After the U.S. Constitution was signed by the Constitutional Convention delegates in 1787, James Madison introduced Constitutional amendments to limit the government's power and protect individual liberties. They contained guarantees of fundamental rights and liberties omitted in the original Constitution.

In September 1789, the first Congress of the United States proposed twelve amendments to the state legislatures. Of these amendments, the third through twelfth articles were ratified and became known as the "Bill of Rights." Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.