Abstract
Reconstruction Amendments says about the nature of American citizenship. The essay is organized as follows. Part I of the essay explores citizenship and membership by discussing belonging-based citizenship and rights-based citizenship. Part II describes how American and African American citizenship were constructed prior to the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments. Part III notes a few cases to explain how the Reconstruction Amendment's jurisprudence has developed in the wake of Dred Scott v. Sandford' and possibly led to a tilt toward a rights-based citizenship rather than a somewhat more robust belonging-based citizenship.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
Recommended Citation
Henry L. Chambers Jr., Slavery, Free Blacks and Citizenship, 43 Rutgers L. J. 487 (2013).
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