The Northwest Ordinance also sparked debate about the
future of slavery in the West. A growing number of
Americans during these years began to question the moral implications
of slavery in a land where “all men were created equal.” The ban
on slavery in the Northwest Territories would prove to be the first
of many restraints on the slaveholding South in the years leading
up to the Civil War.
Shays’s Rebellion
Despite these successes in the West, many Americans were
dissatisfied with life under the Articles of Confederation. Economic
depression hit soon after the American Revolution ended,
as many people, especially farmers, could not pay off their debts
with the worthless state and Continental dollars. Most state legislatures
refused to assist these impoverished farmers.
Increasingly angry, some of these farmers grabbed their
muskets and marched their state capitals to redress grievances.
The most notorious of these miniature revolts was Shays’s
Rebellion in Massachusetts, named after its Revolutionary
War hero leader, Daniel Shays. Although officials in Boston quickly
mustered a militia and quashed the rebellion, legislators nationwide
agreed that change to the government was necessary if the United
States were to survive.
A Landmark Failure
Despite its failures, the Articles of Confederation and
the national Congress it created were landmarks in world history.
The Articles were one of the first written constitutions in the
world in which rights, duties, and powers of government and the
people were expressly delineated for everyone to read.
Even though Congress, too, proved to be a failure, it
was the first attempt in history to create a republican, representative
government in a large country. Of course, the United States was
not a true democracy at this time—every state still had voting restrictions
that included women, blacks, Native Americans, and men
without property—but the Articles were a bold first step.
