Bibliography

• Books
  • The Oxford Handbook of Race and Law in the United States. (forthcoming 2025).
  • American Stories (with H.W. Brands & Timothy Breen). 7th ed. Pearson, Longman (2024).
  • Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana (with Alejandro de la Fuente). Cambridge University Press (2020; ppb. Jan. 2022).
  • America Past & Present, and The American Story, (with Divine, Brands, Breen, Fredrickson, & Williams). 10th ed. Pearson, Longman (2013).
  • What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America. Harvard Univ. Press (2008; ppb. 2010).
  • Double Character: Slavery and Mastery in the Antebellum Southern Courtroom. Princeton University Press (2000; ppb. Univ. of Ga. Press, 2006).
• Articles And Book Chapters
  • Of Coercion, ‘Consent,’ and Concubines: The Regulation and Litigation of Interracial Sex And Marriage under Slavery in the U.S. South, in Regulating Interracialized Intimacies: European and Global Perspectives (edited by Betty de Hart & Elena Zambelli, eds., Routledge, forthcoming 2024).
  • Making Race in the Law during the Era of Slavery,” in The Oxford Handbook of Race and The Law (edited by Guy-Uriel Charles and Aziza Ahmed). Oxford Univ. Press (2022).
  • The Precarious Status of Free People of Color on the Move in Antebellum Virginia, in The Experience of Mobility, (with Alejandro de la Fuente) (edited by Claudia Moatti and Emmanuelle Chevreau , Éditions Ausonius, Paris, 2021).
  • Archives of the Dispossessed: Mourning, Memory, and Metahistory. English Language Notes 59:1 (April 2021), 219-221. Full Text
  • Introduction: Celebrating Bob Gordon’s Taming the Past (Susanna L. Blumenthal), 70 Stan. L. Rev. 1623 (May 2018).
  • Bob Gordon’s Critical Historicism and The Pursuit of Justice, 70 Stan. L. Rev. 1633 (May2018).
  • A Grassroots History of Colorblind Conservative Constitutionalism, Law & Social Inquiry (January 2018).
  • Editor, Symposium: “A Crime Against Humanity”: Slavery and The Boundaries of Legality, Past and Present, 35 Law & History Rev. 1 (February 2017).
  • “Introduction: ‘A Crime Against Humanity’: Slavery and The Boundaries of Legality, Past and Present, 35 Law & History Rev. 1 (February 2017).
  • The New Abolitionism, International Law, and The Memory of Slavery (with Chantal Thomas), Law & History Rev. (February 2017). reprinted in A Stain on Our Past: Slavery And Memory, Johann Michel & Abdoulaye Gueye, eds. (Africa World Press, 2018).
  • Boundary Crossings: Slavery and Freedom, Legality and Illegality, Past and Present (with Alejandro de la Fuente), 35 Law & History Rev. (February 2017).
  • Go Set a Watchman and the Limits of White Liberalism, 47 Cumberland L. Rev. 57. (2016-2017) (symposium).
  • Article IV, Section 2, in (with David R. Upham), in The Interactive Constitution, National Constitution Center (2016). Full Text
  • Laws of Blood: The Invisible Common Sense of Race in U.S. Courtrooms, in Dismantling the Race Myth (Tokyo Univ. Press, 2016).
  • On Race and Law, in Printed Matter: Online Journal of the Centro Primo Levi (May, 2015).
  • Manumission and Freedom in the Americas: Cuba, Louisiana, Virginia, 1500s-1700s (with Alejandro de la Fuente, Quaderni Storici) (Jan. 2015). pp. 15-48.
  • Never Forget? Jewish Identity, History, Memory, Slavery, and The Constitution, in Symposium: People of the Book, 16 Rutgers J. of Law & Religion 294 (2015).
  • Slaves, Free Blacks and Race in the Legal Regimes of Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia: A Comparison, (with Alejandro de la Fuente), in Symposium on Race Trials, 91 N.C. L. Rev. 1700 (2013).
  • All Born to Freedom: Comparing the Law and Politics of Race and the Memory of Slavery in the U.S. and France Today, 21 So. Cal. Interdisciplinary L. J. 522 (2012). Full Text
  • From the Streets to the Courts: Doing Grass-Roots Legal History of the Civil Rights Era: A Review of Tomiko Brown-Nagin, ‘Courage to Dissent', 90 Texas L. Rev. 1233 (2012).
  • Teaching Humanities Softly: Bringing A Critical Approach to the First-Year Contracts Class through Trial and Error, in Symposium on Law and Humanities in the Law School Curriculum,, California L. Rev. Circuit (2012).
  • Unsex Parenting, or, What’s So Bad About the 1970s: A Comment on Darren Rosenblum, Unsex Mothering, in Harvard J. L. & Gender, online (2012).
  • Essay: Race, Law, and Comparative History, 29 Law & History Rev 549 (2011).
  • Comparative Studies of Law, Slavery and Race in the Americas, (with Alejandro de la Fuente), 6 Annual Review of Law & Soc. Sci. 469 (2010). Full Text
  • Author’s Reply to Book Review Symposium, What Blood Won’t Tell, 83 So. Cal. L. Rev. 495 (2010).
  • The Constitution of History and Memory, in Austin Sarat et al., in Law and the Humanities: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
  • When Is the Time of Slavery? The History of Slavery in Contemporary Legal and Political Argument, 96 Calif. L. Rev. 283 (2008). Full Text
  • Slavery, Antislavery, and the Coming of the Civil War, in The Cambridge History of Law in America (edited by Christopher Tomlins & Michael Grossberg, Cambridge University Press, 2008).
  • Of Portuguese Origin”: Litigating Identity and Citizenship among The “Little Races” in Nineteenth Century America, 25 Law & History Rev. 467 (2007). Full Text
  • The Caucasian Cloak’: Mexican Americans and The Politics of Whiteness in The Twentieth Century Southwest, 95 Georgetown L. J. 337 (2007). (reprinted in Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge [3rd ed.]). Full Text
  • Reflections on Law, Culture, and Slavery, in Slavery and the American South (edited by Winthrop D. Jordan, Univ. of Mississippi Press, 2003).
  • Texas Mexicans and The Politics of Whiteness, 21 Law & History Rev. 195 (2003).
  • The Law and The Culture of Slavery: Natchez, Mississippi, in Local Matters: Race, Crime and Justice in the Nineteenth-Century South (edited by Donald Nieman & Christopher Waldrep, eds., Univ. of Georgia Press, 2001).
  • Beyond Black and White: Cultural Approaches to Race and Slavery, 101 Columbia L. Rev. 640 (2001).
  • Litigating Whiteness: Trials of Racial Determination in the Nineteenth-Century South, 108 Yale L. J. 109 (1998). (excerpted in Kevin R. Johnson, ed., Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader (NYU Press, 2003). Full Text
  • Like Master, Like Man’: Constructing Whiteness in the Commercial Law of Slavery, 1800-1861, Symposium: Bondage, Freedom and the Constitution, 18 Cardozo L. Rev. 263. Full Text
  • Pandora's Box: Slave Character on Trial in the Antebellum Deep South, 7 Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 267 (Summer, 1995). Reprinted in Slavery and the Law 291 (Paul Finkelman, ed., Madison House, 1997).
• Textbooks
  • American Stories (with H.W. Brands & Timothy Breen). 7th ed. Pearson, Longman (2024).
  • America Past & Present, and The American Story, (with Divine, Brands, Breen, Fredrickson, & Williams). 10th ed. Pearson, Longman (2013).
• Book Reviews
  • Book Review: Neither Fugitive nor Free: Atlantic Slavery, Freedom Suits, and the Legal Culture of Travel, Slavery and Abolition, (2010).
  • History, Race, and Prediction, in Review Symposium: Bernard Harcourt, Against Prediction, 33 Law & Social Inquiry 233 (2008). Full Text
  • Book Review: White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the Nineteenth-Century South, by Martha Hodes, 18 Law and History Review 685-86 (Fall 2000).
  • The Contraction of Freedom,” review of From Bondage to Contract, by Amy Dru Stanley., Reviews in American History . 28 (2000) 255-62.
  • Book Review: Slave Laws in Virginia, by Philip Schwarz, Amer. J. of Legal History . 42:97-98 (1998)
• Selected Recent Lectures, Talks And Workshops
  • Slavery, Law, and The Constitution. National Constitution Center, Teaching Workshop, June 24, 2024.
    
  • Chair and Participant, Roundtable: Can New Histories of Reconstruction Transform The Constitution?.  Law and Society Assn. Annual Meeting, Denver, Colo., June 8, 2024.
  • Erasing Slavery: “Redemption” and The Memory of Reconstruction. The Grace MacNeil Lecture, Natchez Historical Society, Natchez, Miss., May 28, 2024.
    
  • Examining Our Universities, Our Cities, Ourselves. A Public Conversation with Ariela Gross, Leslie Harris, and Martha Jones, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, March 27, 2024.
  • Erasing Slavery: Right-Wing Backlash and The Memory of a Timeless Colorblind Constitution. University of Paris – Cité, Paris, France, March 22, 2024.
    
  • Reparations Movements, the Politics and Memory of Racial Justice in the U.S. Today.  Colloquium on Reparations, Sciences Po Law School, Paris, France, March 8, 2024.
    
  • Is ‘Slave’ A Race-Neutral Category? The Uses of History in the Students for Fair Admissions Case. Annual Senior Scholars Panel, Law and Humanities Workshop, March 1, 2024 (Zoom).
  • Comment on “Slavery’s Legalities.  at “The Spirit of The Law,” Penn Carey Law School, Oct. 27, 2023.
    
  • Erasing Slavery, Commemorating Emancipation: The Constitution as Monument.
    • Contesting Commemorations: Public Memory in The South and West;
    • Autry Museum, Los Angeles, April 27, 2024, 
    • SMU-Autry, Taos, NM, October 6, 2023.
      
  • Erasing Slavery: Battles Over Constitutional Memory. at the Journal of American Constitutional History Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, September 29, 2023.
    

    
    

  • Of Consent, Coercion, and Concubines: The Regulation and Litigation of Interracial Sex and Marriage in the Antebellum South.
    • Race, Law, and History Workshop, University of Michigan, April 3, 2023;
    • Euromix: Symposium on Regulating Mixture, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 12, 2022.
      
               
  • Erasing Slavery: How Stories of Slavery and Freedom Shape Battles over the Constitution.
    • UCLA Legal History Colloquium, February 7, 2024;
    • USC Center for Law, History, and Culture Workshop, January 31, 2024;
    • Berg Institute for Legal History & The Center for U.S. Studies, Tel Aviv University, May 21, 2023;
    • American Studies Lecture, University of Lille, May 16, 2023;
    • Public Lecture, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, February 23, 2023;
    • Michigan Legal History Workshop, October 26, 2022;
    • Racial Justice Lecture, New York Law School September 29, 2022;
    • Berkeley Law Faculty Workshop, Berkeley, September 13, 2022;
    • Public Lecture, Harvard Radcliffe Institute (Zoom), May 4, 2022.
      
  • “The Constitution Is Also a Monument: Slavery, Memory, and American Politics,” at Boston College Legal History Roundtable (April 7, 2022).
  • "The Constitution Is Also a Monument: Slavery, Memory, and American Politics", at the Centre des Études Nord-Americains, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (March 1, 2022).
  • "The Constitution Is Also a Monument: Slavery, Memory, and American Politics," Columbia Law School Legal History Workshop (February 3, 2022.).
  • Becoming Free, Becoming Black: The Law of Race and Freedom in Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia, 1500-1860, at Centre International de Recherches sur les Esclavages, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (March 2022).
  • Commentator, Panel on Richard Ford, Dress Codes, at Stanford Law School, (Zoom) (February 25, 2022).
  • Becoming Free, Becoming Black in Spanish Louisiana, at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, (Zoom) (February 21, 2022).
  • Commentator, Equality Law Forum, Boston Univ. Law School (November 11-12, 2021).
  • “Of Coercion, ‘Consent,’ and Concubines: The Regulation and Litigation of Interracial Sex And Marriage under Slavery in the U.S. South,” at Euromix: Symposium on Regulating Mixture, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands (Oct. 26, 2021).
  • Panel on Lessons for Comparative History from Becoming Free, Becoming Black, American Society for Legal History Annual Meeting (Nov. 6, 2021).
  • Symposium on Becoming Free, Becoming Black, Tel Aviv Univ. Law Faculty, Berg Institute for Legal History; Minerva Institute for Human Rights (June 21, 2021).
  • Author Meets Reader Panel, Becoming Free, Becoming Black, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting (Zoom) (May 28, 2021).
  • Northwestern School of Law Faculty Workshop (Zoom) (April 26, 2021).
  • Georgetown Law Modern Critical Race Perspectives Book Talk (Zoom) (Feb. 25, 2021).
  • Public Lecture, “Becoming Black and The Laws of Blood,” Susquehanna University (Zoom) (Feb. 23, 2021).
  • Fiftieth Anniversary William L. Davis Lecture, Gonzaga University (Zoom) (Feb. 17, 2021).
  • Northwestern School of Law, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Book Talk (Zoom) (Feb. 10, 2021).
  • Stanford Center for Law and History (Zoom) (Feb. 9, 2021).
  • Washington University School of Law, 400 Years of Blacks in America (September 19, 2019).
  • Plenary Lecture, American Society for Legal History Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas (November 8, 2018).
• Selected Recent Essays And Op-Eds
  • The Taft Court, Equal Protection, and The Centrality (or not) of Race. 2/22/24 Balkinization (Blog)
    Full Text
  • Why They Attack Critical Race Theory, New York Daily News (June 18, 2021). Full Text
  • Los Esclavos que Compraban su Proprio Libertad (with Alejandro de la Fuent), El País (July 26, 2020). Full Text
  • Slaves who bought their freedom (with Alejandro de la Fuente), Yucatan Times (July 26, 2020.). Full Text
  • Why Monuments Matter, Fifteen Eighty-Four Blog (June 17, 2020). Full Text
  • The ‘Ferociously Contested’ Story of How Blackness Became a Legal Identity (with Alejandro de la Fuente), Zócalo Public Square (June 2020). Full Text
  • Becoming Black and Christian in Virginia (with Alejandro de la Fuente), Canopy Forum: On the Interactions of Law & Religion (March 20, 2020). Full Text
  • The History of Slavery Remains with Us Today (with Alejandro de la Fuente), The Washington Post (March 9, 2020). Full Text
  • Inventing Freedom: Blackness & Enslavement in Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia, Lapham’s Quarterly (January 2020). Full Text
  • How President Trump’s Hostility Could Boost Cuban Nationalism (with Alejandro de la Fuente), The Washington Post (October 22, 2019). Full Text
  • Citizenship Once Meant Whiteness; Here’s How That Changed (with Alejandro de la Fuente), The Washington Post (July 18, 2019). Full Text