Natural law and the antislavery constitutional tradition

In Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition, Justin Buckley Dyer provides a succinct account of the development of American antislavery constitutionalism in the years preceding the Civil War. Within the context of recent revisionist scholarship, Dyer argues that the theoretical found...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dyer, Justin Buckley
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: Cambridge Books Online - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a Natural law and the antislavery constitutional tradition  |c Justin Buckley Dyer 
246 3 1 |a Natural Law & the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition 
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300 |a x, 197 pages  |b digital 
505 0 |a Prologue. Slavery and the laws and rights of nature -- Introduction. The apple of gold -- Somerset and the antislavery constitutional tradition -- Constitutional disharmony in The Antelope and La Amistad -- Constitutional construction in Prigg and Dred Scott -- Natural law, providence, and Lincoln's constitutional statesmanship -- Public reason and the wrong of slavery -- Conclusion. The heritage of the antislavery constitutional tradition 
653 |a Slavery / Law and legislation / United States 
653 |a Constitutional history / United States 
653 |a Antislavery movements / United States 
653 |a Natural law / Influence 
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520 |a In Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition, Justin Buckley Dyer provides a succinct account of the development of American antislavery constitutionalism in the years preceding the Civil War. Within the context of recent revisionist scholarship, Dyer argues that the theoretical foundations of American constitutionalism - which he identifies with principles of natural law - were antagonistic to slavery. Still, the continued existence of slavery in the nineteenth century created a tension between practice and principle. In a series of case studies, Dyer reconstructs the constitutional arguments of prominent antislavery thinkers such as John Quincy Adams, John McLean, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, who collectively sought to overcome the legacy of slavery by emphasizing the natural law foundations of American constitutionalism. What emerges is a convoluted understanding of American constitutional development that challenges traditional narratives of linear progress while highlighting the centrality of natural law to America's greatest constitutional crisis