A Companion to American Legal History

A Companion to American Legal History presents a compilation of the most recent writings from leading scholars on American legal history from the colonial era through the late twentieth century.

• Presents up-to-date research describing the key debates in American legal history
• Reflects the current state of American legal history research and points readers in the direction of future research
• Represents an ideal companion for graduate and law students seeking an introduction to the field, the key questions, and future research ideas

Notes on Contributors x

Introduction 1
Sally E. Hadden and Alfred L. Brophy

Part I Chronological Overviews 5

1 Reconsidering the Seventeenth Century: Legal History in the Americas 7
Elizabeth Dale

2 What’s Done and Undone: Colonial American Legal History, 1700−1775 26
Sally E. Hadden

3 1775−1815 46
Ellen Holmes Pearson

4 The Antebellum Era Through Civil War 67
Alfred L. Brophy

5 Beyond Classical Legal Thought: Law and Governance in Postbellum America, 1865−1920 86
Roman J. Hoyos

6 American Legal History, 1920−1970 105
Christopher W. Schmidt

Part II Individuals and Groups 125

7 Native Americans 127
Christian McMillen

8 African Americans in Slavery 152
Thomas J. Davis

9 African Americans in Freedom 171
James Campbell

10 Women’s Legal History 190
Felice Batlan

11 Families 209
David S. Tanenhaus

12 Who Belongs? Immigrants and the Law in American History 228
Allison Brownell Tirres

13 The Legal Profession 247
Mark E. Steiner

Part III Subject Areas 267

14 Law and the Economy of Early America: Markets, Institutions of Exchange, and Labor 269
Christine Desan

15 Law and the Economy in the United States, 1820−2000 289
Harwell Wells

16 Law and Labor in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 308
Deborah Dinner

17 Siting the Legal History of Poverty: Below, Above, and Amidst 329
Felicia Kornbluh and Karen Tani

18 Taxes 349
Robin L. Einhorn

19 Law and the Administrative State 367
Joanna L. Grisinger

20 Law and Religion 387
Steven K. Green

21 Legal History and the Military 406
Elizabeth L. Hillman

22 Criminal Law and Justice in America 422
Elizabeth Dale

23 Intellectual Property 441
Steven Wilf

Part IV Legal Thought 461

24 Law and Literature 463
Jeannine Marie DeLombard

25 Legal Thought from Blackstone to Kent and Story 484
Steven J. Macias

26 American Jurisprudence in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 506
James D. Schmidt

27 Critical Legal Studies 524
John Henry Schlegel

28 The International Context: An Imperial Perspective on American Legal History 543
Clara Altman

Index 562

Sally E. Hadden is Associate Professor of History at Western Michigan University, where she teaches legal history and the history of early America. She is the author of Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (2001) and co-editor of Signposts: New Directions in Southern Legal History (with P. Minter, 2013).

Alfred L. Brophy is Judge John J. Parker Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he teaches property and trusts and estates. His books include Reparations: Pro and Con (2006), Integrating Spaces: Property Law and Race (with A. Lopez and K. Murray, 2011), and Transformations in American Legal History (with D. Hamilton, 2010).

In the past several decades, few fields of historical study have seen as much growth as the history of American law. Reflecting a wealth of new material in this field, A Companion to American Legal History presents a comprehensive analysis of the most recent scholarship on legal history from the colonial era through the late twentieth century. Featuring contributions from the finest established and emerging legal scholars, essays treat major time periods and themes from the perspective of race, gender, family, and labor, through to economics, jurisprudence, and crime. The essays represent an authoritative overview of leading historical interpretations as they address essential legal questions and point to future interpretive research directions to understand the complexities of American law and its legal institutions. A Companion to American Legal History offers illuminating insights into the evolution of the laws that have shaped—and been shaped by—American society from its origins until the present today.

"A Companion to American Legal History is an essential compendium of the state of the art, a reliable guide to a discipline that is daily crossing boundaries and probing more deeply into the role law has played in American life."
—David Konig, Washington University in St. Louis

"A remarkable collection of first-rate historians have contributed to this indispensable guide to the burgeoning field of American legal history. A must-read for students and scholars alike."
—Ariela Gross, University of Southern California

"When a field grows as explosively as American legal history has over the past generation, a volume like this becomes necessary and useful. These essays, collectively and individually, capture the scholarly moment with grace, good humor, and erudition."
—Hendrik Hartog, Princeton University