Economic Depression After the war, the United States went through a Depression and blamed the weak central government.Depression: a period when economic activity slowed and unemployment increased

Plantations were damaged, trade fell off with the profitable West Indies , and the U.S. had to pay foreign debts.

Difficult Times for Farmers Farmers couldn’t make enough money selling their goods. What problems occurred because of this?

They couldn’t pay the requests for money that the states needed for the war.

Result: State officials seized farmers lands and

threw them in jail. This enraged the farmers!!!!

Many saw the new government as another form of tyranny. In 1786, Daniel Shays, a farmer and former Continental Army captain, forced courts to close so judges could not confiscate farmer’s lands.

1787: Shays led more than 1000 angry farmers toward a Massachusetts arsenal for arms and ammunition.

The state militia ordered them to stop, but after the mob continued, they shot and killed 4 rebels. The uprising was over.

How did Shays’s Rebellion affect the American people?

Americans worried that the new government would not be able to control the citizens and prevent violence.

The Issue of Slavery11. Eleven states between 1776 and 1786 outlawed or heavily taxed the importation of enslaved people.

12. Who organized the first American antislavery society?

Quakers When? 1774

13. Although states like Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey all had laws that gradually ended slavery, freed African Americans still faced discrimination.

14. States south of Pennsylvania clung to slavery. Why?The South had been built on slavery. Many feared the economy could not survive without it.15. Virginia passed a law that encouraged manumission.

16. Manumission: the freeing of individual enslaved persons.17. The issue of the abolition of slavery divided the country at a time when American leaders needed unity.

A Call for Change

• 18. What were some leaders dissatisfied with?–The weak national government19. Some saw a strong national

government as the solution to America’s problems.

They wanted to reform, or revise, the Articles of Confederation.

20. Two men, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton promoted a

convention in Philadelphiato discuss trade and other issues.

• 21. What changed Washington’s mind to join the Philadelphia Convention?–Shays’s

Rebellion