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| Certified Educator. Cite. The Federalists and Anti-Federalists were two opposing political groups who emerged in the late-eighteenth century, when the Constitution was under debate. On one...
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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.
Objective
Today students will participate as members of a critical thinking group and "read like a detective" in order to analyze the arguments made by the Federalists in favor of ratifying the new US Constitution.
Introduction
Tell the students that after the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, the nation’s new Constitution had to be ratified by the states. The debate over ratification became very heated, especially in New York. This led to a spirited exchange of short essays between the Federalists, who promoted the new Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists, who put forward a variety of objections to the proposed new government. Today we will be closely reading excerpts from four of the Federalist...
Materials
1. Federalist Papers #1, #10, #51, and #84 (excerpts). Source: The full text of all the Federalist Papersare available online at the Library of Congress. 2. US Constitution, 1787. Source: Charters of Freedom, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters 3. Overhead projector or other display
Objective
Today students will participate as members of a critical thinking group and "read like a detective" in order to analyze the arguments made by the Anti-Federalists in opposition to ratifying the new US Constitution.
Introduction
Review the background information from the last lesson. Today we will be closely reading excerpts from four of the Anti-Federalist Papers in order to discover just what the Anti-Federalists’ positions and arguments were. Although the Anti-Federalists’ essays were written anonymously under various pen names, most famously "Brutus," historians generally agree that among the authors of the Anti-Federalist essays were Robert Yates, Samuel Bryan, George Clinton, and Richard Henry Lee.
Materials
1. Anti-Federalist Papers #1, #9, #46, and #84 (excerpts). Source: Morton Borden, ed. The Antifederalist Papers(East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1965). Unlike the Federalist Papers, the essays by Anti-Federalists were not conceived of as a unified series. Thus historians have imposed different numbering systems as they compiled various essays; the numbers used here are Morton Borden’s chronology. 2. US Constitution, 1787 3. Overhead projector or other display method
Objective
The students will deeply understand the major arguments concerning the ratification of the US Constitution. This understanding will be built upon close analysis of the Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist Papers. The students will demonstrate their understanding in both writing and speaking.
Introduction
Tell the students that now they get to apply their knowledge and understanding of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments. They will need to select a debate moderator from within their group and divide the remaining students into Federalists and Anti-Federalists. As a group they will write questions based on the issues presented in the primary documents. They will also script responses from both sides based solely on what is written in the documents. This is not an actual debate but rath...
Materials
1. Federalist Papers #1, #10, #51, and #84 (excerpts) 2. Anti-Federalist Papers #1, #9, #46, and #84 (excerpts) 3. US Constitution, 1787
People also ask
Who were the Anti-Federalists?
Why did the Federalists label their opponents Anti-Federalists?
How were the Antifederalists different from the Federalists?
What did the Anti-Federalists do?
Mar 3, 2015 · Understanding the opposing views of the Federalists and the Antifederalists is vital to studying AP® US History. After all, these two groups were who ultimately forged our nation and who created the basis for today’s two-party political system. Now let’s dive into what the Federalist vs. Antifederalist division was all about.
Federalists labeled their opponents Anti-Federalists, the first of many clever political maneuvers that helped to secure ratification. Crying foul, Anti-Federalists claimed that they were the true federalists, as they argued for more power to the states, and that the Federalists were actually nationalists.
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Anti-Federalists, in early U.S. history, a loose political coalition of popular politicians, such as Patrick Henry, who unsuccessfully opposed the strong central government envisioned in the U.S. Constitution of 1787 and whose agitations led to the addition of a Bill of Rights.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Opponents of ratification were called Anti-Federalists. Anti-Federalists feared the power of the national government and believed state legislatures, with which they had more contact, could better protect their freedoms.
Anti-Federalists argued that wealthy aristocrats would run the new national government, and that the elite would not represent ordinary citizens; the rich would monopolize power and use the new government to formulate policies that benefited their class—a development that would also undermine local state elites.
