Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (Studies in Legal History)
A study of how free Black Americans asserted claims to citizenship and rights in law and public life before the Civil War.
About This Book
Birthright Citizens examines the legal and social status of African Americans in the decades before the Civil War.
The book focuses on how free Black communities asserted claims to citizenship and rights within American society.
Martha S. Jones draws on court records, petitions, and public debates to trace changing definitions of belonging.
The study situates these struggles within broader transformations in American law and constitutional thought.
It highlights both the possibilities and the limits that shaped African American claims to equal standing.
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