Warm Up:
Take out your materials for the Constitutional
Convention (speech, arguments).
Create a nametag for the person you are
representing.
1.
Write your name in large, bold letters than can be seen across the
room.
2. Underneath your name, write the social class you belong to.
Today’s Question:
How would history have been
different if African Americans,
women, indentured servants, and
Native Americans had attended
the Constitutional Convention?
Agenda:
1. Finish preparing for convention
2. Build Alliances
3. Hold Convention
4. Vote
5. Debrief: What happened? How is this
similar/different from what happened in history?
Prepare for the Convention:
1. Create an opening statement: your opening statement
should explain who your social group is, what their place is
in society, and their position on the 2 major issues
(suffrage, abolition).
2. Review your arguments/prepare to debate the issues.
3. Group roles:
Speakers: choose at least 2 people from your
group who will share their speeches at the
convention
Debaters: Choose 1 or 2 people to be in charge of
coming up with responses for the other group’s
speeches.
Grading:
You will be graded on:
•
•
•
•
•
Opening statements
Speeches
Quality of arguments
Interactions with other students
behavior
Alliance Building:
1. You will have 10 minutes to try to build
alliances with other social groups.
2. 2 people in your group will be the
ambassadors. Ambassadors will walk around,
trying to convince other groups to support
their position on suffrage, slavery, or both.
3. 2 people will stay at your table and talk to the
ambassadors.
Welcome to the Philadelphia
Convention Hall, 1787
Today, we welcome 7 social groups to debate 2
burning questions that will impact the future
of this country.
1. Should slavery be abolished?
2. Who should have the right to vote?
Vote for President of the Convention!
Logan
Iroquois Indian
George Washington
Southern Plantation
Owner
Deborah Read
White Woman
Groups invited to our convention:
Indentured Servants
Free African
Americans
Southern planation
owners
White women
Slaves
Iroquois
Northern
merchants and
bankers
Convention Procedure:
1. We will debate one issue at a time.
1. Should slavery be abolished?
2. Who should have the right to vote?
2. Raise your hand if you would like to comment on
one of the questions for debate. You will stand,
introduce yourself, and read your speech. When
you are finished, convention members will have a
chance to comment.
3. After we have debated the 2 burning questions, we
will take a vote.
Convention Debrief:
1. At the real convention, only southern
plantation owners and northern merchants were
in attendance. How did they answer the burning
questions?
Should slavery be abolished?
Who should have the right to vote?
2. How might history have been different if
other groups of people had been allowed to
attend?