June 23, 2022

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History / American history

I need a write-up of at least 350 words on ''Writing and Approving the Constitution.''

Your postings are your reactions and educated opinions, NOT merely a retelling of the historical event.

1) Read the three YAWP readings – links provided below.

http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/79.html

http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html

2) Read Thomas Jefferson’s response letter to Benjamin Banneker, link provided.

3) Read the “Meaning of Race” on pages 171 – 174 of the US History online text.

4) Within the Constitution, which can be found toward the back of your textbook, Read Article I, Section 2, Clause 3; Article I, Section 9, Clause 1; and Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3.

Of the first 18 presidents of the U.S., 12 either owned slaves or came from slave owning families. Supreme Court Justices owned slaves. Congressmen, governors, and other local and military leaders owned slaves.

By 1787, the year the Constitution was written, the United States had been using slave labor to build the economy for 168 years. 

Using the instructions above, the provided learning materials, and your own research:

1) Create a conversation starter about these learnings.

2) If we study history so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past, what do we need to learn and know from this time period?

3) Pose 3 questions from your learning to your fellow students to create further discussions.

After reading about Cato and Benjamin Banneker, what are your thoughts on what Thomas Jefferson said in his letter?

Does the Constitution protect slavery and the right to own slaves? Explain.

What are the connections between slavery, the 3/5 Compromise, determination of representation in the House of Representatives, and the Electoral College?

Who were the men who wrote the U.S. Constitution? What were their occupations? What was their economic status? Where did they live?

What social groups were not represented among the delegates? Why was this important?

How did the Great Compromise resolve conflicts?

Article 4, section 2

Explain how the 3/5th Compromise was not a compromise.

What would have happened if the 3/5 compromise had not passed?

If the compromise had not passed, they still would not have been free. Instead, the Union would either not have existed at all, or two nations – one slave-holding, one not – would have been formed. The South — the “Confederacy”, if you will — would have likely have kept people enslaved well beyond the years of the Civil War and would not have had the limits of the Constitutional clause preventing slaves from being imported after 1809 imposed on them.

How do textbook publishers indoctrinate students with a message “compliance is good, rebellion is bad.”?

Nearly 40 percent of the Framers—including, of course, George Washington and James Madison—enslaved other human beings. Many were wealthy lawyers, others successful merchants. Not a single “famous and important” leader was a common farmer or worker. All were white; all were male.

There were no African-Americans (free or enslaved) at the convention, there were no women, there were no Native Americans, there were no poor farmers (Gentleman Farmers like Washington and Jefferson are not the same). These are facts, and these are marginalized people who were left out of the drafting process, and who are marginalized and exploited to this day.

Slaveholders among prominent Founding Fathers

Slaveholders

Founding Father	State
Charles Carroll	Maryland
Samuel Chase	Maryland
Benjamin Franklin	Pennsylvania
Button Gwinnett	Georgia
John Hancock	Massachusetts
Patrick Henry	Virginia
John Jay	New York
Thomas Jefferson	Virginia
Richard Henry Lee	Virginia
James Madison	Virginia
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	South Carolina
Benjamin Rush	Pennsylvania
Edward Rutledge	South Carolina
George Washington	Virginia

Non-Slaveholders

Founding Father	State
John Adams	Massachusetts
Samuel Adams	Massachusetts
Oliver Ellsworth	Connecticut
Alexander Hamilton	New York
Robert Treat Paine	Massachusetts
Thomas Paine	Pennsylvania
Roger Sherman	Connecticut

1777 Vermont frees all slaves

1780 Pennsylvania passes a gradual abolition law

1783 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery unconstitutional, a decision based on the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. All slaves are immediately freed.

1783 New Hampshire passes a gradual abolition law

1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island pass a gradual abolition law

1793 FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT PASSED

1799 New York passes a gradual abolition law

1802 Ohio frees all slaves

1804 New Jersey frees all slaves

Now ALL northern states have passed laws freeing slaves

The Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery was passed by Pennsylvania legislature on March 1, 1780.

Section 3:

Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted, by the representatives of the freeman of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in general assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That all persons, as well Negroes and Mulattoes as others, who shall be born within this state from and after the passing of this act, shall not be deemed and considered as servants for life, or slaves; and that all servitude for life, or slavery of children, in consequence of the slavery of their mothers, in the case of all children born within this state, from and after the passing of this act as aforesaid, shall be, and hereby is utterly taken away, extinguished and forever abolished.

Section 10:

That no man or woman of any nation or colour… shall at any time hereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within the territories of this commonwealth as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women…. Provided such domestic slaves be not aliened or sold to any inhabitants nor…retained in this state longer than six months.

However, many, including George Washington, found loopholes in the law.

Section 11: FREES slaves who have run away and been missing for more than 5 years, while allowing owners to recover slaves during this time period.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1787:

ISSUES:

1. IS SLAVERY LEGAL?

Article I, Section 9, Clause 1: Slave Trade cannot be stopped until after 1808. But MUST it stop?

2. MUST RUNAWAY SLAVES BE RETURNED?

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3: Runaway slaves must be returned

3. HOW IS REPRESENTATION DETERMINED?

Great Compromise: Senate and the House of Representatives

4. ARE SLAVES CITIZENS OR PROPERTY?

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3: 3/5 Compromise

55 White Men attended Constitutional Convention in 1787.

· Of those 20 own slaves

· 38 are wealthy

They own 1200+ slaves among them.

The value in today's dollars of a slave during the antebellum period ranges from $50,000 (in 1809) to $150,000 of a slave's expected revenue less maintenance costs.

Washington owned 317 slaves at the time of his death in 1799.

New Jersey Plan: Equal Representation regardless of population

Virginia Plan: Representation based on population

Great Compromise: Senate and the House of Representatives

What about counting slaves?

If VA gets to count slaves, it will be the most powerful state in the nation.

1790 VA population: 690,000 total 404,000 free 288,000 slaves

1790 PA population: 434,000 total 430,000 free 4,000 slaves

Are slaves citizens or property? The men decide that slavery is not a moral issue but a matter of “interest.”

If slaves are property that the southern states can count toward their population and therefore the number of representatives they have in the House, then can the North count their horses and cows?

Article I, Section 2, Clause 3: 3/5 Compromise

Article I, Section 9, Clause 1: Slave Trade cannot be stopped until after 1808. But MUST it stop?

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3: Runaway slaves must be returned

Constitutional Convention of 1787

Constitution written in 1787 by 55 men whom we refer to as the Framers of the Constitution or our Founding Fathers.

To name a few: George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Ben Franklin.

A government created by all white, wealthy men definitely needed to be updated and inclusivity had be added.

Who is missing from the previous image?

Who was excluded from the conversations?

The Magna Carta

(The Great Charter)

1215, England

Contained 63 clauses, promising all freemen access to courts and a fair trial

Eliminated unfair fines and punishments

Gave power to the Catholic Church in England

Idea taken from the Magna Carta:

Laws exist, and all citizens must obey them.

King is not above the law.

King cannot levy extra taxes “without the common consent of the realm.”

Preserves the right of subjects to own property

Limits the powers of the king and barons.

Due Process of Law

Judgment By One’s Peers

The introduction to the Constitution is called the Preamble.

It begins with “We the people…”

Meaning that our government is based on the consent of the people.

Why is a democracy so fragile?

What does it depend on to continue?

Benjamin Franklin quotes: “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” in 1789 “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what they are going to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

In 1787, “upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created.

His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it."

The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.”

quote taken from Perspectives on the Constitution: A Republic, If You Can Keep It by Dr. Richard R. Beeman

https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/historical-documents/perspectives-on-the-constitution-a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it

Federalism

Federalism: Governmental power divided between the states and the federal government.

States may make laws that are not dictated in the Constitution.

State law cannot contradict or over-rule federal law.

If the will of the majority are not reflected in the Constitution, how did it get approved?

Virginia Plan

states with large populations should have the most power. The larger the population, the better representation in government!

More representation = More POWER

New Jersey Plan

Each state should have EQUAL representation, in ONE house.

One State, One Vote, one voice

Women, African-Americans, & Native Americans were NOT recognized as citizens

And, therefore, not considered.

THE GREAT COMPROMISE!

Proposed by Roger Sherman from Connecticut.

Create a TWO-House Legislature:

House of Representatives – based on population

Senate – EQUAL representation for all states.

Roger Sherman & James Wilson proposed 3/5 Compromise

Both believed that slavery was already dying out and would end naturally.

WRONG

Eli Whitney’s invention and Great Britain’s demand for cotton changed all of that.

Wm Lloyd Garrison called the Constitution "a Covenant with Death, an Agreement with Hell"

Northern states agreed to the 3/5 Compromise. Why??

North agreed because NW Ordinance of 1787 banned slavery in future states of the Northwest. See next slide.

As a compromise: the North received the Northwest Ordinance, which did not allow slavery.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE

2 SENATORS

NUMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES

NUMBER OF ELECTORAL VOTES

1790 VIRGINIA:

TOTAL POPULATION = 690,000

404,000 people are FREE

288,000 people are SLAVES

288,000 x 60% (3/5) = 172,800

NEW Total = 576,800

1790 PENNSYLVANIA:

TOTAL POPULATION = 434,000

430,000 people are FREE

4,000 people are SLAVES

4,000 x 60% (3/5) = 2,400

NEW Total = 432,400

QUESTIONS: In what ways is the Constitution democratic? In what ways is it NOT democratic?