This lesson encourages students to consider the perspectives of the Loyalists, those colonists who opposed independence from Great Britain. Assuming this historical position is unusual for students who have been raised in the United States and so prior to this segment, the teacher prompted students to identify in the documents all the reasons that the Loyalists used to justify their opposition to independence. Then, at the start of this segment, she asks them the central question: were these arguments reasonable? Seeing that they were uncomfortable diving into the discussion, the teacher invited them to turn-and-talk, a move that gives students time to formulate an answer.

Having had time to formulate their thoughts, the students present reasons why the Loyalist positions were reasonable, including that they were scared to fight, that their land would be destroyed if the colonies descended into war, and that they didn’t want to lose the relationship with Great Britain and the access to goods that came with it.

Here the teacher picks up an earlier thread when two students disagreed about whether it was reasonable to be scared to fight and offers students an opportunity to elaborate on their arguments. Although the bell rings shortly after, this brief clip highlights the challenge of engaging in historical imagination and contextualization. The students struggle to imagine how their roles (as females) would have been circumscribed by the time (“technically, I wouldn’t be fighting anyway”) and how people might have viewed war in the past (“back in the day. . . you either fight or you get hung”). This clip highlights how APT offers students opportunities to wrestle with the past and engage in historical imagination.