Week 6 · Readings & resources

Week 6 — Readings & Resources

U.S. History to 1877 Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 6 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 91–112 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text. One group states the Constitution's protections for slavery directly; take it at your own pace.

Pick-one quick path (20–25 min total)

① The first frame and the Northwest Ordinance

Chapter 6, Section “Read the Articles of Confederation: one vote, no power to tax” · Session 1, Segment 1, “One vote, no tax power” · Remember: the Articles gave each state one vote and Congress no power to tax, and a law passed under them barred slavery in one territory only.

The Articles of Confederation — Pursuit of History — an illustrated explainer on how the Articles were drafted, adopted, and ratified. It shows what Congress could and could not do, and how Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts exposed a government that could only ask the states for money. It calls the Articles the first constitution, where the course says the first frame of government, and it says the Declaration was signed in July of 1776. This builds on Week 5's work with keeping a document's own date apart from later events like its signing. Its figures for the rebellion are the video's, not the course's. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)
The Northwest Ordinance 1787 — Indiana Historical Bureau — a state historical agency's short introduction to the ordinance, followed by its full text. Read the introduction for the earlier western plan of the 1780s whose bar on slavery failed in Congress and for the steps a territory took toward statehood, then find the sixth article in the text and read the whole of it, including the sentence on people escaping labor or service. The page gives its own population figures; the course keys none of them. (reading, 10–15 min)
Northwest Ordinance — Ohio Statehouse Museum Education Center — a museum educator's brief introduction to the ordinance, standing beside a plaque in the statehouse. She names the territory northwest of the Ohio River, the plan for three to five new states, the path from territory to statehood, and the bar on slavery. Her list is short, so read the sixth article yourself: the same article also provided for returning people who escaped labor or service there. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)

② The Convention's bargains

Chapter 6, Section “Bargain over representation: the Great Compromise” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Seats by population, two per state” · Remember: the House got seats by population and the Senate two members per state, and three clauses protected slavery without using the word.

A Great Compromise — U.S. Senate Historical Office — a short essay from the Senate's historians on the bargain that gave the House seats by population and every state the same number of Senate seats. It credits two Connecticut delegates, sets out the large states' and small states' arguments, and reports that the convention adopted the plan by a margin of one vote. It opens with a later anniversary, so skip ahead to the convention itself. Use it while working through the Week-6 module overview. (reading, 5–8 min)
The U.S. Constitution at the National Archives — US National Archives — a reference archivist takes you into the vaults to show four papers behind the signed Constitution. You see the plan a Virginia delegate introduced at the convention, a printed draft with Washington's notes in the margins, the last printed draft before the final vote, and Pennsylvania's ratification copy, written on one large sheet with its opening words in very large script. Watch it as sourcing: each paper is a different stage of the same text. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
The US Constitution, 3/5, and the Slave Trade Clause: Crash Course Black American History #9 — CrashCourse — the host reads the three-fifths clause and the slave-trade clause aloud. He explains how the Convention's bargains wrote protection for slavery into the founding law without using the word. He calls the clause a definition of enslaved people as three-fifths of a human; the course reads the clause's own words, which counted three fifths of all other persons for House seats and direct taxes. His counts of delegates who enslaved people are the video's, and a quotation from a later abolitionist belongs to a later week. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)

③ Ratification and The Federalist No. 10

Chapter 6, Section “Read The Federalist No. 10: Madison as Publius” · Session 2, Segment 6, “An essay under a pen name” · Remember: Madison wrote as Publius, the bracketed date is the editors' date, and the Federalists of 1788 are not the later Federalist Party.

The Old Dominion's Fight for Ratification — Preservation Virginia — a historic house's interpreter tells how Virginia's convention of 1788 argued over ratification. Federalists and Anti-Federalists were split almost evenly, and some delegates would ratify first and amend later. Read it for the Anti-Federalists' fear for individual liberties. It calls the Richmond meeting the Constitutional Convention, though that name belongs to the Philadelphia meeting of 1787, and it calls the two camps parties. Stop here before the first party system; next week takes that up. (reading, 8–12 min)
From the Vaults: Federalist Papers — Library of Congress — a rare-book curator shows early printings of The Federalist and explains why its writers all signed as Publius. He describes how the essays first ran in New York newspapers, how readers argued for years over who wrote which essay, and how Madison and Hamilton later gave lists that disagree. Watch it as a sourcing lesson on a pen name and on authorship the record leaves contested. His closing account of the twelve amendments matches the week's count of ten ratified. (video, 13 min) (captions: creator)
The Bay State Debates the Constitution — Keystone History — an illustrated history of the Massachusetts ratifying convention of 1788, from its packed meeting house and the doubts of the state's western farmers to the bargain that won the vote. Watch for how the convention ratified while recommending amendments, a step toward the Bill of Rights, and for the clause-by-clause objections, the protection of the slave trade among them. It calls the result a conditional ratification and guesses at one governor's motives; treat both as the video's reading, and its delegate and vote counts as the video's figures. (video, 12 min) (captions: automatic)

④ The Bill of Rights

Chapter 6, Section “Read the Bill of Rights: ten of twelve” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Ten of 12” · Remember: Congress proposed twelve amendments, the states ratified ten in 1791, and they answered the Anti-Federalists' central demand.

The Bill of Rights: How Did it Happen? — National Archives — the National Archives' account of how opposition to the Constitution became a demand for amendments. It follows Madison's list to the First Congress, the Senate's cuts to the House's longer list, and the states' ratification of ten of the twelve. Read it as corroboration of the week's counts and of the claim that the amendments answered the Anti-Federalists. (reading, 6–10 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

The Federalist Number 10 — Founders Online — the full text of the week's workshop essay as Founders Online keeps it: find the bracketed date under the title, the sentence on the most common source of factions, and the pen name at the end, and skip the editors' notes below the text unless you want their sourcing. (reading, 15–20 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com