Worksheet

From Shays' Rebellion to Philadelphia

Grade 8 history practice: use artifact labels, a Washington quote and a convention vote table to explain the Articles' weaknesses and the 1787 compromises.

Grade 8Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toHIS.8.1

Play online Play as a game

PrintLetter-size worksheet Answer keyPrintable answers

Assign to classAssign to your classes, or get a join code

What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 C3 Framework standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation using artifacts from the 1780s.
Students explain the Convention's debates and compromises, including the Great and Three-Fifths Compromises.
Students read a vote table and argue a claim from evidence.

How to use

Have students read the artifact labels in order like a gallery walk, then answer on their own. Discuss the Three-Fifths Compromise as a group before the open response.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

HIS.8.1

Explain the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the debates and compromises of the Constitutional Convention.

Preview

OwlSheets.com

Name Date

From Shays' Rebellion to Philadelphia

Read labeled artifacts to explain the Articles' weaknesses and the compromises of 1787.

A government too weak

This exhibit, in the old courthouse of a Massachusetts hill town, is invented; its artifacts and facts are real kinds of objects from the 1780s. Read the labels. Then answer the questions.

Exhibit: Debt, Rebellion and a New Plan

1Artifact 1: A Continental dollar, 1776. The Continental Congress printed paper money to pay for the Revolutionary War, but under the Articles of Confederation, in force from 1781, Congress had no power to tax. It could only ask the states for money, and many states paid little. As Congress printed more bills, they lost value; by 1780 it took about 40 paper dollars to buy what one silver dollar bought.

2Artifact 2: A tax notice sent to a farmer in Pelham, Massachusetts, 1786 (reproduction). To pay its own war debts, Massachusetts raised taxes and demanded payment in gold or silver coin, which few farmers had. Courts took the land and animals of farmers who could not pay, and some debtors went to jail. In the fall of 1786, armed farmers, many of them army veterans, shut down courts in western Massachusetts to stop the land seizures.

3Artifact 3: A musket ball found near the federal arsenal at Springfield. In January 1787, about 1,500 farmers led by Daniel Shays, a former Continental Army captain, marched toward the arsenal to seize its weapons. Congress had no money to send an army. Massachusetts militia defended the arsenal, and an army paid for largely by Boston merchants then broke up the uprising.

4Artifact 4: Under glass, a copy of the Articles of Confederation. The label lists its rules: each state had one vote in Congress, no matter its size. Nine of the thirteen states had to agree to pass important laws, and all thirteen had to agree to change the Articles. There was no national president to carry out laws and no national court system. Congress could not control trade between the states, so states taxed one another's goods.

5Artifact 5: A letter from George Washington to James Madison, November 5, 1786. In it Washington warned: "Thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other, and all tugging at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole."

6Artifact 6: A model of the chair George Washington sat in as president of the Constitutional Convention, which met in Philadelphia from May to September 1787. Fifty-five delegates came from twelve states; Rhode Island sent no one. On the last day, Benjamin Franklin said he had often wondered whether the half-sun carved on the chair was rising or setting, and now he was happy to know it was a rising sun. Thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787.

Draw a line from each problem in the 1780s to the weakness of the Articles it shows.

Continental dollars lost most of their value.
Boston merchants, not Congress, paid for the army that ended the uprising.
States taxed one another's goods.

A. Congress had no power to collect taxes.
B. Congress could not pay for an army in a crisis.
C. Congress could not control trade between states.

Use Artifacts 2 and 3. Which sequence best shows cause and effect in Shays' Rebellion?

A. Courts shut down → taxes in coin → land seized
B. Land seized → taxes in coin → march on the arsenal
C. Taxes in coin → land seized → courts shut down
D. March on the arsenal → courts shut down → state taxes rise

What did Washington most likely mean by "thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other" in Artifact 5?

A. Each state had too little say in Congress.
B. The thirteen states had united under one strong president.
C. Britain was again ruling the thirteen former colonies.
D. The states acted on their own and weakened the national government.

Use Artifact 4.

Under the Articles, a change to the Articles needed the votes of states, so a single state could block it.

Debates and compromises

Read the final exhibit panel and the vote table.

Exhibit panel: The Big Debates of 1787
The Virginia Plan, drafted mainly by James Madison, called for a Congress in which states with more people got more representatives. Smaller states backed the New Jersey Plan, which kept one equal vote for each state. Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut proposed a middle way, later called the Great Compromise: representation by population in the House of Representatives, and two senators for every state in the Senate.
Delegates also clashed over slavery. Delegates from states with many enslaved people wanted them counted toward a state's population for seats in the House, even though enslaved people could not vote and had no say in government. Many Northern delegates objected. The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three of every five enslaved people for representation and for direct taxes. Another compromise barred Congress from ending the overseas slave trade before 1808. The Three-Fifths Compromise gave slaveholding states more seats in the House, and together these deals protected slavery for decades.

Vote on the Great Compromise, July 16, 1787 (Rhode Island sent no one)
State	Vote
Connecticut	Yes
New Jersey	Yes
Delaware	Yes
Maryland	Yes
North Carolina	Yes
Pennsylvania	No
Virginia	No
South Carolina	No
Georgia	No
Massachusetts	Divided (delegates split evenly)
New York	Not voting (delegates had left)
New Hampshire	Not voting (not yet arrived)

Use the vote table and the panel. Which statement best describes the vote on the Great Compromise?

A. It passed with the votes of Virginia and Pennsylvania.
B. It passed by one state, with Virginia and Pennsylvania voting no.
C. It failed because Massachusetts voted against it.
D. It passed with nine states voting yes.

Sort each idea by the plan it belongs to.

More representatives in both houses for states with more peopleOne equal vote for each state in CongressA House by population and a Senate with two per stateDrafted mainly by James MadisonProposed by Sherman and Ellsworth of Connecticut

Virginia Plan	New Jersey Plan	Great Compromise

Delaware was one of the smallest states by population. Why would its delegates most likely vote yes on the Great Compromise?

A. It gave Delaware the same Senate vote as large states.
B. It removed the power to tax from Congress.
C. It gave Delaware more House seats than Virginia.
D. It replaced the Senate with a single House.

Underline the sentence from the panel that best explains why many Northern delegates objected to counting enslaved people for House seats.

Delegates from states with many enslaved people wanted them counted toward a state's population for seats in the House, even though enslaved people could not vote and had no say in government.The Three-Fifths Compromise counted three of every five enslaved people for representation and for direct taxes.Another compromise barred Congress from ending the overseas slave trade before 1808.

A state has 300,000 free people and 100,000 enslaved people. Under the Three-Fifths Compromise, what population would count for its House seats?

A. 300,000
B. 400,000
C. 360,000
D. 340,000

10.

Claim: "Shays' Rebellion was the most important reason the delegates met in Philadelphia." Do you agree? Make your own claim, use at least two artifacts or panels as evidence, and explain your reasoning.