U.S. Constitution

Episode Description
Ashley still had questions after the American Revolution episode, and lucky for her, that meant she got to get right back into researching. She's thrilled that she somehow managed to assign herself homework (she's not). 
 
In this episode, Ashley learns that there wasn't a President at the end of the American Revolution, she learns about some messed up sh*t that's in the ACTUAL body of the Constitution, and she FINALLY learns what the Federalist papers are.

Show Notes
The first government set up by the continental congress after independence from Britain was called the Articles of Confederation. It was…not great. 

Not only was it incredibly difficult to pass anything, but they were severely limited on what they could and couldn’t do - they could declare war, conduct foreign affairs, coin money, and make treaties. But, if you remember the general mood from the American Revolution episode, you can bet your ass that they couldn’t collect taxes.  

However, both the national government and the individual states had racked up an enormous amount of debt to pay for the war. But without the ability to collect taxes, how the heck were they supposed to pay for it? 

Well, the main source of revenue became tariffs, which are a tax on imports or exports. This made international trade a, and this is a technical term, clusterf*ck. Plus, Britain wasn’t particularly keen on trading with us, because, well, you know. 

Things weren't going well. And eventually, the states got together to make a new plan. And that plan, spoiler alert, was the U.S. Constitution. 

But writing it wasn't easy. And neither was ratifying it. A lot of states had different opinions (some of which, objectively, sucked). 

Let Ashley walk you through the basics, and then check out the sources below. 

Sources
The 1619 Project
Crash Course
ushistory.org
The History Channel

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