...APUSH Study Guide 8 A weak Confederacy and the Constitution, 1776-1790 Themes/Constructs: The federal Constitution represented a moderately conservative reaction against the democratilizing effects of the Revolution and the Articles of Confederation. The American Revolution was not a radical transformation like the French or Russian revolutions, but it produced political innovations and some social change in the direction of greater equality and democracy. The American Revolution did not overturn the social order, but it did produce substantial changes in social customs, political institutions, and ideas about society and government. Among the changes were the separation of church and state in some places, the abolition of slavery in the North, written political constitutions, and a shift in political power from the eastern seaboard toward the frontier. The first weak government, the Articles of Confederation, was unable to exercise real authority, although it did successfully deal with the western lands issue. The Confederation’s weakness in handling foreign policy, commerce and the Shays Rebellion spurred the movement to alter the Articles. Instead of revising the Articles, the well-off delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a charter for a whole new government. In a series of compromises, the convention produced a plan that provided for a vigorous central government, a strong executive, the protection for property, while still upholding republican...
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...Hannah Ross February 27, 2017 APUSH DBQ In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Americans started to focus on the welfare of minority groups. Women’s suffrage, abolition, and asylum and prison reform became hot topics during the Second Great Awakening, a movement that took place in the early 1800s. The Second Great Awakening was headed by religious leaders who sought out changes in American society through uniting the American people (Doc. B). Due to the Second Great Awakening, reform movements were established between 1825 and 1850 to represent the changes American people sought for in the matters of slavery, suffrage, and asylum and prison reform. Nat Turner’s rebellion, occurring in 1831, changed dynamics of slavery in America....
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