#105 Confederating States

The Meeting House, Salisbury, Connecticut, 1752-1985.

Background

To start class, spend 3 minutes to address the following question in your journal:

• How was the loose structure of the Articles of Confederation influenced by the grievances voiced in the Declaration of Independence? Try to draw on specific evidence to support your answers.

In our brief follow up discussion, we will review how the Articles of Confederation worked and why the former colonists were inclined to organize themselves as a loose association of states.

Local history

With a new structure that made politics feel close to home for citizens in the colonies, it is a good opportunity to think about what was going on right here in Salisbury, Connecticut.

Take a look at an engraving of the Salisbury Town Meeting House (image) where the meeting would have taken place. Consider:

• Who might have attended the meetings here?
• What do you think the rest of Salisbury looked like at this time?
• What do you think daily life would have been like?

Proposal from the Salisbury Town Meeting (6 May 1783) (Google Docs links for: HH250-09, HH250-10, and HH250-15).

• Divide into 5 groups. Each group will read the selection from the proposal assigned to your group. Then, in the box to the right, provide the following information in blue:
  • Provide a​ summary by providing a brief statement of the content in your own words.
  • ​Provide context by drawing connections to other documents or readings from Foner with the goal of showing the meaning of this statement in this particular time and place.
• Discussion questions:
  • Very briefly review the summary and context for the proposals recommended by the town. (Review silently and then highlight any points that stood out for you).
  • What assumptions do you think the people of Salisbury had about what politics and society would be like after independence?
  • Explain what would have happened to these proposals under the Confederation government. Who would have decided on them? How?
  • What do these proposals tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

Concluding remarks (if time allows):

• Why did the political framework in place in 1783, the Articles of Confederation, ultimately fail to create a lasting political structure for the new nation?

Homework: #106