Ch. 9 Class Discussion Questions
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#1: What changes in American society did the revolutionary American ideas bring about in the years immediately
following the revolution?
Evolution rather than Revolution?
Pursuit of Equality: political, economic, and religious
Abolition of Slavery
Republican Motherhood
#2: What were the strengths / weaknesses of the A of C? Were the social problems of the 1780’s really due to
the national government’s failings, or the aftermath of the AR?
Constitution Making in the States
Relocation of State Capitals
Economic democracy proceeds political democracy
Navigation Laws | Enterprising Yankees
Unhealthy atmosphere
#2: What were the strengths / weaknesses of the A of C? Were the social problems of the 1780’s really due to
the national government’s failings, or the aftermath of the AR?, cont.
Articles of Confederation | Western Territories
No Power to Regulate Interstate Commerce
No Power to Enforce Tax Collection
Votes and Amendments (see next slide)
#2: What were the strengths / weaknesses of the A of C? Were the social problems of the 1780’s really due to
the national government’s failings, or the aftermath of the AR?, cont.
Land Ordinance of 1785
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Slavery in the NW Territory
British Problems: no commercial treaty, shut off West Indies trade from US, continued fur trading with Indians on
northern frontier
#2: What were the strengths / weaknesses of the A of C? Were the social problems of the 1780’s really due to
the national government’s failings, or the aftermath of the AR?, cont.
Spanish Problems: closed the Mississippi and territorial claims
Pirates of the North African States
Crisis in 1786: British flooding of the market & Shays’s Rebellion
Ch. 9 Class Discussion Questions
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#3: What really motivated the leaders who called the Constitutional Convention and worked out the essential
compromises?
Control of Commerce
Annapolis Convention
Philadelphia Convention
A Convention of Demigods
Patriots in Philadelphia
#3: What really motivated the leaders who called the Constitutional Convention and worked out the essential
compromises?, cont.
Hammering Out a Bundle of Compromises
Safeguards for the Constitution
Conservative or Liberal Document?
#4: Who were the Federalist and the Antifederalist, what were the issues that divided them, and why did the
Federalist win?
Characteristics of the Federalists . . .
Characteristics of the Antifederalists . . .
Criticisms of the Constitution
Great Debate in the States
The Four Laggard States
#5: Should the Constitution be seen as a conservative reaction to the Revolution, an enshrinement of
revolutionary principles, or both? What was most truly original about the Constitution?