The original purpose of the Constitutional Convention held in May 1787 in Philadelphia's Independence Hall was to A improve the Articles of Confederation. B distribute power equally among the states. C grant citizenship to free African Americans. D draft a Constitution of the United States.

A. Improve the Articles of Confederation

The original purpose of the Constitutional Convention, which convened in May 1787 in Philadelphia, was to address the problems that the United States was facing under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States and it created a confederation of states, but it had significant weaknesses such as a lack of central government authority, no power to tax, and the inability to regulate trade between states.

Extra: It's important to know that the Articles of Confederation provided very limited powers to the central or federal government, with most powers residing with the state governments. This created many issues, such as the inability of the government to pay debts from the Revolutionary War, and states were often in conflict with each other without a mechanism to resolve disputes. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention met with the intention to fix these issues. However, during the convention, they realized that merely amending the Articles wouldn't be sufficient. They decided to create a new constitution, which would balance powers between the states and a stronger central government. This led to the drafting of the United States Constitution, the supreme law of the United States, which established the system of federalism that the country has today. This system divides powers between the national government and state governments while also setting up a system of checks and balances among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government.