ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the broad outlines of the history of American constitutionalism during the era of sectional conflict, while also laying out possibilities for further historical investigation. During the antebellum era, the US Supreme Court promoted economic growth and solidified slaveholders' rights. Examining how the Taney Court defined and understood such broad concepts as the Bill of Rights, executive power, and the judicial role, for example, will not only open new avenues of investigation, it will also help historians make more sense of its rulings regarding antebellum slaves and slaveholders, as well as its place in the sectional conflict and Civil War. The constitutional significance of the Reconstruction Era surpassed that of the Civil War. Ultimately, although the enforcement of these new constitutional guarantees proved uneven, the post-Civil War era realized a stunning transformation in the nation's constitutional and political discourse, from upholding the rights of slaveholders to offering new visions of constitutional equality.
