By the time the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, the colonies had a long history of self-government. Many of the members of the Constitutional Convention had drafted similar documents for their states in the tumultuous months during the early phases of the Revolution. This collection of American documents includes the colonial charters and constitutions of the original colonies. The book includes histories of these documents as well as the full text of each one. Many of these early documents directly influenced the history of United States government from the earliest days of settlement.