Law and Society in Nineteenth Century America

Undergraduate / Graduate

This research-based seminar examines the major contexts, concepts, and themes of American legal development between 1800 and 1890. We will explore a range of historical problems including law and capitalism, western expansion, shifting legal categories of personhood and status (especially those shaping labor, family, gender, and race), law and indigenous sovereignty, slavery and abolition, the Civil War and Reconstruction (as moments of constitutional crisis and transformation), and the rise of corporate capitalism (through the lens of both labor and capital). Readings will include primary source material (case law and statutes) in addition to secondary sources (historical articles and books). Students will select one area of inquiry and prepare either a comprehensive literature review engaging with a scholarly debate or a research essay based on an original analytical question and primary source research related to the course theme. For LLSO majors, this course will count as a junior colloquium.