Table of Contents

1
From the Old World to the New
Magna Carta and the Rule of Law · The Common Law Enthroned · Organizing for Settlement · The Merchant Colonies: Virginia and Massachusetts · The Compact Colonies · The Proprietary Colonies · Growth of Legislative Dominance · The English Revolutions and the Dominion of New England · For Further Reading

2
Law in Colonial America
Settler and Indian Views of Land · Simplifying Property Law · Personal Status: Women · Laborers · Slaves · Religion · Criminal Law · Lawyers and Practice · The Privy Council and Imperial Courts · Witchcraft and Press Freedom · For Further Reading

3
The Road to Independence
The Mercantile System · Colonial Governments · Writs of Assistance · The Parsons Cause and the Two Penny Act · Colonial Constitutional Thought · Republican Ideology · The British View · The Stamp Act and the Colonial Response · The Townshend Duties · Tea and the Coercive Acts · The First Continental Congress · Parting of the Ways · The Declaration of Independence · Slavery · Conclusion · For Further Reading

4
The Revolutionary Era
Congress Governs · The Articles of Confederation · New State Governments · Conservatives and Radicals · State Constitutions · Religious Freedom · Slavery · Judicial Review and the Success and Failure of State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era · The Common Law Survives · Blackstone's Influence · Conclusion · For Further Reading

5
The Crisis of Confederation
Defects of the Articles · A Government Without Energy · Western Land Policy · Northwest Ordinance · Shays's Rebellion · Madison and the Annapolis Convention · Toward the Philadelphia Convention · For Further Reading

6
A More Perfect Union
The Philadelphia Convention · Representation and the Structure of Government · Slavery and Representation · The Executive Branch · The Judicial Branch · The Powers of 'the New Government · Regulating Commerce · Concluding the Convention · The Constitution and Federalism · Checks and Balances · The Debate over Ratification · Federalists and Antifederalists · Ratification · Conclusion: The Constitution and Democracy · For Further Reading

7
Launching the Great Experiment
Washington Takes Office · The Bill of Rights · The Government Takes Shape · Raising a Revenue · Hamilton's Financial Program · The Bank of the United States · The Hamilton-Jefferson Debate · The Whiskey Rebellion · The Slave Trade and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 · Defining Presidential Power · Presidential Conduct of Foreign Affairs · The Neutrality Proclamation · Jay's Treaty · Conclusion: Washington's Achievements · For Further Reading

8
The Supreme Court: The First Decade
The Federal Court of Appeals · The Judiciary Act of 1789 · The Process Act · The Jay Court Convenes · Separation of Powers · Suing States in Federal Courts · Chisholm v. Georgia · The Eleventh Amendment · The Debt Cases · Judicial Review · The Ellsworth Tenure · Circuit Duties · Conclusion · For Further Reading

9
The Changing Face of the Law
Changes in the Common haw · Criminal haw · Property · hand and Water Usage · Contract · Procedure · Bench and Bar · Legal Literature · Lower Federal Courts · For Further Reading

10
Adams, Jefferson, and the Courts
The Alien and Sedition Acts · The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions · The Election of 1800 · The Judiciary Act of 1801 · John Marshall and the Midnight Judges · Jefferson Takes Office · Repeal of the Judiciary Act · Marbury v. Madison · The Louisiana Purchase · Republican Attacks on the Judiciary: The First Cases · The Impeachment of Justice Chase · Defining Treason · The Burr Trial · Presidential Privilege · For Further Reading

11
The Marshall Court and National Power
The Attorney General · Changes on the Court · The Embargo Cases · United States v. Peters · The Hartford Convention · The Court and Nationalist Sentiment · Martin v. Hunter's Lessee · Madison's Proposals · The Second Bank of the United States in Court · Cohens v. Virginia · Gibbons v. Ogden, The Steamboat Case · Conclusion: The Marshall Court's Legacy · For Further Reading

12
The Marshall Court and Economic Development
Law and Economic Development · Fletcher v. Peck · Public Land Cases · The Emergence of the Corporation · Defining Corporate Rights · The Dartmouth College Case · Bankruptcy · Conclusion: The Marshall Court's Legacy · For Further Reading

13
A Law Made for the Times
Debate over the Law · An American System · Legal Instrumentalism · Changing Views of Land · Water Usage · Taking of Land · Emergence of Tort Law · Master and Servant · Commercial Law · The Corporation · Sales · Negotiable Instruments · Contract · Conclusion · For Further Reading

14
Politics, Nationalism, and Competition
The "Era of Good Feeling" · Georgia, Jackson, and the Indians · Georgia, the Indians, and the Court · Calhoun Responds to the Tariff · The Webster-Hayne Debate · The Nullification Crisis · Internal Improvements · Jackson Versus the Bank · Monopoly and Economic Expansion · The Charles River Bridge Case Begins · The Last Years of the Marshall Court · Chief Justice Taney · The Charles River Bridge Case Is Decided · Conclusion: The New Departure · For Further Reading

15
Jacksonian Democracy
A Sense of Mastery · State Constitutional Development · Constitutional Flexibility · The Political Party and Its Function · Family Law · Women's Rights · Children and the Law · Early Labor Movements · Debtor Imprisonment · Pauper Relief · The New Prison · Code Revision · Race Relations and Antislavery · Conclusion · For Further Reading

16
The Taney Court: Change and Continuity
The New Chief Justice · Economics and the Court in the 1830s · The Court and Codification · Federal Common Law: Swift v. Tyson · The Police Power · Bank of Augusta v. Earle · The License and Passenger Cases · Defining State and Federal Powers · The Wheeling Bridge Case · The "Political Question" Doctrine · Dorr's Rebellion · Luther v. Borden · Conclusion: The Taney Court's Balance · For Further Reading

17
The Peculiar Laws of Americas Peculiar Institution
Slavery in the New Nation · The African Slave Trade · The Missouri Compromise · Black and White Opposition to Slavery: Slave Rebels and New Abolitionists · Abolitionist Theories and the Constitution · Abolitionist Use of the Law · Slaves in Transit · Antebellum Race Discrimination · Federal Fugitive Slave Laws · Prigg v. Pennsylvania · Law and Conscience · Southern Slave Codes · Controlling the Bondsmen · Slaves and Criminal Law · Manumission · Free Blacks · Conclusion · For Further Reading

18
A House Dividing
The Gag Rule · The Amistad Case · The Lone Star Republic · Annexing Texas · Constitutional Questions over Annexation · Presidential War Powers · The Wilmot Proviso · Free Labor and Free Soil · Calhoun's Southern Ideology · The Compromise of 1850 · The Slave Trade in the Nation's Capital, California Statehood, and Slavery in the Territories · The Fugitive Slave Law · The Kansas-Nebraska Act · Obstructing the Fugitive Slave Act · "Bleeding Kansas" · The Republican Party · Dred Scott's Case · The Self-Inflicted Wound · The Dred Scott Decision · The Aftermath · Kansas, Once Again · Ableman v. Booth · Conclusion · For Further Reading

19
The Union Sundered
The Election of 1860 · Secession Winter · "And the War Came" · The Provisional Confederate Constitution · The Permanent Confederate Constitution · Defects in the Confederate Scheme · The Political Party as a War Tool · Lincoln Takes Control · Ex Parte Merryman · Judicial Reorganization in Wartime · The Adequacy of the Constitution · War Powers and the Rebellion · Defining Rebel Status · The Growth of National Power · The Emancipation Proclamation · The Thirteenth Amendment · For Further Reading

20
The Union Unrestored
Problems of Military Occupation · Loyalty Oaths · Congress Takes a Hand · Expanding Federal Court Jurisdiction · Lincoln's 10 Percent Plan · The Wade-Davis Bill · Enter Andrew Johnson · Presidential Reconstruction · Southern Intransigence · The Joint Committee on Reconstruction · Report of the Joint Committee · The Black Codes · Southern Racial Violence · The Freedmen's Bureau Bills of 1866 · The Civil Rights Act · The Fourteenth Amendment · The Congressional Plan · Conclusion · For Further Reading

21
Reconstruction
Governmental Deadlock · The Military Reconstruction Acts · The New State Governments · Southern Resistance · Restricting the Executive · Impeachment · The Senate Trial · The Meaning of Acquittal · Reconstruction in the Courts · Ex Parte Milligan · Testing Congressional Reconstruction Powers · McCardle and Yerger · Texas v. White · Changing the Size of the Court · The Legal Tender Cases · The End of Reconstruction · The Election of 1876 · Conclusion: The Legacy of Reconstruction · For Further Reading

22
The Court and Civil Rights
The Abandonment of the Freedmen · The Slaughterhouse Cases · The Civil Rights Cases · Jim Crow Enthroned · The Treatment of Native Americans · The Chinese Cases · The Insular Cases · The Incorporation Theory · Women and the Law · The Court Draws Limits · The Peonage Cases · A Few Small Steps · Conclusion · For Further Reading

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