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First Continental Congress calls for abolition of slave trade
Slavery existed before in Africa societies that is to say, domestic slavery and internal slave trade, which provided a favourable situation for continuation of the lucrative slave trade. -
Philadelphia Quakers found world's first antislavery society
Portuguese negotiate the first slave trade agreement that also includes gold and ivory. By the end of the 19th Century, because of the slave trade, five times as many Africans (over 11 million) would arrive in the Americas than Europeans. -
New fersey constitution temporarily gives women the vote
New Jersey has traditionally been a political swing state, but has swung Democratic in recent decades. The Governorship has alternated between the two major parties since the election of Democrat Richard J. Hughes in 1961, with a succession of Republicans and Democrats serving as Governor. The New Jersey Legislature has also switched hands over the years, and one house was evenly divided from 1999–2001, when the Democrats took control. Three of the last four gubernatorial elections have been clo -
Articles of Confederation adopted by Second Continental Congress
On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. Submitted to the states for ratification two days later, the Articles of Confederation were accompanied by a letter from Congress. -
Massachusetts adopts fi rst constitution drafted in convention and ratified by popular vote
The United States Constitution was written in 1787, but it did not take effect until after it was ratified in 1789, when it replaced the Articles of Confederation. It remains the basic law of the United States federal government.
The first state to ratify the Constitution was Delaware; the last of the original thirteen to ratify was Rhode Island; since only nine were required, this was two years after it went into operations. When the U.S. Constitution was presented to the states, many people ch -
Articles of Confederation put into effect
After considerable debate and alteration, the Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the United States' first constitution, and was in force from March 1, 1781, until 1789 when the present day Constitution went into effect. -
Military officers form Society of the Cincinnati
On March 15, 1783 a group of American Revolutionary War officers met outside Newburgh, New York, to discuss whether or not they should take action against Congress. They were spurred on by their animosity towards Congress’s failure to pay them in an organized and timely matter. After the meeting began, General George Washington entered the room and gave a speech advising the officers to give Congress more time to sort out the problem, assuring them that there would be compensation for their hard -
LandOrdinanceoflTS5
The Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the United States Congress on May 20, 1785. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress did not have the power to raise revenue by direct taxation of the inhabitants of the United States. Therefore, the immediate goal of the ordinance was to raise money through the sale of land in the largely unmapped territory west of the original states acquired at the 1783 Treaty of Paris) after the end of the Revolutionary War. Over three-fourths of the area of the -
Meeting of five states to discuss revision of the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States and specified how the Federal government was to operate, including adoption of an official name for the new nation, United States of America. The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Articles in June 1776 and sent the draft to the states for ratification in November 1777.[1] In practice, the Articles were in use beginning in 1777. The ratification process was completed in March 1781. Under the -
Shays's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts (mainly Springfield) from 1786 to 1787. The rebellion is named after Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary war, who led the rebels. -
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was drafted in 1779[1] by Thomas Jefferson in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1786, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the statute into the state's law. The Statute for Religious Freedom is one of only three accomplishments Jefferson instructed be put in his epitaph.[2] It supported the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, and freedom of conscience -
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance) was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. On Augu -
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
By 1786, Americans recognized that the Articles of Confederation, the foundation document for the new United States adopted in 1777, had to be substantially modified. The Articles gave Congress virtually no power to regulate domestic affairs--no power to tax, no power to regulate commerce. Without coercive power, Congress had to depend on financial contributions from the states, and they often time turned down requests. Congress had neither the money to pay soldiers for their service in the R -
Ratification by nine states guarantees a new government under the Constitution
The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.
