Overview
Compromise means to come to an agreement through consent by means of mutual concessions. Many compromises were made by the Founding Fathers when drafting the Constitution, but none was as divisive or as dangerous to its passage as the issue of slavery. Many delegates viewed slavery as inconsistent with the principles of the Declaration of Independence while others wanted it to continue unchanged. In this lesson, students will find out what compromise was made about slavery in the Constitution and will try go through the process of making a compromise on an issue in their own lives.

Standards
Social Studies
Grade 8
History, Benchmark F

6. Explain the challenges in writing and ratifying the U.S. Constitution including:

a. Issues debated during the convention resulting in compromises (i.e., the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise and the compromise over the slave trade).

 

Materials
• Research materials — text, library, Internet
• Compromises — The Slavery Issue worksheet

Procedure

1. Have the students work with a partner. Each partner shall get a copy of the student worksheet.

2. The students can find answers using either their textbooks or this Web site.

3. Allow one class period for the above activity. At the beginning of the second day, have a brief discussion of what they found. Stress the idea that neither side got exactly what they wanted — each had to compromise in some way.

4. After this discussion, give the students a controversial topic. It would be best if it were something that related to your school. For example, at many schools the dress code is a big issue. It could, however, be any topic. Some examples might be the following:

   • Choices of activities to do after lunch in the lunchroom
   • Theme of the next school dance
   • To whom Student Council should contribute money, etc.

   The school topics are limitless, but you might prefer a topic with more popular appeal. It’s important to find a topic where a compromise can be made. Issues like cloning or intelligent design often have people so dedicated to their position that no compromise is possible.

5. Break the students into groups of three or five. Ask them to come up with a compromise on the question. Give one class period for this.

6. The third day ask each group to tell the class what their compromise was and how they reached consensus. Leave time at the end of class to compare their compromise and procedure with that of the Founding Fathers.

Evaluation
Give the students the Student Self-Evaluation Checklist before they begin working on the Compromises — The Slavery Issue worksheet. The second activity where students group together to make a compromise can be evaluated with the second checklist.

Also, you may want to collect the worksheet and grade it on a percentage basis.

Questions 1 and 2 each have one answer (20 percent each). Question 3 has two answers. (40 percent). Questions 4 and 5 require an analysis (20 percent).