Revolutionary Politics

1. Revolutionary Politics Advanced Placement 10th Grade

2. How did the Revolution affect politics in the states? During the revolutionary era, most Americans identified politically and socially with their local communities rather than with American nation. People spoke of �these United States,� emphasizing the plural.

3. What crisis brought about a sentiment for a stronger national government? The nation would sink into a serious economic depression that sorely tested the resources of local communities. (The Depression of the mid-1780s) The political protests it generated were instrumental in the development of strong nationalist sentiment among the elite circles of American life.

4. The Broadened Base of Politics

5. In what ways did political participation expand and debate shift during the revolutionary era? Mass meeting in which ordinary people expressed their opinions, voted, and gained political experience were common, not only in the cities but in small towns and rural communities as well. Many delegates to the Massachusetts provincial congress of 1774 were men who lacked formal education and owned little property. South Carolina, for example, employed a system of unversed white manhood suffrage for the selection of delegates to the Continental Congress, and many other states relaxed property qualifications.

6. How was this reflected in the new state legislatures? Compared to the colonial assemblies, the new state legislatures include more men from rural and western districts. Farmers and artisans as well as lawyers, merchants, and large landowners.

7. What were the major ideas in the anonymously written pamphlet, The People, the Best Governors? Assemblies and judges should be popularly elected. Shouldn�t have to own land to vote or hold office. Concluded that people are the best governors because they know what their wants and needs are to govern themselves.

8. What arguments did conservatives present? They argued the need for a balanced gov�t. They believed that the �unthinking many� (voters) should be checked by a strong executive and an upper house. Both of which should be insulated from popular control by property qualifications and long terms in office

9. The First State Constitutions

10. As examples of typical state constitutions, how did the state constitutions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York compare? Pennsylvania instituted a radical democratic government Maryland created a conservative set of institutions designed to keep rulers and citizens as far away as possible New York adopted a system somewhere in between

11. Into what groupings did the others fall? The other states blended democratic and conservative elements into their constitutions

12. Which one came the closest to the idea in The People, the Best Governors? Pennsylvania

13. Declarations of Rights

14. What were the rights included in the declarations of rights in state constitutions? Free speech, free assembly, and to petition for the redress of grievances.

15. What state was a leader? Virginia- Other state constitutions were modeled after the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

16. What were these declarations a precedent for? The bill of rights, the first ten amendments to the United States constitution.

17. A Spirit of Reform

18. How did the spirit of reform affect women? The 1776 constitution of New Jersey by granting the vote to �all free inhabitants� who met the property requirements, enfranchised women as well as men. The number of women voters eventually led to male protests. After the Revolution, there was evidence of increasing sympathy in the courts for women�s property rights and fairer adjudication of women�s petitions for divorce. The postwar years had an increase in opportunity for women seeking an education. The Revolution may have done little to change women�s role in society, but it did seem to help change expectations.

19. What reforms did Thomas Jefferson and others propose? He introduced a bill that abolished the law of entails, which had confined inheritance to particular heirs in order that landed property remained undivided. Jefferson�s other notable success was his bill for establishing religious freedom.

20. Why were established state religions opposed? Enlightenment thinking claimed that established state religions discourages free and open inquiring. There was also more sectarian diversity due to the Great Awakening.

21. What changes occurred? New York, Maryland, North & South Carolina, and Georgia adopted Jefferson�s Bill on Establishing Religious Freedoms.

22. What reforms of Jefferson did not pass? Jefferson was unable to: Pass a system of public education Revise the penal code to restrict capital punishment to the crimes of murder and treason Establish the gradual emancipation of slaves.

23. African Americans in the Revolution

24. How did African Americans participate in the Revolution? They were soldiers, writers, and slaves.

25. How did African Americans respond to the British side; to the American? The African Americans left with the British, fearing enslavement by the Americans.

26. In what areas of the colonies did Africans serve most in patriot militias as well as the Continental army? Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. New England and Rhode Island also. 5,000 African Americans had served in Patriot militias and the Continental Army by the war's end.

27. What states took action against slavery and/or the slave trade? Slavery was first abolished in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island adopted systems of eventual emancipation. By 1786, every Northern state except Delaware had taken steps towards emancipation.

28. What was the most important result of the growth of the free African American population?

29. Economic Problems

30. What were the major economic problems? Shortage of goods, demand for supplies by the army, and too much paper money.

31. What public reactions occurred? The merchants gouged customers with unfair prices. There were food riots in many communities. Men & women demanded fair prices, and when they didn�t get what they wanted, they broke into storehouses and took what they wanted. There were local committees to minor economic activity and punish wrongdoers. Ex: Abigail Adams told a Boston merchant who refused to sell coffee for demanded price, a group of females attacked him, threw him in a cart, took his keys, and took coffee from his warehouse.

32. What was the extent of total state and national debt compared to 1990s? The national debt in 1990 was 5 times greater than the value of exports. The national debt in 1785 was 64 times greater than the value of exports.

33. How did these economic problems become political ones? Political revolution could not alter economic realities.

34. State Remedies

35. What remedies did the states try and what were the problems involved? They erected high tariffs to curb imports and protect �infant industries�. Problems included shippers avoiding the duties by unloading the cargo in nearby seaboard states that lacked tariffs.

36. How did economic needs reinforce the unity of the National community? Everyone was suffering, so it caused them to sympathize and unite with each other.

37. Shay�s Rebellion

38. Who was Shays and what were the issues in the Rebellion? Daniel Shays was a captain in the Revolution who lead farmers in the western states that were hit greatly by the depression and the merchants pressed them to pay their debts in currency that they didn�t possess.

39. What was the outcome of the Rebellion? The Rebels came to a town and the local state militia fought the rebels and won. Fifteen rebels were sentenced to death. This brought the states closer together.

40. Where did similar conflicts occur? Similar disorders occurred in every other New England state except Rhode Island, where the farmers had already taken power. There were a number of incidents outside of New England as well.

41. What were the longer-range consequences of Shays� Rebellion? It made the conservative nationalist unhappy with the distribution of power between the states and national government under the Articles of Confederation.