§ The map · Massachusetts
Massachusetts ratified the Constitution in 1788, by a convention vote of 187-168, the 6th state to do so.
Nineteen votes. The first state to ratify while demanding a bill of rights.
Asked how many people in the other party support political violence, Massachusetts residents put the figure at 54.3%. Asked the same people whether they themselves support it, the answer comes back at 17.2%. The distance between what is believed and what is true is 37.1 points, across 2,065 respondents in Massachusetts.
The trilogy begins where this gap ends: with people who are certain about each other and wrong.
Ratification votes and dates from the United States Senate Manual. Statehood dates from the National Archives. Where sources disagree, this map follows the Senate Manual and says so.
America's Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab. Weekly from September 2022 to March 2026. 162,000 respondents nationally.
Answer the same question yourself — six seats, from the world down to you, and then you see where every other reader landed.
All fifty-one cards on the map
Divided Houses, Book One of the Union Trilogy