Handouts & Documents


Study Notes for Chapter 7   Section 2 &3 

  • SECTION 2:  Shay's Rebellion: (was a bloody confrontation between farmers in western Massachusetts and state officials; farm land was being seized for non-payment of taxes; led by Daniel Shay, they forced the Massachusetts courts to close so that judges could not issue liens against any more farm land, & then 1,000 farmers marched to the federal arsenal in search of guns; when some were killed, the mob dissolved, but Americans worried that this new government couldn't effectively
    rule the people!)

  • "Manumission" (is the act of freeing enslaved persons - Virginia was the 1st state to encourage slave owners to do this

  • 1787 Convention (a.k.a. Constitutional Convention; 55
    delegates with George Washington chosen as the Convention presider, met in Philadelphia to try to reform the Articles of Confederation; they proposed 2 plans:

  • a)  Virginia Plan - would have 2 house-legislature; the number of representatives would reflect the state population

  • b)  New Jersey Plan - 1 house-legislature; one vote for each state

    c)"Great Compromise" - was the final result: a 2 house legislature made up of a lower house/House of Representative/# based on population, 
    AND  an upper house/Senate/ exactly 2 from each state no matter how small the state may be!

    *Three-Fifths Compromise (Since slave owner in slave states wanted to
    include the # of slaves they owned as part of the state population, many
    non-slave states were upset; they solution?  Each slave would ‘count' as a 3/5 of a person when decisions such as taxation, etc. needed to be voted upon....)

    *George Mason (1st proposed a bill of rights to be included in the revision
    of the Constitution: he & 2 other delegates refused to sign the new
    revision without this bill of rights; a 9-out-of-13 vote would be needed for
    acceptance.      

  • SECTION 3:

    1. "Federalism"
    2. Three Branches of Government and  the job of each:
    3. What is the power of "checks-and-balances"?
    4. A "federalist' believed?
    5. An "anti-federalist" believed?

**Just a reminder:  no "scratch-out" answers for homework assignments will ever be accepted!