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Additional resources for this issue of History Now
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Race and the Constitution
The organization of this page is different from the
ones you're used to -- largely because Professor Horton's
essay deals with several topics that we've touched on
in earlier issues of History Now. Instead of
listing separately all relevant books and websites,
I'll just send you to the sources pages in these other
issues. I'll begin with a reminder about a reference
tool you'll want to look at for materials on any aspect
of the history of Americans of African heritage:
The Harvard Guide to African-American History.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
You'll find another good starting point to be my "general"
suggestions for studying American slavery and the history
of African Americans in our December 2004 issue:
/historynow/12_2004/ask2.php
For legal and constitutional issues that confronted
African Americans after emancipation, take a look at
History Now's June 2006 "Civil Rights"
issue and the "resources" page with suggestions
for further study of the evolution of African American
legal rights after the Civil War
/historynow/06_2006/ask2.php
Add this to your list of "general" resources
on American law and African Americans:
Adams, Francis D., Sanders, Barry. Alienable Rights:
The Exclusion of African Americans in a White Man's
Land, 1619-2000. New York: HarperCollins Publisher,
2003.
I'm sure you'll want to read some more of James Horton's
work on African Americans, slave and free. You might
begin with these:
Hard Road To Freedom: The Story of African America
(with Lois E. Horton). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers
University Press, 2001.
In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community, and Protest
Among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860 (with Lois
E. Horton). New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Landmarks of African American History. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Slavery and the Making of America (with Lois
E. Horton). New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
While I'm recommending books by a specific scholar,
let me direct you to the writings of Paul Finkelman,
a distinguished legal historian at the Albany Law School.
He's worked extensively in the field of American law
and African Americans, and you'll want to look at some
of monographs he's written and collections of essays
and original documents that he's edited:
The African Slave Trade and American Courts: The
Pamphlet Literature. New York: Garland, 1988.
Fugitive Slaves and American Courts: The Pamphlet
Literature. New York: Garland, 1988.
Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty.
Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
Slavery & The Law. Madison, WI: Madison
House, 1997. Republished in 2002 by Rowman & Littlefield.
A fascinating collection of essays edited by Professor
Finkelman. Don't miss it.
Slavery in the Courtroom: An Annotated Bibliography
of American Cases. Washington: Library of Congress:
1985.
Slavery, Race and the American Legal System, 1700-1872:
A Sixteen Volume Facsimile Series Reproducing Over One
Hundred and Seventy Rare and Important Pamphlets.
New York: Garland, 1988.
A good survey of African American legal status under
slavery:
Flanigan, Daniel J. The Criminal Law of Slavery
and Freedom, 1800-1868. New York: Garland, 1987.
As for specific topics Dr. Horton discusses here, you'll
find a good introduction to the Dred Scott case on the
Gilder Lehrman Institute's website:
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/online/scott
As well as the Seneca Falls Convention (with my suggestions
for further study) in Judith Wellman's essay on the
Seneca Falls Convention in our March 2006 issue:
/historynow/03_2006/historian.php
These books will expand your knowledge of slavery as
a Constitutional issue in the early republic:
Kaminski, John P., ed. A Necessary Evil?: Slavery
and the Debate over the Constitution. Madison,
WI: Madison House, 1995. A collection of stimulating
primary sources.
Lively, Donald E. The Constitution and Race.
New York: Praeger, 1992.
Lynd, Staughton. Class Conflict, Slavery, and the
United States Constitution. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill,
1968. A collection of essays.
West, Thomas G. Vindicating the Founders: Race,
Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins Of America.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997.
Our September 2005 issue deals with the abolition movement,
including the legal issues like the apprehension of
fugitive slaves that abolitionists faced. You and your
students may find the whole issue (with my suggestions
for further study) helpful:
/historynow/09_2005/index.php
These are recent useful monographs on the slave trade
and the American Constitution and statute law:
Gould, Philip. Barbaric Traffic: Commerce and Antislavery
in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Howard, Warren S. American Slavers and The Federal
Law, 1837-1862. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1963.
Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade: The Story of the
Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440- 1870. New York, NY:
Simon & Schuster, 1999.
For the Dred Scott decision, you have a choice of good
recent monographs:
Finkelman, Paul. Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief
History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books,
1997.
Graber, Mark A. Dred Scott and The Problem of Constitutional
Evil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Maltz, Earl M. Dred Scott and The Politics Of Slavery.
Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2007.
The "Reconstruction" amendments to the Constitution
were discussed ably by Eric Foner in our December 2004
issue, and you'll see there my suggestions for further
study:
/historynow/12_2004/historian.php
I'll close be recommending (once again) one of my favorite
online educational tools and one that will be especially
helpful here. This is the Supreme Court Historical Society's
"Landmark Cases" website, which provides lesson
plans and other materials for teaching dozens of Supreme
Court cases including Dred Scott case, Plessy v. Ferguson,
and Brown v. Board of Education:
http://www.landmarkcases.org/
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