America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 6Teach Each Other About Making War and

Republican Governments, 1776-1789

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

Chapter 6 Learning Objectives• How a dispute over taxation between the American colonies and Great Britain transformed

over twelve years into a democratic revolution.• The comparative political, economic, military, demographic, and technological advantages

and disadvantages held by the British and the Patriots at the start of the war.• The role of manpower, financial support of the armies, and military leadership in shaping the

strategies of the British and Patriot army.• The impact of inflation and other economic and social hardships on Americans during and

after the war.• The effect the Revolutionary War had on the developing ideology of republicanism and its

subsequent place in American politics and society.• The developing tension between the ideals of public interest represented by republicanism

and self-interest represented by individualism.• The attitudes of African Americans to both the British and the Patriots, and the mixed record

of White America in extending the benefits of republicanism to Black Americans.• The limited effect the war had on challenging the accepted social order in America.

I. The Trials of War, 1776-1778A. War in the North

1. Fighting Begins• Europeans believed

British would easily defeat the rebellion

• British were militarily strong while Americans were weak economically and militarily

• Continental Army (led by Washington) was weak and poorly trained (18,000 men).

A. War in the North 2. Early American

Retreat • Americans retreated as the

British worked to capture New York City

• Washington’s men had several small victories during the winter months as the British halted their campaign in the cold weather.

Washington leads retreat from Long Island

The Battle of Bunker HillAs British warships and artillery lob cannon balls at Patriot positions, British redcoats advance up the steep slope of Bunker Hill (to the right). It took three assaults and a thousand casualties before they finally dislodged the Patriot militia. The British bombardment ignited fires in nearby Charlestown, which burns in the background. ‘Attack on Bunker’s Hill, with the Burning of Charles Town’

Patriot and Loyalist StrongholdsPatriots were in the majority in most of the thirteen mainland colonies and used their control of local governments to funnel men, money, and supplies to the rebel cause. Although Loyalists could be found in every colony, their strongholds were limited to Nova Scotia, eastern New York, New Jersey, and certain areas in the South. However, most Native American peoples favored the British cause and bolstered the power of Loyalist militias in central New York (see Map 6.3) and in the Carolina backcountry.

The War in the North, 1776–1777In 1776, the British army drove Washington’s forces across New Jersey into Pennsylvania. The Americans counterattacked successfully at Trenton and Princeton and then set up winter headquarters in Morristown. In 1777, British forces stayed on the offensive. General Howe attacked the Patriot capital, Philadelphia, from the south and captured it in early October. Meanwhile, General Burgoyne and Colonel St. Leger launched simultaneous invasions from Canada. With the help of thousands of New England militiamen, American troops commanded by General Horatio Gates defeated Burgoyne in August at Bennington, Vermont, and in October at Saratoga, New York, the military turning point in the war.

B. Armies and Strategies1. Continental Soldiers• Congress promised 75,000 men,

numbers never reached 1/3;• difficult to bring recruits into the

military;• most were poor, some were

foreign born• all were inexperienced

The Battle of PrincetonBlack smoke from burning buildings partially obscures the sun, as the muzzle flash from an American cannon lights up the battlefield. Pursued by Cornwallis after his surprise attack and victory at nearby Trenton, Washington (on horseback to the right of the flag) confronted three regiments of redcoats at Princeton. The Americans had an advantage in numbers and put the British to flight, but only after withstanding the bayonet charge depicted in the right-center of William Mercer’s painting.

C. Victory at Saratoga1. Problems for the British

• 1777 British attempted to isolate New England but not all generals agreed with military plans

• Howe took Philadelphia but Continental Congress fled

• British led by Burgoyne were trapped near Saratoga, NY, and forced to surrender

• Continental Army took more than 5,000 British captive

• Americans in Paris created a military alliance with the French.

D. Social and Financial Perils1. Wartime Difficulties2. Financial Crisis3. Valley Forge

C. Victory at Saratoga1. Problems for the British

• British led by Burgoyne were trapped near Saratoga, NY, and forced to surrender

• Continental Army took more than 5,000 British captive

• Americans in Paris created a military alliance with the French.

D. Social and Financial Perils1. Wartime Difficulties2. Financial Crisis3. Valley Forge

American Militiamen•Beset by continuing shortages of cloth, the Patriot army dressed in a variety of uniforms and fabrics. •This German engraving, taken from a drawing by a Hessian officer, shows two American militiamen (one of them barefoot) wearing hunting shirts and trousers made of ticking, the strong linen fabric often used to cover mattresses and pillows.

D. Social and Financial Perils1. Wartime Difficulties

• urban populations in the north fled to the countryside

• farmers and artisans adapted to a war-time economy

• government needed supplies for the military• women were critical in supplying materials to

the war effort• British and American soldiers harassed and

raped women and girls• families forced to flee their homes for soldiers’

use.

D. Social and Financial Perils2. Financial Crisis

• states were afraid to increase taxes• bonds used to secure gold or silver• issued too much paper money• Continental Congress was financially destroyed• Patriots feared further rebellion as families

suffered economic devastation.

3. Valley Forgewinter 1777 Washington’s army in retreat; 12,000

soldiers plus camp followers; conditions were terrible – cold, lack of food; nearby farmers refused to give food or shelter to the soldiers as some were Quakers/pacifists or Loyalists; 3,000 died, 1,000 deserted; Baron von Steuben (former Prussian military officer) trained those men who remained.

Paper Currency•Testifying to their independent status, the new state governments printed their own currencies.•Rejecting the English system of pounds and shillings, Virginia used the Spanish gold dollar as its basic unit of currency, although the equivalent in English pounds is also shown.•Initially, $1,200 was equal to £360—a ratio of 3.3 to 1. •By 1781, Virginia had printed so much paper money to pay its soldiers and wartime expenses that the value of its currency had depreciated. •It now took $40 in Virginia currency to buy the same amount of goods as £1 sterling.

That’s 1200% inflation

In today’s terms, within the time span from now to 2021…•gas goes from $2.29 to $27.49•A chipotle burrito goes from $7.99 to $95.99•A one bedroom apartment goes from $950 a month to $11,400

D. Social and Financial Perils3. Valley Forge• winter 1777 Washington’s

army in retreat• 12,000 soldiers plus camp

followers• conditions were terrible –

cold, lack of food• nearby farmers refused to

give food or shelter to the soldiers as some were Quakers/pacifists or Loyalists

• 3,000 died, 1,000 deserted

• While American troops at Valley Forge took shelter from the cold in tents, British troops stationed just outside New York City (on upper Manhattan Island) lived in simple but well-constructed and warm log cabins.

• Each hut, built into a slope but including a chimney for indoor heat, housed either a few officers or eight to ten soldiers of the 17th Regiment of Foot.

A British Camp, c. 1778

Check your understanding• What accounted for British military superiority in the first years of

the war? • How did the Americans sustain their military effort between 1776

and 1778?

II. The Path to Victory, 1778-1783A. The French Alliance

1. Support for the Patriots• 1778 alliance provided money, supplies, and

troops• created an international war• French wanted to avenge the loss of Canada• “Treaty of Alliance” stated neither side would

sign a treaty to end the war without the “liberty, sovereignty, and independence” of the U.S.

2. British Concerns B. War in the South

1. Britain’s Southern Strategy2. Guerrilla Warfare in the Carolinas

Admiral Pierre Suffren in IndiaThe American War for Independence became a worldwide conflict in 1778 when France entered the fight. French and British naval forces and troops clashed in West Africa over control of the slave trade, and in India over access to goods such as textiles, tea, and spices. Here French Admiral Suffren, who spent years in Asia campaigning against the British, exchanges greetings with his Indian ally, Hyder Ali. The ruler of the Indian kingdom of Mysore, Ali led a 1783 revolt against the British.

A. The French Alliance2. British Concerns

• British government increasingly concerned that war would spread to Ireland and West Indies

• 1778 Lord North oversaw repeal of Tea Act and renounced its power to tax the colonies

• rebellion continued.

B. War in the South1. Britain’s Southern Strategy

• 1779 Spain joined the war on the Patriots’ side

• sea attack against Savannah, GA• hoped to continue onward to South

Carolina.

2. Guerrilla Warfare in the Carolinas• Patriots used local militiamen against

British forces• defeated Loyalists in region and took

approx. 1,000 prisoners• Cornwallis surrendered Yorktown in

October 1781.

The War in the South, 1778–1781Britain’s southern military strategy started well. British forces captured Savannah in December 1778, took control of Georgia during 1779, and vanquished Charleston in May 1780. Over the next eighteen months, brutal warfare between the British troops and Loyalist units and the Continental army and militia raged in the interior of the Carolinas and ended in a stalemate. Hoping to break the deadlock, British general Charles Cornwallis carried the battle into Virginia in 1781. A Franco-American army led by Washington and Lafayette, with the help of the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse, surrounded Cornwallis’s forces on the Yorktown Peninsula and forced their surrender.

Joseph BrantMohawk chief Thayendanegea, known to whites as Joseph Brant, was a devout member of the Church of England and helped to translate the Bible into the Iroquois language. Brant persuaded four of the six Iroquois nations to support Britain in the war. In 1778 and 1779, he led Iroquois warriors and Tory rangers in devastating attacks on American settlements in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania and Cherry Valley in New York. In this 1797 portrait, artist Charles Willson Peale has portrayed Brant with European features.

Native Americans and the War in the West, 1778–1779Many Indian peoples remained neutral, but others, fearing land-hungry Patriot farmers, used British-supplied guns to raid American settlements. To thwart attacks by militant Shawnees, Cherokees, and Delawares, a Patriot militia led by George Rogers Clark captured the British fort and supply depot at Vincennes on the Wabash River in February 1779.

Native Americans and the War in the West, 1778–1779To the north, Patriot generals John Sullivan and James Clinton defeated pro-British Indian forces near Tioga (on the New York–Pennsylvania border) in August 1779 and then systematically destroyed villages and crops throughout the lands of the Iroquois.

B. War in the South2. Guerrilla Warfare in the Carolinas

• Patriots used local militiamen against British forces

• defeated Loyalists in region and took approx. 1,000 prisoners

• Cornwallis surrendered Yorktown in October 1781.

C. The Patriot Advantage1. British Mistakes

• parliamentarians debated what went wrong in the war

• the French alliance and leadership of George Washington were two of the greatest advantages of the Patriots

• one-third of white population in America were zealous supporters of the Patriot cause and financed the war largely through currency taxes.

D. Diplomatic Triumph2. Treaty of Paris

D. Diplomatic Triumph2. Treaty of Paris

•two years of negotiating•Sept. 1783 treaty signed•formal recognition of independence•no land for Native Americans who aided the British•Americans encouraged states to return confiscated property to Loyalists and grant them citizenship•Treaty of Versailles (same time) British ended war with France and Spain.

Stop and think

•Without the French alliance, would the American rebellion have succeeded? •Why or why not?

New Spain’s Northern Empire, 1763–1800After Spain acquired Louisiana from France in 1763, Spanish officials tried to create a northern empire. They established missions and forts (presidios) in California, expanded settlements in New Mexico, and (by allying with France during the War of Independence) won Florida back from Britain. However, by the early 1800s Spain’s dream of a northern empire had been shattered by Indian uprisings in California and Texas, Napoleon’s demand for the return of Louisiana, and the U.S. takeover of Florida.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776-1787A. The State Constitutions:

How Much Democracy?1. Republicanism

• during 1776 many states wrote constitutions under the encouragement of the Second Continental Congress

• in many states a desire to reject anything that was similar to monarchy or put too much power in the hands of the wealthy.

John and Abigail Adams•Both Adamses had strong personalities and often disagreed in private about political and social issues. •In 1794, John playfully accused his wife of being a “Disciple of Wollstonecraft,” but Abigail’s commitment to legal equality for women long predated Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

A. The State Constitutions: How Much Democracy?2. Pennsylvania’s Controversial Constitution

• 1776 all taxpaying men were granted the right to vote and hold office

• creation of a unicameral (having a single legislative chamber) legislature with complete power, elementary education, and no imprisonment for debt

• many Patriots criticized this new government without a governor

• 1776 John Adams published Thoughts on Government encouraging a mixed government with shared powers – executive, judicial, legislature.

Middling Men Enter the Halls of Government, 1765–1790Before the Revolution, wealthy men (with assets of £2,000 or more, as measured by tax lists and probate records) dominated most colonial assemblies. The power of money was especially apparent in the southern colonies, where representatives worth at least £5,000 formed a majority of the legislators. However, in the new American republic, the proportion of middling legislators (yeomen farmers and others worth less than £2,000) increased dramatically, especially in the northern states.

III. Creating Republican Institutions, 1776-1787B. Women Seek a Public Voice

1. Postwar Demands• postwar women wanted an

end to restrictive customs and laws

• some advocated property rights for women

• women were largely ignored, except in New Jersey

• 1790s Massachusetts granted girls equal right to education.

A Black Loyalist Pass, 1783White Patriots claimed their freedom by fighting against the British; thousands of black slaves won their liberty by fighting for them. This pass certifies that Cato Rammsay (actually Ramsey), “a Negro, resorted to the British Lines” in search of the freedom promised by Virginia Royal Governor Dunmore and British Commander Henry Clinton to slaves who escaped from Patriot owners. Now age forty-five and a “slim fellow,” Ramsey had escaped from his owner, John Ramsey of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1776, probably fleeing to Dunmore’s ships. Seven years later, he ended up in New York, reunited with his wife, China Godfrey (thirty-five) and their three children: James (twenty), Betsey (fifteen), and Nelly Ramsey (ten), who had fled subsequently from other owners. As the British evacuated New York in 1783, Ramsey and his family were free “to go to Nova-Scotia,” where they worked as farmers.

1. What does the existence of such a pass tell us about the position of free blacks in the former British colonies at the end of the Revolution?

1. What does the existence of such a pass tell us about the position of free blacks in the former British colonies at the end of the Revolution?

Answer: the wording of the pass indicates “Cato Rammsay” has the permission of the British military to travel freely; such a pass could hopefully prevent a man from being labeled a fugitive and therefore subject to arrest and return to a purported master; it is essential in a society that condones slavery that those who had obtained their freedom through birth or emancipation be able to prove their condition when necessary.

C. The Loyalist Exodus1. Financial Gains and Losses

• nearly 100,000 Loyalists left after the war• most lost large sums of money and/or

property• some sought compensation from the new

government but got very little if any• in some states the Loyalists’ property was

seized and auctioned to highest bidder• in urban areas Tories were replaced by

Patriot merchants• republican-minded entrepreneurs now

replaced traditional elites whose money had come from land ownership.

Did the Revolution Promote Women’s Rights?As the text explains, the republican revolution forced Americans to address the scope of political rights. One question centered on women’s claim to equal treatment: Did the doctrines of popular sovereignty and political equality apply to women as well as to men? These two engravings, both published in American magazines, offer evidence that the question was the subject of public debate. Pictures like these pose a twofold challenge to historians–to see them as contemporaries did, and, with the power of hindsight, to place them in a larger historical context. How do these pictures help us understand the status of women in the young republic, both in their own eyes and those of men?

.1. Describe the images of women presented by these eighteenth-century illustrations.

.1. Describe the images of women presented by these eighteenth-century illustrations.

Answers: Lady’s Magazine – depicts a kneeling woman with a paper reading “Rights of Man,” to her left are symbols of music, art, reading/knowledge. “Keep Within Compass” – a woman in a traditional agricultural setting, around her the words “Keep within compass and you shall be sure to avoid many troubles which others endure,” below her: “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband,” and at the bottom of the illustration: “Enter not into the way of the wicked and go not in the path of evil men.”)

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2. How do these two images reflect the debate over the role of women in the new United States?

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2. How do these two images reflect the debate over the role of women in the new United States?

Answer: the Lady’s Magazine image is reflective of the argument that women in the new republic should be educated, including the notion of “republican motherhood”; while “Keep Within the Compass” encourages women to stay on the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, straying from that path could lead to the woman’s moral downfall; this image reflects the fears that some men and women had that too much education would be morally and physically harmful to women.)

The illustration on the left appeared at the front of The Lady’s Magazine and Repository of Entertaining, published in Philadelphia in 1792. The magazine contained excerpts from Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which explicitly linked women’s rights to the republican ideology of the American and French revolutions. What sort of clothing are the women wearing? Why? What does this sort of dress mean ideologically? Do you think this imagery was empowering to women at the time? Why or why not?

In the engraving on the right, “Keep Within Compass,” the first line of the small couplet at the top reads: “How blest the Maid whose bosom no headstrong passion knows.” What do the smaller pictures on the lower left and lower right suggest might happen to women who are passionate? What is this engraving urging American women to do? What does it suggest about the thinking and emotions of American men in the new republican era?

D. The Articles of Confederation1. Approved in Congress Nov. 1777

•loose union, each state had one vote regardless of size, population, wealth•no chief executive (president)•no judiciary (supreme court)•Congress could declare war, make treaties, adjudicate disputes between states, borrow and print money, seek money from the states for common defense.

2. Continuing Fiscal Crisis3. The Northwest Ordinance

D. The Articles of Confederation•no power to tax the people•1780 new government was nearly bankrupt•Bank of North America established in Philadelphia whose notes were meant to stabilize economy•Congress desired to sell lands in the west to raise revenue.

3. The Northwest Ordinance

D. The Articles of Confederation3. The Northwest Ordinance

•created territories that would be Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin•slavery prohibited•money set aside from sales to establish schools•when population reached 5,000 men then the territory could elect a legislature•at 60,000 a republican constitution could be written with plans to enter the union.

Land Division in the Northwest TerritoryThroughout the Northwest Territory, government surveyors imposed a rectangular grid on the landscape, regardless of the local topography, so that farmers bought neatly defined tracts of land.

The right-angled property lines in Muskingum County, Ohio (lower left), contrasted sharply with those in Baltimore County, Maryland (lower right), where–as in most of the eastern and southern states–boundaries followed the contours of the land.

The Confederation and Western Land Claims, 1781–1802The Congress formed by the Articles of Confederation had to resolve conflicting state claims to western lands. For example, the territories claimed by New York and Virginia on the basis of their royal charters overlapped extensively. Beginning in 1781, the Confederation Congress and, after 1789, the U.S. Congress persuaded all of the states to cede their western claims, creating a “national domain” open to all citizens. In the Northwest Ordinances, the Congress divided the domain north of the Ohio River into territories and set up democratic procedures by which they could eventually join the Union as states. South of the Ohio River, the Congress allowed the existing southern states to play a substantial role in the settling of the ceded lands.

E. Shays’s Rebellion1. State Governments

• eastern states suffered tremendously after war

• shipping industry virtually shuttered• war debts were enormous• creditors wanted state governments to

repay loans quickly• states did not want to tax the people

and instead authorized new paper money. (remember the inflation from earlier?)

2. Rebellion in Massachusetts

E. Shays’s Rebellion2. Rebellion in Massachusetts

• state would not enact debtor-relief, instead imposed high taxes to pay off state’s debt

• farmers began protesting the tax rate and property seizures.

• Led by Captain Daniel Shays, mobs of farmers closed the Massachusetts courts by force

• put down by force• made clear to the new government

that the times ahead would be difficult.

E. Shays’s Rebellion2.

Rebellion in Massachusetts

• put down by force

• made clear to the new government that the times ahead would be difficult.

Shays' troops are repulsed from the armory at Springfield, Massachusetts in early 1787.

• What were the main differences between conservative state constitutions, such as those of Massachusetts and New York, and more democratic constitutions, such as Pennsylvania’s?

• What were the causes of Shays’s Rebellion, and what does it tell us about postwar America?

• What were the main differences between conservative state constitutions, such as those of Massachusetts and New York, and more democratic constitutions, such as Pennsylvania’s?

Pennsylvania’s Controversial Constitution1776 all taxpaying men were granted the right to vote and hold officecreation of a unicameral (having a single legislative chamber) legislature with

complete power, elementary education, and no imprisonment for debt

• What were the causes of Shays’s Rebellion, and what does it tell us about postwar America?

IV. The Constitution of 1787A. The Rise of a Nationalist

(later called Federalists) Faction

1. Money Debates• debts, taxes, tariffs all under

discussion as a new constitution was debated

• some wanted a strong central government (national perspective), including creditors in the south.

NATIONALIST (FEDERALIST)

B. The Philadelphia Convention1. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans

• 55 delegates to Philadelphia• Rhode Island opposed increasing central authority and did not send representation• most of the 55 were nationalists: most were educated, property owners, many were slaveholders• G. Washington elected as the presiding official

2. The Great Compromise3. Negotiations over Slavery4. National Authority

B. The Philadelphia Convention1. The Virginia Plan

• considered the Virginia Plan (proposed by James Madison)

• which rejected state sovereignty for national authority,• national government established by the people,• and three-tier election system. • LARGE STATE PLAN

• Smaller states liked the New Jersey Plan – gave power to raise revenue, control commerce, and make binding requisitions on the states to the Confederation. states controlled their own laws.

2. The Great Compromise3. Negotiations over Slavery4. National Authority

B. The Philadelphia Convention1. The New Jersey Plan

• the Smaller states liked the New Jersey Plan

• gave power to raise revenue, control commerce, and make binding requisitions on the states to the Confederation.

• states controlled their own laws.• SMALL STATE PLAN

2. The Great Compromise3. Negotiations over Slavery4. National Authority

James Madison, Statesman•Throughout his long public life, Madison kept the details of his private life to himself. His biography, he believed, should be a record of his public accomplishments, not his private affairs. •Future generations celebrated him not as a great man (like Hamilton or Jefferson) or as a great president (like Washington), but as an original and incisive political thinker. •The chief architect of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Madison was the preeminent republican political theorist of his generation.

•debate between large and small states continued•suggestion that Senate have two members from each state while House have representation by population.•accepted this compromise.•Bicameral legistature. •Senate equal representation. •House proportional representation

3. Negotiations over Slavery4. National Authority

2. The Great Compromise

B. The Philadelphia Convention3. Negotiations over Slavery

• Gov. Morris of New York condemned slavery at the convention, arguing that it was a “nefarious institution”

• slaveholders recognized contradictions between slavery and republicanism but only supported an end to the slave trade and not slavery itself

• slave trade would not be regulated by Congress until 1808.

• developed a fugitive slave clause but also excluded the words “slave/slavery” from the Constitution

• slaves would be counted 3/5 for taxation and representation.

4. National Authority• created powerful, pro-creditor national

government with powers of taxation, military defense, external commerce

• all but three present at the Convention signed the document.

C. The People Debate Ratification1. The Antifederalists

• required ratification by 9 or 13 states• “Federalists” supported a federal union• “Antifederalists” opposed the Constitution,

feared that states would lose power, desired states to remain sovereign

• in New York series of 85 essays The Federalist published by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton.

2. The Constitution Ratified• people in coastal areas tended to be Federalists• backcountry population tended toward

Antifederalism.

Hamilton

Madison

Jay

2. The Constitution Ratified• people in coastal areas tended to be Federalists• backcountry population tended toward Antifederalism.• Kind of like today.

Ratifying the Constitution of 1787•In 1907, geographer Owen Libby mapped the votes of members of the state conventions that ratified the Constitution. •His map showed that most delegates from seaboard or commercial farming districts (which sent many delegates to the conventions) supported the Constitution, while those from sparsely represented, subsistence-oriented backcountry areas opposed it. •Subsequent research has confirmed Libby’s socioeconomic interpretation of the voting patterns in North and South Carolina and in Massachusetts. •However, other states’ delegates were influenced by different factors. •For example, in Georgia, delegates from all regions voted for ratification.

DID YOU GET IT?•According to the nationalists, what were the central problems of the Articles of Confederation? How did the delegates to the Philadelphia convention address them?

•How did the Philadelphia convention resolve the three controversial issues of the representation of large and small states, state power, and slavery?

•Who were the Antifederalists and why did they oppose the Constitution?

THIS STUFF IS IMPORTANT.•According to the nationalists, what were the central problems of the Articles of Confederation? How did the delegates to the Philadelphia convention address them?

•How did the Philadelphia convention resolve the three controversial issues of the representation of large and small states, state power, and slavery?

•Who were the Antifederalists and why did they oppose the Constitution?

IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS YOU’VE WASTED YOUR TIME. WHO AM I KIDDING. THE KIDS WHO SKIP THESE SLIDES NEVER GOT THIS FAR. LOL.•According to the nationalists, what were the central problems of the Articles of Confederation? How did the delegates to the Philadelphia convention address them?

•How did the Philadelphia convention resolve the three controversial issues of the representation of large and small states, state power, and slavery?

•Who were the Antifederalists and why did they oppose the Constitution?

Essay questions to consider

• The text states that Saratoga was the turning point of the War of Independence. Do you agree? Explain your answer.

• How revolutionary was the American Revolution? What political, social, and economic changes did it produce? What stayed the same?

• Why was the Constitution a controversial document even as it was being written?

• Both the Federalists and the Antifederalists claimed to represent the true spirit of the Revolution. Which group do you think was right? Why?