Week 8 · Readings & resources

Week 8 — Readings & Resources

U.S. History to 1877 Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 8 (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 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 79–96 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. The census group counts enslaved people in its own columns, and several videos use the older legal word for them; the course says enslaved people.

Pick-one quick path (19–21 min total)

① Three founding documents, two addresses

Chapter 8, Section “Put three founding documents in order” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Three documents in order” · Remember: the Declaration (1776) announced independence, the Articles (1781) gave each state one vote and no power to tax, and the Constitution (1787) replaced them.

Road to the Constitution — Library of Congress — a section of the Library's exhibition on the founding documents. Read the opening paragraph and the entries on the Articles of Confederation: they call the Articles the first constitution of the United States, date their adoption to 1777 and their ratification to 1781, and list a weak executive, no national power of taxation, and voting by state as their flaws. Skim the later letters on the call for a convention; they lead into the Constitution of 1787. (reading, 8–12 min)
Year in Revolution 1776: Overview — American Revolution Institute — a short timeline of 1776, most of it about the war around Boston, New York, and Trenton. Watch for the part on the Second Continental Congress: it says Congress voted for independence and then adopted the formal declaration two days later, a good reminder to date a document by its own text. Use it to fix 1776 as the year of the Declaration, eleven years before the Constitution. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
The Articles of Confederation — Americana Corner — a brief talk on why the Articles made a weak central government: Congress could raise no taxes of its own, troops and money depended on the states, and the executive had almost no power. Catch one slip as you watch: it gives the share of states needed to approve a treaty as three quarters, so check the Articles' own text at the Avalon Project before you repeat the number. Its closing words of praise are the channel's view. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
Washington's Farewell Address – Debt and Foreign Entanglements — Americana Corner — a short reading of the Farewell Address's advice on public debt and on avoiding permanent alliances with other nations. It never uses the phrase entangling alliances, and that is right: the phrase belongs to Jefferson's First Inaugural Address of 1801, not to Washington's address of 1796. Stop here before Jeffersonian politics and the Louisiana Purchase; next week takes that up. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

② Reading the first census

Chapter 8, Section “Read the first census: a numeric primary source” · Session 2, Segment 1, “A table of people” · Remember: the census schedule is a source with a maker, a method, and columns someone chose, so you source it the way you source a letter.

First United States Census, 1790 — George Washington's Mount Vernon — an encyclopedia entry from the museum at Washington's home on why the Constitution required a count, how marshals and their assistants took it, and what its five categories were. Read the paragraphs on the categories, including who fell under all other free persons, and on the marshals' duty to post their results in public places so residents could correct them. Notice that the entry gives a third total for the count, different from both figures in the chapter: one more reason to ask where a number comes from. (reading, 12–18 min)
Facts by Decade: 1790 — U.S. Census Bureau — the Census Bureau's one-page summary of the 1790 count: its total of 3,929,214, the largest towns, the number of questions, the estimated number of enumerators, and the cost. Notice that it gives Jefferson a modern agency title; in 1790 he was Secretary of State. Use this page while completing the Week-8 module overview. (reading, 4–6 min)
Genealogy Introduction—Census Records at the National Archives — US National Archives — an archivist explains how to use census records, starting with the 1790 count. Watch the first part: she reads the Constitution's rule for counting, notes that no one had to prove what they told the census taker, and shows a 1790 page that names only the head of each household and tallies everyone else. The rest covers later censuses that belong to later weeks. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)
A Closer Look at the 1790 US Federal Census — Ancestral Findings — a genealogy podcast episode on who took the 1790 count, what it asked, and which states' papers were later lost. Corroborate one claim as you listen: it counts seven questions, while the Census Bureau's page above counts six, so name each source when you give a number. Its claims about Vermont and about an undercount are the podcast's, and it uses the older legal word for enslaved people. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)

③ Who the count counted, and what a pattern cannot prove

Chapter 8, Section “Read a pattern without claiming a cause” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Counts, not causes” · Remember: a table can show that two facts occur together, such as Virginia's large total and its large count of enslaved people, but not what caused them.

1790 US Census: Early American Population & Demographics — Jeffrey the Librarian — a narrated tour of the 1790 totals, state by state and town by town, and of the separate counts of free and enslaved people. This builds on Week 4's work with weighing who the Revolution included and who it left out. Check its rounded state figures against the chapter's table, and correct three slips: it reads all other free persons as free Black people only, which Mount Vernon's entry shows is too narrow; it ranks Philadelphia as the largest town by adding its suburbs, while the Census Bureau's page lists New York City first; and it describes the three-fifths clause loosely, while Week 6 read it as counting three fifths of enslaved people for House seats. Its percentages are the video's, and it uses the older legal word throughout. (video, 14 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Report on Census — Founders Online — the week's new source as Founders Online keeps it: read the column headings across the top, find the blank South Carolina row and the certification line under the table, then read the editors' source note below it on the late South Carolina return. Skip the numbered textual notes unless you want to compare copies. (reading, 10–15 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