Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit IV: What Was the American Revolution? 1760-1836

Roots of the Constitution: Expert Group Worksheet

Lesson 3: Americans Revolutionized Their State and Federal Constitutions

Roots of the Constitution: Expert Group Worksheet

1. To complete this activity, your group must secure copies of the following documents:
   1. Magna Carta
   2. Mayflower Compact
   3. English Bill of Rights (1689)
   4. Virginia Declaration of Rights
   5. Declaration of Independence
   6. Articles of Confederation
   7. Massachusetts Constitution of 1780

2. For each of the states to which your group is assigned, answer the following questions:

   1. In what ways did the new state constitution reflect the earlier governments of England and the American colonies? (You will need to assign group members to secure information about your state's earlier constitutions.)

   2. How did your state's constitution reflect the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence?

   3. In what ways did the Articles of Confederation reflect the commonalities of all the new constitutions? state constitutions? What do you think was lacking in the Articles of Confederation?

   4. What do you think were the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles?

3. Using your answers to the questions in number 2, construct a short position paper that your group of states might present at a convention called to remedy the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. This will be used in the next lesson.

4. Each group member should be prepared to return to his/her home group and do the following:
   1. Explain how the new state constitutions reflected principles in the Declaration of Independence.

   2. Analyze state constitutions in terms of their roots in English and British history and in the history of American colonial government.

   3. Analyze the Articles of Confederation in terms of the strengths and weaknesses as a form of government for the new country.