I should know better than to joke about the dangers of lurking authoritarianism. Two years ago, I posted a practice question set for US History students and teachers about the complex relationship between the American Revolution and slavery based on a passage from Alan Taylor’s American Revolutions. As I am prone to do, I included some snark–“this may be illegal in some states”–based on legislation being considered or enacted in many states at the time. As it turns out a feral social movement in my own state is taking aim at this type of inquiry, too.
The Minnesota Parents Alliance, a reactionary organization that works to influence school district policies recently expressed disapproval that Minnesota teacher included slavery in their discussion of the American founding. On Xitter, they quoted a statement from a social studies teacher who was responding a survey from their school district:
“Early on in the school year, rather than teaching the structure of the US Constitution, l did a lesson on slavery and the Constitution to highlight how slavery was at the center of the founders thinking.”
Xitter, as flagged by the vital School Board Integrity Project
The context around this quotation indicates that the Alliance was rooting out lessons like this, and other inquiry into the roles played by race, power, and privilege in American society past and present. Slavery, of course, was a significant issue during the founding of the United States of America. For instance, in his authoritative notes on the Convention, James Madison observed how the demographic implications of slavery made many delegates from enslaving states negatively disposed toward the direction election of the President. Madison considers direct election of the executive to be worthy, because it gives the executive legitimacy independent from the legislature. But, he then identified a problem:
There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.
James Madison, Convention Notes, July 19, 1787, via National Archives
Infamous “three-fifths clause” meant that an electoral college boosted the influence of enslaving states. Shout out to Gouverneur Morris for denouncing slavery at the Constitutional Convention (#NotAllFounders). Unfortunately, his passion did not carry the day., and his noble example is an exception that reinforces the rule: the Constitution supported enslavement. This calls for a new set of stimulus-based multiple choice questions
Practice Questions
The body of the Constitution directly recognized slavery in Article IV, Section 2 (on page four of the original, hand-written document shown here) . This text would make an excellent stimulus for another set of questions, such as these (choices to come, but I encourage students to try to answer before looking at choices):
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
Constitution of the United States, 1787. National Archives
The clause from the original Constitution reproduced above authorized which of the following?
Historians could best use the clause from the original Constitution above to illustrate which of the following claims?
The inclusion of the clause above in the original Constitution reflects which of the following historical developments?
Which of the following nullified the Constitutional clause above?
Update: I’ve added choices to the questions. This is the first draft of the set of questions, and I would love to hear feedback
