 Mima Queen & Louisa Queen v. John Hepburn |
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This unsuccessful freedom suit reflects the legal challenges to slavery and hinged on the Supreme Court's decision that hearsay about family genealogy could not be used as evidence, setting later precedent. Mina (spelled Mima in the court record) Queen petitioned for her freedom and that of her daughter on the grounds that her great grandmother Mary Queen was a free woman of color. When the lower court disallowed critical testimony about Mary Queen's origins and status, Queen appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of error, arguing that hearsay testimony should be allowed in a petition for freedom case. The Supreme Court denied the appeal, upholding the lower court's ruling.
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| Miscarriage (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1867) |
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The Illinois state statute regarding miscarriage reflects the diverse landscape of abortion law in the nineteenth century. This law punished individuals for helping pregnant women obtain a miscarriage.
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| Missouri Compromise |
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The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The compromise also suggested that slavery be prohibited north of the 36°30' latitude, which was followed until the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
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| Missouri v. Celia - Newspaper Coverage |
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In 1855, the Callaway County Circuit Court in Missouri convicted eighteen-year-old Celia of murdering her enslaver. Her case considered whether she was guilty of murder or if she could be acquitted due to self-defense from sexual assault. The court ruled that Celia's enslaved status prevented her from being eligible to protect herself, and she was sentenced to death. Newspapers in Missouri reported on the murder and resulting trial.
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| Monroe Doctrine |
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In an address before Congress, President James Monroe warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. The United States continued to invoke the Monroe Doctrine in its foreign policy through to today.
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| Nan Oy v. Territory of Washington |
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The habeas corpus petition of Nan Oy shows legal challenges related to carceral confinement and immigration in the nineteenth century. In this case, Nan Oy was arrested crossing the U.S. border to be with her husband, a U.S. citizen. She was ultimately deported.
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| Native American Citizenship and Competency During the Allotment and Assimilationist Era |
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This teaching module explores how citizenship featured in Native American policy during the Allotment and Assimilation Era. It highlights the first formal naturalization process for individuals on a national scale. Focusing on competency commissions from 1915 to 1920, this unit guides students in analyzing how legal assessments of "competency" in the context of citizenship were shaped by race, gender, and settler values. Using primary documents— including applications, inspection reports, and naturalization rituals—this module examines how federal policies enforced whiteness and domestic norms as criteria for inclusion. The module also encourages discussion about the dual role of citizenship as both a tool of assimilation and a potential resource for Native resistance and legal agency.
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| Naturalization Act of 1870 |
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The 1870 Naturalization Act extended paths to United States citizenship for people of African descent while excluding Chinese immigrants.
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| Nebraska Vagrancy Law (1881) |
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Vagrancy acts passed by the Nebraska state legislature reflected race-neutral legal language that was used to target the poor, people of color, and women.
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| Negroes and Mulattoes |
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Part of the Black Codes passed by Northwest Ordinance states prior to Reconstruction, this article in the Indiana Constitution is an example of the way "free" states ensured white supremacy.
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| New Jersey Disfranchisement Statute |
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This New Jersey statute explicitly banned women and free people from color from voting, after these groups had been enfranchised since 1776. When New Jersey rewrote its constitution in 1844, it explicitly denied women and African Americans the right to vote.
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 Notice to Republican Voters of the 9th Congressional District of Virginia |
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This broadside publicized information about new voting laws and poll taxes in Virginia.
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| Of Colored Persons |
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Acts passed by the Virginia General Assembly reflected race-neutral language of the legal code after the Civil War. Application of these statutes resulted in entrenched Jim Crow segregation.
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| Of Masters and Apprentices |
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Acts passed by the Virginia General Assembly reflected race-neutral language of the legal code after the Civil War. Application of these statutes resulted in entrenched Jim Crow segregation.
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| Oklahoma's Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes, Legalized Robbery |
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This excerpt from the introduction of Zitkala-Ša's groundbreaking report opened the scene on fraud facilitated by guardians, lawmakers, and county clerks at the expense of minors, heirs, and incompetents during early Oklahoma statehood, and focused on probate courts as a site of legal exploitation.
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| Page Act |
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The Page Act was a federal law that profiled Chinese and other women immigrating from Asian countries as immoral, barring them from entering the United States.
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| Paul Jones v. George W. Jones |
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Paul Jones initiated a suit in a Wisconsin Territory court against George W. Jones for several sums of money owed to him for labor, goods, wares, and merchandise. George argued that Paul was purchased as a slave for life from French inhabitants who were entitled to hold slaves according to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
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| Pensionado Act |
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This act, passed in the aftermath of the Philippine–American War, established a scholarship program for Filipino people to receive an education in the U.S.
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| Platt Amendment |
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The Platt Amendment was a part of the Army Appropriations Act of 1901 and stipulated conditions of Cuban independence following the Spanish-American war. It laid the foundation of Cuban-U.S. relations for the next several decades.
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 Poll Tax Receipt for Lee Carr |
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An image of a poll tax receipt from Texas. Poll taxes were a tool to prevent Black people and poor people from voting, since the poll tax was often a significant percentage of someone's weekly income.
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| President Thomas Jefferson's Confidential Message to Congress |
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Jefferson's statement showed government interest in tribal removal, land appropriation, and eventual dispossession.
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| Prigg v. Pennsylvania |
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The case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania evaluated the legality of Pennsylvania's personal liberty laws. Margaret Morgan moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania after being granted her freedom. When relatives of her previous enslaver wanted to reclaim her, they sent Edward Prigg to Pennsylvania to find her. Pennsylvania courts found Prigg guilty of violating the state's personal liberty laws, but the Supreme Court ruled that the federal fugitive slave laws overrule state laws.
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| Racial Violence at Rock Springs, Property Compensation, and "Indemnity" during Chinese Exclusion |
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This teaching module investigates the legal concept of "indemnity" and property compensation in the wake of the Rock Springs Massacre, which targeted Chinese laborers in Wyoming Territory in 1885. When white miners attacked a Chinese labor community, Chinese survivors petitioned the New York consul and worked through diplomatic channels to demand redress. This module explores how the concept of "indemnity" relied on treaty obligations and was tied to property compensation during a moment when national legislation worked to further restrict Chinese immigration.
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| Report of the Woman's Rights Convention Held at Seneca Falls |
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Generally credited as the first call for equal rights for women, this document is the result of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. It calls for suffrage rights for women, as well as equal rights in all aspects of society. The convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, both women were from abolitionist families, highlighting a sharp divide between women’s rights advocates before and after the Civil War.
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| Scott Act |
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The Scott Act rejected the guarantee of free travel for Chinese people provided by the Angell Treaty of 1880. The act stated that Chinese laborers who left the U.S. would not be able to return.
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