ANNUAL MESSAGE WRAPPING UP 2020
GOODBYE TO A HISTORY MAKING YEAR
The purpose of this post is to provide a quick holiday message to our readership and best wishes to the extended StatutesandStories.com family. This post will also summarize the growing content on StatutesandStories, which now exceeds 200 blog posts organized in the INDEX.
StatutesandStories began as an effort to bring to life antiquarian legal texts, and other primary sources that would otherwise be collecting dust on a shelf. Correspondence between the founding fathers and mothers, diaries, newspapers, and other primary sources are used to contextualize important laws, Acts of Congress, and Constitutional provisions.
When middle school students studying American history read about the Stamp Act, Tea Act, Boston Harbour Act and the Quartering Act (which precipitated the American Revolution), they can now view the acts themselves.
For example, is hoped that students studying civics can now gain a deeper understanding of the Constitution by reading about the Constitution’s forgotten “Cover Letter” signed by Washington on September 17, 1787. Students of history can also engage with debates over the ratification of the Constitution, the adoption of the Bill of Rights, and the seminal work of the First Congress in 1789.
The StatutesandStories.com website witnessed exciting growth in 2020 in no small part due to a renewed interest in foundational principles underlying American democracy. It is also suspected that quarantines and social distancing in 2020 provided opportunities for students of history to question assumptions and re-examine primary sources.
As new posts are added, the content is made available in the both the BLOG and the INDEX on StatutesandStories. The INDEX is organized chronologically, listing important laws by date of adoption. Or, readers can scan the INDEX by topic as follows:
- Early Acts of Parliament
- The Intolerable Acts
- Early Colonial Resistance (1st Continental Congress)
- Declaration of Independence (2nd Continental Congress)
- Constitutional Convention
- Acts of Congress
- Alexander Hamilton
- Thomas Jefferson
- John Adams
- James Madison
- George Washington
- Abraham Lincoln
- Other Stories
- Election Laws
- Holidays
- Antiquarian Texts
- First American legal texts post independence
- First compilations of law of the United States
In 2020, the following posts were particularly popular:
ELECTORAL COUNT ACT OF 1887 AND THE “SAFE HARBOR” DEADLINE (and the Election of 1876)
JOHN LEWIS AND THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
Statutesandstories.com also wants to thank the Alexander Hamilton Virtual Book Club and its partners.
Goodbye 2020. Happy 2021!