The Jury in Lincoln's America

In the antebellum Midwest, Americans looked to the law, and specifically to the jury, to navigate the uncertain terrain of a rapidly changing society. During this formative era of American law, the jury served as the most visible connector between law and society. Through an analysis of the composition of grand and trial juries and an examination of their courtroom experiences, Stacy Pratt McDermott demonstrates how central the law was for people who lived in Abraham Lincoln's America. McDermott focuses on the status of the jury as a democratic institution as well as on the status of those who served as jurors. According to the 1860 census, the juries in Springfield and Sangamon County, Illinois, comprised an ethnically and racially diverse population of settlers from northern and southern states, representing both urban and rural mid-nineteenth-century America. It was in these counties that Lincoln developed his law practice, handling more than 5,200 cases in a legal career that spanned nearly twenty-five years. Drawing from a rich collection of legal records, docket books, county histories, and surviving newspapers, McDermott reveals the enormous power jurors wielded over the litigants and the character of their communities.

McDermott emphasizes Springfield and Sangamon County in Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln developed his law practice, handling more than 5,200 cases in a career that spanned nearly twenty-five years. Culturally diverse, with elements of both urban and rural America before the Civil War, these locales provide an ideal landscape for investigating the ways in which juries served as the most visible connector between law and society. Stacy Pratt Mcdermott is the assistant director and associate editor of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, and the coeditor of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases and The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln.