The Reconstruction Amendments : The Essential Documents, Volume 1 / ed. by Kurt T. Lash.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lash, Kurt T., Editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional amendments--United States--History--19th century--Sources.

Constitutional amendments.

Constitutional history--United States--Sources.

Constitutional history.

Constitutional history--United States--19th century--Sources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (632 p.) : 1 halftone

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Ratified in the years immediately following the American Civil War, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution—together known as the Reconstruction Amendments—abolished slavery, safeguarded a set of basic national liberties, and expanded the right to vote, respectively. This two-volume work presents the key speeches, debates, and public dialogues that surrounded the adoption of the three amendments, allowing us to more fully experience how they reshaped the nature of American life and freedom. Volume I outlines a broad historical context for the Reconstruction Amendments and contains materials related to the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, while Volume 2 covers the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments on the rights of citizenship and enfranchisement. The documents in this collection encompass a sweeping range of primary sources, from congressional debates to court cases, public speeches to newspaper articles. As a whole, the volumes meticulously depict a significant period of legal change even as they illuminate the ways in which people across the land grappled with the process of constitutional reconstruction. Filling a major gap in the literature on the era, The Reconstruction Amendments will be indispensable for readers in politics, history, and law, as well as anyone seeking a better understanding of the post–Civil War basis of American constitutional democracy.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction to the Collection

Part 1 The Antebellum Constitution

Introduction to Part 1

A. F oundational Documents

B. Federalism and the Structure of Antebellum Constitutional Liberty

C. Slavery: Antebellum Law and Politics

D. Secession and Civil War

Part 2 The Thirteenth Amendment

A. Drafting

B. Ratification

Index and Table of Cases

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Jun 2021)

ISBN:

9780226688817

022668881X

OCLC:

1243553722