The Library of Congress provides several hundred documents relating to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. Content includes drafts of the Constitution, journals of Congress, resolutions, proclamations, committee...

After reading this section of the chapter on "Creating Republican Governments", students will be able to identify the central issues of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and their solutions and also describe the conflicts over the...

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...

Information about a group of nine delegates to the Constitutional Convention, all of whom had attended Princeton University. Explains Princeton's role in the convention, with longer biographical entries for three Princeton-education...

The original text of official Resolutions by members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 during the debate creating a new national U.S. Constitution.

The issue of slavery was a contentious one during debates in the Constitutional Convention. Read about the various issues, the quotes of several of the delegates, and see how the word "slave" is not even mentioned in the Constitution....

See transcripts of the debates of the Federal Convention of 1787, the draft of the Constitution, or see the facsimiles of the original documents. Trace the progress of the Constitution using the historical documents themselves.

This site from the United States Senate provides information about the evolution of the Senate as the Constitution was being written by the Constitutional Congress.

A transcript of the actual handwritten notes taken by Rufus King (delegate from Massachusetts) at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

A complete transcript of James McHenry's account of the Constitutional Convention on May 14, 1787. McHenry discusses the Virginia Plan.

A look at the convening of a Constitutional Convention to address the problems inherent in the Articles of Confederation. Read a quote from George Washington, who addressed the legality of such a convention.

Read about Checks and Balances, Balance of Power, the Electoral College, and much more in this informative lesson about the making of the Constitution.

View George Washington's annotated draft of the Constitution while discussing the ratification process. Specifically, the students will analyze changes to the Preamble of the Constitution. Critical thinking questions are provided.

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.

[Free Registration/Login Required] This website documents the United States through its struggles to become a new nation. Site includes primary source documents for the Articles of Confederation, US Constitutional Convention, and George...

The original Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between thirteen states, created in 1777 and ratified in 1781. It preceded the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

A short biographical sketch on George Wythe, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention from Virginia.

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 sources in this primary set document the creation of the US Constitution. Includes teaching guide.

Lesson on immigration, conflict and nativism in which students examine primary source documents to evaluate public policy and attitudes towards Chinese immigrants in California, 1878-1879.

The lesson plan provides varies information and links to help teach about the Constitutional Convention and learn about the Founding Fathers.

The original text from the University of Chicago Press of a 1780 letter from Alexander Hamilton to James Duane, who later became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, on the weaknesses of the existing U.S. government under the...

This site from the University of Groningen provides a synopsis chronologically written on the ratification of the U.S. Constitution beginning with the first states who accepted the document to pressures exerted by the Federalists to...