Heading into the Quasi-War
From: EDSITEment!
Grade Level: HS, (College)
Remote Ready: Yes!
Time: 2-3 class periods for all 3 activities
Length of Reading: Pages
Link: The United States Confronts Great Britain, 1793-1796: Lesson 1, click on "Lesson Activities"
Activity 1 is a board game that you can print; it involves shipping during the Quasi-War. Activities 2 and 3 have students read primary sources on the opinions regarding the Quasi-War and Jay's Treaty, answer questions, and discuss.
Activity 1: Print and cut out the game board and pieces. Each game has 3 players: US, Britain, and France. The US tries to get its cargo ships to either GB or France. GB and France try to stop ships from reaching their enemy.
Activity 2: Students read primary source editorials about what to do about the French and British War (5 sources, 6 pages total).
Activity 3: Students look at an excerpt of Jay's Treaty (4 pages) then editorials about whether people liked it (4 sources, 5 pages total).
More Information:
Grade Level:
HS, (College): This lesson is meant for high school students; however we think it would be well suited for college students too
This Activity Involves:
Game: When this icon is present, students play a game (video, board, puzzle, strategy, etc).
Primary Source: This activity utilizes primary sources.
Image: Author unspecified, Caricature 1780 Press Gang, scanned from Vaisseau de Ligne, Time of Life, 1979, Wikimedia Commons, 5/23/25, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caricature-1780-press_gang.jpg
