Author Biography

Kermit L. Hall (1944-2006) was President of the University at Albany, State University of New York.Paul Finkelman is the John E. Murray Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.James W. Ely, Jr., is Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law, Emeritus, and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Law in the Morning of America: The Beginnings of American Law to 1760THE ENGLISH HERITAGE AND MAGNA CHARTAMagna Charta (1215)Note: Due Process and the Law of the LandNote: The Reformation, Tudor England, and the Stuart MonarchsTHE VIRGINIA COLONYDale's Laws (1611)THE BEGINNINGS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN AMERICAThe Mayflower Compact (1620)John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" (1629)John Winthrop, "Reasons to be Considered for Justifying the Undertakers of the Intended Plantation in New England, & for Encouraging Such Whose Hearts God Shall Move to Join with Them In It" (1629)Note: Roger Williams and Religious LibertyRoger Williams, "The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience" (1644)Roger Williams to the Town of Providence (1655)The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648)The Rhode Island Patent (1643)The Maryland Toleration Act (1649)Note: England's Civil WarTHE POST-RESTORATION COLONIAL GOVERNMENTSThe Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669)William Penn, First Frame of Government (1682)The Ne w-York Charter of Libertyes (1683)THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTIONNote: The Case of the Seven Bishops (1688)The English Bill of Rights (1689)John Locke, "Second Treatise of Civil Government" (1690)THE SOURCES OF LAW IN AMERICANote: Reception of the Common LawWilliam Blackstone on Reception (1765)Giddings v. Brown (1657)LAW AND COLONIAL SOCIETYMorality and Colonial Law"A Horrible Case of Beastiality," Plymouth Colony (1642)Marriage, Women, and the FamilyWilliam Blackstone on Women in the Eyes of the Law (1765)Note: Women and the Law in the Colonial EraAn Act Concerning Feme-Sole Traders (1718)Widows of New York and TaxesChildren, Apprenticeship, EducationVirginia Apprenticeship Statute (1646)Children's Education in Plymouth (1685)White Indentured ServitudeIn re Wm. Wootton and John Bradye (1640)South Carolina Servant Regulations (1761)SlaveryIn re John Punch (1640)In re Emanuel (1640)Re Mulatto (1656)Re Edward Mozingo (1672)Moore v. Light (1673)Against Runnaway Servants, Act XVI (1657-1658)How Long Servants Without Indentures Shall Serve, Act XVIII (1657-1658)An Act for the Dutch and All Other Strangers for Tradeing to This Place, Act XVI (1659-1660)Run-aways, Act CII (1661-1662)Negro Womens Children to Serve According to the Condition of the Mother, Act XII (1662)An Act Declaring that Baptisme of Slaves Doth Not Exempt Them from Bondage, Act II (1667)An Act About the Casuall Killing of Slaves, Act I (1669)An Act for Preventing Negro Insurrections, Act X (1680)The Germantown Protest Against Slavery (1688)South Carolina Slave Code (1740)The New York "Negro Plot" (1741)Colonial Welfare SystemsAn Act for the Relief of the Poor (1742)Note: Colonial WorkfareClass Legislation, Sumptuary Laws, and Social DeferenceThe Incident of the Roxbury Carters (1705)Law and the Colonial EconomyThe Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648)The Laws of South Carolina (1734)Early Criminal LawThe Salem Witch Trials (1692)Increase Mather, "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men" (1692)Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693)Politics and Criminal Law: Toward a New AmericaThe Zenger Trial (1735)Chapter 2: Law in a Republican Revolution 1760-1815THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONJonathan Mayhew, "Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers" (1750)Note: Litigation and the Coming of the RevolutionJames Otis, "The Rights of the British Colonies" (1764)William Blackstone on the Imperial Constitution (1765)The Declaratory Act (1766)The Declaration and Resolves of the Continental Congress (1774)Tom Paine, Common Sense (1776)The Declaration of Independence (1776)REPUBLICAN STATE CONSTITUTIONALISMThe Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)The People the Best Governors (1776)Note: The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776Slavery and the New NationSomerset v. Stewart (1772)The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act (1780)Massachusetts Constitution of 1780Commonwealth v. Jennison (1783)Virginia Manumission Act (1782)North Carolina Statute on Slave Murder (1791)Thomas Jefferson on Slavery, Notes on the State of Virginia (1784)ReligionThe Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)New Hampshire Constitution (1784)Revolution and Law ReformThomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1784)REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONALISMThe Articles of Confederation (1781)The Philadelphia Convention (1787)Debates Over Ratification of the ConstitutionAntifederalist Critique of the Constitution: Elbridge Gerry's Report on the Constitution as Printed in the Massachusetts Centinel (1787)Federalist, Number 10 (1787)Federalist, Number 78 (1788)Letter of Brutus, No. XV (1788)The Northwest Ordinance (1787)THE NEW REPUBLICThe Bill of RightsJames Madison, "Property" (1792)EXECUTIVE POWER, CIVIL LIBERTIES, AND THE GOVERNMENTHamilton Versus Madison on Presidential Power (1793)George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)The Sedition Act (1798)The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798-1799)Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801)COURTS, JUDGES, AND THE POWERS OF CONGRESS IN THE NEW NATIONThe Judiciary Act (1789)Jefferson Versus Hamilton on the Bank of the United States (1791)Calder v. Bull (1798)Marbury v. Madison (1803)Chapter 3: The Active State and the Mixed Economy 1812-1870THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN LAWCOMMERCE, LEGISLATIVE PROMOTION, AND LAW IN THE NEW REPUBLICThe New York Steamboat Monopoly and the Federal Commerce PowerLivingston v. Van Ingen (1812)Note: The Mix of Economics, Politics, and LawGibbons v. Ogden (1824)Note: The Effect of GibbonsThe Second Bank of the United StatesMcCulloch v. Maryland (1819)Note: A Court Opinion as Political TheoryAndrew Jackson, Veto Message (1832)Note: Jacksonian EconomicsNote: A Federal Common LawNote: Canals, Internal Improvements, and the StatesState Constitutions and the Active StateOhio Constitution (1851)Mississippi Constitution (1817)Mississippi Constitution (1832)SUBSTANTIVE LAW AND ECONOMIC GROWTHThe Advent of the CorporationDartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)Note: The Politics of the Dartmouth College CaseCharles River Bridge Company v. Warren Bridge Company (1837)Note: The Limited Liability of StockholdersLabor in an Industrializing SocietyNote: The Traditional Theory of Labor ConspiracyCommonwealth v. Hunt (1842)Note: The Fellow Servant RuleFarwell v. The Boston and Worcester Railroad Co. (1842)Note: Chief Justice Shaw and LaborNote: Fellow Servants and SlavesPropertyVan Ness v. Pacard (1829)Note: Eminent DomainParham v. The Justices of Decatur County (1851)Note: Just CompensationBarron v. Baltimore (1833)Joseph Angell, A Treatise on the Law of Watercourses (1854)Note: Water Rights and Industrial Development in the EastCary v. Daniels (1844)Note: Water Rights in the WestWalter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (1931)Irwin v. Phillips, et al. (1855)Note: Law and Westward MigrationThe Growth of Contract Law in the Nineteenth CenturySeixas and Seixas v. Woods (1804)McFarland v. Newman (1839)Icar v. Suares (1835)Seymour v. Delancey, et al. (1824)Note: Contracts and the Emerging Speculative EconomyNote: Contracts and the Federal ConstitutionThe Evolution of Modern Tort LawSpencer v. Campbell (1845)Brown v. Kendall (1850)Note: The Emergence of NegligenceNote: Toward the FutureRyan v. New York Central Railroad Co. (1866)Fent et al. v. Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway Co. (1871)An Act to Establish the Responsibility of Railroad Corporations, Companies and Persons Owning or Operating Railroads, for Damages by Fires Communicated by Locomotive Engines (1887)Note: Wrongful Death and Tort LawChapter 4: Slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and SegregationSLAVERY AND STATE LAWRace and the Law of Negro SlaveryThomas R. R. Cobb, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery (1858)The Power of the Master over the SlaveState v. Mann (1829)Note: Harriet Beecher Stowe on Southern JudgesSouther v. Commonwealth (1851)State v. Hoover (1839)Mitchell v. Wells (1859)Note: The Somerset Precedent in AmericaSLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTIONThe Problem of Fugitive SlavesPrigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)Note: Prigg and the Use of HistoryNote: Prigg and Its AftermathNote: Northern States'-Rights ArgumentsSlavery, the Territories, and Interstate ComityDred Scott v. Sandford (1857)Note: The Reaction to Dred ScottAbraham Lincoln, "House Divided" Speech (1858)Note: The Next Dred Scott DecisionSECESSION AND CONSTITUTIONAL THEORYSouth Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (1832)President Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification (1832)NULLIFICATION AND SECESSIONDeclaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina (1860)Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (1861)THE CIVIL WAR AND EMANCIPATIONAbraham Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)Note: The Effect of the Emancipation ProclamationAbraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1865)RECONSTRUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH: POLITICAL CHANGE, BLACK FREEDOM, AND THE NADIR OF BLACK RIGHTSPolitical ChangeArticles of Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)Note: The Courts and the Politics of ReconstructionBlack FreedomMississippi Black Codes (1865)An Act to Protect All Persons in the United States in Their Civil Rights, and Furnish Means of Their Vindication (1866)Note: The Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth AmendmentNote: Andrew Johnson's Veto of the 1866 Civil Rights ActNote: The Freedmen's BureauNote: The Civil Rights Act of 1875The End of Civil RightsThe Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)Note: The Slaughterhouse LegacyNote: Civil Rights Cases (1883)Note: Responses to the Civil Rights CasesRace and Segregation in Nineteenth-Century Law and SocietyRoberts v. The City of Boston (1850)Note: The Response to RobertsNote: Free Blacks and the LawPlessy v. Ferguson (1896)Note: Separate But Equal in the NorthSegregation on the Eve of a New Century (1898)Chapter 5: Nineteenth-Century Law and Society 1800-1900RACENative AmericansCherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)Note: The Federal Government and Native AmericansLone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903)AsiansYick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)Note: The Chinese and Jim CrowNote: Chinese ExclusionUnited States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)Note: Gentlemen's Agreement (1907)Oregon v. Charley Lee Quong, Ah Lee, and Lee Jong (1879)The Mexican SouthwestCalifornia ex rel. M. M. Kimberly v. Pablo de la Guerra (1870)GENDER AND DOMESTIC RELATIONSThe Rights of Women"The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments" (1848)The New York Married Women's Property Acts (1848) and (1849)Note: Married Women and the LawBradwell v. Illinois (1873)Minor v. Happersett (1875)Note: The Case of United States v. Susan B. Anthony (1873)Marriage and DivorceJoel P. Bishop, "The Nature of Marriage and How Defined" (1881)Wightman v. Coates (1833)Reynolds v. United States (1879)Note: DivorceWaldron v. Waldron (1890)Birth Control and AbortionState v. Slagle (1880)Note: Abortion and the Quickening DoctrinePeople v. Sanger (1918)CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICECrime and PunishmentCesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments (1764)Charles Loring Brace, "The Causes of Crime" (1880)Note: The Police and the PrisonThe Excuse of CrimeState v. Felter (1868)Note: Insanity TestsBill Bell v. The State (1885)Note: The South and Self-DefenseHenry Shorter v. The People (1848)Late-Nineteenth-Century Crime and MoralityPeople v. Plath (1885)The Federal Government, Crime, and MoralityEx parte Jackson (1877)Note: Morality and Free SpeechChapter 6: Lawyers and the Rise of the Regulatory State 1850-1920THE LAWYER IN AMERICAN SOCIETYAlexis de Tocqueville on Lawyers and Judges (1835)LEGAL EDUCATIONChristopher C. Langdell, A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts (1871)Note: Critics of Langdellian AssumptionsLEGAL THEORY IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURYThomas M. Cooley, A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union (1868)Note: Social Tension in the 1890sChristopher G. Tiedemann, A Treatise on the Limitations of Police Power in the United States (1886)Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law (1881)Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "The Path of the Law" (1897)THE GROWTH OF ECONOMIC REGULATIONProperty Rights and Police PowerDavid J. Brewer, "Protection to Private Property from Public Attack" (1891)STATE REGULATION AND THE PUBLIC INTERESTStates and Labor LawNew Jersey Child Labor Act (1851)Illinois Criminal Syndicalism Act (1887)New York Workers' Compensation Act (1910)Workers' Compensation and the Question of CausationIves v. South Buffalo Railway Co. (1911)Eminent DomainColorado Constitution (1876)Note: The Evolution of Takings JurisprudenceFEDERAL REGULATION AND THE PUBLIC INTERESTThe Interstate Commerce CommissionInterstate Commerce Act (1887)Note: Judicial Reaction to the Interstate Commerce CommissionTrust-Busting: The Statutory BasisSherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)Federal Commerce PowerUnited States v. E. C. Knight & Co. (1895)Note: Anti-Trust Law in the Progressive EraPopulist Platform Adopted at St. Louis (1892)Taxation of IncomeJoseph H. Choate, Arguments for Appellant in the Income Tax Cases (Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co.) (1895)JUDICIAL REACTION TO THE REGULATORY STATEThe Origins of Substantive Due ProcessWynehamer v. The People (1856)Bond Repudiation and Judicial ReviewThe Bradley Dissent in SlaughterhouseThe Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)Reaffirmation of the Police PowerMunn v. Illinois (1877)Note: Federal Judicial Review of State Rate RegulationsSubstantive Due Process in the State CourtsIn re Jacobs (1885)Note: Substantive Due Process and CorporationsNote: The Labor InjunctionFederal Police Power and LaborIn re Debs (1895)Note: Labor and the LawLiberty of ContractAllgeyer v. Louisiana (1897)Liberty of Contract and Workplace RegulationHolden v. Hardy (1898)Lochner v. New York (1905)Muller v. Oregon (1908)Toward a Federal Police PowerChampion v. Ames (1903)Note: The Growth of Federal Police PowerNote: Child LaborChapter 7: Total War, Civil Liberties, and Civil RightsINDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN A CHANGING CULTURELouis D. Brandeis and Samuel D. Warren, "The Right to Privacy" (1890)WORLD WAR I AND CIVIL LIBERTIESThe Suppression of Dissent During World War IPaul Murphy, World War I and the Origins of Civil Liberties in the United States (1979)Censorship, Free Speech, and Opposition to World War ISchenck v. United States (1919)Note: Debs v. United States (1919)Abrams et al. v. United States (1919)Note: The Abrams DissentRADICALS AND CIVIL LIBERTIESNote: Civil Liberties and Fourteenth Amendment IncorporationWhitney v. California (1927)WORLD WAR II AND LEGAL DEVELOPMENTSThe Flag Salute CasesWest Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)The Japanese InternmentNote: Executive Order-No. 9066Hirabayashi v. United States (1943)Korematsu v. United States (1944)Note: Ex parte Endo (1944)Note: The Internment Cases a Generation LaterCIVIL LIBERTIES AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN CRISIS TIMESThe Emergence of Criminal Due ProcessWeeks v. United States (1914)Olmstead v. United States (1928)Note: Prohibition and the LawCRIME IN THE CITIESRoscoe Pound and Felix Frankfurter, Criminal Justice in Cleveland (1922)CIVIL RIGHTS AND RACIAL JUSTICERace and the FranchiseRace and EducationMissouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)Note: Beyond GainesRacial Justice and Criminal LawJames Harmon Chadbourn, "Lynching and the Administration of Justice" (1933)Note: Lynching and Federal LawNote: Black Rights, Southern Justice, and the Supreme CourtChapter 8: The Rise of Legal Liberalism, Economic Reform, and the New Deal 1900-1945SOCIOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE, THE AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE, AND LEGAL REALISMOliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "Law and the Court" (1913)Note: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and JudgingLouis D. Brandeis, "Brief for the Defendant in Error," Muller v. Oregon (1907)The American Law InstituteElihu Root, "Report of the Committee," American Law Institute (1923)Note: The American Law Institute and the RestatementsLegal RealismJerome Frank, Law and the Modern Mind (1936)Note: Legal RealismTHE NEW DEAL AND THE RISE OF LEGAL LIBERALISMThe State and Federal Legislative ResponseThe Supreme Court and the "First" New DealSchechter v. United States (1935)United States v. Butler (1936)FDR'S Court-Packing PlanFranklin Roosevelt, "Fireside Chat on the 'Court-Packing' Bill" (1937)Note: The Fate of FDR's Court-Packing PlanThe Retreat From Economic Substantive Due ProcessWest Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937)Note: The Decline of Substantive Due Process and the Revolution in Commerce Clause JurisprudenceOrdered Liberty, Preferred Positions, and Selective IncorporationPalko v. Connecticut (1937)Note: Carolene Products and Preferred PositionsFootnote 4: United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938)THE LIMITS OF FEDERAL JUDICIAL POWERNote: The Fate of ErieChapter 9: Rights, Liberty, and Science in Modern AmericaCIVIL RIGHTSRaceBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)"Southern Declaration on Integration" (1956)Note: Race and the ConstitutionMartin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" (1963)Civil Rights Act of 1964Affirmative ActionRegents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)Note: The Future of Affirmative Action in EducationCity of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Company (1989)Note: The Aftermath of CrosonGenderGriswold v. Connecticut (1965)Note: The Debate in GriswoldRoe v. Wade (1973)Note: The Right to Privacy After RoeJohnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County (1987)Note: Affirmative Action and Sexual HarassmentSexual OrientationRomer v. Evans (1996)Same-Sex MarriagesBaker v. State (1999)Vermont Civil Union Act (2000)Defense of Marriage ActUnited States v. Windsor (2013)Note: After WindsorNote: Transgender Persons and the LawCIVIL LIBERTIESFreedom of Speech and PressDennis et al. v. United States (1951)Note: Free Speech and Internal SecurityNew York Times v. Sullivan (1964)Note: Offensive SpeechReligious Freedom and Separation of Church and StateEngel v. Vitale (1962)Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)Note: Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993CRIMINAL JUSTICEMiranda v. Arizona (1966)Note: The Supreme Court and Criminal JusticeNote: Criminal Prosecutions and the Problem of Mass IncarcerationFlorida Stand Your Ground Law (2005).SCIENCE AND LAWDefinition of DeathIn re Quinlan (1976)Note: Right to DieSurrogate ParentingIn re Baby M (1988)The Challenge of DNAScience and Environmental LawTVA v. Hill (1978)Note: The Fate of HillNote: New Frontiers in the EnvironmentCyberspaceIntel v. Hamidi (2003)Chapter 10: Law and the Economy in Modern AmericaREGULATORY STATEDeregulationThe Staggers Act (1980)The Contours of Environmental RegulationHoward Latin, "Ideal Versus Real Regulatory Efficiency: Implementation of Uniform Standards and 'Fine-Tuning' Regulatory Reforms" (1985)Bruce A. Ackerman and Richard B. Stewart, "Reforming Environmental Law" (1985)William J. Clinton, Executive Order-No. 12866 (1993)Anti-Trust PolicyECONOMIC ACTIVITYContractWilliams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Company (1965)TortsGreenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc. (1962)Fassoulas v. Ramey (1984)Note: Legislative Reform of the Tort SystemBMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore (1996)Note: Beyond GoreNote: Tobacco LitigationPropertyLionshead Lake, Inc. v. Wayne Tp. (1952)Note: ZoningEminent DomainKelo v. City of New London (2005)Note: Post-Kelo DevelopmentsRegulatory TakingsLucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (1992)Residential LeasesJavins v. First National Realty Corporation (1970)Humber v. Morton (1968)Note: Warranties in Sales of HomesEntitlements and "New Property"NEW FEDERALISMUnited States v. Lopez (1995)Note: New Directions in Commerce Clause JurisprudenceNote: New Directions in Commerce Taxing and Health Care: The Affordable Care ActPrintz v. United States (1997)Note: The Response to PrintzChapter 11: Law, Politics, and TerrorTHE MODERN PRESIDENCY AND SEPARATION OF POWERSNew York Times Company v. United States; United States v. Washington Post Company (1971)Note: The Modern PresidencyUnited States v. Nixon (1974)Note: The Resignation of Richard NixonTHE IMPEACHMENT OF BILL CLINTONHouse Committee on the Judiciary, Resolutions of Impeachment Against William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors (1998)Note: The Senate Vote on President ClintonPOLITICAL QUESTIONS, THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2000, AND THE SUPREME COURTBush v. Gore (2000)Note: The Supreme Court and the Political ProcessPresident-Elect George W. Bush Addresses the Nation (2000)Note: Voting Rights and Campaign Finance RegulationVoting Rights Act: Shelby County v. Holder (2013)Voter I.D. Laws: Frank v. Walker (2014).Campaign Finance Rules: Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010)TERROR, LIBERTY, AND THE PRESIDENCYNote: The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001, H.R. 3162, Section-by-Section AnalysisThe USA PATRIOT ACT: For and AgainstThe USA PATRIOT ACT: Preserving Life and Liberty (2004)American Civil Liberties Union, "The USA PATRIOT ACT and Government Actions That Threaten Our Civil Liberties" (2004)Newt Gingrich, "The Policies of War: Refocus the Mission" (2003)Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)Note: Homeland Security ActLakhdar Boumediene v. George W. Bush, President of the United States (2008)Appendix: The Constitution of the United StatesNotesSources and CreditsIndex of Cases

Review

"The hardest part about teaching legal history is introducing students to the 'art and craft of the law.' By providing them with digestible excerpts that I can spend hours dissecting after, this text makes that part of my job much easier."--Oliver Lee Bateman, University of Texas at Arlington"This book sets the standard against which all other document and materials books in the field are judged. It is the leading book, and rightly so."--Thomas C. Mackey, University of Louisville

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The most complete discussion of American constitutional history currently available

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This highly acclaimed text provides a comprehensive selection of the most important documents in American legal history, integrating the history of public and private law from America's colonial origins to the present. Devoting special attention to the interaction of social and legal change, American Legal History: Cases and Materials, Fifth Edition, shows how legal ideas developed in tandem with specific historical events and reveals a rich legal cultureunique to America. The book also deals with state and federal courts and looks at the relationship between the development of American society, politics, and economy and how it relates to the evolution ofAmerican law. Introductions and instructive headnotes accompany each document, tying legal developments to broader historical themes and providing a social and political context essential to an understanding of the history of law in America. Setting the legal challenges of the twenty-first century in a broad context, American Legal History, Fifth Edition, is an indispensable text for students and teachers of constitutional and legal history, the judicial process, and the effects ofsociety on law.

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"The hardest part about teaching legal history is introducing students to the 'art and craft of the law.' By providing them with digestible excerpts that I can spend hours dissecting after, this text makes that part of my job much easier."--Oliver Lee Bateman, University of Texas at Arlington"This book sets the standard against which all other document and materials books in the field are judged. It is the leading book, and rightly so."--Thomas C. Mackey, University of Louisville

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"The hardest part about teaching legal history is introducing these students to the 'art and craft of the law.' By providing them with digestible excerpts that I can thereafter spend hours dissecting, this text makes that part of my job much easier." --Oliver Lee Bateman, University of Texas at Arlington

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Selling point: Extensive work, including detailed headnotes, to ensure that students are able to place documents in their historical context.Selling point: Excludes perplexing questions and small-change notecases that often overwhlem most law school casebooks.Selling point: Provides excerpts of cases that are longer than those typically found in documentary collections and many law school casebooks.Selling point: Uses materials from secondary sources, such as articles from law reviews and journals, only sparingly in an attempt to let the documents of legal history speak for themselves.

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Chapter 1: Law in the Morning of America: The Beginnings of American Law to 1760 THE ENGLISH HERITAGE AND MAGNA CHARTA Magna Charta (1215) Note: Due Process and the Law of the Land Note: The Reformation, Tudor England, and the Stuart Monarchs THE VIRGINIA COLONY Dale''s Laws (1611) THE BEGINNINGS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN AMERICA The Mayflower Compact (1620) John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" (1629) John Winthrop, "Reasons to be Considered for Justifying the Undertakers of the Intended Plantation in New England, & for Encouraging Such Whose Hearts God Shall Move to Join with Them In It" (1629) Note: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty Roger Williams, "The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience" (1644) Roger Williams to the Town of Providence (1655) The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648) The Rhode Island Patent (1643) The Maryland Toleration Act (1649) Note: England''s Civil War THE POST-RESTORATION COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) William Penn, First Frame of Government (1682) The Ne w-York Charter of Libertyes (1683) THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION Note: The Case of the Seven Bishops (1688) The English Bill of Rights (1689) John Locke, "Second Treatise of Civil Government" (1690) THE SOURCES OF LAW IN AMERICA Note: Reception of the Common Law William Blackstone on Reception (1765) Giddings v. Brown (1657) LAW AND COLONIAL SOCIETY Morality and Colonial Law "A Horrible Case of Beastiality," Plymouth Colony (1642) Marriage, Women, and the Family William Blackstone on Women in the Eyes of the Law (1765) Note: Women and the Law in the Colonial Era An Act Concerning Feme-Sole Traders (1718) Widows of New York and Taxes Children, Apprenticeship, Education Virginia Apprenticeship Statute (1646) Children''s Education in Plymouth (1685) White Indentured Servitude In re Wm. Wootton and John Bradye (1640) South Carolina Servant Regulations (1761) Slavery In re John Punch (1640) In re Emanuel (1640) Re Mulatto (1656) Re Edward Mozingo (1672) Moore v. Light (1673) Against Runnaway Servants, Act XVI (1657-1658) How Long Servants Without Indentures Shall Serve, Act XVIII (1657-1658) An Act for the Dutch and All Other Strangers for Tradeing to This Place, Act XVI (1659-1660) Run-aways, Act CII (1661-1662) Negro Womens Children to Serve According to the Condition of the Mother, Act XII (1662) An Act Declaring that Baptisme of Slaves Doth Not Exempt Them from Bondage, Act II (1667) An Act About the Casuall Killing of Slaves, Act I (1669) An Act for Preventing Negro Insurrections, Act X (1680) The Germantown Protest Against Slavery (1688) South Carolina Slave Code (1740) The New York "Negro Plot" (1741) Colonial Welfare Systems An Act for the Relief of the Poor (1742) Note: Colonial Workfare Class Legislation, Sumptuary Laws, and Social Deference The Incident of the Roxbury Carters (1705) Law and the Colonial Economy The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648) The Laws of South Carolina (1734) Early Criminal Law The Salem Witch Trials (1692) Increase Mather, "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men" (1692) Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) Politics and Criminal Law: Toward a New America The Zenger Trial (1735) Chapter 2: Law in a Republican Revolution 1760-1815 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Jonathan Mayhew, "Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers" (1750) Note: Litigation and the Coming of the Revolution James Otis, "The Rights of the British Colonies" (1764) William Blackstone on the Imperial Constitution (1765) The Declaratory Act (1766) The Declaration and Resolves of the Continental Congress (1774) Tom Paine, Common Sense (1776) The Declaration of Independence (1776) REPUBLICAN STATE CONSTITUTIONALISM The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) The People the Best Governors (1776) Note: The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 Slavery and the New Nation Somerset v. Stewart (1772) The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act (1780) Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 Commonwealth v. Jennison (1783) Virginia Manumission Act (1782) North Carolina Statute on Slave Murder (1791) Thomas Jefferson on Slavery, Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) Religion The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) New Hampshire Constitution (1784) Revolution and Law Reform Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONALISM The Articles of Confederation (1781) The Philadelphia Convention (1787) Debates Over Ratification of the Constitution Antifederalist Critique of the Constitution: Elbridge Gerry''s Report on the Constitution as Printed in the Massachusetts Centinel (1787) Federalist, Number 10 (1787) Federalist, Number 78 (1788) Letter of Brutus, No. XV (1788) The Northwest Ordinance (1787) THE NEW REPUBLIC The Bill of Rights James Madison, "Property" (1792) EXECUTIVE POWER, CIVIL LIBERTIES, AND THE GOVERNMENT Hamilton Versus Madison on Presidential Power (1793) George Washington, Farewell Address (1796) The Sedition Act (1798) The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798-1799) Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801) COURTS, JUDGES, AND THE POWERS OF CONGRESS IN THE NEW NATION The Judiciary Act (1789) Jefferson Versus Hamilton on the Bank of the United States (1791) Calder v. Bull (1798) Marbury v. Madison (1803) Chapter 3: The Active State and the Mixed Economy 1812-1870 THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN LAW COMMERCE, LEGISLATIVE PROMOTION, AND LAW IN THE NEW REPUBLIC The New York Steamboat Monopoly and the Federal Commerce Power Livingston v. Van Ingen (1812) Note: The Mix of Economics, Politics, and Law Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) Note: The Effect of Gibbons The Second Bank of the United States McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) Note: A Court Opinion as Political Theory Andrew Jackson, Veto Message (1832) Note: Jacksonian Economics Note: A Federal Common Law Note: Canals, Internal Improvements, and the States State Constitutions and the Active State Ohio Constitution (1851) Mississippi Constitution (1817) Mississippi Constitution (1832) SUBSTANTIVE LAW AND ECONOMIC GROWTH The Advent of the Corporation Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) Note: The Politics of the Dartmouth College Case Charles River Bridge Company v. Warren Bridge Company (1837) Note: The Limited Liability of Stockholders Labor in an Industrializing Society Note: The Traditional Theory of Labor Conspiracy Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) Note: The Fellow Servant Rule Farwell v. The Boston and Worcester Railroad Co. (1842) Note: Chief Justice Shaw and Labor Note: Fellow Servants and Slaves Property Van Ness v. Pacard (1829) Note: Eminent Domain Parham v. The Justices of Decatur County (1851) Note: Just Compensation Barron v. Baltimore (1833) Joseph Angell, A Treatise on the Law of Watercourses (1854) Note: Water Rights and Industrial Development in the East Cary v. Daniels (1844) Note: Water Rights in the West Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (1931) Irwin v. Phillips, et al. (1855) Note: Law and Westward Migration The Growth of Contract Law in the Nineteenth Century Seixas and Seixas v. Woods (1804) McFarland v. Newman (1839) Icar v. Suares (1835) Seymour v. Delancey, et al. (1824) Note: Contracts and the Emerging Speculative Economy Note: Contracts and the Federal Constitution The Evolution of Modern Tort Law Spencer v. Campbell (1845) Brown v. Kendall (1850) Note: The Emergence of Negligence Note: Toward the Future Ryan v. New York Central Railroad Co. (1866) Fent et al. v. Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway Co. (1871) An Act to Establish the Responsibility of Railroad Corporations, Companies and Persons Owning or Operating Railroads, for Damages by Fires Communicated by Locomotive Engines (1887) Note: Wrongful Death and Tort Law Chapter 4: Slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Segregation SLAVERY AND STATE LAW Race and the Law of Negro Slavery Thomas R. R. Cobb, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery (1858) The Power of the Master over the Slave State v. Mann (1829) Note: Harriet Beecher Stowe on Southern Judges Souther v. Commonwealth (1851) State v. Hoover (1839) Mitchell v. Wells (1859) Note: The Somerset Precedent in America SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION The Problem of Fugitive Slaves Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842) Note: Prigg and the Use of History Note: Prigg and Its Aftermath Note: Northern States''-Rights Arguments Slavery, the Territories, and Interstate Comity Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) Note: The Reaction to Dred Scott Abraham Lincoln, "House Divided" Speech (1858) Note: The Next Dred Scott Decision SECESSION AND CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (1832) President Jackson''s Proclamation Re

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