Rise of Democracy

Democracy in the early 1800s was different from how we picture the meaning of that word today. We analyzed documents, art, and charts about democracy's growth in America and drew conclusions about what the information told us about American democracy in the early 1800s. Through it we learned that democracy has negative aspects and isn't always as fair as it sounds. We also saw how voting was not anything like we think of it today, there was much less security and a lot more chaos. The qualifications for the right to vote were very different and they've changed through the years.

This is the poster my group made defining Democracy and how it was used in 1800s America.

Democracy : a system of government where the power is vested in the people or through freely elected representatives

Sources/Information:
Art Source
Art Guide
Voting Chart 1
Voting Chart 2

Quotes on Poster (if hard to see)

Top Right Corner Quote:

"Today a man owns a jackass worth fifty dollars and he is entitled to vote; but 

before the next election the jackass dies.  The man in the meantime has 

become more experienced, his knowledge of the principles of government, 

and his acquaintance with mankind are more extensive, and he is therefore 

better qualified to make a proper selection of rulers – but the jackass is dead 

and the man cannot vote.  Now gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the 

right of suffrage?  In the man or in the jackass?"

-Benjamin Franklin, The Casket, or Flowers of Literature, Wit and Sentiment (1828)

Above Red Information Box:

"The attempt to govern men without seeking their consent is usurpation and 

tyranny, whether in Ohio or in Austria...I was looking the other day...into Noah 

Webster's Dictionary for the meaning of democracy, and I found as I expected 

that he defines a democrat to be "one who favors universal suffrage."

­ Norton Townshend, Ohio Constitutional Convention, 1850 

(Note:  Ohio became a state in 1803)

The Dorr War