Interesting Things about the Articles of Confederation

This page tells stories about the Articles of Confederation that don't fit in anywhere else.

Where was the national capital under the Articles of Confederation? Click here to read about how Congress wandered from place to place--not because no city wanted it, but because every city wanted it.

Click here to learn about the infamous three-fifths clause (counting slaves as 3/5 of a person), and about slavery in general under the Articles of Confederation.

Congress had a presiding officer, called the President, who was not, not, not the President of the United States. See here for the story of the office and the nine men who held it.

Would our 14th state be Kentucky, Vermont, Franklin, or even Canada? See The Race to Become the Fourteenth State.

Could a state secede from the Articles of Confederation? The "perpetual" in Perpetual Union.

If eighty percent of life is showing up, why did the Confederation Congress have chronic problems with absenteeism?

And finally, see An Idea That Failed for the sad, forgotten story of the Committee of the States.