?The Abolitionist Constitution:
Fundamental Rights under Slavery?
Professor Christopher Waldrep
Department of History
San Francisco State University

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Professor Christopher Waldrep link is the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at San Francisco State University where he teaches US constitutional and legal history. He is the author of numerous books including Night Riders: Defending Community in the Black Patch (1993), Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817-80 (1998), Racial Violence on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents (2001), and The Many Faces of Judge Lynch (2002). His latest book is Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance. He is also senior editor of H-Law.

Speaker's Handout pdf

Documents referred to in the talk

1. United States Constitution (excerpts). pdf
   
   
2. James Forten (1766-1842), Philadelphia Columbian Courier, June 20, 1800. pdf
   
   
3. Daniel Webster, "Punishment of Treason," January 1814. pdf
   
   
4. Wright, Otherwise called Hall, against Deacon, Keeper of the Prison, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District, Philadelphia, 5 Sergo & Rawle 62 (1819). pdf
   
   
5. Chancellor Reuben H. Walworth, Jack, a Negro Man, v. Mary Martin, 14 Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature and the Court for the Correction of Errors of the State of New York 597 (1835). pdf
   
   
6. James C. Alvord, "Trial by Jury, In Questions of Personal Freedom," American Jurist and Law Magazine 17 {April 1837). pdf
   
   
7. Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 41 U.S. 539 (1842). pdf
   
   
8. William Goodell, Views of American Constitutional Law l in its Bearing Upon American Slavery (Utica: Lawson & Chaplin, 1845). pdf
   
   
9. Alvan Stwart, A Legal Argument Before the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey at the May Terml 18451 at Trenton for the Deliverance of41 000 Persons from Bondage (New York: Finch &
   Weed, 1845). pdf
   
   
10. Salmon P. Chase, Reclamation of Fugitives From Service: An Argument for the Defendant Submitted to The Supreme Court of the United States  at the December terml 18461 in the Case of Wharton Jones v. John Vanzandt (Cincinnati: R.P Donogh &Co., 1847). pdf
    
    
11. Lysander Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury, 1852. pdf
    
    
12. Daniel Webster's "Seventh of March Speech," 1850. pdf
    
    
13. Daniel Webster's Letter to the Citizens of Newburyport, Mass., May 15, 1850. pdf
    
    
14. Horace Mann Responds to Daniel Webster, 1850. pdf
    
    
15. Is the Constitution Pro-Slavery? A Debate Between Frederick Douglass, Charles C. Burleigh, Gerrit Smith, Parker pdf
    
    
16. Frederick Douglass, "Is the United States Constitution For or Against Slavery?" Frederick Douglass' Papers, July 24, 1851.