The document summarizes key political ideas and developments in the United States after the American Revolution. It discusses the establishment of a republican form of government with elected representatives. It also describes the emergence of new political concepts of equality and protections for individual rights, though many groups like women and slaves were still denied full rights. Key figures like Thomas Jefferson advocated for religious freedom and the separation of powers. The document also discusses early tests of the Massachusetts constitution that demonstrated the courts would not support the institution of slavery and helped end slavery in that state.

2. Political Ideas
When American leaders declared independence
and founded the united states, they were aware that
they were creating something new.
They established a republic=form of government in
which power resides with a body of citizens who
make laws for the whole.
elected officials exercise that power but are
responsible to the citizens and must govern
according to laws or a constitution

3. New political ideas
In an ideal republic, all citizens
are equal under the laws,
regardless of their wealth or
social class; however, rights of
many people were restricted
based on race, class, or gender
this ideal republic contradicted
traditional practices, but
republican ideas began to
change american society after
the war

4. state constitutions
• After British rule, many Americans insisted that
each state have its own written constitution that
placed limits on the government’s power. Virginia’s
constitution of 1776, New York’s constitution of
1777, and Massachusetts’s constitution of 1780 all
established governments in which the governor and
members of the senate and the assembly would be
elected. By the 1790s, most of the other states had
created similar institutions.

5. rules.
He and other founders feared that in a
pure democracy, minority groups would
not have their rights protected.
for example, the poor might vote to take
everything away from the rich

6. Adams argued a
government needed
“checks & Balances” to
prevent any group in
society from becoming too
strong
he also thought there
should be a separation of
powers

7. every social class and region increased Americans’
belief in equality. Almost all of the new state
constitutions eased up voting restrictions for men.
In many states even white males without property
could vote, as long as they paid taxes. However,
the right to run
for elective office was still
limited in most states
to those who owned a certain
amount of property.
amount of property.
amount of property.
amount of property.

8. Freedom of religion
• Many Americans wanted to prevent a government-
backed church from forcing people to worship in a
certain way. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
made it illegal for Virginia to collect taxes for churches
and declared that Virginia could have no official church.
Many states also added a bill of rights to their
constitutions.
• Virginia’s Declaration of Rights guaranteed Virginians
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to
bear arms, and the right to a trial by jury of his or her
peers.

9. Thomas jefferson
• In virginia, baptists led a movement to
abolish taxes collected to support the
anglican church
• t.j. wrote the virginia statute for
religious freedom, which was enacted
in 1786
• “[N]o man shall be compelled
to...support any religious worship,
place or ministry...nor shall otherwise
suffer on account of his religious
opinions or belief; but that all men shall
be free to profess...their opinions in
matters of religion.”

10. Women in the war
• Women often ran businesses and farms to enable
their husbands, brothers, and sons to serve as
soldiers. Women in frontier settlements sometimes
had to defend their farms and homes against
Loyalist militias or Native Americans in the employ
of the British. Some women became soldiers,
unofficially, but that was rare. Women regularly
traveled, serving as nurses and doing the men’s
cooking and washing. Women also carried
messages back and forth among military leaders.

11. Mary hays
“Molly pitcher”
“Molly pitcher”

12. Sybil Ludington

13. more closely what their
revolutionary ideals implied, women
made some advances. After the
Revolution, women gained greater
access to education. The number of
schools for girls rose, and more
women became literate. As women
became educated, states granted
them more control over their lives,
which included increasing—to a
limited and variable extent—their
property rights. After the war,
women could also more easily obtain

14. Emancipation in Massachusetts
Two early legal tests for the new Massachusetts state
constitution did not abolish slavery, but demonstrated that
the Massachusetts courts would not support the institution.
Two early legal tests for the new Massachusetts state
constitution did not abolish slavery, but demonstrated that
the Massachusetts courts would not support the institution.

15. Elizabeth Freeman
(c. 1742–1829)
(c. 1742–1829)• Elizabeth Freeman, later called Mumbet, began life as
an enslaved African American. At the age of six months
she was acquired, along with her sister, by John
Ashley, a wealthy western Massachusetts lawyer and
businessman. The family called her Betty or Bett. For
nearly 40 years, Bet worked for the Ashley family. One
day, Ashley’s wife tried to strike Bett’s sister with a
shovel. Bett intervened and took the blow instead.
Furious, Bett stormed out of the house and refused to
come back. When the Ashleys tried to force her to
return, Bett consulted with a local lawyer named
Thomas Sedgewick. With his help, Bett sued for her
freedom.

16. • While serving the Ashleys, Bett
had listened to many discussions
about the new Massachusetts
constitution. If the constitution
said that all people were free and
equal, then she thought that
should apply to her. In 1781 a jury
agreed, and Bett won her
freedom—and took Freeman as
her last name. Elizabeth Freeman
was the first enslaved person in
Massachusetts to gain freedom
under the new constitution. Her
case helped to end slavery in
Massachusetts.

17. Quock Walker
(1753–?)• Between 1781 and 1783, an enslaved Massachusetts man
named Quock Walker also took the extraordinary step, in a
series of cases, of suing a white man who had assaulted him.
That man, Nathaniel Jennison, also claimed to own Walker,
who had escaped from Jennison’s farm after a severe beating.
Given the times, this was a bold step, but Walker believed, as
Freeman did, that the law was on his side. Massachusetts’s
new constitution referred to the “inherent liberty” of all men.
The judge, Chief Justice William Cushing, agreed and found in
his favor. “Our [state] Constitution,” Cushing said, “set out with
declaring that all men are born free and equal . . . and in short
is totally repugnant to the idea of [people] being born slaves.
This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent
with our own conduct and Constitution.”