The original U.S. Bill of Rights contained ten amendments.
Congress proposed 12 amendments in 1789, but only 10 were ratified by the states and became the Bill of Rights in 1791. These amendments were added to address concerns that the Constitution did not sufficiently protect individual liberties and limit federal power.
The ten amendments protect freedoms involving religion, speech, the press, assembly, and petition. They also address arms, searches, criminal prosecutions, jury trials, punishments, and powers retained by the people or the states. Together, they form the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
The two proposals that were not initially ratified were not simply discarded. One concerned the size of the House of Representatives and remains unratified. The other concerned congressional pay; it was eventually ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Thus, the original proposal had 12 parts, but the Bill of Rights has always consisted of 10 amendments.