Birthright citizens : a history of race and rights in antebellum America / Martha S. Jones.
Jones, Martha S., author.
2018
KF4757 .J67 2018 (Mapit)
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Title Birthright citizens : a history of race and rights in antebellum America / Martha S. Jones.
Author Jones, Martha S., author.
ISBN 9781316604724 (paperback)
1316604721 (paperback)
9781107150348 (hardcover)
1107150345 (hardcover)
Published Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Language English
Description xix, 248 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
Call Number KF4757 .J67 2018
Dewey Decimal Classification 342.7308/3
Summary Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and Black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They faced formidable opposition, most notoriously from the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha S. Jones explains, no single case defined their status. Former slaves studied law, secured allies, and conducted themselves like citizens, establishing their status through local, everyday claims. All along they argued that birth guaranteed their rights. With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones shows how the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, and Black Americans' aspirations were realized. Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-238) and index.
Series Studies in legal history.
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
All Resources
Introduction : Rights of colored men : debating citizenship in antebellum America
Being a native, and free born : race and rights in Baltimore
Threats of removal : colonization, emigration, and the borders of belonging
Aboard the Constitution : black sailors and citizenship at sea
The city courthouse : everyday scenes of race and law
Between the Constitution and the discipline of the church : making congregants citizens
By virtue of unjust laws : black laws as the performance of rights
To sue and be sued : courthouse claims and the contours of citizenship
Confronting Dred Scott : seeing citizenship from Baltimore City
Conclusion : Rehearsals for Reconstruction : new citizens in a new era
Epilogue : monuments to men.

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