Birthright Citizens Audiobook By Martha S. Jones cover art

Birthright Citizens

A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America

Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just $0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Birthright Citizens

By: Martha S. Jones
Narrated by: Janina Edwards
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

LIMITED TIME OFFER. Get 3 months for $0.99 a month. Get this deal.

Birthright Citizens tells how African-American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans.

Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in the United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They faced formidable opposition, most notoriously from the US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha S. Jones explains, no single case defined their status. Former slaves studied law, secured allies, and conducted themselves like citizens, establishing their status through local, everyday claims. All along they argued that birth guaranteed their rights.

With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones explains how when the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, the aspirations of Black Americans were realized.

©2018 Martha S. Jones (P)2021 Tantor
Americas Black & African American Civics & Citizenship History Law Politics & Government Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences United States Discrimination War Social justice American Law
adbl_web_adaptive_pdp_alc_button_t1
No reviews yet