This lesson explores the question: Why did the Founders find it necessary to provide protections for slavery in the US Constitution?
This resource is a lecture about Nixon and the Constitution by R. B. Bernstein.
These lessons on the Bill of Rights are part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core–based units. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Students will demonstrate this knowledge by writing summaries of selections from the original document and, by the end of the unit, articulating their understanding of the complete document by answering questions in an argumentative writing style to fulfill the Common Core Standards. Through this step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze any primary or secondary source material.
These lessons on the Bill of Rights are part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core–based units. These units were written to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Students will demonstrate this knowledge by writing summaries of selections from the original document and, by the end of the unit, articulating their understanding of the complete document by answering questions in an argumentative writing style to fulfill the Common Core Standards. Through this step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze any primary or secondary source material.
This unique copy of the US Constitution was printed by Claxton and Babcock in Albany, New York, between February 11 and March 21, 1788. Copies of the Constitution were widely distributed following the document’s signing by the members of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, and six states had already ratified it. So why was this late printing even undertaken?
Historian James Oliver Horton briefly examines the protections for slavery embedded in the US Constitution.
Until 1804, American presidents were elected under a system established in the US Constitution in which each member of the Electoral College voted for two presidential candidates. The candidate who received the most votes became president; the candidate with the second-most votes became vice president.
This resource provides brief explanations of all the amendments that are part of the Bill of Rights.
In a series of three brief clips, Larry Kramer, Dean of Stanford Law School, provides some insights into understanding and teaching various details of the constitution.
On May 25, 1787, the fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional Convention began meeting in a room, no bigger than a large schoolroom, in Philadelphia’s State House. They posted sentries at the doors and windows to keep their "secrets from flying out." They barred the press and public, and took a vow not to reveal to anyone the words spoken there. There were speeches of two, three, and four hours. The convention, which lasted four months, took only a single eleven-day break. Explore these primary sources to learn more.
Jack Rakove, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University, briefly discusses James Madison's role in the framing and ratification of the Constitution, as well as the legal approach of Originalism.
This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Through a step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze any primary or secondary source material.
This resource is a Google Arts & Culture interactive presentation about the printing of the United States Constitution.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute has collaborated with the producers of the exciting new Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me by playwright and two-time Obie Award–winning actor Heidi Schreck, showing at the Helen Hayes Theater, to reveal how the US Constitution came to be, how it has evolved, and how it affects our lives every day. Explore the links on this page.