Sedition

How Americans have weathered constitutional crises throughout our history

Since protestors ripped through the Capitol Building in 2021, the threat of constitutional crisis has loomed over our nation. The foundational tenets of American democracy seem to be endangered, and many citizens believe this danger is unprecedented in our history. But Americans have weathered many constitutional crises, often accompanied by the same violence and chaos experienced on January 6. However, these crises occurred on the state level. In Sedition, Marcus Alexander Gadson uncovers these episodes of civil unrest and examines how state governments handled them.

Sedition takes readers through six instances of constitutional crisis: The Buckshot War, Dorr’s Rebellion, Bleeding Kansas, the Brooks-Baxter War, a successful terrorist campaign to overthrow South Carolina’s government during Reconstruction, and the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. He chronicles these turbulent periods of violent anti-government conflict on the state level, explaining what it was like to experience coup d’états, rival governments fighting in the streets, and disputed elections that gave way to violence. As he addresses constitutional breakdown, Gadson urges Americans to pay increased attention to the risk of constitutional instability in their home states. His sweeping historical analysis provides new insights on the fight to protect democracy today.

As Americans mobilize to prevent future crises, Sedition reminds us that our constitutional order can fail, that democratic collapse is possible, and offers us advice on how to save our constitutional system.

Marcus Alexander Gadson is Assistant Professor of Law at Campbell University and the author of articles published in places such as the UCLA Law Review and the Georgetown Law Journal.Marcus Alexander Gadson is Assistant Professor of Law at Campbell University and the author of articles published in places such as the UCLA Law Review and the Georgetown Law Journal.

The people and political climates of each example [of constitutional crisis] are well researched, creating compelling narratives that illustrate the pressure points within a state constitution, both then and now... a relevant, dynamic tool for understanding states’ rights; recommended for all collections.

Illuminating... and troubling, this is a timely reflection on the robustness of the American system.

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law:
Marcus Gadson has written a book of stunning originality and importance, examining constitutional crises that occurred in state governments. Focusing on examples, both from early in American history and Reconstruction, he tells compelling stories of how violence and even treason threatened democratic rule. Beautifully written, this book reminds us of important events in American history that seem to have been forgotten.

Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School:
Delineates the truly sobering, often frightening, role that violence, often generated by a desire to maintain white supremacy, has played in the six states—Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kansas, Arkansas, South Carolina, and North Carolina—whose histories he examines closely...Gadson writes with remarkable lucidity, making the book fully accessible (and illuminating) to any and all readers.

Michael J. Klarman, author of From Jim Crow to Civil Rights:
An engaging and persuasive account of how constitutional change in America—on issues ranging from the definition of democracy to the meaning of racial equality—often derives less from dispassionate political theorizing and more from fervent resistance to the existing constitutional order, often including violence.