The Many Legalities of Early America

This collection of seventeen original essays reshapes the field of early American legal history not by focusing simply on law or even on the relationship between law and society but by using the concept of “legality” to explore the myriad ways in which the people of early America ordered their relationships with one another whether as individuals groups classes communities or states.<br/><br/>Addressing issues of gender ethnicity family patriarchy culture and dependence contributors explore the transatlantic context of early American law the negotiation between European and indigenous legal cultures the multiple social contexts of the rule of law and the transformation of many legalities into an increasingly uniform legal culture. Taken together these essays reveal the extraordinary diversity and complexity of the roots of early America’s legal culture.<br/><br/>Contributors are Mary Sarah Bilder Holly Brewer James F. Brooks Richard Lyman Bushman Christine Daniels Cornelia Hughes Dayton David Barry Gaspar Katherine Hermes John G. Kolp David Thomas Konig James Muldoon William M. Offutt Jr. Ann Marie Plane A. G. Roeber Terri L. Snyder and Linda L. Sturtz.