What steps were necessary before we were ready to begin a new nation? After seeing the success that the young Jamestown settlement was experiencing, European efforts to colonize North America continued with the Plymouth Company. Read on to learn about the struggles and changes they implemented as we move even closer to the declaration of American independence!
Like Jamestown’s Virginia Company of London, the Plymouth Company was founded as a joint stock company by the charter of 1606. Investors financed the settlers’ trip, and the settlers were to repay them from profits made through shipping natural resources to England during the first seven years, after which the company would dissolve. During those years, the land would be held in common, and the laborers would work for a common goal. These contracts were the customary way of enabling people to settle in America who otherwise could not afford the voyage. Still, the Pilgrims disputed the company’s communal policy from the beginning.
The settlers were mostly English Pilgrim families who had sought religious freedom in the Netherlands. They didn’t think the Church of England could be reformed. They were called “separatists” because they separated from the Church of England to form independent local churches. After twelve years in the Netherlands, they wanted to live in a community of like-minded believers in America, where their children wouldn’t be influenced by Dutch culture and where they could prosper economically. The other part of the group was merchant adventurers. In 1620, they set out on the Mayflower for northern Virginia, but stormy weather veered the ship off course to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Before going ashore, the Pilgrim leaders drafted the Mayflower Compact. The compact was their governing document, which declared that their primary purpose was to form a government for “the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith,” along with the establishment of the Virginia House of Burgesses the previous year in 1619, it laid the foundation for self-government, and was a beginning step that led to the U.S. Constitution.
Although the colonists didn’t have a charter to settle in Massachusetts, they decided to stay there rather than sail to Virginia. Supplies were dwindling and winter was settling in. Like the Jamestown settlers, the Pilgrims were unprepared for the harsh condition – the cold winter, fierce storms, and “a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men,” in the words of their leader William Bradford.
They sailed on and finally found a suitable harbor for the Mayflower near an abandoned Indian site where they settled, naming it New Plymouth. As in Jamestown, about half the group died that terrible first winter from malnutrition, sickness, and exposure to the elements. Also like Jamestown, Plymouth experienced a “Starving Time.” Yet they persevered, built houses, gardens, and grew crops in the spring of 1621.
Pilgrim opposition to the established communal economy, and the breakdown of the system, were evident in the settlement from the beginning. As more settlers arrived, the original communal plan was eventually abandoned in 1623. It simply did not work anymore. One-acre parcels were then allotted to each person, including women and children, and productively increased as it did in Jamestown.
The products shipped to England to pay off the debt to the company’s investors were mainly furs, fish, and timber, but they didn’t make a large profit. In 1627, Governor Bradford and eleven other men contracted to pay off the debt to the Plymouth Company, which was not accomplished until 1642. Finally, the Plymouth Colony merged with the more profitable Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.
The story of America has still hardly begun, but the Jamestown and Plymouth Colonies were pivotal chapters in our country’s inception.
To learn more on this topic, a full text with more information about the first colonies is provided in Session 2 of FreedomCivics® – Foundations of American Government.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at hanusch@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
]]>In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored an unsuccessful attempt to colonize Roanoke Island offshore from present-day North Carolina. He planned to establish an English stronghold in North America to prevent Spain from claiming land north of Florida, but sadly – and mysteriously – this settlement, known as the “Lost Colony,” vanished.
The plan to settle North America resumed in 1666 when English King James I granted the Virginia Company of London a charter to found a colony and spread Christianity. The objective was also to discover gold, a water route to the Pacific Ocean, and the Lost Colony of Roanoke. This joint stock company financed the expedition and the colony by selling shares of stock to investors to raise capital. They believed that the colony would produce wealth and trade their products in England. The company, its investors, and the settlers all hoped to make a profit.
The settlers promised to work for the company in return for housing, food, supplies, and a share of stock in the company. The shareholders in England would be paid. After seven years, the company would grant the colonists 100 acres of land. At that time in England, the plan sounded beneficial to everyone. But was it successful?
The 40 sailors and 104 Englishmen and boys who survived the voyage sailed up the James River in May 1607. On a marshy peninsula, the settlers built a fort and established Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America.
Most of the colonists were of the gentry class (gentlemen who lived off rental payments and did no manual labor) and adventurers. Some craftsmen and laborers also came. But the colony had no women or families. The gentlemen and explorers expected to find gold and silver, as the Spanish had in Mexico and South America. The Jamestown men were disappointed that gold didn’t wash up on the shores. The gentlemen didn’t know how to farm. They thought that physical labor was beneath their status.
The settlers were unprepared for the harsh conditions in Virginia. They arrived during the area’s most extreme drought in the past 770 years, according to recent scientific studies.
The drought led to contaminated drinking water, lack of food, and worsened relations with the native Powhatans. Neither the Powhatans nor the settlers could grow enough food. The corn crops on which they depended failed. The settlers couldn’t leave the fort to hunt or fish for fear of being killed by the Powhatans. These conditions caused malnourishment and disease, including malaria. More than half of the colonists died in that disastrous first year.
The Virginia Company’s actions made matters worse. King James appointed a president and council that ruled from London. Initially, the company owned all the land, buildings, and tools. Each person worked as he was able (or willing) for the company storehouse and the common good. Each person received food and other items he needed from this common store. The workers owned nothing other than personal items. As a result, no one had any incentive to work beyond the minimum necessary to receive his share from the common food supply. Creativity and risk-taking diminished because each colonist received an equal share of goods. Some of the men refused to work. And why should they?
When Captain John Smith became the Virginia Company’s third president in September 1608, he refused to continue this practice. He knew that no society could flourish if it ignored a fundamental principle found in the Bible and familiar to settlers: if you don’t work, you don’t get to eat (except if sick or disabled). Under Smith’s leadership, the colony flourished – more crops, new industries, and improved relations with the Native Americans. But this progress ended when Smith was injured and had to return to England in September 1609.
Then came the “Starving Time” of 1609-1610 at the height of the drought. The ship carrying more settlers and necessary supplies was stranded in Bermuda. The Powhatans, who also were starving, refused to provide food to the settlers. The shareholders demanded to be paid, but the company and colony were in financial ruin, and the settlers were just trying to survive. No one was profiting.
Sir Thomas Dale, the new acting governor, found the colony in disarray in 1611, so he took immediate and drastic action. To restore order and fix the failing colony, he imposed harsher discipline and martial law. In 1613, as governor, he also carried out company reforms. The most important reform was abandoning communal agriculture. He increased incentives by granting three acres of land to the early settlers and smaller plots to more recent arrivals. Crop planting and productivity increased because of private land ownership.
During this time, the extreme drought ended, and more settlers, including women, and supplies arrived. One of the newcomers, John Rolfe, married Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas. Their marriage ushered in a period of improved relations between the tribe and the colonists. In 1614, Rolfe experimented with planting tobacco seeds from the Caribbean. His crop was so well received in England that it became Jamestown's first profitable export.
In 1618, Sir George Yeardley was appointed governor of the colony. The Virginia Company instructed him to carry out comprehensive reforms detailed in the new “Great Charter.” Right away, Yeardley restored financial and political order and increased each settler’s allotment of land to fifty acres. He also began transferring land from the Virginia Company to the settlers as promised after seven years of work for the company. Land and home ownership created a strong incentive to be productive because they benefited personally from their own work. Conditions in the colony promptly improved.
Conditions further improved in 1619 when Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the Virginia Company's founders, was elected as the company’s treasurer (a position similar to chairman). Although he never went to Virginia, he advocated free trade and increased immigration, including more women. He knew that families were essential for a stable society. He also encouraged more industries and exports. But tobacco still proved to be the most profitable crop, and it raised colonists’ standard of living.
Under Yeardley and Sandys, the General Assembly was formed and first met in 1619. It was the forerunner of two-house state legislatures and U.S. Congress. The Virginia Company was represented in the General Assembly by the governor and an appointed council. Men who owned property elected 22 burgesses to the House of Burgesses.
Through the representation in the House of Burgesses, in 1619, the first shipload of African slaves arrived in Virginia. The African slave trade had existed centuries prior to the establishment of the British colonies in North America and had been a profitable business for Portuguese, Spanish, and Muslim traders operating throughout Africa.
Europeans and Muslims exploited native African tribal societies, trading goods for prisoners taken in inter-tribal conflict. The slave ship’s original destination was Mexico, but after the fifty African slaves arrived in Jamestown, chattel slavery became one of several methods of meeting the labor demands of the new colony. But another generation passed before slavery took hold as crucial to Virginia’s economy.
Few historical records exist regarding these African men, women, and children. They were likely put to work on the tobacco plantations surrounding Jamestown. Under English law, there was no hereditary slavery then. Some of the Africans became indentured servants rather than slaves. Indentured servanthood was common means for English and other European settlers to pay for their travel to the colonies, where they sought better opportunities than were available to them in Europe.
While the Virginia Company never became profitable and was often mismanaged, the Jamestown Colony was certainly a success by other measures. It established Great Britain’s control of the territory and the spread of the English language, laws, religion, and culture to the New World. It showed that private property ownership gives people incentives, whereas communalism incentivizes laziness. And it laid the foundation for representative government in the future United States.
To learn more on this topic, a full text with more information about the first colonies is provided in Session 2 of FreedomCivics® – Foundations of American Government.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
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July 4 is the most sacred date on the American civic calendar. This year marks the 246th time Americans have celebrated the monumental achievement of founding a nation that, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
But the celebration comes with hard truths of history. The Fourth reminds us of Americans’ struggle, as the Constitution puts it, to “form a more perfect union.” The stain of human bondage sparked the Civil War. The suffragettes of the 19th and early 20th centuries fought for the right to vote. Japanese-Americans during World War II were forced into internment camps. And men such as Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr. paid with their lives to attain equality long denied to African-Americans. When we consider our past, sober reflection should accompany joyful celebration.
Crucially, such reflection must happen in our public schools. Liberals and conservatives alike have been guilty of playing down aspects of the American story in the classroom. Some on the left wrongly attempt to reduce our history to an ugly saga of patriarchy and racism. Others explain our country through an ideologically driven framework that sees America as permanently tainted by the original sin of slavery. Some conservatives have minimized how slavery, racism and discrimination have inflicted scars on our nation.
The vast majority of Americans—left, right and center—are united against indoctrination but supportive of candid instruction and thoughtful debate. Here’s a challenge for educators and all citizens: Let children examine our history with eyes wide open. Families don’t want their children caught up in political games. If we help them, our children can be stronger and more capable of discerning fact from opinion, discussion from indoctrination, than we give them credit for.
All Americans should be concerned about any indoctrination of children. But content addressing America’s difficult history of race relations, including today’s challenges, isn’t necessarily evidence of that. Achievements in the realm of civil rights have happened through an imperfect process spanning more than two centuries. The struggles of Americans like King and Frederick Douglass are lessons in striving toward the “more perfect union” of the Founders’ imagination. And they are worth teaching.
The American public-school system must teach both the galling and glorious aspects of U.S. history. As Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has said, “We can teach all of our history, the good, the bad, and Virginia’s children will be better for it.” While it isn’t always a comfortable process, teaching children America’s complete history in an age-appropriate way, with parental awareness, is necessary for their own sake and for our country’s.
Doing so will help take politics out of education. It will prepare kids for the real world, where preventing hurt feelings doesn’t take precedence over facing uncomfortable facts. And it will instill in our children the ability to entertain ideas they may disagree with—an essential condition for a functioning democracy.
American exceptionalism is real, but fragile. Teaching the full story of American history will encourage the next generations of Americans in their own progress toward a more perfect union. America is still, as Lincoln said, “the last best hope of Earth.” If we tell the full story of the American past, it will help write a bright story of the American future.
Mr. Bennett served as U.S. Education Secretary, 1985-88.
Editor’s Note: Slavery, Civil Rights, and other divisive subjects are dealt with extensively in the FreedomCivics curriculum, especially in session 17.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
]]>This blog provides educational material taken from session one of FreedomCivics® – Foundations of American Government.
In the late 1700s, the Thirteen American Colonies were in turmoil. King George III of England was a harsh ruler and disrespected the colonists’ rights as English citizens, so American colonists known as “Patriots” opposed British tyranny. Although some Blacks and Native Americans were Loyalists, others also fought on the side of the Patriots.
The American colonies were first settled by those escaping religious persecution in Europe. Thousands of English Puritans left the Church of England because they believed it was insufficiently reformed, and they were abused because of their views. Their Puritan attitudes of self-reliance, frugality, industry, and energy established a strong foundation for the success of the United States.
The Patriots longed for liberty. They believed in what is called “natural law” - the idea that God created all people equally, that everyone has natural rights no government can take away, and that governments’ authority comes from the consent of the governed.
Although women, slaves, and men who didn’t own land lacked full rights of citizenship during the Revolutionary War and at the founding of our nation, most of our Founders supported natural rights for all. In the Constitution, they therefore included a process that would allow future generations to amend (change) U.S. laws.
These principles inspired the Patriots to revolt against Great Britain. They were also the basis for the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and the U.S. Constitution. In this blog, you’ll learn about the significant ideas in these Organic Laws that advanced the cause of freedom. No matter what our background may be, we have all benefited from the system of government the Founders gave us.
The leaders of the American Revolution and the Founders didn’t think history was boring or useless. In fact, the big ideas they learned from history led to the Revolutionary War, shaped the founding of our nation, and advanced human rights and progress like never before.
These leaders had a classical education. They studied ancient Greek and Roman scholars, read the Bible, and were thoroughly familiar with English history and law. They were philosophers and historians who studied various types of government – current and past. They also were practical men. They wanted to know what worked and what didn’t, which systems of government ended in tyranny, and which provided some measure of freedom, peace, and prosperity. Here’s a summary of what they and many American colonists knew!
The Founders studied ancient Greek history and philosophy. The Greeks formed many independent city-states with different forms of government. Democracy was born in the city-state of Athens in 507 BC and existed for many years. Citizens of Athens participated in “direct democracy” by meeting in local assemblies, debating issues, and voting. A simple majority determined how the city-state would operate. Citizens highly valued their freedom to speak and right to vote. But direct democracy often resulted in instability and wars.
The Founders recognized the benefits of freedom and self-determination under Athenian democracy. But they also saw the pitfalls. They rejected direct democracy because of its tendency toward mob rule, often descending into anarchy, and trampling of the rights of those in the minority.
The Republic (509-27 BC) wasn’t a direct democracy like Athens’. Each year Roman citizens elected two chief officials. Usually, they were generals who led armies to war. The Republic was governed by the Assemblies and the senate – similar to the bicameral Congress with its U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Citizens directly elected Assembly members to approve laws. At first, the Senate was an aristocracy and the dominant branch of government. Senators managed the government and foreign policy and advised the chief officials. The Senate often overturned the Assemblies’ decisions. This weakened the citizens’ direct voice in how the government operated. Eventually, the Roman Republic was replaced by the Roman Empire, which was ruled by a dictator – the emperor. The Senate’s influence and power weakened, and it finally dissolved.
The most important Roman politician and writer during this time was the brilliant and wise Cicero. He wrote two classic books based on natural law. He believed that there was a god who created the universe and natural law. He also believed that people are able to reason correctly, form civil governments, and rule justly.
The Founders agreed with Cicero’s principles of natural law. The term “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” appears in the Declaration of Independence and in their writings. Our constitutional system is based on natural law (as defined by Sir William Blackstone). We see it in the ideals of inalienable rights, consent of the governed, limited government, checks and balances, and the republican federal system.
Familiarity with Judeo-Christian civic and moral law as written in the Bible was widespread in colonial America. Many of the colonists who fled England because of religious persecution compared their plight to the Israelites who fled slavery in Egypt. They found constitutional principles of separation of powers, checks and balances, limited government, due process, and unbiased justice in the Hebrew books of law.
The Founders also studied the people’s political rights in England that developed over the centuries. In fact, this knowledge contributed to the colonists’ decision to revolt against England because King George III was violating their natural rights as English citizens.
One of the most significant advances in political rights was the Magna Carta, the first written constitution. King John had deprived the nobles of their rights as Englishmen and imposed heavy taxes to pay for his failed policies. So, when civil war broke out, the barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.
This great charter listed and protected the rights of free Englishmen, restricted the power of the monarchy, and established the principle that no person, including the monarch, was above the law.
The English Parliament advanced citizens’ voices in the government. Parliament arose over time as a way to handle national issues. It was made up of the unelected House of Lords (the aristocracy) and the House of Commons, elected by the people. English monarchs regularly went to war and had to find a way to pay for it. To raise taxes, they needed the permission of Parliament. This established the principle of no taxation without representation.
The authority of Parliament and the rights of the English increased after three English Civil Wars and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. King James II ruled by tyranny, believing he was not accountable to the law of the people. The English overthrew him for disregarding English law and liberties. After being crowned king, William of Orange signed the English Bill of Rights in 1689. It limited the powers of rulers, laid out the powers of Parliament, and safeguarded individual rights. The English Bill of Rights inspired the American colonists to demand their rights from the English government.
A Christian revival swept through the American colonies in the 1730a and 1740s. English preacher George Whitefield and American preacher Jonathan Edwards challenged the established church standards and old clergy throughout New England. Their preaching stirred the population, and Christianity grew dramatically. As a result, many colleges were founded, such as Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth. Their preaching inspired a wave of missionary work in the colonies among Native Americans and Black slaves. Looking back, the most important effect of the Great Awakening was the sense of national unity that the colonists gained as a result. Most scholars say this was key in uniting the colonists to separate from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War.
After studying all the types of government, the Founders decided that no current or past system was ideal. Leaving the country to anarchy certainly wasn’t an option. Direct democracy, Roman-style republicanism, aristocracy, and monarchy all had serious flaws. None provided the structure of basic rights necessary for freedom, peace, and prosperity to thrive. So, the Founders created a new system by improving on the ideas of the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and the more recent English. They gave us a Constitutional Republic.
To learn more on this topic, a full text with more information about our historical foundations is provided in Session 1 of FreedomCivics® – Foundations of American Government.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
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The three branches of the United States government can oftentimes be frustrating and confusing. In recent years, it seems like laws take forever to pass and are constantly under review. This is no mistake - this is the whole purpose of the Constitution and the separation of powers. Our Founders saw that there was no separation of powers or checks and balances in tyrannical governments; so they used these principles to seek fairness for their country." They created the three branches of government to make sure power is evenly distributed and laws are Constitutional. This blog will uncover the purposes behind each branch of government and why it is still relevant and important for Americans today.
In revolutionary times, the colonists rebelled against Great Britain because the British ruled them without their consent and violated their natural rights. The colonists expected to be treated as fairly as an Englishman would be in London. When it was clear that King George III and Parliament would not do so, they established a new nation that would defend the rights of the American people. But the revolution would not serve freedom and liberty if the new American government was just another monarchy, so the Founders chose to craft a new Constitution that would ensure that the government was accountable to the people.
The well-read Founders had learned from history that a characteristic of tyrannical government was that they never separated the government’s powers. The Founders created three branches of government so they would have to answer to one another for their actions: the legislative branch to make laws, the executive branch to enforce laws, and the judicial branch to interpret laws and make sure the Constitution was upheld. They knew that humans are naturally self-interested. People are prone to pass laws that bring benefits to themselves and not for the common good. Most people cannot be trusted to judge their own actions fairly. The separation of powers ensures that our government is accountable to the people and that different people are responsible for making, enforcing, and judging laws.
The rule of law is the principle that the government and the governed are subject to the law. And that all are to be treated the same way by the law. It means that the rules apply to everyone in the same manner, regardless of their status, power, race, or age. This cornerstone of our republic seeks to stop the arbitrary judgment of government officials. John Adams famously described the purpose of the Constitution as ensuring that the government will be a “government of laws, and not of men.”
Adams and the other Founders knew well what happened when there was no rule of law, such as in the later years of the Roman Empire. In the United States of America, all laws must be passed by a legislature accountable to the people. Then those laws are enforced by a president whom the people elect. If Congress passes an unconstitutional law, the people can elect new senators and representatives to Congress, or they can appeal to the courts to strike down laws. If the president enforces a law unfairly, the people can elect a new president. Or they can appeal to a court to have the law enforced fairly, appeal to Congress to clarify the meaning of the law, or (in extreme cases) impeach and convict the president.
In contrast to the U.S. constitutional system, the Roman emperor enacted laws he wanted – even when they violated the rights of the people. The people had no court to go to stop him. Their only recourse was to appeal to the emperor. The rule of law also means that laws apply to everyone equally. The Roman emperor also created different rules for different groups without prior notice. As an all-powerful tyrant, he killed citizens and took citizens’ property. He was above any just law. He was the law unto himself. But this cannot happen in America, where the laws apply equally to all citizens.
If there were no separation of powers, there would be little respect for the law, since the enforcement of the law would not be checked by anyone other than the ruler or president. They could violate the rights of citizens and not have to answer for it. But by ensuring that Congress passes laws, the president enacts and enforces them, and the court judges the laws, the Constitution ensures that the laws are supreme. Each branch of government can protect against another branch violating the law. Each branch of government is accountable to the Constitution – the supreme law of the land.
“Separation of Powers” refers to the powers of government – passing legislation, enforcing laws, and judging laws – being distributed between the three branches. Congress is the only branch that can pass laws, the executive is the only branch that can enforce laws, and the judiciary is the only branch that can judge disputes arising under the law.
“Checks and balances” refers to how the branches of government are accountable to one another, where specific powers are granted to each branch to challenge abuses of power by other branches. The president, for example, has the power to veto laws passed by Congress. The veto allows the president to protect their own powers. For example, the president could veto a bill passed by Congress that would deny the president the money to pay for the armed forces. The veto also provides the president with a means to reject bills believed to be unconstitutional prior to Supreme Court review. The House of Representatives can impeach a president who violates his constitutional duties, and the Senate can convict them. The courts can strike down unconstitutional laws.
Every member of the government – senators and representatives, the president, and judges alike – swears an oath to defend the Constitution. They are all responsible for defending the meaning of the Constitution but do so in different ways. When proposing legislation, our elected officials should debate whether it is constitutional. Congress should repeal laws that are unconstitutional. The president should also veto bills passed by Congress that they believe are unconstitutional.
The courts’ power is key to resolving disputes about the law. Because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, the district courts, circuit (appeals) courts, and the Supreme Court must strike down any law that conflicts with the Constitution. If a case is not settled in the lower courts, and it ends up in the Supreme Court, the nine justices make the final determination. The Supreme Court justices often disagree about the original intent of the legislation or whether it is constitutional. For example, there are many cases where there are five justices who agree with the plaintiff and four justices who vote with the defendant."
Ultimately, the people must take an interest in their own government, be aware of efforts to violate the Constitution, and work to elect senators and representatives who uphold it. For example, many Americans believed that the Alien and Sedition Acts passed in the 1790s were unconstitutional. But they did not rely on the court to strike them down. Rather, in the election of 1800, the American people overwhelmingly voted for Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, who promised to undo the Alien and Sedition Acts. Today, voters can elect presidents who will nominate Supreme Court justices who have a record of either interpreting the Constitution by what the Founders intended or who believe that the Constitution is a “living document” to be interpreted according to current public opinion.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, three prominent Federalists, wrote a series of articles published in New York City newspapers. These articles explained to citizens what the various provisions of the proposed Constitution meant. The authors’ purpose was to encourage the adoption of the Constitution by the convention formed in New York State. The individual articles were later collected into what is now called The Federalist Papers, commonly known as The Federalist. This collection of articles is considered the best explanation of why and how the Constitution should work. While not considered an organic law of the American Government, The Federalist is widely held as a foundational document.
The Founders created the U.S. Constitution and our government system in order to make power accountable. Each part of the government is a layer of equal power that can’t function without the checks and balances from the other branches. Although it can be frustrating for us when our legal wants and needs are not met, we must remember that the purpose of our government is to make sure our laws are fair and constitutional.
The U.S. Constitution is a robust document with a profound history. Understanding its origin helps us understand the country we live in today, and gives us the tools to navigate its future.
To learn more on this topic, a full text with more information about the U.S. Constitution is provided in Session 11 of FreedomCivics® – Foundations of American Government.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
]]>The significance of America’s legacy of slavery—its so-called original sin—has been debated since the earliest days of the founding of the country. America has undoubtedly had positive impacts on the world—such as popularizing the idea of natural rights and being at the forefront of spreading political freedom and improved living conditions throughout the world. But in spite of that, patriotism is said to be hypocritical by those on the left of the political spectrum. Many say the positive impact of America is irretrievably tainted in light of the compromise on slavery that was necessary during America’s founding era to unite the country.
One such critic, Nikole Hannah-Jones, says in her 1619 Project that we should reconsider the traditional date of America’s founding, July 4, 1776. She claims that America was really founded in 1619, the year the first African slaves were brought to Jamestown. Ironically, as with so much of American history, this was the same year democracy was first introduced in the colonies with the Virginia General Assembly. For critics like Hannah-Jones, slavery of Africans was the essential characteristic of America—a continuous tradition from 1619 through to how their descendants are treated today.
People should interpret the facts for themselves, but there are a number of things that can be concisely stated that reveal a different context, i.e., that slavery was not a continuous tradition—that there were different eras of slavery whose essential characteristics are sufficiently different that they should be viewed as different eras. This writing won’t survey the whole history of slavery in America but instead will focus on the culprit—the especially notorious and cruel era of slavery responsible for much of the continuing debate: the antebellum period (meaning, “before the [Civil] War”), which was characterized by, among other things, the massive exploitation of slave labor to produce raw cotton—and will especially feature some relevant comments from the historian Paul Johnson’s, A History of the American People.
Although we recognize the antebellum period of slavery by a number of different features, the earliest mark in history is probably the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. This date is crucial to remember as it comes after the dates of the significant American Founding Documents: the federal Constitution was drafted in 1787, ratified in 1788, became effective in 1789, the first ten amendments were ratified in 1791, and then finally, the cotton gin was invented in 1793. About the significance of the cotton gin, Johnson tells us that, “until the end of the 18th century, the human race had always been unsuitably clothed in garments which were difficult to wash and therefore filthy. Cotton offered an escape from this misery, worn next to the skin in cold countries, as a complete garment in hot ones. The trouble with cotton was its expense . . . but [after the cotton gin] there was a price to be paid, and the black slaves paid it.” (307-308).
Furthermore, cotton was especially grown in the Deep South, but those territories weren’t even acquired by the United States until after its founding. Johnson tells us that “the Old South—the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia—was not suited to growing cotton on a large scale; if anything, it was tobacco country. The new states [Andrew] Jackson’s ruthlessness brought into being, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, now constituted the Deep South where cotton was king” (310). Spain didn’t relinquish its claim to the Mississippi territory until 1795 and the Mississippi territory wasn’t organized until 1798. The Alabama territory was carved out of the Mississippi territory in 1817 when Mississippi became a state. And of course, it is more commonly known that Louisiana was part of the territory that was purchased from France in 1803.
For a broad view of the development of the cotton industry in the southern states, Johnson gives us some statistics: “in 1810 Britain was consuming 79 million pounds of raw cotton, of which 48 percent came from the American South. Twenty years later, imports were 248 million [pounds], 70 percent coming from the South. In 1860 the total was over 1,000 million pounds, 92 percent from Southern plantations” (308-9).
Another important feature of antebellum slavery was the criminalization of the transatlantic slave trade in 1808—the earliest year permitted by the Constitution, although all the states had banned that trade by 1803 (311). Granted, a black market in transatlantic slaves based in Cuba continued through the antebellum period, but the ban nonetheless had the effect of creating an industry in the South for breeding slaves. According to Johnson, “slave-breeding now became the chief source of revenue on many of the old tobacco plantations” (311). Indeed, the historian John McPherson tells us in his seminal single-volume work on the Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom, that “in contrast to the United States, slave economies in most other parts of the western hemisphere reached their peak development while the African slave trade flourished” (37).
Matthew Karp writes about a later development in his This Vast Southern Empire: in 1833, Britain outlawed slavery in all of its colonies. Prior to this, Southerners saw British global influence as at least neutral to slavery, if not actually beneficial. After 1833, Southerners increasingly saw British antislavery policy as a ploy to promote British interests in the East at the expense of slave-produced exports from the American South. Because of this, the Southerners became obsessed with controlling America's foreign policy, which could only be done with the executive branch of the federal government, which they more-or-less controlled until the election of 1860. So, when the Republicans won control of the executive branch in the 1860 elections, Southerners decided that they were going to have their own foreign policy. Thankfully, Abraham Lincoln decided that they were not.
Although some of these facts are mentioned in the 1619 Project, these implications are not discussed: slavery was not simply a continuous tradition from the first slaves that arrived in 1619 through the rest of American history. Slavery in America radically changed for the worse after the founding such that the founders could have plausibly expected the institution to wither away. As Johnson tells us, “Religion would have swept away slavery in America without difficulty early in the 19th century but for one thing: cotton. It was this little, two-syllable word which turned American slave-holding into a mighty political force and so made the Civil War inevitable” (307).
Derek Hanusch is a political science major at the University of Washington.
Editor’s Note: Slavery is dealt with extensively in the FreedomCivics curriculum, especially in Sessions 3, 6, 7, and 15.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
]]>Gary Bauer’s endorsement from the Campaign for Working Families, cwppac.com, February 4, 2022
FreedomCivics® - Foundations of American Government
“The division in our country today is terrible. Much of it is due to left-wing indoctrination in the government-run public schools teaching our children critical race theory and anti-American history.
Far too many young Americans, the beneficiaries of the greatest freedom and prosperity the world has ever known, are confused about socialism and capitalism.
I’m pleased to report there is a solution – FreedomCivics® - Foundations of American Government.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session course that includes accurate history and the principles of freedom and free enterprise, with a focus on the four Founding Documents of America – the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance and the U.S. Constitution.
The course is designed primarily for high school and college students, but is also well-suited for gifted middle school students. I highly recommend FreedomCivics® as a part of any homeschool curriculum or as a supplement to private and public school instruction.”
Gary Bauer, Chairman, Campaign for Working Families. Gary was Under Secretary of Education and Chief Domestic Policy Advisor in the Reagan administration. He also served as president of the Family Research Council and Sr. VP at Focus on the Family.
]]>Before the U.S. Constitution was put into effect in 1789, another document outlined how our government was meant to function: the Articles of Confederation.
The Articles of Confederation acted as our government's first constitution. Its primary objectives were to establish the independence and sovereignty of the states, while also establishing a central government that only received powers considered to belong to a king or parliament.
However, the Articles of Confederation was only implemented for about nine years before it was replaced by the Constitution that frames our government today. So how effective was this document, why was it replaced, and how does it impact us today? We invite you to continue reading to learn more!
The battles of Lexington and Concord heralded the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. The phrase, “the shot heard around the world,” famously refers to the importance of the thirteen colonies challenging the army of the King of England. The colonies were independent, yet their leaders recognized they must work together for the common cause of fighting Great Britain. Four months after Lexington and Concord, they sent representatives to Philadelphia to form a convention called the Second Continental Congress. Peyton Randolph was elected its president, and important Founders at the Congress included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.
A year later, this Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence to establish the new nation and logically document and explain the reasons for breaking away from Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress was also responsible for raising money and troops for an army.
The colonists understood that they must unite if they were to survive. The delegates in Pennsylvania debated plans to unite the colonies and create a national government that could provide for national security.
Eight days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania introduced a proposal to unify the colonies. (Each colony had a delegate; Dickinson was the principal writer.) Dickinson proposed these “Articles of Confederation” which provided for a central government with the power to control foreign policy, resolve border disputes, and provide for natural defense, but many delegates were worried that the plan would make the government too powerful.
The delegates debated how to amend the plan for the next year, and in the summer of 1777, they agreed on a final draft. However, the Articles would still not go into effect until all thirteen new states agreed. On December 16, 1777, Virginia became the first state to ratify the Articles.
While the Declaration of Independence established a new nation, the Articles of Confederation formally united the first states and defined how they would work together as a “confederation”. The Confederation was a political alliance of the separate states. Each state retained its rights and authority within its boundaries. The central government (Congress) had less authority than the states. The Articles also declared that the new American nation would be called “The United States of America”.
The Articles of Confederation became America’s first constitution. A constitution is the supreme law that establishes rules about how that country is supposed to be governed. There are thirteen sections in the Articles of Confederation. These sections indicate how the new union of the thirteen states was to operate.
Many Americans were still wary of a strong central government. The tension between independent states and the central government was constant. The second article declared, “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.”
The primary purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to unite the states to ensure their survival by providing for national defense. It gave the federal government the power to declare war if nine or more states approved. The federal government could receive ambassadors from other countries and establish a post office. Instead of national elections for a president, he was appointed by the delegates from the state legislatures for a one-year term. (Delegates served a minimum of one year with a three-year maximum. The Articles of Confederation were established to continue into the future and could only be amended by Congress, subject to ratification by all the states.)
The Articles of Confederation were inadequate because they did not provide for a strong president (only a one-year term at the cost of continuity of leadership). There was no power to enforce laws or to assess taxes to pay for the expenses of the government. This was revealed even before the Articles were ratified and went into effect in 1778. (Nine years later, the Constitutional Convention led to a much better way to govern the United States.)
Throughout the War of Independence, General Washington constantly struggled to have enough money, materials, and men to fight the war successfully. Since the Articles of Confederation did not provide Congress with the means to raise money, the Continental Army often went hungry, and the soldiers went months (and sometimes years) without being paid. During the winter of 1777 to 1778, while encamped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, conditions were so bad that the men often had to wrap their feet in rags because there were no shoes to be worn. Men enlisting to fight for their new country were often expected to bring their own firearms because Congress couldn’t provide the funds to manufacture muskets and bayonets. One of the most important contributions made toward American independence was the money the French brought with them when they became allies of the new country. French supplies and arms were as crucial as American bravery in achieving victory at Yorktown in 1781.
In the immediate years following the defeat of the British Army, until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, General Washington had to keep the Continental Army organized and intact in case fighting resumed. The continual shortage of payment and supplies almost resulted in mutiny. The officers of the Army were ready to march on Congress and demand their back pay. Only the swift and decisive leadership of General Washington averted what would have been a disaster had the mutiny actually occurred.
The events of the Revolutionary War revealed that the Articles of Confederation were too weak as a constitution to hold thirteen strong-willed and independent-minded states together in a single effective union once the common threat posed by the British Army had been removed.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States Congress was able to address the competing land claims of the various former colonies to territories west of the existing thirteen states. The most significant and important piece of legislation to be enacted under the Articles of Confederation was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which was one of the four “Organic Laws of the United States,” as designated by congress in 1958. To learn more about the Northwest Ordinance, read our blog about it here!
To be fair, the Articles of Confederation was flawed, but it was not a failure. It was not satisfactory in providing the necessary organization and structure to ensure the long-term success of the newly independent United States of America. Adopting the Articles of Confederation was a necessary step in the right direction and a true and authentic effort to find the right balance between the authoritarian actions of King George and the British Parliament and the sincere desires of each new state, so that we might enjoy the fullest measure of freedom possible.
To learn more on this topic, a full text with more information about the Articles of Confederation is provided in Session 5 of FreedomCivics® – Foundations of American Government.
FreedomCivics® is a 20-session curriculum that includes discussion questions, activities, resources, quizzes, and a final exam. For more information about the course, please visit or contact us with the information below.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
Contact Derek Hanusch at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
]]>Published with permission from Pastor Dan Fisher.
On Sunday morning, Jan 21, 1776, pastor John Muhlenberg climbed into his pulpit in Woodstock, VA to preach. In his black clerical robe, the traditional dress of 18th century preachers, Muhlenberg preached from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. He read how there is a time for all things. There’s a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest. Then His voice began to rise as he said: “There’s a time of war, and a time of peace. There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray. But there is also a time to fight, and that time has now come!”
Then he did something his congregation did not expect. He removed his clerical robe revealing a colonial officer’s uniform beneath. Pastor Muhlenberg then stepped down from his pulpit and challenged the men of his congregation to join him in the fight for liberty.
Just a few days before, he had been commissioned by General George Washington to raise a regiment from the Woodstock area. As Muhlenberg walked down the aisle and out the door of his church, a drum began to roll outside. One by one, the men of Muhlenberg’s congregation filed out of the auditorium and volunteered to follow their courageous pastor.
Bidding farewell to their families, some three hundred men rode away from Woodstock, VA with Col. John Muhlenberg in the lead to form the 8th Virginia regiment. Muhlenberg led those men throughout the War of Independence, fighting at the battles of Morristown, Brandywine, and Monmouth Courthouse. By the war’s end, Pastor Muhlenberg had been promoted to Major General and had become one of Washington’s most valued commanders. Muhlenberg was front and center at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
James Caldwell was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Because of his strong stand for liberty and his sermons encouraging the colonists to fight, he had made himself numerous enemies. So he would step into his pulpit each Sunday wearing two pistols, place them on the pulpit, and then proceed to preach powerful sermons about the need for Christians to stand for truth. When the war began, Caldwell became a chaplain in the colonial army. He was so hated by the British they called him the “Rebel Priest.”
When the war finally came to Elizabethtown, during the fighting, the British killed Caldwell’s wife. By the time he had completed her funeral, the fighting had moved to Springfield, New Jersey so Caldwell rode there to join his men. During the fighting, the colonists were running out of wadding for their muskets. Caldwell jumped on his horse and rode to the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield and gathered up two armloads of hymnals written by Isaac Watts, a popular hymn writer of the era. He hurried back to his troops, threw the hymnals at their feet, and commanded them to tear out the pages and use them for wadding. As he did so, he yelled, “Give’m Watts boys, give’m Watts!” This is origin of the famous phrase, “Give’m watt for!”
On the night of April 18, 1775, as Paul Revere was making his famous ride through the Lexington, Massachusetts countryside yelling, “The British are coming! The British are coming!” he was headed for a particular house; the house of Pastor Jonas Clark. Jonas Clark was a pastor in Lexington and on Sunday afternoons after church, he and Deacon John Parker, a captain from the French Indian War, had been organizing the Lexington men into a citizen army to fight the British if they invaded. On the night of April 18, Clark had two special guests staying in his home, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The British had heard of Adams’ and Hancock’s whereabouts and they were marching toward Lexington to capture them.
As Revere rode up to the front yard of Pastor Clark’s home, Clark, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock ran out to meet him. When they heard that the British were marching toward Lexington, Adams and Hancock asked Pastor Clark if the men of Lexington would fight. Clark responded, “I trained them for this very hour; they would fight, and, if need be, die, too, under the shadow of the house of God.”
The next morning, April 19, 1775, Pastor Jonas Clark and Deacon John Parker led the Lexington “Minutemen” out to face the invaders. As the British approached the Minutemen, they cried out “in the name of the King of England throw down your arms.” This response rang out from the colonists, “We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus!” Then Captain Parker said to his Minutemen, “Stand your ground, don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” Then the first shot rang out, the shot heard around the world.
These are just three examples of the courage and commitment exhibited by many of the colonial pastors in the days before and during our nation’s War of Independence. These men saw no contradiction between standing for the truths in God’s Word and the principles of liberty. In fact, they viewed the two as inseparable. These “black robed patriot preachers” fanned the flames of liberty as they not only encouraged their congregations to fight but were also willing to actually lead their men onto the battlefield. These preachers fought.
The British viewed Pastors John Muhlenberg, Jonas Clark, and James Caldwell (of First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey) such a FORCE, they called them the “Black Robed Regiment.” King George III blamed the war on the preachers by calling it a “Presbyterian rebellion.” Horace Walpole, the English Prime Minister, said, “There is no use crying about it. Cousin America has eloped with a Presbyterian parson.”
Although Presbyterian preachers were certainly involved, Preachers from practically every denomination joined in to fight in the Revolutionary War.
Today, many believe that had these pastors not been involved, America may never have been born. Now contrast this with the behavior of most American preachers today. In the face of gross abuses of our liberties by an over-reaching federal government that is moving our nation, with ever increasing speed, down the road to Socialism, most pastors are shamefully, strangely silent. Instead of leading their people to boldly and publicly stand for liberty and truth, they seem content to huddle in their churches, behind their pulpits, while the country falls apart.
We desperately need a modern generation of preachers like Muhlenberg, Caldwell, and Clark – preachers who’ll fight. We need a new “black robed regiment” to boldly lead our citizens to defend our biblically based Constitution. Thankfully, the fight right now is not one of bullets and bombs but is one of words and wills. But make no mistake about it; a war is raging for the heart and soul of America.
Jesus said that we must “render to God the things that are God’s and render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” In America, Caesar is “we the people.” America’s government is not in D.C. or in state capitols; it is in our homes and our churches. We are the government. We cannot obey Jesus by staying uninvolved. We must enter the fight for liberty and truth or our freedom to speak and worship as we see fit may soon be lost forever.
Like Pastor John Muhlenberg in 1776, I believe “There is a time to preach and a time to pray. But there is also a time to fight, and that time has now come!” God give us patriot preachers to lead the way.
In fact, it’s time for ALL of us, whether we’re businessmen, academics, or retired, to speak out and use our precious money to fight for good. We cannot simply talk a good game and watch from the sidelines. We have a country to save, and God wants us to be salt and light in a fallen world!
Pastor Fisher has addressed the issue of Christians not being active in the public square in his book, Unlimited Submission? How Romans 13:1-5 Has Been Incorrectly Used to Silence Christians and the Church. Available at his website: https://www.danfisherbrr.com
]]>Many polls provide shocking examples of the ignorance of the majority of Americans regarding the free enterprise system, the Founders, civics, and the founding documents of our country.
Education is the answer, but not the status quo! We need a new pro-American curriculum in our schools from the Freedom Education Foundation. Our 20-session FreedomCivics® course is the best available.
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The foundations of our Constitutional Republic and the free enterprise system have long been under attack. Our young people know little of the principles employed that resulted in wonderful freedom, prosperity, and the greatest nation on earth. Ignorance and misinformation about economics have resulted in schools that teach that America is not good and not a beacon of freedom to the world. Instead of focusing on the “sins of the fathers” and denigrating the Founders and the United States of America, we must promote legislation in the states requiring standalone civics education classes and we must produce excellent curriculum for schools that teaches about the founding principles and Founding Documents that established the United States of America.
The FreedomCivics® workbooks (Teacher and Student versions) include accurate and succinct history, as well as the inspired principles of the Founders. The curriculum includes sessions on the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and the U.S. Constitution (including the Bill of Rights and all other amendments). It has been developed by historians, teachers, and parents over the last four years. The courses include colonial and American Revolutionary War history, full texts of the Founding Documents, 123 Discussion Questions, 8 Activities, Quizzes, and a Final Exam. It also includes sections about the scourge of slavery and how our Constitution provides for corrective action by amending it and passing new laws. We will expend great effort advocating for the adoption of civics education in the states, with a focus on the FreedomCivics® course—all to work for a more perfect union.
www.freedomeducation.org]]>By Craig W. Rhyne, adapted from Session 6 of FreedomCivics®
The Northwest Ordinance was adopted by the Confederation Congress (under the Articles of Confederation) just two months before the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, by a vote of 17 to 1. This little-known organic law was key to the founding of the United States of America. The most important contributions to the United States were (1) establishing a system of courts and government for the Northwest Territory; (2) an orderly way to add states to the union; (3) guarantee of the freedom of contract and private property rights; (4) outlawing slavery in the Northwest Territory that would eventually become five states; and (5) addressing the abuse of Native Americans and properly paying them for their properties.
The four organic (founding) laws of the United States are closely linked. They all advanced the cause of freedom and natural rights. This is because many of the Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence also participated in the Revolutionary War. And many of them wrote, voted for, or signed the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, or the Constitution. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is the least known of the Founding Documents, but it played a major role in American history and the advance of freedom.
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress enacted ordinances in 1784, 1785, and 1787 that established the framework for the expansion of the United States in the regions north and west of the Ohio River. The Land Ordinance of 1784, written by Thomas Jefferson, set up a court system for a territorial government, but it was replaced in 1785 and further revised. The resulting Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established how public lands would be sold to private interests and provided for new states.
Rufus King and Nathan Dane, Massachusetts Delegates to the Confederation Congress, wrote the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Rufus King was also a delegate to the Constitutional Convention that same summer.
The 1783 Treaty of Paris marked the official end of the hard-fought Revolutionary War and brought peace between Great Britain and the new United States of America. The treaty granted the Northwest Territory to the victorious Americans.
People today might confuse the Northwest Territory with the Northwest Territories in Canada or the Pacific Northwest. But in 1783, the Northwest Territory was in the area we now call the “Midwest.” It was bordered on the west by the upper Mississippi River, on the east by Pennsylvania, on the south and southwest by the Ohio River, and on the north by the Great Lakes and Canada.
As settlers moved west past the borders of the original states, the governments of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia sought to add more land to their states.
Under the Articles of Confederation, on July 13, 1787, the Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The Northwest Ordinance was the greatest accomplishment of the new nation under the Articles of Confederation. The ordinance barred existing states from extending their borders, which ended the land claims disputes and provided for the orderly growth of the nation.
The ordinance also established the federal government’s authority over the states. Congress (not the states) was granted the right to govern the Northwest Territory and set the rules for how new states would enter the Confederation (later the federal union). Congress, too, had the right to divide the Northwest Territory into three to five smaller territories, which would eventually become states.
By offering free land, the ordinance encouraged settlers to move to the new territory. When 5,000 free men moved to one of the divisions, they gained the right to self-government. When the population reached 60,000 free inhabitants, they would be entitled to draft their own republican government and constitution and petition Congress for statehood. The new state would be admitted to the union “on an equal footing with the original states.” This process established a legal precedent for how new states would be added to the union.
Eventually, the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota entered the union from the Northwest Territory. They were granted full equality with the thirteen original states.
A key aspect of the Northwest Ordinance was the establishment of fee simple ownership, by which a person could purchase land and own it in perpetuity with unlimited power to sell it, give it away, or leave it to his or her children. This has been called “the first guarantee of freedom of contract in the United States.”
In 1789, the newly ratified U.S. Constitution established a stronger federal government. Congress reaffirmed its support of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 with slight changes under the new Constitution. President George Washington signed the ordinance in 1789. The ordinance was to “be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and states in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent.” In other words, the ordinance was not ordinary legislation that Congress could amend.
The Northwest Ordinance, also known as the “Freedom Ordinance,” echoed the call for liberty in the Declaration of Independence and legally affirmed the natural rights of all people in the Northwest Territory. Among these rights were freedom of religion; freedom from oppressive government; rights of those accused of a crime, including trial by jury; protection of private property; and rights of contract and inheritance. These rights were later included in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Education based on “religion, morality, and knowledge” was encouraged in the Northwest Ordinance because they are “necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.” Land was set aside in each township for schools. Eventually, this led to federal funding to develop a public school system in the territory. (See Section 14, Article 3.)
By passing the Northwest Ordinance, the Founders made their first attempt to stop the spread of slavery by federal law. Article 6, the most famous article, provided that “there shall never be slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory” and any new states in the Northwest Territory joining the union. Rufus King and Nathan Dane, the two authors of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, strongly opposed slavery. Their words highlighted the thinking of most of the Founders, which is why the ordinance passed 17 to 1. This ordinance created a natural dividing line between free and slave states at the Ohio River. (See Section 14, Article 6.)
When Abraham Lincoln was running for U.S. president, he mentioned the Northwest Ordinance as evidence that the federal government could regulate slavery. During a speech in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1859, Lincoln indicated that President Washington and other Founders approved banning slavery in the Northwest Territory with these words:
There was nothing said in the Constitution relative to the spread of slavery in the Territories, but the same generation of men said something about it in this [Northwest] ordinance of [17]87, through the influence of which you of Indiana, and your neighbors in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, are prosperous, free men. . . . Our fathers [Founders] who made the government, made the ordinance of 1787.
Though the Founders could not unite all thirteen states to fight the War of Independence and simultaneously eliminate slavery, they resolved to stop its spread into territories and new states. They succeeded in preventing slavery in the Northwest Territory by passing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Section 14, Article 6.
Slavery was tolerated in America until the Civil War, yet racial discrimination continued, including the abuse of Native Americans, then known as “Indians.” Recognizing their mistreatment, including disrespecting tribal land rights, the Founders addressed Indian property, rights, and liberty in the Northwest Ordinance (Section 14, Article 3):
The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.
Unfortunately, the Founders’ good intentions did not stop the federal government from taking Indian lands, forcing them to move from their homes to live on reservations, and discriminating against them in courts, jails, employment, and voting rights. As settlers and the U.S. military moved westward, Indians often (and understandably) fiercely resisted. Both sides fought in self-defense and also committed atrocities.
In the early Americas, diseases were rampant without modern vaccinations against smallpox, measles, diphtheria, typhus, and the like. All races suffered and died from them. Indians were particularly susceptible to the diseases because they had no natural immunity. Death estimates range up to tens of millions resulting from disease brought by infected European explorers and settlers and African slaves.
As of January 2022, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has recognized 574 sovereign tribal nations. The BIA (formerly the Office of Indian Affairs) was created in 1824 to address health concerns and many other issues. A quarter of the four to five million Native Americans and Alaska Natives live on 326 federally protected Indian reservations. Occupying more than 56 million acres of land, the reservations are held in trust by the United States for the tribes. While the reservation system has encouraged the preservation of Native American community, culture, and history, many sociologists have noted that the lack of private property on reservations has caused them a host of problems such as low rates of economic development and poverty.
Over time, the culture of freedom and recognition that all Americans must be treated equally under the law resulted in outlawing slavery (Amendment XIII) and many laws to correct abuse of Native Americans. These laws include Cherokee Indians being recognized as U.S. citizens in 1817; the first Civil Rights Act of 1866; adoption of the Constitutional Amendment XIV in 1868; the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968; the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971; and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978.
While the list of abuses and discrimination among all races is long, there have always been positive relationships as well. From the founding of the colonies to the present, cooperation, friendship, and intermarriage have occurred among Indians, blacks, and whites. Important historical examples include Squanto’s assisting the Pilgrims to survive; Pocahontas’s saving Captain John Smith’s life and her marriage to John Rolfe; and Sacajawea’s guiding the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the Revolutionary War and all U.S wars since, Native Americans, blacks, and whites have fought together for the cause of freedom. Today, three-fourths of Native Americans live within American society. Many whites have traces of Native American ancestry. Substantial progress in racial acceptance and rights for all has occurred.
We must always seek virtue, and we must do good to all people. President Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address in 1861, challenged all Americans with these words:
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when touched again, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
© 2022 Freedom Education Foundation, Inc.
For more information about the FreedomCivics® 20-session course,
Contact Craig Rhyne at crhyne@freedomeducation.org
www.freedomcivics.org
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