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4.55 The Constitutions of the States
Episode 1672nd February 2025 • The Political History of the United States • Allen Ayers
00:00:00 00:38:04

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Follow the collapse of the British government in the colonies, the newly formed States set out to reestablish their governments.

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Foreign hello and welcome to the Political History of the United States, Episode 4.55 the Constitutions of the States welcome back.

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alking about the campaigns of:

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With the exception of a few events down in the south, we were able to cover most of the major action for that entire year.

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ack of action that existed in:

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Now, as we head into:

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However, before we can do that, we need to take a break from the narrative and cover a few topics that will hopefully help provide us with a more complete picture of the ongoing conflict.

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I am going to admit that today's episode has been a long time coming.

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of our series of episodes for:

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tates spent a good portion of:

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After I realized that I missed my mark, it just became a question of me deciding when to shoehorn the episode in and well, I have settled on right now to give a brief refresher to make sure that we are all on the same page.

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eginning during the summer of:

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Over the course of the next year or so, the colonists would set up what was essentially temporary governments that were being run through those committees of correspondence or newly formed committees of public safety.

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It was not as though the old British systems necessarily all went away.

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Rather, it was that the colonists had stripped away all of their authority by ignoring them.

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We talked about all of this back in episodes 4.25 through 4.27.

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By the time that:

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Although there were still those holding out hopes for reconciliation, it was becoming increasingly clear that the prospect of reconciliation was standing in the way of establishing more permanent, stable governments.

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We Talked during episode 4.35 about how those pushing for independence sold the more conservative and moderate members on a full separation from the British by tying it to the need of having to establish new governments.

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Forming a new government in a colony was incompatible with the idea of reconciliation.

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The two ideas were completely contradictory.

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With the need, however, to establish new governments, it allowed those in favor of independence to present the movement in more conservative terms, a vote for independence would alleviate any contradictions and would open the door for the formation of new state governments.

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Of course, this is exactly what happened once independence became the order of the day, that new states were free to expand their own authority and create new governments within their borders.

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This process of establishing governments would come in the form of new constitutions.

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s that we are going to see in:

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During:

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In these new state constitutions, colored by their experiences, you're going to see the formation of liberal representative governments, which are largely reactionary responses to the trauma of those years during the imperial crisis.

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So hopefully you are all sufficiently caught back up.

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So now let's jump in and take a look at these new state constitutions.

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As the newly minted states came together in the aftermath of the Declaration of Independence, they were left with a lot of questions over how they wanted to frame their new governments.

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Indeed, so many left Congress to take up the project of creating new state governments that the Continental Congress struggled to properly function.

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These questions would touch on both the prevailing political theories of the day, theories from men like John Locke that had become foundational documents for the Enlightenment.

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At the same time, these constitutions were pragmatic responses to the upheavals of the last decade.

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dependence, and by the end of:

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ring that in the aftermath of:

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They mostly just had to purge out mentions of the crown and they were good to go.

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icked up their old charter of:

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If you are so inclined for a refresher there, I talked very extensively about this topic in the first three episodes of season three.

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e rear in the early months of:

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Now, rather than talking about the states one at a time and looking at the individual constitutions, I am going to look more specifically at the three branches of government, the executive, legislative and the judicial branch.

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Individually.

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This will allow us to discuss the theories that were flowing through the colonies and look at specific examples, hopefully without getting too bogged down.

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No Single branch of the government of the states experienced more of a reactionary response than did the executive.

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The long imperial crisis had done nothing to help endear strong executives to the people.

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As a response, few states did much to try and preserve executive power and happily applauded it being transferred primarily to the legislatures.

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So, to begin our look at just how the state governments would evolve, let us begin by looking at how the colonies decided to deal with their governors.

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he transformation of power in:

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The colonies and soon to be states, needed governments, and the easiest way to accomplish this was to throw out retreads of the old colonial systems.

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Indeed, for some of the colonies, this is exactly what happened.

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Connecticut and Rhode island, both having been charter colonies, just needed to change a few words in their charter and they were pretty much good to go.

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They had not suffered under any kind of perceived despotic governor because the governors in those colonies were elected.

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Stephen Hopkins had been the governor of Rhode Island.

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He was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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This certainly is not something that can be said for a Thomas Hutchinson or a Lord Dunmore.

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Of course, most of the states were in fact, not Rhode island or Connecticut.

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Indeed, these two states would prove to be the exception rather than the rule.

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In Pennsylvania, for example, the position of the governor was eliminated entirely, with an executive council being formed to take its place.

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The Pennsylvania system saw this new council elected directly from the people.

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This is going to be something of a trend that we are going to see throughout our episode today.

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There was a movement throughout the colonies to avoid the concentration of power into individuals.

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The Pennsylvania Constitution would go to great lengths, not only to keep power diversified, but more so to keep it linked as closely as possible to the people.

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We're going to talk more about the Pennsylvania Constitution in a bit today when we look at their legislature.

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This change in Pennsylvania surely went further than anybody else.

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However, not necessarily by that much.

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Throughout the states, there was a movement towards shifting the power from the executive into the legislature.

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It is no accident that in four states, the term governor was done away with altogether and replaced with the term president.

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A decade of crisis had everybody feeling just a bit jumpy when it came to the idea of having a chief magistrate that carried such a large amount of unilateral power.

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Well, the governors did retain some ability to enforce the laws.

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Virtually all of the states stripped away the governor's Rights to legislate, something that would now be held exclusively by the legislative branch.

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It is worth noting that in Pennsylvania, allowing for the popular election of the governor was actually an abnormal thing.

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In:

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This period would likewise see most of the states institute some kind of a term limit on the executive office, something that had not existed during the colonial era.

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Concern over potential bad actors would lead to the introduction of impeachment as a remedy as well.

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This is a power that had actually existed for a long while.

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However, it had fallen out of use and was not something that many people routinely thought about.

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In an era of political suspicion and fear over a single person trying to act in a way inconsistent with liberty, the impeachment power had something of a resurgence.

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Despite this, however, impeachment was still largely in its infancy as a remedy, with the actual procedure to impeach somebody remaining a muddled mess well into the 19th century.

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If there is any specific trend that we can point to during this period, it is that process of transferring the power of the executive to the legislative.

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We are going to see this again through the appointment power.

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Traditionally, the governor had the power to appoint people to specific offices.

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It was lost on nobody, however, that these appointments had often not gone to qualified individuals, but rather they went to friends, families, and supporters of the various governors.

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Appointments were a system not determined by merit, but rather they were meant to be something of a reward for a service rendered, or maybe just because the governor personally liked you.

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Either way, during those early years of the revolution, such appointments suddenly found themselves being viewed as corrupt and inconsistent with the liberty of the people.

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The drafting committees were eager to avoid a patronage system as had existed in the colonies, as such a system gave undue power to the governor.

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While in some states, the decision was made to completely strip away the appointment power of the governor, specifically in North Carolina and New Jersey, this was not exactly the norm.

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More commonly, there was a power sharing agreement in which the legislative and the governor made appointments together.

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This specific power still exists and is regularly seen exercised in modern politics as a result of the appointment clause of the federal constitution, something that we'll talk more about next season.

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xecutive Authority during the:

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They were in the middle of a war, a war that was directly linked with former royal governors.

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Of course, so much of the imperial crisis had actually been centered on the complaints over an overreaching Parliament.

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But we must remember that on the ground those policies were being enforced by those royal governors.

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Those governors were the face of the crisis.

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Ask somebody in Massachusetts how they felt about Thomas Hutchinson or Thomas Gage.

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Ask a Virginian about their feelings on Lord Dunmore.

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Although the crisis had been over parliamentary prerogative in the colonies, it was still very much about the governors in America.

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The states were truly afraid of a governor gaining too much power and influence.

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Georgia went so far as to require the governor to take an oath to step down peaceably at the end of his term.

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The Americans wanted to ensure that under this new system of power, the governors were contained and as we are going to see moving forward today, that they had been all but totally purged from both the legislative and judicial processes.

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With power being transferred out of the hands of the executive and into the hands of the legislative, it is time that we turn our attention to that part of the government and examine just how it would rapidly evolve into the new reality.

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To understand the Americans views on government and to really understand the imperial crisis, we need to take a moment to look at the functional difference between how the British and the Americans believed that representation worked.

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More specifically, we need to examine the role of the representative in the government.

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The British view of representation was one that was ultimately far more expansive than the prevailing view across the Atlantic and the colonies.

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In Britain, somebody who was elected to Parliament as a representative was not there only to represent the needs of their own constituents, but was rather there to represent everybody.

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If you are a member of the House of Commons, you represent all of the Commons, not just the people from your particular district who elected you.

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In his seminal work, the Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, historian Bernard Bailyn explains that in Britain, Parliament was for the purpose of government, the nation.

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If you were a member of Parliament, you represented not just your local district, but rather the entirety of the nation.

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When we look at this in the context of the imperial crisis, it draws us back to that concept that the British clung to of virtual representation.

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Here the British argument to the American colonists was, sure, we get it, that you're upset and don't directly elect members to the Parliament, but you're still represented in that body.

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Parliament represents everybody in the empire, which includes the colonists.

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British leadership believed, or at least they told themselves that they believed, that the actual process of voting for representatives was ultimately inconsequential and unnecessary.

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Plenty of people in the empire did not get to vote.

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However, they were represented just the same.

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Everybody in the British Empire was virtually represented, and that was all fine and good.

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To say that those in North America disagreed with this position should come as little surprise, since we are now 55 episodes into talking about their discontent on this very issue.

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The view of the colonists and now citizens of the United States was that representation was far more localized.

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In other words, your representative did not represent the entire country at large rather, your representative was answerable to you directly.

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This leads directly to questions over the ability of the local community to bind their representatives to a particular course of action.

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In the popular American view, representatives existed as a mere conduit of the represented Declaration signer.

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Future 3/5 clause architect and Supreme Court Justice James Wilson commented that representatives were creatures of their constituents and were accountable to them for the power that they held in practice.

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This brings us back to our conversation about the power of the executive, which had been gutted in most of the state constitutions.

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It is not as though this political power ceased to exist, however, and naturally now found its new home in the hands of the various legislative branches.

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Gordon Wood writes that the Virginia Bill of Rights stated, if all power is derived from the people and magistrates, we are accountable to them.

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The people ultimately hold all of the power.

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Wood goes on to explain that in practice this would manifest in a rudimentary system of checks and balances.

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The leeching of power, furthermore, meant that the legislative branches became more than a check on the governor or the councils.

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In many of the states, the nexus of power found itself being moved into the hands of the lower house.

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With the exception of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Vermont, the new constitutions overwhelmingly chose to go with bicameral legislatures.

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This, of course, follows with the statement that we spoke about a moment ago from the Virginia Constitution.

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If the power flowed from the hands of the people, then does it not make sense that the lower houses would see the most dramatic increase in their own power?

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onstitutions being drafted in:

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As the entire power structure reorganized and flowed away from the executive and into the representative houses, we find drafting committees that were desperate to avoid the consolidation of power into too few hands.

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Perhaps no single state went further in this endeavor than did Pennsylvania.

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Pennsylvania was not concerned in itself with trying to strike a balance between the largely reduced executives and the legislature.

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Rather, the Pennsylvania committee just went ahead and dropped all pretense and did away with the office of the governor.

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They likewise got rid of any kind of an upper house that could potentially operate as a check on the people sure, there was to be that executive council.

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But remember, that executive council was also going to be popularly elected.

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What this means is that Pennsylvania was going to become a unicameral system with only a small executive authority.

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Essentially, this means that the representatives in the legislature in Pennsylvania were going to hold all of the power.

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They were the government, they were the law.

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Historian Woody Holton points out that Pennsylvania was also unique because of the makeup of the drafting committees.

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Rather than being filled with lawyers, the majority of the drafting of the new constitution in Pennsylvania was done by artisans and farmers.

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Under this new system in Pennsylvania, all of the members of the legislature would be up for re election on a yearly basis.

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They likewise expanded the electorate by enfranchising all men who paid taxes.

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It also had the unique and thoroughly vexing feature that any legislation that was proposed could not be voted on until after the following year's election.

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This itself was a critical point, because in combination with those yearly elections, it meant that the individual representative was going to have to face questions on potential votes before they happened, rather than having to try to explain their actions.

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In hindsight, this meant that a huge amount of power transferred not into the legislature, but out into the people at large.

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Under the new system in the state, they essentially held veto power on unpopular legislation.

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If the guy running for elections supported a bill that you didn't like, the solution was easy enough.

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Find somebody else who will vote exactly the way that you wish.

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Not all of the states created something as radical as what came out of Pennsylvania.

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Nearby Maryland, for instance, took a far more conservative approach.

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Despite attempts, largely led by the state's militia, to do away with voting requirements, the final product failed to eliminate this burden to enfranchisement.

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The Constitution that was produced in the state proved to have such tight restraints that it essentially shut out the vast majority of the population from eligibility to serve in the state house through a minimum property requirement.

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It meant that only the aristocracy would have the necessary resources to actually serve in any branch of the government.

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If the movement through the colonies had largely been towards more representative democratic systems, Maryland went ahead and decided to go in an entirely different direction, creating a largely oligarchical system.

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This entire process that was taking place throughout the states was largely focused on the diversification of power.

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This often manifested itself as expanding the assemblies and broader voting rights.

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Now, to be clear, such enfranchisement was always a limited function, as it was limited to the white male population.

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With the exception of New Jersey, which would end up backtracking some decades later, none of the states were looking to extend suffrage to women.

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Likewise, the black population was also shut out of voting, except again in New Jersey, which would also backtrack on this policy in the future.

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This brings up one of the great ironies of the American Revolution.

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Despite the baseline claim that virtual representation simply was not a thing during the imperial crisis, it is now this exact concept that the Americans found themselves employing for all of those people who were excluded from the vote.

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In order to deal with this obvious contradiction, the drafters of the state constitutions were forced to partake in a healthy dose of mental gymnastics.

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What the Americans argued is that virtual representation would exist in the states because those being virtually represented are part of the same society as those who are actually represented.

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In other words, when Britain had tried to claim virtual representation, it was invalid because the society between the colonies and Great Britain itself was so radically different that it rendered virtual representation impossible.

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However, for a woman living in Albemarle county, Virginia, she may be virtually represented, yes, being denied the franchise personally, yet her rights and interests were still represented.

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This representation came from the fact that the property owning males in the county were represented.

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As both men and women lived in the same society, the interest of the community was still being served through representative systems.

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Certainly there was interest in expanding the electorate.

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However, everybody was eager to keep such expansion within clearly set boundaries.

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This concept of the separation of powers would also make an initial appearance in state constitutions during this time.

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It is important, though, to understand that the separation of powers here does not exactly mean the same thing that it would mean just a decade in the future.

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In a system that was terrified of power becoming concentrated into too few hands, there was interest in limiting the power of any single person.

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Well, a decade later, the separation of powers would become most attributed to the system of checks and balances that we know it for today.

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In:

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Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Georgia, for instance, wrote into their constitutions limiting individuals to just a single branch of the government.

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During the colonial era, having a single person represented in multiple branches of the government was not unheard of.

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The fear that a single person could both create the arbitrary law and then enforce it was something that the new state constitutions actively sought to avoid.

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However, it is important to understand that much as the concept itself would evolve over the course of the next decade, so too would its importance in the American political system.

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In:

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This is worth noting though, as it is going to have some major impacts on the judicial system of the states.

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The judicial system of the states would present a unique situation, as generally it was the least affected from the upheavals that were moving throughout the colonies.

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If the term separation of powers was yet to carry the same meaning that it would a decade later, it did set the stage for some of the initial changes to the new court systems that were being put into place.

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During the 18th century, it was common for the governors to hold judicial powers as well.

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Over the course of the century, much of that power would find itself landing into the hands of the assembly that would often act as a court deciding common cases.

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The Constitutions of:

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To walk back this trend, however, in the subsequent gutting of the executive power, we see the legislatures assuming many of those magisterial powers that had formerly belonged to the governor.

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This goes directly to that question about the separation of powers.

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The concern of the states in:

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There was far less concern about insulating the judicial branch from the legislative.

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This would in time change, and the judicial branch would eventually grow more independent.

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t is worth mentioning that in:

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However, that is a topic for the future.

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understand is that throughout:

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Historian Gordon Wood further explains that among the powers of the judicial branch was a modification on how judges themselves gained power.

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In the interest of trying to insulate judges from the influence of an overreaching governor, all of the states removed the ability of the governor to set judicial tenure upon their own pleasure.

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This means that judges suddenly found themselves far more independent from the winds of political change.

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If the chief executive changes, it did not necessarily mean that the judge was going to change with them.

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It likewise meant, and really this is the key point, that if a judge exercised judicial independence and voted in a way that was contrary to the wishes of the governor, that same governor would not be able to remove them.

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d the Federal Constitution of:

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in the state constitutions of:

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in the State Constitutions of:

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Jefferson writes in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.

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However, we have already talked today about how, in reality, that only went so far.

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The Constitutions of:

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Men like Locke and Montesquieu are all well represented in these documents.

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Yet it is impossible to ignore the fact that these people, who were so often fighting against the tyranny from the British, and who often referred to British plots to reduce them to slavery, were actively busy enslaving people.

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end that the Americans of the:

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Back in episode 4.44, we brought up the Vermont Constitution.

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Vermont, in:

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Now, we can argue here that this was not exactly a state constitution, seeing as how Vermont would not become a state for another 14 years.

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However, it still remains a noteworthy event.

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While Vermont was willing to take such measures, it is also important to understand that Vermont did not possess an economy that was supported by slavery.

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Vermont only ever had somewhere around 50 slaves, and while surely some are missing from that count, it was never a significant number.

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Compare that to Virginia with its 187,000 enslaved people, or South Carolina with its 75,000.

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We are talking about magnitudes of scale.

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In other places, such as Massachusetts, slavery was already in its death throes and was fading out.

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For many of the Southern states, however, it remained the basis of the entire economy.

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There was real fear heading into the war that a threat against the institution of slavery would not only lead to an extraordinarily dangerous situation, but that it would, at a minimum, tank the entire Southern economy.

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As a result, states with large slave populations were eager to ensure that their state constitutions were written in such a way that it would protect the institution of slavery.

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In:

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Abigail Adams and Thomas Paine both argued that enslaved Africans had just as much of a right to their freedom as anybody else.

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Lee of Virginia wrote in the:

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Arthur Lee is a member of the Virginia Lees.

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He is the uncle of Robert E.

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Lee.

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and arguing for abolition in:

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George Mason expressed similar concerns all throughout the South.

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ere were movements present in:

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In the Virginia Constitution written by the aforementioned Mason, the original opening line stated that all men were born equally free and independent and have certain inherent natural rights of which they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity among them, which are the enjoyment of life and liberty.

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This caused very obvious problems for the Virginians, as it would be virtually impossible to adopt this wording and still maintain the institution of slavery.

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Indeed, objections to the language and the fear that it would set the state on a course towards abolishing the practice were quickly made known.

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Mason's language would be modified by Edward Pendleton, who added in the extra clarifying line that men are naturally free and independent when they enter into a state of society.

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This attempt to justify the language by adding in a qualifier did the trick, although it is difficult to believe that anybody thought that this was anything less than mental gymnastics.

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Historian Gary Nash, in his book the Unknown American Revolutionary, points out that Thomas Jefferson certainly understood this for exactly what it was.

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While Jefferson would draw heavily off of Mason's work in Virginia as he drafted the Declaration of Independence, he conspicuously omitted adding the line about entrying into a society.

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It was likewise not missed in London that the Americans, for all their cries of freedom, were actively and busily participating in slavery.

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During the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson would attempt to shift blame for slavery onto the British.

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However, this particular charge came with implications towards slavery that the Southern states simply could not accept, and the paragraph failed to make it into the final draft.

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The British, in their own wartime propaganda, did not skip out on the opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of the Americans.

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Women were another group that found themselves being left out of these new constitutions.

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Although women were well aware that their lot in life was unlikely to change much, that did not mean that there were not those who wanted more.

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In late March:

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What Abigail Adams was really requesting was nothing terribly radical.

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Rather, it was simply for the protection of women.

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In abusive relationships.

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John Adams would more or less laugh off the request from Abigail Adams.

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Shortly thereafter, when he learned about proposed legislation that would have extended the vote to propertyless men in Massachusetts, Adams advised caution, mentioning that should they permit such a thing, it would lead to women demanding the right to vote.

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Other women were busy questioning the fact that in the event that they met the minimum property requirements, they were still denied a vote.

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In a system that had become obsessed over questions regarding representation, women were all but completely shut out.

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The constitutions of:

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Largely reactionary and often short sighted in their denial of rights to other marginalized groups, all of the states sought to dismantle executive authority and to transfer that power into the hands of the People's Assemblies.

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In the years following:

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By the time that we reached:

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Although often modified in ways that would express the lessons of the previous decade, it is also impossible to ignore all of the groups that were left out in the cold.

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Non whites, slaves, women, Native Americans.

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All were ignored in the new constitutions.

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Indians, I want to mention despite not coming up today, are a group that we have talked about recently, including the now dead on arrival prospect of statehood for the Delaware people.

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of the state constitutions of:

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Next time we are going to continue to keep the narrative paused for an extra week as we move onto the question of the Loyalists.

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Well, we have used the words Americans here to generally describe those fighting against the British.

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There were plenty of Americans who were actively supporting the British.

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I want to spend some time with them and look at what life was like during the war or those in the United States who were supporting the British until then.

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I hope you all have a wonderful two weeks.

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I hope that you are staying healthy and that you are staying safe and I will see you back here next time to discuss the problem with the Loyalists.

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00:30:07
163. 4.51 Monmouth Courthouse
00:31:50
162. 4.50 The Carlisle Commission
00:33:47
161. 4.49 Valley Forge
00:34:17
160. 4.48 Reacting to Saratoga
00:32:27
159. 4.47 Saratoga
00:41:24
158. 4.46 Brandywine and Germantown
00:34:17
157. 4.45 Burgoyne's March
00:37:52
156. 4.44 Ticonderoga
00:36:41
155. 4.43 Preparing for 1777
00:34:00
154. 4.42 Crossing the Delaware
00:36:37
153. 4.41 Fort Washington
00:32:50
152. 4.40 The Battle of New York
00:37:54
151. 4.39 The Battle of Long Island
00:37:59
150. 4.38 Canada and Carolina
00:36:47
149. 4.37 Reacting to Independence
00:31:20
148. 4.36 The Declaration of Independence
00:39:54
148. bonus Season 4 Supplement 1: The Declaration of Independence
00:10:26
147. 4.35 Reconciliation or Independency
00:35:04
146. 4.34 Boston Liberated
00:32:26
145. 4.33 Common Sense
00:36:39
144. 4.32 The 1775 Invasion of Canada
00:30:47
143. 4.31 The Aftermath of Bunker Hill
00:29:18
142. 4.30 The Battle of Bunker Hill
00:36:17
141. 4.29 Reacting to Rebellion
00:39:44
140. 4.28 Lexington and Concord
00:37:45
139. 4.27 Approching the Breaking Point
00:44:24
138. 4.26 The Boycott
00:42:01
137. 4.25 The End of Civil Government
00:37:40
136. 4.24 The First Continental Congress
00:38:15
135. 4.23 Preparing to Meet
00:33:04
134. 4.22 The Intolerable Acts
00:37:00
133. 4.21 Franklin in the Cockpit
00:34:32
132. 4.20 The Boston Tea Party
00:34:25
131. 4.19 The Hutchinson Letters Crisis
00:37:04
130. 4.18 The Pause in Politics
00:42:24
129. 4.17 Trial and Aftermath
00:37:13
128. 4.16 The Boston Massacre
00:39:52
127. 4.15 1769
00:34:03
126. 4.14 The Liberty Riots
00:35:31
125. 4.13 The Circular Letter
00:38:52
124. 4.12 Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer
00:35:12
123. 4.11 The Townshend Acts
00:30:07
122. 4.10 Internal Divisions
00:35:30
121. 4.9 The Legacy of 1765
00:35:55
120. 4.8 The Stamp Act Congress
00:37:15
119. 4.7 The Stamp Act Riots
00:38:12
118. 4.6 The Stamp Act
00:33:59
117. 4.5 A Spoon Full of Sugar
00:32:44
116. 4.4 A Changing Colonial Outlook
00:37:32
115. 4.3 The End of Pontiac’s Rebellion
00:40:00
113. 4.2 Pontiac’s Rebellion
00:38:12
112. 4.1 Dangerous Frontiers
00:39:19
114. 3.45 Questions and Answers
00:56:26
110. 3.44 A Retrospective Review of the Colonial Era
00:45:25
109. 3.43 Season in Review Part 2
00:33:07
108. 3.42 Season 3 in Review; Part 1
00:31:42
107. 3.41 An Empire Stretched Thin
00:32:44
106. 3.40 The Collapse of Canada
00:30:36
105. 3.39 The Plains of Abraham
00:29:45
104. 3.38 Quebec
00:29:17
103. 3.37 Niagara and Crown Point
00:30:19
102. 3.36 Peace in the Ohio
00:43:06
101. 3.35 Return to the Southern Theater
00:38:59
100. 3.34 A Turning of the Tides
00:32:10
99. 3.33 The Battle of Fort Carillon
00:32:14
98. 3.32 Resetting the War Effort
00:30:02
97. 3.31 The Disaster at Fort William Henry
00:38:53
96. 3.30 A European War
00:35:52
95. 3.29 After Braddock
00:32:42
94. 3.28 Braddock’s March
00:45:42
93. 3.27 Fort Necessity and the Albany Congress
00:44:17
92. 3.26 Enter George Washington
00:31:10
91. 3.25 The Ohio Country
00:30:13
90. 3.24 The Six Nations of the Iroquois
00:31:57
89. 3.23 The War of Austrian Succession
00:32:41
88. 3.22 The War of Jenkins’ Ear
00:31:30
87. 3.21 The Colonial Economy
00:31:34
86. 3.20 Science and Societies
00:32:30
85. 3.19 The Colonial Press
00:32:23
84. 3.18 The Great Awakening
00:32:58
83. 3.17 The 1741 New York Slave Conspiracy
00:44:36
82. 3.16 Slave Rebellions
00:31:52
81. 3.15 Slave Codes
00:29:18
80. 3.14 Georgia Enters the Game
00:32:10
79. 3.13 Carolina Splits Up
00:29:15
78. 3.12 The Canadian Invasion of Queen Anne‘s War
00:38:17
77. 3.11 The Causes of Queen Anne‘s War
00:31:58
76. 3.10 Pirates
00:29:39
75. 3.9 The Colonies in 1700
00:32:07
74. 3.8 The Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges
00:39:42
73. 3.7 William Penn Stuck in England
00:27:36
72. 3.6 Virginia in the 1690s
00:32:53
71. 3.5 The Legacy of Salem
00:29:51
70. 3.4 The Salem Witchcraft Trials
00:34:23
69. 3.3 The New Charters
00:30:24
68. 3.2 The Waiting Game
00:33:50
67. 3.1 The Glorious Revolution in Maryland
00:31:04
65. 2.32 Season in Review, Part 2
00:30:47
64. 2.31 Season in Review, Part 1
00:31:24
63. 2.30 Leisler’s Rebellion
00:31:48
62. 2.29 The Aftermath of the Boston Rebellion
00:26:31
61. bonus Season 2, Supplement 1: The Declaration of the Gentlemen
00:16:54
60. 2.28 The 1689 Boston Rebellion
00:32:13
59. 2.27 The Glorious Revolution in New England
00:32:08
58. 2.26 The Dominion Outside of Massachusetts
00:30:44
57. 2.25 Law and Religion in the Dominion of New England
00:31:50
56. 2.24 The Dominion of New England
00:34:56
55. 2.23 Quo Warranto
00:28:44
54. 2.22 The Dangers of 1678 and Popish Plots
00:31:45
53. 2.21 A Gathering Storm in New England
00:27:46
52. 2.20 The First Decade of Pennsylvania
00:30:40
51. 2.19 The Pennsylvania Frame of Government
00:29:29
50. 2.18 William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania
00:28:57
49. 2.17 Peace and the Legacy of King Philip’s War
00:27:46
48. 2.16 The Campaign of 1676
00:31:10
47. 2.15 The Campaign of 1675
00:32:00
46. 2.14 The Origins of King Philip’s War
00:28:58
45. 2.13 New England on the Eve of War
00:27:39
44. 2.12 The Legacy of Bacon’s Rebellion
00:31:03
43. 2.11 Bacon’s Rebellion: End Game
00:27:02
42. 2.10 The Gloucester Petition
00:27:20
41. 2.9 The June Assembly
00:32:10
40. 2.8 The Run up to Rebellion
00:27:08
39. 2.7 The Origins of Bacon’s Rebellion
00:29:40
38. 2.6 New York in the Era of Edmund Andros
00:31:55
37. 2.5 New Netherland Becomes New York
00:27:19
36. 2.4 The Fundamental Constitution of Carolina
00:26:56
35. 2.3 Carolina
00:25:11
34. 2.2 The Province of Maryland
00:29:13
33. 2.1 The Quakers
00:28:26
32. 1.32 Season in Review, Part 2
00:26:25
31. 1.31 Season in Review, Part 1
00:26:44
30. 1.30 The Introduction of Slavery
00:27:19
29. 1.29 The New England Round-Up
00:24:14
28. 1.28 The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
00:30:36
27. 1.27 The Massachusetts Body of Liberties
00:31:13
26. 1.26 Religion in New England
00:25:31
25. 1.25 The Pequot War
00:28:18
24. 1.24 Connecticut and New Netherland
00:27:19
23. 1.23 Biography Edition: Roger Williams
00:40:37
22. 1.22 Biography Edition: John Winthrop
00:34:06
21. 1.21 The Great Migration in New England
00:29:24
20. 1.20 The Great Migration
00:29:18
19. 1.19 The Changing Nature of Plymouth
00:26:31
18. 1.18 Plymouth in the 1620s
00:34:59
17. 1.17 The Beginnings of Diplomacy
00:26:12
16. 1.16 Arrival in Plymouth
00:27:51
15. 1.15 The Mayflower Compact
00:29:48
14. 1.14 Who are the Pilgrims?
00:30:15
13. 1.13 Political Changes
00:32:50
12. 1.12 The Collapse of the Powhatan Confederacy
00:29:54
11. 1.11 The Road Towards Stability
00:28:05
10. 1.10 The Starving Time
00:30:17
9. 1.9 The Early Years of Jamestown
00:31:19
8. 1.8 Relations with the Powhatan Confederacy
00:35:16
7. 1.7 Jamestown Beginnings
00:29:01
6. 1.6 Return to America
00:38:52
5. 1.5 The Economy
00:30:44
4. 1.4 The Reformation
00:40:04
3. 1.3 - The Anglo-Spanish War
00:39:48
2. 1.2 - A Survey of 16th Century European Politics
00:37:09
1. 1.1 The Age of Discovery
00:28:35