Articles of Confederation
This national governing document created a confederation, or "league of friendship."
Articles of Confederation
This 1787 meeting in Philadelphia drafted a new Constitution rather than revising the Articles.
Constitutional Convention
This document lists ten amendments that protect individual rights and took effect in December 1791.
The Bill of Rights
The Three-Fifths Compromise counted this fraction of enslaved people for representation without taxation.
3/5
This 1803 land deal between Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte greatly expanded the United States
The Louisiana Purchase
This type of legislature has one lawmaking house, like Congress did under the Articles of Confederation.
Unicameral legislature
This plan proposed a bicameral legislature with representation based on population.
The Virginia Plan
This amendment protects freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and petition.
The First Amendment
Cotton
This was the idea that citizens of a territory/state should decide whether slavery would be allowed there.
Popular sovereignty
Explain why Congress's inability to tax made it difficult to run the national government.
They were unable to raise money for government needs. Congress depended on states for funds, but could not require them to provide enough to get by.
Explain how the Great Compromise combined the Virginia and New Jersey plans.
It created a bicameral legislature with equal representation in the Senate and population-based representation in the House.
A government search of a person's home without a valid reason raises concerns about this amendment.
The Fourth Amendment
Explain how the cotton boom contributed to the expansion of slavery and inland industries in South Carolina.
Growing cotton production encouraged plantation expansion which increased the demand for enslaved labor. Due to the expansion of plantations, people had to expand inland to process all of the goods.
Name the two states admitted under the Missouri Compromise and explain how their status balanced the Senate.
Maine, admitted as a free state, and Missouri, admitted as a slave state. Their opposing statuses helped maintain a balance between free and slave states.
States coined their own money and Congress could not control trade. Explain how these weaknesses could make cooperation between states more difficult.
Differing currencies and trade rules could make exchanges confusing or pointless and lead to trade wars.
South Carolina sent low country planters to the Convention. Explain why their presence did not necessarily represent every South Carolinian's perspective.
They had their own interests at heart, and while many of the individuals in charge of the state were low country planters, they were not the majority group living in the state.
Explain how the Tenth Amendment reflects the federal system created by the Constitution.
Explain why the Three-Fifths Compromise increased slave-holding states' political power while denying enslaved people political rights.
Counting enslaved people increased a state's representation in the House, but enslaved people were not given the right to vote or representation of their own.
The Missouri Compromise line was set at 36°30' North latitude. Explain the rule it established for many states formed after the Louisiana Purchase.
All states that joined the country above the line would be free, and all states that joined below the line would allow slavery.
The Articles required every state to approve changes. Evaluate how this rule could protect states but also make the national government ineffective.
Unanimous approval protected each state from unwanted changes, but allowed any one state to block reforms even when most states supported them.
The Constitution described natural rights and government by consent, but its protections did not extend to all people. Explain this inconsistency (remember the Three-Fifths Compromise).
The Constitution invoked rights and government by the people while the 3/5 Compromise counted enslaved people for representation without giving them rights.
The Constitution divided power between state and federal governments, and the Bill of Rights added protections. Explain how these approaches responded to fears of government abuse.
Divided powers limited the authority held by any one level of government, while the Bill of Rights named protections the government must respect.
By the 1820s, northern states had abolished slavery and abolitionist ideas were growing. Explain how these differences could deepen disagreements over slavery.
Opposing economic systems and moral views could lead regions to disagree over slavery's expansion, whether it should continue, and whether enslaved people should be included in population counts.
As the nation expanded, people debated whether states or the federal government should decide slavery policy. Explain why adding new states made this debate more urgent.
Each new state could affect the balance of political power between free and slave states, raising questions about who had authority to set slavery policy.