User-Created Content
By maureeml
On July 2, 2019
Bell Ringer: Thomas Wilson Dorr and Rhode Island's Constitution
Dorr's Rebellion: Constitutional Insurrection or an Exercise in the Right of Rebellion
In the 1840's Thomas Dorr utilized extra legal means to expand the right to enfranchisement because the people in power refused to revise Rhode Island's State Constitution which disenfranchised more than sixty percent of the male population.
Description
In the 1840's Thomas Dorr attempted to expand the right to enfranchisement by calling for a constitutional convention since nearly sixty percent of the male population was disenfranchised. When the people in power refused to recognize the state legislature's approval of the People's Constitution, a revision Rhode Island's State Constitution, the opposing groups each held an election which resulted in two state legislatures and two governors at the same time.
Bell Ringer Assignment
- Describe the roots of the "Constitutional Insurrection" as explained by Holly Snyder of the Hay Library.
- How and why did it become a problem in the early 19th Century?
- Why did the attempts to fix the problem fail?
- Describe the constitutional crisis that erupted. Include a list of each side's actions.
- Make an argument in support or against Dorr's actions.
Additional Resource
Participants
Vocabulary
- Authority
- Constitutional Convention
- Extra Legal
- Insurrection
- Popular Sovereignty
- State Constitution