The Great Yazoo Lands Sale: The Case of Fletcher v. Peck

Honorable Mention: David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History

Choice Outstanding Academic Title

In 1795, the Georgia legislature sold the state's western lands (present-day Alabama and Mississippi) to four private land companies. A year later, amid revelations of bribery, a newly elected legislature revoked the sale. This book tells the story of how the great Yazoo lands sale gave rise to the 1810 case in which the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Marshall, for the first time...