Chapter: "Slavery's Constitution: The Creation of America's Covenant with Death" in IS THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION OBSOLETE? (ed. Thomas J. Main) (Carolina Academic Press 2013)
How the Proslavery Constitution Led to the Civil War, 43 Rutgers Law Journal 405 (2013)
James Buchanan, Dred Scott, and the Whisper of Conspiracy in JAMES BUCHANAN AND THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR (ed. John W. Quist and Michael J. Birkner) (Tallahassee: University of Florida Press, 2013) 20-45
“I Could Not Afford to Hang a Man For Votes”: Lincoln the Lawyer, Humanitarian Concerns, and the Dakota Pardons, 39 William Mitchell Law Review 405-449 (2013)
Defining Slavery Under A “Government Instituted for the Protection of the Rights of Mankind,” 35 Hamline Law Review 551-590 (2012)
“Slavery,” co-authored with Seymour Drescher, Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Oxford, Eng: Oxford University Press, 2012) pp. 890-917
Chapter: "From Slavery to Freedom in a Galaxy Far, Far Away" in Star Wars and History (ed. Nancy R. Reagin and Janice Liedl) (John Wiley and Sons, 2012) pp. 228-53
Slavery in the United States: Persons or Property? in THE LEGAL UNDERSTANDING OF SLAVERY FROM THE HISTORICAL TO THE CONTEMPORARY (ed. Jean Allain) (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 2012), 105-134
Toleration and Diversity in New Netherland and the Duke's Colony: The Roots of America's First Disestablishment, in T. Jeremy Gunn and John Witte, Jr. eds., NO ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION: AMERICA'S ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) 125-157
Introduction, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States: 1889 - 1918 (NAACP, new edition, 2012)
Justice and Legal Change on the Shores of Lake Erie: A History of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Co-edited with Roberta Sue Alexander, Ohio University Press, 2012)
States' Rights, Southern Hypocrisy, and the Crisis of the Union, 45 Akron Law Review 449 (2012)
CONGRESS AND THE CRISIS OF THE 1850's. Co-edited with Donald R. Kennon. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2012
Coming to Terms with Dred Scott: A Response to Daniel A. Farber, 39 PEPPERDINE LAW REVIEW 495-74 (2012)
Slavery, co-authored with Seymour Drescher in, eds. THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (eds. Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters) (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 2012), Chap. 37
The Appeasement of 1850, in CONGRESS AND THE CRISIS OF THE 1850’s (Co-edited with Donald R. Kennon. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2012): 36-79
FRANKLIN JOHNSON, THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE LEGISLATION CONCERNING THE FREE NEGRO. Introduction to reprint edition. Clark, N.J.: The Lawbook Exchange, 2012
Breaking the Back of Segregation: Why Sweatt Matters, 36 Thurgood Marshall Law Review 7-37 (2010) (published in 2012)
The Cost of Compromise and the Covenant with Death, 38 Pepperdine Law Review 845-888 (2011)
Slavery, the Constitution, and the Origins of the Civil War, Organization of American Historians Magazine of History 2011 25: 14-18
Constitutional Law in Context, Third Edition, by Michael Kent Curtis, J. Wilson Parker, Davison M. Douglas, Paul Finkelman, William G. Ross (Carolina Academic Press, 2011).
Through both historical essays and a timeline of American constitutional history, Constitutional Law in Context helps students understand constitutional law in light of cases, doctrine, constitutional analysis, federalism, and historical context. It covers both structure of government and individual liberty cases, and it includes a substantial chapter on free speech. In addition, the book provides historical context for the cases.
The casebook helps students to see how historical context shaped doctrinal developments. It also shows how historical developments affecting one doctrine often shaped other doctrines as well. Examples include parallel changes in commerce clause, substantive due process, and equal protection cases, and in cases related to race and gender. The chapter on incorporation includes excerpts from the Black Codes and from the congressional debates on the Fourteenth Amendment. The incorporation chapter also shows how the framers of the amendment were influenced by denials of civil liberties that occurred during the crusade against slavery.
The book contains materials on constitutional decision-making outside of the Supreme Court including materials on the Clinton impeachment and examples from free speech history.
IN THE SHADOW OF FREEDOM: THE POLITICS OF SLAVERY IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. Co-edited with Donald R. Kennon. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2011.
MILLARD FILLMORE. New York, NY: Times Books, 2011
A MARCH OF LIBERTY: A CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Co-Authored with Melvin I. Urofsky. 2 vols. 3rd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
This book is comprehensive overview of American constitutional development. Covering the country's history from the founding of the English colonies up through the latest decisions of the Supreme Court, this two-volume work presents the most complete discussion of American constitutional history currently available. It discusses in detail the great cases handed down by the Supreme Court, showing how these cases played out in society and how constitutional growth parallels changes in American culture. In addition, they examine lesser-known decisions that played important roles in affecting change, and also provide in-depth analyses of the intellects and personalities of the Supreme Court justices who made these influential decisions.
AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY: CASES AND MATERIALS. Co-authored with James W. Ely, Jr., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). 4th edition
John Brown: America’s First Terrorist?, in 43 Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration, 16-27 (Spring 2011)
THE DRED SCOTT CASE: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON RACE AND LAW. Co-edited with David Thomas Konig and Christopher Alan Bracey. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010.
RACE AND THE CONSTITUTION: FROM THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION TO THE AGE OF SEGREGATION, (Washington, D.C., American Historical Association, 2010).
The book is part of The New Essays on American Constitutional History series, and is published by the American Historical Association. Professor Finkelman surveys the history of legal definitions of "race" in the United States, as it developed out of the Constitutional definition of "slavery" in the late eighteenth-century, and became a concept unto itself following the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in the late nineteenth century.
United States Slave Law, in THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS 424-446 (Robert L. Parquette and Mark M. Smith, eds.) (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010).
When International Law Was a Domestic Problem, 44 VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 779-823 (2010).
The Strange Career of Dred Scott: From Fort Armstrong to Guantanamo Bay, in THE DRED SCOTT CASE: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON RACE AND LAW (Co-edited with David Thomas Konig and Christopher Alan Bracey) (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010) 227-251.
MILESTONE DOCUMENTS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: EXPLORING THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF NOTABLE AMERICANS. Editor-in-Chief. 4 vols. Dallas, TX: Schlager Group, 2010.
"The Civil War, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth Amendment: Understanding Who Freed the Slaves" in, PROMISES OF LIBERTY: THE HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT, ed. Alexander Tsesis, Columbia University Press 2010.
The chapter reviews the saga of emancipation starting with the Civil War and the work of Abraham Lincoln along with many others.
The First Federal Human Rights Legislation: Suppressing the African Slave Trade, 3 THE CRIT 20-63 (2010) (electronically published at thecritui.com).
Introduction: Symposium on Lincoln's Legacy: Enduring Lessons of Executive Power (co-authored with Ali A. Chaudhry), 3 ALBANY GOVERNMENT LAW REVIEW ix-xiv (2010).
"A Land that Needs People for its Increase": How the Jews Won the Right to Remain in New Netherland, in NEW ESSAYS IN AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY 19-50 and 488-496 [notes] (Pamela S. Nadell, Jonathan D. Sarna, and Lance J. Sussman, eds.) (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 2010).
A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE CASE AND TRYAL OF JOHN PETER ZENGER. Boston: Bedford Books, 2010.
Barack Hussein Obama-An Inspiration of Hope, an Agent for Change, in AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE PRESIDENCY: THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE (Bruce Glasrud and Cary D. Wintz eds.) (New York: Routledge 2010) 207-228.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, 1896 TO THE PRESENT: FROM THE AGE OF SEGREGATION TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. Editor-in-Chief. 5 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
THE POLITICAL LINCOLN: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA. Co-edited with Martin J. Hershock. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNITED STATES INDIAN POLICY AND LAW. Co-edited with Tim Alan Garrison. 2 vols. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009.
MILESTONE DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN LEADERS: EXPLORING THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF NOTABLE AMERICANS. Editor-in-Chief. 4 vols. Dallas, TX: Schlager Group, Inc., 2009.
The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and History,
88 Texas Law Review 353-390 (2009).
John McLean: Moderate Abolitionist and Supreme Court Politician,
62 Vanderbilt Law Review 519-65 (2009).
The American Suppression of the Slave African Slave Trade: Lessons on Legal Change, Social Policy, and Legislation,
42 Akron Law Review 433-470 (2009).
Race, Federalism, and Diplomacy: The Gentlemen's Agreement a Century Later,
56 Osaka University Law Review 1-30 (2009).
Lincoln and the Preconditions for Emancipation: The Moral Grandeur of a Bill of Lading, in LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION: RACE, PLACE, AND THE PARADOXES OF EMANCIPATION (William A. Blair and Karen Fisher Younger, eds.) (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) 13-44.
The Centrality of Brown, in CHOOSING EQUALITY: ESSAYS AND NARRATIVES ON THE DESEGREGATION EXPERIENCE (Robert L. Hayman, Jr. and Leland Ware, eds.) (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009) 224-245.
CONGRESS AND THE EMERGENCE OF SECTIONALISM: FROM THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE TO THE AGE OF JACKSON. Co-edited with Donald R. Kennon. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008.
LANDMARK DECISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 2nd Edition. With Melvin I. Urofsky. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008.
TERRORISM, GOVERNMENT, AND LAW: NATIONAL AUTHORITY AND LOCAL AUTONOMY IN THE WAR ON TERROR. Co-edited with Susan N. Herman. Westport, CN: Praeger Security International, 2008.
DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL HISTORY. Co-edited with Melvin I. Urofsky. 2 vols. 3rd edition. New York: Oxford, 2008.
MILESTONE DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY: EXPLORING THE PRIMARY SOURCES THAT SHAPED AMERICA. Editor-in-Chief. 4 vols. Dallas, TX: Schlager Group, Inc., 2008.
Was Dred Scott Correctly Decided? An ‘Expert Report' For the Defendant,
12 Lewis & Clark Law Review 1219-1252 (2008).
It Really Was About a Well Regulated Militia,
59 Syracuse Law Review 267-82 (2008).
School Vouchers, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Williams, and Protecting the Faithful: Warnings from the Eighteenth Century and the Seventeenth Century on the Danger of Establishments to Religious Communities,
2008 Brigham Young University Law Review 525-555 (2008).
Symposium on America's Constitution: A Biography,
59 Syracuse Law Review 49-55 (2008).
Regulating the African Slave Trade,
54 Civil War History 379-405 (2008).
Dred Scott v. Sandford: The Case that Made Lincoln President,
Lincoln Lore, No. 1892 (Spring 2008) 2-9.
Lincoln, Emancipation and the Limits of Constitutional Change,
2008 Supreme Court Review 349-387 (2008).
JAMES HARMON CHADBOURN, LYNCHING AND THE LAW. Introduction to reprint edition. (Lawbook Exchange, 2008).
Foreign Law and American Constitutional Interpretation: A Long and Venerable Tradition,
63 NYU Annual Survey of American Law 29-62 (2007).
Scott v. Sandford: The Court's Most Dreadful Case and How it Changed History, 82 Chicago-Kent Law Review 3-48 (2007).
Kermit L. Hall: A Life in Legal History and Scholarship,
57 Syracuse Law Review 357-59 (2007).
The Significance and Persistence of Proslavery Thought, in THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: SLAVERY, FREEDOM, AND THE AMBIGUITY OF AMERICAN REFORM 95-114 (Steven Mintz and John Stauffer, eds.) (University of Massachusetts Press, 2007).
FRANKLIN JOHNSON, THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE LEGISLATION CONCERNING THE FREE NEGRO. Introduction to reprint edition. (Lawbook Exchange, 2007).
A HISTORY OF MICHIGAN LAW. Co-edited with Martin J. Hershock. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2006. Recipient of Annual Book Award from the Michigan Historical Society, 2007; Designated a Michigan Notable Book for 2007 by the Library of Michigan.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, 1619-1895: FROM THE COLONIAL PERIOD TO THE AGE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Editor-in-Chief. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW AMERICAN NATION. Editor-in-Chief. 3 vols. Detroit: Charles Scribners Sons/Gale, 2006.
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW IN CONTEXT. With Michael Kent Curtis, J. Wilson Parker and Davison M. Douglas. 2 vols. 2nd ed., Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2006.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES. Editor-in-Chief. 3 vols. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Thomas Jefferson, Original Intent, and the Shaping American Law: Learning Constitutional Law from the Writings of Jefferson, 62 NYU Annual Survey of American Law 45-84 (2006).
The Dragon St. George Could Not Slay: Tucker's Plan to End Slavery,
47 William and Mary Law Review 1213-1243 (2006).
Anthony Burns, Judge Loring, Harvard Law School, and the Fugitive Slave Law in Boston, 10 Massachusetts Legal History 53-88 (2004) [2006].
Dred Scott v. Sandford, in THE PUBLIC DEBATE OVER CONTROVERSIAL SUPREME COURT DECISIONS 24-33 (Melvin I. Urofsky, ed.) (CQ Press, 2006).
Lemuel Shaw: The Shaping of State Law, in NOBLE PURPOSES: NINE CHAMPIONS OF THE RULE OF LAW 339-49 (Norman Gross, ed.) (Ohio University Press, 2006).
The Promise of Equality and the Limits of Law: From the Civil War to World War II, in THE HISTORY OF MICHIGAN LAW 187-213 (Paul Finkelman and Martin J. Hershock, eds.) (Ohio University Press, 2006).
Ohio's Struggle for Equality Before the Civil War,
23 Timeline 28-43 (2006).
What is Federalism and What Does It Have to do with Civil Rights?, in AWAKENING FROM THE DREAM: CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER SIEGE AND THE NEW STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL JUSTICE 3-24 (Denise C. Morgan, Rachel D. Godsil, and Joy Moses, eds.) (Carolina Academic Press, 2006).
W.E.B. DUBOIS, JOHN BROWN. Introduction to reprint edition. (Oxford University Press, 2007).
JOHN CODMAN HURD, THE LAW OF FREEDOM AND BONDAGE. Introduction to reprint edition. (Lawbook Exchange, 2006).
TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD: THE LEGACY OF JOHN BROWN. Co-edited with Peggy A. Russo. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2005.
AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY: CASES AND MATERIALS. With Kermit L. Hall and James W. Ely, Jr. New York: Oxford University Press, 3rd ed. 2005.
Civil Rights in Historical Context: In Defense of Brown,
118 Harvard Law Review 973-1027 (2005).
The Ten Commandments on the Courthouse Lawn and Elsewhere,
73 Fordham Law Review 1477-1520 (2005).
The Taney Court, 1836-1864: The Jurisprudence of Slavery and the Crisis of the Union, in THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT: THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE 75-99 (Christopher Tomlins, ed.) (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
Lieber, Slavery, and the Problem of Free Thought in Antebellum South Carolina, in FRANCIS LIEBER AND THE CULTURE OF THE MIND 11-22 (Charles R. Mack and Henry H. Lesesne, eds.) (University of South Carolina Press, 2005).
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE. Co-edited with Cary D. Wintz. 2 vols. New York: Routledge, 2004.
The Strange Career of Race Discrimination in Antebellum Ohio,
55 Case Western Reserve University Law Review 373-408 (2004).
The Radicalism of Brown,
66 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 35-56 (2004).
The Roots of Printz: Proslavery Constitutionalism, National Law Enforcement, Federalism, and Local Cooperation,
69 Brooklyn Law Review 1399 (2004).
The Historical Context of the Fourteenth Amendment,
13 Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review 389-409 (2004).
Locke v. Davy in Historical Perspective: A Brief Introduction,
40 Tulsa Law Review 219-225 (2004).
Race, Slavery, and the Law in Antebellum Ohio, in 2 THE HISTORY OF OHIO LAW 748-81 (Michael Les Benedict and John F. Winkler, eds.) (Ohio University Press, 2004).
Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer, in AMERICA'S LAWYER PRESIDENTS: FROM LAW OFFICE TO THE OVAL OFFICE 128-137 (Norman Gross, ed.) (Northwestern University Press, 2004).
FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN, RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. Introduction to reprint edition. (Lawbook Exchange, 2004).
DEFENDING SLAVERY: PROSLAVERY THOUGHT IN THE OLD SOUTH. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003.
The Root of the Problem: How The Proslavery Constitution Shaped American Race Relations,
4 Barry Law Review 1-19 (2003).
Limiting Rights in Times of Crisis: Our Civil War Experience - A History Lesson for a Post-9-11 America,
2 Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal 25-48 (2003).
John Bingham and the Background to the Fourteenth Amendment,
36 Akron Law Review 671-692 (2003).
Race and Domestic International Law in the United States,
17 National Black Law Journal 25-51 (2003).
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CIVIL WAR DESK REFERENCE. Co-edited with Margaret Wagner and Gary W. Gallagher. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002.
A MARCH OF LIBERTY: A CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. With Melvin I. Urofsky. 2 vols. New York: Oxford, 2002.
Picture Perfect: The First Amendment Trumps Congress in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition,
38 Tulsa Law Review 243-261 (2002).
Baseball and the Rule of Law Revisited,
25 Thomas Jefferson Law Review 17-52 (2002).
Fugitive Baseballs and Abandoned Property: Who Owns the Home Run Ball?,
23 Cardozo Law Review 1609-1633 (2002).
Speech, Press and Democracy,
10 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 813-826 (2002).
Joseph Story and the Problem of Slavery: A New Englander's Nationalist Dilemma,
8 Massachusetts Legal History 65-84 (2002).
The Proslavery Origins of the Electoral College,
23 Cardozo Law Review 1145-1157 (2002).
SLAVERY AND THE FOUNDERS: RACE AND LIBERTY IN THE AGE OF JEFFERSON. 2nd ed., Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY. Co-edited with Peter Wallenstein. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2001.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 3 Vols. Editor-in-Chief. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
Taking Aim at an American Myth,
99 Michigan Law Review 1500-1519 (2001).
The Founders and Slavery: Little Ventured, Little Gained,
13 Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 413-449 (2001).
Turning Losers into Winners: What Can We Learn, If Anything, From the Antifederalists?
79 Texas Law Review 849-894 (2001).
RELIGION AND AMERICAN LAW: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA. Editor. New York: Garland, 2000.
A Well Regulated Militia: The Second Amendment in Historical Perspective,
76 Chicago-Kent Law Review 195-236 (2000).
You Can't Always Get What You Want . . .: Presidential Elections and Supreme Court Appointments,
35 Tulsa Law Journal 473-483 (2000).
Teaching Slavery in American Constitutional Law,
34 Akron Law Review 261-282 (2000).
A Well Regulated Militia: The Second Amendment in Historical Perspective, in THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN LAW AND HISTORY: HISTORIANS AND CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLARS ON THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS 117-148 (Carl T. Bogus, ed.) (The New Press, 2000).
On Cinqué and the Historians,
87 THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY 940-946 (2000).
Garrison's Constitution: The Covenant with Death and How It Was Made,
32 PROLOGUE 230-245.
John Hope Franklin, in CLIO'S FAVORITES: LEADING HISTORIANS OF THE UNITED STATES 1945-2000 49-67 (Robert Allen Rutland, ed.) (University of Missouri Press, 2000).
Thomas R.R. Cobb and the Law of Negro Slavery,
5 Roger Williams Law Review 75-115 (1999).
Cultural Speech and Political Speech in Historical Perspective,
79 Boston University Law Review 717-743 (1999).
Affirmative Action for the Master Class: The Creation of the Proslavery Constitution,
32 Akron Law Review 423-470 (1999).
THOMAS R.R. COBB, AN INQUIRY INTO THE LAW OF NEGRO SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SLAVERY. Introduction to reprint edition. (University of Georgia Press, 1999).
IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY FROM 1787 TO THE PRESENT. With Emily Van Tassel. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998.
MACMILLAN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD SLAVERY. 2 Vols. Co-edited with Joseph C. Miller. New York: Macmillan, 1998.
Baseball and the Rule of Law,
46 Cleveland State Law Review 239-59 (1998).
The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Federalism, in FEDERALISTS RECONSIDERED 135-156 (Doron Ben-Atar and Barbara Oberg, eds.) (Univ. Press of Virginia, 1998).
HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER. COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA. Introduction to reprint edition, with David Cobin. 2 vols. (Lawbook Exchange, 1998).
DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD: A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.
A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE TRYAL OF JOHN PETER ZENGER. Edited with an introduction. St. James, NY: Bradywine Press, 1997.
SLAVERY AND THE LAW. Editor and author of two chapters. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1997.
Prigg v. Pennsylvania: Understanding Justice Story's Pro-Slavery Nationalism,
2 Journal of Supreme Court History 51-64 (1997).
Between Scylla and Charybdis: Anarchy, Tyranny and the Debate over a Bill of Rights, in THE BILL OF RIGHTS: GOVERNMENT PROSCRIBED 103-74 (Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert, eds.) (University Press of Virginia, 1997).
Crimes of Love, Misdemeanors of Passion: The Regulation of Race and Sex in the Colonial South, in THE DEVIL'S LANE: SEX AND RACE IN THE EARLY SOUTH 124-38 (Catherine Clinton and Michele Gillespie, eds.) (Oxford University Press, 1997).
ST. GEORGE TUCKER. TUCKER'S BLACKSTONE. Introduction to reprint edition, with David Cobin. 5 vols. (Lawbook Exchange, 1997).
The Rise of the New Racism,
15 Yale Law and Policy Review 245-82 (1996).
Intentionalism, The Founders and Constitutional Interpretation,
75 Texas Law Review 435-81 (1996).
The Dred Scott Case, Slavery, and the Politics of Law,
20 Hamline Law Review 1-42 (1996).
Legal Ethics and Fugitive Slaves: The Anthony Burns Case, Judge Loring, and Abolitionist Attorneys,
17 Cardozo Law Review 1793-1858 (1996).
The Dred Scott Case, Slavery, and the Politics of Law, 18 Nanzan Review of American Studies (Published at Nanzan University, Nogaya, Japan) 27-68 (1996).
German Victims and American Oppressors: The Cultural Background and Legacy of Meyer v. Nebraska, in LAW AND THE GREAT PLAINS 33-56 (John R. Wunder, ed.) (Greenwood Press, 1996)
HIS SOUL GOES MARCHING ON: RESPONSES TO JOHN BROWN AND THE HARPERS FERRY RAID. Editor and author of two chapters. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1995.
BASEBALL AND THE AMERICAN LEGAL MIND. With Spencer Waller and Neil Cohen. New York: Garland, 1995.
Book Review of William G. Ross, Forging New Freedoms: Nativism, Education, and the Constitution, 1917-1927,
45 Journal of Legal Education 291-96 (1995).
A Bad Marriage: Jewish Divorce and the First Amendment,
2 Cardozo Women's Law Journal 131-72 (1995).
‘Hooted Down the Page of History': Reconsidering the Greatness of Chief Justice Taney,
1994 Journal of Supreme Court History 83-102 (1995).
‘Free At Last'?
70 Chicago-Kent Law Review 865-869 (1995).
The Anderson Slave Case and Rights in Canada and England, in LAW SOCIETY, AND THE STATE-ESSAYS IN MODERN LEGAL HISTORY 37-72 (Louis A. Knafla and Susan W. S. Binnie, eds.) (University of Toronto Press, 1995).
Not Only the Judges' Robes Were Black: African-American Lawyers as Social Engineers, 47 Stanford Law Review 161-209 (1994). Reprinted in THE HISTORY OF LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: COMMENTARIES AND PRIMARY SOURCES, vol. 1 (Steve Sheppard, ed., Pasadena, California, Salem Press, 1999): 913-952.
Story Telling on the Supreme Court: Prigg v. Pennsylvania and Justice Joseph Story's Judicial Nationalism,
1994 Supreme Court Review 247-94.
‘Let Justice Be Done, Though the Heavens May Fall': The Law of Freedom,
70 Chicago-Kent Law Review 325-68 (1994).
Thomas Jefferson and Antislavery: The Myth Goes On,
102 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 193-228 (1994).
Zenger's Case: Prototype of a Political Trial, in AMERICAN POLITICAL TRIALS 21-42 (Revised ed., Michal Belknap, ed.) (Greenwood, 1994).
The Treason Trial of Castner Hanway, in AMERICAN POLITICAL TRIALS 77-96 (Revised ed., Michal Belknap, ed.) (Greenwood, 1994).
Civil Liberties and the Civil War: The Great Emancipator as Civil Libertarian,
91 Michigan Law Review 1353-81 (1993).
The Color of Law,
87 Northwestern University Law Review 937-91 (1993).
The Second Casualty of War: Civil Liberties and the War on Drugs,
66 Southern California Law Review 1389-1452 (1993).
The Crime of Color,
67 Tulane Law Review 2063-2112 (1993).
The Centrality of the Peculiar Institution in American Legal Development,
68 Chicago-Kent Law Review (1993) 1009-33.
Sorting Out Prigg v. Pennsylvania,
24 Rutgers Law Journal 605-65 (1993).
The Paradox of Bill of Rights Rhetoric, 1787-1791, in TO SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY: RIGHTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 83-103 (Josephine F. Pacheco, ed.) (George Mason University Press, 1993).
Jefferson and Slavery: Treason Against the Hopes of the World, in JEFFERSONIAN LEGACIES 181-221 (Peter S. Onuf, ed.) (University Press of Virginia, 1993).
The War on German Language and Culture, 1917-1925, in CONFRONTATION AND COOPERATION: GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE ERA OF WORLD WAR I, 1900-1914 177-205 (Hans Jürgen Schröder, ed.) (Berg Publishers, 1993).
Fugitive Slaves, Midwestern Racial Tolerance, and the Value of ‘Justice Delayed',
78 Iowa Law Review 89-141 (1992).
State Constitutional Protections of Liberty and the Antebellum New Jersey Supreme Court: Chief Justice Hornblower and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793,
23 Rutgers Law Journal 753-87 (1992).
International Extradition and Fugitive Slaves: The John Anderson Case,
18 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 765-810 (1992).
The Ten Amendments as a Declaration of Rights,
16 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 351-96 (1992).
Criminal Law, Family, and Compelling Government Interests,
55 Albany Law Review 689-711 (1992).
Religious Liberty and the Quincentennary: Old World Intolerance, New World Realities, and Modern Implications,
7 St. Johns Journal of Legal Commentary 523 (1992).
‘The Law, and Not Conscience, Constitutes the Rule of Action': The South Bend Fugitive Slave Case and the Value of ‘Justice Delayed', in THE CONSTITUTION, LAW, AND AMERICAN LIFE: CRITICAL ASPECTS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY EXPERIENCE 23-51(Donald G. Nieman, ed.) (University of Georgia Press, 1992).
RACE AND LAW IN AMERICAN HISTORY: LEADING ARTICLES. Editor and author of Introductions. 11 vols. (Garland, 1992).
TOWARD A USABLE PAST: LIBERTY UNDER STATE CONSTITUTIONS. Co-Edited with Stephen Gottlieb. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1991.
The Latest Front on the War on Drugs: The First Amendment,
2 Drug Law Report 229-36 (1991).
The War on Defense Lawyers, in NEW FRONTIERS IN DRUG POLICY 113-120 (Arnold S. Trebach and Zevin B. Zeese, eds.) (Drug Policy Foundation, 1991).
Rehearsal for Reconstruction: Antebellum Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment, in THE FACTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 1-27 (Eric Anderson and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., eds.) (Louisiana State University Press, 1991).
Race and the Constitution, in BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 149-162 (Kermit L. Hall, ed.) (Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1991).
The Soul and the State: Religious Freedom in Early New York and the Origin of the First Amendment, in NEW YORK AND THE UNION, 78-105 (Stephen Schechter and Richard B. Bernstein, eds.) (New York State Bicentennial Commission, 1991).
The Kidnapping of John Davis and the Adoption of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, in 56 Journal of Southern History 397-422 (1990).
States' Rights, Federalism, and Criminal Extradition in Antebellum America: The New York-Virginia Controversy, 1839-1846, in GERMAN AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL THOUGHT: CONTEXTS, INTERACTION, AND HISTORICAL REALITIES (Hermann Wellenreuther, ed.) (Berg, 1990) 293-327; also published in German, in Hermann Wellenreuther und Claudia Schnurmann, eds., DIE AMERIKANISCHE VERFASSUNG UND DEUTSCH-AMERIKANISCHES VERFASSUNGSDENKEN, (Berg, 1991) 334-381 [Trans. by Marie-Luise Frings].
Understanding Eighteenth Century Constitutionalism: Recapturing Texts and Context,
18 Reviews in American History 185-89 (1990).
James Madison and the Bill of Rights: A Reluctant Paternity, 1990 Supreme Court Review 301-47 (1990). Reprinted in INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF ESSAYS IN THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT SERIES: JAMES MADISON (Terence Ball, ed., Ashgate Publishing, 2008): 363-409.
The Constitution and the Intentions of the Framers: The Limits of Historical Analysis,
50 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 349-98 (1989).
Northern Labor Law and Southern Slave Law: The Application of the Fellow Servant Rule to Slaves,
11 National Black Law Journal 212-232 (1989).
Evading the Ordinance: The Persistence of Bondage in Indiana and Illinois,
9 Journal of the Early Republic 21-51 (1989).
Prosecutions in Defense of the Cornerstone,
17 Reviews in American History 397-403 (1989).
Slavery and Bondage in the ‘Empire of Liberty', in THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE: ESSAYS ON ITS FORMULATION, PROVISIONS, AND LEGACY 61-96 (Frederick D. Williams, ed.) (Michigan State University Press, 1989).
States Rights North and South in Antebellum America, in AN UNCERTAIN TRADITION: CONSTITUTIONALISM AND THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH 125-158 (Kermit Hall and James W. Ely, Jr., eds.) (University of Georgia Press, 1989).
AMERICAN SLAVERY: MAJOR HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS. Editor and author of introductions. 18 vols. (Garland, 1990). STATE SLAVERY STATUTES. Editor and author of introduction for a bibliography of American state slavery statutes and editor of 354 card microfiche collection of the slavery statutes of the southern states. (University Publications of America, 1989).
The Protection of Black Rights in Seward's New York,
34 Civil War History 211-234 (1988).
The Northwest Ordinance: A Constitution for an Empire of Liberty, in PATHWAYS TO THE OLD NORTHWEST 1-18 (Lloyd Hunter, ed.) (Indiana Historical Society, 1988).
Slavery at the Philadelphia Convention,
17 This Constitution 25-30 (1988).
The Pennsylvania Delegation and the Peculiar Institution: The Two Faces of the Keystone State,
112 Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 49-72 (1988).
Roger Williams and the Separation of Church and State, and The Chicken or the Egg? The Nation & The States," in THE NEW FEDERALIST PAPERS 49-52, 279-82 (J. Jackson Barlow, et al., eds.,) (University Press of America, 1988).
SLAVERY, RACE, AND THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM, 1700-1872. Editor and author of introductions. 16 vols. (Garland, 1988). (Reprint, Lawbook Exchange, 2007).
Slaves as Fellow Servants: Ideology, Law, and Industrialization,"
31 American Journal of Legal History 269-305 (1987).
Book Review of John David Smith, An Old Creed For the New South: Proslavery Ideology and Historiography, 1865-1918,
5 Law & History Review 571-73 (1987).
Slavery and the Constitutional Convention: Making a Covenant With Death, in BEYOND CONFEDERATION: ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY 188-225 (Richard Beeman, et al., eds.) (University of North Carolina Press, 1987).
Slavery, the 'More Perfect Union,' and the Prairie State,
80 Illinois History Journal 248-269 (1987).
THE LAW OF FREEDOM AND BONDAGE: A CASEBOOK. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Press and NYU School of Law, 1986.
Prelude to the Fourteenth Amendment: Black Legal Rights in the Antebellum North,
17 Rutgers Law Journal 415-82 (1986).
Slavery and the Northwest Ordinance: A Study in Ambiguity,
6 Journal of the Early Republic 343-370 (1986).
SLAVERY IN THE COURTROOM. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1985.
Exploring Southern Legal History,
64 North Carolina Law Review 77-116 (1985).
Book Review of Bradley Chapin, Criminal Justice in Colonial America, 1606-1660,
3 Law & History Review 203-07 (1985).
The Coming of Age of American Legal History,
16 Maryland Historian 1-11 (1985).
Antifederalists: The Loyal Opposition and the American Constitution,
70 Cornell Law Review 182-207 (1984).
Alexander Hamilton, Esq.: Founding Father as Lawyer,
1984 American Bar Foundation Research Journal 229-52 (1984).
The Peculiar Laws of the Peculiar Institution,
10 Reviews in American History 358-63 (1982).
AN IMPERFECT UNION: SLAVERY, FEDERALISM, AND COMITY. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1981. Reprint, Law Book Exchange, 2001.
The First American Constitutions: State and Federal,
59 Texas Law Review 1139-73 (1981).
Review Essay of Michael S. Hindus, Prison and Plantation: Crime Justice and Authority in Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1767-1878,
129 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1485-1515 (1981).
The Law of Slavery and Freedom in California,
17 California Western Law Review 437-64 (1981).
Racial Justice and the Public Schools,
19 History of Education Quarterly 373-380 (1979).
What Did the Dred Scott Case Really Decide?
7 Reviews in American History 368-74 (1979).
Prigg v. Pennsylvania and Northern State Courts: Anti-Slavery Use of a Pro-Slavery Decision,
25 Civil War History 5-35 (1979).
The Nationalization of Slavery: A Counterfactual Approach to the 1860s,
14 Louisiana Studies 213-240 (1975).
Class and Culture in Law Nineteenth Century Chicago: The Founding of the Newberry Library,
16 American Studies, 5-22 (1975).
Encyclopedia Entries
Entries in numerous encyclopedias and reference works, including: African-American Culture and History, American Cultural and Intellectual History, American National Biography; The American Presidents, Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery; Dictionary of American History (1996 Supplement); Civil Rights in the United States, Encarta, CD-ROM Encyclopedia published by Microsoft; Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, Encyclopedia of American Political History Encyclopedia of the Confederacy; Encyclopedia of the Constitution Encyclopedia of the Mexican War Encyclopedia of the Presidency; Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia, Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery, Oxford Companion to American Law, Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary, Truman Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century
Other Publications
Over eighty short book reviews in a wide variety of scholarly journals, numerous essays in newspapers and other non-scholarly publications. These include Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and USA Today.