KEY DOCUMENTS

CHARTERS OF VIRGINIA

The first charter of Virginia was in April 10, 1606.

Most significant aspect was

MAYFLOWER COMPACT

It was drafted and signed on the Mayflower on November 21, 1620.

Wanted to set up a legal basis for their new colony.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Significant because it states that the government exists for the people and that “All men are created equal.”

Declared their freedom from Great Britain.

Signed July 4, 1776 Thomas Jefferson, John Locke,

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Robert Livingston

VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

Sated that Virginians had the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, freedom of religion, and the right to trial by jury.

“That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights.”

George Mason, 1776

VIRGINIA STATUE FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION

Basis for religious clauses in the Bill of Rights.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and helped through legislature by James Madison.

Idea of denying tax support for any certain church.

ARTICALS OF CONFEDERATION

Established weak central government. Didn’t want a new government that

was like a dictatorship.

BILL OF RIGHTS Protect basic rights and liberties that

most people take for granted such as….

Freedom of speech, press, religion and petitioning the government.

Trial by jury More basic rights than just what’s

listed.

CONSTITUTION Basis for government. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin,

Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.

Main principles, popular sovereignty, republicanism, limited government, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and individual rights.

CONSTITUTION CONT.“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

FEDERALISTS PAPERS 85 essays written by James Madison,

John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. They were written by federalists who

wanted to ratify the Constitution. “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire,

an ailment without which it instantly expires.”

MISSOURI COMPROMISE

Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Prohibited slavery in Louisiana Territory

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS November 19,1863 Abraham Lincoln “Four score and seven years ago our fathers

brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

EMANCIPATION PROCLOMATION

Two executive orders by Lincoln on September 22, 1862 freed slaves and January 1, 1863 named 10 states that would not have slaves.

LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL

Martin Luther King Jr. He was held in solitary confinement Explained that even though protestors

were breaking the law they were following a higher moral law.kennedy had new civil rights bill.

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