1. The Articles of Confederation
By: Ms. Astle

2. Thirteen Independent States
Americans needed to establish their own government and gain Britain’s respect. This brought new challenges. The British believed the new government was weak and ineffective.
States organized their governments and adopted their own state constitutions. The writers wanted to prevent abuses of power and also wanted to keep power in the hands of the people.
State Constitutions limited the power of the governor to avoid giving one ruler too much power. Pennsylvania replaced the office of governor with an elected council of twelve members.
States divided the functions between the governor (Pennsylvania’s council) and the legislature.

3. Thirteen Independent States
The legislature was the more powerful branch because of the limited powers of the governor. Most states had a bicameral, or two-house, legislature. This further divided the power.
Legislatures were popularly elected and elections were frequent. State legislatures had many disagreements about how to make taxes fair.
In most states only white males who were 21 years old could vote. They also had to either be property owners or pay a certain amount of taxes. In some states free African American males could vote.

4. Forming a Republic
Americans agreed that the county should be a republic, which is a government with elected representatives. What they could not agree on was the origin and powers of the new republic.
At first most Americans favored a weak central government with powers being given to the states to function independently except for the power to wage war and handle relations with other countries.
In 1777 the Articles of Confederation were adopted to provide for a central government. At the time the country needed a central government to fight the war against Britain. The Articles were America’s first constitution. The states, thought, gave up little of their power. Each state kept “its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.”

5. Forming a Republic
Under the Articles of Confederation, the government, which was the Confederation Congress, had the authority to:
Conduct foreign affairs
Maintain armed forces
Borrow money
Issue Currency
The Government did not have the authority to:
Regulate trade
Force citizens to join the army
Impose taxes

6. Forming a Republic
Congress needed to ask state legislatures to raise money and provide troops.
The government did not have a chief executive.
Each state had one vote in Congress. State populations did not matter, even though more populated states believed they should have more votes.
States also argued about whether or not they claimed land in the west. Maryland refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation until states abandoned their land claims. Finally all 13 states approved the Articles on March 1, The Confederacy formally became the government of the United States.

7. Forming a Republic
The Confederation government had its weaknesses, but it won Americans their independence, expanded foreign trade, and provided for new states in the West.
It had limited authority.
It cold not pass a law unless nine states voted for it.
To change the Articles of Confederation, all 13 states had to give consent. It was difficult for Congress to pass laws when there was opposition.

8. New Land Policies
The Articles of Confederation had no provision for adding new states. Congress realized it had to extend its authority over the frontier and bring order and stability to the territory where western settlers reached almost 120,000 by the 1790s. The Western ordinances had a large impact on Western expansion and development of the United States.
In 1784 Congress divided the Western territory into self-governing districts. When the number of people in a district reached the population of the smallest existing state, that district could apply for statehood.
In 1785 the Confederation Congress established a new law that divided the Western territories into larger townships and smaller sections. Each smaller section would be sold at auction for at least $1 an acre. This was called the Ordinance of 1785.

9. New Land Policies
Another ordinance in 1787 was the Northwest Ordinance.
It created the Northwest Territory out of the lands north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River.
It divided the lands into three to five smaller territories.
It stated that when the population of the territory reached 60,000 citizens, that territory could apply for statehood. Each new state would enter as an equal to their original 13 states.
It included a bill of rights to protect the settlers that guaranteed freedom of religion and trial by jury. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude was permitted in the new territories.

10. Trouble on Two Fronts
The Confederate government had trouble with finances and with Britain and Spain over landholdings and trade. Many Americans felt the country needed a stronger government to better deal with problems.
The government had a large debt from fighting the war. Congress had borrowed money from American citizens and foreign governments. It owed soldiers their wages. But because Congress had not power to tax, it did not have a way to raise revenue and pay off its debt.
Money was almost worthless. The money printed during the War had fallen in value, while the prices of food and goods soared. Because there were so many bills in circulation, the value of the money fell. No gold or silver backed these bills.

11. Trouble on Two Fronts
The problems with Britain concerned landholdings and trade.
British troops remained in several strategic forts in the Great Lakes Region even though Britain had promised to withdraw all troops under the Treaty of Paris.
British merchants closed Americans out of the West Indies and other profitable British markets.
John Adams went to London in 1785 to discuss these issues. The British claimed that because Americans had not paid Loyalists for the property taken from them during the war, as agreed under the Treaty of Paris, they were not willing to talk. Congress recommended payment, but the states refused.

12. Trouble on Two Fronts
The problems with Spain were worse than with England.
Spain closed the lower Mississippi River to American shipping in 1784 in hopes of halting American expansion into their territory of Spanish Florida and lands west of the Mississippi River.
A compromise was reached with an agreement in 1786 that limited American shipping on the Mississippi. In return, Spain promised to accept the border between Georgia and Spanish Florida proposed by Americans. Representatives from the South rejected the agreement because it did not include the right to use the Mississippi River.

13. Economic Depression
The United States suffered a depression after the Revolutionary War from the following reasons:
Southern plantations were damaged during the war; they could not produce as much rice, as prior to the war. As a result, rice exports dropped.
Farmers could not sell the goods they grew and did not have money to pay state taxes. As a result, farmers lost their lands when state officials took their farms to pay the debt they owed. Some farmers were even jailed.
American trade fell off when Britain closed the West Indies to American merchants. As a result, currency was in short supply, and whatever was around was used to pay the war debt.
The Shay’s Rebellion occurred as a result of the problems farmers suffered. In 1787 Daniel Shays led a group of more than 1,000 angry farmers in forcing courts in western Massachusetts to close so judges could not seize farmers’ lands.

14. Economic Depression
Shays led the farmers toward the federal arsenal in Springfield, MA, for arms and ammunition. The farmers did not stop, even when the state militia fired over their heads and then directly at them, killing four. The uprising was over when Shays and his followers scattered.
Americans felt the impact of Shays uprising. Many were scared that future uprisings could occur.

15. Slavery
Slavery was difficult issue that many people and groups began to work toward ending.
Quakers organized the first American Antislavery Society in 1774.
In 1780 Pennsylvania passed a law that provided for freeing enslaved people gradually.
In 1783 a Massachusetts court ruled slavery was illegal.
Between 1784 and 1804, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey passed laws that gradually ended slavery.

16. Slavery In 1878 the Free African Society in Philadelphia was formed.
Some states clung to slavery, especially those south of Pennsylvania. The plantation system relied on slavery to survive. Yet a number of slaveholders did begin to free slaves after the war.
The abolition of slavery divided the country. In 1787, when state representatives met to plan a new government they compromised on the issue of slavery.

17. A Call for Change
Political leaders were divided on the issue of the type of government the country should have.
One group wanted to remain with a system of independent state governments.
The other group wanted to created a strong national government. This group called for reform on the Articles of confederation. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were proponents of a strong central government.
In September 1787, Hamilton proposed calling a meeting in Philadelphia to discuss trade issues and possible changes to the Articles of Confederation so that the union would become a nation.
George Washington finally agreed to attend the convention although at first he was not enthusiastic about revising the Articles of Confederation. His presence lent greater significance to the meeting.

18. Sources
American History PicturePacks Collection C: The American Revolution and the Early Republic, CD-Rom (2003) HistoryPictures.com
Wikipedia: Continental (Currency) (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Articles of Confederation (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Northwest Ordinance (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Northwest Territory (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Congress of the Confederation (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Constitution of Vermont (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Trial By Jury (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Colonial Williamsburg (2008) The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation at URL:
Colonial Williamsburg Slideshows (2008) The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation at URL:
Daniel Shays (2008) Springfield Technical Community College at URL: