Important Historical Documents in American Government and History

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	Magna Carta	Virginia Charter	May-flower Compact	English Bill of Rights	Va. Declaration of Rights	Va. Statute of Religious Freedom	Articles of Confederation	The Declara-tion of Indepen-dence	The US Constitution and Bill of Rights
Time and Place	1215 England	1606, 1609, 1612 London, England Virginia	1620 On the Mayflower in the Atlantic	1689 London, England	1776 Williamsburg, VA	1786 Virginia	1777-1781 Phila., PA	July 4, 1776 Phila., PA	Sept. 18, 1787 Ratified 1788. Phila, PA
Purpose	Restrict power of the King. Trial by jury Becomes law.	Creates the Colony of Virginia for trade and profit	Signers agreed to make and obey the laws they made.	Outlines rights of Parliament	Outlines rights of Virginians	States freedom of religion for Christians	Creates a confeder-ation called the United States of America	States reasons for separation from England	Outlines 3 branches and federal system. 1^st 10 Amendments list basic rights.
Important People	King John I Nobles	Virginia Company John Smith James I	41 Signers William Bradford James I	William of Orange Mary I James II	George Mason, Va. Hose of Delegates	Jefferson & Madison	Richard Henry Lee	T. Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams George III 2^nd Cont. Congress	Madison, Washington Constitutional Convention
Import-ance	Basis of English law and govern-ment	Begins English colonies in N. America	First example of self-govt. in New World.	Restricts power of monarchy. Example for Dec. of Ind.	Model for Jefferson and Declaration & Bill of Rights.	free exercise of religion; Separation church & state (1^st Am.)	USA’s first constitution	Lists basic human rights; states Locke’s Social Con.	Longest running constitution in the world.

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