“A sweeping and strikingly counterintuitive argument that the colonial and antebellum system of white power did not end with emancipation, but was reconfigured afterward with the same motivation and intent. Rao’s longitudinal approach presents a significant contribution to scholarship on the origins of modern policing.”—Stephanie McCurry, author of Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South“Rao has crafted a history of slavery and law that stretches beyond the local or regional, illuminating the long national history of slavery and policing. White Power expertly shows how everyday people and seemingly august institutions were shaped by and bent to the fears and desires of the slaveholding oligarchy, profoundly shaping jurisprudence and practical governance at the local and national level for more than two centuries.”—Ryan A. Quintana, author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina
