Tennessee's first Constitution was written in 1796 when the state was located on the frontier and most of its residents lived in rural areas. By 1834, Tennessee's population had grown enormously, urban areas had become more common, and a number of problems with the original constitution had emerged. In November of 1833, the Tennessee General Assembly passed an act calling for a convention to update the constitution. The convention met in early 1834 and made a number of changes to the 1796 document, including dividing the state's government into Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches, eliminating land ownership from the suffrage requirements, and (after more than thirty petitions on the subject arrived) declaring that the General Assembly should have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves. The new constitution was ratified in March of 1835 with only four counties (Davidson, Smith, Williamson, and Robertson) voting against it.