A More Perfect Union

🪜 The era’s spine — learn these anchors in order

1776 Declaration → 1781 Articles → 1787 Convention → 1789 Washington → 1791 Bill of Rights → 1803 Louisiana Purchase → 1820 Missouri Compromise → 1861 war begins → 1863 Emancipation → 1865 Appomattox & 13th Amendment.

👕 The jersey sort — L · E · J

Legislative WRITES the laws (Congress: two rooms and the purse). Executive ENFORCES them (the President: many hats, every hat leashed). Judicial INTERPRETS them (the courts: no army, no purse, the last word).

🔁 The era’s favorite cause-and-effect chains

• Weak Articles → Constitutional Convention → new Constitution.
• Anti-Federalist fears → the Bill of Rights bargain → ratification.
• Cotton gin → cotton profits soar → slavery expands → sectional crisis deepens.
• Kansas-Nebraska → violence → Lincoln elected → secession → war. An effect turns around and CAUSES the next thing.

🎯 How the test will ask

• Sequencing: order events by what CAUSED what — causes come first.
• Whose voice? A period-style line — name the speaker’s chair: mill worker, planter, Federalist, Anti-Federalist.
• Evidence: the wrong answers are TRUE — they just don’t support the claim.

✅ Before the test, can you…

• Put the ten anchor events in order?
• Explain why the Articles of Confederation failed?
• Sort any power to its branch — L, E, or J?
• Trace the cotton gin’s chain to the sectional crisis?
• Explain what the Emancipation Proclamation did and did NOT do?