Jessica Mason and Ameenah Oke

Challenges Faced by Framers of the Constitution Artifact

This artifact is a document of the Bill of Rights proposed by James Madison at the

constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and came into effect in 1791. The Bill of

Rights was introduced to ensure that there was a separation of power between different

government branches, the judicial, executive, and the legislative. It was designed to

guarantee every American citizen certain unalienable rights. It was added to the

constitution to protect rights belonging to American- rights such as freedom of speech,

freedom of religion and from form cruel and unusual punishment. The Bill of Rights serves
 Jessica Mason and Ameenah Oke

as a protection of citizens from excessive government power.

The concept of a federal Bill of Rights was brought up by George Mason, the

primary creator of Virginias Declaration of Rights, along with Elbridge Gerry at the

Constitutional Convention, who wanted to appoint a special committee to create this Bill of

Rights. However, because of the theory that the federal government would only have

enumerated powers, the other delegates opposed this idea solely because they did not

think it was necessary. Some states refused to ratify the Constitution after noticing that a

Bill of Rights was not included. James Madison and some of the other Federalists soon

realized that they must add this after the Constitutions ratification to ensure that states

such as New York and Virginia would actually ratify it.

We could use this artifact to teach the rights and responsibilities of every citizen. It

could be used to teach the branches of the U.S. government. Students could learn about

the relevance of the Bill of Rights to American citizens today. We could also use the artifact to

teach the students about the Founding fathers of the United States of America and the

framers of the constitution.