America 250: Revolution & Constitution, Class 7 - Foundations of Freedom - 1783-1789

August 06, 2026
7:00pm - 8:00pm

Foundations of Freedom: Building a National Government

Once peace was secured through treaty negotiations with European nations in 1783, Americans still faced a very uncertain future. Citizens needed to build a government that could protect their young country’s independence and fulfill revolutionary principles. The origins of the federal government unfolded over several fitful years. Deeply divided citizens argued, compromised, and persevered in this challenging struggle to turn abstract ideas about self-government into a viable structure. This week’s class explores the push toward the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, the contentious ratification debates of 1787-1788, and the 1789-1791 conflicts over creating a Bill of Rights. Far from a single “original” design, these enduring foundations of freedom emerged from a deeply divided country, more like our own than we usually remember, with important lessons for twenty-first-century Americans.

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Instructor Lorri Glover is the Bannon Endowed Professor in the History Department at Saint Louis University. Her books include The Fate of the Revolution: Virginians Debate the Constitution (2016), and Eliza Lucas Pinckney: An Independent Woman in the Age of Revolution (2020). Glover has served as president of the Southern Association for Women Historians and the Southern Historical Association.

Don't miss our new exhibit: "AMERICA 250: A Republic If We Can Keep It" in the main exhibit area from late June through September, 2026.  Experience period artifacts and an amazing amount of information about our Founding Fathers, Founding Mothers, and Founding Docments.

PLUS--> The New America 250 Spring/Summer Edition of the Upper Ohio Valley Historical Review will explore "Wheeling and the Ohio Valley in the National Story."

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In 1951, the Ohio County Public Library's librarian, Virginia Ebeling, referenced British historian Thomas Carlyle, who said, “the public library is a People’s University,” when she initiated a new adult education program with that name. Miss Ebeling charged the library with the responsibility of reaching “as many people in the community as possible.” In keeping with that tradition of public libraries as sanctuaries of free learning for all people, the Ohio County Public Library revived the series in 2010.

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