{"id":12793,"date":"2026-03-08T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/?p=12793"},"modified":"2026-03-08T23:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:20:07","slug":"db-6-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/2026\/03\/08\/db-6-1\/","title":{"rendered":"DB 6.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
    \n
  1. According to the readings, the Constitution was mostly written by wealthy members of society such as large landowners, merchants, bankers, and slaveholders. Because they owned property and had investments, they also had political power and could attend the Constitutional Convention. For example, just a few wealthy men controlled most of the commerce, shipping, banking, and land in the colonies. On the other hand, groups like slaves, women, Native Americans, indentured servants, and many poor white men who did not own property were left out. These groups were called the disenfranchised because they had no political rights and could not vote or participate in writing the Constitution. The main difference between the two classes was that the wealthy class owned property and focused on protecting their wealth and stability, while the excluded groups had little or no property and had to work for others to survive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I think the social class structure in early America was similar to today in some ways, but also different. In the past, a small wealthy people had most of the power and wealth, while the majority of people were farmers, laborers, or in debt and struggled to get by. Today, there is still a gap between rich and poor, with some people owning big businesses and wealth, while many others work regular jobs. However, one important difference is that now, more people have political rights. In early America, groups like women, slaves, and poor people could not vote, but today, most adults can legally take part in elections.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. The people who wrote the Constitution were afraid of democracy because they thought giving too much power to the majority could threaten the interests of wealthy property owners. Since most people were poor or working class, the founders worried that a democratic system might lead to demands for things like canceling debts or redistributing property. For example, Shays\u2019 Rebellion, when struggling farmers protested debt and taxes, made wealthy leaders even more worried about the power of the lower classes. To them, this seemed like a warning that the majority might challenge the existing social and economic order. Because of this, they preferred a republic where elected representatives would make decisions instead of direct rule by the people, which helped limit the influence of the majority.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-6-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12794,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12793\/revisions\/12794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0504-spring-2026-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}