Antebellum Origins of the Modern Constitution - Slavery and the Spirit of the American Founding

The emergence of slavery in the District of Columbia profoundly transformed constitutional interpretation. Gilhooley's account of this interaction, and how it forms the basis of modern constitutional understandings grounded in the American Founding, is for scholars of the US Constitution, American history and politics, and legal studies.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. The Constitutional Imaginaries of the Missouri Crisis; 2. The Declaration of Independence and Black Citizenship in the 1820s; 3. Abolitionism and the Constitution in the 1830s; 4. The Slaveholding South and the Constitutionalization of Slavery; 5. Theories of the Federal Compact in the 1830s; 6. Slavery, The District of Columbia, and the Constitution; 7. The Congressional Crisis of 1836; 8: The Compact and the Election of 1836; 9. The Afterlife of the Compact of 1836; Conclusion.

About the author

Simon J. Gilhooley is Assistant Professor, Political Studies and American Studies, Bard College, New York. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, among others.

Summary

The emergence of slavery in the District of Columbia profoundly transformed constitutional interpretation. Gilhooley's account of this interaction, and how it forms the basis of modern constitutional understandings grounded in the American Founding, is for scholars of the US Constitution, American history and politics, and legal studies.

Product details

• Authors: Simon J. Gilhooley, Simon J. (Bard College Gilhooley
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2022
• EAN: 9781108791458
• ISBN: 978-1-108-79145-8
• No. of pages: 283
• Series: Cambridge Studies on the American Constitution
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; USA, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General, Political science & theory, United States of America, USA, Political science and theory, Slavery & abolition of slavery, Constitution: government & the state, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Constitution: government and the state, Constitutional & administrative law, Constitutional and administrative law: general