Tuesday, October 25th 2016

- Charleston, Norfolk and New York are where majority of slave boats landed.
The French and Indian War
- Samuel Adams began the sons of liberty
Ratification of the Constitution
- Had to be ratified by the leaders in each states
- Writing of this was a dubious legality, they needed unanimous decision to amend the
articles of confederation but didnt receive that, hence they carried on and did it anyway
- Rather than amending the document, they decided to scrap it and make a new
document called the Constitution
- They sent the document out to the states for ratification and when they received 9
votes out of 13, they made it official law even though they were supposed to receive the
full 13
Federalists
- Those in favor of the constitution
- Wanted a strong central government
- Hamilton votes for Britain to be the US closest ally because he believed they had a
much better trade relationship / connection with Britain
Argument for
- Allowed the federal government to mandate taxes which they believed would help
solve economic issues
- Led by Alexander Hamilton
- Gave government authority to pass laws without unanimous vote (only needed a
simple majority)
- The three branches of government as deemed stable and strong for both difficult and
hard times
- While freedom is important, it should not come at the cost of law and order
- Simple voice in foreign policy to make their own deals
- Strong executive branch to keep states in line with strong leader (George Washington)
in charge
- Balance in congress between large and small states for equal representation (senate
and house)
- Independent judiciary and powerful president
Antifederalists

- Those against the constitution but werent necessarily against change

- Puts them psychologically in the position where it looks as they are opposed to
governmental change as opposed to the federal government
- Couldnt argue what they were rooting for because they all wanted different things
Argument against
- Concerned with the presence of rights and personal liberties
- Worried about another King George, where individual freedom was sacrificed by the
central authority
- Thought the constitution gave the federal government too much control over
commerce, believed at least 3/4 of state votes were needed
- Believed federal government should not have as much power over the state militias
- Believed that the constitution gave president too much power and he would end up as
a king
- They believed the taxation mandate could led to the impoverishing of the people and
grow too oppressive
- Believed their foreign policy was too powerful; who would be our closest ally? Britain or
France? France helped us during the war. They were concerned that slavery would
become an issue that would become disadvantageous to sections of the country
- Believe there were too few congressman (55) and thought they would voted based
upon what they wanted opposed to what the state wanted and that they were too
wealthy
- Believed the supreme country would dominate the states (states could be over-ruled)
- No bill of rights for the guarantee of citizen rights