Research

Current Research
My research interests are closely connected to my teaching. I focus on colonial and legal history, with a keen interest in the South. Currently I am conducting research on a new book project, "Legal Cultures in Eighteenth-Century America," which explores the legal cultures of 3 colonial cities (Boston, Philadelphia and Charleston). It is a study that combines cultural and social history, using a comparative approach, so it meoshes several techniques of historical analysis.

As part of this research, I have delivered numerous papers in England and America. In 2003, I spoke on Melatiah Bourn and his use of powers of attorney at the Cambridge University Early American history conference (Sidney Sussex College) and on Henry Marchant, the lawyer and colonial agent who travelled to London in 1771-1772 and what he saw in the courts (Institute for Historical Research, London).

I have received grants to support this project from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the New England Research Consortium.

Book
My book, Slave Patrols: Law and violence in Virginia and the Carolinas, was published by Harvard University Press in 2001.

My book on slave patrols has been favorable reviewed in many outlets (including The Nation, Oct. 11, 2001 issue or at Common-Place in its Fall 2001 issue). A paperback edition was released in fall 2003, and you can get more information about it at the Harvard University Press website. In February 2005, the History Channel aired a documentary on slave patrols and slave catchers that draws heavily upon this book.

Other Publications
Happily, my work allows me to collaborate with scholars whose work complements my own interests. I am one of several scholars contributing chapters to the Cambridge History of Law in America 3-volume series that will be published in 2007 (edited by Chris Tomlins and Michael Grossberg). My article "New Directions in Legal Cultures" appeared as the lead essay in the anthology of 2001 British Legal History conference papers, edited by Richard Ireland. I'm currently writing an article about Henry Marchant, an American lawyer who was in London during the controversial Somersett case, to be published with Patti Minter (Western Kentucky University).

In the past, my work has appeared in a number of journals, books, or other venues. A paper I gave at the American Historical Association's 2003 annual meeting appeared in the September 2003 issue of Perspectives and was recently republished by the AHA as part of Perspectives on: Life after a History Ph.D. (ed. Richard Bond and Pillarisetti Sudhir).

You can read the full version of the original paper, plus the suggestions for the on-campus visit and questions for the job candidate to ask.

I currently serve on the editorial board of Law and History Review and as a book review sub-editor for The Historian. In the past, I served on the editorial boards of the Florida Historical Quarterly and Law and Social Inquiry, a journal published by the American Bar Foundation. One of my other professional jobs is serving as a member of the editorial board of H-Law, the online resource for legal historians.

Sally Hadden
401 Bellamy Bldg.
Dept. of History
Florida State University
Tallahassee FL 32306-2200