

Grading Rubric for the Rights Charts

Grade	Responses	Evidence	Completeness
A	Responses are complete and thorough	Item number (or page) where right is discussed is consistently noted in parentheses	Rights chart is fully completed
B	Responses are generally thorough	Item number (or page) where right is discussed is generally noted in parentheses	Rights chart is fully completed
C	Responses are partially complete, or too brief or vague to give good information, or are sometimes incorrect	Item number (or page) where right is discussed is partially noted in parentheses	Rights chart is mostly completed
D	Responses are partially complete, or too brief or vague to give good information, or are incorrect	Item number (or page) where right is discussed is missing or incorrect	Rights chart is partially completed