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Week 6 · Module overview

Week 6 — Confederation & Constitution

U.S. History to 1877 Free sample edition

Why this matters

A business student reading the bylaws of a partnership and a future nurse voting in a union both meet this week's question: how does a group write rules that bind its members, and whom do those rules leave out?

In plain language

This week is about how the new United States wrote the rules for governing itself, twice. The first set of rules, the Articles of Confederation, gave each state one vote and gave Congress no power to tax. The second set, the Constitution, built a stronger national government and was signed in 1787. You will see the bargains the Constitution's writers made, including the clauses that protected slavery, and the fight over whether to approve it, which is called ratification (the formal approval that makes a plan take effect). You will finish with the Bill of Rights: the first ten changes to the Constitution, approved in 1791.

  • Already covered: Week 1's four moves for reading a source, Week 3's frame of government, and Week 5's Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris of 1783.
  • This week: the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, the Constitution's compromises and slavery clauses, ratification and The Federalist No. 10, and the Bill of Rights.
  • How they connect: you read five documents with Week 1's four moves.
  • Where we're going next: Week 7, The New Republic, follows the new government into its first parties.

Focus

How was the government of the new United States framed, first under the Articles of Confederation and then under the Constitution?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • [ ] explain what the Articles of Confederation allowed and did not allow
  • [ ] state the Constitution's clauses on slavery plainly
  • [ ] tell the Federalists of 1788 from the later Federalist Party
  • [ ] source The Federalist No. 10 and end in one plain sentence

To-do

Plan your week

  1. Read Chapter 6 (~55–65 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
  2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
  3. Work the practice set (15–25 minutes).
  4. Do the Primary Source Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
  5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: before you trust a date, ask whose date it is and what it marks.

You've got this

Five documents is a lot. Take them one at a time, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

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