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.

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.