Reading on Elections in Vast Early America
Want to learn more about elections and voting in early America? We’ve compiled a list of suggested books, articles, and online resources that you might find helpful. We either used these works ourselves for production research or they were suggested by our guests. Happy researching!
Books
Richard R. Beeman, The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America
Christopher M. Bonner, Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship
Robert Dinkin, Voting and Vote-Getting in American History
Jay K. Dow, Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System
Stanley Elkins & Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism
Joanne B. Freeman, Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic
Edward B. Foley, Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States
Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America
Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States
Alexander Keyssar, Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
James Kloppenberg, Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought
William McLoughlin, Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic
Jeffrey L. Pasley, The First Presidential Contest: 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy, American Presidential Elections
Julie L. Reed, Severing the Nation: Cherokee Sovereignty and Social Welfare, 1800-1907
George William Van Cleve, We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution
Fay Yarborough, Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century
Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic
Articles or Chapters
Edward Andrews, “Creatures of Mimic and Imitation: The Liberty Tree, Black Elections, and the Politicization of African Ceremonial Space” Radical History Review
R. B. Bernstein, “A New Matrix for National Politics: The First Federal Elections, 1788-90,” in ed. Kenneth R. Bowling and Donald R. Kennon, Inventing Congress: Origins and Establishment of the First Federal Congress
Patricia Bonomi, “Political Patterns in Colonial New York City: The General Assembly Election of 1768,” Political Science Quarterly
Elizabeth Ellis, “Petite Nation with Powerful Networks: The Tunicas in the Eighteenth Century,” Louisiana History
Luke Feder, “No Lawyer in the Assembly: Character Politics and the Election of 1768 in New York City” New York History
Joanne B. Freeman, “A Qualified Revolution: The Election of 1800,” in A Blackwell Companion to Thomas Jefferson, edited by Francis D. Cogliano
Joshua D. Hawley, “The Transformative Twelfth Amendment,” William & Mary Law Review
K. Tsianina Lomawaima, “The Mutuality of Citizenship and Sovereignty: The Society of American Indians and the Battle to Inherit America,” Studies in American Indian Literatures
Michael McCoy, “Working People and the Making of the Philadelphia Election Riot of 1742,” Pennsylvania History
Gary Nash, “The Transformation of Urban Politics, 1700-1765,” Journal of American History
Theda Perdue, “Clan and Court: Another Look at the Early Cherokee Republic,” American Indian Quarterly
Theda Perdue, “The Conflict Within: The Cherokee Power Structure and Removal,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly
Theda Perdue, “John Ross and the Cherokees,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly
Theda Perdue, “Rising from the Ashes: The Cherokee Phoenix as an Ethnohistorical Source,” Ethnohistory
Theda Perdue, “Traditionalism in the Cherokee Nation: Resistance to the Constitution of 1827,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly
Shlomo Slonim, “The Electoral College at Philadelphia: The Evolution of an Ad Hoc Congress for the Selection of a President,” Journal of American History
Amy Watson, “The New York Patriot Movement: Partisanship, the Free Press, and Britain’s Imperial Constitution, 1731–39” The William and Mary Quarterly
Shane White, “It was a Proud Day: African Americans, Festivals, and Parades in the North,” Journal of American History
Michael Witgen, “Seeing Red: Race, Citizenship, and Indigeneity in the Old Northwest,” Journal of the Early Republic
Online Resources
Mapping Early American Elections
Web Exhibit, Continental and Confederation Congress, History, Art, and Archives
Online Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present
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