Insurrection: Rebellion, Civil Rights, and the Paradoxical State of Black Citizenship

An elegant and thought-provoking history of the Insurrection Act and its enduring entanglement with American race relations.

We can’t talk about the Insurrection Act in America without talking about race. The Act was passed in 1807 to give the president the ability to deploy federal military forces domestically to fend off rebellion against slavery—amid the silent fear that enslaved people would violently revolt en masse against their bondage. Later, in a curious paradox, the Act was used to...