*****REMINDER********TOMORROW********

a talk by Hendrik Hartog

In 1815, the Eagle Fire Insurance Company, one of the first fire insurance companies in the new nation, agreed to insure a large house (or hotel) on the Jersey shore for 10,000 dollars. The insurance policy had been purchased by John Quay, a judge and a prominent political figure in Monmouth County, New Jersey. A few weeks later the structure mysteriously burned to the ground. The question of who set the fire—and why—became the subject of a legal trial in New York City. The case hinged on the question of who was a slave vs. who was free. The legal arguments in the case offered “one of the most splendid exhibitions of talent, on both sides, perhaps ever witnessed.”

Biography:
Hendrik Hartog is the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University. For a decade he directed Princeton’s Program in American Studies. He is the author of Public Property and Private Power: the Corporation of the City of New York in American Law, 1730-1870 (1983); Man and Wife in America: a History (2000); and Someday All This Will Be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age (2012). Throughout his academic career, Hartog has focused his research and teaching on the social history of American law, and on the difficulties and opportunities that come with studying how broad political and cultural themes have been expressed in ordinary legal conflicts. In 2015, his book on marriage was cited in the majority opinion in Obergefeld v. Hodges, where the U.S. Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage as a constitutional right. He is currently a visiting fellow at the New York Historical Society, where he is working on two books about legal change in early nineteenth century New York and New Jersey.

Date and Time: 

Tuesday, May 17, 2016
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Location:

The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
The Skylight Conference Room, 9th Floor

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.