Archive for: Companion Reading for the JER

How Past and Present Catch Up With Each Other

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Discussing his article on the election of 1801, James M. Banner offers a first-hand example of how current events can offer historians new perspectives on the past.
Photo image of contemporary memorial to the 1811 German Coast Uprising.

Blood Is Thicker Than Water: Black Family Networks and Slave Insurrections

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Justin Iverson recounts the ways that Black communities utilized kinship ties to mobilize rebellion in cases like the 1811 German Coast Uprising.

Too Much Opera, Too Many Novels: Writing about Life, Death, and Yellow Fever during COVID-19

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By exploring her own engagement with opera and literature during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michelle Orihel makes a case for why historians might acknowledge the seemingly unrelated music and literature they consume while working on scholarship.
image of inside of Mount Holly Jail/Burlington County Prison Museum

“Unconscionable and unconstitutional”: The Supreme Court Is Using History to Disenfranchise Unhoused People

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Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan's research on Overseers of the Poor in the nineteenth century offers insight into contemporary actions criminalizing homelessness.
poster advertising sheriff's sale

The Power of Paper in the Early Republic

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Among other symbols of authority available to local officials like sheriffs, as Chad Holmes demonstrates, even mere scraps of paper held immense power in the early republic.
map of boston from 1725.

When Did the Police Become a “Machine”?

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The journey of America's police force from a non-professional night watch to a highly visible and professional force is the topic of Nicole Breault's newest essay.
illustration of man chasing a hog

Let’s Give Hog Reeves Their Due!

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As a companion piece to his introduction to the new JER forum on "Local Governance in the Early Republic," Gabriel Loiacono explores the important, though often overlooked, role of local hog reeves in early America.
Angelica Schuyler holding child alongside her governess

The Unbroken Lineage of American Dynasty: From Revolution to Succession

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Tom Cutterham explores the problem of American dynasty from 18th century examples to current pop culture iterations in shows such as Succession.
frontpiece to "A Sure Guide for His Majesties Justice of Peace" featuring a king sitting on a throne.

The Jack-of-all-trades Magistrate: Grappling with the Expansive Governing Role of Justices of the Peace in Early America

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Sung Yup Kim examines the importance of (and controversy surrounding) one of the most powerful elements of local magistracy in early America: justices of the peace.

Counting Care

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Nicole Lee Schroeder explores the historic and contemporary implications regarding how data on disability is collected and discussed.
James Iredell, head-and-shoulders portrait, right profile

The Pope and the Treaty Power: A Strange Incident in the North Carolina Ratification Debate

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In a new companion piece to his latest JER article, Robert Smith discusses some of the unusual ways that religion came into play at North Carolina's Hillsborough Convention in 1788.

The Language of Race in Early America

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Alexander Boulton considers the evolution of language and its impact on ideas of race during the Revolutionary era.

Echoes of Spanish-Mexican Women in California’s Constitutional Debates of 1849

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In 1857, Maria Natividad de Haro de Tissol petitioned the Fourth District Court of California to appoint a trustee over her separate property.

TED Talks Be Damned; Or, How I Learned to Build Bridges in American and African American Intellectual History

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A Lodge of Their Own: Creating an Indigenous Voice During Times of Turmoil

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Black Americans in the British Army, 1795-1815

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Print of a room full of men in 18th century dress sitting at desks deliberating the constitution.

Back to the Future; Or, Whenever I Show up to Talk about the Past, My Audience Can Only Hear about the Present

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A miniature portrait of a thin white man with dark hair wearing a formal black coat and a white shirt with a high collar.

The Creoles’ Magician: States’ Rights and Nullification in Louisiana

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A line drawing of a large building set back from a grassy waterfront with small figures moving about in the foreground.

An “Asylum for Mankind”? Migration in the Early American Republic

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