The Articles Of Confederation And The Southwest Ordinance Of 1787

In May 1776, Congress decided that new state governments needed to be formed “under the authority of the people.” People were to elect the officials who governed them, and the officials would represent the people. Adult white men who owned property could participate in politics. Women were part of the dependent class and were under the control of men who owned property. Around 50,000 slaves had gained freedom because of the Revolution. Northern states began to end slavery. The Articles of Confederation were submitted to the states in November 1777. The balance of power was shifted towards the state governments. Each state had one vote in Congress, its size or population not mattering. Changes to the Articles had to be unanimously agreed on. Congress dealt primarily

Shays’ Rebellion broke out in the fall of 1786. Farm foreclosures and imprisonments for failure to pay debts in western Massachusetts caused people to rebel. The Land Ordinance of 1785 divided the Northwest Territory into townships of 36 uniform sections. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the political structure for new territories and prohibited slavery in the Northwest. The Southwest Ordinance of 1790 set up a government that allowed slavery in the U.S. territory south of the Ohio River. Spain refused to recognize the southern and western boundaries of the U.S. as specified in the treaty with Britain in 1783, holding out instead for a more northern border. It also denied the U.S. claim on the use of the Mississippi River.
In September of 1786, delegates from several states met at the Annapolis Convention. The meeting quickly ended because only five states had shown up. Shays’ Rebellion later convinced the other states to meet at the Philadelphia Convention in May 1787. 55 delegates from all the states except Rhode Island attended. They had planned to only revise the Articles but soon found that they were