5th Grade Constitutional Studies

In social studies, students have been exploring the arguments and compromises that led to the creation of the US Constitution in 1787. Their study includes the important social, political, and economic influences of the Federalist period and their impact on the Constitution.  One important political influence was Shays’ Rebellion: a movement of poor Revolutionary War veterans who shut down the courts and armories in Massachusetts to avoid debtors’ prison. The federal government’s inability to offer aid to Massachusetts motivated many American leaders to consider a stronger central government. After watching a film about Shays’ Rebellion which extended into lunchtime, 5th graders evaluated the rebel farmers’ cause against the ideals of the American Revolution and government officials’ and lenders’ legal claims.

Other key influences on the Constitution were population distribution and the economic structure of enslavement. As students created cartograms representing the population of each state in 1790, they realized that the majority of free Americans lived in the North. Although representation in the Senate is the same for every state, the northern states would always have more power in the House if representation were based on the population of free people. Students discussed the power of the Three-Fifths Compromise and explored the connection between the United States government and the institution of slavery, learning that twelve United States presidents owned people and that George Washington enslaved more people than any other president.

The limited representation at the Constitutional Convention has been a major topic of discussion throughout our study. Not only were there no female, African American, Native American, poor, or middle-class representatives, there were no delegates who represented their interests. In our Constitutional Convention simulation, students represented groups of people who were not invited to the 1787 Convention in addition to the merchants, bankers, and plantation owners who were present. Our debate focused on the questions of slavery and suffrage.

Our visit to the National Archives this week was a capstone of this work. Students looked through original documents, including the Texas State constitution, plans for the Capitol renovation, Delaware’s ratification of the Constitution, and a telegram from Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant. They made connections between each document and the principles of the Constitution. Each group shared their findings with the class in a video presentation, which you can see here.