Teaching

In my thirteen years at Rhodes, I have taught a variety of courses dealing with the history of the American South and the history of the United States Constitution. These have included special topics courses on the Mind of the South, Southern Politics, and the History of Memphis, as well as a course that focuses on my research expertise—Law and Justice in the American South. 

Of late, I have also spent considerable time teaching the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.  As we approach the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, I continue to be fascinated by this momentous conflict that tore apart the young republic, liberated four million enslaved people, and reshaped both our Constitution and our consciousness. 

Research

My research interests include the southern judiciary, the American law of slavery, and the general relationship between culture and constitutionalism.  My first book, The Southern Judicial Tradition: State Judges and Sectional Distinctiveness, 1790-1890, (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1999) explores the impact of southern culture on the judicial decisions of six of the region’s leading nineteenth-century judges.  I conclude that southern jurists exhibited both political sectionalism and legal nationalism—that they felt the pressure to conform to southern values at the same time that they participated in an emerging national legal culture.

My second book, The Taney Court: Justices, Ruling, and Legacy (Santa Barbara, Calif.:  ABC-CLIO, 2003) appeared as part of a series of reference works on the history of the United States Supreme Court.  The book examines the justices, major opinions, and overall legacy of the Supreme Court under Roger B. Taney, the author of the infamous Dred Scott decision.

I have also published a variety of articles, essays, and op-ed pieces on such topics as the case of a North Carolina slave who killed a white man, the history of the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Southern Manifesto of 1956, and the South’s role in the 2004 presidential campaign.  For a complete list of publications, see below.

Currently, I am writing an undergraduate textbook for Longman Publishing on the Civil War and Reconstruction that focuses on the constitutional and political history of the period.  This project combines my love of teaching with my commitment to accessible historical writing.

Teaching the South in Memphis

A native of Florida, I moved from Miami to Memphis in 1995. After having studied the American South at that point for about eight years, I suddenly found myself living there! I quickly put down roots in my new home, and in 2003 I founded the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies, an undergraduate research program that focuses on the Memphis region. Living and working here has given me the chance to explore the history and culture of this fascinating city and to send my students into local archives and libraries to do the same. I cannot imagine a more intriguing place for a historian of the American South to inhabit.