Michigan Law Review Volume 76 Issue 1 1977 Republicanism and the Law of Inheritance in the American Revolutionary Era Stanley N. Katz University of Chicago Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Estates and Trusts Commons, and the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Stanley N. Katz, Republicanism and the Law of Inheritance in the American Revolutionary Era, 76 MICH. L. REV. 1 (1977). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol76/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. REPUBLICANISM AND THE LAW OF INHERITANCE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY ERAt Stanley N. Katz* Perspicuity and precision are the only things endeavoured at: the subject is incapable of ornament. William Blackstone, A Treatise on the Law of Descents in Fee-Simple (Oxford, 1759) However great may be the advantage of enjoying a rich patri mony, handed down to us from father to son, in general, industry and knowing how to get on in the world are worth more to young men than inherited property. Moral, Puss in Boots This Article deals with the history of the law of inheritance during the era of the American Revolution, but its focus is actually more general, for it ultimately seeks to determine what sort of revolution we experienced.