Lecture 14

Question 1

The Articles of Confederation—what were their main characteristics and issues?

Answer 1

• Weak national gov’t.
• No executive or judicial branch; just the Congress/legislature.
• It was difficult to pass anything.
• They had no power to levy taxes, so the Congress relied on donations, which was an issue because the states had accumulated massive debt during the war and weren’t willing to fund the national gov’t voluntarily.

Question 2

How were loyalists, women, and American Indians affected by the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 2

• Loyalists had their property confiscated.
• Women were second class citizens—they couldn’t vote, couldn’t be on juries, and their property was taken upon marriage.
• Indians weren’t even mentioned in the AoC, but they were treated worse by the US; not allowed to vote, and they couldn’t be citizens.

Question 3

Explain the situation of black people under the AoC.

Answer 3

• Number of free blacks rose after the revolution because some served in the Continental Army in exchange for a promise to freedom, and some slave owners freed their black slaves after the war out of revolutionary fervor.
• Many freed black people lived in the south, where they basically had no rights.
• In the north, black people could at least vote if they had enough property.
• The law said black people couldn’t have property, couldn’t be on juries, and it also segregated them.

Question 4

Explain the Treaty of Fort Stanwix and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh. How are they different from each other?

Answer 4

• Treaty of Fort Stanwix: Iroquois gave 50% of their land to the US in the treaty because the US threatened them.
• Treaty of Fort McIntosh: most Indian territory was taken in the Ohio River Valley.
• Whereas Stanwix was primarily pertaining to the Iroquois in the Ohio Country, the US negotiated McIntosh to secure land from other Indian groups as the Iroquois/Seneca weren’t the only Indian group in the region.

Question 5

What modern US states comprise the Northwest Territory?

Answer 5

• Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Question 6

Land Ordinance of 1785: what?

Answer 6

• Congress under the Articles of Confederation systemically privatized and sold land in the Northwest Territory to raise money.
• Public land had to be surveyed before. It was divided into townships, where each township = 6 square miles, and townships were divided into 1 square mile sections.
• The 16th section of land was reserved for education: all taxes from that section went to education.

Question 7

Northwest Ordinance of 1787: what?

Answer 7

• Ordinance for making states: once pop=60,000 they could apply for statehood and adopt a constitution.
• For 5,000 registered voters, 1 nonvoter went to Congress as a representative for the territory.
• It guaranteed religious freedom and trial by jury and outlawed slavery in the NW Territory.

Question 8

What were the problems that the US faced with the Articles or Confederation? (2 points)

Answer 8

• States had a lot of power: they could negotiate with foreign powers, make their own currency, and declare war. Each state had 1 vote in Congress despite its size.
• Economic crisis after the war: there was a lot of debt, Britain boycotted American goods, and overall the American economy suffered.

Question 9

Shays’ Rebellion: where? Led by whom? What did it consist of? What did it do?

Answer 9

• In Massachusetts.
• Daniel Shays (American Revolution vet) led a mob of farmers who were angry due to the economic crisis and the US policies such as imprisonment for having debt and having your land taken if you didn’t pay taxes.
• 2,000 farmers attacked courts in Mass. to prevent foreclosure from them taking their land.
• This showed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation.

Question 10

May 1787 Constitutional Convention: what was the intent? How many Presidents under the AoC? Explain the role of slavery and the legislation on it.

Answer 10

• Originally they wanted to alter the Articles of Confederation, but they ended up trashing it altogether.
• There were 7 Presidents under the Articles of Confederation.
• Slavery was an issue: 7 states wanted to count slaves as population only for slave owners to receive their votes and have more power. They decided on the “3/5 compromise” so each slave would count as 3/5 of a person contributing to the power of each slave owner’s vote.
• “Fugitive slave law” gave slave owners the power to track down and capture runaway slaves.
• Congress was prohibited from outlawing international (not domestic) slave trade until 1808.