The Virginia Plan

Bicameral legislature. Ugh. Kids, here’s all you need: It’s a goofy phrase that simply means, “half of Congress is strictly two people per state, but the other half of Congress is a proportional number of people from each state.” For that 2nd half, you can thank James Madison.

Otherwise, here’s the risk: Let’s say you have a huge state with millions of people, like California, pushing a bill to curb 15% of commercial fossil fuel output in 20 years. Meanwhile, a tiny state, like Rhode Island, pushes a bill to force every American to wear lobster hats. They would each have equal power.

The estimable industrial warehouse that converts scrapped artifacts from American history into comics.

Jon White, Proprietor.

A Note on Sources

The American Scraps Executive Reference Library

Every American Scraps comic strip cites, links-to, and—where possible—displays a preview of its source artifact. These artifacts are all from public-domain, royalty-free sources, and are appropriate for use in the classroom. Most American Scraps sources come from The National Archives And Records Administration (NARA), whose “Today’s Document” feature was the original inspiration, in 2010, for this whole enterprise. (On a personal note, I’m grateful to NARA for the invaluable work they have done, and continue to do.)

For ease of use in the classroom—specifically grades 5–12—American Scraps organizes its material according to UCLA’s National Standards for History Basic Edition (1996), as you can see in those ten “Historical Eras” above. Learn more about the National Center for History in the Schools here.

If you’re a teacher and are using American Scraps in the classroom, I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a line at jon@americanscraps.com.

A Note on Theft

The original art you see here on American Scraps is copyrighted, and reproduction of it is prohibited without written approval.

In other words, unless I’ve told you otherwise: Don’t save or screenshot these comics for use in your own post, tweet, slideshow, or embed. Don’t “remix” or “aggregate” them. Don’t reproduce them, even in an appreciative way. Don’t sell them. Don’t drop them into a listicle called “15 Comic GIFs That Tell The Story Of American History (And You Won’t Believe #8!)”.

Instead, contact me at jon@americanscraps.com and let’s talk about your idea.

American Scraps