The Thirteenth Amendment And American Freedom

by Tsesis, Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780814782767
• ISBN10: 0814782760
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-12
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

View the target=_blank>Table of Contents. Read thetarget=_blank>Preface.[A] comprehensive and brilliant book from both a historical and analytical perspective. Drawing from the lessons of history, Alexander Tsesis shows persuasively the relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment to a wide range of the social and economic issues currently facing America, and he offers highly creative arguments that support the use of congressional power under the Thirteenth Amendment as a potent and effective means of meeting and resolving these issues.--G. Sidney Buchanan, Baker & Botts Chaired Professor of Law, University of Houston Law CenterTsesis vigorously presents a set of arguments that are rarely found in the conventional legal literature. . . . an interesting and challenging book.--Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law SchoolFor those looking for arguments to revitalize and expand the use of the Thirteenth Amendment, this is an interesting piece of advoacacy.--Journal of American History...audacious and original. He (Tsesis) offers a blueprint as to how desperately needed reforms...can come about.--Richard Delgado in Michigan Law ReviewAlexander Tsesis's invigorating reevaluation of the Thirteenth Amendment agrees with many Lincoln Republicans that it embraced the Declaration of Independence.--Harold Hyman, Rice UniversityThis book deserves applause because it illuminates in a new and stimulating way methods for repairing the harm done by racist rhetoric, hate crimes, and the newest forms of slavery.--The American Historical Review...a challenging and nicely written book that will teach well.--ChoiceIn this interesting study, Alexander Tsesis argues for an expansive view of the Thirteenth Amendment, presenting it as an effort to permanently abolish all the incidents and badges of slavery in America, including both governmentally and privately sponsered forms of oppression against former slaves and others.--The Law and Politics ReviewIn this narrative history and contextual analysis of the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery and freedom take center stage. Alexander Tsesis demonstrates how entrenched slavery was in pre-Civil War America, how central it was to the political events that resulted in the Civil War, and how it was the driving force that led to the adoption of an amendment that ultimately provided a substantive assurance of freedom for all American citizens.The story of how Supreme Court justices have interpreted the Thirteenth Amendment, first through racist lenses after Reconstruction and later influenced by the modern civil rights movement, provides insight into the tremendous impact the Thirteenth Amendment has had on the Constitution and American culture. Importantly, Tsesis also explains why the Thirteenth Amendment is essential to contemporary America, offering fresh analysis on the role the Amendment has played regarding civil rights legislation and personal liberty case decisions, and an original explanation of the substantive guarantees of freedom for today's society that the Reconstruction Congress envisioned over a century ago.

Author Biography

Alexander Tsesis is Visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Visiting Assistant Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Visiting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Institute for Legal Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Preface	1	(10)
PART I
1 Slavery and Its Social Penetration	11	(23)
A. Slavery and the Founding Generation	12	(6)
B. Slavery as a Cultural Institution	18	(5)
C. Centrality of Slavery in Sectional Conflicts	23	(11)
2 On the Road to Ratification	34	(25)
A. Emancipation by Statute and Proclamation	34	(3)
B. Congressional Debates on the Thirteenth Amendment's Meaning	37	(11)
C. The Immediate Aftermath of Liberation	48	(11)
1. What Sort of Freedom?	48	(5)
2. Legal Protections	53	(6)
3 End of Radical Ideals and Judicial Response	59	(35)
A. Political Abandonment of Reconstruction	59	(2)
B. Supreme Court Abandonment of Reconstruction	61	(21)
1. Early Opinions	62	(5)
2. Relinquishment of Thirteenth Amendment Principles	67	(15)
C. A Ray of Hope: Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer	82	(10)
D. Summing Up	92	(2)
4 Summing Up and Looking Ahead	94	(7)
PART II
5 Theoretical Foundation	101	(11)
A. Abolition and Natural Rights	101	(3)
B. Thirteenth Amendment and Universal Liberty	104	(8)
6 Thirteenth Amendment and Constitutional Rights	112	(25)
A. Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment Freedoms	112	(5)
B. Source for Substantive Freedom	117	(14)
C. Commerce Clause and Thirteenth Amendment	131	(6)
7 Contemporary Settings	137	(24)
A. Confederate Symbols	137	(12)
1. National Symbolism	137	(3)
2. Peculiarities of Confederate Symbols	140	(3)
3. Revival of Confederate Symbolism	143	(4)
4. Federal Authority	147	(2)
B. Hate Crimes	149	(5)
C. Contemporary Instances of Peonage	154	(7)
Conclusion	161	(2)
Notes	163	(38)
Select Bibliography	201	(20)
Index	221	(8)
About the Author	229