The Trials of Allegiance: Treason, Juries, and the American Revolution
- ISBN-10
- 0190932740
- ISBN-13
- 9780190932749
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 425
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2019
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Author
- Carlton F. W. Larson
Description
The Trials of Allegiance examines the law of treason during the American Revolution: a convulsive, violent civil war in which nearly everyone could be considered a traitor, either to Great Britain or to America. Drawing from extensive archival research in Pennsylvania, one of the main centers of the revolution, Carlton Larson provides the most comprehensive analysis yet of the treason prosecutions brought by Americans against British adherents: through committees of safety, military tribunals, and ordinary criminal trials. Although popular rhetoric against traitors was pervasive in Pennsylvania, jurors consistently viewed treason defendants not as incorrigibly evil, but as fellow Americans who had made a political mistake. This book explains the repeated and violently controversial pattern of acquittals. Juries were carefully selected in ways that benefited the defendants, and jurors refused to accept the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for treason. The American Revolution, unlike many others, would not be enforced with the gallows. More broadly, Larson explores how the Revolution's treason trials shaped American national identity and perceptions of national allegiance. He concludes with the adoption of the Treason Clause of the United States Constitution, which was immediately put to use in the early 1790s in response to the Whiskey Rebellion and Fries's Rebellion. In taking a fresh look at these formative events, The Trials of Allegiance reframes how we think about treason in American history, up to and including the present.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2019-08-30
- 320 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2019-08-30
- 425 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People
By Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Karen HalttunenBy her own account, Peggy O'Neale Timberlake was “frivolous, wayward, [and] passionate.” While still married to a naval oflicer away on duty ...
-
The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume I
By Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Karen Halttunen... had married the widowed daughter of a Washington tavern keeper. By her own account, Peggy O'Neale Timberlake was “frivolous, wayward, [and] passionate.
-
Rice University: One Hundred Years in Pictures
By Karen Hess Rogers, Lee Pecht, Alan Harris Bath... Bill, Kennedy, Jacqueline, Kennedy, John F., Kidd, Albert and Elizabeth, Kieran Timberlake (architects), Kilpatrick, John, Kirkland, William, Kissinger, ...
-
Cengage Advantage Series: The Enduring Vision
By Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Karen Halttunen... 195–196, 361; abolishing of, 257 Ticonderoga fort, 157, 169 Tilden, Samuel J., 524 Timberlake, Peggy O'Neale, 301 Timbuktu, Mali, Sankore Mosque in, ...
-
The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume 1
By Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Karen HalttunenBy her own account, Peggy O'Neale Timberlake was “frivolous, wayward, [and] passionate.” While still married to a naval officer away on duty, ...
-
The Cherokee Struggle to Maintain Identity in the 17th and 18th Centuries
By Jr., William R. ReynoldsTimberlake, p. 8 (9–10). 2. Timberlake, p. 36 (70). 3. Hoig, p. 45; Kelly, p. 22; Timberlake, p. 37 (72–73). 4. Alderman, p. 6; Timberlake, p.
-
Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe, 5500-500 BC
By William O'BrienTimberlake, S. 2002. 'Ancient prospection for metals and modern prospection for ancient mines: the evidence for Bronze Age mining within the British Isles', ...
-
The Sixties in the News: How an Era Unfolded in American Newspapers, 1959-1973
By William J. Ryczekhadn't known Timberlake until the two moved in together. Kathy had worked at a series of jobs, including electronics assembler and a dancer in a bar, ...
-
A Borderland Confederate
By William Lyne WilsonTerrill, Philip, killed Thompson, William S. Timberlake, George, wounded. Timberlake, Harry. Timberlake, J. H., wounded. Timberlake, J. L., wounded.
-
Golf in Columbus at Wyandot Country Club: A Lost Donald Ross Classic
By William R. CaseAs the caretaker of the clubhouse, Timberlake was furnished living quarters on the second floor. Around 8:00 p.m., he descended into the basement for the ...