Question

What were the characteristics of the state constitutions written during the early years of the struggle? How did they reflect the general spirit of the Enlightenment—the belief that freedom was the natural state of humanity?

Answer 1

The one thing that practically all the state constitutions shared in the early days of the colonies was the idea of popular sovereignty--that the state existed to serve the people, not the other way around. This of course made its way into the Constitution as well