Revolutionary Republics: The First State Constitutions, 1776-1784
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Book Overview
Before the United States had a Constitution, thirteen newly independent states were already experimenting with democracy.
In Revolutionary Republics, Eugene A. Procknow explores the transformative period when the rebellious American colonies replaced British royal rule with governments of their own. Between 1776 and 1784, they embarked on an unprecedented period of constitution-making, laying the groundwork for the nation's constitutional future.
Procknow examines how influential figures including John Adams, Thomas Paine, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson helped redefine representative government as the states confronted fundamental questions of liberty, religion, political power, and individual rights. Their new constitutions introduced significant reforms: declarations of rights to protect against arbitrary power, greater religious freedom, broader legislative representation, and expanded voting rights for white men and, in limited cases, women and free Black men. Annual elections, weakened governors, restrictions on conflicts of interest, and civilian control of the military reflected a determination to prevent the abuses Americans associated with British rule.
Yet these experiments remained incomplete. Questions of race, enslavement, and Indigenous sovereignty exposed the limits and contradictions of Revolutionary-era ideals of liberty and equality.
Revolutionary Republics restores the first state constitutions to their essential place in the American founding, revealing how thirteen former colonies became self-governing republics and established principles that would influence the federal Constitution. For readers of American history, law, and political science, Procknow illuminates a pivotal chapter in the development of American democracy.
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