D2.Civ.8.6-8: Founding Ideas in the Northwest Ordinance and the Articles of Confederation
In plain English: D2.Civ.8.6-8 is the C3 Framework civics indicator for grades 6-8 that asks students to analyze ideas and principles in the founding documents of the United States and explain how they influence the social and political system. Students read founding texts closely, name the principles in them and trace their effects, from new states to public schools.
Analyze ideas and principles contained in the founding documents of the United States, and explain how they influence the social and political system.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Civics · Participation and Deliberation: Applying Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles · Official standard
Students analyze ideas and principles contained in the founding documents of the United States and explain how they influence the social and political system, the two parts of D2.Civ.8.6-8. Instead of only the Constitution, this lesson uses two founding documents that students rarely read closely: the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which set rules for the land north and west of the Ohio River, and the Articles of Confederation, the first national plan of government (1777, in force 1781-1789).
Students find principles such as religious freedom, trial by jury, support for education, the equality of states and limits on national power in the documents' own words (Sources 1 and 2). They then trace the effects of these ideas on the political system (new states, and the design of the Constitution) and on the social system (slavery and freedom, schools and religious liberty in the West). A passage from John Bach McMaster's 1897 school history (Source 3) shows how a historian judged the Articles. The homework asks students to correct an invented student paragraph (Source 4). The activities include an idea card sort, a cause-and-effect chain and a "then and now" poster.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Identify ideas and principles in the Northwest Ordinance and the Articles of Confederation and explain them in plain words, quoting the text
Explain how specific principles in these documents influenced the political system, such as the admission of new states and the design of the Constitution
Explain how principles in these documents influenced the social system, such as slavery and freedom in the West, education and religious liberty
Distinguish what a founding document says from how it was carried out, and a historian's interpretation from a fact
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Citing evidence from a primary source RH.6-8.1
Basic background: the thirteen states declared independence in 1776 and won the Revolutionary War in 1783
Telling a primary source from a secondary source RH.6-8.9
"Your school has a rule that every student gets a turn to speak in class discussions. That rule rests on an idea. What idea? Now imagine the rule was written in 1787. How might it still affect your school today?"
Take answers (fairness, equality, everyone matters). Then define the lesson's terms. The founding documents are the key written plans of government from the years when the United States was founded, roughly 1776-1791: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. An idea or principle in a document is a basic belief about how people should be governed, such as equality, religious freedom or limited government. The social and political system is the way a society is organized: how its government works (political) and how people live together, learn, work and treat each other (social). D2.Civ.8.6-8 asks students to analyze the ideas (find them and explain what they mean) and to explain how they influence the system. Today the class reads two founding documents that are less famous than the Constitution: the Northwest Ordinance and the Articles of Confederation.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Part 1: The setting. After the Revolution, the United States owned a huge area north and west of the Ohio River, between Pennsylvania and the Mississippi River. Native nations, such as the Shawnee, Miami, Delaware (Lenape) and Wyandot, lived there, and American settlers wanted to move in. On July 13, 1787, the Congress of that time passed the Northwest Ordinance (an ordinance is a law) to govern this "Northwest Territory." It was passed under the Articles of Confederation, in the same summer that a convention in Philadelphia was writing the Constitution. Gloss before reading: "republics" (here, the states), "admission ... on an equal footing" (joining the Union as equals), "compact" (a binding agreement), "unalterable, unless by common consent" (unchangeable unless everyone agrees), "molested" (harassed), "writ of habeas corpus" (a court order that a jailed person be brought before a judge, so no one can be held without a reason), "judgment of his peers" (decision by a jury of fellow citizens), "involuntary servitude" (forced labor) and "fugitive" (a person who escapes).
1Sec. 13. And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory: to provide also for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest:
2Sec. 14. It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:
3Art. 1. No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.
4Art. 2. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature; and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. [...] No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land; [...]
5Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.
[...]
6Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.
Congress of the Confederation, The Northwest Ordinance (An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio), sections 13-14 and articles 1, 2, 3 and 6 (Source 1; three cuts marked [...]) (1787). Public domain (published 1787). Source text.
Analyzing an idea in a founding document (Source 1)
What principle does article 2 (paragraph 4) contain, and what does it mean in plain words?
Result: Article 2 promises the settlers "the writ of habeas corpus, and ... the trial by jury" and says "No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land." The principle is the rule of law with rights for people accused of crimes: the government cannot jail anyone or take property just because an official wants to; it must follow the law and let a jury of ordinary citizens decide. These rights came from English law and the state constitutions. Writing them into the territory's founding law meant that people moving west kept the same rights as people in the original states.
Explaining an influence on the political system (Source 1)
Section 13 (paragraph 1) promises the new states "admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States." How did this idea shape the United States?
Result: The idea is equality among states: new states would not be colonies of the old ones but full partners. The Ordinance (in article 5, not printed here) called for no fewer than three and no more than five states. Five were formed: Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837) and Wisconsin (1848), each joining with the same powers as the original 13. (A small corner of the territory, west of Lake Superior, later became part of Minnesota.) The same "equal footing" rule was used for every state admitted afterward. That is why the United States grew from 13 to 50 states without creating second-class states.
Part 2: Ideas can clash. Point out that one document can hold ideas that pull against each other, or that are not carried out. Article 6 bans slavery in the territory, but in the same sentence it lets enslavers reclaim people who escape there. Article 3 promises "The utmost good faith" toward Native nations and that their lands "shall never be taken from them without their consent," yet within a few decades most of their land in the territory had been taken through war and treaties signed under heavy pressure. Analyzing a founding document means noticing both the ideals it states and how far practice matched them.
Guided Practice15-20 minutes
The first constitution. The Articles of Confederation, agreed to in 1777 and in force from 1781 to 1789, were the first plan of government for the United States as a whole. Read Source 2 together. Gloss: "sovereignty" (supreme power to govern itself), "expressly delegated" (clearly handed over in writing), "league of friendship" (an alliance), "pretence" (excuse), "coin money" (make metal money), "appropriate money" (decide how to spend it), "assent" (agree), "abide by the determinations" (follow the decisions), "inviolably" (without breaking them) and "perpetual" (lasting forever).
1Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
2Article III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.
[...]
3In determining questions in the united states, in Congress assembled, each state shall have one vote.
[...]
4The united states, in congress assembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, [...] nor borrow money on the credit of the united states, nor appropriate money, [...] unless nine states assent to the same [...]
[...]
5Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determinations of the united states, in congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the united states, and be afterwards con-firmed by the legislatures of every state.
Continental Congress, Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, articles II, III, V, IX and XIII (Source 2; four cuts marked [...]) (1777). Public domain (published 1777). Source text.
Analyzing a principle and its effect (Source 2)
Article V says "each state shall have one vote" (paragraph 3). What principle is this, and how did it influence the later Constitution?
Result: The principle is the equality of states: Virginia, with the largest population, had the same single vote as tiny Delaware or Rhode Island. In 1787 the large states wanted votes based on population, and the small states wanted to keep one vote per state. The Constitution settled the conflict with a compromise (often called the Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise): the House of Representatives is based on population, and in the Senate every state, large or small, has two senators. The idea of equal states from the Articles still shapes Congress today.
Pair task: Make a two-column chart for Source 2. In the left column, write one idea or principle from each paragraph in your own words. In the right column, write one way that idea could cause problems or help when the states had to act together. Share one row with the class.
Teacher model for the pair work: Paragraph 5: "the union shall be perpetual." Idea: the union of the states is meant to last forever, not to break up when states disagree. Possible effect: when the Articles proved too weak, leaders did not split into separate countries; they wrote a new plan, and the first sentence of the Constitution promises "a more perfect Union." Let pairs do the other rows; the quiz asks about several of them.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students read Source 3, written 110 years later by the historian John Bach McMaster for school students, and then answer the quiz, which uses Sources 1-3. Remind them that a historian's judgment ("bad from beginning to end") is an interpretation, an opinion based on evidence, while the rules he describes are facts that can be checked against Source 2. Gloss: "that day" (March 1, 1781, when the Articles went into effect), "feeble legislature" (weak lawmaking body), "injunction to secrecy" (order to keep everything secret), "affirmative votes" (yes votes), "public domain" (land owned by the national government), "ceded" (gave up), "slave soil" (land where slavery was allowed) and "in duty bound" (required).
1The form of government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature. Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent them. Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became members of a secret body. The doors were shut; no spectators were allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on deliberating day after day. All voting was done by states, each casting but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had. The affirmative votes of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was called, "ordinance."
2To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress could declare war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between states. But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay any tax for any purpose.
[...]
3Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition that it should be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery was allowed.
[...]
4No Taxing Power.--In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the states for $6,000,000, only $1,000.000 was paid.
[...]
5But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none of these amendments were ever made.
John Bach McMaster, A School History of the United States, chapter XII, "Under the Articles of Confederation" (Source 3: a historian looks back; four cuts marked [...]) (1897). Public domain (published 1897). Source text.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: On an index card, write one idea from a founding document read today, quote the words it comes from, and give one way it still affects the United States.
Teacher note on the sources and history: Sources 1 and 2 are quoted from the National Archives transcripts with their original spelling and capital letters; Source 3 is quoted exactly from McMaster's 1897 textbook. The documents use "Indians" for Native peoples, the word of the time; in class, use the names of the nations where you can. Two facts belong next to Article 6: in the Indiana and Illinois territories, some settlers kept Black people in bondage for years after 1787, often through long "indentures" that worked much like slavery, and the fugitive clause was followed by the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Next to Article 3: the Native nations of the region fought to keep their lands, and after their defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), the Treaty of Greenville (1795) ceded most of present-day Ohio (roughly its southern and eastern two-thirds) to the United States; later treaties and the removal policy of the 1830s took most of the rest. The Ordinance was passed in 1787 under the Articles; in August 1789 the First Congress under the Constitution passed it again, with small changes to fit the new government; a student who mentions the 1789 law in Homework Problem 1 is partly right and should still name the Articles as the plan it was first passed under. McMaster's account of the land south of the Ohio simplifies events: the Territory South of the River Ohio (1790) was formed mainly from North Carolina's cession, whose terms barred Congress from freeing enslaved people there. His money figures are his own round numbers; other accounts give different totals, but all agree that the states paid only a small part of what Congress asked. McMaster's judgment that the Articles were "bad from beginning to end" is his interpretation, not a fact; some historians emphasize instead what the Confederation achieved, including winning the war, the peace treaty of 1783 and the Northwest Ordinance itself. None of the passages contains a slur.
Homework passage. Source 4 is an invented draft paragraph by a student, written for this page. It contains several mistakes for students to find and fix using Sources 1-3.
1The Northwest Ordinance was one of the first laws passed under the new Constitution, and it shows that the founders believed in freedom. Article 1 promised that people could worship as they chose, as long as they were peaceful. Article 3 said that schools "shall forever be encouraged," and that is the only reason every state has public schools today.
2The Ordinance also promised to treat Native Americans fairly, and the United States kept that promise. Article 6 banned slavery in the whole country. The Ordinance said the territory would become six new states, and these states would join the Union as equals with the original thirteen. This shows that the founding documents still shape our lives today.
SVHS (invented student draft), Source 4: a draft paragraph with mistakes (invented student draft written for this page, for the homework) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a plain-language version of each paragraph of Sources 1 and 2 next to the original
Highlight the key phrase in each paragraph before students read, and ask them to explain only that phrase
Use the frame: "The document says ___. The idea is ___. One effect was ___."
For Advanced Students
Compare Article 1 of the Northwest Ordinance with the First Amendment of the Constitution (1791): which protects religious freedom more broadly, and why?
Write a short argument: was McMaster right that the Articles were "bad from beginning to end"? Use at least one achievement of the Confederation Congress as a counterclaim
Research when your own state was admitted, and explain how the "equal footing" idea applied to it
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong work quotes the exact words of the document, names the idea or principle in plain words, and gives a specific, accurate effect with a date or example. The best answers also note limits: who was left out of a principle, or where practice did not match the words. Watch for four errors: confusing the Articles of Confederation or the Northwest Ordinance with the Constitution; claiming that one document alone caused a later change (it influenced it); treating a historian's opinion as a fact; and saying a document banned slavery "in the United States" when Article 6 applies only to the territory.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Idea Card Match
15 minPairs
Pairs get 8 idea cards. They find the paragraph in Source 1 or Source 2 that contains each idea, copy the key words, and sort the cards into two piles: ideas that are still part of the U.S. system today, and ideas that were later changed or dropped.
The 8 Idea Cards
Religious freedom
Trial by jury and due process
Support for education
Equality of new states
No slavery in the territory
Power kept by the states
One vote for each state
Changes need every state's consent
Answer Key for the Teacher
Card 1: Source 1, paragraph 3
Card 2: Source 1, paragraph 4
Card 3: Source 1, paragraph 5
Card 4: Source 1, paragraph 1
Card 5: Source 1, paragraph 6
Card 6: Source 2, paragraph 1
Card 7: Source 2, paragraph 3
Card 8: Source 2, paragraph 5
Still part of the system: cards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (religious freedom and jury trial are in the Bill of Rights; every state has public schools; every new state joined on equal footing; the Thirteenth Amendment, 1865, ended slavery everywhere in the country)
Changed or dropped: cards 6, 7 and 8 (the Constitution gave the national government more power, replaced one vote per state with a House based on population and a Senate with two members per state, and allows amendments with three-fourths of the states)
Procedure
Read the card, then skim Sources 1 and 2 for the matching words
Write the paragraph number and the key words on the back of the card
Sort the cards into "still today" and "changed or dropped," and be ready to explain one
Discussion Questions
Card 5 is in the "still today" pile, but the Ordinance did not end slavery in the whole country. What later change made the idea national?
Why might the founders have dropped card 8 when they wrote the Constitution?
Variation for a Shorter Class
Use cards 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 only.
2
Cause-and-Effect Chain
15 minGroups of 3
Each group builds a chain of four links: the words in a founding document, the idea they contain, an effect on the political system, and an effect on the social system (how people lived). Groups choose one of three starting quotations.
Starting Quotations
"schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged" (Source 1, paragraph 5)
"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory" (Source 1, paragraph 6)
"Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence" (Source 2, paragraph 1)
Sample Chain for the Teacher (Quotation 1)
Words: "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged"
Idea: a free people needs educated citizens, so government should support schools
Political effect: the states formed from the territory wrote support for schools into their own constitutions and laws, and land set aside for schools under the Land Ordinance of 1785 helped pay for them
Social effect: public schools and, later, state universities spread across the Midwest, and families moving west could expect schools for their children
Procedure
Write each link on a separate strip of paper and tape them into a chain
Check each link: is the effect really connected to the idea, or did something else cause it too?
Hang the chains and do a gallery walk; each group leaves one question on another group's chain
Modification for English Learners
Give the four link labels with sentence starters: "The document says ___," "This means ___," "In government, this led to ___," "In people's lives, this led to ___."
3
Then and Now Poster
15 minGroups of 4
Groups make a poster with three columns: a principle from Source 1 or 2, how it worked in 1787, and where the same principle shows up in the United States today. Each group must include one principle that was not fully carried out at the time and explain the gap.
Procedure
Choose three principles from the idea cards
For each, quote the words, describe 1787, and describe today with one specific example (a law, an amendment, a court right, a state)
Mark the principle that was not fully carried out and add a sentence on who was left out
What a Strong Poster Includes
Exact quotations with paragraph numbers
A "today" example that matches the principle, such as the First Amendment's protection of religion for religious freedom
An honest gap, such as the promise of "good faith" toward Native nations in Article 3 compared with the loss of their lands
Discussion Questions
Which principle on your poster has changed the most since 1787?
Can a principle influence a country even when it is not carried out at first?
Modification for Advanced Students
Add a fourth column: a founding principle that people still disagree about today, with one sentence for two different views.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Timeline from the Founding Documents to New States
The Articles of Confederation (agreed 1777, in force 1781) and the Northwest Ordinance (1787), drawn to scale on a timeline with the Constitution (signed 1787, in force 1789) and the five states later formed from the Northwest Territory: Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837) and Wisconsin (1848).
Diagram 2: Decision Rules in the Articles and the Constitution
Each bar shows, to scale, the share of all the states that had to agree. Under the Articles, important acts needed 9 of the 13 states, and changing the Articles needed all 13. Under the Constitution, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states: 10 of 13 at first, and 38 of 50 today.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
D2.Civ.8.6-8 Homework: Fix the Draft Paragraph
Directions: Source 4, printed in the Closure phase of the lesson plan, is an invented draft paragraph by a student. Use Sources 1-3 to check it. Answer each problem in 2-5 sentences, quoting the words you use with their source and paragraph numbers.
Part 1: Check the Facts (Problems 1-3)
The draft says the Northwest Ordinance "was one of the first laws passed under the new Constitution" (paragraph 1). Is that correct? Use Source 1, Source 2 or the lesson to explain which plan of government it was passed under.
The draft says "Article 6 banned slavery in the whole country" (paragraph 2). Correct the sentence using the exact words of Source 1, paragraph 6, and use Source 3, paragraph 3 to explain what happened south of the Ohio River.
Find two more mistakes in paragraph 2 of the draft: one about the number of states and one about the promise to Native nations. Correct each with evidence from Source 1 or from the lesson.
Part 2: Analyze and Explain (Problems 4-6)
The draft says Article 3 "is the only reason every state has public schools today" (paragraph 1). Explain why "the only reason" is too strong, and rewrite the sentence so it states an influence that the evidence supports.
Choose one idea from Source 2 (the Articles of Confederation). Explain the idea in your own words and describe one way it influenced the Constitution of 1787. Use Source 3 or Diagram 2 as evidence.
Write a corrected version of the whole draft paragraph (5-7 sentences). It must name at least two principles from Source 1, quote each, and explain one influence of each on the social or political system.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Accuracy
Finds and corrects the mistakes with accurate facts
Finds a mistake but corrects it only in part
Misses the mistakes or adds new ones
Evidence
Quotes the founding documents with source and paragraph
Refers to a source without quoting it
No evidence
Analysis of Ideas
Names each principle and explains it in plain words
Names a principle without explaining it
No principle named
Influence
Explains a specific, accurate influence without overstating it
States an influence vaguely or overstates it
No influence explained
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 1-5 and 14 use the Northwest Ordinance (Source 1), Questions 6-8 use the Articles of Confederation (Source 2), and Questions 9-13 use McMaster's history (Source 3). Questions 15-20 ask you to connect the sources and Diagram 2. All passages are printed in the lesson plan. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 1, paragraph 3 protects a person's "mode of worship or religious sentiments" on one condition. What is it?
Answer: B
The article protects any person "demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner," which means behaving peacefully; "demeaning himself" here means conducting himself. The principle is freedom of religion, limited only by keeping the peace. Choices A and D would make the government favor a church, the opposite of the article. Choice C is not in the text: the protection covers any "person."
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 5, why should "schools and the means of education ... forever be encouraged"?
Answer: D
The article gives its own reason: "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The founders linked education to self-government. Choices A, B and C are not in the text; C is also false, since the original states had many schools.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 1, paragraph 2 says the articles that follow "shall be considered as articles of compact" and "forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent." What does this mean?
Answer: C
A compact is a binding agreement, here "between the original States and the people and States in the said territory," and "unalterable, unless by common consent" means it could be changed only if both sides agreed (Choice C). Choice A is the opposite. Choices B and D are not in the paragraph.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Article 6 (Source 1, paragraph 6) bans "slavery" and "involuntary servitude" in the territory, with one exception written into the ban itself. Under that exception, which kind of forced labor was still allowed there?
Answer: D
The article bans slavery and involuntary servitude "otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted": forced labor was allowed only as a punishment after a conviction (Choice D). The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) uses almost the same exception. Choice C confuses this exception with the "Provided, always" clause, which let people escaping slavery be "reclaimed and conveyed" back to those claiming their labor, not held in the territory. Choices A and B are not in the article.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
How did the Northwest Ordinance influence the social system of the region north of the Ohio River?
Answer: B
Article 6 banned slavery in the territory (Source 1, paragraph 6), while the land south of the Ohio, ceded by North Carolina, became a territory where "slavery was allowed" (Source 3, paragraph 3). The Ohio River became a dividing line in law between free and slave territory, though some settlers north of it kept people in bondage through long indentures. Choice A is false: under section 9 of the Ordinance (not printed here), a man had to own at least 50 acres of land in the district to vote for the territorial assembly. Choice C contradicts the religious freedom in article 1. Choice D has no support.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Suppose the Articles of Confederation say nothing about who may build roads. Under Source 2, paragraph 1, who holds that power?
Answer: A
Under Source 2, paragraph 1, each state "retains" (keeps) "every Power ... which is not by this confederation expressly delegated" (clearly handed over in writing) to Congress. A power the Articles never mention, such as building roads, therefore stays with each state (Choice A). Choice B reverses the rule. Choices C and D name offices the Articles did not create: there was "no one officer to carry out the laws" and "no court or judge to settle disputed points of law" (Source 3, paragraph 1).
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 2, paragraph 4 says Congress could not go to war, coin money, borrow money or spend money "unless nine states assent to the same." With 13 states, how many states could block such a decision?
Answer: B
If 9 of 13 states must agree, then a decision fails whenever 13 - 9 + 1 = 5 states refuse, since only 8 would be left to agree. Choice A, 4, is the largest group that could refuse while the decision still passes (9 would remain). Choice C, 7, would be enough only under a simple majority rule. Choice D, 9, is the number needed to pass, not to block.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 2, paragraph 5 says no change may be made to the Articles "unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the united states, and be afterwards con-firmed by the legislatures of every state." What effect did this rule have, according to Source 3?
Answer: C
McMaster writes that "the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none of these amendments were ever made" (Source 3, paragraph 5). Requiring every state let one state stop any change. Choices A and B contradict the rule, and Choice D reverses it: every state, large or small, had to agree.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
McMaster's verdict that the government under the Articles "was bad from beginning to end" (Source 3, paragraph 1) is his interpretation. Which other statement in paragraph 1 is also a judgment, not a fact that could be checked in the Articles themselves?
Answer: B
"Feeble" is McMaster's judgment about how strong Congress was, like "bad from beginning to end"; another historian could weigh the same powers differently (Choice B). Choices A and C are facts that Source 2 confirms: "each state shall have one vote" (paragraph 3) and "unless nine states assent to the same" (paragraph 4). Choice D mistakes a description of how Congress was organized for a judgment; it is a checkable fact, although the part of the Articles that says so is not printed here.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 4, Congress asked the states for $6,000,000 between 1782 and 1786 and received $1,000,000. About what fraction of the money it asked for did Congress get?
Answer: A
$1,000,000 / $6,000,000 = 1/6, so Congress received about one-sixth, roughly 17 cents of every dollar it asked for. Choice C, five-sixths, is the share it did not receive. Choice B has no basis in the numbers. Choice D flips the division.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why could Congress under the Articles not simply collect the money it needed (Source 3, paragraphs 2 and 4)?
Answer: A
McMaster says Congress "could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay any tax for any purpose" (paragraph 2) and "could not lay a tax of any kind" (paragraph 4), so it had to ask the states, which often did not pay. This follows from the principle in Source 2, paragraph 1, that the states kept every power not clearly given to Congress. Choices B, C and D contradict Source 3: every state sent delegates, there was "no court," and Congress met each year.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which change in the Constitution of 1787 most directly answered the problem described in Source 3, paragraph 4?
Answer: D
Paragraph 4 describes a Congress that "could not lay a tax of any kind" and so could not pay its debts. The Constitution gave Congress the power to lay and collect taxes (Article I, Section 8), Choice D. Choice A answers a different dispute, over representation. Choices B and C are tied to real features of the Constitution (it allowed a federal district for the seat of government, and the capital moved to Washington, D.C., in 1800; it required a census, first taken in 1790), but they do not solve the money problem.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 3, paragraph 3 says the Ordinance created "two more American institutions, the territory and the state formed out of the public domain." Which later event shows this influence on the political system?
Answer: C
The Ordinance set up a path, territory first and then a state equal to the others, that Congress used again and again: the Oregon Territory was organized in 1848 and admitted as the state of Oregon in 1859 (Choice C), and most later states followed the same path. Choice A came before the Ordinance. Choice B reverses history: Virginia gave up its claim to the land north of the Ohio, which made the public domain possible. Choice D describes how Congress worked, not the Ordinance's effect.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Source 1, paragraph 5 promises that Native nations' "lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." A student wants to find out whether this promise was kept. Which evidence would best answer that question?
Answer: B
Whether a promise was kept is a question about practice, not about the words, so it needs records of what happened afterward: the treaties, beginning with the Treaty of Greenville (1795), show how much land the nations gave up and under what pressure (Choice B). Choice A only rereads the promise, which cannot show whether it was kept. Choice C is an interpretation about a different document. Choice D shows the political effect of section 13, not how the Native nations were treated.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Choose one principle from the Northwest Ordinance (Source 1). Quote the words, explain the principle in your own words, and describe one way it influenced the social or political system of the United States.
Model answer: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory" (paragraph 6). The principle is that the new lands in the Northwest would be free soil, where no one could be held as property. It influenced the social system by making the Ohio River a line between free and slave territory: the states formed from the territory, such as Ohio and Illinois, entered the Union as free states, while the territory south of the Ohio allowed slavery (Source 3, paragraph 3). Rubric: full credit for an exact quotation, a correct plain-words explanation and a specific, accurate influence; partial credit for two of the three.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain how ONE idea in the Articles of Confederation (Source 2) caused problems for the United States in the 1780s. Use evidence from Source 3.
Model answer: The idea that each state kept its "sovereignty, freedom and independence" and every power not "expressly delegated" (Source 2, paragraph 1) left Congress without the power to tax. McMaster explains that Congress "could not lay a tax of any kind" and that when it asked the states for $6,000,000, only about $1,000,000 was paid (Source 3, paragraph 4), so it could not pay the war debt. Rubric: full credit for a quoted idea from Source 2 linked to a specific problem with evidence from Source 3; partial credit if the link or the evidence is missing.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Diagram 2 shows that the Articles needed all 13 states to agree to an amendment, while the Constitution needs three-fourths of the states. Explain one reason the writers of the Constitution chose three-fourths instead of all the states, and one reason they did not choose a simple majority.
Model answer: They did not require all the states because under the Articles one state could block every change; as McMaster says, "all thirteen never did consent, none of these amendments were ever made" (Source 3, paragraph 5). They did not choose a simple majority because a founding plan of government should be hard to change, so that a bare majority of states could not change everyone's basic rules; three-fourths (38 of 50 today) requires broad agreement. Rubric: full credit for one supported reason for each part; partial credit for one part.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Section 14 (Source 1, paragraph 2) says the articles that follow will "forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent." Why might Congress have made these particular articles so hard to change? What does that suggest about the principles in them?
Model answer: Making the articles a compact that only "common consent" could change meant that Congress could not later take away, by itself, the rights it had promised the settlers, such as religious freedom and trial by jury. People deciding whether to move west could count on those rights. It suggests that Congress saw these principles as basic rules of the new society, more lasting than ordinary laws. Rubric: full credit for a reason tied to the words "unalterable, unless by common consent" and a conclusion about the importance of the principles; partial credit for one of the two.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Ideas in one founding document can pull against each other. In Source 2, explain how the promise in paragraph 2 could clash with the rule in paragraph 4, and use Source 3 to show why the clash mattered.
Model answer: In paragraph 2 the states promise "to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them," but paragraph 4 says Congress cannot go to war or borrow or spend money "unless nine states assent to the same." A promise to defend each other could be blocked if only five states refused. Source 3 shows the deeper problem: Congress "could not lay a tax of any kind," and the states paid only about $1,000,000 of the $6,000,000 it asked for (paragraph 4), so even a decision to defend a state might not be paid for. Rubric: full credit for both quoted ideas, a clear explanation of the clash and evidence from Source 3; partial credit for two of the three.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Name one right in Source 1, paragraph 4 that is still part of the U.S. system today, and explain where it appears now.
Model answer: The "trial by jury" in article 2 is still a right today: the Sixth Amendment (1791) guarantees a jury trial in criminal cases, and the Seventh Amendment protects jury trials in many civil cases. The "writ of habeas corpus" is also still protected: Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution says it cannot be suspended except in cases of rebellion or invasion. Rubric: full credit for a right quoted from paragraph 4 and an accurate present-day location; partial credit for a right without an accurate location.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D2.Civ.8.6-8 mean?
D2.Civ.8.6-8 asks students in grades 6-8 to analyze the ideas and principles in the founding documents of the United States and explain how they influence the social and political system. Students read the documents themselves, explain principles such as religious freedom or limited government, and trace their effects on government and on people's lives.
Which documents count as founding documents?
Usually the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (1777, in force 1781), the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the Constitution (1787) and the Bill of Rights (1791). Many teachers also include the Federalist Papers, which explain the Constitution. D2.Civ.8.6-8 does not name specific documents, so a lesson can use any of them.
Why teach the Northwest Ordinance in middle school?
Because it is short, concrete and full of principles students can find on their own: religious freedom, jury trials, support for schools, equal new states and a ban on slavery in the territory. It also shows clearly how a founding idea can shape real places, since five Midwestern states grew out of it.
What were the main weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
Congress could not tax, could not regulate trade between the states or with other countries, and had no national executive or court to enforce its laws. Important decisions needed 9 of the 13 states, and any change to the Articles needed all 13. These weaknesses led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Did the Northwest Ordinance end slavery?
No. It banned slavery only in the Northwest Territory, and it included a clause for returning people who escaped from slavery in the original states. Some settlers there also held people in bondage for years through long "indentures." Slavery was ended in the whole country by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
Is D2.Civ.8.6-8 a civics or a history standard?
It is a civics indicator in the C3 Framework, but it is often taught in grade 8 U.S. History, where the founding era is part of the course. The two fit together: history explains when and why the documents were written, and civics explains the principles in them.
What is the difference between analyzing a founding document and summarizing it?
A summary retells what the document says; an analysis explains the idea behind the words and why it matters. For example, a summary of Article 2 of the Northwest Ordinance lists the rights it promises; an analysis explains that it applies the principle of the rule of law and connects it to rights Americans still have.
How can students show influence without overstating it?
By using words such as "influenced," "helped lead to" or "was one cause of," and by naming other causes too. A founding document can shape later events without being their only cause; strong answers give a date or example and avoid claims like "this is the only reason."
What should students know before studying D2.Civ.8.6-8?
Basic facts about the American Revolution and the thirteen states, and how to read a primary source and cite it. Vocabulary from the documents, such as sovereignty, compact and habeas corpus, can be taught during the lesson.
What comes after D2.Civ.8.6-8 in high school?
D2.Civ.8.9-12 asks high school students to evaluate social and political systems in different contexts, times and places that promote civic virtues and enact democratic principles. Students move from analyzing the U.S. founding documents to comparing and judging systems across history and around the world.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to D2.Civ.8.6-8: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
RH.6-8.1Prerequisite
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources
Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.
