The following standards have been taken from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) standards.

Students will understand:

• The contributions of African slaves to economic development in the Americas (e.g., contributions of rice cultivation and cattle raising in South Carolina) and the transmission of African cultural heritage (e.g., through religious practices, dances, and work songs).
  
  
• The differences among several state constitutions (e.g., various applications of 18th-century republicanism, such as virtue in government, balancing the interests of different social groups, service to the common good, representation, separation of powers, judicial independence, and the legitimacy of slavery).
  
  
• Influences on the ideas established by the Constitution (e.g., the ideas behind the distribution of powers and the system of checks and balances; the influence of 18th-century republican ideals and the economic and political interests of different regions on the compromises reached in the Constitutional Convention).
  
  
• The Bill of Rights and various challenges to it (e.g., arguments by Federalists and Anti-Federalists over the need for a Bill of Rights, the Alien and Sedition Acts, recent court cases involving the Bill of Rights).