Holly Brewer

Last updated

Holly Brewer
Born (1964-10-22) October 22, 1964 (age 59)

Holly Brewer (born October 22, 1964), is a legal historian. [1] Since 2011, she has been Burke Professor of American History and Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. [2] Before that, she was Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor of History at NC State in Raleigh, NC. [1] She is also the director of the Slavery, Law, and Power project, an effort dedicated to bringing the many disparate sources that help to explain the long history of slavery and its connection to struggles over power in early America, particularly in the colonies that would become the United States. [3] [4]

Contents

From 2022 to 2023, she was chair of the Council of University System Faculty for the University System of Maryland, and from 2020 to 2023, she was Vice President and then President of the University of Maryland, College Park Branch of the American Association of University Professors. [5]

In 2022, the Maryland Daily Record listed her as one of the top 30 most influential Marylanders in higher education. [6]

Education

Brewer earned her doctorate at UCLA in 1994 in American History (with specialties in British History and Political Theory) and her A.B. at Harvard/Radcliffe in 1986 in History of Science, specializing in early modern European History and Physics, magna cum laude.[ citation needed ]

While a graduate student, she submitted an article: "Entailing Aristocracy in Colonial Virginia: 'Ancient Feudal Restraints' and Revolutionary Reforms," published in the ''William and Mary Quarterly'' in April 1997. [7] It won multiple awards: the Lester J. Cappon award for the best article published that year in the WMQ; the Douglass Adair Memorial Award for 2000 for the best article published in the William and Mary Quarterly in the past six years; [8] and the James Clifford Prize for 1998 for the best article on any aspect of eighteenth-century culture, given by the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. [9] It showed how the revolution impacted inheritance law in Virginia, arguing that feudal and hierarchical norms of inheritance via primogeniture were replaced by norms that allowed inheritance by all children, but that had problematic consequences for those enslaved because it separated Black families. [10]

Author

Her first book, By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority grew out of her 1994 UCLA dissertation. [11] It was also awarded three prizes, the 2008 Biennial Book Award of the Order of the Coif from the Association of American Law Schools; [12] the 2006 J. Willard Hurst Prize from the Law and Society Association; [11] and the 2006 Cromwell Prize from the American Society for Legal History. [13]

The American Society for Legal History awarded Dr. Holly Brewer the 2022 Sutherland Prize, an annual award given for the best article on the legal history of Britain and/or the British Empire for "Creating a Common Law of Slavery for England and its New World Empire." [14]

Guggenheim Fellowship

In 2014 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. [15] She received that award for her work then in progress, on "Slavery, Sovereignty and Inheritable Blood," part of which was published as "Slavery, Sovereignty, and 'Inheritable Blood”: Reconsidering John Locke and the Origins of American Slavery,' in The American Historical Review in 2017. [16] It was awarded the 2019 Srinivas Aravaduman Prize for an article "that pushes the boundaries, geographical and conceptual, of eighteenth-century studies, especially by using a transnational, comparative, or cosmopolitan approach" by the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. [17] It was also awarded an honorable mention for the Clifford Prize. [9] She published a more accessible version of it in AEON. [18]

She also wrote the "Transformation of Domestic Law" in the Cambridge History of Law in America (2008). [19]

Between 2010 and 2021, she served as co-editor of Studies in Legal History the Book Series of the American Society for Legal History, published with Cambridge University Press. [20]

News

On November 5, 2022, Judge J. Michael Luttig responded on Twitter to Dr. Holly Brewer's post, confirming that Judge Luttig had read and relied on Dr. Brewer's articles explaining how Vice President Thomas Jefferson did not rig the 1800 presidential vote count. [21]

Luttig had tweeted: "Professor, your fascinating articles about Jefferson and the election of 1800 are brilliant expositions of the episode. Your historical — and historic — scholarship took its rightful place in political and constitutional history on January 5, 2021, where it will remain forever." [21]

This occurred after former President Donald Trump pressured his Vice President Michael Pence to “be like Jefferson” during the days before and on the morning of the coup. Trump argued, following John C. Eastman's memos, that Pence could refuse to count some states’ electoral ballots. [22] On the morning of January 6, 2021, Pence refused, crediting Judge Luttig, who advised Pence that there was no historical precedent for refusing to count any electoral votes. [23] [24] [25]

Publications & Media

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Locke</span> English philosopher and physician (1632–1704)

John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Internationally, Locke's political-legal principles continue to have a profound influence on the theory and practice of limited representative government and the protection of basic rights and freedoms under the rule of law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1800 United States presidential election</span> 4th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1800 United States presidential election was the fourth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from October 31 to December 3, 1800. In what is sometimes called the "Revolution of 1800", the Democratic-Republican Party candidate, Vice President Thomas Jefferson, defeated the Federalist Party candidate and incumbent, President John Adams. The election was a political realignment that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican leadership. This was the first presidential election in American history to be a rematch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Pence</span> Vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021

Michael Richard Pence is an American politician who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 50th governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Michael Luttig</span> American jurist (born 1954)

John Michael Luttig is an American lawyer and jurist who served as a U.S. circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006. Luttig resigned his judgeship in 2006 to become the general counsel of Boeing, a position he held until 2019.

<i>Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina</i> 1669 fundamental laws of the Province of Carolina (British North American colony)

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina were adopted on March 1, 1669 by the eight Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina, which included most of the land between what is now Virginia and Florida. It replaced the Charter of Carolina and the Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina (1665). The date March 1, 1669 was the date that proprietors confirmed the Constitutions and sent them to the Colony, but later on two other versions were introduced in 1682 and in 1698. Moreover, the proprietors suspended the Constitutions in 1690. Despite the claims of proprietors on the valid version of the Constitution, the colonists officially recognized the July 21, 1669 version, claiming that six proprietors had sealed the Constitutions as "the unalterable form and rule of Government forever" on that date. The earliest draft of this version in manuscript is believed to be the one found at Columbia, South Carolina archives.

<i>Partus sequitur ventrem</i> Former legal doctrine of slavery by birth

Partus sequitur ventrem was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies in the Americas which defined the legal status of children born there; the doctrine mandated that children of slave mothers would inherit the legal status of their mothers. As such, children of enslaved women would be born into slavery. The legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem was derived from Roman civil law, specifically the portions concerning slavery and personal property (chattels), as well as the common law of personal property; analogous legislation existed in other civilizations including Medieval Egypt in Africa and Korea in Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Meacham</span> American journalist and biographer (born 1969)

Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer who is serving as the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral since November 7, 2021. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He is the author of several books. He won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara J. Fields</span> American historian

Barbara Jeanne Fields is an American historian. She is a professor of American history at Columbia University. Her focus is on the history of the American South, 19th century social history, and the transition to capitalism in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Eastman</span> American legal scholar (born 1960)

John Charles Eastman is an American lawyer and academic. Due to his efforts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, attempting to keep then-president Donald Trump in office and obstruct the certification of Joe Biden's victory, he has been criminally indicted, ordered inactive by the State Bar of California, and recommended for disbarment. Eastman has lost eligibility to practice law in California state courts, pending his appeal of the state bar judge's ruling that recommended him for disbarment. Eastman is also a co-conspirator in the federal indictment brought against Trump over his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results and prevent the certification of Biden's election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annette Gordon-Reed</span> American historian

Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian and law professor. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. She is formerly the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Gordon-Reed is noted for changing scholarship on Thomas Jefferson regarding his relationship with Sally Hemings and her children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Rosendale</span> American politician (born 1960)

Matthew Martin Rosendale Sr. is an American politician. A Republican, Rosendale represents Montana's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Rosendale served in the Montana House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, and in the Montana Senate from 2013 to 2017. From 2015 to 2017, he served as Senate majority leader. Rosendale was elected Montana state auditor in 2016 and held that position from 2017 to 2020. Rosendale ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014 and for the U.S. Senate in 2018. He was elected to represent Montana's at-large congressional district in 2020. After Montana regained its second House seat in the 2020 census, Rosendale was elected to represent the new 2nd congressional district in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attica Locke</span> American writer (born 1974)

Attica Locke is an American fiction author and writer/producer for television and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Pence</span> American businessman and diplomat (born 1945)

Robert Frank Pence is an American businessman who was United States Ambassador to Finland. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 22, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The 1619 Project</span> 2019 New York Times project

The 1619 Project is a long-form journalistic revisionist historiographical work that takes a critical view of traditionally revered figures and events in American history, including the Patriots in the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers, along with Abraham Lincoln and the Union during the Civil War. It was developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. It focused on subjects of slavery and the founding of the United States. The first publication from the project was in The New York Times Magazine of August 2019. The project developed an educational curriculum, supported by the Pulitzer Center, later accompanied by a broadsheet article, live events, and a podcast.

After the 2020 United States presidential election, the campaign for incumbent President Donald Trump and others filed 62 lawsuits contesting election processes, vote counting, and the vote certification process in 9 states and the District of Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election</span>

After Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, Republican nominee and then-incumbent president Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, proxies, political allies, and many of his supporters. These efforts culminated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack by Trump supporters, which was widely described as an attempted coup d'état. One week later, Trump was impeached for incitement of insurrection but was acquitted by the Senate by a vote of 57–43, 10 votes short of the 67 votes required to convict him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenna Ellis</span> American lawyer (born 1984)

Jenna Lynn Ellis is an American conservative lawyer who was a member of Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign's legal team. She is a former deputy district attorney in Weld County, Colorado. During the Trump presidency, she presented herself as a "constitutional law attorney" during cable news appearances, though The New York Times reported that her background did not reflect such expertise and The Wall Street Journal reported that she had no history in any federal cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">January 6 United States Capitol attack</span> 2021 attempt to prevent presidential electoral vote count

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of then-U.S. president Donald Trump, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. They sought to keep Trump in power by occupying the Capitol and preventing a joint session of Congress counting the Electoral College votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The attack was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the certification of the election results. According to the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election. Within 36 hours, five people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes, including a police officer. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. Damages caused by attackers exceeded $2.7 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the January 6 United States Capitol attack</span>

The following article is a broad timeline of the course of events surrounding the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, by rioters supporting United States President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Pro-Trump rioters stormed the United States Capitol after assembling on the Ellipse of the Capitol complex for a rally headlined as the "Save America March".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastman memos</span> Memos outlining debunked legal theories to overturn the 2020 US presidential election

The Eastman memos, also known as the "coup memo", are documents by John Eastman, an American law professor retained by then-President Donald Trump advancing the fringe legal theory that a U.S. Vice President has unilateral authority to reject certified State electors. This would have the effect of nullifying an election in order to produce an outcome personally desired by the Vice President, such as a result in the Vice President's own party's favor, including retaining himself as Vice President, or if the Vice President is himself the presidential candidate, then to unilaterally make himself president.

References

  1. 1 2 "Brewer, Holly 1964– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  2. "Holly Brewer". history.umd.edu. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  3. "Slavery, Law, and Power - About the Team". Slavery, Law, and Power. April 8, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  4. "Slavery, Law, and Power - About SLP". Slavery, Law, and Power. December 2, 2020.
  5. Office, University System of Maryland. "Council of University System Faculty Executive Committee". www.usmd.edu. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  6. Staff, Daily Record (April 29, 2022). "Introducing The Daily Record's 2022 Power 30 Higher Education | Maryland Daily Record" . Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  7. Brewer, Holly (1997). "Entailing Aristocracy in Colonial Virginia: "Ancient Feudal Restraints" and Revolutionary Reform". The William and Mary Quarterly. 54 (2): 307–346. doi:10.2307/2953276. ISSN   0043-5597. JSTOR   2953276.
  8. "Cappon Winners, 1965-2019". OIEAHC. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  9. 1 2 "Clifford Prize Winners". Asecsarchives. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  10. Taylor, Alan (2013). The internal enemy : slavery and war in Virginia, 1772-1832 (First ed.). New York. ISBN   978-0-393-24142-6. OCLC   916042107.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. 1 2 "By Birth or Consent | Holly Brewer". University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  12. "Book Award | The Order of the Coif" . Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  13. "Cromwell Book Prize | American Society for Legal History". November 21, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  14. "Congratulations to our 2022 Prize Winners! | American Society for Legal History". November 15, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  15. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Holly Brewer" . Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  16. Brewer, Holly (October 1, 2017). "Slavery, Sovereignty, and "Inheritable Blood": Reconsidering John Locke and the Origins of American Slavery". The American Historical Review. 122 (4): 1038–1078. doi:10.1093/ahr/122.4.1038. ISSN   0002-8762.
  17. "Aravamudan Prize Winners". Asecsarchives. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  18. "Does Locke's entanglement with slavery undermine his philosophy? | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  19. Brewer, Holly (April 28, 2008), Grossberg, Michael; Tomlins, Christopher (eds.), "The Transformation of Domestic Law", The Cambridge History of Law in America (1 ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 288–323, doi:10.1017/chol9780521803052.010, ISBN   978-1-139-05417-1 , retrieved December 20, 2021
  20. "About Our Editors | American Society for Legal History" . Retrieved December 20, 2021.
  21. 1 2 @judgeluttig (November 5, 2022). "Professor, your fascinating articles about Jefferson and the election of 1800 are brilliant expositions of the episode. Your historical — and historic — scholarship took its rightful place in political and constitutional history on January 5, 2021, where it will remain forever" (Tweet). Retrieved March 20, 2023 via Twitter.
  22. "'Mike was afraid': Trump attacks Pence for actions on Jan. 6". POLITICO. June 17, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  23. "History Matters: How Historical Research Helped Stop the Coup on January 6 – Early Modern Justice". November 9, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  24. Noah, Timothy (November 7, 2022). "Backbencher Saves the Republic". timothynoah.substack.com. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  25. Schmidt, Michael S. (January 5, 2021). "Trump Says Pence Can Overturn His Loss in Congress. That's Not How It Works". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 20, 2023.