In 1775, a shot was heard around the world. The Battle of Lexington-Concord had commenced and the American Revolution had begun after tensions between Britain and the United States had become immense. Documents were formed to help govern the new nation. They declared independence with their first governing document, the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, and from 1777 to 1787 they used the Articles of Confederation to run the nation, but they were not as effective as needed, as shown by Shays’ rebellion, so they switched to the Constitution. In 1800, the Election of 1800 transitioned power to Thomas Jefferson. This was the first peaceful transition of power the U.S. experienced. With all these new documents and new leaders, American society …show more content…
These documents are by no means strict. The government could not tax, nor did they have much power. The flaws were exemplified in Shays’ Rebellion (Document G). Seeing the errors, the Founding Fathers met at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. They planned to make amends to the Articles of Confederation, but instead, they decided to discard the document entirely and start anew. They drafted the Constitution, which was primarily done by James Madison. Madison knew that the people of America were not perfect, hence the need for a new, stronger government (Document I). The issue of slavery was also addressed in America’s early years. The Northwest Ordinance was chartered in 1787, stating that slavery would not be allowed northwest of the Ohio River (Document H). The ordinance set a precedent to discuss more upon slavery later in history and created an intention to eradicate slavery as a whole eventually. With all these changes, it can be assumed chaos would erupt, but this idea was nullified in the Election of 1800, where a peaceful transition of power was witnessed. The American Revolution brought many economic changes, including the transition away from British mercantilism and the redistribution of Loyalist