Birthright citizens : a history of race and rights in antebellum America /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Jones, Martha S., author.
Imprint:Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Description:1 online resource (xix, 248 pages) : illustrations
Language:English
Series:Studies in Legal History
Studies in legal history.
Subject:African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc.
African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 19th century.
Citizenship -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Race discrimination -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History.
African Americans -- Civil rights.
African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Citizenship.
Race discrimination -- Law and legislation.
United States.
Electronic books.
History.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12576274
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:History of race and rights in antebellum America
ISBN:9781316577165
1316577163
9781108607872
110860787X
9781107150348
1107150345
9781316604724
1316604721
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-238) and index.
Online resource; title from digital title page (CambridgeCore, viewed August 14, 2020).
Summary:"Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans. Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and raced-based 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 US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha 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 lawmaking before the Civil War, Jones shows how, when the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the bithright principle, black Americans' aspirations were realized."--Provided by publisher
Awards:Liberty Legacy Foundation Award, 2019
Other form:Print version: Jones, Martha S. Birthright citizens. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, ©2018 9781107150348 9781316604724