 Selective Service Act |
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This act authorized the U.S. government to raise a national army through compulsory enlistment via a draft. The military was segregated at the time of World War I, and Black soldiers were mostly relegated to labor roles.
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| Seminole Agreement |
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Excerpts from this congressional act ratified an agreement with the Seminole Nation concerning allotment, like enrollment and laws of descent. The second proviso established matrilineal descent of lands, money, and property for heirs.
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| Separate schools for white and colored |
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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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| She's Been Her Own Mistress: The Long History of Charlotte Dupee v. Henry Clay, 1790-1840 |
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This essay refocuses the story of Charlotte Dupee v. Henry Clay on Charlotte herself, detailing her long struggle navigating the strategies and pathways to freedom.
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| Slaves and Free Negroes |
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Acts passed by the Virginia General Assembly reflected racialization of the antebellum legal code.
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| Smith v. Directors of Independent School Dist. of Keokuk |
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In this case, the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's ruling that the Keokuk school district could not refuse to admit a Black student based on race. Legal precedent for this case as set in the 1868 ruling in Clark v. Board of School Directors.
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| State of Missouri v. Celia |
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In this case, eighteen-year-old Celia was convicted of murdering her enslaver. The case considered whether Celia 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.
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| Texas Poll Tax |
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This poll tax law in Texas was voted on in a referendum in the 1902 election as a proposed amendment to the state constitution.
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| The Cherokee Removal Through the Eyes of a Private Soldier |
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A former Army soldier presents a first-hand account of Cherokee removal.
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| The Five Civilized Tribes Act |
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Excerpts from this congressional act legislated the end of tribal enrollment in the Five Tribes, as well as the dissolution of their tribal government. However, section 28 extended tribal sovereignty for the Five Tribes for a truncated 30 days per year.
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| The Insular Cases and Contested Citizenship |
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This teaching module discusses the intersection of U.S. colonial power and migration, featuring a webinar with Robert McGreevey, author of the 2018 book, Borderline Citizens: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Politics of Colonial Migration.
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| The Slave, Grace |
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In this freedom suit, an enslaved woman who had spent time in England was re-enslaved once she voluntarily returned to her home in Antigua. The court found that while she became free once she set foot on English soil, her status reverted to that of enslaved once she returned to Antigua.
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| The Woman Suffrage Movement and Frederick Douglass |
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In this speech given on the 60th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, Black women's rights advocate Mary Church Terrell reflects on the role of Frederick Douglass in the women's suffrage movement.
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| Treaty of Fort Laramie |
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Signed between the U.S. and the Sioux Nation, this treaty granted the Black Hills to the Sioux people as part of their reservation. A few years later, General George Custer led an expedition through the Black Hills where they found gold. American violation of this treaty led to the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Ownership of the Black Hills continues to be disputed today.
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| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |
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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reset the southern border between Mexico and the United States. Implications of the treaty included issues of citizenship, land, and legal status.
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| Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw |
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The 1866 Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw was one of a series of treaties between the United States government and each of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole Nations) at the end of the Civil War. The treaty details the stipulations for the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to re-establish their allegiance with the U.S. after allying with the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Among other provisions, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of 1866 included articles that outlawed slavery within both nations (except as a punishment for crime), provided a pathway for citizenship and civil rights for the Freedmen of both nations, and ceded lands to the United States.
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| Treaty with the Navajo Nation |
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The 1868 Treaty with the Navajo allowed them to return to their ancestral lands during a period of history where the U.S. government were removing Native Americans from their homelands.
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| U.S. Constitutionalism and Native American Sovereignty |
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This teaching module discusses the centrality of Native people and their nations throughout American history, featuring a webinar with Ned Blackhawk, author of the 2023 book, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History.
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| U.S. Freedman's Bank Records, Registers of Signatures of Depositors, New York |
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Freedman's Bank records show both strivings toward stability as well as racialization and colorism post-emancipation due to the specific color-related information listed with deposits.
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| Unis et al. v. Charlton's Administrator et al. |
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In this freedom suit, the descendants of a Black woman named Flora claimed their freedom on the grounds that Flora was free before being abducted and sold into slavery in Virginia. Between 1826-1855, a series of cases bounced around county and appellate courts in Virginia before finally being decided against freedom for Flora's descendants.
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| United States v. Joseph |
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In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Pueblo people were not Indians within the meaning of the Indian Nonintercourse Act in part because they had received full legal title to their land from the Spanish.
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| United States v. Kagama |
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This Supreme Court case asserted the federal government's role in criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands. The Court ruled that the Indian Major Crimes act was constitutional, therefore federal courts had jurisdiction to indict Native defendants for murder.
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| United States v. Wong Kim Ark |
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In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court solidified the principle of birthright citizenship, affirming that anyone born in the U.S., regardless of their parents' citizenship, is a U.S. citizen.
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| United States, ex rel. Standing Bear, v. George Crook |
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In this case, Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled that "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States," and that they were entitled to the right of expatriation. Standing Bear and 29 other Ponca had left their reservation in Indian Territory without the permission of the federal government and returned to Nebraska. They were later arrested and petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, which was granted. Judge Dundy's opinion led to the release of the Ponca petitioners.
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 Walnut Street Prison |
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An etching of the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia. Established as a city jail in 1773, it was expanded in 1790 to become the first state penitentiary in the new country. This prison was among the first to feature individual cells and was built to accommodate work details. The penitentiary was noted to have a larger percentage of Black inmates than white, noting the racialization of incarceration in the United States. The prison was in operation until 1838.
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