Central Question: How did the American victory in the Revolution reshape North America?
In the American West, fertile soil beckoned, but wretched roads over mountains discouraged the westward migration of people and the eastward flow of trade from new settlements. Settlers found it easier to float their produce in boats down the Mississippi and on to the port of New Orleans, which then belonged to Spain. Consequently, Easterners feared that Western settlers might soon break away from the new country to seek some association with the Spanish, a prospect promoted by Spanish agents. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established rules for making Western territories into future states — and banned slavery. Because the South rejected any program of emancipation, slavery expanded westward into Tennessee and Kentucky. The United States became divided into two regions: a North characterized by the absence of slavery and a South staunchly committed to the institution.
For more background, read “The Social and Intellectual Legacy of the American Revolution” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Term:
Scholars understand how the American Revolution and Northwest Ordinance expanded American territory following the war and can illustrate the major regions and free and enslaved populations of the United States before 1800 on their maps.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Central Question: Why did Daniel Shays lead a rebellion in 1786?
Post-Revolutionary War America faced obstacles as its people worked to establish the new republic. In New England, merchants and farmers struggled to maintain their businesses in a new economy without established European trade or credit lines. In August 1786, tensions culminated in what is now known as Shays’ Rebellion, an uprising in Massachusetts that lasted until the summer of 1787. Led by Daniel Shays, the rebel “Shaysites” of western Massachusetts tried to rise up against what they considered to be an oppressive tax system affecting the lower classes and political corruption. This, along with other farmers’ revolts, raised the long-feared specter of anarchy and mob rule, but Congress could do nothing, unable to compel the states to send militia units to quell the uprisings. The rebellion ultimately helped shape the content of the U.S. Constitution, created shortly after the end of the uprising in response to weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation. The new Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788.
For more background, read “The Articles of Confederation” and “How Shays’ Rebellion Changed America” on the History Channel website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the accomplishments and failures of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation and can explain why the weaknesses of Articles of Confederation led to Shays’ Rebellion.
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (3 minutes)
Discuss (5 minutes)
Central Question: Why did Americans disagree about representation in a new national government?
The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The U.S. Constitution that emerged from the convention established a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relations with foreign governments. Under the reformed federal system, many of the responsibilities for foreign affairs fell under the authority of an executive branch, although important powers, such as treaty ratification, remained the responsibility of the legislative branch. After the necessary number of state ratifications, the Constitution came into effect in 1789 and has served as the basis of the U.S. government since.
For more background, explore Teaching American History’s Constitutional Convention site.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the key representation debates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and can explain the major compromises agreed upon to secure approval of the Constitution.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (3 minutes)
Discuss (5 minutes)
Preparation — 10 minutes
Simulation — 15 minutes
Discuss — 5 minutes
Homework
Central Question: How did the new Constitution balance the power of the federal government?
The framers of the Constitution feared too much centralized power, adopting the philosophy of divide and conquer. In the words of James Madison: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Consequently, the framers created three branches of federal government to administer three different types of power. Within the separation of powers, each of the three branches of government were created with checks and balances over the other two. “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” wrote James Madison in his Federalist Paper 51, so that each branch will seek to limit the power of the other two branches to protect its own power.
Such a system makes concerted action more difficult, the framers knew, but it also would make tyranny less likely.
For more background, read “James Madison and the Constitution” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand why the delegates feared the power of a strong executive and can explain how the new Constitution established balanced power through separation of power and a system of checks and balances.
Launch (2 minutes)
Examine (5 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: Why did the framers protect slavery in the Constitution?
By the time the Constitutional Convention met in the spring of 1787, it was clear to most delegates that the nation was moving toward a regional split on the question of slavery. Many of the largest slaveholders in the United States were delegates at the Convention, and most of them were determined to guard the institution against federal interference. Debate grew so heated that delegates sought to sidestep the issue of slavery whenever possible, but they could not avoid the subject. So controversial was the issue that the framers consciously avoided the words “slave” and “slavery” as they crafted the Constitution. In the
Three-Fifths Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and the 20-year protection of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Constitution dealt with the slavery question but never by name.
For more background, read “Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle Toward National Ideals” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the fundamental contradictions between the Constitution’s slavery clauses and the spirit of the new government and can explain why the framers chose to protect slavery in the Constitution.
Launch (2 minutes)
Watch (3 minutes)
Discuss (5 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: To what extent did the new Constitution protect the rights of Americans?
As the Constitutional Convention drew to a close, some of the biggest debates were just beginning. According to the Constitution, nine of the 13 states needed to ratify the document before it could go into effect, although most acknowledged that without the support of all of the states, the government would struggle with legitimacy. It would take almost three years for all of the states to ratify the Constitution.
Some states ratified quickly, with little debate. But some of the most powerful states, including Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, became battlegrounds between those who supported ratification, the Federalists, and those who opposed it, the Antifederalists. New York was the last of those states to ratify the Constitution, with a close vote of 30 in favor and 27 against.
For more background, read “Historical Context for the Federalist Papers” on the Columbia College core curriculum website and “The Antifederalists: The Other Founders of the American Constitutional Tradition?” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars can apply their knowledge of U.S. history to interpret original sources and use these sources to write clear, concise, and compelling claims about the arguments of the Federalists and Antifederalists during ratification.
Give scholars 2 minutes to revise their main ideas or claims based on the discussion.
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: To what extent did the new Constitution protect the rights of Americans?
Scholars can plan and draft clear and compelling written arguments that answer a historical question with strong theses and evidence that supports or proves their theses.
Outline (15 minutes)
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: To what extent did the new Constitution protect the rights of Americans?
Scholars revise their essays based on individualized teacher feedback to make their essays stronger and clearer and to understand how to use their feedback to grow as writers.
Preparation
Homework
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: How does the Bill of Rights protect individual and state rights?
Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 39 signed the newly negotiated U.S. Constitution. Many of those who did not sign refused to do so because the document did not include a Bill of Rights that would both secure basic civil rights for its citizens and define the limits of the federal government’s power. Much of the later state ratification debates raged over this lack of a Bill of Rights. In the solution, known as the Massachusetts Compromise, four states agreed to ratify the document if their recommendations would be sent to Congress for review and consideration. Subsequently, Congress voted in favor of 12 of those amendments to the Constitution in 1789. Ten of these were ratified by the states and became the Bill of Rights.
For more background, read “Bill of Rights” on the History Channel website and explore The Bill of Rights Institute website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Terms:
Scholars understand why the Bill of Rights led to the ratification of the Constitution and how the Bill of Rights guarantees and protects the basic rights and liberties of individuals and states.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: How does the Bill of Rights protect individual and state rights?
Scholars can explain the significance of the Bill of Rights and its specific guarantees and illustrate these guarantees in an accurate and compelling way.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Model (8 minutes)
Planning — 20 minutes
Homework
Central Question: To what extent did the Constitution reflect the will of the common people?
The Constitution is so honored today, at home and abroad, that it may seem irreverent to suggest that for a great many ordinary Americans, it was not what they wished as a capstone of their revolutionary experience. This is not to say that they opposed the Constitution from beginning to end. Rather, they were alarmed at important omissions in the Constitution, particularly a Bill of Rights. Many believed that the Constitution was the work of men of wealth and prestige who meant to subvert the most democratic features of the American Revolution. As a result, these groups had deep reservations and divergent perspectives about the Constitution’s ability to steer the nation forward without compromising the founding principles of the Revolution.
For more background, read “Ordinary Americans and the Constitution” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 4 Key Term:
Scholars can understand the social, political, and economic interests of different groups of Americans after the Revolution and can explain the extent to which the new Constitution protected and reflected these interests.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Read (5 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Central Question: To what extent did the Constitution reflect the will of the common people?
Scholars can explain the various perspectives of common Americans following the Revolution by simulating an “alternative” Constitutional Convention representing the interests of common Americans.
Preparation
Launch (2 minutes)
Read (5 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Plan (10 minutes)
Simulation — 15 minutes
Discuss — 5 minutes
Wrap-Up — 5 minutes
Homework
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Prompts: Scholars may choose one of the following prompts about Big Ideas in American history.
Project Menu: Scholars may then choose to respond to the prompt chosen above with one of the formats outlined below.
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