
The Complete American Constitutionalism is designed to be the comprehensive treatment and source for debates on the American constitutional experience. It provides the analysis, resources, and materials both domestic and foreign readers must understand with regards to the practice of constitutionalism in the United States. This first part to Volume Five of the series covers: The Constitution of the Confederate States. The authors offer a comprehensive analysis of the constitution of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. Confederate constitutionalism presents the paradox of a society constitutionally committed to human and white supremacy whose constitutional materials rarely dwell on human bondage and racism. The foundational texts of Confederate constitutionalism maintain that racial slavery was at the core of secession and southern nationality. This volume provides the various speeches, ordinances and declarations, cases, and a host of other sources accompanied by detailed historical commentary.
This volume investigates the paradox of how the Confederate States of America constructed a constitutional framework that prioritized white supremacy while simultaneously omitting explicit references to human bondage in its foundational legal texts. The authors, Howard Gillman and Mark A. Graber, utilize a vast collection of primary source documents—including ordinances, speeches, and judicial cases—to argue that despite the silence of the text, the preservation of racial slavery remained the central impetus for secession and the formation of the Confederate nation.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and legal historians recognize this series as a foundational resource for understanding the evolution of American constitutional thought. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is tailored for researchers and students of constitutional law.
Page Count:
560
Publication Date:
2018-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190914351
ISBN-13:
9780190914356
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