RPTM Podcast Episode Twenty-One: Shay’s Rebellion, The Articles of Confederation, Northwest Ordinance, the Constitution, and Homosexuality

Never forget the importance of the storyteller. Looking at not just what was important to them but why it would be is a far higher level of mastery. We value the things we want to remember, but we soon lose the things we do not. The more voices we keep, the more of a complete picture we will begin to form.  

HIGHLIGHTS 

• Shays's Rebellion led Washington and other Nationalists— including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison—to proclaim the Articles of Confederation inadequate and urge support for the Constitutional Convention's Constitution in 1787.
• The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first written constitution of the United States. Written in 1777 and stemming from wartime urgency, its progress was slowed by fears of central authority and extensive land claims by states. 
• In their objective of promoting egalitarianism, the creators of the Northwest Ordinance were primarily successful. Despite speculation and the inevitable abuses, land ownership was spread relatively evenly across the Midwest, with fewer of the massive estates that came to dominate the southern and eastern regions.
• The United States Constitution established America's national government and fundamental laws and guaranteed certain basic rights.
• With the establishment of the United States following the American Revolution, such crimes as "sodomy" were a capital offense in some states. At the same time, cross-dressing was considered a felony punishable by imprisonment or other forms of corporal punishment.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Start
0:37 Introduction
1:17 Shay's Rebellion
6:26 Article of Confederation
14:47 The Constitution
25:15 Northwest Ordinance
31:18 Homosexuality in the 18th Century
36:05 Outro

RESOURCES
SHAYS' REBELLION
Articles of Confederation
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and its Effects
Constitution
We Colonials: Sodomy Laws in America
18th Century Queer Cultures #1: the Macaroni & his Ancestors