The Constitution

Define: defective

• Having a fault or weakness

• Changing slowly over time

• Made shorter

• A formal change made to a legal document

Define: evolving

• Having a fault or weakness

• Changing slowly over time

• Made shorter

• A formal change made to a legal document

Define: condensed

• Having a fault or weakness

• Changing slowly over time

• Made shorter

• A formal change made to a legal document

Define: amendment

• Having a fault or weakness

• Changing slowly over time

• Made shorter

• A formal change made to a legal document

What do the following lines mainly reveal about the Constitution (paragraph 2)?

But who are "We the People"? This question troubled the nation for centuries. As Lucy Stone, one of America’s first advocates for women’s rights, asked in 1853: "‘We the People’? Which ‘We the People’? The women were not included." Neither were white males who did not own property, American Indians, or African Americans—slave or free.

• The writers of the Constitution were not aware that other people living in America wanted rights.

• The Constitution eventually included everyone it originally left out by 1853.

Which of the following statements best describes an effect the Civil War had on the development of the United States?

• It secured women’s right to vote.

• It brought together the country as more of a unified body than the states had previously been.

What did the 13th amendment achieve?

• ended slavery

• women earned the right to vote

What did the 19th amendment achieve?

• ended slavery

• women earned the right to vote

What did the 15th amendment achieve?

• ended slavery

• African American men earned the right to vote

Why did the author include paragraph 5 in the text? 

5 Through the amendment process, more and more Americans were eventually included in the Constitution's definition of "We the People." After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment gave African Americans citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote nationwide, and in 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment extended suffrage to eighteen-year-olds.

• To show that the constitution has remained unchanged in over 200 years.

• To show that the constitution today protects the rights of more people than it did when orginally written.