Marcus Alexander Gadson's "Sedition"

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

Gadson applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis, and reported the following:

Page 99 of Sedition says:

…virulent white supremacy political campaign in American history to shatter the movement for interracial political cooperation. Meanwhile, Democrats in Wilmington conspired to overthrow a government they associated with Black political power, which culminated in an armed mob demanding the mayor’s resignation at gunpoint after a day of bloodletting. If both these efforts succeeded, white supremacists could end Black political involvement in the state and eradicate the spirit of 1868 once and for all.

Someone reading this would get an inkling of what my book is about, but miss important context and not truly understand the argument I make. They would know that they will eventually read a chapter explaining that white supremacy motivated some North Carolinians to overthrow Wilmington’s government and that their insurrection was violent. However, they would not know, just from the excerpt, that the book makes a larger claim: that constitutional crises have been common in American history and have shaped American constitutional law and history in dramatic ways. The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 is part of that larger story I tell.

Sedition provides six examples of constitutional crisis in American history, most of which readers will never have heard of, such as the Buckshot War, Dorr Rebellion, and Brooks-Baxter War. And by “constitutional crisis,” I mean things like terrorist organizations overthrowing duly elected governments and militias loyal to rival candidates shooting each other dead in the street. I then explain how these crises have affected the drafting and interpretation of both state and federal constitutions. At a time when many commentators are arguing about whether we are in a constitutional crisis, I believe this book can give readers vital context as they assess the debates.

Learn more about Sedition at the NYU Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue