The American Revolution (HIST 116)
In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses how the new nation moved towards creating a stronger, more centralized national government than the Articles of Confederation. Complications of commerce between individual states - a factor that wasn't regulated by the Articles - led to a series of interstate gatherings, like the Mount Vernon Conference of March 1785. Some strong nationalists saw these meetings as an ideal opportunity to push towards revising the Articles of Confederation. Professor Freeman ends with a discussion of James Madison's preparations for the Federal Convention, and the importance of his notes in understanding the process by which delegates drafted a new Constitution.
00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: The Road to the Constitutional Convention
06:07 - Chapter 2. Complications of Interstate Commerce and the Mount Vernon Conference
13:11 - Chapter 3. Nationalist Hopes to the Revise the Articles of Confederation
23:29 - Chapter 4. Madison's Historical Analyses of Republics and the Results of the Annapolis Convention
37:27 - Chapter 5. Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: open.yale.edu/courses
This course was recorded in Spring 2010.