After the Declaration of Independence, states began to adopt their own state constitutions, which contained a declaration of rights or bill of rights that listed the basic rights of citizens.

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Learn about the influence of the Massachusetts constitution on today's podcast.

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Massachusetts was the last of the original thireen states to write its constitution, but it was a model for the U.S. Constitution.

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Learn about the post-Revolutionary War state governments.

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After the American Revolution, voting was not extended to everyone, although a larger percentage of people were allowed to vote in the United States than in Great Britain. Government was organized in similar ways in most states.

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The American Founders included several basic ideas about government in their state constitutions, including natural rights, higher law, social contract, and popular sovereignty.

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Each state after independence created its own state government. The ideas that states included in their constitutions included natural rights and higher law, social contract, popular sovereignty, representation, separation of powers, checks and balances, and legislative supremacy.

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At long last the Revolutionary War ended with the British surrender at Yorktown and the formal peace treaty, known as the Treaty of Paris, signed two years later.

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Eliza Lucas Pinckney supported the American Revolution, but paid a terrible price: the British took over her mansion, burned her crops, and killed her farm animals. By the end of the war, she was economically ruined.

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The Revolutionary War was not going well for the Americans in 1778-1780, with British victories in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Congress did not have the authority to raise money directly, and troops went without adequate clothing, food, and pay. It was a bleak time for the American Revolution.

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