4. The Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this final module, we'll explore the arguments of the Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was used as a way to get more states to ratify the Constitution, addressing many of the arguments that so called Anti-Federalists were putting forward at the time.

Course

In this course, Professor Woody Holton (University of South Carolina) discusses the ratification of the US Constitution, along with the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights. We start by looking at the structure of the Constitution - the preamble and each of its articles. After this, we turn to examine how ratification was achieved in the so called "easy" states - Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Georgia. We then turn to look at the process of ratification in the "harder" states and how the Federalist Papers were used as a tool to achieve this. In the final module, we'll explore the arguments of the Anti-Federalists and the Bill of Rights.

Lecturer

Woody Holton is Peter and Bonnie McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. He specialises in early American history, especially the American Revolution, with a focus on economic history, African Americans, Native Americans, and women. He is author of a number of books within these fields including Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution.