The Anti-Federalists were a group of people who opposed the ratification of the 1787 U.S. Constitution because they feared that the new national government would be too powerful and thus threaten individual liberties. They included small farmers and landowners, shopkeepers, and laborers, and favored strong state governments, a weak central government, the direct election of government officials, short term limits for officeholders, accountability by officeholders to popular majorities, and the strengthening of individual liberties. They were concerned about the authority of a single national government, upper-class dominance, inadequate separation of powers, and loss of immediate control over local affairs. The Anti-Federalists were strong in the key states of Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, and were joined by a large number of ordinary Americans, particularly yeomen farmers who predominated in rural America. They believed that the greatest threat to the future of the United States lay in the governments potential to become corrupt and seize more and more power until its tyrannical rule completely dominated the people. The Anti-Federalists did not share one unified position on the proper form of government, but they did unite in their objection to the Constitution as it was proposed for ratification in 1787.