What the law requires (or allows) is not always fair or just or honorable. Politics is often polarizing. Stories in this collection help us to examine the highs and lows of "the law" over the centuries.
The jurors selected in the William Penn case side with the defendant, surprising the judges.
The jurors stand by their verdict, in favor of William Penn, are willing to starve for it.
Within hours of each other, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on July 4, 1826, - fifty years to the day that the Declaration of Independence is sign...
Desmond sees giving up his children as temporary, but the government has other ideas.
A former slave named Sarah Gudger tells of the things she experienced in her 121 years of life.
The Pilgrims become indentured servants, and then unsuccessfully try sailing the Speedwell and Mayflower to America.
Though African Americans were free, after the Civil War, the U.S. federal government (including the federal courts) allows the practice of racial segr...
The Catholic Church laws, in 19th-century Italy, legally allow baptized Jewish children to be taken from their families.
Risking his own life, Bass agrees to write letters for Platt (Solomon Northup), alerting people in the North that he is wrongfully being held as a sla...
Although he is little-celebrated in the 21st century, Baas Reeves was a giant of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. An African-American U.S. Depu...
Born a slave, Bass Reeves ran away from slavery during America's Civil War. He fled to Indian Territory (today's Oklahoma) where he learned five Nativ...
Adlai Stevenson brings the missile crisis to the UN looking for support, but the Soviet Union refuses to respond.
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