Was the Southern states' decision to secede from the Union protected by the United States Constitution? Eighth graders discuss the constitutionality of the South's justification for secession, particularly the secession of South...

Illustrated biographical sketches of delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, organized by state delegation.

Information about Connecticut's delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Includes information on Oliver Ellsworth, a key supporter of the Great Compromise, as well as William Samuel Johnson and Roger Sherman.

Explains why the Articles of Confederation were not strong enough to hold the country together. One result was a farmers' rebellion in Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays, which was precipitated by a debt crisis that caused many farmers to...

George Washington wrote of the period between the Treaty of Paris and the writing of the Constitution that the states were united only by a "rope of sand."Disputes between Maryland and Virginia over navigation on the Potomac River led to...

Reforming the state's constitution was one of the most important and hotly debated political issues in antebellum North Carolina. The state's constitution of 1776, which remained largely unchanged until the convention of 1835, had...

A Constitutional Convention was held in Texas in 1875 as a reaction to Reconstruction. See how the gains made by the Republican Party, which included African American legislators, were negated by the Democratic Party when it gained control.

A scholarly article on the life of George Mason, a delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention. Mason is also considered the father of the Bill of Rights.

The constitutional convention of 1835 was convened to modify the North Carolina Constitution of 1776. Some provisions of the 1776 document were rooted in the colonial experience, and a growing segment of the population came to consider...

A good biography on Pinckney and his role in the formation of the Constitution.

With the freeing of slaves following the Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans, including former slaves, began to take part in the government. Read about African-American Charles W. Bryant, Constitutional Convention delegate, and...

Gives biographical details on the five delegates from North Carolina to the Constitutional Convention: William Blount, William Richard Davie, Alexander Martin, Richard Dobbs Spaight Sr., and Hugh Williamson.

A magazine article devoted to Princeton University offers a biography of its distinguished alumnus, who later became Governor of New Jersey and co-authored the New Jersey Plan which was presented to the Constitutional Convention.

A biography of this delegate from North Carolina to the Constitutional Convention. He was a strong federalist and helped with persuading North Carolina to endorse the new constitution. He later served as a Congressman.

Gives biographical details on the five delegates from New Jersey to the Constitutional Convention: David Brearly, Jonathan Dayton, William C. Houston, William Livingston, and William Patterson.

Gives biographical details on the three delegates from Connecticut to the Constitutional Convention: Oliver Ellsworth, William Samuel Johnson, and Roger Sherman.

Gives biographical details on the four delegates from Massachusetts to the Constitutional Convention: Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb Strong.

Gives biographical details on the eight delegates from Pennsylvania to the Constitutional Convention: George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Benjamin Franklin, Jared Ingersoll, Thomas Mifflin, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, and James Wilson.

Gives biographical details on the five delegates from Delaware to the Constitutional Convention: Richard Bassett, Gunning Bedford, Jr., Jacob Broom, John Dickinson, and George Read.

Gives biographical details on the five delegates from Maryland to the Constitutional Convention: Daniel Carroll, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Luther Martin, James McHenry, and John Francis Mercer.

Gives biographical details on the four delegates from Georgia to the Constitutional Convention: Abraham Baldwin, William Few, William Houston, and William Leigh Pierce.

Gives biographical details on the two delegates from New Hampshire to the Constitutional Convention: Nicholas Gilman and John Langdon.

Gives biographical details on the four delegates from South Carolina to the Constitutional Convention: Pierce Butler, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and John Rutledge.

This article gives highlights on the career of this delegate from Pennsylvania to the Constitutional Convention. Ingersoll was considered one of the best lawyers in Philadelphia at that time.